The Elite monsters in Origin all had different traits. Other than the super Elite monsters around the Bosses, as long as the players knew the way around the monsters and had occupation classes that could restrict the monsters' skill set, a party of fewer than 10 players could take out the Elites in the wild.
Without effective occupation classes, the demand for the movements and gears of the party would be a lot higher.
The large sand wolf was an Elite that required a Shield Knight in the party to effectively take it down. The large sand wolf would cast [Howl] every 10 seconds to increase its Attack Speed, Movement Speed, and Physical Attack.
On top of that, it would also grant the large sand wolf immunity to crowd-control skills and it would also cast [Furious Rampant] skills during the duration of the immunity.
Even though [Howl] only had a short three-second duration, without a Shield Knight, it would be hard for players to tank [Furious Rampant] after the first [Howl].
[Furious Rampant]'s attack was high and two hits would be enough to lower a player's HP to a critical level whereby unlucky players would die on the spot. After tanking the first [Furious Rampant], the whole party's average HP would be halved.
A single Priest in the early stage did not possess the skills to heal the entire party's HP to the full bar within 10 seconds. If the first [Furious Rampant] did not kill any players, the second [Furious Rampant] would break the entire party.
The large sand wolf was on Level 18, but despite its level being a lot higher than theirs, Mohai was not afraid.
He did not attack the large sand wolf because he was worried about something else.
"Roar!"
The large sand wolf roared when it saw Mohai and his Nomad bandit leaders invade its territory. It jumped on them with several other sand wolves.
"Listen to my command. Dodge the attacks and try to keep your HP up!" Mohai commanded.
With [Heavy Bash], a control skill, the large sand wolf was no match for them in its normal form.
The Ghost took the lead and self-destructed, reducing the other sand wolves to half HP. Mohai told the other bandit leaders to kill the normal sand wolves first before he led them to attack the large sand wolves.
The large sand wolf tried to jump on Mohai, but he dodged it and counterattacked with [Heavy Bash]. Stunned, the large sand wolf's next attack was disrupted.
Then, the other bandit leaders jumped in and attacked it.
The large sand wolf's Defense was not that high, so a single explosion chipped off a thousand of its HP and with the bandit leaders' follow-up attack, it lost another thousand swiftly.
In a blink of an eye, the large sand wolf lost a tenth of its HP.
The large sand wolf tried to counterattack, but No. 13 landed [Heavy Bash] on it. The others continued their attacks and chipped off another thousand of its HP.
Before it could recover, the next [Heavy Bash] followed, disrupting its attack once again.
Being surrounded by more than a dozen bandit leaders was quite a tragedy. All the sand wolf did was twitch and the next [Heavy Bash] stopped it from moving.
With no other alternative, the large sand wolf roared and activated [Howl]. A layer of red light enveloped it whole, boosting its stats and granting it immunity.
"Split up!" Mohai shouted.
Under its immunity state, [Heavy Bash] could no longer stun it.
Swoosh!
The large sand wolf moved quickly like a shadow and rammed into Mohai.
'Got you!'
Mohai wanted the large sand wolf to know he was the leader of the entire team and that without his command, the entire team would be much weaker, hence misleading the large sand wolf to attack him.
After casting [Howl], the large sand wolf's speed surged and further skyrocketed when it cast [Furious Rampant]. There were no obstacles in the area, and as a bandit leader, Mohai was bigger than other players.
There was no way he could dodge the [Furious Rampant] in such a close distance.
However, Mohai did not plan to dodge it from the beginning.
With 3 seconds of immunity, [Furious Rampant] could hit him around six times with each blow inflicting around 600 damage. He would be able to survive even if he took it all.
The important thing was that he could not allow his subordinates to get hit.
The large sand wolf rammed furiously into Mohai and he welcomed it by swinging his weapon at its head. Infuriated, it crashed into him and turned around to prepare for a second attack.
'Huh? The placement doesn't seem right!'
The large sand wolf did not lose its mind to rage. After it rammed into Mohai and turned around for the second hit, it had already fixed its direction so that it could smash the other bandit leaders.
It wanted to wipe out the entire team, so the other bandit leaders were its target as well.
However, when it turned around, it realized that the other bandit leaders had moved away from their original spot.
The duration of [Howl] was short, thus the large sand wolf did not have time to think and was forced to ram into Mohai again. It planned to attack the others upon the third charge.
To its surprise, after the second ram into Mohai, it noticed the other bandit leaders moving away once again. After the three-second duration, the large sand wolf only rammed Mohai six times whilst the others were fine.
'Damn it! But this leader is at half HP. With two more attacks, I can kill him!'
10 seconds flew by in an instant. The large sand wolf howled again as it charged into Mohai.
This time around, the large sand wolf planned to ram into the others, but it realized that after the three seconds, it was only able to attack Mohai.
