Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“Alright, alright! All of you, please stop bickering over such stuff!” Windy Hum coughed dryly and smiled at Lin Jie. “Please excuse us, these brothers of mine are disgracing themselves thoroughly!”

Lin Jie laughed. “Oh, no need for that. To be honest, I quite envy your team—all of you seem so at ease with one another. My mission also requires me to do something about Scout Radner. After all, the more specimens I collect, the better the rewards I will get. I shall shamelessly depend on you guys for help with the Boss then, hope you all don’t mind!”

“Okay!”

—’Player Windy Hum invited you to join their team. Do you accept?’

Yes!

Upon joining the team, Lin Jie realized that all of them openly revealed their names and levels in the group’s channel. In fact, one just needεδ to click on another player’s profile picture, and they could view all of that player’s equipment!

This meant one had to disclose one’s Stats when they joined this group!

Indeed, Orcc smiled and walked up to Lin Jie the next second. “Bro, here are three bottles of the Holy Light Rejuvenation Potion. Please accept them as a form of compensation.”

An idea occurred to Lin Jie. He kept one of the potions, and commented in a grateful tone, “Thank you so much. Wow, it’s the Holy Light Rejuvenation Potion! I have seen them before, you need five Merit Points to exchange for one bottle of this potion! If only I knew that I would be killing Scout Radner with you guys beforehand, I wouldn’t have spent my Merit Points carelessly…”

“Oh, what did you buy? Can you let us see it?”

Bitterness covered Lin Jie’s face as he revealed the Seed of Holy Light. Golden light immediately surrounded his body, and it was so shiny until almost all of the equipment he had were hidden from view. “I spent 10 Merit Points to exchange for a random reward. I thought I could get an Epic or Legendary grade equipment, yet I just got this thing, whose only use is to hide one’s equipment, level, appearance, and Stats. When you use it actively, you can still hide within the Holy Light for a while.”

Windy Hum’s eyes gleamed. In a split second, he already activated his Inspect spell, and he wore a look of surprise on his face. “What, there’s actually such a skill? Let me see… Oh yeah, I really can’t see your Stats now! By the way, bro, did you hide your Stats panel?”

“Nope. This skill can’t be called off when it’s just activated. I also feel super dumb now,” lamented Lin Jie.

“This skill can really hide your whereabouts?”

“Yes. I will show it to you now.”

Lin Jie shook his body. The Seed of Holy Light spun around his body faster and faster, until his figure disappeared in the surroundings.

Fog Concealment!

It was easy enough to use this skill and fool others now since thick bloody mists were present almost everywhere in Blood Swamp.

Windy Hum was stunned. ‘Is this for real? But… it is impossible for Warriors to enter Stealth mode. Yet he wasn’t seen by all of us just now. Perhaps, what he said was true?’

“Wth, there’s still such a skill? I also want to exchange my Merit Points for this skill. With this, I won’t be scared even if I met a whole group of Dark Blood Bandits again! Hahahaha…” The Bandit, Li, who was scoffed at previously for using his skills to escape danger, slapped his legs and commented in envy. He looked extremely sincere, and his words went along very well with his supposed ‘cowardly’ persona. Everyone laughed and threw him looks of despise.

The whole group livened up. The estranged atmosphere caused by Windy Hum’s interrogation of Lin Jie faded away.

“Alrighty, stop chatting! With the addition of our new brother here, our chances of killing Scout Radner will be increased! On your guards now, Scout Radner is about to appear!” With a command from Windy Hum, everyone put on serious expressions on their faces.

Huff puff—

A cyclone seemed to rise up from beneath the ground. The wet, muddy Blood Swamp was curled up into a huge ball. Mud flew about everywhere and spun around in mid-air!

This was the Bloody Cyclone!

The cyclone made bigger rounds, and howled more fiercely! Layers of earth beneath the players’ feet had all been sucked up by the cyclone as if being swept away by a huge thunderstorm!

Finally, the cyclone stopped and transformed into a mountain-like, blood-red demonic figure, with a single eyeball on top of it. With its appearance, the bloody mist around the region got even thicker.

-95! -95!

