"That's only if you have what it takes！" Nie Yan said with a contemptuous smirk, then dashed outside.
Nie Yan quickly created some distance from the Berserker. His Bronze equipment had allocated so many points to Agility, and combined with the Thief's natural speed advantage, he was considerably faster than the Berserker.
The distance between them had already reached five yards.
"Don't let him escape, or we'll have no way to explain ourselves！" the Berserker shouted anxiously. He was too slow to catch up; he glanced at his Charge skill—still on cooldown.
"Got it." The Holy Word Priest released another Holy Light, dealing 16 damage to Nie Yan.
The Berserker gave chase closely behind Nie Yan.
Nie Yan had never planned to run away at all. He was just stalling for time, as some of his skills were still on cooldown.
Just as the Holy Word Priest finished his attack, Nie Yan began bandaging himself while running.
+20, +20, +20, Nie Yan's health rose bit by bit. After four ticks, the Holy Word Priest struck Nie Yan with a Holy Light attack, interrupting his bandaging.
But after applying the bandage, Nie Yan's health had already returned to full.
Intermediate Combat Bandage was an utterly overpowered existence at the current level.
"He has a bandaging skill!" the Berserker exclaimed in shock. What kind of bandaging skill was this? Most of the bandaging skills he had seen before could only be used after combat, and they only restored 5 health per second. A combat-applicable bandaging skill like Nie Yan's was something he had never seen before, and the healing effect was ridiculously strong.
They had painstakingly whittled down most of Nie Yan's health bar and were on the verge of finishing him off, but the situation suddenly reversed.
All skills off cooldown！ A faint smile crept across Nie Yan's lips. Now it's your turn. He turned around and lunged at the Berserker.
The Berserker saw Nie Yan charging at him, his face turning pale as he quickly raised his greatsword to block.
A full-health Nie Yan had managed to take down Boss Diancang while under attack from the three of them; now that Boss Diancang was dead, just the two of them—how could they possibly be a match for Nie Yan！
The dagger in Nie Yan's hand traced an arc through the air, then abruptly changed direction. With a bang, the Berserker's greatsword struck Nie Yan. Stun！ Nie Yan's dagger also landed on the Berserker's forehead.
The Berserker was stunned.
Nie Yan drove a Lunge into the Berserker's chest, then followed up with a Vital Strike, draining most of the Berserker's HP.
Just as the Berserker was about to wake up, Nie Yan had already circled behind him. With a Muffled Strike, he stunned the Berserker once more.
After executing this series of moves and fighting for so long, Nie Yan's stamina was starting to wane. He caught his breath, then drove the dagger in his right hand into the Berserker's back.
The Berserker's HP, over 180, had been battered down to just over 60.
At this rate, he was definitely going to die！
After waking up, the Berserker was completely terrified and frantically fled outside.
If the Berserker had turned to attack Nie Yan instead, he might have dealt some damage. But he was too selfish—the moment he saw his low HP, he panicked, terrified of dying and dropping his equipment, so he ran for his life.
"Think you can get away？" Nie Yan chased after the Berserker, swinging his dagger, slashing into the Berserker's back again and again—-23, -21, -16.
"Damn," the Berserker cursed, his HP hitting rock bottom. His vision went dark, and he slumped to the ground, dropping a piece of equipment.
"Your turn." Nie Yan picked up the equipment dropped by the Berserker and lunged at the Holy Word Priest. While he had been fighting the Elementalist Diancang and the Berserker, the Holy Word Priest had been constantly outputting, dealing quite a bit of damage to him.
Seeing the Berserker fall, the Holy Word Priest was dumbfounded. How had it come down to just him in the blink of an eye? A low-level Priest who hadn't even learned Cure Light Wounds—how could he possibly stand a chance against Nie Yan！
The Holy Word Priest turned and ran. He had no intention of fighting Nie Yan anymore. Death was inevitable no matter what, so his first instinct was to flee.
Nie Yan chased after the Holy Word Priest. With his speed, where could a cloth-wearing Holy Word Priest possibly run！
The dagger struck repeatedly, easily slicing through the Holy Word Priest's cloth armor.
-31, -32, -32. Damage numbers floated up one after another from the Holy Word Priest's head. He barely took a few steps before collapsing to the ground.
Nie Yan walked over to the Holy Word Priest and picked up the equipment he had dropped.
