Chapter 39: Blazing Arrows, Endless Stupor!

[Scorching Arrow (D): Consumes 300 mana points, fires a massive flaming arrow in a designated direction. Upon striking its target, the arrow stuns and triggers an explosion. The arrow itself deals 200 damage, with each point of Strength and Agility increasing base damage by 1. The highest current tier raises base damage by up to 5,000 points. The explosion inflicts 60% additional damage to enemies within range. The stun duration depends on the arrow’s flight distance, ranging from 1 to 3 seconds. Cooldown: 3 minutes. Requires a bow. Class restriction: Ranger. Currently available to learn.]

...

The skill book for Scorching Arrow had dropped from a rare elite monster at the edge of the fourth floor. In some secret realms, besides the primary gatekeeping bosses, there would occasionally be independent rare elite monsters. Their strength matched the other elites within the realm, but they typically dropped superior loot.

Defeating this elite posed little challenge for Yi Shen. Once he’d mastered the rhythm of these monsters, he could sweep through the realm without resistance.

Yet when the skill book appeared, Yi Shen was momentarily stunned.

After all, this was a skill book restricted to the Ranger class, but in the final description, Yi Shen was shown as eligible to learn it!

“A Ranger’s skill—I can learn it too?”

Yi Shen fell into contemplation.

He had previously acquired a Priest’s Healing spell, which had proven invaluable during intense battles, relieving him of any concerns about his health bar. Starting then, Yi Shen had experimented, testing whether he could learn skills from all classes.

However, with the next few skill books he’d obtained—such as the Warrior’s Shield Block or the Rogue’s Backstab—the book had barred him from learning them.

He had assumed Healing was merely a special exception for holy spells, but now, with a Ranger’s skill book also available for him to use, he was surprised.

“Or perhaps, as long as the skill is tied to elemental magic, I can learn it?”

The key difference between this skill and the others was that its description marked it as an elemental arrow, and all subsequent damage was fire-elemental.

Coincidentally, Yi Shen had previously obtained a rather mediocre F-grade bow.

He had no arrows, but simply gripped the bow in his hand. Upon activating the skill, a massive flaming arrow slowly coalesced, automatically nocking itself.

“Whoosh!”

On the fifth floor of the secret realm, the monsters here were all level twenty-seven or twenty-eight.

Yi Shen aimed at a gigantic black bottle-shaped monster and unleashed his attack.

The flaming arrow sped forth!

“-703!”

It dealt just over seven hundred points of damage instantly! Moreover, the skill’s effects worked perfectly, stunning the monster!

“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”

This time, Yi Shen drew his bow and simultaneously activated the Multicast skill.

In the next moment, five blazing arrows formed atop his mediocre bow.

He released them; three veered off course, but two struck the previously stunned black monster, causing a second stun!

Though Yi Shen was not a Ranger and lacked proficiency with bows, this single-target skill felt almost absurdly powerful.

So?

No cooldown + no resource cost + stun—if he practiced a bit, he could chain stuns indefinitely?

...

With a new skill, Yi Shen had ample time to test his theory.

Since the sixth floor contained only a gatekeeping boss, with just the fifth floor’s mobs remaining in the realm, he wasn’t in a hurry to clear it. Instead, he focused on experimenting with his skills.

Reaching a vantage point, Yi Shen quickly conjured flaming arrows from his bow, shooting in all directions at the surrounding monsters, thoroughly enjoying himself.

His father had once tried to teach him archery and similar skills, but back then, Yi Shen’s aim was always poor.

Now, however, since these were elemental arrows—formed from the power within his own body—he could somewhat control their direction, and his accuracy gradually improved.

“Multicast can be adjusted to focus on a single target.”

In these trials, Yi Shen discovered another important aspect of Multicast: when using targeted skills, he had to lock onto five different targets to unleash five arcane-impact style strikes. But with non-targeted skills like Blizzard, Elemental Arrow, or Fireball, he could freely adjust the direction of each skill!

For instance, after finding the right target and angle, Yi Shen conjured five arrows and fired them all at a single large monster.

All five arrows struck home, dealing 5*700—an astonishing 3,500 points of damage!

Even with a fully stacked Arcane Impact, he could only deal just over 500 damage in one blow, but with these arrows, he far surpassed that standard! He was a mage, yet his most terrifying damage output now came from a Ranger’s bow?

Of course, this level of output required Yi Shen to control the angle carefully, or for the target to be large enough.

Later, when facing a small monster, all five arrows missed, leaving him awkwardly speechless.

His family had trained him in countless weapons and skills since childhood, teaching him a wide array of knowledge.

He’d always thought it unnecessary, believing his father’s power stemmed mainly from level and gear, but now he realized that things beyond mere stats could greatly enhance an explorer’s strength!

After practicing, Yi Shen faced the final boss.

The boss moved serenely, unable to resist under Yi Shen’s barrage of flaming arrows.

Typically, realm bosses had resistance to stun effects—a three-second stun might be reduced to half a second, or they might enter a super-armor state, immune to such attacks.

But Yi Shen’s assault was overwhelming; from a great distance, he rained down arrows like a Gatling gun.

The final boss was a gigantic book, massive in size. Even missing 50% of his arrows, the remainder struck in such dense succession that it perished in moments, becoming Yi Shen’s experience and loot.

After slaying the boss, Yi Shen leveled up to 23 and acquired several impressive items.

The only regret was that these items required level 30 to equip, so Yi Shen could only store them for now, or later ask Zhu Qing to help exchange them for contribution points.