Chương 10: Tier 4

Xiao Chen had already cleared every Tier-3 dungeon the Storm Squad could handle. The Tier-3 Heroic dungeons housed Level 30 monsters -- technically viable all the way to Level 35. But Xiao Chen had lost all interest in Tier-3. His sights were set on Tier-4. The jump from Tier-2 to Tier-3 had already been a brutal spike in difficulty. Going from Tier-3 to Tier-4? That was an entirely different beast. He hadn't been confident soloing Tier-3 Heroic. Tier-4 solo was out of the question.

Tier-3 dungeons were five-man party instances. Tier-4 was a ten-man raid.

"Wang Zhen, you guys have the basics down now. Running Tier-3 Heroic on your own shouldn't be a problem. I'm pushing into Tier-4, so I won't be grouping with you for now." It wasn't that Tier-3 was bad -- Tier-4 was simply a better fit for Xiao Chen. Barring any surprises, he planned to grind Tier-4 Normal and Tier-4 Heroic into the dirt, all the way to Level 45 and beyond.

"Captain, we're heading back outside the city to grind mobs. We want to get everyone a full Bronze set first. Tier-3 Heroic is still risky for us."

"Yeah, we're more than satisfied getting this far this early."

"Tier-4 is a whole other level. We'd be grateful just to step inside at Level 40. Hitting Level 30 already exceeded our goals. From here on, we need to play it safe."

"Alright. Be careful out there. Stay alive."

"Don't worry. We'll stick to the outer zones and take it slow. No risks." At the dungeon teleportation point, Xiao Chen waved them off. He'd stood here and watched group after group leave before. He hoped Wang Zhen's crew would have better luck. Truthfully, Xiao Chen himself was pushing Tier-4 a little early. The first three tiers each had nine maps. Tier-4 had just one. The reason he was rushing it? Tier-4 dropped the item Little Strong needed to rank up.

Plus, the mob density in Tier-4 was massive -- perfect for padding his kill count. Before looking for a party, Xiao Chen studied up on Tier-4 mechanics.

"Map Name: Necrotic Gorge."

"Boss: Necromancer. Skill: Undead Calamity." 【Undead Calamity: Summons ten waves of undead. Each wave's stats increase by 10%. 】 At first glance, the skill didn't seem that bad. But once you looked at the minion stats? Terrifying. 【Wave 1 Skeletons: HP 26, 000, Attack: 900, Defense: 250】 【Wave 2 Skeleton Archers: HP 28, 600, Attack: 990, Defense: 275】.... 【Wave 10 Death Knights: HP 52, 000, Attack: 1, 800, Defense: 500】 These were minions. Not the boss. One hundred spawned per wave.

Ten waves meant one thousand monsters. The later waves had more HP than an actual boss. Xiao Chen's attack power was just over three thousand. He'd need twenty hits to kill the later monsters. Under normal circumstances, no one would bring a Level 30 into a Tier-4 dungeon. So Xiao Chen turned to the guild's heavy hitters for help. Running Tier-4 was a life-or-death gamble. He wasn't about to lie about his capabilities -- he posted his full stat sheet in the guild channel. He hadn't expected a response so quickly.

"Xu Qing has invited you to join her party." Seeing that name, Xiao Chen blinked.

"Her?" Back then, Xiao Chen had carried two players through thirty-two Tier-1 dungeon runs. Those two players were Xu Qing and Sun Jian. He remembered -- Xu Qing and Sun Jian were a couple. That tiny bit of goodwill he'd built up back then was paying off now. 【Xu Qing: Cleric, Level 42! 】 Xiao Chen accepted without hesitation. Xu Qing whispered:"Brother Xiao, EXP is split by team contribution. Your DPS will be lower, so you'll get a smaller share." What a solid person.

Willing to carry him, and she even gave him a heads-up.

"Don't worry. EXP amount doesn't matter. That split method is totally fair." Leveling past 30 slowed down dramatically. But killing Level 35 mobs came with bonus EXP -- enough to offset the reduced share.

"Then we're good. Grab a few healing potions, just in case. With that many mobs, I might not be able to keep you topped off." This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. For an archer, Xiao Chen's HP pool wasn't exactly low.

"Got it."

"Since this is a guild raid, boss drops go to the guild at 90% of market value. If you need something, you can bid on it directly."

