Chapter 132: Guardian (2)
Chapter 132: Guardian (2)
"Well at least the problem is gone now," Kon let out a sigh of relief whilst tiredly lying on the floor. "Where do you think they carried the king though?"
"I guess they took him back to the den or something like where those slimes live," Ethaniel shook his head as he sat down together with Frey by the side. "Where else would they take him?"
"I-If so... Wouldn't that mean the king would come back again?" Kon muttered out.
"No," From the right side of them, Reru replied. "By the time we finish resting and head to the Guardian, HukhtaThe king should still be exhausted. So we'll have time."
"...we'll have time?" Ethaniel raised his brow. "How long are we resting for then?"
"About five minutes."
"...five?" he blinked at Reru's statement. "That wouldn't be enough time for all my skills to come off cooldown."
"Five to rest, five to reach there, two to begin the battle. I say we'll have enough time," Reru seemed to be shrugging. "Now just keep quiet and rest."
"...bah," Ethaniel scoffed as his back leaned onto the wall. At the same time, he checked the statuses of his skills and regenerating health thanks to Shinto's [Soft Root Heal].
Whilst Ethaniel was doing so, Shinto, who was together with Kon did the same thing. However, instead of checking his own status window, he instead turned to look at Kon's.
[ Shadow Minion's Profile ]
Name: Kon (NPC)
Race: Shade's Race
Level: 26
Class: Shadow Fox
-Class Attribute-
The Shadow of the Fox, one who offered themselves to serve the Shadow Diviner.
*When the class [ Shadow Fox ] is partied together with the class [ Shadow Diviner ], certain bonuses will be attained: +20% Damage Increase / +10% Movement Speed / +5% INT. (Effect only applies to the Shadow Fox when the Shadow Diviner or the Shadow Fox manually adds them to the party.)
-Titles-
[Shadow of The Fox]
*INT +20 / AGI +15 / WIS +5 when in the near vicinity of the Shadow Diviner.
*INT +15 / Damage is increased by 5% when in the near vicinity of any of Shadow Diviner's allies or servants. (Effect does not stack.)
-Stats-
HP: 459/828 | MP: 1167/1167 (+15)
Strength: 26 | Stamina: 56
Intelligence: 141 (+40) | Agility: 81 (+15)
Wisdom: 6 (+5)
-Skills/Passives-
*[Orbal Shadow Lv 1]
*[Quick Flame Lv 1]
*[Shadow Play Lv 1]
*[Undying Live Lv 1]
*[Camouflage Lv 1]
...
Upon scrutinizing the details of Kon, he nodded his head. "Seven levels behind mine... Well, that's a gap that can't be fixed anytime soon."
Why couldn't Kon catch up with the levels of the group? It was simply due to the consistent gain of experience among everyone. So long as Shinto and the rest were gaining experience, Kon would too. Thus, there was no way to catch up unless Kon goes out of his way to solo level. However, that wasn't an option at the moment.
With the fight that had happened sequentially, Shinto had raised his level by four from 29. Thus, bringing him up to level 33. Meanwhile, Ethaniel and Frey were both a little over level 34 from a glance at the party list.
"...hmm, at the level we're at... Would it be possible to defeat Sanke?" Shinto thought to himself as he imagined the fight with the man whose known power is of necromancy and curses.
Without the help of Frey, Kon, Reru and Rustly who all would be susceptible to the curse, he was just left with Ethaniel and Raina. "...just a three versus countless amounts of enemies fight, huh?"
Shinto feared that, if a case of what had happened earlier, [Partial Resistance]came to fruit during the fight with Sanke, it meant that the firepower of the group would greatly decrease. Even when taking into account Raina's skill: [Flames of Etheral], just her alone realistically wouldn't be powerful enough to defeat Sanke at her level of 27.
The end result with partial resistance, or possibly no resistance at all meant that it would be a team wipe-out on his side.
"...sigh," he shook his head helplessly. "The status effects that Sanke would give when meeting him is still unknown... But, from the necklace's details, it seems it'll go to that route?" With his line of thought, Shinto turned his head over towards Ethaniel as he requested the necklace from him.
