Return of the Net Gaming Monarch Chapter 22

Chapter 22 – The Real Second Floor
Translated by: 白酒鬼

Lin Fan's Thunderbolt hit Papas for 50 damage, deeply shocking Lin Fan.

"Holy f.u.c.k, that's the damage I deal to normal vampires without critting. Papas is *that* weak?" Lin Fan exclaimed in shock. Apparently the only Elite about this guy is his health which is the same as BOSSes. His other stats are the same as normal mobs!

"No wonder the system said he didn't have the strength of a real Vampire Baron. This guy's a phony!" Lin Fan shouted as he cast Thunderbolt once more. Under Lin Fan's continuous a.s.sault, Vampire Baron Papas soon fell. A mere Elite monster was barely enough to make Lin Fan break a sweat. Further adding to his satisfaction, Lin Fan levelled up.

"My father will avenge me!" Papas screamed before finally dying.

Lin Fan grabbed the item Papas dropped. Unfortunately, it needed to be appraised. It was called: Belt of Vitality

"I didn't expect to get a belt!" Lin Fan exclaimed with joy. According to the game's introduction, the two hardest equipment to get were belts and medals.

"Looks like he really was a Baron. His loot wasn't half bad!" Lin Fan said as he placed the belt in his inventory and looked around. After taking in his surroundings, Lin Fan creased his brows. After Papas's death, no pathways opened up. Lin Fan had no idea how to get to the next floor.

Even after searching for a long time, Lin Fan still hadn't found the way to the next floor. The more he searched, the more frustrated he got. And yet, the angrier he got, the calmer his mind. There haven't been any portals since I got here, so the developers must have left behind some sort of key to the next floor. I just haven't found it yet.

"Could it be that…" Lin Fan's eyes lit up as he looked at Papas's corpse. All the other vampires disappeared when they died… But his body's still around…  

"There's no way he's the second floor's BOSS, he's just too weak. That means that I'm haven't reached the second floor yet… He must be the key to get there!" Lin Fan slowly deduced. The more he spoke, the brighter his eyes glowed. I must be right. After all, Papas's father is Paros and not Nightmare Castle's BOSS Romundt. Moreover, I only saw 3 floors from the outside. So, there should only be 3 BOSSes. That means the second floor's BOSS should be Vampire Viscount Paros and not this wimp.

After thinking of this, Lin Fan started looting Papas's body. On it, Lin Fan obtained a scroll.

"I was right! This scroll sends me to the second floor!" Lin Fan laughed as he tore the scroll. Then, with a flash of golden light, Lin Fan was sent to an even bigger hall.

"Hm? That's a devil isn't it? How did a devil get here? Wait a minute… G.o.ddammit he must've killed my son, Papas!" a Vampire sitting on a throne at the back of the hall roared when he saw LinFan.

"You killed my son! So you can join him in the afterlife!" Vampire Viscount Paros howled as he flew at Lin Fan with his fingernails that glowed green.

[Vampire Viscount Paros. Level 23. Stats Unknown.] Upon seeing that description, Lin Fan start cursing. And upon seeing Paros charge at him, wings spread, Lin Fan's expression turned even graver. But even so, he kept his calm. After all the level gap between them was less than 10, so he'd at least be able to hurt Paros.

"Fire s.h.i.+eld!" Facing a level 23 BOSS, Lin Fan didn't there be careless. After all, he had no idea how strong it was. The only thing he was certain of, was that even a single hit would be crippling. And that was taking into account the Ring of Conversion. So, seeing Paros fly at him, Lin Fan immediately cast Fire s.h.i.+eld.

After Fire s.h.i.+eld blocked Paros's attack, Lin Fan immediately backed off and sent forth a Thunderbolt which dealt 31 damage. Upon seeing the damage, Lin Fan heaved a sigh of relief. When Thunderbolt struck, Paros's full health was displayed. It was 7000HP. But, since he was able to deal 31 damage per attack, Lin Fan was certain that he could slowly but surely defeat Paros.

At the moment, Lin Fan was completely focused on the foe in front of him. He unhurriedly cast Thunderbolts while watching Paros. Then, when Paros attacked, Lin Fan dodged to the left. After that he closed in, dashed up to Paros's chest and sent a Thunderbolt down the Vampire Viscount's throat.

Vampires were weak against lightning, and LinFan sent  a Thunderbolt into one of Paros's weak spots – his mouth. This ended up dealing 100 damage. After all, no matter how high his defence, Paros's innards were still vulnerable.

"*Roar!*" After getting hit, Paros roared and swept his wings at Lin Fan while trying to bite him. The 3 attacks encircled Lin Fan, leaving no way to escape.

"Fire s.h.i.+eld!" in response, Lin Fan calmy casted Fire s.h.i.+eld and blocked the two wings. Unfortunately, the fangs were a bit slower and came after Fire s.h.i.+eld's duration had ended. They struck Lin Fan's shoulder, causing 150 damage.

Upon seeing that damage, Lin Fan's face paled. If I didn't have the Ring of Conversion, I would've died.

Lin Fan swiftly dashed away and chugged two bottles of Mystic Fountain Water before calming himself down.

Paros once again spread his wings and charged forward. Seeing this, Lin Fan dodged to one side and cast Thunderbolt at the bloodwings.

