Celestial Arbiter! Hidden BOSS!
Countless thoughts raced through her mind.
However, after a moment of contemplation,
Winter posed the most crucial question.
"You... were you using my talent just now?"
Lucas did not evade the question: "Yes."
Winter nodded: "I see."
"So, what are you planning to do?" Lucas countered.
"Nothing. It's fine this way."
Winter did not perceive Lucas's utilization of her talent as a loss.
Rather...
Winter regarded it as a form of bartering.
She received a personalized weapon from Lucas and enjoyed guild benefits; this was the price she had to pay.
At least for now, the benefits of staying in this guild were plentiful.
Such as... the challenge quest.
It was definitely not a benefit that she could have enjoyed in any other guild.
Therefore, knowing that Lucas had ulterior motives, Winter was actually more relaxed.
"If you're fine with it, I'll loot the corpse first."
From this instance onwards, subsequent instances would generally feature multiple BOSSes.
BOSSes within instances were simply classified as "Old One," "Old Two," and "Old Three" by players.
Instances with multiple BOSSes allowed players to loot chests directly after defeating a BOSS.
Looting good equipment from these chests could improve combat prowess for the subsequent BOSS.
After death within an instance, players would not be completely removed from the instance.
Instead, they would resurrect outside the instance with minimal health.
Dying within the instance would significantly disrupt the pace, and avoiding death was the preferred outcome.
The deceased Behemoth BOSS had transformed into a treasure chest.
"My luck is the highest. No objections to me looting the chest?" Lucas inquired before opening the chest.
Lucas gazed at Winter.
Winter felt a slight vein bulge on her forehead.
Was this leader deliberately provoking her?
She had expressed her desire for freedom, but there was no need to ask her about every single matter.
"No. You can open all the chests when you're here," Winter stated, intending to resolve the matter once and for all.
The other members of the party also shook their heads.
They indeed had no objections.
Subsequently, Lucas directly opened the BOSS treasure chest.
\[You have obtained: Gleaming Dagger (Silver), "Two-Star Skill Book – Flame Pillar", Ferocious Headband (Silver), Taut Bracers (Bronze), Crocodile Leather Boots (Bronze), 58 Gold Coins, Return Scroll x5, Health Potion (Large) x3]
"Not bad, not bad. An 18-level dagger, with an additional 230 points of agility."
"A two-star skill, Flame Pillar, that's not bad."
Flame Pillar was an upgraded version of Underworld Fire, which can not only deal fire damage, but can also maintain a continuous flame column.
Against non-mobile monsters, the damage was terrifying.
"Ferocious Headband, 200 points of Strength, and it increases the level of sword drawing skills by 1. Excellent item."
Skill levels were very valuable.
Increasing a skill level required skill points, and skills were classified by star rating. Increasing a four-star skill by one level required four skill points.
Increasing a five-star skill required five skill points.
In most cases, skill points were acquired through leveling up, with one skill point awarded per level.
Having reached level 18, only 18 points were available, which Dauntless had used to level Howl of the Dragon +4.
As for the dagger, Winter's level had reached 18 upon defeating this BOSS, making the dagger perfect for her.
Level 18 equipment had the stats of equipment after the job advancement.
The attributes were significantly higher than those of level 17 equipment.
The dagger was directly assigned to Winter, but she was conflicted.
She had spent 100,000 to buy a dagger just a few minutes ago, and it was already obsolete after only a few uses. The loss of 100,000 was a real heartache.
When she bought that dagger, she had been thinking of using it to get through the entire newbie period.
But regardless of her conflict, there was no way she was not going to use the new equipment.
After equipping it, Winter could only admit that the level 18 equipment was different.
She considered the 100,000 as the cost of buying a level 18 piece of equipment and considered the previous one as a gift from Azure.
With that, her mood improved instantly.
Dauntless also equipped the \[Ferocious Headband].
The Howl of the Dragon skill level increased to 2.
Lucas directly suggested: "Dauntless, upgrade Howl of the Dragon directly to level 5."
Dauntless had learned two other skills, Three-Segment Slash and Ground Shattering Impact.
Using skill books to learn skills also cost skill points corresponding to the skill's star rating. Learning the three-star sword drawing skill had already cost Dauntless three skill points.
He now had 13 skill points remaining, which was sufficient to fully upgrade Howl of the Dragon to level 5.
"Alright, boss!"
\[Skill points added – Howl of the Dragon – Level increased to 3]
\[Skill points added – Howl of the Dragon – Level increased to 4]
\[Skill points added – Howl of the Dragon – Level increased to 5]
\[Howl of the Dragon has unlocked a new effect – Twin Draw]
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\[Howl of the Dragon (LV: 6): Charge for 1-5 seconds, unleash a sword-drawing slash, dealing 6-80 times Strength damage, range 6-70 meters, cooldown: 8 seconds. Each time a fully charged attack is used during the cooldown period, the cooldown is reduced by 1 second. No consumption]
\[Additional Effect – Twin Draw: After Howl of the Dragon hits a target, another Howl of the Dragon with the same charged effect can be used immediately within 5 seconds.]
