Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“Don’t panic, retreat!” Nothing more was heard from Lin Jie other than these three words. At the same time, he tingled his fingers, and fluorescent threads shone against the smooth ground.
The threads were commanding cursors to facilitate players to give out commands during critical timings. The system allocated more than ten varieties of color customizable commanding cursors, and the most commonly used one was the ‘thread’.
However, these commanding cursors weren’t very useful as the commander often had to give out several instructions at once. If line cursors marked all of them, a ground full of colored thread would tire the team out and lead to more mistakes.
‘Qiu Yuan likes black, Bu Yi likes blue…’ Lin Jie’s brain was functioning rapidly as commanding cursors of various colors extended out from their feet. A human’s brain would subconsciously identify their favorite color, so Lin Jie allocated the threads to them based on that criteria. He also arranged the colors that were closer together to be contrasting, to prevent wrong identification.
No sooner said than done, everything occurred in a split second. One of the Ghost Warriors got struck in the heart and imploded on the spot. Everyone followed their own thread and performed the instructed actions. They evacuated according to the commanding cursor’s route as the explosion of icicles followed soon after.
“Be careful!” The Heavenly Shield turned back and said as his eyes trailed back to the Boss from bottom up. As his eyes swept past the ground, he noticed a commanding cursor. He was taken aback, but his habit of following the cursor made him step on it out of reflex. At that moment, an Ice Spur flew and struck the back of his head, luckily it wasn’t a Critical Hit.
He avoided it successfully!
Everyone was shocked as moments ago, The Heavenly Shield’s head was still in close contact with the Ice Spur, but he tilted his head at the critical moment. If he hadn’t done so, he would have been dead by now! It was rather inconceivable for Lin Jie to make all these minute instructions during such an intense battle.
This was obviously due to Lin Jie’s precise and remarkable observation skills. However, some credit had to be given to the Crescent Silver-Feathered Eagle that was panning around in the sky.
“Very well done, continue.” There was no change to Lin Jie’s tone as everything that happened was within his expectations. This wordless commanding method proved to be extremely effective as everyone only had one mouth, and it would be difficult to pay consideration to all aspects. Thus, with such a detailed commanding method, he was able to cover all areas of the battle.
The only one that was being tested was the commander.
Everyone’s minds were at ease, as they felt as though they could overcome any obstacles with Lin Jie’s commands.
They had also realized that, despite being at the top of this game, Lin Jie was constantly improving! Just like how that saying went, “The most horrific thing in the world is the people who are more talented than you work harder than you too!” Even though players were constantly looking up to him, he was never satisfied and was constantly trying to better himself.
Even if they destroyed the Demon of Destruction’s Ice Clone, it was only a clone. Its Attack, Defense, Agility, and Speed couldn’t compare to the real Demon of Destruction. With Lin Jie’s perfect commanding, its health points were slowly depleted. Even though there were some screwed ups, the two MTs would block them immediately, coupled with Bu Yi’s Power Word Shield, it was all under control. Furthermore, the new Savage Blade members were commendable as they constantly learned along the way.
Soon, the Boss’ health bar was approaching the last 10%.
“Adventurers, you all are stronger than expected.” The Demon of Destruction spoke, and sonic waves were blasted out. Even his usual volume was equivalent to that of a Level 3 Outraged Roar! If this Boss was as talkative as Hardworking Pants, he would be invincible.
The Boss paused its movements as it propped both palms and shouted, “Absolute Territory!”
Absolute Territory was the ultimate move of the Ice Clone! Its effect was dealing 1,000 points of damage to all targets within a 50-kilometer radius. If the target died, an Ice Healer would be summoned in its place to heal the Boss of 10,000 health points per second, until its health bar was full again. Furthermore, the longer the players stayed in Absolute Territory, the higher would be the damage inflicted upon them.
A thick layer of frost condensed on everyone, decreasing their Movement Speed and Attack Speed! Healing’s effect was also reduced by 50%, as a result of Absolute Territory’s additional effect.
If they followed the usual method of battle, once the players were able to plunder through all the branched pathways in the Ice Castle, they would obtain many Ice Javelins, which they could use to hurl and kill the Boss from a distance.
Lin Jie spread his palms, and the Sealed Dusty Book appeared, diffusing a tenacious and boundless aura and encapsulating everyone inside. Afterward, fluorescent armor appeared on everyone.
“Holy Spirit Armor!”
Everyone’s Defense increased immediately! As the Sealed Dusty Book had absorbed the Heritage Armor, Armor of Miluous, with 800 Defense Points, and to understand this concept? It was equivalent to twice as many Defense Points for everyone! Furthermore, the Armor of Miluos’ special effect was inherited as well, making them even more powerful.
“Activate Bloodthirst!”
Charming Smile activated her Bloodthirst skill after its cooldown was completed, and this immediately fired up Savage Blade’s attacking power! Countless attacks blasted onto the Boss, bombing its body into a trail of smoke.
“You may have won, but this world is doomed!” The Demon of Destruction let out a melancholic wail, before dying!
