Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 67 The Dungeon (Part 1)

Ye Ci eyed the elementals.

Flawless Reflection and another Hunter called An Apple A Day nodded, “Yes.”

“Go and attract the aggro of those mobs. If you can’t handle them, activate Feigned Death.” Ordered Ye Ci. She then began to instruct the rest of the party to began preparations for battle and headed towards the elementals alone.

After Ye Ci left, An Apple A Day whispered to Flawless Reflection, “Trying to hold the aggro of the mobs as a Huntress... I thought it was really hard to control the aggro for our class? Hunters only have Decoy to redirect aggro, how is she planning to pull it off?”

Flawless Reflection did not understand Ye Ci’s intention either. He shook his head, “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Ye Ci crept carefully to a small hill 50 yards away from the elementals. She grabbed hold of the low hanging vines and climbed upwards. She stood at the top of the hill, nocked an arrow and took aim, silently estimating the distance between her and the elementals.

They were closely packed together. Each elemental was only 2-3 yards away from the others. There was a thin line separating a safe distance and a fatal one.

If the elementals were 2 yards apart, their aggro would be linked once triggered. But when an elemental was 3 yards away from another elemental, their actions wouldn’t be linked. It was a very clever design.

As the queen of soloing dungeons in her past life, Ye Ci required no aiming assistance. Her eyes were her most trustworthy tool.

There were once a lot of buildings in Frosty Wasteland. After thousands of years of decay, some became nothing but soil, while some formed into little hills like the one that Ye Ci was on. Hordes of monsters scoured the spaces between buildings. A party that was not familiar with the terrain would easily be annihilated.

Ye Ci’s position was the best position she had found in her past life’s experience of soloing the dungeon. She would only trigger 5 monsters at most from her position. If she was able to grasp the firing angle, timing and the distance perfectly, she would only trigger 2 monsters at a time.

Ye Ci nocked an arrow and waited quietly for the elementals to move to a position that favored her the most.

One minute passed, and then another.

Ye Ci stood as still as a statue on the hill, as if she had blended in as part of the dungeon. The players who were waiting below were so anxious that their hearts were already in their mouths. They stared at Ye Ci, not wanting to take their eyes off her, fearing that things would take a 180 degree turn if they took their eyes off her.

Flawless Reflection stared intently at Ye Ci as well. He was even very careful when he blinked, afraid that he would miss something.

Without warning, Ye Ci let loose the arrow and immediately headed back towards the group.

Did she hit? Or had she missed? Did she trigger an entire horde of them or only a few? Flawless Reaction’s anxiety was at its maximum as he asked, “How many are there? How do we handle them?”

“Get the tanks to do their jobs.” Ye Ci did not even turn her head as she calmly gave the instruction.

The tanks immediately got into position. 3 elementals appeared, baring their fangs at Ye Ci’s direction.

“Shield Bash.”

“Taunt.”

The tanks immediately engaged an elemental each, and the healers followed up.

The elites of a top guild were very different from the others. They knew what needed to be done even without instructions from Ye Ci. Their positioning was excellent, and their game awareness was good. It would be absurd for a party like this to not be successful.

Ye Ci then pulled the mobs in the same way, bit by bit. The horde of elementals were nothing but dead carcasses before long. After Flawless Reflection looted the carcasses, the Warlocks immediately swarmed all over the elementals carcasses for their elemental dust.

17 elementals yielded 2 Blue Equipment and a Green Equipment, all of them lvl 18 and above, which were perfect for the current stage of the game.

“Why is the drop rate in this place so high? Even the common mobs dropped Blue Equipments.” a Sorcerer player was surprised.

“This is the Nightmare difficulty. If only a BOSS dropped loot, then it would be an outright fraud.” Flawless Reflection was satisfied with the loot. Ye Ci had specifically asked to be given priority only on Hunter equipment. Although it was not beneficial for Flawless Reflection as an individual, he was a commander, it did not matter to him even if his equipment was slightly out of date. The most important thing was that the performance of the party was increased.

With Ye Ci’s help, they were able to clear all the obstacles they faced before reaching the first BOSS with zero casualties.

It was not because of Ye Ci’s talent alone. The experience of a party of veterans who had spent years playing together was on an entirely different level when compared to a guild like Steel-Blooded Battle Spear that had been formed for only 3 to 4 months.

“The first BOSS is an easy one.” Ye Ci smiled at the first BOSS, Liepi that was lying on the ground asleep, “Druid, transform and go and pull his aggro.”

