The Versatile Witch emphasised her role, saying, "I also have an aging curse, which can weaken monsters."
Aging Curse: Sacrifice ten percent of the caster's HP, weaken monsters in range. Their movement speed, damage, and armor are reduced by 15%
Their eyes brightened, and Ditzy Dumbo said, "Big sis, you don't have to worry about your HP. Besides the Healing Totem, I can also cast healing spells."
"In that case, our chances are even greater." With this, they slaughtered monsters while searching for advantageous terrain.
However, after searching for half an hour, they found nothing satisfactory. Li Yao frowned slightly and said, "I know of a mountain cave. The only problem is that going into the cave leaves us with no way out. Are you willing to give it a try?"
"Sure, we could try luring only a few monsters to start with." Ditzy Dumbo was eager to get started.
The three arrived at the cave. Looking at it, it seemed quite deep, at least sixty or seventy yards.
"This will do perfectly!" Ditzy Dumbo placed two totems at the entrance of the cave and a Healing Totem deep inside.
"This is an Explosive Totem; it creates a Flame Explosion for area damage. Combined with my Lightning Chain, our area damage will be very strong. Place your Arrow Towers after the Grounding Totem and Big Sister's aging curse slow down those stupid frogs!" Dumbo started directing Li Yao.
Li Yao didn't mind. He placed the three Arrow Towers and also set two Spike Traps at the entrance, while the Versatile Witch summoned her Bronze Skull.
"Wait here; I'll lure the monsters."
Li Yao ran out of the cave and started luring monsters. For their first attempt, he lured five elite monsters and several smaller Poisonous Frogs, which was just enough for area sweeps.
Seeing the nine monsters following Li Yao, the Versatile Witch was shocked. When she had been leveling up the past few days, she mainly killed ordinary monsters. Anyone else would probably think that any player leading so many monsters was simply courting death.
Li Yao jumped over the totems and Arrow Towers while the Poisonous Frogs swiftly fell into the range of the totems and Arrow Towers.
Aging Curse!
A circle of light fell upon the masses of monsters, drastically slowing their movements.
Pop!
The Explosive Totem emitted flame shockwaves, and the Spike Traps also exploded.
Zap!
Ditzy Dumbo's Lightning Chain was fired into the mass of monsters.
Numerous damage values floated above the heads of the Poisonous Frogs.
The barrage of fire damage, bleeding damage, Arrow Tower damage, Lightning Chain damage, and Bone Spear damage filled the visible damage numbers area. Thanks to the Grounding Totem, the monsters seemed to have entered swampy terrain.
Li Yao also intensified his output; he didn't dare to be careless. If the monsters broke through their blockade, they would be surrounded and have nowhere to run.
When the monsters drew near the totems and Arrow Towers, all normal monsters had already fallen, leaving only a few elite ones.
Li Yao squatted down to place an Exploding Sheep, which dashed to the cave entrance.
A few elite monsters squeezed into the entrance when the Exploding Sheep exploded.
The area damage of over a hundred points surprised the other two, making their eyes nearly pop out. The two elite monsters at the front, which had initially received the most firepower, collapsed under the force of the Exploding Sheep.
"Wow, that was thrilling! What was that?" Ditzy Dumbo exclaimed.
Although the Versatile Witch didn't ask outright, she looked at Li Yao, clearly wanting to know as well.
"Oh, it's nothing. Just a product of Engineering, an Exploding Sheep," Li Yao replied.
"So Engineering is this exciting! I'll try it when I get back!" Ditzy Dumbo's eyes sparkled.
Li Yao just chuckled. Without the bonus from the Eye of the Creator, an Engineer's items wouldn't have been so powerful.
When the last elite monster fell, the Versatile Witch sighed, "This is really incredible. If I told anyone about this, they would probably think I'm crazy."
"Hehe, it's mainly because the three of us are just too powerful. If Big Brother and Big Sister knew area attacks, it would be perfect." Ditzy Dumbo joyfully continued, "I heard that the so-called professional teams struggle to kill a Level 4 elite, which is just pathetic."
"It's not that they're weak, but rather you two are too abnormal, especially you, Prairie Fire." The Versatile Witch directed this towards Li Yao's calm face.
Li Yao's heart skipped a beat. It was obvious that both of them had connections with professional clubs, and could even contact the higher-ups. Ditzy Dumbo might be a Shaman participating in the Divine Enthronement, and the Versatile Witch, who had a Bronze Skeleton at this point, wasn't a pushover either. But thinking about the 2 billion players, many experts preferred to stay behind the scenes; he decided not to dwell on it.
The three sat on the ground, chatting and regaining their energy and HP.
After a while, Ditzy Dumbo was on her feet again. Slapping Li Yao's shoulder, she said, "Alright, it's time to get to work. Big Brother, the task of saving the world is up to you."
Li Yao was speechless. He stood up and went out to lure monsters again. The second wave included seven elite monsters and a few normal ones. This time their hands were full. After exterminating this wave, the three of them were left in poor shape.
"That was too dangerous. Five to six elite monsters would suffice; bringing in more normal ones doesn't matter The AoE damage will wipe them out," the Versatile Witch suggested.
