MMORPG: The Elementalist

Xiaoxiao idea was indeed much more practical. In less than ten minutes’ time, rhythmic moving sounds began to echo continuously from the back of the long corridor, which sounded like an army troop that marching quickly toward Qin Ruo and his comrades.

However, there was something else within the echo that concerned the adventurers.

Besides Violetwing Venomspiders, one could also hear the distinctive flapping sounds of the Mannequin Spiders. Not only that, the vibration felt through the ground also came in different frequencies.

The sounds were consistent and uniform, yet in a little disarray.

Qin Ruo and Xiaoxiao initiated Tier 1 Water Elementalism without being ordered. Burning Rose, on the other hand, began to charge Meteor Shower.

Slayer’s Heart, Little Apple, and Brother Da grouped up with the three Pets—Earth Enchanted Spider, Poochie, and Ice Python—to guard the frontline, while Gold Digger Babe stayed back to protect the rear.

At the same time, buff after buff was swiftly cast onto everyone by Violet Orchid and Devilite. Defense, Attack, Resistance, Spirit, and all other attributes of the entire party were significantly boosted.

Everything was well prepared when the fourth wave of the spider army finally came into sight.

“…”

“This, this is…”

They could hardly believe what they saw. None of them could have ever expected that the fourth wave of attack would come in this form.

Gorefiend Spiders, Green Goblin Spiders, Chameleon Spiders, Violetwing Venomspiders, Mannequin Spiders, and Vampiric Spiders flooded into the area lit up by the Illuminating Crystal.

‘Shit! A mixed troops of terrestrial and flying spiders.’

The spider army was led by a Gorefiend Spider Demon. It has a three-meter length upper body that resembled a female. The monster stood proudly in front of the spider swamp and was the most outstanding as well as the most hideous of them all—its face was simply too horrible to look at.

Brother Da took a glance at the Gorefiend Demon Spider—a half-human-half-spider creature—and murmured to himself, “Luckily the Gorefiend Demon Spider is not an exhibitionist.”

***

Truth to be told, the strength of the fourth wave was a little underwhelming.

Although the assault launched by a mix of six different spider types seemed quite terrifying on the surface, it was not really that powerful in the eyes of Qin Ruo’s party. Initially, they had prepared themselves to face even more powerful foes, such as Tier 5 spiders that were stronger and quicker than the Mannequin Spider and Gorefiend Demon Spider.

Except for the Tier 4 Miniboss Gorefiend Demon Spider that was a little daunting, those spiders that trailed behind did not impact them as much, since their presence were not as horrifying as compared to the previous “tag-team” of Mannequin and Vampiric Spiders.

“The fourth wave should consist of four Bosses, and one of them is usually a Megaboss. Beware, everyone.”

“Little Qin, Rose, Xiaoxiao, open fire at full force!”

Tracing Slayer’s Heart’s voice command, the Gorefiend Demon Spider successfully located their whereabouts. With a roar, the marching spiders suddenly turned agitated. Soon, loud howls and hisses filled the entire long corridor. Spiders at the front of the charging army abruptly increased their moving frequency and dashed toward the nine human adventurers…

Hissss!

The nine of them did not even flinch as they had gotten used to such scale of attack.

Before this, they usually split into two groups to face the spider horde’s attack from two different ends. Now, eight main attackers of the party had grouped up to face the enemy in the same direction. Since this wave was not as powerful as the previous few, each one of them was full of confidence. When the monsters pushed forward within thirty-meter radius, even the weakest link of the three warriors, Brother Da, did not feel much pressure.

Thud! Thud thud!

As expected, the Mannequin Spiders were the first to attack… They acted faster than the leading Gorefiend Demon Spider.

Boom!

Twelve Frostramparts Formation activated!

“Meteor Shower!” Burning Rose growled softly. A large area of concentrated meteors immediately fell into the right side of the long corridor and landed on the face of those frontmost spiders.

“Million Arrow Sleet!” Xiaoxiao spell swiftly followed. The sleets overlapped and converged with Burning Rose raining meteors…

At the other end, Earth Enchanted Spider’s Stone Graveyard and Qin Ruo Million Arrow Sleet fell on the left-hand side of the corridor.

Among their attacks, Qin Ruo’s damage was naturally the highest. Under the effect of the Darkfrost Potion, his base damage was at least 900 and could reach as high as 1200 points.

In comparison, Burning Rose and Xiaoxiao’s Magic Attack was slightly lower than his. But when the two of them cooperated, the cumulative damage was higher than that of the total between Qin Ruo and Earth Enchanted Spider. This resulted in one spider being killed after every three seconds at the right-hand war zone. There, the Violetwing Venomspider and Mannequin Spider crashed to ground from midair, carrying numerous burnt marks and frost pierces.

Spiders which entered the area where all four AoE spells overlapped had the worst fate. The total damage inflicted by the four spells were stretched to three to four thousand HP every second. Even the Vampiric Spider with the highest HP among the monsters could not last for more than two seconds in there.

