MMORPG: The Elementalist

Bang!

The vines were unleashed like black lightning, and they hit their target without any delay!

In terms of Defense, Homme Fatale was slightly more resilient than Qin Ruo thanks to his defense-oriented Demigod Equipment. Hence, even though he stumbled a little after he was unexpectedly hit by the Ancient Ghostvine, and his Barrier was on the verge of collapse, Homme Fatale survived the attack.

His reflexes as one of the top players in H&G were truly remarkable. Homme Fatale quickly realized that he should no longer remain on the battlefield under such conditions. The Ancient Ghostvine still had 50,000 HP left, which meant it could carry on for at least another three seconds. And Qin Ruo needed exactly the same amount of time to construct an arrow formation that would finish off the monster in one move.

Three seconds were more than enough for the monster to launch another three rounds of attack judging by its outrageous Attack Speed.

Therefore, he would be killed the next second if he stayed within the Ancient Ghostvine’s range of attack.

He barely had enough time to release a Magic Scroll within that short second. Nevertheless, he did time his escape perfectly.

As the retracted vines extended once again to reach Homme Fatale, the Electromancer disappeared the very moment the vines were about to smash him.

The resulting momentum caused the vines to fly through what appeared to be Homme Fatale’s afterimage and only hit air.

The great escape Homme Fatale displayed had Qin Ruo and Black Rock cheering for him quietly in their hearts.

The attack had missed at the very final second. Despite being ensnared in such a deadly situation, Homme Fatale was still able to trick the Ancient Ghostvine with precise effort and buy his comrades some valuable time.

‘That’s Homme Fatale, all right!’

‘What a great move!’

***

Poof!

Beyond the Dark Region, Homme Fatale did not rush back rashly into the respawn point after he landed steadily on the ground. He believed that he had done enough.

The Ancient Ghostvine must have dropped at least 50,000 HP after it received the attack from him, Black Rock, the Grand Reaper, and Snowy Thunderbeak. It would now be Black Rock’s turn to attract the tree’s firepower.

With the Grand Reaper’s Defense and Black Rock’s own Barrier, the Terramancer should have no problem holding the Ghostvine back for three seconds. If they could not defeat the Ghostvine together when it was in such a weakened state, then they would not be Qin Ruo and Black Rock.

Homme Fatale’s entrance at that moment would only bring uncertainty and unnecessary risk to them.

***

He had guessed right.

The fight proceeded smoothly in favor of the human adventurers.

After the Electromancer disappeared, Black Rock who constantly attacked the tree monster with Magic Scrolls automatically became the Ancient Ghostvine’s main target.

Under the protection provided by the Grand Reaper, the two subsequent attacks from the Ghostvine had failed to hurt Black Rock. Instead, more and more Frost Arrows emerged and lined up uniformly against the Ancient Ghostvine.

Yelp!

Shrieking painfully, the Ancient Ghostvine had tumbled once again.

***

“Phew, finally! The respawn time is exactly two minutes and thirty seconds.” Black Rock breathed a sigh of relief. He was addressing the empty air in front of him, as well as Homme Fatale who was pacing slowly toward him from the back.

“We’ll have sufficient time then. We can wait for two minutes and fifteen seconds, then only begin condensation. Ten seconds will be enough for us to prepare a series of attacks that can instantly turn the Ancient Ghostvine into ashes.”

“I agree. That way, we’ll even have an extra five seconds to correct any deviation. We also won’t need to worry about MP depletion since we’ll have enough large MP Potions,” Qin Ruo replied while he exited his Aquamorph form.

He bowed his head to check the loot and wore a happy grin.

“We’ve gotten another one. The drop rate is pretty good.”

“Whoa!” Black Rock raised his eyebrows excitedly. He clapped and said, “A hundred-percent drop rate! At this rate, we’ll be able to gather more than twenty roots from the Ancient Ghostvine under an hour. Hehe, I think, very soon, Judge will be able to solo-fight a Divine Boss.”

“That would be great.” Homme Fatale lowered his head and suddenly noticed the sluggish look on Qin Ruo’s face, as though he was dumbstruck.

“What’s wrong?”

“Qin Ruo?” Black Rock had also realized the sudden change in Qin Ruo’s expression.

He strode forward to get a better look. Before he raised the same question as Fatale, his eyes suddenly caught a smooth diamond-shaped crystal being taken out from Qin Ruo’s waist. The blue glint of the stone was especially glaring inside the Dark Region. It immediately drew Black Rock and Homme Fatale’s attention as soon as Qin Ruo revealed it.

Black Rock was stunned.

Homme Fatale was equally baffled by Qin Ruo’s abnormal behavior. The crystal in his hand was obviously a Water-type Divinity. ‘But why is he taking out something so irrelevant at this moment? Unless…’

Gasp!

Black Rock and Homme Fatale simultaneously thought of a bizarre possibility. They gasped for air and opened their eyes to look at Qin Ruo in disbelief.

