Abyss-Level Dark Cave: The First Kill

Lin Shenyue silently followed Ye Jue, standing at the very end of the party. A priest’s casting range was typically around 10 meters, while other ranged classes had a range of about 8 meters. Thus, priests usually positioned themselves at the rear of the group, which offered a relatively safer spot compared to other positions.

Perhaps to ease the difficulty for players, the Dark Cave, now a dungeon, was illuminated by many more torches. This allowed them to clearly see monsters approaching from a distance.

Ye Jue focused his gaze on the horizon, where several Skeleton Soldiers were advancing. Though their number remained at three, the damage dealt by each skeleton had doubled. Indeed, it had precisely doubled. In contrast, the Hell difficulty added more health to these creatures, and every minor monster possessed unique skills.

Ye Jue calmly instructed, “I’ll aggro one of them and the distant archer. Fissure, you take the other one.”

“Empty Night, Divine Wind, unleash your damage freely, but remember not to over-aggro.”

He offered no specific instructions to Lin Shenyue, trusting her ability to manage both their health bars simultaneously, given their numerous past encounters.

The attack speed of Abyss-level monsters had significantly increased. Even for Ye Jue, evading their assaults was now quite challenging, making Lin Shenyue’s healing absolutely crucial.

Lin Shenyue remained silent, her gaze simply sharpening with concentration.

Ye Jue charged forward, immediately drawing the archer’s aggro. An archer’s aggro locked onto the nearest person and wouldn’t shift unless attacked directly. He landed a slash on a Skeleton Soldier, dealing a mere 23 damage. Fissure attacked another Skeleton Soldier, yet only managed to inflict 17 damage.

Divine Wind and Empty Night held back their attacks. Striking now would quickly lead to over-aggro, even if their melee nature naturally generated threat faster. Lin Shenyue also refrained from healing. While healing aggro grew slowly, Ye Jue and Fissure’s damage output was so low that her intervention would undoubtedly cause aggro chaos.

“-71”

“-75”

The two numbers flashed above Ye Jue and Fissure’s heads. Ye Jue lost about a seventh of his health, while Fissure’s dropped by a fifth. Another arrow swiftly followed, prompting Ye Jue to instinctively block it. Even with his quick reflexes, he still took another 70 damage.

Ye Jue quickly consumed a Medium Health Potion, which restored 500 health over 10 seconds. Though effective, these potions were costly, each bottle priced at 2 silver coins—a significant sum for most players at this stage.

Ye Jue attacked again, then unleashed a Furious Slash, dealing double damage instantly. “Start your damage!” he roared, “But watch your aggro!”

Empty Night, who had been waiting beside Ye Jue, immediately struck, dealing 27 damage. Divine Wind’s arrow hit for 29 damage.

Lin Shenyue cast a Healing Spell on Fissure, the immense healing instantly dazzling the other three players. For at least five seconds, they wouldn’t have to worry about his health plummeting. The moment the second attack landed, Lin Shenyue applied a Healing Art to Ye Jue, causing the other two to light up with relief.

While taking damage, Fissure observed Ye Jue’s actions. His eyes lit up when he saw Ye Jue block an arrow, and he, too, raised his sword to guard.

“-65.”

Due to the Abyss-level monster’s high strength, the damage only decreased by about 15%. Nevertheless, this slight reduction allowed Fissure to grasp something crucial.

As a player who could amass around 410 health at this stage, his strength was undeniable, even if some luck was involved. Moreover, within his own team, he enjoyed the best treatment.

He played the game with several colleagues who understood the importance of a damage-absorbing warrior. They entrusted the tanking role to Fissure, who frequently played games, and he, as expected, became the core of their team, successfully undertaking the tank’s duties.

As a tank, he understood the immense value of blocking even 15% of damage at this stage. In such high-difficulty dungeons, even a 1% reduction could be the difference between life and death.

Having successfully learned to block, Fissure’s health depletion rate further slowed. As the healing wore off, he quickly downed another Medium Health Potion. Although his health continued to drop, at this pace, he could endure for at least another 30 seconds.

