Chapter 218: Dauntless Spirit

Tier 4 Elite Minibosses such as the Gorefiend Spider Demon and the Deathvenom Spider—this sort of thing was routine stuff, and had never given Qin Ruo much to look forward to. Besides a Deathvenom Spider Pet Egg, and two rather disappointing pieces of Gold Equipment, there was also some uninteresting Violet and Blue Equipment, as well as a couple of Spirit Orbs.

Though Spirit Orbs were the key to entering the Graveyard of the Gods, what with the high drop rate here in the Underground Chambers, they had already picked up no less than eighty Spirit Orbs so far, and were no longer getting excited over it.

Rather, there seemed to be a lot more fuss over what exactly they should do with the Deathvenom Spider Pet Egg. Certainly, none of the six girls would have anything to do with it.

Though it was the Pet Egg for an Elite Miniboss, it was a million times more revolting than even a Malevolent Archdemon! No one was willing to run around with a horrifying Deathvenom Spider following after them, its rotting-corpse stench wafting about everywhere.

It was not just the girls—neither Slayer’s Heart nor Wang Da were into it.

Slayer’s Heart absolutely despised the very idea. Wang Da had an even better reason: if he went around carrying a foul thing like that, no girls would ever come near him again. Even if Slayer’s Heart himself threatened him at knifepoint, there was simply no way!

In that case, there was one person left who had not expressed any opinion in either direction about the matter: Dinosaurcerer. (Qin Ruo and Violetmoon Devilite both had pets already.)

Just as Slayer’s Heart was about to take the unwanted, unloved Pet Egg and stuff it deep into League Vault, Dinosaurcerer spoke up hesitantly, “Leader, just a moment… could I, ah… could I maybe give it a try?”

“A true warrior’s spirit doesn’t waver in the face of any trial!” Laughing heartily, Slayer’s Heart thrust the Pet Egg over to him. Clapping him on the shoulder, he said, “That’s the way!”

Slayer’s Heart felt better entrusting the Pet Egg to one of his own people. Though as a pet, it was not the most attractive prospect, when you got right down to it, it was a Boss-level pet. Once it was hatched, it would doubtless be a tremendous boon to any player, and so he would be hesitant to sell off this hard-won treasure.

Dinosaurcerer agreeing to look after the Deathvenom Spider himself was, to Slayer’s Heart as well as everyone else, the best possible outcome. Who knew how long it would be before they found another Boss-level Pet Egg? It would be silly to think that everyone in the party would be able to get one for themselves.

With the party gaining a Boss-level pet, their power level would go up even higher.

Dinosaurcerer, you’ve made the right choice! Even if most players would consider this particular pet more curse than blessing…

Dinosaurcerer took the Pet Egg, his heart all aflutter, but also steeped in dread at the same time! He had no idea what a Deathvenom Spider would be like when hatched as a pet, nor did he know whether or not a Summoner could perform a Beastform Fusion with their own pet—which had been the main reason he had accepted this pet. If it was possible, it would make him tremendously powerful, and bring him that much closer to his goals! But the answers to all these questions would have to wait a few days.

Now that Dinosaurcerer had accepted this burden, Slayer’s Heart was at peak morale, and with a resounding call he reminded everyone, “Alright, get ready to kick some more ass!”

“Qin Ruo, prepare another Twelve Frostramparts Formation!”

Qin Ruo, still in awe at Dinosaurcerer’s selfless virtue, responded to the command with an “Okay” gesture. The crystal at the tip of his Frostburst Staff began to radiate a faint magical radiance.

Row after row of transparent Aquaramparts transformed instantly at Qin Ruo’s command.

“Freeze!”

The Twelve Frostramparts Formation in place once more, the party of ten immediately sped toward the crossroads.

Not thirty meters down the corridor, spiders attacked!

*Buzz! Buzz!*

*Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!*

From the ground and through the air, the noise rolled in, wave after wave. Then they burst into the light of the Illuminating Crystal, and into the view of Qin Ruo and company.

Maintaining all twelve Frostramparts, Qin Ruo fell back on the same plan as before: the twelve Frostramparts sealing off the corridor in front and behind, all raised in an instant. Simultaneously, he used Mana Drain to lead the offensive, and an unfortunate Violetwing Venomspider who had flown within thirty meters of him was drained of 50 MP.

Fierce winter winds tore at the incoming Violetwing Venomspiders and Chameleon Spiders, slowing them down even as the Frostramparts rendered the Chameleon Spiders’ abilities useless. Burning Rose and Dinosaurcerer threw their AoE spells into the packed swarm of spiders, dealing six to seven hundred damage each second, consuming the spiders like moths diving into a flame.