"...?" Noting that Shinto was tapping on his back, Ethaniel turned around as he saw his gesture. With a sigh, he took out the necklace and gave it to him. "What do you want to discuss with those slimes?"
"Nah, I'm not discussing anything. I just want to check what kind of curse and status we'll be facing," Shinto stated as he scrutinized the details of the passive: [ Sanke's Curse ] on the necklace.
[ Sanke's Curse Lv MAX ]
The curse of Sanke prevails this item. All its stats have been lowered and whoever dons the item; will receive the effects of [Sanke's Curse]: Damage is decreased by 15%, Damage Taken is increased by 30%, Fear RES is decreased by 500%, Sanke's Mind Control is Susceptible.
*As this is a max level curse, only high levelled purification magic can cleanse this curse.
...
"Damage is decreased, damage taken is increased, Fear and Mind control..." he muttered out whilst confirming the details. "Sigh. This is going to be a pain to face."
"What?" Ethaniel raised his brow. "Aren't you immune to curses, too?"
"...well I am, but, I fear we might get partial resistance or something during the fight," he uttered out. "That was my main concern throughout the fight with the rat king since we received it."
"...partial resistance?" Ethaniel blinked at Shinto's words. "What do you mean?"
"...huh?" Shinto dumbfoundedly stared at Ethaniel. "You know... Partial resistance as in, half of the status of the boss will be taken effect on us?"
"..." Ethaniel glared at Shinto as he soon shook his head. "Never got that. I told you, I'm immune to curses, and most of the bosses status counts as under that category."
"Cough..." Shinto let out a cough at Ethaniel's statement. "If so... Then what about Status Ailments?"
"The only resistance to that I have is slow," he shrugged. "Though I wished that I could get resistance to poison too, that was damn annoying..."
"...could I have the exact wording of the resistance?" Shinto raised his brow.
"...sigh," Ethaniel sighed at Shinto as he quickly turned to his opened status window. In the next moment, he repeated the words from it. "As someone under the guise of judgement, curses of those judged as evil do not work well on you."
"...curses of those judged as evil..." Shinto muttered out as he compared with the description of his class attribute.
-Class Attribute-
...
*As a diviner between light and shadow, abnormal status conditions do not work well on you.
...
"Abnormal status conditions..." He stared at his screen confusingly. "Then what could've caused such a thing to happen?"
From experience, Shinto knew that 'abnormal status conditions' meant anything from status ailments to debuffs would fall under this category. Yet. He only partially resisted the status of the king and, at one point, the partial resistance turned into no resistance.
"The wording of 'do not work well on you'... could it be because of that?" His thoughts continued. "Maybe it's the case of statuses between people."
The debuff effects that a boss like Refrinz, Shivuliz and Fischier gives falls under the category of 'status'. They serve as an aura, in which, the more prestigious one's aura is, the more powerful the effect would be.
Currently in the game, however, there was no way to resist such effects unless through cases like Shinto's class attribute.
"...if it really is... Then, how do you raise one's status?" Shinto pondered. The only similar things that he could relate to is the continental reputation that is given out to the player when world-view quests are completed or titles. "...when I was playing the game as a swordsman... I don't recall any changes to my status..."
During all the boss fights that he had encountered, he had been susceptible to all of its debuff effects. Granted, they were all higher level than his own. Though, that was the standard in the game.
"...sigh. Thinking about this gets me nowhere," Shinto shook his head. "I'll just assume this thing is based on the status of a being and that, to resist them, you have to be of higher status."
"...hey. Are you done looking at your screen, yet?" Ethaniel impatiently frowned at Shinto.
"Huh?" Upon hearing Ethaniel's voice, his eyes averted over towards him. "Is something the matter?"
"...Reru seems to be screaming at me. It's been five minutes and it seems we have to go," he sighed.
"Right..." Shinto coughed as he stood up from the ground whilst bringing up Kon onto his shoulder. "Then, let's go."
"...ugh, you humans! Are you finally done?" Reru clicked his tongue. "If so, good. Let's hurry. Fighting the guardian might take much longer than normal fights since it's an endurance battle."
"How long?" Shinto asked.
"30 minutes. Well, if your damage is shit, then an hour."