Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 61 The Beginning of the End

Ice covered everything as far as the eyes could see, transforming the depressing atmosphere of the dungeon into an enchanting scenery.

Ye Ci and a few ranged players were the only ones who survived the wave of frost, while the rest of the party were frozen solid. Their HP dropped rapidly under the effect of frost damage.

“Those Clerics who aren’t frozen, hurry up and heal!” shouted Little Dan, who had not expected something like this to happen.

The Cleric who previously casted a healing spell was already frozen solid. Cherry Blossom was the only healer left among those players who could still move. She was standing not far away from Ye Ci, and she immediately raised her staff and chanted a spell slowly after hearing the order from Little Dan. It was the Novice Mass Light Healing.

Ye Ci was very familiar with the spell. As a veteran Human Sorceress, she spent most of her time dealing with Clerics. She could tell the skill that a Cleric was releasing just by looking at the character’s action while casting the spell. But what surprised Ye Ci was the fact that Steel-Blooded Battle Spear managed to acquire a skillbook for that healing skill.

Novice Mass Light Healing: Randomly heals a small amount of health of 8 random teammates within a 20 yards radius of the caster. Casting time: 5 seconds, cooldown: 8 seconds

Most Clerics in the earlier stages of the game do not have any AOE healing spell. A mass healing spell is the deciding factor of a party’s survivability and endurance.

But it was not the case this time.

The problem here was that if Cherry Blossom casted any healing spell, she would be the next to get frozen, along with the players within a 15 yards radius of her position.

“Cherry, don’t heal…” Ye Ci immediately tried to stop her.

Little Dan exploded angrily, “Don’t tell me you’re just going to let them die? Gongzi You, where’s your team spirit? Don’t you know there’s a death penalty?”

Cherry Blossom looked at Ye Ci with doubt in her eyes, and the latter sent her a private message, “Drink a large health potion later.”

Cherry Blossom was alarmed. She understood that something bad would happen to her. As she was about to stop the incantation, Little Dan roared in anger, “Cherry, hurry up and heal them up!”

Her long term obedience kicked in and she continued casting the spell.

Knowing that it was impossible to stop Cherry Blossom from casting the spell, Ye Ci roughly calculated the distance between Cherry Blossom and herself and darted away. Cherry Blossom let out a surprised yelp just as Ye Ci stopped 15 yards away from her.

Just as expected, Cherry Blossom was frozen along with the players around her.

“Phew, that’s peculiar.” a lost gasp entered Ye Ci’s ears. She turned around, and noticed that a Rogue had also managed to escape the freeze’s area of effect.

Ye Ci was slightly surprised. She had not expected someone to have retreated away from the freeze’s area of effect. She did it out of her past life’s experience. So what caused the Rogue to have the same reaction? The Rogue grinned at her, “Heh, Gongzi You, we meet again.”

The person was an Undead Rogue with ashen skin and withered limbs. His sunken eye sockets hid his pitch-black eyes. The Rogue was able to catch up with Ye Ci despite his small build, meaning that he was a full-Agility Rogue.

Ye Ci initially felt that he was somewhat familiar-looking and realized that he was the only Rogue who have not left the party when she led the first squadron to secure the Automaton Formation First Five.

The Rogue’s name was Evil Winds. Ye Ci had not noticed anything out of the ordinary about the Rogue, but his performance a few moments ago was a surprise to Ye Ci. She responded with a smile of her own, “Well met indeed.”

Evil Winds chuckled and looked at Little Dan. His tone was as if he was telling Little Dan ‘this has nothing to do with me’ as he asked, “Little Dan, are you guys going to leave the dungeon, or do you want the both of us to go die as well?”

Little Dan couldn’t help but felt depressed as he glanced at the two surviving players and sighed, “We’ll leave the dungeon. Help us pick up our equipment.”

“Sure, y’all can go rest in peace now.” Evil Winds let out another chuckle.

There was nothing wrong with the sentence itself. But it brought out different feelings for different audiences. For those who were frozen, they almost coughed up blood. As for Ye Ci, it was as if he was taking joy in the misfortunes of the other party members.

But truth to be told, watching silently while the rest of the party slowly got annihilated was something quite wonderful, especially when numbers signifying the loss of their HP floated on their heads constantly.

Within 20 seconds, 23 of the party members who were frozen vanished into flashes of white light and left the dungeon.

Evil Winds spoke up just at that moment, “Gongzi, how are we going to retrieve all o’ that equipment?”