"Argh!" Paros screamed in pain as he fell to the ground. The left bloodwing was blown apart by Lin Fan's attack! Moreover, a [-100] appeared over Paros's head.

"What the!? So that was his weak point!?" Lin Fan blurted with shock. These devs are just too much! They actually made this BOSS's weak point its wings. They looked downright intimidating and emit a bloodthirsty aura. Moreover, they're huge. Generally speaking, weak spots tend to be tiny. No one would expect the wings to be this guy's weak spot. The developers really outdid themselves on this BOSS.

"Whelp, with a weak spot like that, he's a goner for sure. Even though, I'm slower than him, I can still dodge his attacks just fine. What I'm really scared of is him flying up and swooping down. I have no way to avoid that. But now that his wings are wasted, this will by a piece of cake!" Lin Fan laughed as he cast Thunderbolt at the yet uninjured right wing, causing Paros to scream once more.

After getting hit 3 times, Paros kept his wings in terror. After all BOSSes had some semblance of intelligence. Then, he continued rus.h.i.+ng at Lin Fan. This time, he managed to land a blow with his fingernails.

"f.u.c.k me!" After getting scratched by Paros, Lin Fan's face turned green and a string of damage popped up from his chest.

[Player has been poisoned. HP will drop by 10 every second for 10 seconds.]

When he saw that system notice, Lin Fan's face paled. This was because the poison damage purely targeted his HP. It didn't touch his MP at all.

Lin Fan hurriedly gulped down two bottles of Mystic Fountain Water. Unfortunately, as the HP recovery from Mystic Fountain water wasn't that strong, Lin Fan still took damage over time. Albeit, not as much as before.[1]

"Dammit!" Lin Fan's eyes glowed with rage as he cast Thunderbolt once more. Then, when Paros charged at him again, Lin Fan dodged at the last second. His movements this time were mysterious and ethereal as he looped to the back of Paros and struck his wings with another Thunderbolt.

"*Roar*!" Paros roared as he turned around and face Lin Fan. But, when he did, Lin Fan was no longer there. Lin Fan had moved once again, and was once more at Paros's back. Yet again, he cast Thunderbolt.

If Chaotic Sky was over here, he would surely recognize this technique. It was Lin Fan's strongest movement technique, and was dubbed "shadow steps". Back then, Lin Fan made use of this technique to kill Chaotic Sky in a 1v1. At the time, Chaotic Sky pitifully died without being able to see so much as Lin Fan's hand. That incident was forever buried in Chaotic Sky's black history. After all, for an a.s.sa.s.sin to get killed from behind by a mage in close combat without even seeing the mage's face was downright humiliating.

Patreon poll is now closed. Also, I’ve somehow been managing 4 chaps a day which should lead to a pretty d.a.m.n big stockpile. Instead of the original everyone gets full access system I was intending, I decided to go with a tiered system. Reason being? It was a tie between $5 and $10 both of which would probably be the equivalent of me being ripped off since the stockpile will be at 21 chaps at least by the end of this week and 42 by the end of next week. Big huh? Now to explain the system. There will be 3 tiers, $5, $10 and $20(poor $15 didn’t get any votes in the poll so I didn’t include it either).

$5 patrons get the whole weeks chapter in advance. But, they don’t get extra chaps. Think of like this game’s potions. You get instant healing instead of healing over time. Just that in this case the total healing is the same. Also, you still have to read on wordpress, and when you read, you need to enter a pa.s.sword to access the chapter.

$10 patrons get to be ahead by 14 chapters. I.e. when others are reading chap 30, you’re on chap 44. when they reach 44, you’re 48. And you can read on patreon. No need to deal with the ha.s.sle of pa.s.sword lock.

$20 patrons get access to my stockpile. I’ll give a view only link to a folder holding all unreleased chaps.

Now, I’m all for cheating, so for you guys who aren’t going to be patrons, if you can guess the pa.s.sword on wordpress, you can read the chap early. The pa.s.sword for each week will be the different, but it will be constant for each batch of chapters. So if you guess the pa.s.sword, that’s free $5 patron for 1 week.  Patrons, you’re allowed to OCCASIONALLY share the pa.s.sword to the public. But go overboard and there WILL  be consequences.

If the stockpile grows big enough, I’ll probably add a few more tiers and alter the more expensive privileges. Especially the $20 one. Also, I’ll change the link every month so it can’t be abused(like winrar). But, those who purchase BEFORE the changes will retain those benefits. I’ll find a way to ensure it.

Tl;dr: Patreon system decided. Preview here: 

Help everyone figure out how the game works over here:

[1] Before you ask about the plot hole in comments, I can guarantee with 100% certainty I DID NOT MAKE A MISTAKE. I checked the raws description of Mystic Fountain Water and Poison 3 times just to make sure. Go tear the author to shreds. But a.s.suming it's not a mistake on his part, my best guess would be, Paros has 5 fingernails, so the poison damage is applied 5 times. Also, here's a skills&potions glossary I'll be updating over time

Oh and before I forget, whenever I get to sponsored chaps, they’ll be released in bulk every Sunday since I’m using a stockpile and scheduling chaps for each week on monday.

P.S. This is tomorrow’s chap. I’m releasing it early because I have a bunch of announcements