“The BOSS deals magical damage?” Flawless Reflection was slightly surprised. This was the first time he came across a magical damage BOSS since the beginning of Fate.

“That’s right. The Druid must consume the Frost Resistance potion when the BOSS began chanting his spell. The ranged players do not have to consume any potions, but it is important that you guys do not stick together. You must take note that the BOSS will name a player randomly. The player who is named by the BOSS must immediately get at least 50 yards away from the BOSS or you’ll explode. This might lead to the annihilation of the entire party.” Ye Ci explained the strategy to defeat the BOSS briefly, “This first BOSS is easy. All you need to do is to stand still and fire away. It’s not as difficult to take care of as the monster back at the clock tower. Let’s do our best and take it out in one go.”

This was a 25-man Nightmare difficulty dungeon. But the players had this illusion that the BOSS was very easy to defeat because of Ye Ci.

The party was still annihilated once.

The Druid was too unlucky. Ye Ci had never seen the BOSS cast a “Freeze” spell immediately after the battle began. Before the Druid could even get near the BOSS, he was frozen solid by the BOSS’s skill and became a giant block of ice.

Although Ye Ci had given the order to retreat, 20-odd players still died as they were unable to react.

Because of that, the Druid cursed silently at the first BOSS. Maybe it was due to the Druid’s cursing, the BOSS was easily defeated on their second try. Despite that, there was still an incident where the Druid almost died to the BOSS because his magic resistance was slightly lower than expected, but was able to survive after being healed by the combined efforts of the Clerics in the party.

Even Ye Ci was slightly shaken when it happened.

Even with a slightly lower magic resistance, the Druid was like a beast. He was able to control the aggro of the BOSS perfectly. With the help of the Decoys from the Hunters who were present, the aggro of the BOSS was firmly held by the Druid.

After expending a lot of mana, the party was able to defeat the first BOSS within 40 minutes.

In the Nightmare difficulty dungeon where even the common mobs yielded equipment, the loot drop from the BOSS was not overly abundant. The first BOSS merely dropped 6 items: 4 weapons, 2 armor, 200-odd gold coins and nothing else.

One of the 4 weapons caught Ye Ci’s attention.

Liepi’s Hasty Crossbow

Crossbow

Blue Equipment

Attack speed: 0.7

Attack: 112-165

Strength: +57

Agility: +62

Balance: +71

Special Attribute: Attack speed +1, reload speed reduced by 0.5 seconds.

Special Attribute: 5% chance of stealing 1% of target’s hitpoints.

Special Attribute: Increases Armor Penetration value by 5.

Required class: Ranger, Rogue, Hunter.

The crossbow was one of the equipment with the lowest drop rate yielded by Liepi. Ye Ci had never come across this crossbow even after clearing the dungeons countless times. She had only seen a screenshot of the crossbow in the forums.

Ye Ci claimed the crossbow as her own without hesitation.

Although Flawless Reflection and An Apple A Day were also drooling over the Liepi’s Hasty Crossbow, they did not object to Ye Ci’s action due to their previous agreement. A sudden thought occurred to Ye Ci after she equipped the crossbow, “Let’s roll points and see if I can get it.”

“67.”

“81”

“7”

Ye Ci stared expressionlessly at the points that she had rolled. She was glad about the decision about asking for priorities over Hunter gears. (author’s note in the bracket, so it’s irrelevant.

The road ahead, however, was not so smooth. World Conqueror managed to defeat the second BOSS after getting annihilated a few times and had finally reached the third BOSS.

The third BOSS was a gigantic bird. According to the lore, it was the mistress of the dungeon that preys on adventurers who dared venture close to its lair. It was especially fierce, as it was about to lay eggs soon.

“The third BOSS has several skills. The first one is ‘Wing Flap’. It will continuously deal wind type damage to players in a 270 degree area. If you’re unlucky, you’ll be blown away. The second skill it has is ‘Spit’. Those who are hit by its saliva will be frozen. This is why you shouldn’t be stingy about consuming your potions. The tank must pull the BOSS around in circles. All the ranged players must be direction opposite of the tank and rotate around the BOSS according to the tank’s position. If you don’t move, you might be blown away if you’re unlucky enough.” Ye Ci was very satisfied with the party’s progress. She let out a satisfied laugh.

The party members, especially the Druid earlier on who had become the laughing stock of the party, laughed as well after listening to Ye Ci’s explanation.

“To all the Rogues, remember to go steal the eggs.” Ye Ci pointed at the huge nest not far away.