Chapter Eighteen: The Pearl King, Giant of a Hundred Eyes

As the Hundred-Eyed Giant roared and rushed out from the underwater cavern, the boss battle officially began. The druid, who had always been swimming at the forefront, let out a wild roar as well, transforming into a massive bear and colliding heavily with the giant.

With a resounding crash, Liu Zong noticed that the hunter and the others had already taken their positions and launched their attacks against the Hundred-Eyed Giant.

Still half-submerged in the water, Liu Zong had not yet attracted the giant's attention, giving him a moment to observe the creature before him.

Before arriving, the hunter had already explained the Hundred-Eyed Giant’s situation to Liu Zong. This boss was quite similar to the final boss, the Master Archbishop, and was rumored to possess three distinct combat forms.

Most players encountered the basic form known as the King of Light—a gigantic giant covered head to toe in small eyes. These eyes represented both the giant’s health and attack methods. Each eye destroyed would decrease the giant’s life by one percent.

When 33, 66, and 99 eyes are lost, the remaining eyes emit blazing red beams that strike the entire battlefield. Any player unable to dodge or with too little health would be instantly killed by these beams. This form was called the King of Light.

The second form appeared roughly once every hundred dungeon runs. Unlike the King of Light, this version had no additional eyes save for the original one; instead, its body was marked by numerous scars, remnants of the powerful one-eyed giant ripping out all the transplanted eyes from the Black Hand Organization at the last moment.

These eyes had been crafted into a gigantic war hammer, which delivered sweeping attacks when swung. When 33, 66, and 99 eyes on the hammer were destroyed, the Hundred-Eyed Giant would perform a targeted attack. If your name was called and you didn’t have a survival skill, regardless of your class, instant death was inevitable.

This form was more difficult, emphasizing physical attacks, so players dubbed it the Hammer King.

The third form was exceedingly rare and the most coveted by all players—precisely what Liu Zong now witnessed. The Hundred-Eyed Giant before him seemed clad in armor made of shells; these shells opened and closed, revealing thumb-sized pearls within when parted.

Indeed, these pearls had replaced the eyes, grafted onto the giant’s body, functioning similarly to the eyes of the other two forms.

Whenever 33, 66, and 99 pearls were destroyed, the remaining pearls unleashed a full-screen attack. The bubbles released by the pearls were powerful but moved slowly, making them relatively easy to dodge—the simplest variant among the three.

Yet this was not the reason players chased the so-called Pearl King. Since the opening of the Great Map, the Desolate Sea Cliff dungeon had been cleared nearly thirty thousand times, and only three Pearl Kings had ever appeared.

Moreover, these three Pearl Kings never dropped any equipment, only a fist-sized pearl. This pearl increased the success rate of all synthesis, sacrifice, recruitment, forging, and alchemy actions by thirty percent—importantly, for all levels and skills.

This single feature drove the so-called Lucky Pearl, as players joked, to astronomical prices.

In addition, the Pearl King had a fifty percent chance to drop a blueprint for a pearl farm. Though the materials required were considerable, once constructed, the farm produced a hundred pearls annually. These pearls were highly sought-after in tailoring, leatherworking, and forging.

This meant a stable income source for players, greatly aiding their growth.

[Hundred-Eyed Giant, Old One-Eye]

[Race: Modified Humanoid Creature]

[Level: Lv1 (9-star) Boss Template]

[Attributes: Strength 12, Agility 9, Constitution 10, Spirit 5]

[Description: A one-eyed giant who has been altered; the shells on his body house powerful magic pearls, each one a source of his strength.]

Faced with this situation, Liu Zong’s first reaction was to find a safe place to hide. After all, the benefits the Pearl King offered were clear, and for a moment he wondered if the hunter and the others might abandon him to claim the Pearl King’s rewards for themselves.

But when he glanced at the hunter, whose eyes flickered with hesitation, Liu Zong felt reassured.

This was a game—no matter how valuable the Lucky Pearl, it could never sustain a player for a lifetime. A player who lost credibility would never be recognized by others, no matter how skilled. This fact could not be changed by strength alone.

Liu Zong relaxed somewhat, staring intently at the Hundred-Eyed Giant, carefully observing the hunters’ attacks and tallying the number of pearls destroyed.

This was Liu Zong’s only option. Normally, every player, regardless of class, possessed some way to observe enemies. With knowledge of an enemy’s abilities, players could warn each other of impending attacks and react in advance.

But Liu Zong had not yet chosen a profession; he could only rely on the instincts he honed as bait in the Lv0 map, watching the enemy and picking his moments to dodge.

When Liu Zong counted thirty pearls destroyed, his body tensed, focus sharpening.

As the hunter and rogue attacked simultaneously, Liu Zong sprang into action. He saw every shell on the giant open, unleashing countless bubbles from the pearls—falling like a rain of bubbles.

These bubbles were beautiful, but Liu Zong knew that touching even a single one would mean certain death. As the bubbles descended, he rushed toward a spot with fewer bubbles, preparing to dodge those of all sizes.

Compared to Liu Zong, the others had easier methods of evading. The druid, transformed into a bear, simply waved at the bubbles falling toward him; a gust of wind blew them back, creating a gap through which the druid easily slipped past most bubbles, and he cared little for any stragglers.

The rogue and hunter took the same approach, using their weapons to burst the bubbles they could not dodge.

The shaman’s method was simpler—he planted a Flametongue Totem, which attacked any bubbles that came near him.

Of course, Liu Zong had no time to observe the others’ evasion tactics. Though the hunter had warned of the bubbles’ perils, Liu Zong hadn’t expected them to be so troublesome.

There were 660 bubbles of varying sizes. If they landed on a player, they exploded, removing a portion of health; if they hit the ground, they bounced back up and fell again. Whether attacked or bounced, each subsequent hit on a player reduced the damage by a third. After bouncing three times, the bubble vanished.

The problem now was that Liu Zong dodged the first wave, but the second—the rebounding bubbles—were unpredictable, throwing him into confusion. The third bounce even sped up, nearly striking Liu Zong as he tried to evade.