Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Lin Jie never thought that he would meet those two there.
It was understandable for Charming Smile, as despite not being known, she was well-versed with the working of an Elemental Shaman. Hardworking Pants was capable of casting Runes, with their cooperation, it wouldn’t be a problem for them to kill the Boss.
The guarding Boss was the Skeleton Demon Sword Artist, Mirod. He was a Level 60 Gold Overlord. However, the lack of monsters in front of the tomb had decreased the Boss’ attacking power critically. For Overlord monsters, monsters were their strongest attacking force, but they were all being cleared away by the players.
It wasn’t difficult to kill Mirod from a distance, they just had to make use of the Elemental Shamans’ Lightning Magic. Furthermore, Lin Jie’s [Lightning Vortex Gun] was capable of conduction as well. It could transform those players into the vortexes to attack Mirod from far away.
“Let’s get ready, unlike the usual Bosses, this guarding Boss will not explode out the loot. Instead, it will send the keys straight to the players’ backpack. The three of us will pocket all 100 keys, and raid the tomb. The rest will have to wait 2 hours for the Boss to respawn before coming in,” explained Lin Jie.
Hardworking Pants understood the plan, so he held numerous materials and situated himself in front of the cavity. Hardworking Pants was an Enchant Master and was capable of enchanting players’ equipment. Currently, this skill was mediocre, but it would become rather powerful in the future. A middle-grade enchantment could increase 10 Attack Points to a weapon and wasn’t as powerful as an enhancement. Furthermore, there was a limit to the number of enchantments that could be cast, and every equipment could only be enchanted once.
Enchant Master was the slowest job to grow amongst the Living jobs, and would only rise to prominence during the later part of the game due to its versatility.
Hardworking Pants was a pretty unique presence amongst the Enchant Masters as his research was mainly on Runes, instead of Enchantment Runes. The effect of Runes was to enchant many items at once. If enchantment was a detailed process, Runes would be a mass-produced one. Furthermore, players that practiced Runes could have some attacking power if they were able to combine the right materials.
Lin Jie had been cheated—great time—by Hardworking Pants back at the Frozen Tundra.
However, it seemed that Hardworking Pants wasn’t the kind to be extremely loyal once he joined a guild. His reason for joining the Xuanyuan Alliance had been simple—a large guild would provide unlimited raw materials that would speed up his enchantment proficiency greatly.
Lin Jie tempted him with an even simpler reason—his curiosity peaked when Lin Jie told him that it was possible for a Living job to fight like the battling jobs.
“Source of magic, under my control!”
Hardworking Pants rubbed his right hands, and sand-like particles fell into the shape of a Lightning Rune. These particles were [Washed Lightning Sand], materials that had been quenched by lightning. They could be used as channeling materials for lightning-based magic, as well as to draw runes.
Sizzle—
As the sand got into contact with the ground, a loud boom was heard. As Hardworking Pants drew, he tossed a variety of enchantment materials such as Arcane Dust and Herbal Powder into Runes. This process lasted for about 10 minutes before rumblings sounded, and a silvery-white glow was emitted, signaling the successful Rune creation.
This Rune was called the [Overloading Rune]. When it was attached to equipment, there would be a 20% chance that the target would be cast with overload. When it was used to slay enemies, 3 Judgements would be made to all targets within the Rune, and there would be a 50% of casting overload.
Boom—
The Runes were blasted from the ground and flipped over, they then engulfed the entire cavity. The players that were stacked on top of each other were immediately infected with the Overload Runes.
“My turn! Power Totem, Lightning Chain!” Charming Smile pointed a finger at Lin Jie, referring to the ‘one spell is equivalent to one gold coin’ deal, before waving her hands and 4 totems were unleashed.
Totems were the Shamans’ special attack. Shamans were able to cast blessings onto their teammates through totems, create confusion amongst the enemy, or even attack them. Totems were able to sustain for an infinite amount of time, but there was a limit to how wide they covered. Furthermore, they had 10 health points and would vanish upon contact.
Charming Smile had set up the Power Totem (Increase Magic Attack by 5%), Heat Totem (Cast 50 points of damage to a random target per second), Harden Totem (Before this totem is destroyed, all the other totems will be invincible), as well as Rage of Air Totem (Increase lightning attacks by 5-15%)
Lightning chain!
Charming Smile raised her iron hammer, and a lightning snake zoomed out from within and found its target on the player situated at the top. He was fried to bits instantly and conducted the lightning chain downwards. When Charming Smile’s lightning chain was in contact with an overloaded target, its cooldown period and channeling time would be zero. She fired out lightning blasts one after another, electrocuting all the players.
Lin Jie followed suit and raised his right hand, Lightning Spear Strike was unleashed. As compared to how cautious Charming Smile tried to be but still managed to hit the player’s head, Lin Jie seemed to be bolder as he swayed the 6 spears with ease. They hit the players right in their heads.