The players who had lesser resistance were struck down with the Blood Toxins already. The upper limit of their health bars began to decrease. Along with this effect, their armors were also being corroded.

This huge demonic figure was Scout Radner, one of the three main Raid Commanders within Blood Swamp!

Dwarvish Identify!

Scout Radner (Dark Gold Overlord)

Level: 45

Health Points: ???

Magic Attack: ???

Defense: 0-1,500

Note: This is a major Commander of Blood Swamp! It controls almost half of the Undead armed forces in Blood Swamp. Killing it will help the Guild of Light have an easier time in their battle. Meanwhile, the Scout is almost invincible!

As the Boss’ levels were too high, Lin Jie’s Inspection spells were unable to provide him with much useful information. Luckily, it was still able to disclose the Boss’ Defense points: 0-1,500!

Radner had two different modes of defense: when its body was actualized, its Mana Defense would be 1,500 points while its Physical Defense would be 0 points. When its body was not actualized, its Physical Defense would be 1,500 points, while its Mana Defense would be 0 points.

Lin Jie did not consider this as an obstacle. As long as one managed to time his attacks accurately, he would still be able to cause damage to the Boss. However, the difficulty of attacking Radner was something far beyond this!

As one of the major Raid Commanders at Blood Swamp, the Scout had a very off-putting signature skill. It would throw out a Blood Seed, which contained the Blood Toxins, every 30 seconds. This seed would run wild around an area of 100 meters from where it was being released, and cause Blood Toxins Damage equivalent to a Bloody Skeleton’s attacks to any players that it hit! Meanwhile, every time the seeds touched the Boss, they would help the Boss recover 10,000 health points!

The seeds would not disappear. Over time there would just be more of them around during the battle until they filled up the whole screen! What’s more, the accompanying ‘Blood Explosion’ skill was also very horrid. When the Boss used this skill, it would make one of the seeds attached to a random player, and explode after three seconds. The strength of the explosion would not be any less impactful than that of a Mage’s Sea of Flame skill.

Last but not least, the Boss also had a skill which was common among all Bosses of the Overlord level—summon underlings! When the Boss got into Enrage mode, it would make use of the dead players’ bodies present and transform them into Bloody Skeletons!

As such, one would require superior positioning skills when fighting against this Boss!

During the earlier stages of the fight, players would have to avoid the seeds at all costs and prevent the seeds from touching the Boss. The seeds would change their direction randomly once they hit any targets. However, the main issue was to prevent the Boss from getting healed by the seeds. At the same time, when the Boss utilized the Blood Explosion skill, the players who were targeted would have to run away from the crowd as far as possible to avoid implicating the rest of the team.

As long as the players could handle the earlier stages of the fight effectively, it wouldn’t be too difficult to take on the Boss’ underlings at the later stages!

Windy Hum said to Lin Jie, “Bro if I didn’t see wrongly, you have some skill or equipment that provides immunity against Blood Toxins?”

Lin Jie nodded. “Yes!”

“Then, I will have to trouble you to help the MTs attract the Boss’ aggro.”

“Okay!”

Forward Charge! Pounce!

There were no typical MT-type of jobs within the team—the whole team was made up of jobs more suited for battling in the wild, and the supposed MTs roles were being taken up by a few druids. Even though they were Druids specialized in Panther forms, they could also learn to transform into bears. However, their ability to attract aggro would be much weaker.

Hunter’s Forward Charge!

Lin Jie sprinted to the front of the Boss. At this moment, the Boss was transforming into its actualized form!

Shield Cut!

-1,758!

The Boss’ health bar was finally revealed—it had 1,000,000 points!

Meanwhile, everyone was shocked by Lin Jie’s damage output.

“Such high damage!”

“What, the Boss has so much blood?! Seems like it’s going to be a tough battle.”

“Wow, he’s so pro! We definitely are in luck to have him on our team!”

Everyone commended Lin Jie, but they continued with their attacks too. Although the Boss would be immune to half of the damage outputs dealt upon it during its transition stages, no one could care less. Everyone was just trying their best to bring down the Boss’ health points as much as possible—in any case, they wouldn’t lose anything even if the Boss was immune to a few of their attacks.

