While Xiong Da wished to place the teleportation crystal as soon as possible, he knew it would be total suicidal to do just that. If this was a fight to the death while making sure that they have to plant the teleportation crystal successfully, it was vital that he used everything at his disposal.
And that means utilising every single item within his storage ring. After all, there was no use in hoarding those items he had grabbed from the Hidden Gem Night Market if he did not take them out and use them against the enemies.
Before placing the teleportation crystal, he placed a high level electrical magical barrier device around him and only himself. It acted as an impenetrable shield as long as the magic source had not been depleted. Xiong Da initially meant to use this as the last resort against the Demon Rat General who he had fought against. A trump card to be used to at the very last moment when he did not have any strength within him.
The electrical magical barrier device would discharge high voltages of electricity that was equivalent to a Grade 9 Electric Bolt but the charges were limited so Xiong Da could either dial it down and the device would discharge bolts that were several grades lower or leave it as it is and replace the magic battery source as needed. (He would never expect that all these magic batteries were from Peppers since she discharged too much mana that Jin decided to sell those magic batteries… of course at a high price.)
Since he was not dealing with a Demon Rat General, he had already dialled it down to Grade 3 Electric Bolts to increase the lifespan of the electrical magical barrier. At the same time, he also took out a bunch of documents from his storage rings and tore them right on the spot.
They were mercenary contracts, similar to how Jin was able to contract temporary monsters by the System. Unlike Jin’s contract with those temporary monsters, the ones that Xiong Da used had a time limit to them since the System does not allow Pandawans, much less the Pandarens to have access to such powers if possible. (Especially when they were part of the User’s repertoire.)
However, Jin had compromised with the System, stating that they believed this particular raid was an instance and they had to keep that act up as much as possible. Besides, the System was able to earn some additional profit since it was charging about the same price to the Pandawans for a time limited contract. But to Xiong Da and his particular predicament, an hour’s usage for those mercenaries was already a steal when his friend and him were in such a pinch.
Armoured Alligators emerged from those torn contracts and there were at least fifteen of them. Xiong Da basically took the whole stack from the Hidden Gem Night Market since he was still collecting his money’s worth after sponsoring a hella lot of money to Jin. In fact, if Jin were to reveal the numbers, he could be the number one sponsor for Jin’s store aside from the Royal Zodiac Clans who had spent millions to set up those camps. (With regards to those destroyed camps, Jin had decided to refund a partial portion of the funds as Panda Coins to the Royal Zodiac Heads but that was for another retelling to be done in the near future.)
Now with some extra hands on deck, Xiong Da had commanded them to set up a defensive perimeter around him while he started the establishment of the teleportation crystal. With just one order, the Armoured Alligators immediately pushed the Demon Rats away and set a defensive circle around Xiong Da as if they were trained Spartans. (They even looked at the part when Xiong Da later realised they were wearing similar gear to the 300 Spartans.)
But something seemed to be bugging him, and he believed that a Demon Rat General might suddenly emerge from nowhere when he started the process so Xiong Da once more placed one of the supposedly most expensive items between him and the Armoured Alligators.
A Panda ‘God’ Statue
For an item that looked the same as the one residing within the centre of the Tree Mall, the others including the Demon Rats were curious about what that thing was. Even the streamers and viewers who were watching the current development of the raid instance were desperately searching up the Panda God Statue within the Pandamonium App to check what it was.
As he placed that 2 metre tall statue right smack to the ground, he was smiling to himself knowing the effects of putting that Panda God Statue right in the middle of the battleground. Xiong Da hoped that if anything were to go awry, the Panda God would rescue him from trouble.
“This Xiong Da…” Jin said to himself, and in some way cursed that he had decided to use the Panda God Statue in such a way.
“The User should blame himself for even providing such an item to our number one sponsor.” The System tried to refrain from making sarcastic remarks since it knew what it was. To call the Dungeon Supplier to come into the fray and save him. While like the contract was just a one time use, the Panda God Statue would only be ‘activated’ if it was broken and Jin would emerge from it for fifteen minutes.
Aye, it might be just a miserable 15 minutes but to the Pandawans/Pandarens, it was like summoning the gamemaster, a godly figure, in their raid instance to assist them in their current predicament.
Yet, Xiong Da hoped that it would not come to that since he only had one such statue with him and it would be a pity that Jin was summoned to clear Demon Rats or just one pathetic Demon Rat General. He wished to use that just as a substitute in case Bu Dong was not able to hold off the major threats.
But for now, the Hippo Pandawan was satisfied with his preparation and started to establish the teleportation crystal.
