“Can we really get what we need by just killing these Night Lantern Monsters (TL Note: [夜灯怪], a type of monster)?”
Yan easily dispatched the small black monster before him with two basic attacks, then cast a questioning glance at An Dong.
“Such weak monsters—will they truly drop the materials you need?”
“Ah, don’t worry, these are precisely what we need.”
An Dong, utilizing Shield Bash (TL Note: [盾击], a skill), slammed his Shield of Black Stone (TL Note: [玄石的盾], an item) heavily onto a black monster, stunning it in place. Yan swiftly moved in for the finishing blow, thrusting his spear forward with a basic attack to kill the creature.
“Is that so…”
Yan remained perplexed. The monsters in this area were merely common creatures, around Level 45, and notoriously squishy with low health. He found it hard to believe that such monsters would drop materials suitable for high-HP tank equipment.
“Hehe.”
As if sensing Yan’s internal doubts, An Dong chuckled, his heavy shield once again striking another black monster.
“Yan, observe how long my Shield Bash (TL Note: [盾击], a skill) keeps this monster controlled. Doesn’t it seem a bit off?”
Hearing this, Yan scrutinized the stunned monster, and then, a realization dawned upon him.
“Ah! Could this monster be a Tenacity Monster (TL Note: [韧性怪], a type of monster with high resistance to crowd control)?”
“Exactly.”
Seeing his comprehension, An Dong grinned.
Tenacity Monsters, as they were called, comprised a subset of even ordinary creatures that exhibited reduced or even complete immunity to crowd control effects. The Night Lantern Monsters (TL Note: [夜灯怪], a type of monster) that Yan and his companions were currently farming were precisely such beings.
A Shield Bash (TL Note: [盾击], a skill) with a stun duration of 1.5 seconds, when applied to a Night Lantern Monster, lasted only about 0.5 seconds.
“I see! So these monsters drop materials for abnormal status resistance!”
Yan finally grasped An Dong’s intention.
‘He’s aiming to craft a set of abnormal status resistance gear.’
“If I may ask, An Dong, what’s your current abnormal status resistance?”
Yan inquired with a touch of curiosity, his monster-farming actions never faltering.
“Hmm… I allocated 512 attribute points into VIT (Defense), which provides about 12.5% tenacity… then, after specializing in tenacity, it doubled to 25%. Adding the Shield of Black Stone (TL Note: [玄石的盾], an item)’s +30% tenacity, yes, that brings me to roughly 55% tenacity.”
An Dong stroked his chin, meticulously calculating for a moment before arriving at this conclusion.
‘Good heavens, 55% tenacity! That’s effectively halving the duration of all abnormal statuses…’
‘A one-second crowd control effect would only last 0.45 seconds on An Dong… And with the Shield of Black Stone (TL Note: [玄石的盾], an item) granting immunity to knock-ups and knock-backs…’
‘No wonder this guy was dubbed the ‘Impregnable Fortress (TL Note: [不懂碉堡], a nickname implying extreme tankiness and immunity to control)’!’
Yan gazed at An Dong with a helpless expression, a stiff twitch playing at the corner of his lips.
‘My own combos wouldn’t even chain properly on this guy…’
“If the equipment sister-in-law crafts for you this time provides another 45% tenacity, wouldn’t you effectively achieve 100% tenacity and become completely immune to crowd control?”
As Yan pondered this, a shiver of dread ran down his spine.
‘After all, player-versus-player combat largely relies on chaining crowd control skills into combos, but An Dong would be a player who simply couldn’t be controlled. He’d be a god in PVP!’
“An additional 45% tenacity…? Haha, where would one find such incredible equipment? My Shield of Black Stone (TL Note: [玄石的盾], an item) is already considered a top-tier companion-grade item for ‘abnormal status resistance tanks,’ and it only grants 30% tenacity.”
An Dong laughed as he spoke.
“True.”
Yan conceded that his idea was somewhat unrealistic. If even a companion-grade item couldn’t provide over 40% tenacity, then the remaining pieces of a tank’s full armor set certainly wouldn’t be able to compensate.
It was common knowledge in this game that companion-grade items offered the highest attribute bonuses.
“Moreover, even if tenacity reached 100% on the stat screen…”
An Dong turned his gaze to Yan.