Ye Ci remained silent. She turned around and looked at Evil Winds, who laughed, “I think they must’ve stepped on some sorta OP trap. But I noticed that you were being very cautious as you moved about. I thought you’ve had something figured out.”

“It’s nothing, I’ve merely picked a safe path that was already taken by somebody else.” Ye Ci nodded. The Rogue was good. Even if his mechanical skills failed to leave an impression on Ye Ci, his perception of the situation was excellent.

Evil Winds did not doubt Ye Ci’s words. He nodded at her and said, “I’ll go retrieve the equipment.”

“I’ll go.”

Evil Winds smiled and shook his head, “You’re obviously the better among the both of us. If I die, you can still clean up my mess. However if you fail, I don’t think I’d have the ability to pull it off. So I’ll go.” he stood up and moved towards the closest piece of equipment.

Ye Ci did not reject his offer, and paid close attention to his movements.

Rogues have the highest Perception among all of the classes, just like how Hunters have the highest Balance.

A heightened Perception allows Rogues who were usually soft targets to detect danger and allows them to be more aware of their surroundings. Whenever Evil Winds took a step forward, he would turn his head around and observe his surrounding carefully. He was using his Racial Trait, Detect Danger.

Under such circumstances, Evil Winds was able to safely retrieve every single piece of equipment and walk away safely.

Before he could sit down and rest, footsteps could be heard in the area. It was the players who had revived themselves and they were led by Thousand Sunsets. After Evil Winds returned the items to his comrades, Little Dan spoke up, “Are you the one who retrieved all the items?”

Evil Winds did not deny it, and Little Dan continued after a slight pause, “You take point. Lead the way with your Racial Trait. I want the rest of you to follow him closely.”

Evil Winds hesitated before nodding in confirmation, “Alright.”

The party members replenished themselves, repaired their equipment, casted BUFFs on themselves, and were ready to move out.

Ye Ci furrowed her eyebrows. Having Evil Winds lead the way did not solve the root of their problems.

And it was just the first problem they would face in the Frosty Wasteland.

Frosty Wasteland was a “very easy” dungeon according to Fate officials. But were their words right or wrong? There was no definite answer. It depended wholly on the definition of “simple” and “difficult”.

It it was compared to the dungeons in the later stages of the game, Frosty Wasteland was of course child’s play. But at this period of time… The difficulty of the Frosty Wasteland was unprecedented.

Fate is a game that stressed heavily on teamwork. This teamwork was not limited to the average player. It also includes the teamwork between the normal players and the life players. And this stage of the dungeon was exactly one that is testing the capability of a life player’s culinary skill.

There was an invisible monster hidden not far away from the party’s position, and its biggest weakness was gluttony. Players must place a dish called “Fragrant Seafood” at a very specific location to trick the monster into showing itself. Upon appearance, it will cast an AOE spell that will annihilate any players within a 35 yards radius. The skill will activate an old clock tower not far away from the players.

Players must position themselves according to the clock hand or risk being frozen. As soon as somebody casted a spell on the player who was frozen, players within a 15 yards radius around the caster will in turn be frozen.

When the players reposition themselves, ranged players must focus all of their attacks on the invisible monster. If the damage output did not hit the requirement set by the system within a certain amount of time. The monster will release the same AOE skill when its HP hits 80%, 60%, 40%, and 20%. If the party was unable to dish out enough damage, the only thing that awaits them was annihilation.

But the monster was only an appetizer. In the face of the dungeon’s BOSS, it was very simple.

Evil Winds advanced slowly and carefully. He was able to sense a grave, unknown dangerous presence looming ahead, but was unable to find its exact location.

Perspiration formed on his forehead. He eventually stopped, and sent a private message to Ye Ci, “Gongzi, I can feel a dangerous presence ahead, but I can’t locate it.”

“Be careful and pay close attention to your surroundings and see if you can find any hints.” Ye Ci of course could not tell him that there was an invisible monster resting not 30 yards away from him.

Evil Winds listened intently and heard a soft voice. He took a step forward reflectively and heard the system announcement, “You have been frozen by the Wasteland’s ice…”

A crippling pain crept up his body along his legs, and Evil Winds felt panic rising in his heart…

Here’s your Monday chapter. Same old thing, if you wanna support ROTH on Patreon, here’s the link:

https://www.patreon.com/Jimminx

But ayy, I see 4 people ubsubscribing from my Patreon, guess they hate the “shameless message” and my on point punctuality T__T

Anyways, here’s the chapter, Imma go indulge myself in a game of Civilization V