18. Defeating a Level 5 Boss in Just 5 Seconds!
Su Yu steadied himself and continued reading. The hidden quest required surviving an attack from the Starforge Dragon King.
If Su Yu had received this quest at level 60, it would have been nearly impossible to complete, for the Starforge Dragon King was immensely powerful—its single breath capable of obliterating an entire city!
However, since this quest appeared during the novice village stage and carried such a severe penalty for failure, there had to be a way to succeed.
“How am I supposed to accomplish this?” Su Yu pondered deeply, standing amid a swarm of monsters.
After about two minutes of thought, he still couldn’t devise a breakthrough strategy.
He exhaled slowly. “No matter what, I’ll finish what’s at hand first.”
With that, Su Yu set to work, continuing to clear out the Silver Serpents.
This time, besides stacking the Goddess’s Tears buff, he also aimed to defeat a Silver Serpent boss to obtain the Silver Serpent Gallbladder and complete the first quest he received from the Old Mage: to join the Scholar’s Sanctuary.
“I’ve already slain 180 Silver Serpents; the boss should spawn soon,” Su Yu thought, swiftly casting spells as the serpents around him fell in waves.
His Goddess’s Tears buff was now maxed out, significantly boosting his mana to 760 points!
High mana was best paired with better mana potions.
So, Su Yu used his Starpoint Skill to upgrade the Basic Mana Recovery Potion.
“Ding! Spend 10 Spirit Coins to enhance the Basic Mana Recovery Potion?”
“Confirm!”
“Ding! Basic Mana Recovery Potion upgraded to Intermediate Mana Recovery Potion.”
Intermediate Mana Recovery Potion: Restores 300 mana points over 3 seconds.
The synergy between the high mana from Goddess’s Tears and the Intermediate Mana Recovery Potion’s effects saved Su Yu a great deal of time spent drinking potions.
He no longer needed to chug a mana potion after casting just a few spells.
...
After more than ten minutes and over two hundred Silver Serpents slain, Su Yu reached level 4.
Leveling up naturally increased his spell power to 36 points.
He could also equip the Linen Gloves (Superior) Lv. 4 dropped by the Goat boss.
Su Yu upgraded the Linen Gloves to Rare quality and equipped them.
Linen Gloves (Rare) Lv. 4
Defense +11
Intelligence +5
Casting Speed +5%
After equipping the Linen Gloves, Su Yu’s spell power rose to 41 points, and his defense soared to an astonishing 40 points!
For a level 4 character, 40 defense was practically game-breaking. Even the highest-defense shield warriors in the game would be envious.
The only downside was that the Silver Serpent boss still hadn’t spawned by the time Su Yu hit level 4.
Nevertheless, he patiently continued clearing Silver Serpents in the monster zone.
...
Finally, after dispatching another hundred or so Silver Serpents and beginning to grow impatient, the Silver Serpent boss appeared!
Silver Serpent Leader (Normal)
Health: 700
The boss was a massive white cobra, four meters long, marked with a crimson emblem on its forehead.
It spawned right beside Su Yu.
No sooner had it appeared than its vertical pupils fixed sharply on Su Yu.
Its body coiled slightly before it lunged forward—like an arrow released from a bow, the Silver Serpent boss flew straight at Su Yu, jaws wide open aiming for his neck.
Su Yu merely smiled faintly in response.
He regarded the Silver Serpent boss’s “affectionate” gaze as if an old farmer gazed upon ripe corn in the field.
He stood still, firing a Lightning Arrow and casting an Ice Arrow scroll at the boss, then subtly sidestepped to the left.
The boss’s snapping jaws grazed past his neck, biting only air.
Yet the Silver Serpent boss was no pushover.
Though its bite missed, it arched its body midair and lashed its tail like a whip toward Su Yu.
The tail strike whooshed fiercely, swift and powerful.
Su Yu could have dodged by rolling, but as a mage, he had a better countermeasure:
He muttered an incantation, and an Ice Shield rapidly formed around him, solid ice forged by his magic enveloping his body.
“Crack!”
The boss’s tail struck the Ice Shield hard.
-112!
A huge damage number flashed above Su Yu’s head as the Ice Shield trembled violently.
But it held firm; the Silver Serpent boss failed to break through.
After its attack, the boss awkwardly fell toward the ground, unable to maintain its posture midair.
Seizing the opportunity, Su Yu unleashed a flurry of spells, targeting the boss’s vulnerable spots.
-132!
-59!
-130!
-61!
With spell power at 41 points, Su Yu reduced the Silver Serpent boss to critical health within just three rounds of spells!
The boss never expected such tremendous damage from this seemingly insignificant human.
Desperately, the grievously wounded boss tried to flee—too late.
Lightning Arrow!
Fireball!
Su Yu’s final two spells struck true.
The pitiful Silver Serpent boss, barely five seconds after spawning, had its health bar completely drained, turning into a charred corpse.
“Ding! You have slain Silver Serpent Leader (Normal) Lv. 5, gaining 70 experience points,” the system congratulated him.
“Killing it wasn’t so hard, but such fine leather wasted,” Su Yu said regretfully, eyeing the corpse.
As a beast, the Silver Serpent’s skin could be fully stripped by players skilled in skinning to craft leather armor.
In his previous life, Su Yu had a skinning sub-profession and felt the urge to skin the corpse.
But this time, he wouldn’t have time to learn any sub-professions, so the boss’s body would have to go to waste.
Su Yu approached and inspected the corpse’s drops.
Being the first kill on the entire server, the loot was generous:
Cloudshield Round Shield (Superior) Lv. 5
Smooth Scale Chestplate (Superior) Lv. 5
Skill Scroll: True Word of Shield (Normal)
Silver Serpent Gallbladder (Superior)
True Word of Shield (Normal): Uses holy light to form a shield that absorbs damage equal to 150% of your spell power for you or a selected teammate. Cooldown: 15 seconds; Duration: 60 seconds; Holy Energy cost: 20 points.
This is a signature skill of the Priest class.
Priests have poor offensive power but excel at healing and protecting teammates.
Many priests indeed need such a skill.
Su Yu planned to sell it at the warehouse later.
Since none of the boss’s drops were useful to him, he barely glanced at them before packing everything into his backpack.
He then left Silver Serpent Valley and returned to Nolan Village.