Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 50 Armored Giant Tortoise

It was easy to have dreams. But in the face of a real challenge, dreams may not be that easy to achieve.

Ye Ci sat at the edge of the hot spring, staring at the Armored Giant Tortoise. She was considering strategy after strategy in order to defeat the BOSS.

Armored Giant Tortoise, lvl 40. It was known for its tough hide and an unprecedented amount of HP. Along with its incredibly hard shell, its defense was not something that one could underestimate. When angered, the BOSS will breath out a thick layer of mist. Players affected by the mist will have their lowered speed and take continuous frost damage. This frost damage will slowly chip away at a player’s HP. An even more absurd trait of this BOSS was that it will dive in the water to hunt for fishes to heal itself.

With its tremendous amount of HP and its self-heal ability, the Armored Giant Tortoise could be called overpowered.

Despite that, when the average player level reaches lvl 40, hordes of players would still challenge the BOSS. This was because they wanted to obtain a shield with absolutely broken stats that would be dropped by the BOSS. This shield could be used by a Warrior or a Knight until they reach lvl 80.

According to Ye Ci’s experience in her past life, Winter’s Hotspring was one of the most popular maps in the Eastern Continent. The place was basically a second home for Warrior and Knight players. The spawn points of the Armored Giant Tortoise was always crowded by players.

Even back then, only 15 of those shields were dropped in the span of 10 years. The drop rate of the shield could only be said to be ridiculously low.

Although she had no interest in the shield, Ye Ci was still tempted to try and defeat the BOSS. A Wild BOSS such as this would usually drop skill books and was also a chance for players to discover Epic Quests. Of course, one of the most crucial reasons for her desire to slay the BOSS was the 4 Talent Points rewarded for drawing First Blood on Wild BOSSes that were lvl 30 and above.

These 4 Talent Points were very crucial for Ye Ci.

Ye Ci circled the Armored Giant Tortoise, trying to figure out its weak points. Its movements were slow, a perfect victim to kite. But with Ye Ci’s current stats, it’s level and defense were far too high. She would not be able to break through its defense. This meant that she could not dish out much damage to the BOSS.

The creature was covered by a thick shell as tough as iron walls on all sides. But this did not mean that there was nothing Ye Ci could do.

The Armored Giant Tortoise has two weaknesses.

One weakness was at its neck, while the other was at its tail. These two spots were not covered by its armor. Instead, they were covered by a layer of very thin skin. Even at lvl 20, Ye Ci could deal a high amount of damage to the BOSS if she was able to hit those 2 spots.

But how?

After pondering a bit, Ye Ci gave up on attacking the neck. Although it was the easiest spot to hit and could even potentially damage the Armored Giant Tortoise’s heart, Ye Ci had to position herself near its head to pull that off. Despite having a slow speed, the BOSS had rows of sharp teeth that Ye Ci was particularly wary of. With her level, she’d die instantly if she got bitten.

The only place left was the spot on the tail was… Also known as… The ‘ass’ …

Ye Ci looked up atthe sky and prepared herself mentally. As long as she was able to defeat this monster, she was willing to try anything.

Ye Ci gave up on attacking from a distance after taking their level differences into account. Besides, the weak spot was too small for her to hit accurately. Instead, she chose to use her Venomous Scorpion Stinger for melee attacks.

Attacks delivered by the Venomous Scorpion Stinger had a chance of poisoning its target. Once poisoned, the target will continuously receive poison damage that ignored level differences.

Ye Ci walked up to the Armored Giant Tortoise and planted a Frost Trap. She then backed off and fired an arrow at the monster.

The arrow hit the Armored Giant Tortoise that was still sleeping. It opened its eyes and studied its surroundings, looking for whoever or whatever that had dared to disturbed its nap time. It saw Ye Ci and let out an angry roar. The BOSS began to ‘charge’ towards Ye Ci at the ‘speed of light’.

It took two steps forward, stepping on the Frost Trap planted by Ye Ci earlier. The BOSS was instantly frozen. Ye Ci ran towards the back of the big block of ice, resisting the urge of taking a selfie with the biggest block of ice she had ever created.

Ye Ci dashed to the location of the Armored Giant Tortoise’s tail and stabbed its backside repeatedly.

