MMORPG: The Elementalist

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Sh*t!

Qin Ruo's momentum was abruptly ceased. The collapse of his Darkfrost Shield had greatly shaken him. If not because of his Angelic Wings, he might have already crashed to the ground due to the sudden impact and fallen right into spectral crowd down in the corridor. He could not bear to imagine the consequences of an Elementalist like him being surrounded by herds of Cerberus and Tier 5 or 6 Phantom Skeletons without his Darkfrost Shield's protection.

"Darn it!"

He flapped his Angelic Wings to the front repeatedly and flew in reverse to immediately escape the Darkspirit Archer's range of attack before it launched its second round of offense.

Apparently, the Darkspirit Archer possessed high intelligence and wit. As soon as Qin Ruo retreated beyond its range, the monster immediately put down its bow and turned to follow him in a dark flash.

Luckily for Qin Ruo, there was a great number of specters flocking the long corridor. Despite moving faster than Qin Ruo's Angelic Wings, the Darkspirit Archer was forced to take a longer path as specters kept popping up in its way. In the end, Qin Ruo managed to pull away and get some breathing room to reinstate his Darkfrost Shield.

***

Qin Ruo was a little relieved after he reactivated his Darkfrost Shield and saw that the Darkspirit Archer had stopped pursuing him. The monster stopped in its tracks a hundred meters away.

'That was effing close!'

He had underestimated the Darkspirit Archer. The creature had to at least be a Level 55 Elite Miniboss.

The three dark rays of light earlier were arrow skills with pure physical damage, which was most feared by Elementalists. The attack exploited the low Physical Defense weakness of the Elementalist Class and could instantly result in a shield-breaking effect upon impact.

Qin Ruo was perplexed as he locked on the Darkspirit Archer on the other end. The fresh sense of fear lingered in his mind.

Theoretically, he was able to detect Boss-Tier monsters of such caliber as soon as they entered his perception range. While the Darkspirit Archer just now, though different from the other normal specters, was not too outstanding, at least not until it suddenly turned aggressive and assaulted him from afar.

'This is bad! This Boss knows how to hide its scent?'

All of a sudden, Qin Ruo realized that he had lost his target while he was occupied with his thoughts. The Darkspirit Archer that was still at the corner of his eyes a moment ago vanished into the spectral crowd, where all of them looked more or less the same from afar.

"Huh?" Qin Ruo, baffled by the sudden disappearance, flapped his Angelic Wings and slightly elevated his altitude to get closer to the ceiling. He scanned the crowd carefully from his vantage point and frowned as he failed to locate the Darkspirit Archer amongst the identical skeletons in his surroundings.

"Stealth?" Qin Ruo murmured. 'Not only does it know how to hide its scent, but it can literally go off the radar?' He was astonished and had a vague feeling that this was how the Darkspirit Archer got him the first time.

However, his postulation needed confirmation.

He looked at the dense amount of Cerberus and Skeleton heads that began to gather below him and suddenly had an idea…

'If remember correctly, Tier 5 AoE Attack Spells can be used to dispel Stealth Effect across an extremely far radius.'

***

The Buried City.

At one of the corners around the underground maze…

Two players who had their Angelic Wings spread out were quickly skimming through the long corridors, one after another. Both of them appeared to be very familiar with the routes and did not pay much attention to the environment. They chatted as they leisurely deflected spells cast by the specters swamping below them.

The two players were none other than Majestic Hero and Black God, who had entered the underground maze more than ten minutes before Qin Ruo.

Majestic Hero stayed in front of the formation and sustained most of the firepower from the bottom. However, he was not bothered by it and continued to flap his Angelic Wings energetically.

Black God's equipment were slightly weaker than Majestic Hero's, so he was happy to stay at the back. He felt less pressured, thus he got a better observation of the condition down in the corridor. He frowned and mumbled in a low voice, "That's odd."

"What's wrong?" Majestic Hero turned and looked at him.

Black God was not joking around with Majestic Hero. With a serious face, he shook his head and asked the latter, "Don't you find the specters in the long corridor a little weird?"

Black God further explained when he noticed that Majestic Hero did not answer him, "Darius told us that the two players from Netherspirit's Claw came in more than one hour ago. Why are the specters here still spawning, one group after another? It's as if someone just cleared passed by and cleared the path."

"Oh?"

Majestic Hero looked down. "There are no more than fifteen players who've fused with the Divinity in the entire Angel Faction. Even Netherspirit's Claw only has two. Since those two who've entered before us don't have Angelic Wings, they wouldn't have been able to proceed fast. So it's not weird for them to have just passed through this area, right?"

"On the contrary, that's exactly why I find it abnormal." Black God glared at Majestic Hero. "They don't have Angelic Wing, so by right, they shouldn't be able to dispose of all the specters and the Cerberus present in this tunnel."