Behind them, the corridor was silent. A few of the people in the rear discussed this for a bit, and agreed that although the volume of spiders had been doubled due to two parties entering the dungeon at the same time, the second wave of attacks probably had not been set off yet.

The spiders pouring in non-stop from ahead of them had probably been drawn in by the first group, earlier. That meant no more spiders would appear behind them for the time being!

“Excellent! Before more spiders join in behind us, everyone concentrate your fire and wipe out the ones in front! Careful—stay within the Frostramparts Formation; don’t take one step out of it!”

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Slayer’s Heart called out these instructions, then led Little Apple, Wang Da, and Gold Digger Babe to intercept the Chameleon Spiders struggling to get past the Frostramparts.

With four close-combat classes and three long-ranged attack classes, their firepower was twice what they had when they first entered the Underground Chambers, and the Experience Points flooded in!

Qin Ruo had the most leisurely time of it, since all he had to do was move the Frostramparts around—something he could handle without even thinking about it. What was more, the volume of enemies was only half of what they had faced earlier.

While controlling the flow of Chameleon Spiders, every six seconds he sought out an unlucky spider here and there to Mana Drain it again, keeping his MP topped up. Every half a minute, he gulped an MP Potion.

Calmly he watched his Battle Log as the experience points poured in, as easily as anything.

The close-combat classes, fighting within the Twelve Frostramparts Formation with the support of two Radiant Priests, against the spiders that had been dramatically slowed down… they, too, were just having a good time watching the experience points roll in.

However, the battle seemed to be taking a while! It carried on for nearly half an hour, and pretty much everyone in the party had received a “Level Up” notice before the spiders finally began to dwindle in number.

“Alright. Rose, Dino, that’s enough for now!” Slayer’s Heart directed the two main spell-cannons to cease their area-effect attacks, and then nodded in Qin Ruo’s direction.

Without a need for further explanation, Qin Ruo knew what Slayer’s Heart wanted. He had not forgotten that one last group of spiders was meant to be spared, so that Dinosaurcerer could bind them.

Immediately chugging down an MP Potion (M), he directed the Frostramparts under his control to slowly sweep forward, so that the dozen or so Chameleon Spiders being lured toward Slayer’s Heart and the others, as well as another dozen Violetwing Venomspiders overhead, were corralled in between the Twelve Frostramparts.

“Compressed Frost Bullet!”

*Bang!*

The Frost Bullet burst into its Sudden Explosion in mid-air, millions of Ice Blades tearing through the Violetwing Venomspiders.

A dozen Violetwing Venomspiders wailed piteously in the air, and then, like airplanes suffering from engine failure, they fell to the ground, their blood falling like a shower of green droplets.

Within the enclosure of Frostramparts, all ten party members burst into action. Slayer’s Heart and the others dealt one attack at a time to those spiders which still had a lot of HP remaining. Little Arrow and Gold Digger Babe meanwhile looked for spiders with only a couple hundred HP left, so that they could shred them up in a heartbeat!

Both girls were using normal physical attacks, each individual strike worth only a few dozen points of damage on a Chameleon Spider. With buffs from Violet Orchid and Violetmoon Devilite, this made them the best candidates for bringing each spider down to near-death.

Dinosaurcerer was the most frantic of them all. With Mana Core in hand, he dashed over to those Violetwing Venomspiders which Qin Ruo had just about torn apart with his magic, and used his Binding skill!

***

“Bind!” Along with that great shout from Dinosaurcerer, a wave of dark magic, rich and majestic, poured forth from the Mana Core he held, and completely enveloped the form of a Violetwing Venomspider which had been moving to counter-attack.

Not two seconds later…

*Pow!*

The Mana Core burst apart in his hands, crumbling into dust and drifting away in the air.

“You okay?” Qin Ruo frowned over at him, seeing that where the Mana Core had shattered, it’d left numerous cuts on Dinosaurcerer’s palms.

Dinosaurcerer seemed used to this sort of thing happening. Shaking his head, he quickly consumed a HP Potion and pulled out another Mana Core. Concentrating his mana, he tried again.

“Bind!”

*Pow!*

Another broken Mana Core.

Qin Ruo winced. That was a Tier 4 Mana Core, worth over a thousand gold coins! The cost of using Summoner skills was far too great!

When the fourth Mana Core ruptured in Dinosaurcerer’s hands, Qin Ruo was in despair. Without another word, he began to finish off the spiders they had trapped—he felt there were rather more here than they would need.

It was at just that moment when Dinosaurcerer’s voice rang out with delight.

“Aha! It worked!”