The Overpowered Overheal

NO.10

‘Stop chattering! We need to fight the boss now!’

Qing Bai suddenly cried out, her voice laced with urgency.

‘Bick, the renegade, is about to flee to a new area again!’

It turned out Bick was on the move once more; seeing him on the verge of opening a spatial portal to abandon this map, and with the companion-grade equipment she had painstakingly pursued about to vanish, Qing Bai’s mood for idle talk evaporated completely.

“Alright, alright,” Yan replied with a resigned sigh, unstrapping the spear from his back.

He executed a graceful flourish with the weapon before slowly advancing towards Bick.

‘You say that so easily, but I’m truly eager to witness the capabilities of someone supposedly in the top five of the old server’s clear rankings.’

Recalling her humiliating defeat just moments ago, a flicker of indignation sparked within Qing Bai at Yan’s flippant demeanor, prompting her defiant retort.

She still harbored doubts about Alice’s assertion regarding Yan’s true ability to rank among the top five clearers, and this opportunity presented itself as the perfect chance to witness it firsthand.

‘I’ll aggro the boss; don’t worry, it can’t kill me.’

Observing Yan’s brimming confidence, Qing Bai couldn’t help but feel a pang of doubt.

‘Could this guy have invested in VIT (Defense)? A Spearmaster who allocates points to such an attribute in the early game is essentially crippled.’

Qing Bai mused, effectively sealing Yan’s fate as a player with no future in her mind.

Little did she know, Yan had indeed invested in defense, even specializing in HP, while the STR (Strength) — the very foundation of a Spearmaster’s existence — was already at its maximum for Yan from the moment he started.

All the new attribute points gained from leveling up were now being poured into SPD (Agility), as Yan intended to reach 500 Agility quickly to unlock Action Speed Specialization.

By then, Yan would become a Spearmaster (?) player who was both tanky and incredibly fast, capable of piercing enemies to death with a single thrust.

Yan sauntered casually towards the boss, then began stacking buffs.

“Divine Speed!”

“Divine Speed!”

“Divine Speed!”

‘What!?’

Qing Bai froze, utterly stunned that Yan had purchased all three tiers of the Divine Speed skill book in one go.

That was ten thousand God Coins!

While ten thousand God Coins in the inflated economy of the old server would barely buy a single stack of Tier 1 recovery potions, it was an astronomical sum in this newly launched server.

Low-level players, by contrast, could only earn about two thousand God Coins a day from NPCs by completing quests.

In the later stages of the game, however, players could easily obtain hundreds of thousands of God Coins from a single dungeon run.

Qing Bai began to suspect that Yan might be a wealthy scion, just like her, recklessly pouring money into the game without a second thought in real life.

[The game does feature in-app purchases, particularly the official channels for buying God Coins, which are notoriously exploitative. In the late game, the casual flow of spare God Coins from player-to-player trading far surpasses what one could gain by spending real money, making it virtually unheard of for players to purchase God Coins with cash.]

Although Qing Bai herself was indeed from a wealthy family, her allowance wasn’t so vast that she could squander it recklessly; she would certainly never fall for such a predatory charging mechanism.

Currently, Yan’s image in her mind had plummeted, transforming into that of a foolish, brainless rich kid who simply threw money around.

If she were to learn that Yan had spent a staggering one hundred and thirty-five million God Coins just on skill books, her reaction would be truly something to behold.

However, to Yan, these God Coins were merely a numerical figure he had carried over from the old server to the new, incapable of being converted into real-world currency.

Among the top players on the old server’s clear rankings, who didn’t possess thirty to fifty billion God Coins in their inventory?

In the old server, such an amount could, at best, only procure a single companion-grade equipment with mediocre stats, and even then, it was often a rare find.

It was far more advantageous to acquire useful resources in the new server before inflation truly set in, a move that would undoubtedly yield immense profit.

Standing before Bick, Yan applied three stacks of Divine Speed, which significantly boosted his action speed, and then refrained from casting any further buffs.