However, Lin Jie’s damage output did make them form a new impression of him!

“The audacity of you… to barge into hell! Then enjoy my torments! The blood which you depended on for life shall become your nightmare!” With a wave of its hands, the Boss summoned a Blood Seed and flung it at Lin Jie.

“Bone Membrane Armor!”

Lin Jie was not deterred by this action. With the Bone Membrane Armor covering the surface of his body, he was unafraid of the Blood Toxins!

Even if this team could kill the Scout, they would have to pay a terrible price for it! Yet as long as Lin Jie kept up his high performance, he would be deemed all the more valuable to the team, and hence must be kept alive at all costs! If not, the whole team might just be taken down by the monster!

Seeing how the Blood Toxins were ineffective against Lin Jie, Windy Hum was exhilarated. He shouted, “Guys, concentrate on dealing out damage outputs! As long as we can kill the Scout, we will all have a rise in our military rankings!”

Lin Jie gulped down a Berserker Potion and attacked fervently on a spurt of energy. The Scout had 1,000,000 health points, and that was quite a target to clear. However, its attacks were not that strong during the earlier stages of the battle. A few Blood Seeds could not deter the whole team that much! This would be the best time for the team to deal out damage.

In Lin Jie’s previous life, there had been only one way to kill Scout Radner: invite players of higher levels to join one’s team, and kill Radner before its seeds became a huge threat! If not, even the best among the higher-leveled players would not be able to kill it!

Just imagine—the monster would recuperate 10,000 health points as long as a single Blood Seed touched its body. With hundreds of seeds flying about, it literally meant that the monster could recover almost as high as hundred thousands health points per second. Who could kill such a monster?

Within the next 10 minutes, the team made a combined effort and cleared off almost 40% of the monster’s available health points! This was the power of being in a team.

However, Lin Jie couldn’t help but compare this team’s performance with Savage Blade. If the team present was Savage Blade, they most probably would have been more efficient. After all, team spirit was what made a team powerful. Savage Blade longed to explore dungeons together 24

/7, and how could they be lacking in team spirit?

Yet the team which Lin Jie was now in did not seem to coordinate very well with one another, even though they all seemed quite strong. That made all the difference.

Beginning from now, the Scout’s terrifying prowess was revealed! With 20 crimson Blood Seeds flying all about, everyone was being confined to a few areas. They had a harder time finding a good position for themselves, and very often, they would bump right into one another. Or else, they would both be hit by a single Blood Seed at the same time!

After all, the Boss’ Blood Seeds were its signature skill. As long as one got hit by it, the upper limit of his health point would be reduced by 90%. If that particular player was hit by the Blood Seed for a second time, he would be instakilled! Even though the whole team had tried to disperse their positions around the area, it seemed rather hard to avoid being hit.

Whoosh—

One Blood Seed flew towards the Boss! As long as it touched the Boss, it would recover 10,000 health points!

“Heads up, the Boss’ attempting to recover his health points!” shouted Windy Hum. At this moment, a blood-red figure appeared and kicked the Blood Seed far away from the Boss!

The Blood Seed flew across the sky and hit the Druid Orcc after its change of direction. Like gangrene attached to the bone, it engulfed 90% of Orcc’s entire health bar!

-1,845!

At this moment, a hand reached out from the thick bloody mist from where the Boss was supposed to be. The hand pointed at Orcc, and a voice boomed, “Orcc, enjoy the gift of Blood! Blood Explosion!”

That was the naming skill—the Blood Explosion!

Whoosh—

The Blood Seed on Orcc’s body swelled and was about to explode in a moment!

“Bro, thanks for blocking the seed just now! I am not as useful to the team as you are. Here, take these two Holy Light Rejuvenation Potions from me!” To Lin Jie’s surprise, Orcc actually threw him the Holy Light Rejuvenation Potions when he got hit and knew he was bound to die!

Lin Jie accepted the potions. The next second, Orcc made a mad dash for the outer rims of the battlefield. His body swelled up like a balloon and exploded with a loud boom!

—’Your teammate, Orcc, is dead!’