"No problem." Xiao Chen was deathly afraid of dying. He'd buy whatever they told him to buy. The entry fee for Tier-4 was steep -- one gold coin per person. But high-tier dungeons were guaranteed profit as long as you cleared them. Fail? Total wipe. Level 35 gear was still beyond his level anyway. The ten-man raid called for two tanks, two healers, and six DPS. The raid filled out quickly. Besides Xiao Chen, the lowest level was 36.

"Bro, are you a C-Rank Archer? Hitting Tier-4 at Level 30?"

"Seriously, this isn't a joke. You could actually die in there. Why don't you go grind some levels first?"

"Bro, I'm gonna be straight with you. If you don't have the EXP or the positioning skills, just drop out." Getting roasted by half the raid was pretty embarrassing. That was when Xu Qing bailed him out:"Relax, his DPS will be fine. And he's got tons of dungeon experience. No issues." Xiao Chen did have dungeon experience, sure -- but it was all low-tier stuff. This was different.

"If Sister Qing vouches for him, we're good."

"Yeah, trusting Sister Qing."

"Sister Qing doesn't throw randoms into her groups. Let's just run it." Originally, Xiao Chen had planned to keep saving his money. Now his priorities shifted -- he needed to squeeze out every bit of power he could before stepping inside. Not for himself. He couldn't make Xu Qing look bad. Even if he placed last in damage, he couldn't be dead last by a mile.

"Time to upgrade from Level 20 to Level 30 gear. Full replacement." Selling off his old gear, the common pieces only cost an extra five gold each. The necklace and two rings were pricier -- sixty gold total for all three. A few gear swaps later, he'd burned through 110 gold, leaving him with 80.

"Total Stats +90, Attack +206, Defense +32""Huh. Not exactly a massive boost." Well, gear didn't depreciate. Might as well. The ten-man raid split into two squads. Xiao Chen and Xu Qing were in the same one. Their tank was a Level 40 Knight with 28, 000 HP -- rock solid. The other two DPS in their squad were a Level 39 Fire Mage, whose flames dealt bonus damage to undead. Obviously the main damage dealer. The other was a Summoner, also Level 40, with two summons -- an Elemental Water Golem and a Giant Wolf.

"I'm the raid leader, Wang Xu. Everyone follow my calls." The speaker was the tank, a burly man built like a wall.

"The early waves aren't too bad. Conserve your mana."

"Wave 2 archers have thirty-meter range. Make sure you dodge the arrow barrages -- getting caught in a mass volley will one-shot you."

"Wave 3 mixes ranged and melee. I'll try to disrupt their formation and clump them for AoE." Xiao Chen listened to Wang Xu rattle off five or six key points. None seemed particularly hard. The hard part was that the mobs hit like trucks and took forever to kill. Skeleton archers had thirty meters of range? Xiao Chen could shoot from over fifty meters out. As for mana conservation -- not even a concern. He'd never used MP in his life.

"Alright, everyone's here. Let's zone in." Necrotic Gorge was exactly what it sounded like -- a canyon hundreds of meters wide and over a thousand meters long. An open space this massive, with ten people trying to handle that many mobs? The difficulty was no joke. One wrong move and everyone could get surrounded. The moment they entered, Xiao Chen saw hordes of skeletons charging their way. He immediately summoned Little Strong and hopped onto his shoulders. Higher ground meant better vision -- and more range.

"Whoa, you've got a summon skill? You bought a Universal Skill book?" The other Summoner in the squad, Sun Xing, stared at Little Strong in shock. A few others shot him envious looks, probably assuming he was some rich kid. Regular people couldn't afford Universal Skill books.

"Uh, it was a gift!"

"Yeah, sure. Who'd believe that?"

"Xiao Chen, come on man, be real with us." Fine. It was a pretty unbelievable story.

"Cut the chatter! Block those mobs and give us retreat space! If we get overwhelmed with nowhere to fall back, we're dead!" Both tanks rushed to the front. Wang Xu raised his shield and slammed into a cluster of undead skeletons.

"You have received Battle Resolve buff. Attack +600" That attack buff was nasty -- it pushed Xiao Chen's damage to four thousand. Come to think of it, Xu Qing's class talent was pretty strong too.

"Xu Qing has cast Rejuvenation on you. HP +200 per second for 10 seconds."