‘What a joke,’ he thought.

‘His base attack power was already formidable; adding more buffs would risk instantly obliterating the boss again. How would he explain that to Qing Bai, a seasoned player, who wasn’t a novice like Tian Jiu?’

In truth, his sole purpose in casting these three layers of Divine Speed was to create a diversion.

With his real-world spearmanship and the amplified action speed from three stacks of Divine Speed, Yan wielded his spear with dazzling flair.

Though he activated no spear-type skills, he carefully locked onto the boss and delivered a light auto-attack.

The inherent ability of the companion-grade Dominator’s Spear activated, its rapidly swinging tip propelling Yan’s body in a swift teleportation beside Bick.

The cold, gleaming spearhead traced a phantom arc in the air before instantly plunging into Bick’s body.

Yan anxiously watched the health bar displayed above Bick’s head, noting that it had only diminished by a fifth.

‘Phew, that was close.’

He let out a long sigh of relief.

Fortunately, this boss was designed for mages (as it only dropped mage equipment), possessing high resistance to physical damage, which prevented Yan from instantly obliterating it.

‘What!?’ Qing Bai shrieked, utterly abandoning her composure, once again stunned by Yan’s damage output.

‘What kind of skill is that? The damage is insane!?’

As expected, Qing Bai mistook Yan’s flashy spearmanship for a Spearmaster skill, never once suspecting his actual attributes.

A whirlwind of emotions swirled within Qing Bai.

Her own fully buffed burst of energy had only shaved off a tenth of Bick’s health, yet Yan had instantly reduced the boss’s HP by a fifth.

She retracted her earlier thought that Yan, having invested in defense, had no future.

Now, she was convinced that he must have poured all his points into Strength; otherwise, the sheer damage of that skill was inexplicable.

Despite her shock, her good upbringing swiftly brought her back from her outburst, allowing her to calmly unleash high-damage burst skills upon Bick.

Since Yan’s initial attack had already removed a fifth of the boss’s health, she knew that no matter how much damage she dealt now, the boss’s aggro wouldn’t shift from him to her.

Although her previous defeat against this boss had been utterly humiliating, in fairness, Qing Bai’s casting speed far surpassed that of mages at the same level.

In a perfectly safe damage-dealing environment, she unleashed three consecutive bursts of energy within ten seconds, further reducing the boss’s health by another fifth, which allowed Yan to deduce her primary attribute allocation.

‘So, she’s primarily a DEX (Dexterity) mage player. That’s quite unique. A true high-level player indeed,’ Yan mused, silently admiring her while deftly dodging the boss’s skills.

Yet, at the same time, his mind rapidly calculated the drawbacks of this particular build.

The major flaw was the low magical skill damage.

While an incredibly fast casting speed allowed players to unleash high-damage skills more frequently, the overall damage output still couldn’t compare to that of a top-tier, INT (Intelligence)-focused mage player.

Unless, of course, Qing Bai possessed a companion-grade skill or weapon that could significantly boost her combat effectiveness in that regard!

The magic book in Bick’s hands was indeed excellent equipment for a Dexterity mage, which explained Qing Bai’s intense interest.

Though its inherent ability remained unknown, Alice’s statement that “‘Bick’s Grimoire’ greatly increases casting speed” alone made it an unequivocally powerful companion-grade equipment for a Dexterity mage.

While the exact magnitude of “greatly” was uncertain, it was undoubtedly not to be underestimated.

Just as Yan’s thoughts drifted, Bick suddenly unleashed a wide-area skill, Fire Wall.

Yan, caught off guard, failed to dodge in time and lost a tenth of his health.

‘If that hit the two squishy players behind me, they’d probably be dead instantly…’

Given that Yan had specialized in HP, that tenth of his health was equivalent to the total HP of a Level 20 mage, and even a priest’s HP wouldn’t be much higher than a mage’s.

Fortunately, Fire Wall was a low-damage magic skill primarily used for battlefield control.

