Second Life: Welcome to Gaia

Chapter 76: Ritual of the Black Goat

The fight against Goatdalf, the grey, has been very easy for Ye Yan until the boss entered the enraged state. 

When the boss entered in a berserk state, his eyes became red like blood, his fur got darker, red flames started appearing on his hoofs, and a blue magic circle appeared on his forehead. After its transformation, Ye Yan started to feel an evil aura emanating from the boss.

At the moment the boss became enraged, Ye Yan took his fan back because he could feel that its wire wouldn't stand the boss's strength, and took a few steps away from the boss. 

The flames in the boss hoofs were so hot that Ye Yan couldn't stand the high temperature and had to abandon his advantage and think of a different way to fight the boss.

After the boss's transformation ended, it stood in only his hind legs and gave a thunderous 'maa' that could be heard from a long distance.

The goat looked impressive after his change but the only thing in Ye Yan's mind is an urge to cross himself because the Goatdalf had turned into Baphomet in front of him[1].

Ye Yan almost guessed right about what happened. For him, Goatdalf didn't become enraged but must have done the Ritual of the Black Goat. 

The truth is that when the boss's health points reached 10%, he sacrificed himself in the Tribute to Shub-Niggurath Ritual, losing his soul and turning into a black goat. however, as he lost his soul, he became a puppet of the deity[2].

Now, the boss isn't as smart as before and gained physical attack power. 

If Ye Yan tries to fight the boss in the same way as before, he will die for sure because the boss attacks are too powerful for someone to fight it without the support of a healer.

In a fight one to one against the boss, Ye Yan could dodge the boss or defend to lose fewer heath points as possible, but after he entered the berserk state, the boss gained a summon skill that enables him to summon up to 3 Dark Youngs of the woods. 

The Dark Youngs are pitch-black tree-like creatures, with the main body being a trunk with big puckered maws dripping green goo in the middle-front, and ropy root-like tentacles instead of branches and leaves. They are around 8 feet tall (2.5 meters), have a pair of stumpy, short hoofed legs, and smells like an open grave.

The maximum number of Dark Youngs the skill can summon is one thousand and they usually have between twelve to twenty feet tall (3.6 to 6 meters), but it depends on who is realizing the summoning ritual. 

Gandalf, the gray that now is black, is just a level 10 monster, thus he can only summon three such monsters to help himself in battle. However, for someone like Ye Yan that is fighting alone in the place, it is enough to give him a huge headache.

Luckily, they are weak to slashing attacks and are considered evil creatures, so Ye Yan gained bonus damage from the monster's weakness and the passive skills of his upgraded fan.

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[Dark Young] (Summon - Normal)

Description: The Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath is an evil creature with deadly, ropy tentacles that can only appear on the surface of Gaia when summoned by the Tribute to Shub-Niggurath Ritual. Although ugly, this creature can be seen as adorable by a certain skeletal being. 

Level 10

HP: 500

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With the addition of tree monsters, the pressure on Ye Yan increased and the fight became harder than he could expect.

Now, Ye Yan has to dodge four monsters at the same time while attacking them. At least the Dark Youngs are slow or else it would be almost impossible for him to kill the boss.

Ye Yan decided to kill the summons first because they have lower HP compared with the metalhead version of Goatdalf.

The tree Dark Youngs walk very close together in Ye Yan's direction, so when he attacks them, he tries to fight against the tree simultaneously and make use of them as shields from Goatdalf's new orange-red fireballs.

As the Dark Youngs have a weakness to fire, the boss attacks inflicted huge amounts of damage on them. The problem is in how to use the boss to damage them because he is always changing his spells and position in the room.

Ye Yan started to hit the Dark Youngs together, using his area skill. As he only has the area skill [Clive], he transformed normal attacks into area attacks using fighting technics that prolong the movements with the help of specialized footwork.

After a few seconds fighting the Dark Youngs, Ye Yan finally heard the system notification that he was waiting for a long time.

System: Congratulations, your skill [Dizzy Punch] have increased in proficiency level, turning from Novice to Intermediate. Your skill gained a 30% increase in damage.

Ye Yan almost yelled hallelujah out loud from happiness.

Dizzy Punch is the skill that Ye Yan uses the most, that's why it increased in level first. However, the other skills are close to leveling as well, mainly [Provoke] and [Lucky Hit].

This increase in the damage he got is not much but can help him a lot. mainly in a situation like this, in which he is fighting against multiple enemies at the same time and every increase in damage can take a little of the pressure off him.

Ye Yan is fighting the Dark Young in a triangular formation, where he is positioned in the middle of the triangle's base, in a way in which he can hit the three of them at the same time while he is not surrounded by enemies from all sides.

Ye Yan is fighting, using the skill [Dizzy Punch] every time it just is off cooldown to stun one of the three Dark youngs and help himself dodge the tentacles' attacks.

As Ye Yan is not a fan of tentacle's play, he is trying to kill the beasts as soon as possible for him to be able to fight the boss. He had already lost a lot of time in this room.

After a few minutes of dodging and slicing tentacles, the tree of them fell to the ground like an old and rotten tree.

However, Ye Yan doesn't have time to rest because now, his makeshift shield died and the boss fireballs went directly at him.

Ye Yan rushed to the boss, moving in 'Z' to evade the boss's spells, and used [Provoke] as soon as he got near the boss.

Now the boss is slower than when he was in his gray form, so Ye Yan will not need to use the wire of his fan to wrap the boss and can use both hands and legs to fight.

Before he looked like someone holding a goat by a leash with his right hand while punching it with his left. But now, he looked like to be effectively fighting an evil monster with everything he has.

Ye Yan is taking rounds attacking the boss because of his high temperature. Each time he approaches the boss, he punches, slashes, and kicks to deal damage on the boss while using it to put a distance between them.

He was fighting the black goat in this way until he took the last drop of the boss's health points.

After the boss died, Ye Yan breathed a sigh of relief and fell to the ground in a sitting position. He is too tired to do anything now. Even the loot can wait for him to recover a little.

After a few moments, the astronomer ghost appeared in the room, smiling from ear to ear and pumping his fist in the air.

The ghost was behaving as if he already have exact revenge.

"Good! Good! Very Good! I feel that I am just one step from getting my revenge. I can feel that tyrant's presence from here. He must be in the next room. However, I can feel that he isn't alone. There is a huge magic power in the next room, so take care and fuck them good!" The ghost was so happy that he started to use vulgar words again in the end. 

After the was done speaking, the ghost gave a smile so evil that he look more like the villain than the victim.

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[1] Baphomet was a pagan invention or gnostic idol or deity that the Templars were accused of worshipping, which was later embraced by various occult and mystical writers. The first known mention of Baphomet was in a letter written in 1098, describing the Siege of Antioch during the First Crusade.

[2] Shub-Niggurath is a fictional deity created by H. P. Lovecraft. She is often associated with the phrase "The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young", and is also referred to as Lord of the Wood.