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Chapter 75: Goatdalf, the gray

Ye Yan walked carefully through the corridor. The winking light just illuminates the area around him and he can't see far in the passage, so he has to keep high awareness or he would die without knowing what happened.

At times like this that Ye Yan thought the thief is a very good class indeed. At least, they would be good tomb robbers but in compensation, they have lower survivability and could hardly take down one of the elite monsters in the mausoleum alone, even at level 10.

Ye Yan had a hard time getting to the next chamber. On his way there, he had stepped on another tripwire after being attacked by rats and was almost hit by hanging iron balls full of 20cm (~8 inches) long nails. Luckily, his reaction speed is high and he dodged on time or he would be dead for certain.

But, there is nothing he can do if he wants to enter a tomb in the game. The ancient emperors and other officials and generals filled their tombs with traps to stop tomb robbers from disturbing their eternal rest[1].

Ye Yan has survived until normal thanks to his training of awareness and with luck, he will continue like that until he got the two items he needs.

When Ye Yan got to the entrance of another chamber, he stopped, stored the firefly in his space bag, and looked at it carefully. 

This room is different from the others in the mausoleum. It is a square room with walls decorated with murals and four columns to support the cellar like the previous one. However, this room has many magic torches attach to the walls that provided light to the entire room.

Every torch has a fluorescent blue flame that was surely created by magic because no normal fire can have this color.

Ye Yan observed the entire room but only found one monster inside. In the center of the room, there is a furry animal lying on the ground with two horns slightly twisted on its head. 

This furry animal probably can use magic like most of the monsters in the mausoleum, so Ye Yan has to be more careful when approaching it.

When he took his first step into the room, the goat woke up and got up, looking at Ye Yan with naked hostility.

The goat has medium-length gray fur, two slight thorn horns, and a long gray-brown goatee. The goat is very different from others of its species in real life because it not only is four times the size of a normal goat, but it also has an impressive aura that you could almost see condensing around it.

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The goat stomped his right front hoof on the ground and spoke with his slow and gravelly voice.

"You shall not pass!"

The goat indicated by this action that he would not let Ye Yan go further into the mausoleum.

Ye Yan used his identify scroll to know some rough information about the monster.

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[Goatdalf, The Gray] (Chieftan)

Description: The Goatdalfs are wizards capable of using powerful spells. The color represents the power that the monster holds, with the gray color being one of the weaker among them. 

Level 10

HP: 2,000

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Ye Yan barely looked at the scroll when Goatdalf, the gray, started to attack. The chieftain's horns shone a blue light and a blue ball of light appeared between its horns.

Soon after, the blue ball of light went in Ye Yan's direction.

Ye Yan dodged the light ball but, when he thought he had escaped, the ball of light started to expand, becoming 1 meter wide (~3.3 feet). 

Ye Yan had no time to think, he just reacted, jumping away from the big blue ball of light.

In the region where the ball of light touched the ground, everything turned dark. The light ball was so hot that it even left a burning mark on the ground.

After this, Ye Yan understood that the goat is not playing around. It wants to make a barbecue of him and maybe eat later.

Goats are herbivorous animals but this is not a normal goat and they do have a reputation of eating anything before them. 

After listening to Hello Kitty describing the gory scene of how the Goblin Shark ate her friends in a dungeon run, Ye Yan started to be suspicious of any monsters in the game that can bite.

After seeing that the spell deal no damage to Ye Yan, the goat boss didn't cast another spell but rushed in Ye Yan's direction. However, Goatdalf didn't run like other goats.

The boss ran on the air like one of Santa's reindeer. You could see the goat's legs moving while it rushes at Ye Yan but its hoofs were touching nothing but air. 

The goat looked like a manifestation in the flesh and bones of the Patronus, in the way it is running in the air.

When Ye Yan thought the goat would come directly at him, it changed direction and started to run around him, doing a perfect circle. 

Ye Yan saw the strange actions of the goat and decided to go to another area of the room to leave the circle made by the goat's movements.

This decision proved to be wise, as when he just left the circle, a blue light shone in the area, indicating the activation of an array.

After the blue light faded, only burning marks could be seen on the ground. The pieces of marble floor were destroyed and even part of the reddish, sand soil became glass[2].

When Ye Yan noticed the destruction made by the goat's magic array, he felt cold sweat running down his back. If he hadn't left the circle on time, not even his bones would have left.

Even if Ye Yan use [Endure] and [Iron Skin], plus his passive skills, he could stay alive after being hit by it.

He had noticed that the magic light was hot before but he never thought it would be so hot. 

If the gray goat can use spells like that, Ye Yan can't even imagine what its white version can do.

What Ye Yan needs to do now is get closer to Goatdalf because mages usually aren't very good at close combat.

The problem is that Goatdalf is not like normal mages, it not just can run fast but also looks physically strong.

Ye Yan calmed down and started to think. He passed through many things to get there, he can't let an old goat get in his way.

Clear this mausoleum is very important to him because he needs the items only found here to create the Wonder potion, which can open a shortcut in the process to get a property. Not only that, but he got a unique quest from the ghost that can bring him good benefits.

And if he dies, he will fail the quest given by the ghost, which will cause the ghost to not trust Ye Yan anymore, making him unable to get the quest again. And the next person that defeats the Agra Cadabras will get the quest instead.

Ye Yan cleared his mind of any extra thoughts and concentrated on the fight. 

He threw his fan at the goat, taking it by surprise, and rushed at him. After he got halfway to the goat, he spun around himself, pulling his fan and throwing it again with the help of his move.

When he threw his fan again, he rushed to the boss, punching him using his skill [Dizzy Punch] that luckily, stunned the boss. The stun didn't take more than two seconds, but it was enough for him to stabilize himself, locking the boss in place.

Now that he got next to the boss, he can't let it open a distance from him. Thus, he started attacking the boss and use a type of footwork that can help him move around the boss faster.

And every time the boss wants to put a distance between them, Ye Yan intercepts him and doesn't let him escape. Not only that, he threw his folding fan from a position under the boss and took it back from above, wrapping the boss with the thin wire to keep it in place. 

The downside of using this method is that he will have a hard time using his fan to attack, but the most important thing now is not to let the boss get away from him.

As the boss can't use arrays or his spells on Ye Yan, he started to use melee attacks. He raised his front legs and tried to hit Ye Yan using the skill [Stomp]. 

When the boss attacked him, Ye Yan couldn't dodge or he would have to drop his fan, so he used it as a shield to defend.

Luckily, the boss's physical attacks have low power and Ye Yan could defend against it easily, using his left hand to support the fan. 

After using this strategy, the battle that looked like that would be very hard, turned easy instead.

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[1] Booby traps can be found in some Chinese tombs but an example of a very dangerous tomb with elaborate traps was built by Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor to unify China. Some believe that it is the most dangerous tomb in the world. Up until now, his mausoleum has not been excavated by archeologists because they fear unforeseen traps. From what was registered in ancient books, the first emperor's tomb has liquid mercury lakes and rivers inside, and archeologists indeed found that the soils near the tomb have abnormal amounts of mercury, which increase as you approach his grave.

[2] To make sand melt, you need to heat it to roughly 1700C (3090F).