Qin Ruo was rather surprised too. If he had not taken out all the Divinity in his Ring of Honor earlier to be sold in the League’s market at a discounted price, he might not have noticed the Divinity, which popped up unexpectedly in his storage.

Before the half astonished, half suspicious looks from Homme Fatale and Black Rock, Qin Ruo rechecked the battle log to triple confirm before he shrugged at them and smirked bitterly. “I’m as curious as you two. I wasn’t told that the tree would drop Divinity!”

***

Half an hour later, another Divinity appeared in Qin Ruo’s hand. This time, it was not a blue Water-type but a purple Thunder-type.

Homme Fatale and Qin Ruo had already calmed down from their initial excitement. Black Rock was the only one still celebrating jubilantly while holding the two Divinities. He just could not stop laughing. “We’re going to make a lot of money!”

The market price for Divinity, though, had dropped slightly in that grand era of Tier 6 players. But it was still worth 1 million to 150 million. The reason was that the demand for Divinity remained high (to fly freely in the sky was still a dream of many players) while the number of Tier 6 Megabosses that dropped Divinity were rather sparse.

Homme Fatale rolled his eyes at the greedy Black Rock. “I think we can firmly conclude that as long as it’s a Divine creature, there’s a chance of it dropping Divinity. Moreover, its drop rate may be even greater than that of equipment.” Homme Fatale continued his analysis, “Right now, not many players have explored the region where the Divine creatures roam. But as time progresses, those from the Demon Faction and the Five Great Leagues will definitely notice this phenomenon too. At best, we can only get about ten Divinity crystals per day. You call something worth only 10 million “a lot of money”? Sigh, I highly doubt how you even manage to get to this level.”

“Er…” The hidden cynicism in Homme Fatale’s words rapidly extinguished Black Rock’s burning enthusiasm. He came to realize the once prestigious Divinity had long lost its charm.

Stationing one’s self in the Dark Region and waiting for Divinity to drop from the Ancient Ghostvine was not as practical as killing a Lich.

After they settled down, they refocused on their original mission. Right then, the root from the Ancient Ghostvine and the Rootless Elixir were more alluring to them.

***

Players from H&G had only scratched the surface of Divine creatures so far. They would not know exactly what rewards were coming their way. Subsequently, the Ancient Ghostvine had brought surprise after surprise to the three Elementalists.

Dark Gold Equipment, Divinity, Legendary Equipment, an Embedded Stone, a Mana Core, a Grade 2 Herb, and a Tier 6 Magic Scroll were dropped by the monster consecutively. This made the three players utterly delighted.

Besides, Qin Ruo had also obtained a map.

Such materials were usually only attainable from a Boss monster. It was extremely rare to get luxurious loot from a common monster.

They were greatly encouraged by the fact that the Divine creature actually dropped those valuable rewards at a rate higher compared with lower tier monsters that only dropped junk.

A few hours later, the value of the rewards they had collected already surpassed the maximum amount they could obtain from two Liches combined. Furthermore, each of them had also amassed several more hundred Honor Points. Meanwhile, the number of roots they obtained was close to one hundred…

Before they logged out, the three of them retreated from the Dark Region and had a lengthy discussion.

The roots they had gathered up to that point could be turned into roughly three hundred bottles of Rootless Elixir by Yaeger.

Once everyone in the Fallen Angels achieved Demigod status, challenging a Divine creature in a group would be a lot easier with the magical elixir.

However, it would be a huge waste if they only used it for their own consumption. They could monopolize the market with it while the major Parties in H&G were not yet exposed to the production of the item.

The miraculous effect of the Rootless Elixir would definitely set H&G ablaze and become the most demanding Healing Potion in the market.

Not only was it useful in a Boss battle but it could also become an important factor in deciding a PVP fight. Between leveling up and 200,000gold coins, they were confident that the majority of players would choose the former. Although the price tag may be a little too high for a one-time consumable, there would still be potential buyers since it was a flash sale with limited stock available. As quoted by Casanova, since the product was not aimed at the general public, they did not need to consider everyone’s buying power.

A limited sale of fifty bottles of Rootless Elixir a day would result in millions of gold in income for the Fallen Angels. This provided them an alternative source of income other than the revenues they obtained from the city.

Once more and more Fallen Angels evolved to Tier 6, they could further expand other channels to bolster their League and further strengthen its status as the No.1 League in H&G.

***

The next day…

The Rootless Elixir came out of nowhere and became one of the featured products in Casanova’s Trading Hall. Its price tag was 200,000 gold coins, and it was limited to only fifty bottles. No negotiations were allowed.

The gimmicky product launch did gain a substantial amount of attention. Within the next few hours, players responded differently. Some were astonished while some despised it, but not even one bottle was sold.

However, later that day, once many players finally realized how valuable the item was and returned to inquire, they discovered that the fifty featured bottles of Rootless Elixir were long sold out!