Countless lightning chains and Lightning Spear Strikes overlapped and attacked the guarding Boss through the overloaded players. Lin Jie’s battle prompt messages were raised, and the Skeleton Demon Sword Artist was hurt! Lin Jie continued on and activated Thunder Descent to boost his attacks. As the lightning chain and Lightning Spear Strikes transformed into a gigantic electric dragon that soared towards the base of the cavity, a system prompt message sounded chirpily.
—’Your team has killed the Gold Overlord, Skeleton Demon Sword Artist, Mirod. Congratulations, you have received 100,000 EXP and 100 City of Light Reputation. Congratulations, you have received the reward, [Key to the General’s Tomb] x 34.’
Lin Jie was stunned on the spot when the prompt message sounded in his ears. He knew that the Boss was a noob, but he didn’t know it was so bad.
He had planned to cooperate with the two of them to clear out the players, and draining some health points from Mirod. Finally, he would take the chance to slay Mirod with a Clomaros’ Kill attack. But who knew that Mirod was so trashy that an electric dragon would do the deed, making his plans seem an overkill.
Mirod’s Defense and health bar were nothing as compared to the usual Gold Overlords. However, it was an annoying enemy in the sense that it would have an insane rate of regen and regen buff techniques when it attacked. It would absorb the buffs from the player it targeted every few seconds. Furthermore, its attacks were unnervingly high, with double the amount of damage inflicted and 100% regen when the demon sword attacked. Mirod relied on those techniques to fight with the players, but due to this accident, the system’s judgment had yet to enter battle mode, and Mirod was just a target, without the ability to retaliate. This resulted in the tragedy where Mirod was slain so easily.
There was a limit to the number of keys that the guarding Boss would drop every round. It was 100 keys every round, and this time, it was split between the three of them.
As he recovered from the shock, Lin Jie asked, “I plan to enter the General’s Tomb, what about you guys?”
“I am going back, seems like the runes are really capable of fighting enemies. I have to come up with a theory and send it back to the Enchant Master Guild. I might get rewarded heavily for it.” Hardworking Pants made the action to push up his spectacles before realizing that his in-game avatar did not wear them—he laughed awkwardly before saying, “Don’t you worry, I won’t pass the keys to anyone else.”
Lin Jie nodded, all he wanted was that last sentence from him. As for research and theories, it was all up to the Living job player’s desire. Living job gamers could apply for sponsorships, materials, and even a short term follower or mentor when they came up with a new formula or theory. Lin Jie wasn’t in charge of that.
“I will go to the General’s Tomb as well.” Charming Smile got 38 gold coins from Lin Jie, and she was over the moon, thus disregarding any other special meaning the numbers had. She laughed and said, “But I won’t be going with you, in case you steal my loot.”
Lin Jie laughed. “Alright, but your keys…”
“I won’t sell them yet, but if I find a treasure chest, that will be another story.” Charming Smile said, “Oh right, you are Codename Lone Wolf? Let’s link up, maybe I will join you in the future.”
Lin Jie switched on his good friends’ list before hearing a squeal from Charming Smile. “Eh, why are you on my friend’s list already?”
Lin Jie smiled but remained silent.
“You… are you the guy that chatted me up in the cafe?” Charming Smile pointed to Lin Jie and exclaimed in shock, “Why didn’t you say so earlier? I wouldn’t have hesitated! You are probably going to win the competition, right? Why wouldn’t I take on such a free and easy job?”
“I look totally different in real life, you can’t blame me for not being able to identify, right?” said Lin Jie.
“Of course, if you were to wear a Lone Wolf Helmet in real life, I would be able to identify you from 300 meters away.” Charming Smile eyed him with despise, “Never knew that Young Master Lone Wolf is going to the same school as me. Oh, right, you have to pay me for my silence. Otherwise, I will spill everything, hehehe…”
Lin Jie said nonchalantly, “Spill all you want, if you dare to reveal it, I will do the same to you. I remember that your reputation is not any better than mine.”
Charming Smile wasn’t bad-natured, but due to her greed, she often cheated and scammed others. She would join teams and take all the best loot unreasonably. When people were in the midst of PK in the wild, she would take advantage of that and steal their equipment. When she saw weird men, she would act like a child to get free equipment before escaping offline… She had basically been through all kinds of methods to earn a quick buck. This was also the reason why she had joined the Brotherhood—with the Hermit Helmet, she wouldn’t be exposed!
“You are horrible!” Charming Smile said hatefully, “I shall leave since there’s nobody inside, I have to steal the funeral loot first, bye-bye…”
Lin Jie couldn’t care less, his main goal—the General’s Tomb’s keys were already with him, the others would have to wait 2 hours before the Boss respawned again.
Lin Jie took a key out of the 34, and waves rippled through his body before he vanished.
The others were still waiting at the entrance for the Boss to respawn. There wouldn’t be another tragedy like the previous round as the Boss would respawn directly at the corridor, so the players would be free to kill it.
Of course, that wasn’t the only method to enter the tomb. One could also enter by using a random teleportation scroll, or use equipment to break through the space barrier to enter. If Lin Jie wasn’t wrong, Eighteen Massacres must be inside as well!
This was because the ancient general, the Wind Earl, the General’s Tomb’s final Boss, was the Dark Shrine’s top choice.
