Chapter 38 - Corrupted Forest (1/2)
Quiet Fire added both Blinding White and fleet-footed rogue (Balthazar) into her team. She quickly led them to the dungeon entrance and selected normal mode and all of them went through the transfer passage.
”You have chosen Normal mode of the Corrupted Forest.”
They found themselves in front of a forest. The clouds covered the entire sky above the forest. It had a dark gloomy atmosphere. Even the trunk and leaves of the trees in front of them had a black color. There was a thin path in front of them leading into the forest.
”I haven't been to the dungeon before this. Can you explain the plan and strategy?” asked Blinding White.
”We have corrupted rabbits at the beginning. They are fast and they have high damage. They are extremely susceptible to holy damage,” explained Tang and Spicy.
”It is best we stay in open spaces for them. The scout, an assassin or range is the best option to gather them up. They usually attack in packs and have good flanking tactics If these find us in open spaces make a circle to cover each other's backs,” said Quiet Fire continuing Tang and Spicy's explanation of his strategy.
”Not much else is required to handle these rabbits,” said Little white hands finishing the explanation.
”Fleet, you can carry on and lure some mobs,” said Quiet Fire turning away from Blinding White. ”Dude! Where are you?” she asked looking around for Balthazar. Unable to find him, she messaged in the team chat.
”Already hunting the rabbits. If I find a large group, I will lead them to you,” replied Balthazar on the chat. ”Also send me text me when I am scouting. These rabbits have good senses and high attack.”
As they received the message, they also began receiving experience in increments of 2 points each. Each corrupted rabbit provided 10 experience points which when shared among 5 provided 2 points each. They received three such increments.
Though Balthazar couldn't completely avoid the rabbits while try to agro* the other mobs and had to attack them. Due to his high attack the rabbits which had about 150 HP were easily taken down in 4 to 5 hits.
He killed his first corrupted rabbit accidentally trying to block their attacks. But he got a notification from the system which made him very excited.
”Obtained 1 life essence from a monster of the dark faction.”
He immediately checked the attributes of his Mask of Shadows and found that the counter for the life essences updated by 1. In his excitement he killed a couple more. He even got a white trash shield from one of them.
”Dude! Get them to us. Don't attack them alone,” messaged Quiet Fire again.
”Yeah, collecting mobs nearby. Accidentally killed a few. Wait a minute on the way,” replied Balthazar. He actually manged to lure 4 packs already. He already had an agility of 14 and could easily overtake the rabbits. He also had a high visual range and easily managed to check for corrupted rabbits.
Within a minute, he managed to lure more than 20 rabbits towards the team. ”Got a large bunch of them coming towards you,” he messaged in the team chat.
”Got about 5 packs coming from the front. Get you skill ready and bombard them mainly holy and fire damage skills like smite, blast and the rest. Blinding get ready to block,” he continued in the team chat.
”Is he for real? How could he even lure 5 packs?” said Little white feet shaking her head in derision. But no sooner than the words came out of her mouth, they say about 20 rabbits following him towards them.
”Did he put all his free attribute points in Agility? How can he run faster than the rabbits?” asked Tang and Spicy as she prepared to block the rabbits rushing towards them.
Balthazar quickly joined them and positioned himself beside Tang and Spicy. He also pulled out the shield which he looted from one of the rabbits and threw it Blinding White.
Palladins also have high strength and can tank** enemies similar to knights. Though they were not as tanky as knights and warriors, they have a decent amount of strength and endurance attributes.
”Thank you. But I don't have any shield type skills,” said Blinding White equipping the shield on her left hand. She also began to move and placed herself beside Tang and Spicy to tank the rabbits.
”You don't actually need to learn physical skills from skill books in vita-nova. Do the appropriate movements and the monsters will be effected accordingly,” replied Balthazar to Blinding White. He then removed his sword and held it in his left hand while the dagger was in his right hand.
Though they thought that he was talking nonsense and just wanted to assuage them or trying to woo Blinding, they began to think otherwise after they saw him equip a sword.
”That is a bit too many. It will be hard. You told that you can take us till the boss, Vultarc. Is this how you scout?” asked Little white feet in a tone that was both depressed and angry. From what she could see, the team would definitely lose quite a bit of health in the beginning or someone could even die. Death implied a loss of 5% experience in a normal dungeon.
Only Quiet Fire kept her calm and started using fire blasts against the rabbits as Balthazar went into stealth. She saw Balthazar's speed when he led the rabbits, but she also remembered that he already killed 3 of the corrupted critters.
She was stuck on that thought ever since she had seen Balthazar outpacing the rabbits. ”How could someone have such high agility and also damage at level 2.” She felt her thought itself was very ridiculous.
”But that could be discussed later, it was important to survive without losing large amount of health and casualties,” she thought. ”Let us talk about it later. Everybody start using your attacks now. Tang you try to block as many as possible. Little white and Blinding both of you focus on attacking the ones I target”, she commanded immediately.
”Fleet, where are you?” she shouted looking for Balthazar. She wanted him to tank along with Tang. It was his mistake for bringing so many rabbits, so he had to take responsibility from letting them harm others. But he was nowhere to be seen.
A second later, Balthazar came out of stealth in the middle of the rabbits as he ambushed one of them. He quickly jumped from one point to another landing attacks on several rabbits. ”I will hold them at a distance for you girls. Focus on attacking,” he said stabbing a rabbit in the eye.
Looking at his antics, the rest of the team initially thought that he was feeling responsible for his mistake and trying to tank few corrupted rabbits from behind to lessen the burden on them. These actions were that of a martyr. No assassin would be able to continuously handle that many attacks.
But slowly they realized that none of the attacks from the monsters managed to land on him. He was able easily maneuver among them. Not only that, he had very high damage. The corrupted rabbits had a HP value of 150 each. He dealt nearly 30 per hit. When he used a skill or hit a vital point it even reached 40 damage per hit.
Within a couple of minutes, the combined attacks of the team cleared up the group of rabbits. Balthazar also noticed that the counter incremented only when he landed the killing shot on the rabbits. Still the value had already increased to 17 and he was glad that he found a way to upgrade his mask.
”How come you have such high damage?” asked Tang and Spicy. Even though they were all wondering the same, she was the first one to address the elephant in the room.
”Every monster has some vital points. Hitting them would cause more damage. Also, the somnium tech the game is using was made for military. So, all real-life skills and techniques when used cause the more damage. Real life hunter and fighters would have an obvious advantage in the game,” replied Balthazar.
This information wasn't a secret. Many would be discussing in the forums about the extent of this feature from the first day of the game.