Ding~
—”Your team has killed the Frost Abyss Totem! The Demon of Destruction’s Ice Clone has been destroyed. Its stats decreased by 10%, and it is no longer able to absorb Ice-attribute Magic.”
The moment the Boss collapsed, more than half the team increased by a level. As the Boss of the final dungeon, it brought about a vast amount of EXP.
“Ziliang, search the corpse.” Lin Jie said before proceeding to the Abyss Totem. After the Boss’ death, the Abyss Totem reappeared, but could no longer shine with the same intensity, and some faint cracks could be observed.
The Abyss Totem was one of the methods the Devil Tribe used to soak up faith—it was in a way similar to ancient China’s Sage status. With more people that paid pilgrimage, the greater the Abyss Totem’s concentrated power. Once the totem’s power reached a certain level, it would then be shifted to the Boss’ clone, serving as ultimate protection.
In fact, there were many Hero-level NPCs in The New Age that were capable of evolving a duplicate or clone. However, it was usually with the help of Mother Nature’s powers, instead of the Demon of Destruction’s method of using its followers.
The Abyss Totem had been absorbing the Ice Half-Centaurs’ faith for more than 1,000 years, so in other words, the totem’s power was abnormally large!
“Jie, there is an interesting item, have a look.” Zheng Ziliang hurled a scroll at him. This was a Spell Scroll, marked by a blood-red eye, bestowing it with some creepiness.
[Combination Scroll•Strength Absorption]
Item Description: Requires Ascetic Priest, Shadow Priest, Weapon Specialist, and Berserker, each of Level 50. 3,000 Mana Points will be depleted.
Skill Attributes: Absorb all the energy in a certain region. After absorbing the Abyss Totem’s energy, a Frost Marble will be produced. It can give a unit 30 seconds of immunity against Ice Magic attacks at the Hell Gate.
“Bu Yi, Qiu Yuan, Netherblue, come over for a moment.” Lin Jie called players of the three other jobs over and stood at the locations stated on the scroll as they began to unleash the skill.
Domestic Fat Cattle noted the situation and spoke grumpily. “Sh*t, leader, you are really enjoying it, right! Just from using a scroll, you can work with the three beauties! Why can’t it be me?”
Lin Jie was rendered speechless when he heard that. ‘Why would you wanna involve yourself? You are a fire mage, and the scroll required a Berserker. If you can, just switch to become a Berserker.’
“Hang on, there something weird with this scroll!” Hardworking Pants’ brows furrowed as he said, “Other than the energy-absorbing runes, there seem to be other knacks. Let me have a look… This, isn’t this the energy shifting rune trail? 70% of our absorbed energy will be teleported into a black hole and this black hole’s coordinates… here, what the f*ck!? It must be heading to the final Boss’s body! What the f*ck!? This Boss is tricking us!”
Lin Jie was surprised. There was something like that? He then pondered, ‘The Demon of Destruction seemed to have a skill where it was capable of summoning a temporary clone to fight. No wonder, because theoretically, the clone would not be able to do this under normal circumstances once it was destroyed. The Boss lured us to absorb the totem’s energy with a Frost Marble so that it could get back 70% of its energy to reform a clone.’
After thinking everything through, Lin Jie sneered—it seemed like this Boss was rather scheming. If his team didn’t have a Rune Master like Hardworking Pants, they would have fallen for that trick. Although producing another clone would not lead to their failure or deaths, they would have to spend a whole load of effort and time on it.
“Pants, do you have a solution?”
“Of course! I just have to re-pattern the rune trails, something that’s not hard for an expert like me. This is an ancient rune as well, so it will be of use to me.” Hardworking Pants took out his rune-carving knife and went straight to work as the strand of rune trials separated from the scroll and were reapplied again after arranging.
Ten minutes later, the scroll transformation was done, and a hidden black hole appeared in the middle of the rune trails.
“All done! An ovation, please.” Hardworking Pants smiled.
“Well done, Pants.” Netherblue clapped cooperatively.
“Really? If you give me more time, I can improve it further,” Hardworking Pants said energetically.
“Alright, alright, Pants, you are already very powerful. Let’s start now.” Lin Jie interrupted, and everyone got into place and activated the Combination Scroll.
The Warrior’s Blood Vigor, Power Vigor, Ascetic Priest’s Holy Light, and the Shadow Priest’s Cursed Power coagulated into a huge pitch-black palm with an eye in the middle. After it was formed, a tremendous absorption power followed suit!
The Abyss Totem’s power was being absorbed in a crazy rate as it deflated and fell onto the ground like a normal piece of wood.
The only thing left behind was pure energy! This energy seemed to be harboring life, which was trying to break through the barriers and escape!
Suddenly, Hardworking Pants exclaimed, “This is the power that’s sufficient for creating a clone! Leader Lone Wolf, accept its resistance and form a clone!”
“A clone?” Lin Jie was stunned.
After scuttling around for a while, the ball of energy seemed to have found its master as it hurtled towards Lin Jie and brought along a gust of rotten smell!
