While Qiu Yue was supposedly the tactician for Jin’s skirmishes, she had argued that she would need to gain some fighting experience before turning into a full-fledged strategist.
Inspired by her rival’s enthusiasm, Lynn had also decided to join the battle and allowed Jin to direct the battle since he had sufficient power-ups under his belt. (Or on his belt.)
“Tough fight, huh.” Moloch came in at just the right moment when Jin had to coordinate between two separate different groups. “Let me handle the one at the crashed fortress. You should settle your dungeon instances and the defence of Wecha so we can earn money too.”
“Thanks, Moloch. You know me the best.” Jin giggled and raised his hand for a high five before both of them started their work.
“Weslie, how’s that luring device? Is it operational yet?” Jin asked as that was the most important equipment needed before he could start his dungeon instances.
“Yeap, I did a quick trial run after making some impromptu improvements. The device can now attract a fair number of them, but it is not exactly very effective after a certain range.” Weslie said as the System had already teleported the device away from her hands and placed it in the Lost Tech Counterfeiter for quick product purposes.
“User, the System has already produced five of those luring devices. Feel free to start with your plan.” The System prompted its User as it magically sent those five devices on to Jin’s table.
“Nice. Now to attract those rats into the portals. We have to make it slightly subtle so that they will unconsciously jump towards it without realising what we are doing.” Jin said as he looked at Peppers. “Ready to let go of the shield spell. Be quick about it, our monster force is losing rather badly already.”
“Also, think you can open just several portions of your shield instead of bringing down the entire magic spell?” Jin asked to see if he can refine the use of the luring device too.
“You kidding me? That’s like basic stuff I learned during my first month of mage training!” Peppers boasted as she asked where Jin wished to have the shield partially opened. The dungeon supplier responded by pointing at certain locations of the barrier on the Dungeon Maker interface, and the System made it simple for Peppers.
In an instant, a few portions of the shield disappeared which shocked some of the rats thinking it was a trap. Portals suddenly appear right between the crevices and a pair of defenders appear right in front of the portal.
They were none other than the Savants.
Semi-autonomous humanoids which contained top adventurer souls that Jin and his minions had collected in the Dungeon World. Their menacing presence alone had proven to be a few notches above the ‘average’ Orc and Goblins within Jin’s army, and the Demon Rats were looking at them with spite.
With the Shaolin Football instance as a hotbed of trials for the cultivators to test their strength, the Savants too had become one of the most formidable monsters. Their difficulty ramped up to a level that the cultivators had yet to defeat them in Jin’s shop.
Yet to the rats, the defenders weren’t as interesting as that open partition in the energy shield which hadn’t closed with the Savant’s arrival. After all, their objective was to slaughter down every single civilian within the Town of Wecha, and they would be handsomely rewarded if they accomplished it.
“Go go go!” The Rat Officers shouted as rats in bulky steampunk suits attempted to brute force their way through, underestimating the defenders. Without making a sound, the Lord Knight Savant raised his sword and crystal lights pierced through time and space in order to imprison themselves on the hands and limbs of the Demon Rats.
With their movement restricted, the Archer Savant released a volley of homing arrows that went straight for their eyes, barely missing the heavily reinforced helmet they had difficulty wearing. As for the other pairs of Savants, they also started their fight. The Savant Warlock summoned tentacles to strangle and entrap the rats while the Savant Lancer proceeded to eliminate all those constrained by penetrating their armour with his spear, aiming precisely for their hearts.
Having similar abilities as Ke Mi, the Bard Savant plucked a few strings on his guitar, and it was sufficient to immobilise a bulk of the Demon Rats for his partner, the Assassin Savant to finish the job. This opening act was enough to enrage the Demon Rats and rush to overwhelm the defenders all around them.
Yet, they did not know that it was actually the luring device which was placed at the top of the portal that had already been activated and started to attract the rats. Naturally, the Savants did their best stopping as many Demon Rats as possible, but somehow that made their primal instincts even more rabid, causing them to fight even harder.
Jin did not mind the Savants actions as long as there were still rats left at the end of the day for the latest installation to his repertoire of dungeons.
The Spiralling Sewers Instance.
Since there was no chance for him to resurrect the Demon Rats, he had decided to make this yet another limited dungeon run. Only this time, it would be a little different from the usual dungeon instances or raid instances.
As most of his dungeons were team-based, he realised that there was little emphasis on individual dungeon instances. The only real thing he offered individuals was the option to fight in the battle arenas.
This was because he had always kept to the notion where dungeons were meant to be team-based so they can have the most fun out of it. That was why they developed the Squad AI teammates for future dungeon instances.
Yet, he had neglected that there were cultivators that wished to improve themselves without the need to play with other people. And since Jin did not know when exactly he would implement the Squad AI feature, he believed this particular dungeon instance should be the ideal stopgap measure to allow individual cultivators to play by themselves.
“Keep getting more of them! We need as many as possible!” Jin said as the System started to chunk out more of those luring devices so they could be used to catch the rats at the crashed fortress site, the actual sewers of Wecha and the impending horde that headed for the North Bulwark’s last bastion.
