MMORPG: The Elementalist

Since they had the experience from their first trip, the ten-man party’s pace and speed of clearing the monsters in Silentdeath Jungle had increased drastically! Moreover, Qin Ruo had changed his previous defensive way of fighting, activating Frostbarrier continuously as he fought, using his newly learned skill Compressed Frost Bullet from Xiaoxiao, swiftly slowing the movement speed of the Malevolent Archdemon drastically and dealing 50 HP per second damage from the laceration effect inflicted on them…

With this method, not only was the teamwork assistance needed from the party reduced, but the monster-killing speed also increased greatly at the same time.

Qin Ruo aggroed three Malevolent Archdemon from the beginning, while Slayer’s Heart and Burning Rose each took one, instantly forming a controlled situation where they could each fight one with ease.

With the Magic Penetration effect of Slayer’s Heart’s Pazuzu’s Warhammer, it was more than enough to deal with one of them that assistance from other party members was not even needed.

Finally after Burning Rose, iLittle Arrow, and Dinosaurcerer went against one of them, Brother Da, Little Apple, and Gold Digger Babe which were left out helped Qin Ruo deal with the last Malevolent Archdemon before him.

Brother Da grasped every moment there was for every time he could go against the Malevolent Archdemon was an opportunity to improve himself. However to do so, Qin Ruo was forced to switch from attacking aggressively to supporting…

Luckily Qin Ruo’s Mana Drain had yet to reach Advanced Level. By letting Brother Da attract its attention, a timely opportunity to raise his Mana Drain mastery was created.

While raising Mana Drain’s mastery, he could simultaneously use the 30-45 MP gained by Mana Drain from the Malevolent Archdemon to maintain his Frostbarrier’s activation, allowing the mastery level of this defensive spell which was stuck at below twenty Beginner points to be finally raised bit by bit at a fast pace.

‘Phew!

‘Each time Mana Drain is used, around 40 MP could be gained which is sufficient to maintain the Frostbarrier’s activation for thirty seconds. Mana Drain has a cooldown time of six seconds which is sufficient to support Frostbarrier’s activation.

‘It seems it won’t be long that Frostbarrier will finally reach Intermediate.’

Qin Ruo was overjoyed!

After constantly using Mana Drain awhile later, Qin Ruo discovered another combat purpose for this skill—discovered by him when they were fighting the Malevolent Archdemon.

When the Malevolent Archdemon was suppressed greatly by Slayer’s Heart, Qin Ruo had a sudden thought—while casting attack spells continuously at the Malevolent Archdemon, Mana Drain was used at them every six seconds.

Within a minute, Mana Drain was cast ten times and more than 400 MP was drained from the Malevolent Archdemon!

After that, the Malevolent Archdemon oddly broke free from Slayer’s Heart’s hold and charged toward Qin Ruo. What made everyone even more shocked was the Malevolent Archdemon behaving as if it has lost its magic abilities and stopped casting spells. It could only furiously swing its staff against Qin Ruo’s Frostbarrier relentlessly and hopelessly as it raged and roared pitifully.

Everyone was stunned and could not fathom the scene before them.

A Level 47 magic-type Elite Miniboss gave up on using its magical attack and use its staff instead as a weapon to attack a player—something like this was unheard of! When this scene unfolded before them, Slayer’s Heart and Qin Ruo who received insignificant damage, and everyone else were stumped for the rest of the day. Brother Da and Gold Digger Babe even took the chance to record the whole incident, and jokingly said they were definitely going to post it online for others to watch.

Although the Malevolent Archdemon had regained its magical attack ability Qin Ruo was hit with realization after that. After experimenting several times on the Darkshadow Archdemon and Malevolent Archdemon, he finally discovered the reason for this abnormality.

Monsters had limited MP!

As long as Mana Drain was used enough times, even Boss monsters would be left Silenced and resort to the state of only being able to helplessly swing their staff furiously.

After that, Qin Ruo began to engage without holding back by casting Mana Drain repeatedly to support Slayer’s Heart combo attacks, easily taking down the furious but helpless Darkshadow Archdemons one after another. Everyone in the party laughed at the scene whenever the pitiful Darkshadow Archdemons resorted to swinging their staves like madmen.

Not long after, a Bandit’s presence slowly crept within Qin Ruo’s Elemental Perception. He was aware that tonight’s peacefulness had just reached its end.

‘The Bandit from the Angel Faction traced the path we took. It seems he closed in us by following by the sound of our battles. He appeared so suddenly that while the battle with the Darkshadow Archdemon was still ongoing, he had already stopped moving behind a tree forty meters away.’

