Chapter 245 – Crystal Maze; Concatenated Mechanism (1/2)
“You have done me such a big favor, of course I have to repay you.” The captain was much more vehement this time.
Ding.
System Notification: Congratulations. You have completed the mission “Annihilate the Sea Beast.” +300,000 EXP, +500 Reputation each player. Gain 1 Water-Break Shuttle.
“There’s even an item?” Fatty opened the package and saw a shuttle-shaped object lying there.
Water-Break Shuttle
Special Tool
Maximum capacity: 10 people
Can travel across and under water. Attacks are allowed inside this shuttle. With extreme solidity and speed, it was the beloved object of fisherman Kahn.
“Wow, such a good ship?!” Liu Lan exclaimed.
“Aii… I’m reminded of my son whenever I see this. Since you help me avenge him, you can have it. Go.” The old captain went back into his cabin.
Fatty released the Water-Break Shuttle and a bunch of control buttons instantly appeared in front of him. This shuttle was some really high-tech stuff.
The shuttle lived up to its reputation of “Water-Break.” Sailing was smooth and much faster than that tattered ship from before.
The vast ocean looked exotic and stunning with all kinds of organisms. Colorful schools of fish with bizarre appearances traveled past the Water-Break Shuttle.
“It’s like a submarine!” Liu Lan happily watched as the various fish swam by the shuttle.
Following the map, several hours later, the shuttle finally stopped near a coral reef on the seabed.
“It must be here,” said Fatty as he looked at the beautiful corals.
“How come there’s nothing?” The party directed the shuttle everywhere without finding anything related to a Celestial item.
“Hmmm? There’s a trap over there.” Han Shen pointed at the distance.
The party hurried to that place. In an inconspicuous spot deep in the dense corals, they saw a small whirlpool that seemed nothing out of the ordinary.
“Detect.” Fatty and Han Shen took turns to cast Detect until the trap finally revealed itself.
This trap was formed based on the available terrain. The structure allowed water flow to create a mini whirlpool in this spot, and the inventor of this trap took advantage of this and arranged it into a sharp tool for murder.
“This is one powerful trap,” Fatty praised.
“The level of the one who made this is definitely above us,” Han Shen affirmed.
“That’s for sure. It must be none other than Sallip.” Fatty got out of the Water-Break Shuttle and repeatedly cast Disassemble, wanting to break down the trap.
Ba-boom! Disassemble seemed to activate another trap. In the blink of an eye, countless water currents kicked up and smashed onto Fatty.
“F*ck! It’s a concatenation of traps!” Terrified, Fatty hastily escaped the range of the trap.
Sallip’s power was absolutely above theirs. The trap he had racked his brains out to create to guard this treasure naturally wouldn’t be so easy to disarm.
Fatty and Han Shen stood at opposite sides and begun to cast Disassemble. Finally, they determined that this trap was a series of 36 smaller traps.
“Formidable. That’s a rogue mentor for ya,” Fatty praised.
“Lucky for us it’s only 36.” Han Shen wiped the sweat on his forehead, not even thinking of how it was possible to wipe sweat underwater. “When I got my Underworld Assassin enhancement, I came across a series of 72 traps. That shit nearly killed me.”
“Oh? So you have experience cracking concatenated traps? Tell me about it.”
A light from time to time landed on the two. It was Cheng Xiong’s Healing. They couldn’t breathe underwater, and the most visual manifestation was their constant plummet of health.
“First, we have to find the base points that support the concatenation. For instance, that chain of 72 traps had 8 base points, each base point consists of 9 interlinked traps. Within every 9 traps held 3 base points each consisted of 3 interlinked traps,” Han Shen explained in detail.
It wasn’t easy to locate the base points of a concatenated trap, or else Sallip wouldn’t have put in this much effort to set one up. Several times, Fatty and Han Shen were inattentive, touched the traps and suffered miserably for it. If it wasn’t for them retreating fast enough, they would have been sent on a free trip back to the respawn point.
Fortunately, the two finally determined the locations of the eight base points and spread out to disarm them one by one. Spending roughly three hours, they were finally able to get rid of the traps.
The other three were bored to death waiting. If Cheng Xiong didn’t have to heal the two rogues, they would have used the shuttle to go sightseeing.
“Whew, I’m exhausted. This is no trap, it’s obviously a mechanism!” Fatty gasped for breath back inside the shuttle.
“That’s right, when Trap reaches the Grandmaster mastery, it’ll automatically become Mechanism.” Han Shen nodded.
With the concatenated trap removed, the coral reef collapsed with creaking noises and revealed the entrance to a cave.
“Crystal Maze.” At the top of the entrance were these big and ancient letters.
“Damn, and here I was wondering why there were so many corals. So it was all that brat Sallip!” Fatty was furious.
The entrance door was severely damaged, obviously Sallip’s deed. Fatty easily directed the shuttle to slip through the door. Once inside, the shuttle suddenly shook and fell on the ground.
“Woah, no water!” Liu Lan jumped off the shuttle and exclaimed in delight.
The rest got off as well. Fatty pocketed the shuttle and carefully observed the main hall of the maze.
Living up to its name, the floor, walls, and ceiling of the Crystal Maze were encrusted with sparkling crystals of red, green, blue, violet, almost every color there was. The luminous plants on the floor painted the interior with their various colors as well. Splendid and magnificent, this place was just like paradise on earth.