"You are under me from now on. Follow orders and you will be treated fairly," said Mohai.
"Yes, Boss, I'll do my best to serve you!" said Ghost. He almost jumped onto Mohai and hugged his leg to thank him. After learning the rules behind recruiting, Mohai knew why the Ghost reacted in such a way.
The Ghost was a special kind of monster in the game. In the areas where Ghosts spawned, their level varied from Levels 10 to 40 or higher, and a Ghost could only transform into Elite monsters beyond Level 45.
For some reason, this Ghost that Mohai recruited became a Variant Elite at Level 12. He had also been killed once and was sent back to the Eternal Sea.
The Eternal Sea was where monsters went when they died, and Mohai knew from the bandit goons that the place was also known as the Sea of Death. There was no concept of time in the Eternal Sea. To those bandit goons who had not actualized their self-thinking ability, it was a boring place. If they were not recruited, they could not do anything at all in that place.
According to the rules of recruitment, the monster souls that were thrown into the Reincarnation Pool was the fee that one had to pay to the system. It would not end up in the recruited unit's hands.
Different monsters had different costs, and if one simply threw things into the Reincarnation Pool, the worst kind of subordinates would be below Level 10. Anything below that would result in a failed recruitment.
The recruited unit's template and level would be more or less the same as that of the recruiter. It would not be higher but it would not be ridiculously lower either, especially when it came to the level. Units that were at least 5 levels below the recruiter would not appear on the list.
Since this Ghost was a Level 12 Variant Elite, the fee for reincarnation was high and only the Boss in the game had what it took to recruit an Elite. However, the lowest level Boss was at least Level 20. Therefore, a Level 12 Variant Ghost would not appear on the recruitment list of the Boss.
On top of that, the cost of recruiting a monster around the area was a lot lower than recruiting a monster from a different region. Most Bosses used the materials to only recruit or revive a local monster.
With all those restrictions, if Mohai's materials were not luxurious enough, the Level 12 Variant Elite Ghost would not be able to come back from the Eternal Sea.
The Ghost knew that it was difficult for it to be revived, hence he pledged his loyalty to Mohai right away.
Mohai had spent a fortune to save him from the Eternal Sea, so Mohai must be rich! If Mohai decided to throw him away because of how useless he was, he could never come back again!
Coming back from the Eternal Sea was not easy. The Ghost was meek and nervous and he cautiously looked at Mohai as he asked, "Boss, you won't send me to die, will you?"
"A self-destructing Ghost is afraid of dying? Don't be a coward. Listen to my orders carefully and I assure you that not only will you not die, but you can also even get something good. If you really die in the process, I'll just revive you again," said Mohai.
The Ghost realized that Mohai had been giving out orders ever since he was recruited. He had a peek outside and was shocked. 'Holy sh*t! This new boss is awesome! Has he got that many Elites under him? Even my ex-boss at Ghost Valley doesn't have this many Elites as subordinates!'
At this point, the Ghost already believed everything Mohai said.
"Cut the crap. We are being surrounded by Adventurers. Listen to me. You need to kill that Adventurer by self-destructing. Otherwise, you will die for real."
ShawnWoo sent more and more players in as support, and the bandit leaders were losing their advantage. The other players, who were waiting for an opportunity, were getting restless. Mohai actually planned to take care of the situation himself, but since he had already recruited a useful Ghost, it would be a waste if he did not put the Ghost to work.
"Ok, I'll go right away!" The Ghost looked around and evaluated the situation. He believed that Mohai told the truth, and if Mohai was defeated, he would not be able to run either, hence the determination.
The Ghost floated out of the stone house. He quickly located ShawnWoo and flew towards him.
Unlike the other bandit leaders, the moment the Ghost came out, he attracted the attention of most of the players.
"What is that?"
"It's fast!"
"It's going for ShawnWoo!"
As a spirit-type monster, the Ghost's flying speed was astonishingly fast and it managed to shock everyone.
"Sorcerers, concentrate firing at it! Don't let it come near me." ShawnWoo was calm.
The monsters attacking a commanding player was not something unusual, but they were fighting some low-level monsters and it took ShawnWoo by surprise.
He had players around him that acted as bodyguards and most of them were Sorcerers. Soon, more than 10 Sorcerers attacked the Ghost under ShawnWoo's command.
After changing their occupation, the Sorcerer's attack surged. Not many monsters could tank such firepower from that many Sorcerers.
However, the Ghost grinned and turned a blind eye to the rain of [Fireballs].
"What's wrong? I can't damage that thing!"
The [Fireballs] hit the Ghost, but what happened next shocked the Sorcerers. Their [Fireballs] inflicted only 1 point of damage and failed to break through the monster's defenses.