With the help of Elemental Perception, Qin Ruo could see the look of excitement on his face when he found their location…

After briefly mumbling a few words, the Bandit began to lurk behind the tree. Qin Ruo guessed that he was probably informing their current location to the people from the Demon Faction.

‘Hmph!

‘What a funny guy. He hasn’t realized that he is already lying at death’s door. Did he really think he could hide his presence behind a tree and remain unnoticed?’

***

Once the battle with Darkshadow Archdemon ended, a brief and sharp shriek was heard from the Bandit’s hiding spot. Next, Qin Ruo and his party saw Gold Digger Babe returned from behind the tree while holding a piece of Violet Equipment. After throwing it on the floor, she grumbled, “It was a waste of my Honor Points.”

Although the number of Demon Faction players Gold Digger Babe was able to kill could be counted on one hand, her loss was not that small after taking out two players from the same faction as she was different from Qin Ruo who was able to gain a lot of Honor Points.

Qin Ruo looked at Slayer’s Heart and smiled meaningfully.

“Later you will have your chance to earn Honor Points.”

After Qin Ruo had shared the info about the spy following them in the party channel, Slayer’s Heart briefly discussed with Qin Ruo, since Pet Eggs are so hard to drop, they should just target the people from Twelve Zodiacs. Since it was a rare occasion that there were people who wanted to be their fodder, it would be a great opportunity to earn some equipment and Honor Points.

Not only was the spy taken out, but the enemy also did not know about Qin Ruo’s Aquamorph yet. Now they could switch from being passive to aggressive, from being hunted to being the hunter.

This suggestion was enticing to everyone in the party.

Brother Da and Dinosaurcerer who originally intended to continue the glorious moment from yesterday by reaping the equipment from the people of Twelve Zodiacs again, was hoping that Qin Ruo and Slayer’s Heart would make that suggestion.

The two girls in the party, Violetmoon Devilite and Gold Digger Babe both were extremely thrilled about the plan as they agreed by nodding with cheerful faces.

All ten people in the party agreed unanimously to plan to ambush the Twelve Zodiacs party that was coming after them.

“Great!”

After everyone agreed, Slayer’s Heart immediately began to plan the battle strategy and the preparations needed to be done.

After yesterday’s battle, the combat abilities of everyone had been revealed, so the combatants and elite players sent by Twelve Zodiacs this time would definitely be more than yesterday. It was even possible that two to three Field Commander-level elite players would be mobilized to deal with Slayer’s Heart and Qin Ruo.

“Based on our current abilities, we are definitely at a disadvantage. Our only advantage right now is the enemy being unaware that we have prepared to ambush them and also about the existence of Qin Ruo’s Water Elemental Perception and stealth abilities.”

“And also Attribute Potions,” Qin Ruo reminded.

“That’s true.”

Slayer’s Heart nodded.

Attribute Potions were definitely one of their greatest advantage. Just Advanced Vitality Potion and Movement Speed Potion were enough to allow Slayer’s Heart to have an extra 70% chance to fight against Twelve Zodiacs’ Leader Saga—the man who possessed the rumored Legendary-tier Equipment.

Furthermore, Black Market Trader recently just finished using Dreamy Blue Ice Chrysanthemum given by Qin Ruo to make Dark Frost Potions which was sent to the Vault. Its effect was exceptional, improving 8% Water Element Affinity for 30 minutes and increasing the Freezing Effect by 16%. Both effects would provide great assistance to Qin Ruo.

If it was used in conjunction with an Intelligence Potion, the effects would be tremendous!

“Our ambush attack this time must be quick and decisive! So the choice of combat personnel will be me, Qin Ruo, and Gold Digger Babe—just the three of us will be enough. We must ensure our every attack are killing blows so that Twelve Zodiacs will feel our wrath! The rest of you should stay back and wait for our orders to either prepare to retreat or support us!”

“Just the three of you?”

Brother Da puzzlingly pointed at Gold Digger Babe then at Little Apple and iLittle Arrow who were not included in the team. His intentions were obvious, why was Gold Digger Babe picked instead of Little Apple and iLittle Arrow who were much stronger? As for Brother Da himself, he was well aware of his limitations, since even Little Apple was not included in the plan, he was definitely not qualified for it.

Slayer’s Heart explanation was simple…

Qin Ruo possessed Aquamorph for stealth and Elemental Perception, and was also the main person in this ambush—an essential part of the plan. As for Gold Digger Babe, her Stealth allowed her to approach the enemy stealthily. As long as Qin Ruo was able to take out the enemy’s Bowmaster, Gold Digger Babe would have the opportunity deal significant threat to them as their support.

Besides that…

When they ambush the enemy, Gold Digger Babe might have the opportunity to put to use her Brigand Class skills—Trap!