Chapter 135: The Generous Ant Queen

Once the Panda Cub went down, the scene immediately descended into chaos.

With no one left to tank the boss, it charged forward with a swarm of minions, causing several melee strength-based players in the front line to drop instantly. The boss possessed 12,000 attack power, and its primary skill could increase damage by an additional 100%. This meant that a single hit from the boss’s skill dealt over 20,000 damage—even a Guardian Warrior couldn't withstand two such blows. As for the other strength-based players, they were downed in a single second; whoever the boss targeted, fell.

"Damn it! Six-Barrels, summon the Panda Cub again, quickly! We can’t hold it at all!"

Zhang Shan immediately summoned the Panda Cub and rushed to feed it. However, it required some time; once a pet falls, its happiness level drops drastically. It must be fed before it can return to battle, and that takes time.

"Everyone, find a way to hold on for a moment! Feeding it will be done soon."

"If you have stun skills, use them now! Try your best to stall the boss until Six-Barrels Bodhisattva’s Panda Cub is fed and ready."

After Fengyun Tianxia finished speaking, the thieves, archers, and ice mages on the field continuously bombarded the boss with stun skills. The game had been live for over a month, and currently, only these three classes possessed hard crowd-control abilities. Other classes had none; the warrior's charge only provided a slow effect. Classes like Magic Swordsmen, Hunters, Fire Mages, Taoists, and Witch Doctors lacked any stun skills. It was clear that in future player-versus-player combat, killing someone would not be easy; after all, if you couldn't stun them, they would simply run away if they couldn't win, unless you could one-shot them.

Through constant stunning and slowing, they successfully stalled the boss for a while. Once the Panda Cub’s happiness was restored and the support players had topped off its health, Zhang Shan quickly took control, moved the Panda Cub forward, and aggroed the boss.

"Damn, that was close! Get the downed players back up and clear out the small mobs quickly!"

While others cleared the minions, Zhang Shan and a group of support players continued to attack the boss. Damage to the boss could not stop; otherwise, its health would regenerate before long, making all their efforts futile. Fortunately, although the Ant Queen’s incubation skill had caused a moment of chaos, the number of minions spawned wasn't as high as they had feared—only a few hundred. They had been caught off guard because they assumed the skill would be like the Wolf King’s ultimate, summoning a horde to attack from a distance. They hadn't realized the Ant Queen’s minions spawned right around it, immediately killing the Panda Cub and causing the chaos when no one was left to tank.

In reality, if prepared, this skill wasn't difficult to handle. By keeping a few backup tanks ready, they could simply swap in a sub-tank to hold the boss momentarily if the main tank fell. Although the current Guardian Warriors could only survive two hits from the Ant Queen, sacrificing three or four of them would be enough to buy time for Zhang Shan to re-summon and feed the Panda Cub.

"Damn, fighting a boss is truly terrifying. A boss with no one to tank it is a nightmare."

"It's fine. Clear the mobs quickly; once we're prepared, there's nothing to fear."

"True. This boss is actually easy to fight. We only had that mishap earlier because we didn't know what the boss's ultimate skill effect was."

After five or six minutes, Fengyun Tianxia and the others cleared all the minions and resumed their assault on the boss. The rest was simple: they kept a few warriors on standby, and whenever the boss used its ultimate, they would take turns stepping in to aggro it for two seconds each, easily stalling until Zhang Shan’s Panda Cub was back in the fray.

"Haha, the boss is about to drop! I have a feeling the Ant Queen is going to give us something good."

"Very likely. The Ant Queen is shimmering in gold; you can tell just by looking that it's a generous boss."

"If it drops a piece of Golden Armor, do you want it?"

"That wouldn't be bad at all! Even if it doesn't add any stats, I'd take it. It looks so cool, I could just wear it as a cosmetic item."

"This time, let Six-Barrels Bodhisattva choose one piece first. He found the boss, and without him, we wouldn't have been able to take it down," Fengyun Tianxia suggested to the others.

"Agreed. Hey, Godly Artifact Brother, if there's anything you can't use, make sure you sell it to me!"

"Don't worry, even if a Godly Artifact drops and I can't use it, I'll sell it to you guys, heh heh."

"Damn, a Godly Artifact... that feels so far away. The game has been out for so long, and we haven't even seen a second one appear. What on earth do you have to do to get one?"

"Once you get a Godly Artifact quest item, you won't be far from the artifact itself."

"Where are you supposed to get a quest item like that?"

"I don't know about that. The one I have dropped from a regular mob."

"I wonder when I'll have a stroke of luck and get a quest item from a mob."

"Go to sleep early tonight; you'll have everything you want in your dreams."

Soon, they whittled the boss down to near-zero health. Zhang Shan carefully estimated the remaining life. When only 1% remained—meaning about three million health—the boss’s health bar appeared empty. Zhang Shan wanted to control the Panda Cub to land the final blow, as the cub’s 10 points of luck significantly influenced item drops. However, at that final 1%, the health bar vanished, making it difficult to time the attack. He could only rely on his estimation of everyone’s damage output. Timing it perfectly, Zhang Shan commanded the Panda Cub to unleash its combo skill. A seven-hit combo shattered the boss.

System Notification: Congratulations to Fengyun Tianxia, Six-Barrels Bodhisattva, and Fengyun Yidao for successfully slaying the Demonized Army Ant Queen.
Reward: Skill Point +1, Merit +100.

Luck was on their side. That was a perfect calculation. Now, the only question was the loot—this was a world-first kill, so it shouldn't be too bad.

"Open the gear quickly! I'm not even hoping for an artifact, just give me a skill book. I’ve been hoarding skill points with nothing to use them on."

"Even if a skill book drops, it won't be yours. Boss Six-Barrels will pick it first, just to spite you."

"Scum, I don't want to talk to you."

Fengyun Tianxia displayed the loot: three Red-tier items, one Purple-tier item, one Red-tier material, and two skill books.

"Holy crap, what a haul! It actually dropped two skill books!"

"The skill books are awesome, but that purple item is a cloak! Purple cloaks are incredibly rare."

"Damn, a real purple cloak! There probably aren't even ten of them in the entire game right now."

"You're overestimating it. Ten? Besides the one our Godly Artifact Brother has, I’ve only heard of one player in the Qin Kingdom who managed to get one."

"Yeah, there can't be ten. Even if other players have gotten one and kept it quiet, there can't be many."

"Sigh, purple cloaks are just too rare."

"It's a shame this cloak is level 40. It might be two or three months before any player can actually equip it."

"Doesn't matter if we can't equip it yet. This cloak adds over 60,000 HP; it's worth saving until level 40."

"The Ant Queen is generous! How about we come back and check every few days? Maybe we can farm it a few more times."

"Too bad it’s so far away. Without a mount, the travel time is too much. If we run it a few times and don't find the boss, it's a waste."

"I'll do the running. Every few days, I'll come over and search for it."

Seeing the loot, Zhang Shan was tempted too. This boss was incredibly generous; it was worth trying to farm it more often. Besides, it didn't take him long to get here, and scanning the entire map would take less than an hour. If he could find the boss, the payoff would be massive.