“Unless it’s an explicit immunity, tenacity’s effect of reducing abnormal statuses and crowd control will always leave a minimum duration of 0.1 seconds. An abnormal status resistance tank can never achieve absolute immunity.”
‘Oh, right, that’s true. I’d forgotten about that.’
Yan slapped his forehead, recalling a test he and Nan Shi had conducted during a PK session.
His own thrown spear, striking Nan Shi, and utilizing the long-range skill activation of Agile Control (TL Note: [灵敏操控], a skill), had reduced the 0.7-second knock-up duration of Spear Thrust (TL Note: [挑枪], a skill) to merely 10%. Yet, it still inflicted a mandatory 0.1-second crowd control, rather than the absurd 0.07-second knock-up that would be a truly ‘hellish’ mechanic (TL Note: [阴间操作], slang for an unfair or extremely difficult game mechanic).
‘It seems an uncontrollable ‘berserker’ will ultimately never come to be in this game.’
‘Tch~’
Yan cast a disappointed glance at An Dong, leaving the latter utterly bewildered.
“Speaking of which, where’s Guan Ying? He said he was going deeper into the map to find dense Night Lantern Monster (TL Note: [夜灯怪], a type of monster) spawn points. Why hasn’t he returned yet?”
Yan paused his monster-farming, glancing around with a hint of confusion, yet Guan Ying’s figure remained nowhere in sight.
‘It wasn’t that he cared where Guan Ying had gone; that guy could do whatever he pleased. It was just…’
‘Guan Ying had absconded with Tian Jiu!’
‘He’d said something along the lines of, “It’s a bit hard for me to farm alone; bringing a healer increases the margin for error, and it’ll help Tian Jiu level up too.”‘
‘Well, he wasn’t overly concerned about Guan Ying developing any strange ideas about Tian Jiu. After all, Guan Ying was so innocent when it came to Xiao, emmmm.’
‘Though Guan Ying himself would never admit it, and Xiao was so oblivious.’
‘Hold on, doesn’t it seem like the roles are reversed in their story? Why is Xiao the oblivious male lead!?’
“Yan… we’re back!”
Just as Yan was lost in his wild musings, Tian Jiu’s soft, incredibly warm voice suddenly rang out. She approached Yan, eagerly grasping his arm.
“Listen to me… Mr. Guan Ying is so amazing…”
“Cough, cough.”
Guan Ying let out a conspicuously deliberate cough, and Tian Jiu, as if suddenly realizing something, snapped her mouth shut.
“Mmph.”
‘???’
Yan stared at the two, who seemed to be hiding something from him, a flurry of mental question marks (TL Note: [黑人问号], internet slang for confusion, often represented by a meme of a bewildered black man) appearing in his mind.
“You two…”
“Ahaha, An Dong, are you looking for these materials called Black Lantern Steel (TL Note: [黑灯钢材], a material) and Tough Leather (TL Note: [坚韧皮革], a material)?”
Before Yan could voice his questions, Guan Ying abruptly pulled out several stacks of materials from his inventory, swiftly changing the subject and cutting Yan off.
“We got a lot.”
“Yes, that’s right, these are the two materials!”
An Dong nodded, his gaze sweeping over the materials Guan Ying had produced, a look of pleasant surprise dawning on his face.
“Holy cow, you managed to get this much?!”
Guan Ying, seemingly endlessly, pulled out six stacks of Tough Leather (TL Note: [坚韧皮革], a material) and three stacks of Black Lantern Steel (TL Note: [黑灯钢材], a material) from his inventory, leaving An Dong so stunned his eyes nearly popped out.
“I… I have some too.”
Tian Jiu chimed in weakly, also extracting five stacks of Tough Leather (TL Note: [坚韧皮革], a material) and three stacks of Black Lantern Steel (TL Note: [黑灯钢材], a material) from her own inventory.
“Good heavens, so they weren’t all combined in one place?”
An Dong’s jaw dropped in astonishment, and even Yan displayed a look of surprise.
Since Guan Ying and Tian Jiu had been farming together, it was natural for common material drops to be shared between them, effectively doubling the drop rate. Thus, Tian Jiu possessing a similar quantity of materials was to be expected.