Ye Jue calmly observed the Skeleton Soldier’s movements, blocking the archer’s attacks perfectly each time. Though his health continued to fall, he could hold out for another 10 seconds. Beyond that, his situation would become precarious.

Ye Jue paused slightly. “Empty Night, can you manage to hold off the archer behind us?”

Empty Night stopped his movements. “I can delay it for a while,” he replied, “but I can’t guarantee anything long-term.”

After blocking another archer shot, Ye Jue said, “Then I’ll leave it to you.”

Empty Night sprinted towards the archer. The archer, with its near-zero intelligence, persisted in attacking Ye Jue, ignoring Empty Night rushing toward it. Empty Night finally closed the distance after the archer fired another arrow. He attacked it once, successfully drawing its aggro. However, he knew his ‘squishy’ self couldn’t withstand the monster’s damage. Thus, he utilized his somewhat unpracticed footwork to get behind the creature. He had discovered this trick once while fighting alone: if he moved behind a monster, it would be forced to stop attacking, turn around, and then attack again.

True to his expectation, the Skeleton Archer paused, but then spun around with surprising speed.

Empty Night was startled, reflexively bringing his weapon up to block.

“-85.”

The terrifying damage instantly depleted nearly a third of his health. Empty Night’s expression changed, and he hastily pulled out a Medium Health Potion, gulping it down. He swiftly dodged behind the monster again, but it turned just as quickly, firing another arrow. Empty Night frowned slightly. This was, however, within his expectations; if Abyss monsters were so easily defeated, it would signify a system malfunction.

Empty Night gritted his teeth and accelerated his movements. Unbeknownst to Ye Jue, Empty Night, the future inventor of “body-sticking” tactics, had already embarked on this path. After all, a rogue’s high agility granted them superior speed, making “body-sticking” easier for them than for warriors.

After Empty Night departed, Ye Jue and Divine Wind increased their attack speed. Yet, even with their top-tier damage at this stage, they could only chip away about 50 health per second. Ye Jue frowned slightly. These Skeleton monsters possessed high physical defense. With a mage, their damage would undoubtedly be about 10 points higher, but for now, they had no choice but to continue as they were.

As Ye Jue diligently dodged attacks, Lin Shenyue cast a Healing Spell on Fissure, who was now in a precarious state. Ye Jue, too, was down to about 200 health, but his continuous dodging allowed him to hold on for a while longer—just enough time for them to focus fire and kill the monster.

After another eight seconds, they finally defeated the first monster. Ye Jue, with no time to rest, immediately took over Fissure’s monster. After 30 seconds of concentrated attacks from the four of them, it too fell. Meanwhile, Empty Night had whittled the archer down to half health, and thanks to a timely heal from Lin Shenyue, he was still at full health.

After killing the Skeleton monster, the three players didn’t immediately turn to the archer. Instead, they stood by, observing Empty Night’s maneuvers. Being watched like a spectacle angered Empty Night, who gritted his teeth and sneered, “You three idiots, hurry up and help me! I’ve been tanking this for so long, I’m exhausted!”

Noticing Empty Night’s genuine fatigue, Ye Jue chuckled lightly and rushed forward to draw aggro. However, Empty Night had accumulated so much threat that they couldn’t immediately pull it off him. In a daze, Empty Night took several arrows, saved only by Lin Shenyue’s timely healing, which prevented their party from suffering its first casualty.

The five of them focused their fire, killing the half-health archer in just five seconds. Lin Shenyue then unleashed a decisive Healing Art, dealing nearly 300 damage directly to the Skeleton Soldier, causing the other three to gape in astonishment. Despite Lin Shenyue being a priest with two healing abilities, no one questioned it, understanding that it pertained to her personal secrets.

The Skeleton Soldier dropped three pieces of equipment: two plate armor pieces and a Skeleton Ring, which increased physical attack and defense. Both plate armor pieces were given to Fissure, successfully raising his health to 450 and his defense by about 3 points. The ring was rolled for by the four players, with Ye Jue ultimately winning it with a high roll of 95.