Online Game Era: Hundred Times Reward
Chapter 25 - Slaying the Lava King

Chapter 25: Slaying the Lava King

In the distance, within Jiang Chen’s line of sight, there was a dried-up mountain cave, and outside it lay a massive, fiery red boulder. His instincts told him—this guy was the boss.

[Lava King].

Quality: Silver-tier BOSS

Level: ???

HP: ???

Attack: ???

Description: A special spirit stone known as the Heart of Lava, nurtured within molten lava. After developing sentience, it became the mighty Lava King.

“Who dares disturb my slumber?!”

Just as Jiang Chen approached and cast Appraisal, a deafening voice rang out. The enormous lava boulder trembled all over, then gradually unfolded—Jiang Chen only came up to its joints.

When players attempt to appraise a monster’s attributes, it increases the likelihood of being noticed. Clearly, his actions had been detected.

This was the first time Jiang Chen had seen such a colossal BOSS. He couldn’t help but feel a jolt of dread—now he finally understood why the NPC squad captain had looked so hopeless. The enemy was an absolute monster.

The creature resembled a humanoid lava beast, its body as massive as a small mountain—easily over seven to eight meters tall. Standing near it inflicted burn damage: 20 HP lost per second. It was obviously a tank-type BOSS.

“Whoosh!”

The longbow bent into a full arc, and an arrow whistled through the air.

Although Jiang Chen couldn’t see the monster’s exact stats, he could estimate its level based on the surrounding monsters—it was likely around level 25.

After all, this was still early in the game, and Green Valley Town was a level 10 special map. If monsters reached level 30, players wouldn’t have any chance of defeating them. A 20-level gap meant the boss would be nearly immune to damage.

But Jiang Chen was confident he could take it down.

-165!

Jiang Chen was stunned when he saw the damage pop up. His current attack power was as high as 509 points, yet the damage dealt was only this much?

From this, it seemed the enemy’s defense was at least 430 points.

“Frost Infusion!”

“Barrage Arrows!”

Jiang Chen didn’t stop his assault—if he could break through the defense, then that meant defeating the boss was possible, even if the odds were near zero.

-419!

-431!

-417!

-443!

The damage from Frost Infusion remained strong.

Jiang Chen retreated while firing—his sustained damage reached around 800 per second, which was impressive. This was largely thanks to the 20% armor penetration on his Wind Spirit Longbow, greatly reducing the pressure of the fight.

Tank-type BOSSES had high resistances, but their downside was reduced mobility. Jiang Chen’s damage output was quite good—he kited the boss while firing continuously, occasionally drinking a mana potion. So far, the battle seemed under control.

The Lava King’s HP dropped rapidly—at least 30,000 per minute—but even a rough estimate put its total HP at over 1 million.

“Roar!”

At that moment, the Lava King’s entire body turned fiery red, like molten lava flowing from a volcano.

Jiang Chen dodged side to side, avoiding the BOSS’s attacks, and continued unleashing Frost Arrows and Barrage Arrows, but the damage surprised him again.

-315!

-323!

…

The damage was reduced again—this must have been the Lava King’s defensive skill.

Without his armor penetration and bonus damage from targeting weak points, he might not have broken through the BOSS’s defenses at all.

The buff only lasted briefly, after which Jiang Chen’s damage returned to over 400 per shot, and the Lava King’s HP continued to fall. That defensive skill was just a slow death sentence.

With Jiang Chen’s agility now at 248 points, even though the Lava King was a Silver-tier BOSS, it couldn’t match his movement speed. Jiang Chen kept kiting and firing, maintaining stable DPS.

After a while, the Lava King’s HP had dropped by 30%.

“Foolish mortal, perish!”

The Lava King, frustrated from being kited, roared in rage and slammed its fists toward Jiang Chen’s location.

The attack looked powerful, but it was too slow.

Jiang Chen easily dodged, but in the next second, two near-1000-damage numbers appeared above his head.

-945!

-933!

“So close!”

Jiang Chen was startled—this was the downside of the level gap.

Even for a tank-type monster, at such high quality, its damage was still terrifying.

If he’d taken that double punch head-on, he would’ve been sent straight back to Green Valley Town.

The Lava King’s skill was an area-of-effect attack, and due to its massive body, the area was huge—Jiang Chen had no room to evade.

Fortunately, it was an AoE skill with low amplification. The total damage from the two hits was under 2000.

Even after taking the hit, Jiang Chen still had around 1600 HP left. He drank a healing potion and continued attacking.

Other than the burning DoT effect, the Lava King had only one area skill: Earth Tremor. After casting it, it required a long cooldown—this was Jiang Chen’s opening.

“Whoosh whoosh whoosh…”

Arrow after arrow hit the target. The Lava King was just too big—this was both its strength and its weakness. Jiang Chen could hit it with his eyes closed, and his kiting and shooting rhythm faced zero pressure.

Meanwhile, healing potions were steadily replenishing his HP.

Five minutes later, Jiang Chen’s health was back to a healthy level.

Previously, he had to rely on Elemental Arrows for damage, but without mana potions, his MP would quickly run dry. The damage from a single Elemental Arrow was pitiful—only about 150 points.

Mana Recovery Potion!

Jiang Chen pulled out a Level 2 Mana Potion to restore MP. If not for his high 83 Spirit, he’d have run out of mana long ago.

As his Agility increased, so did his attack speed, which led to high mana consumption—no less than that of a mage.

Once his MP recovered a bit, Jiang Chen switched back to Frost Infusion, and his damage instantly more than doubled.

Time ticked by, and the Lava King’s HP dropped lower and lower—Jiang Chen’s excitement grew.

He’d spent a long time here: three to four hours grinding magic crystals, and now another half hour on this BOSS. Fortunately, the end was near.

He wondered how many levels the first batch of players entering the main city had reached by now. He needed to hurry.

“Rumble!”

Finally, with a thunderous crash, the massive body of the Lava King collapsed to the ground.

“Phew, finally took it down.”

Jiang Chen let out a long breath. Half an hour of nonstop fighting with tightly wound nerves—it was no small feat for a player.

Too bad there was still no EXP for the kill—a bit disappointing.

Jiang Chen stepped forward and placed his hand on the corpse.

“Ding! Congratulations, you’ve obtained loot: Pet Synthesis Manual.”

“[Hundredfold Reward] triggered—you’ve obtained: Pet Synthesis Manual!”

“Ding! Congratulations, you’ve obtained loot: 12 Intermediate Magic Crystals.”

“[Hundredfold Reward] triggered—you’ve obtained: 1200 Intermediate Magic Crystals!”

“Ding! Congratulations, you’ve obtained loot: …”