Chapter 368 Preparation and the Second Venture
Once the Iron Commandment adjusted its tactics, the Players soon found that aside from the teapot automatons, several new automatons that were basically mobile cylindrical cages resembling an octopus showed up.
When he first saw them, Edward thought that his group was being insulted—how could anything moving so slowly and carefreely capture the Players?
Still, Iron Commandment soon proved that it could through action!
And there was nothing especially mysterious or profound about it either: the cages and the teapots were simply relying on numbers.
Once caught by the cage automatons, the captive would be continuously tormented by some nonlethal magical beam. The split second of pain would prevent the captive from praying, casting spells or sacred arts, hence achieving the objective of restraining them.
And Edward’s group learned that firsthand thanks to Joe being caught when he let down his guard.
Moreover, Princess Leah noticed the gimmick of this floor as they fought
“The teapots that can’t fight or move would melt into silver liquid that the floorboards absorb, which then create new ones endlessly!”
To most people in this world, such a function that retrieves ally corpses and relentlessly create new units was definitely endlessly troublesome.
But that was not the case for the Players
“We can’t stun them all at once. We have to focus our damage and kill them one by one!” Leah then yelled.
And that was certainly true: by logic, the teapots that could not fight or move being recycled by the floor meant that the ones which the Players completely destroyed would be retrieved as well, keeping the enemies coming without end.
But only the Players were different in that respect. The monsters they killed would be directly offered as sacrifices to Xi Wei, the God of Games!
And that is true even if they are in the Elven Synchronized Intellect Nation (SIN)!
Therefore, stunning flocks of teapots like Edward wouldn’t have much effect, and would instead allow the teapots to be melted down for material recycling. In comparison, using powerful single-target skills to take out their enemies one by one so that their corpse vanished immediately was the right choice.
Be that as it may, the battle had become attritional, and it was after fighting a long time that Edward realized that his side’s defeat was inevitable. Fighting on was therefore meaningless since they could not turn the tables with their current strength.
“Retreat!” Edward ordered determinedly at that.
“Give up. There is no escape…”
But even before Iron Commandment finished, the Players’ body turned into sparks and they simply vanished.
If Edward and the others could speak then, they would definitely have mocked the automaton loudly: We have town portals, silly!
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“So, you guys weren’t actually respawning.” Marni had run into Edward and the others at the spawn point, and could not help conveying his shame that they came out through teleport and not death.
“Though I’m a little upset by what you said, business comes first… how far have you guys gone in Dark Sky?” Edward asked Marni.
“We found a shining monster, but the enemies between the first stratum to the third stratum took too much of our time, and the buffs Miss Eleena gave us at the entrance was fading by then. Even if we could get down the monster’s throat, there is no getting past the melting tentacles-we’d just die on the way.” Marni said with unhappily.
The one in charge of snatching the key in Marni’s team was the Berserker Swordmaster, Zonyan Grayclaw.
While Berserker Swordmasters had more HP than Spirit Swordsmen if they were on the same level, their core skill ‘Grateful Dead’ burns through their HP, which left them more vulnerable than Spirit Swordsmen.
The reason Marni’s party chose Zonyan as their key snatcher was because the digestive fluids secreted inside the body of the shining monsters were extremely devastating. No Player would last long even if it wasn’t a Berserker Swordmaster, and most normal classes would not have the stats of a hidden-class like Warrior Princess.
On the other hand, although Berserker Swordmasters were weak, their vampiric skill buffs could stack. After weathering through the first round of attack at the entrance with Eleena’s buff, Zonyan would rush into the target’s body, activate Grateful Dead to caused significant damage inside. Then, he would use his vampiric support skill to heal his HP, healing through fighting and hence attempt to take the key.
While the idea was good, there were two problems with the actual implementation.
For one, the shining beasts were usually too far from the entrance of the Dark Sky Stratum, and Eleena’s buffs would be waning by the time a target was lured there.
Secondly, the damage Zonyan could inflict was not high enough that he could survive the digestive fluids, and he would melt apart halfway through…
“I see. I got the idea now.”
Edward nodded, and told Marni about his plan.
The latter appeared doubtful after considering it for a moment. “In other words, you want to have everyone clear Dark Sky as soon as possible?”
“That’s right. There are still four days until the event is over, and I’m ready to free a day to do what I can and help other players to clear Dark Sky.
“But what good is that?”
“It’s a strategy for Steel Earth,” Edward explained solemnly. “There are too many enemies down in the fourth stratum, and having just a few of us would never get it clear. That is why we need numbers to hold back the small fry, while we think of something to take out the enemy’s mastermind.”
“I see, so that’s what you’re going for.” Mani nodded and smiled in understanding. “That works. I certainly don’t mind, not to mention that we would have to fumble around Dark Sky for a long time if you don’t help us. There’s definitely no harm and all profits for us if we could get up to the fourth stratum.”
Hence, as Edward’s party went to work, more and more Players successfully cleared the trial of the Dark Sky Stratum, hence becoming an indisputable assisting force in the advance down to Steel Earth.
Thus, on the fourth day of the Elven SIN event, the Players made their final preparations under Edward’s instruction.
In the next split second, a group of over fifty Players simultaneously activated their Steel Earth Keys, arriving at the same time at the realm built entirely of metal.