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Compared to level 1, the damage dealt by the level 5 Howl of the Dragon had increased the damage factor by 30.
The range had also increased by 20 meters.
More importantly, this new twin draw effect essentially doubled the output.
"Holy crap, Boss, this skill is awesome!"
"Am I invincible now?!"
Hearing Dauntless's shout, Winter rolled her eyes.
He had never seen the world.
On the other side, Bella also learned the skill. So far, she had learned five skills, Gust, Fireball, Underworld Fire, Meteor, and Flame Pillar.
"Dauntless, remember that skills will undergo a qualitative transformation at levels 5 and 11."
"The higher the skill's star rating, the stronger the effect."
Obviously, adding a 5-star skill to level 5 required 25 skill points, while adding a 1-star skill to level 5 only required 5 points.
Of course it would be stronger.
"However, skill points are limited. You must carefully consider how you allocate your skill points because there will be limited opportunities to respec in the future. Don't waste your skill points."
"Alright, let's move on to the next BOSS."
-------------------------------------
After completing their preparations, Lucas and the others continued to advance deeper into the instance.
Bella replenished her Holy Tome with the Flame Pillar skill.
It must be said that a personalized weapon significantly compensated for Bella's shortcomings.
Otherwise, in order to unleash the full potential of her talent, she would need at least ten seconds of chanting time.
Ten seconds was too long, regardless of the combat scenario.
The swamp in front still harbored many black slimes, but Dauntless directly drew his sword when the slimes tried to block their path.
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...
\[Dauntless has killed Black Liquid Slime – Experience gained: 6150]
\[Dauntless has killed Black Liquid Slime – Experience gained: 6914]
\[Dauntless has killed Black Liquid Slime – Experience gained: 6911]
...
A series of prompts popped up. There was no need to find where these slimes were hiding.
Dauntless's Howl of the Dragon eradicated all slimes within a 70-meter radius.
At this rate of speed, the annoying monsters had been completely reduced to mere experience points. The four quickly cleared the monsters and arrived at the BOSS room.
The BOSS room was a spacious cavern.
The BOSS was a two-headed black serpent located within the cavern.
Half of the black serpent's body was embedded within the walls.
At the other end of the cavern, there was also a stone gate, which was tightly embedded in the wall.
It looked like a door that could not be opened easily.
-------------------------------------
\[Black King Twin Serpent]
\[Level: 25]
\[Hit Points: 1,535,000]
\[Skills: Flame Burst, Ice Spike, Flame Spray, Frost Impact, Head Swipe, Bite and Drag]
\[Traits: Elemental Alternation – After dealing an attack of a certain element, attacking the same target with another element will cause an explosion, dealing huge area damage.]
\[Description: A serpent that can simultaneously use Ice and Fire elements to attack. The two heads' elements can alternate with each other. Each head's element can be identified by the glow in its eyes.]
-------------------------------------
This BOSS was a spellcasting type.
Under normal conditions, the party would have to dodge skills. Lucas and the others were currently outside the BOSS's aggro range, so the BOSS had not been aggroed.
Lucas simply introduced: "The BOSS has a second phase at 30% health."
Winter nodded.
She also knew about this mechanism in Zone One, but she didn't know if the mechanism had changed in Zone Three.
"Winter, you take command. I'll go open the hidden BOSS. Take it slow, don't kill it. If you kill it, you won't be able to open the hidden area."
Lucas nonchalantly instructed.
If they were to clear the instance normally, this BOSS would be the final BOSS.
However, if they wanted to open the hidden level, they had to open the hidden level before killing this BOSS.
"You know how to open the Blackwater hidden area?" Winter asked with a hint of surprise.
This instance in Zone One also had a hidden area, but no one had figured out how to open it.
"I do."
Lucas didn't explain further and charged toward the sealed stone gate.
Winter sighed.
She really couldn't figure out this Lucas.
"Wait... When did I become the commander? I said I didn't want to do guild work," Winter realized as Lucas ran off.
But thinking of the favor she owed, and the current situation, Winter could only sigh and order, "Warrior, aggro the BOSS. Remember Howl of the Dragon to start."
"Mage, cast Flame Pillar."
"Roger that!" Dauntless excitedly replied. This was the first time he was personally attacking a BOSS. In the previous BOSS battles, Lucas had done all the work.
He hadn't even touched a BOSS yet.
Now that Howl of the Dragon had been upgraded, he couldn't wait to try it out.
After receiving the order, Dauntless charged toward the serpent! He stepped into the serpent's attack range.