Majestic Hero grew silent.

Black God almost crashed into Majestic Hero who slowed down unexpectedly. Black God cursed and protested, "Bastard, even if you're a League Master, please give me a heads up when you want to brake."

Despite the complaint, Black God did not really mind. More importantly, he knew that Majestic Hero finally understood his concern. They hovered side by side to examine the spectral troops distributed in front of them.

Majestic Hero found the unusual circumstance rather odd too.

'Black God's right. Since the two Netherspirit's Claw members don't have Divinity, they won't have Angelic Wing and can only advance by foot. Judging by the speed of an Elementalist, it's impossible for them to escape the Cerberus and Skeleton Warriors' pursuit.'

If they could not escape, the only way through would be to eliminate the monsters.

However, if the two Tier 5 Elementalists from Netherspirit's Claw had forced their way through the middle, why did the respawned specters line up so uniformly at the intersection of each turning point? 'It doesn't add up…'

A few seconds later, Majestic Hero turned his head and shrugged. "I guess there are more than four of us inside this tunnel then."

That was exactly what Black God had hypothesized, but he found the fact tough to digest. He initially thought his and Majestic Hero's arrival was already a "big gift" to the two former participants from Netherspirit's Claw…

To his surprise, someone else was just as insane and opted to continue with the mission even after the difficulty level was greatly enhanced due to the presence of the four players. 'Such guts…'

The new guy not only troubled them but also further jeopardized the two forerunners in front of them. They were probably on their way back and rushing towards them now.

Thinking back to the message delivered by Carefree earlier, Black God's lips curled into a sinister smile.

***

In the secret tunnel under the Buried City, every new intruder would double the number of specters flocking into the underground passage. That suggested more spectral monsters, more Bosses, and a higher difficulty!

The two Netherspirit's Claw members who reached the underground maze first approached the Secret Dungeon steadily on foot since they had yet to fuse with the Divinity.

Although it was not exactly a stroll in the park, they managed to advance through the mission safely thus far by having each other's back.

However, just as they prepared to gain access to the Secret Room and debated on how they were going to distract the Boss and get the Golden Key out, they suddenly received the bad news from Carefree Clan's League Master.

Two more players were ready to accept the mission from Darius' hand?!

They were immediately startled and asked Carefree to stop the two players from talking to Darius and accepting the Story Mission.

They had already reached the final stage of the mission. If the difficulty level was increased right then, not only would failure be certain, even their own safety would no longer be guaranteed. The system would immediately update the Boss and monsters to match the new amount of players. The long corridor that they had just cleared up would soon be swamped by new specters too. The two Tier 5 Spectral Bosses that they worked so hard to defeat would reappear as well.

Fortunately, the two players were kind enough to inform them earlier. It would have been a nightmare if they had just barged in without courtesy.

Sadly, Carefree returned with a merciless reply from Black God. "If you can hold on, stay put. If not, leave the dungeon at once." (Carefree kindly changed Black God's original words of "Get the hell out of here" to "Leave the dungeon")

The two Netherspirit's Claw players inquired carefully seeing that the newcomers rejected them so blatantly. Their true identities rendered them speechless. One was the big boss of the Hall of Heroes League, while the other was the Clan Leader of Black Jail Clan. Though the latter only had five hundred underlings, and the scale of his Clan could not be compared with that of a League, in the recent week, the ten Field Commanders under him had all advanced to Tier 5. The Clan now had twenty-one Tier 5 Champions, which made up a relatively high ratio of 4% out of the total Clan member count.

If it had been a few days ago, they would not have taken Black God too seriously. But now, the situation had changed since every day someone in the Black Jail Clan would advance to Tier 5. Every. Single. Day!

That made the Black Jail Clan and Black God the hottest topic in town at the moment. Its fame also quietly surpassed those subsidiary Clans under the twelve main Leagues.

Someone in the forum even claimed that if Black God was willing to lower the entrance requirement, the Black Jail Clan could definitely recruit 10,000 max Tier 4 Players in one day and become the fourth greatest force in the Angel Faction right behind the Three Great Leagues.

Others reckoned that even Netherclaw did not have enough influence to forcefully chase away Black God and Majestic Hero from joining the mission. Their time was just as valuable as the others.

***

Dejected, the two Netherspirit's Claw members rationally decided to retreat and turn back to meet up with Black God and Majestic Hero. Since they had all left their Soul Imprint on the same peak, they would certainly be in constant contact in the future. To prevent the same thing as today from happening again, it would be best to get in touch and befriend the two influential personnel.

As they fended off specters and retreated through the way they came from, one of them suddenly stopped short and raised his head.

"Did you feel that?" the Elementalist asked the Warrior who was busy clearing out the creeps beside him.

"Feel what?"

"Element Fluctuation! It's a very powerful one! Must be a Tier 5 AoE Attack Spell!"