'Never mind. The leader is already at a critical level. I can finish him with one more round!'
However, there was no more next round.
The large sand wolf had 20,000 HP, and after Mohai's team ganged up on it for more than 20 seconds, it died before it could cast [Howl] for the third time.
The large sand wolf was dead. If they were able to stay out of conflict, their HPs would quickly recover, but the team remained in conflict.
After the large sand wolf died, the system already acknowledged Mohai's occupancy of the large sand wolf's Reincarnation Pool since he was nearby, but the black waters in the pool suddenly glowed red.
There were no other monsters in the area but as the red glow shone brighter, more sand wolves jumped out and their eyes were shining red.
Compared to normal sand wolves, these sand wolves seemed a little fierce and stronger. On top of that, the large sand wolf that Mohai and his team just killed sprung out from the sands with glowing eyes.
'I knew it'.
This was the reason why Mohai did not kill the Elites and occupy their Reincarnation Pool along the way. He was worried that things might not be as easy as they seemed.
To a monster, the Reincarnation Pool was its house, and in order to shed off the Nomad status, the simplest way was to occupy a Reincarnation Pool.
However, since a Nomad was set to be hunted by endless waves of monsters, the game would not allow a Nomad to occupy a Reincarnation Pool this easily.
"Run! To the foot of the mountain in the mines!" Mohai was prepared for this. He led the team and sprinted towards the mines. He had chosen to kill the large sand wolf now because the Reincarnation Pool was close to the mines.
Roar!
With overflowing killing intentions, the large sand wolf led the onslaught at Mohai and his team furiously.
Its Attack was higher, its Defense stronger and its Speed faster. The red glow that enveloped the wolves seemed to buff them strongly.
Mohai and his team were facing tremendous pressure.
In this sandy wilderness, where players had yet to tread, a never-before-seen fierce battle was happening.
…
[Activity log]
[You have successfully occupied a Reincarnation Pool. Nomad status removed.]
After battling for a full 30 minutes, killing wave after wave of sand wolves that popped up from the ground, Mohai became the final victor.
"Boss, No. 2, 4 and 8 are gone," updated No. 13.
"I got it." Mohai nodded.
He had the experience he gained along the way and the mountain mines behind him to thank, plus the Oath Cross which he used once for healing. Otherwise, it would have been difficult for him to make it this far.
Nevertheless, three bandit leaders had died.
However, this little loss was not disrupting. Mohai had already gotten the Reincarnation Pool, so he could just recruit them back.
The large sand wolf had a Level 1 Reincarnation Pool. Mohai walked over and poured the Magical Spring Water and other necessary materials in to level it up right away.
He had asked Rexus for 20 Magical Spring Water, so leveling up the Reincarnation Pool to Level 2 was not a problem. However, this time, he did not receive XP as a reward anymore. It seemed like the XP reward was a one-time thing.
Mohai was not overly concerned. He prepared all the materials to bring No. 2, 4, and 8 back from the Eternal Sea.
An Elite monster soul was required to recruit an Elite subordinate, and thankfully Mohai had the souls of the black bear spirit, the Black-robed Ritualist, the Fire Demon, and the large sand wolf. It was more than enough to revive the three bandit leaders.
Mohai prepared 40 iron ores and 40 black iron ores for each of them and tossed them into the pool together with the souls.
Soon enough, the three dead bandit leaders came back up.
"The boss is really a good guy!" When the Ghost saw Mohai bring back his dead comrades, his fondness for Mohai rose a little.
Mohai then checked his own status. It seemed like the Nomad status was only gone for a while. If he moved more than 100 meters away from the Reincarnation Pool, the Nomad status would return.
It was more than enough at the moment. At least, he would not be attacked.
After he told his men to stay on guard, Mohai took some time off.
A while later, the two little lolis came by but did not see the monsters attacking Mohai anymore. They felt like it was strange. "Why aren't the monsters attacking them?"
"Maybe the monsters need to rest as well. It's getting late. We should go offline and continue tomorrow," said WinterSnow.
"Okay! Okay!" SummerFruit was already exhausted, so she nodded vigorously at her sister's suggestion.
…
After a night of rest, Mohai woke up energized.
"Boss, a large sand wolf popped up around midnight and stared at us for a while before it left. It seems like it's targeting us," the Ghost reported when Mohai opened his eyes.
"It's fine. Let's get going," said Mohai.
The occupancy of this Reincarnation Pool was not permanent, and if they stayed too long, even if the sand wolves and skeletons did not attack them, the large sand wolves might call in their pack and siege them. After all, they were the invaders of the large sand wolf's territory.
The group moved out and continued their slaughter for half a day. The two little lolis would pop up occasionally just to die in Mohai's hands.
After a long while, they reached a certain mountain mine and Mohai saw an NPC standing at the entrance. He had finally reached the destination of this tedious trip.