—781

—311

—345

Damage values floated in Ye Ci’s vision, along with a poisoned indicator that showed that the BOSS was poisoned. The ice entrapping the Armored Giant Tortoise immediately disintegrated. It roared and attempted to turn around to attack Ye Ci. However, she immediately released Ol’ Three to attract the aggro. She leaped away, spun around in midair, and shot an arrow aimed at the base of the Tortoise’s neck.

—511

The attack triggered another poison attack, which stacked with the previous one.

The arrow damaged the Armored Giant Tortoise. It released the near-dead Ol’ Three and charged towards Ye Ci, who kited the BOSS in circles with Ol’ Three attacking its tail.

The entire situation was somewhat comical.

Ye Ci’s strategy was simple. That was the only thing she could come up with against a BOSS that had no known BUG. She put a distance between the BOSS and herself, then planted a Frost Trap whenever it was off CD. The BOSS would then get frozen and she would repeat the process of attacking its backside again and again as she had previously done.

Slowly, the HP of the Armored Giant Tortoise dropped. It was only a matter of time before it was defeated.

It took Ye Ci almost 8 hours to chip away the HP of the Armored Giant Tortoise to 8% of its HP left. If she could hold on for another half an hour, Ye Ci would be able to defeat the Armored Giant Tortoise.

However, at that moment, Ye Ci felt a presence 10 meters away from her. In a flash, that feeling once again appeared directly behind her. She subconsciously shifted her body and heard a system notification chiming in, “You’ve sucessfully avoided an attack from Lazy Blue.”

Lazy Blue was an Orcish Rogue. When he cast Staggering Blow on Ye Ci, he would be forced out of Stealth. He was surprised that his attack missed. He hesitated briefly, which was enough time for Ye Ci to dart away and put up some distance between them.

In combat, a player could not enter Stealth. The first thing the Rogue did after noticing Ye Ci’s disappearance was to look around to locate her. The moment the Rogue caught sight of Ye Ci, two arrows buried themselves into his body, almost taking away his life. He immediately drank a health potion and retreated.

Ye Ci did not know the Rogue, nor could she possibly have any grudges with him. The only possible reason for him to appear at this place and time was for the Armored Giant Tortoise. They must’ve been hiding for a long time, awaiting the right moment to strike as Ye Ci tired herself out.

But if the Rogue was here for the Armored Giant Tortoise, why would he retreat immediately after getting hit by two arrows? What if…

Ye Ci’s heart sank as the HP of the Rogue was filled up immediately.

A Cleric was nearby.

In a fight against a Wild BOSS, there would be more players than merely a Cleric and a Rogue.

As expected, three more players appeared. One of them was a Human Warrior, an Undead Sorcerer and a Human Cleric. She narrowed her eyes, and began formulating a strategy.

The Warrior used Charge on Ye Ci as soon as he spotted her.

A Warrior’s Charge was very different from the Charge skill possessed by Ye Ci’s boots. The active skill carried by Ye Ci’s boots was solely for escape. A Warrior’s charge would stun its target if the skill hit.

What is the deciding factor in a PK?

A player’s adaptability and the player’s ability to predict his or her enemy’s movements.

Ye Ci had expected a Charge from the Warrior. She immediately dismissed Ol’ Three and the Armored Giant Tortoise immediately made its way towards Ye Ci. She released a Decoy with the Warrior as the intended substitute. With a roar, the Armored Giant Tortoise changed its course towards the warrior.

Ye Ci placed herself at the position where the Armored Giant Tortoise and the Warrior would collide. The success of her strategy depended on being at the correct place at the correct time and…

The moment the Warrior and the Armored Giant Tortoise collided, Ye Ci immediately activated Feigned Death.

Her body fell onto the ground like a ragged doll, just like a real corpse.

Everything happened so fast that nobody was able to notice anything peculiar. The Warrior was the only one who witnessed Ye Ci’s supposed death.

He was distracted by the sudden drop of his HP and was alarmed. He immediately associated the gigantic tortoise in front of him with the sudden damage he received.

“This guy’s damage is just crazy! Hurry! Heal me!” with Ye Ci feigning death, along with the use of Decoy which transferred all her aggro towards the Warrior, the poor Warrior became the focus of the BOSS’s attention. Even with his tough defenses, a lvl 20 Warrior could never withstand the attacks from a lvl 40 Wild BOSS. This was why he had shouted out in panic…

I hope you guys enjoy the chapter!

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