After only several seconds, the first group of spiders was completely annihilated. Now, only the centric Gorefiend Demon Spider was still trying to force through the Frostramparts Formation with much difficulty.

Deadly beams were released from the Demon Spider’s green eyes and hit the barrier beyond Qin Ruo’s body.

The Defense points of Qin Ruo’s Barrier only dropped a little, while his lost HP was quickly restored by Devilite.

The Gorefiend Demon Spider, on the hand, greatly displeased Poochie after its master was attacked. With one quick bash, the pitiful Miniboss was forcefully pushed by the Shadowfox into the Frostramparts Formation.

It lay right in front of the warriors who had nothing to do up to that point.

[Below is how three men ravaged an alien “lady” while carrying hideous grins on their faces.

… Several thousand words omitted…]

***

The level of difficulty of the fourth wave was unexpectedly low.

From the beginning of wave 4 till the end of the assault, the battle at the fourth cross junction only lasted not more than forty minutes.

Qin Ruo heaved a sigh of relief and sat down. He looked at the rewards that filled the entire ground of the corridor, ordered Poochie to come near, and relaxed his tensed mind by rubbing Poochie’s fluffy tail.

***

The fourth wave of spiders only came with two Gorefiend Demon Spiders and two Deathfiend Spiders, coupled with six troops of different spider types. They were annihilated in two batches without much suspense.

This was mostly thanks to Xiaoxiao brilliant strategy. They did not provide an opportunity for the four Minibosses to charge into the Twelve Frostramparts Formation at once. Or else, the battle would still pose a considerable risk to those human adventures when they had to face four Minibosses coming from two opposite directions at the same time.

After the battle, the ten of them did not feel relieved for long.

The group retrieved some of the rewards and left the uninteresting Violet, Blue, and White-tier equipment behind. Every one of them was thinking about the dark gold key while having a headache thinking about how huge this underground dungeon was, as well as how many more spider waves that they might have to face.

Besides that, they were also facing a serious problem. Most of their MP Potions had been depleted due to previous battles.

If they were to face two more waves of attack at such strength, they would soon exhaust all their supplies and could only warp back to town then. Until this point, the only mentionable loots were the Pet Egg of the Mannequin Spider and two Dark Gold equipment. In exchange, the party had used up four Great Tree Saps and one bottle of Darkfrost Potion.

None of them were willing to leave the dungeon in such state before the secret of the dark gold key was sorted. They did not wish to stop their search here and be sent out of the Aricus Ruins for the third time.

However, as a sensible Squad Leader, Slayer’s Heart understood that choosing to stay and continue the search in such condition might be too dangerous.

Furthermore, since the price of the Gorefiend Spider parts was beginning to rise, Slayer’s Heart reckoned that more and more players would start to take note of this secret dungeon.

They had been in the dungeon for close to three hours now, so there was a chance that other players might have entered the dungeon during this period too. This was actually Slayer’s Heart biggest concern. Previously, the difficulty of the dungeon was upgraded because two parties entered this secret place at the same time. That time, they were greeted by the Earth Enchanted Spider (Tier 4 Elite Boss) right at the second wave. If a new party entered the scene right now, the next spider horde of a higher tier inside the dungeon might respawn immediately.

If that happens, the party would be trapped in an even tougher situation and would not be able to escape.

Slayer’s Heart sighed heavily. “I am not going to make the call this time. Let’s vote?” Slayer’s Heart raised his head and looked at his comrades. “Continue or retreat? Should we come back tomorrow?”

Qin Ruo and Violet Orchid said nothing. Both of them were wearing a full set of Dark Gold equipment and thus, they had a higher chance of survival than the others. They could easily withstand ten seconds of attack and forcefully go offline in a dire situation (in which they would reappear in Savis Town when reconnected).

Seeing their eyes directed to them, Brother Da said hesitantly, “Uh… Can I give up my vote? I will just follow the majority.”

Little Apple was once again defeated by her apprentice. She rolled her eyes and said, “Let us move on. There are not many parts left. We won’t know how many days we will have to wait until our next entry. If someone beats us to the Buried City, then it will be such a huge loss. I wish to continue since I believe we can still hold on for a while more with our current supply.”

“Buried City? I thought we are still unsure what the dark gold key is for…” Brother Da muttered softly.

After Little Apple declared her intention, Burning Rose and iLittle Arrow agreed to continue as well.

At this moment, three opted to continue, Slayer’s Heart did not wish to give up so early, and Brother Da forfeited his vote. The remaining members (Violetmoon Devilite, Xiaoxiao, Gold Digger Babe, and Violet Orchid) immediately looked at Qin Ruo expectantly.

“Let’s go on.” Qin Ruo sighed and got back on his feet. He looked at the dark end of the long corridor. “I don’t believe the system can kill us with some mere spiders.”

Just as he finished the sentence, he noticed the numerous light dots that came out of nowhere deep from the dark corridor…

***

“The fifth wave!” Qin Ruo’s urgent roar broke the dungeon’s silence.