"You don't need to heal me. Focus on the others." Honestly, Xiao Chen had the easiest job in the entire raid. He didn't even need to dodge mechanics. Simple reason: his attack range exceeded fifty meters. Even against the skeleton archers, he had a twenty-meter buffer zone. More than enough breathing room.

"Fireball!"

"Little Wolf, go!"

"Shield Bash." These guys had clearly run this dungeon before. They coordinated like a well-oiled machine.

"Little Strong, summon skeletons. Spread them out, draw aggro when needed." Xiao Chen nocked an arrow and started firing. The minions weren't exactly squishy.

"-3468""Critical Strike, -3915" Damage numbers popped up one after another. Pretty much what he'd expected.

"EXP +24 (+6)""EXP +26 (+7)" EXP ticks kept rolling in. Xiao Chen was more than satisfied. This was way faster than grinding mobs outside the city.

"Copper Coins +30""Kill Count +1, EXP +30" Wave 1 was a cakewalk. And yes, Xiao Chen's damage was dead last on the meters. He'd done his best. Nothing more he could do about it. But when Wave 2's archers showed up, things started shifting. Before long, he'd climbed past second-to-last. Couldn't be helped -- his positioning was perfect. He didn't have to waste time dodging skills like everyone else. His contribution share went up, and his EXP ticks even increased by a point or two.

"Not bad, not bad." Xiao Chen was pleased. Quad Shot plus steady damage output wasn't half bad.

"Ding -- Copper Coins +30, Undead Core Crystal +1" Hearing that notification, Xiao Chen immediately opened his inventory. Undead Core Crystal -- exactly what he needed. He hadn't expected minions to drop these.

"Then again, these are Level 35 mobs." 【Undead Core Crystal, Grade: Common, can fuse with undead creatures. 】 One Undead Core Crystal went for about two gold -- serious value. Xiao Chen immediately fused it with Little Strong.

"Undead Skeleton HP +100, Attack +5, Defense +2" Seeing those gains, Xiao Chen was thrilled. Every core he got would go straight into Little Strong. Eventually, he'd turn that skeleton into something formidable. Unfortunately, the drop rate was low. He might not even see one per run. Level 35 mobs had thick HP pools. By Wave 5, the raid was starting to feel the pressure. Wave 5 wasn't even cleared before Wave 6 arrived.

"Prepare Rain of Fire. Next AoE on standby."

"We can't let mobs pile up or we'll get crushed." The Mage's AoE was devastating. A sea of flames halved the HP of dozens of mobs in seconds.

"Pop a mana potion, hit one more skill, and Wave 6 is cleared."

"Wave 7 are Skeleton Mages. They summon mini-skeletons. We'll tank the adds. Kill the mages and the summons vanish."

"Wave 8 brings elites with aura buffs. Focus fire them down first." Xiao Chen was speechless. Elite mobs too? No way anyone could solo this at Level 50, let alone earlier.

"Waves 9 and 10 spawn together. Watch your HP, kite and burn." The final two hundred undead flooded in from multiple directions. This was the make-or-break moment. Every mob had massive HP, and the numbers were overwhelming.

"Little Strong, you guys engage too!" Little Strong would probably die in two hits, but every bit of damage helped. Xiao Chen hopped to the ground and unloaded into the mob pack. The monsters were too many, too strong. Everyone had to retreat while fighting. Xiao Chen kept turret-positioning, steady and relentless.

"Sun Xing, send your Water Golem to pull one pack and self-destruct it."

"Everyone stop worrying about mana! Full burn!"

"I'm popping Group Guardian -- if you get hit, tank it as long as you can."

"You have received Group Guardian. Defense +100" Several people had already taken hits. Everyone's HP was dropping fast. Thankfully, both healers were on point. They kept every single person alive. This dungeon was no joke. A group of Level 30-somethings would have wiped instantly. Xiao Chen had briefly considered bringing the Storm Squad here. That composition wouldn't have stood a chance. The mobs were everywhere. A few broke off and chased Xiao Chen.

But his movement speed was high, his kiting clean, and his DPS uninterrupted.

"Xiao Chen, where the hell are you? You're outside the defensive perimeter."

"Pull those mobs to me, I'll transfer aggro -- wait, you pulled six?! You're dead, kid."

"What -- how are you that fast? You actually dodged all that?" He didn't just dodge. He slowly kited and killed all six. The final two waves were brutal. Everyone took damage -- except Xiao Chen, who was completely untouched. Not even a wrinkle in his clothes.