Yan subtly glanced at Qing Bai, who seemed oblivious to anything amiss, likely assuming the boss’s Fire Wall damage was comparable to a player’s and thus not very threatening.

Realizing he hadn’t yet exposed himself, Yan calmed his mind and resumed meticulously dodging the boss’s attacks.

‘Oh? You ask why Yan isn’t attacking? Well, if he landed three or four auto-attacks, the boss would be dead, and how would Yan explain that?’

Thus, he was currently feigning a frantic struggle to dodge skills, appearing too busy to retaliate, merely holding aggro and occasionally casting a buff or two to consume mana and stabilize threat, allowing Qing Bai to attack from the rear.

Just then, a warm, white glow emanated from Yan.

He paused, realizing it was Tian Jiu casting the healing skill, “Holy Light Blessing.”

“Hey! Don’t bother healing him when he has that much health! Using Holy Light Blessing, which heals a quarter of HP, just wastes 15% of its healing potential.

Isn’t that a waste of mana?”

Qing Bai, now recognizing Tian Jiu as a novice player, simultaneously used “Mana Recharge” to restore her mana and continue her new round of attacks, while kindly, if not entirely gently, instructing Tian Jiu.

Despite her somewhat unfriendly tone, Yan glimpsed a softer side to her.

“Oh, oh.”

Tian Jiu nodded hastily, seemingly realizing she had made another mistake, and lowered her staff once more.

“Hey? Wait… something’s not right.”

Yan, observing his peculiar health bar, couldn’t help but interrupt the two.

‘Why is there an extra yellow bar beneath my status display!?’

‘Huh!?’

Hearing this, Qing Bai’s gaze fell upon the status bars of their three-person party on the team interface.

Below Yan’s green HP bar, a yellow bar, approximately 15% the length of his HP bar, had appeared.

The yellow bar then slowly began to deplete, and as it did, the mana Yan had consumed earlier to cast buffs and maintain aggro gradually refilled.

Yan, however, engrossed in thought, failed to notice this.

‘What is this? A status effect from the boss? Or is it a mana bar?’

Qing Bai frowned in confusion.

‘That’s not right. In Companion God Realm, neither status effects nor mana bars are displayed for party members. Usually, only HP bars are shown to make it easier for healers to support their teammates.’

‘This length… 15%?’

Yan pondered as he dodged skills, then suddenly, a realization struck him.

‘Isn’t this the overflow healing from “Holy Light Blessing” just now? What’s going on?’

Could it be that the Priest’s Holy Light Blessing skill had been altered in this 1.65 version update?

This thought simultaneously occurred to both Yan and Qing Bai.

“I’m sorry… um… that’s probably my companion skill…”

Tian Jiu’s voice was timid as she spoke.

Always feeling as though she had done something wrong, she mustered her courage and confessed to them.

“My companion skill is ‘Overheal’: Overflowing healing effects are proportionately converted into an additional energy bar.

This energy bar then autonomously replenishes HP and MP.”

‘That strong!!?’

Two sudden exclamations startled Tian Jiu, making her small frame tremble slightly.

Yan and Qing Bai had spoken almost in unison.

They then exchanged an awkward glance before Yan took it upon himself to explain to Tian Jiu.

“With this companion-grade skill, even a novice priest wouldn’t have to worry about wasting healing.

Although, there are still limitations due to boss aggro, preventing a priest from thoughtlessly healing everyone.”

Indeed, even Tian Jiu, possessing this companion skill, had once caused a party wipe by healing indiscriminately and disrupting the boss’s aggro.

“However, in the late game, if a priest equips enough aggro-reduction gear to reach over 60%, they can, once aggro is managed, relentlessly heal the main damage dealer of the team without a second thought.

If the main damage dealer takes damage, the energy bar replenishes their HP, and if they consume mana casting skills for output, the energy bar can replenish that too.

This could effectively double the main damage dealer’s output! It’s an unbelievably overpowered companion-grade skill!”

Yan lavished praise without reservation, conveying both his astonishment and his encouragement for Tian Jiu.