However, An Dong and Yan had assumed that all the materials farmed by both of them had been consolidated into Guan Ying’s inventory, which accounted for the numerous stacks. They hadn’t expected Tian Jiu to still have more.
“This much is more than enough! Thank you!”
An Dong’s face lit up with an excited and grateful expression. Yet, a moment later, he sensed something amiss and cast a questioning glance at the pair.
“But…”
“How did you manage to farm so much?”
An Dong couldn’t help but ask, his curiosity piqued. He and Yan had been farming for half a day, yet they hadn’t accumulated as much as Tian Jiu had produced by herself.
“…”
Tian Jiu fell silent, glancing timidly at Yan, then at Guan Ying. She parted her lips, but no words emerged.
“I’m telling you…”
Yan felt an inexplicable unease. Although he trusted Tian Jiu, the sensation of being kept in the dark by others was profoundly unpleasant.
“What exactly are you two hiding from me?”
“Yan…”
Seeing the somewhat cold expression on Yan’s face, Tian Jiu grew flustered. She bit her lower lip, her eyes welling up slightly, as if being doubted by Yan was an unbearable torment.
She gritted her teeth and spoke again.
“Actually… Mr. Guan Ying learned about my companion-grade skill (TL Note: [伴生技能], a unique skill tied to a character’s origin), and in order to farm these materials, his companion-grade skill was also revealed…”
“Then Mr. Guan Ying proposed… that neither of us should reveal the other’s companion-grade skill. So, Yan… I’m sorry!”
Tian Jiu’s grip on Yan’s arm trembled slightly, and she lowered her head, as if she had committed an unforgivable offense against him.
“Huh?”
Yan wore a bewildered expression.
“That’s it?”
“I thought it was something serious! You scared me half to death.”
He clutched his chest, a wave of relief washing over him.
“Eh?”
Tian Jiu looked up, a hint of surprise on her small face, only to see Yan’s relaxed smile and his large hand reaching out.
“Haha, didn’t I tell you to hide your companion-grade skill as much as possible? Little Tian Jiu has tried very hard to obey, hasn’t she?”
Tian Jiu felt the weight of Yan’s hand on her head, seemingly still processing his words.
“I was too hasty. Tian Jiu’s companion-grade skill is exposed as soon as she uses a healing skill; it’s not that easy to hide.”
“Since Guan Ying’s companion-grade skill has also been seen by you, there’s no need to worry about it spreading, right?”
Yan cast a mischievous glance at Guan Ying.
“I imagine our esteemed General Guan wouldn’t want his companion-grade skill to be known by others either, would he?”
Guan Ying offered a wry smile, shrugging helplessly.
“Yes, yes, I’d be quite troubled if others knew, as it’s not a particularly useful companion-grade skill.”
“If it wasn’t particularly useful, you wouldn’t have farmed so many materials, would you? Let me guess, you and Tian Jiu each utilized the unique properties of your companion-grade skills, which allowed you to farm so quickly, right?”
Yan already had a general idea in his mind. It seemed Guan Ying’s companion-grade skill was likely a high-mana-cost, area-of-effect damage skill. Combined with Tian Jiu’s Overheal (TL Note: [过量治疗], a skill) replenishing his mana, they were able to farm so many stacks of materials so quickly.
“You really saw right through me.”
Guan Ying gave another wry smile, raising an eyebrow in resignation.
“Tian Jiu did nothing wrong; I was merely being suspicious. My apologies.”
Yan smiled gently, softly stroking Tian Jiu’s hair.
“Don’t worry, I won’t press Guan Ying about what his companion-grade skill is.”
Seeing Yan’s gentle, slightly apologetic smile, Tian Jiu’s worries also subsided.
“Yan~”
She smiled brightly, hugging Yan’s arm tightly.
Yan chuckled softly, then looked at Guan Ying.
“However, in return, Guan Ying, you’re not allowed to reveal my adorable little Tian Jiu’s companion-grade skill either.”
This was his declaration of ownership.
Tian Jiu’s face immediately flushed crimson, and she lowered her head, still clinging to Yan’s arm.
“Alright, alright, that goes without saying.”
Guan Ying smiled helplessly, clasping his hands behind his head.
A burst of cheerful laughter erupted among the group, bringing their material-farming excursion to a close.