The gear dropped by the Holy Word Priest and the Berserker wasn't great—just two pieces of white-level equipment. The best loot came from the Elementalist. Headpiece, bracers, robe, staff, leggings, and boots—six pieces in total, not a single one missing.
Flame Chaser Headpiece (+5 Fire Damage), Flame Chaser Bracers (+3 Balance), Flame Chaser Robe (+10 Fire Damage), Flame Chaser Leggings (+2 Willpower), Flame Chaser Leggings (+2 Speed).
It was the Flame Chaser set. No wonder Diancang's fire damage was so high. This set came from the Blackflame Forest three-man dungeon. Before the five-man dungeon came out, this was easily the top-tier fire magic equipment available. Each piece had a very low drop rate—you'd need to run Blackflame Forest at least four or five times to collect the entire Flame Chaser set.
There's also a level-zero silver staff, the Azure Staff, which gives +3 mana and +5 elemental damage.
Diancang must be wishing he could kick himself now. Even if he killed Tang Yao and the others back to level zero, it wouldn't cover the cost of his gear.
“Tsk, not bad, there's actually a piece of silver equipment here,” Nie Yan thought. If he put this silver equipment on the market, it would be worth at least three silver coins.
The Bronze Pyromancer set works for both Elemental Mages and Arcane Mages, since both have fire magic—Elemental Mages control elemental fire, while Arcane Mages control arcane fire. I'll give this Pyromancer set to Tang Yao. As for the silver Azure Staff, Tang Yao can't use it, so he can sell it for cash or trade it for a piece or two of gear.
“Where are you now? Give me your coordinates.”
“231.395.285, there's a cave here. I'm inside the cave, and level-five monsters are spawning here. I'm hiding in a corner and don't dare come out.” Tang Yao said with a bitter face. Today was his worst day ever.
“I took out three from the Blazing Holy Flame guild, and one of them was named Diancang.”
“You took out Diancang？ Are you kidding me？ That guy is f*cking unbelievable. He soloed three of our teammates. His magic damage was insane—one fireball could take out half our HP.” In Tang Yao's eyes, it was unbelievable that Nie Yan could take down Diancang.
“That guy had high infamy, so I stripped him clean of all his gear. This is his equipment—I'm giving you the Pyromancer set.”
Bro, I owe you big from our last life. You always had my back, and I never got to repay you before reincarnation. This life, I've got your back！ Nie Yan thought secretly, sharing the Pyromancer set's stats with Tang Yao.
Tang Yao's jaw dropped, staring in disbelief at the equipment Nie Yan had shared with him.
“This can’t be real, right？” Tang Yao slapped himself to make sure he saw correctly. “You’re really giving me this set of equipment？”
Tang Yao naturally knew what a full Flamechaser Set meant in the early game. It took four or five trips to the Black Flame Forest with a team to gather one complete set, and the group could easily wipe along the way—that showed just how valuable it was. If he wore this gear and went into a dungeon with other teams, they’d definitely be fighting to have him.
“What, you think I’m kidding you?” Nie Yan said with a teasing smile.
“Even if I die today, it’ll be worth it. I’m eighteen, haven’t done many serious things in my life, but the thing I’m most proud of is having you as my brother.” Tang Yao said, a little moved. He knew Nie Yan’s family situation well. A full Flamechaser Set would fetch a pretty price if put on the trading platform. The fact that Nie Yan was willing to give it to him proved he truly saw him as a brother.
Nie Yan thought of his past life—that was exactly what he had always wanted to say to Tang Yao too.
“We’re brothers, no need for all the polite talk. I’ll take out a few more of them！” Nie Yan said. He still had about twenty-five or twenty-six minutes of legitimate self-defense time left.
“Never thought you’d actually have a knack for gaming. After hearing what you said during the day, everything clicked for me. My skills improved a lot—otherwise, I wouldn’t have lasted this long.” Tang Yao said, genuinely admiring Nie Yan. The way Nie Yan performed today really made him see him in a new light.
With the Flamechaser Set, he’d be trading a slingshot for a cannon and stepping into the ranks of the experts.
Before, Tang Yao had always treated Nie Yan like a poor buddy, looking out for him in everything. But now, Nie Yan’s actions made him look up to him. For the first time, he felt that Nie Yan was someone truly capable.