The next second after he stepped into the attack range, the ground beneath Dauntless's feet lit up with a red light.
Seeing the red light, Dauntless immediately side-rolled!
His body's instinct to escape moved first!
*Rumble!*
A moment after Dauntless rolled away, a Flame Pillar rose into the sky in the area that was lit up with the red light!
It was the Flame Pillar that the BOSS had cast!
Seeing that he had almost been hit, Dauntless's enthusiasm was immediately extinguished by half!
He urgently asked, "Sister Winter! Isn't this task a little too much for me?!"
"If you're bad, you have to practice." Winter believed that one would be a noob if they did not practice in actual combat.
Her thoughts for Dauntless were simple. If he couldn't dodge, he would die. Next time he would know to dodge.
While speaking, Winter had already approached the BOSS before Dauntless.
*Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding—*
Shadow Assault, Continuous Thrust, Swift Light Slash, five phantoms instantly split off.
Seeing this, Dauntless wanted to run away.
But in the end, he gritted his teeth and continued to charge forward.
He had already taken the president's 10 million! That was 10 million! It would be too inhumane to desert at this critical moment.
Winter's attack had a high number of hits! Every phantom had maxed skills after being summoned.
This was equivalent to Winter's skills being used six times.
In terms of damage multiplier, it also counted as six times.
Even if it was a 1X multiplier, each clone would deal 6X damage.
Although it wasn't as exaggerated as Bella's \[Empowered Chant]'s 30 times the damage and 30 times the range.
\[Shadowstrike]'s strength lied in its flexibility and variability.
With a brief flurry of attacks, more than 70 damage segments were unleashed on the Twin Serpent!
Unfortunately, Winter's equipment wasn't up to par.
Even with six phantoms attacking together, they only dealt a little over 100,000 health.
*Boom!*
Next, a Flame Pillar soared into the sky!
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...
The flame pillar soared, enveloping the BOSS in flames.
Next, Dauntless approached the BOSS and unleashed twin drawing of the sword!
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After the twin draw, Dauntless immediately chained it with the Power Five-Segment Slash!
After Howl of the Dragon was upgraded to LV: 5, the cooldown was reduced from 9 seconds to 8 seconds.
It may only be less than a second.
But the second draw of the twin draw also counted as a fully charged attack, which could immediately reduce the sword's cooldown by 1 second.
A 7-second cooldown, chained with the Power Five-Segment Slash, only left 2 seconds.
Dauntless's skill may not be good, but he knew the basics of using skills.
"Dauntless, stop!"
Dauntless was about to unleash the third segment of the attack, but was stopped by Lucas.
"If you keep attacking, the BOSS is going to die."
This BOSS only had 1.5 million HP.
With Dauntless's twin slashes, nearly half of the health bar was already gone.
If he used the five-segment slash followed by twin slashes, plus the Flame Pillar's burning effect, the BOSS would be killed.
Fortunately, Lucas had arrived at the door.
Lucas put his hand on the door.
He recited the incantation he had deliberately memorized in his previous life for this reincarnation: "ŒÞÎÇξÐÞÇ"
This was Celestial Language.
Currently, Lucas was the only player who knew this language.
After completing the prayer, golden light began to shine, overflowing from the cracks in the stone door!
The stone door burst open!
A three-meter-tall humanoid creature radiating golden light emerged from the stone door.
Its hands gripped a golden greatsword.
\[World Announcement!]
\[Azure has activated the Blackwater Grotto Hidden BOSS Level!]
\[Azure has become the first Hidden BOSS Activator!]
After its appearance.
The four members of the party, including Lucas, all gazed at this luminous humanoid creature.
Even the Twin Serpent stopped its movements and blankly stared at this golden entity.
-------------------------------------
\[Celestial Arbiter]
\[Level: 30]
\[Hit Points: 5,000,000]
\[Race: Celestial Being]
\[Unique Creature]
\[Patron Deity: Zorya]
\[Skills: Holy Decree, Sword of Radiance, Judgement, Radiant Flash, Falling Flame, Holy Flame]
\[Traits: Luminous Holy Flame – All enemies that are damaged by Light-attribute will be afflicted with Holy Fire, receiving burn damage every second]
\[Description: An emissary of justice from the celestial realm, sealed within the Blackwater Grotto for unknown reasons. It seems to carry a special relic.]
-------------------------------------
"Travelers from another world! I thank you for dispelling my deep, dark seal."
"I will slay that evil serpent for you!"
The Celestial Arbiter raised the holy sword in its hand, blazing with raging flames.
Before the Celestial Arbiter could act,
Lucas directly slashed at the \[Celestial Arbiter]'s calf with a dagger.
Next, a phantom clone wielding a greatsword was summoned beside Lucas.
"No need to trouble yourself."
"Please, die along with it."