"Alright." On the third wave, Li Yao lured out six elite monsters: it was slightly tough to deal with them, but at least there was no significant danger.
That's how it went; Li Yao kept luring waves of elite and normal monsters to the cave, wiping them out wave by wave. Thanks to the support from his teammates, he leveled up much faster than when he was solo.
Even Li Yao felt it was fast, let alone the Chameleon Witch and Dumbbell Pupil. After several hours, they leveled up to level four one after the other.
The two women found it almost addictive, and the trio fought fervently for eleven hours, only stopping when it got dark and Li Yao got into a risky situation while luring monsters.
"That was so exhilarating I don't want to stop." Despite being exhausted, Dumbbell Pupil's eyes were filled with excitement.
"It took me three days just to reach level three, but leveled up to four and a half in just one day. It's just too surreal." The Chameleon Witch was eager for more.
Li Yao was just short of level five, but he had to stop.
"We'll call it a day. We'll get back to this later."
"Okay, Big Brother, you can't leave me behind. Otherwise, I'm going to complain about you on the forum." Dumbbell Pupil said, reluctant to leave.
"Of course not. Dumbbell Pupil, you are such a hard hitter, even better than me." Li Yao patted Dumbbell Pupil's head.
"Keep in touch." The Chameleon Witch also started using her Hearthstone.
Seeing the other two returning home using Hearthstone, Li Yao instead tiptoed to Freyr to complete his task.
When Freyr saw the over one thousand elite toxic glands and several hundred standard ones that Li Yao presented, he was almost popping his eyes out.
"My friend, you have truly surprised me, your combat prowess far exceeded my expectations." Freyr brought out a long bow and a cape and said, "These are your rewards. As a friend, you can pick one."
Li Yao was slightly startled. He knew the guide he read offered Blue Equipment, but clearly there was no weapon. The attributes also weren't as prime, so obviously the toxic glands he gathered really exceeded Freyr's expectations.
Now he had a choice of a bow, which Li Yao didn't need, but the cloak seemed pretty good.
Shadow Cloak
Quality: Blue
Strength: 7
Agility: 5
Interpretation: Easier to hide when standing still
"My friend, you have a keen eye. This cloak was my favorite when I was young. I hope you can put it to good use." Freyr gently stroked the cloak before handing it over to Li Yao.
A dazzling golden light illuminated and Li Yao advanced to level five.
Li Yao put on the cloak. His attributes significantly increased. The massive cloak made him look like a wizard. If he were to flip the hood on, he would look just like the Chameleon Witch in her cloak. Others could hardly see his face.
"Anything else I can help with?"
Freyr waved his hand and said, "It's late. Come find me here tomorrow."
"Alright." Li Yao bowed in response and started using his Hearthstone.
Li Yao logged off. The sun was already high up in the sky. He missed breakfast. After staying over for one night, he managed to get some instant noodles for breakfast.
Just as Li Yao was considering going out for exercise, his communicator suddenly rang.
"Does our committee member still remember me?" The holographic screen showed a somewhat androgynous woman in a professional dress, appearing very efficient.
"How could I forget our esteemed class president?" Li Yao responded with a slight smile. The woman speaking was the vice-president and life committee officer during their college years. Li Yao served as the academic committee member, though he never deemed this position important.
"I must correct you once again, I'm the vice-president."
Li Yao smirked. Of course, he knew the actual class president was Li Haitao, a flamboyant second-generation rich kid, "Alright, alright, he's always entitled but when trouble arises, he's nowhere to be found. By the way, why did our honorable class president remember this nobody like me?"
It wasn't that Li Yao bore a grudge against the rich, but Li Haitao's position was a bit underhanded. His father donated a hundreds-story experimental building to the school, everyone knew the story well.
"Ehem, I almost forgot what I was here for. Do you remember the reunion we discussed a while ago?" Wang Xiaolei asked.
"Uh, yeah, I remember. So, you've set the date and location?" Li Yao asked.
"Yes, since everyone is here in Mingzhu City for the carnival, we thought it would be a good opportunity as many people would be coming. So, we decided to have a get-together. It's at 10 a.m. today, at the Mingzhu Grand Hotel. You're available, right?"
"Sure, I'll be there on time." After hanging up, Li Yao's memory of the upcoming reunion became clearer.
To increase its publicity, The Ancient God World coordinated a promotional carnival across all the administrative stars in the Solar System and all major administrative districts.
The location for the China region was in Mingzhu City. It was a grand occasion. After the carnival, it signified the demise of all the struggling old games and the arrival of The Ancient God World's era of domination.
Many of Li Yao's classmates had tickets. These people came to Mingzhu in advance to reconnect with old classmates a year after graduation. Of course, the most active one was the nominal class president.
Li Haitao's father also saw the potential of The Ancient God World's market and entrusted the gaming business to Li Haitao, who wanted to rally most of his classmates under his command and establish a guild. After all, classmates were close-knit and the attractive conditions were indeed enticing.
However, Li Haitao and Li Yao were simply incompatible. They had had lots of arguments in school. Last lifetime, the reunion led to a very humiliating incident for Li Yao, causing him to lose face and become the laughingstock of the event.
"After a reincarnation..." Li Yao chuckled and walked into the bathroom...