"Maybe this monster has a higher Magical Defense. Warriors upfront, Archers and Hunters ready!"
A group of warriors stepped up and several Hunters and Archers fired arrows at the Ghost together.
"It's still not working!"
After the second wave of attack, the players remained shocked.
Physical damage might not be as ineffective as the [Fireballs], but all the arrows did was a pitiful 10 damage each. The rain of arrows did not even slow the Ghost down.
"[Provoke]!"
Even after two waves of attacks, the players did not stop the Ghost and the Ghost was closing on to ShawnWoo quickly. A Shield Knight jumped out and cast [Provoke] at the Ghost, trying to lure it away from ShawnWoo.
[Provoke] was cast successfully, but the Ghost did not follow the Shield Knight. It kept flying towards ShawnWoo.
"Not even [Provoke] works?" ShawnWoo was utterly shocked this time.
'Magic damage can't penetrate its defenses and physical damage is pitifully low. It can't even be provoked. Is this little thing a Boss?' ShawnWoo wondered.
'Hehe, the players won't be able to deal with the Ghost at their current level.' Mohai was not worried about the Ghost at all.
Having spent a fortune on the recruitment, of course, he would not send the Ghost to die. After all, he still needed the Ghost to help him deal with the Magma Golem.
All spirit-type monsters in the game had a 90% damage reduction against physical and magical damage. Only holy element attacks could effectively damage them. Otherwise, regardless of numbers, all damage would be useless against it.
The other thing was the Ghost's special trait. His black body was actually made up of fire and he has extremely strong resistance against fire elemental damage. Even though the Sorcerers had a bit of holy attribute in their attacks, their fire element spells could not damage the Ghost.
The Sorcerers were only on Level 10, so their [Fireballs] were just a little bit better than useless.
As for [Provoke], it actually worked against the Ghost, but once the Ghost locked on to his self-destruct target, he would be immune to any type of aggro skills.
Kaboom!
Despite ShawnWoo's attempt to retreat, the Ghost got close enough and it was already too late.
The Ghost's black body turned red, followed by a huge explosion. In the blink of an eye, 20 players, including ShawnWoo, were killed by the blast.
In the epicenter, a blue cone-shaped ice shard remained in the air.
A lot of players were distracted by their commander's death and did not notice the cone-shaped ice shard. The blue ice shard flew down and absorbed the red energy from the explosion.
A black spot appeared in the ice shard, and moments later, the Ghost, which was the size of a palm, reappeared. As the ice shard floated into the sky, the Ghost gained his body volume back.
"Holy sh*t! This monster is reviving!"
"Attack!"
Even after killing 20 players, including ShawnWoo with its self-destruct skill, the monster was still alive?
The other players could no longer remain calm.
Some of the closer players switched their targets from the bandit leaders to the Ghost and tried to attack him from afar. However, they realized their attacks could barely damage the Ghost.
In less than 10 seconds, the Ghost returned to its prime form.
"Hahaha!" The Ghost laughed excitedly when he realized the Adventurers could not kill him.
Kaboom!
The Ghost charged into the group of players and self-destructed again. After the explosion, the players watched the Ghost come back to life.
After the second explosion, the players realized if they did not destroy the ice shard when it appeared during the 10 seconds window, the monster could revive infinitely.
However, given the player's damage, even if a hundred of them attacked together, they could see no hope of destroying the ice shard in time.
Kaboom!
"F*ck! Retreat!"
"This monster is too OP! It's bugged! We can't kill it at all!"
After the Ghost killed another dozen players by self-destructing, the players lost the will to fight.
Two explosions killed around 30 to 40 players, and without ShawnWoo as the commander, the bandit leaders retook the advantage. If the players stayed back, they would still die when the Ghost came back.
"What kind of monster is this? It doesn't seem like a Boss. It's a lot stronger! We can't even kill it!"
The Ghost's explosive performance was jaw-dropping to TemperedSteel and the others.
"It's not that the monster can't die, but the one behind the monster is smart," said FallenMoon with a shake of her head.
As a Priest, she had figured out a way to deal with the Ghost. She also noticed that the other Priests had the same thought as they tried to sneak up on the Ghost with holy attacks.
However, even if the Ghost did not notice the Priests, he was still able to dodge the holy attacks and kill the Priests with the explosion.
"Let's go. The Elite bandit leaders have started to hunt players down," FallenMoon said to LadyDragon. The last bandit leader had come out from the stone house, so he led the other bandit leaders to hunt down the surviving players.
"Sure, we can talk along the way." After the show ended and TemperedSteel found a collaboration partner, he nodded and followed the ladies away.
"I'll see you again." DeepSea nodded at the three of them and left on her own.