Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 43 Challenging the Automaton Formation

Before anybody could react…

The sharp blade of the Elite Guard hit a silvery shield with a sharp clank.

Ye Ci felt that someone had abruptly dashed out from behind her. They pressed their back against hers, then she heard the sounds of metal clashing.

“Heh, Gongzi You, leave the rest to me.” A light, smiling voice rang out from behind her. Ye Ci could not turn back, but she felt as if a huge boulder in her heart was released in that moment.

“What are you guys standing around in a daze for? DPS and Healers keep up!” Crimson Millions’s commanding voice once again rang out.

As expected of a well-trained main force. Although such an unexpected event had occurred, within a few seconds, everyone had regained their composure. Such incidents were insufficient to disrupt their initial battle rhythm.

Ye Ci finally recovered. She turned to see that the person who was standing behind her and had taken that blow for her earlier wasn’t team two’s MT, but the second tank, Traceless Insanity.

While retreating back to the long-range attack team, she recalled the things that had occurred earlier. She then looked at Traceless Insanity’s handling of the role of tank. She noticed that although his skills as a tank were slightly lacking, his teamwork and positioning were all quite on point. A good party would be an ideal platform for him to get more training, in less than a year, he would probably become one of the top MTs around.

Very quickly, the elite guards were all knocked out and a blue robe for Warlock’s appeared. Such equipment was not dropped by the BOSS. Three Warlocks rolled the dice and the one with the highest number happily acquired the equipment.

After splitting up the equipment amongst themselves, Crimson Millions got everyone to take a break while he made adjustments for the party’s battle rhythm.

“Seductive Dance, I kept saying we need to control the damage output, don’t be too greedy, don’t OT. What’s wrong with you? You’re also an old timer DPS now, there’s no need for me to repeat that you need to handle aggro properly. Since this is an accident, I won’t deduct your points. But the next time this happen again, I’ll deduct five points straight away.” Although Crimson Millions’s voice had had a certain softness unique to Jiang Nan, thought with his authority and slow enunciation, he exuded a tremendous pressure.

Seductive Dance lowered his head as he munched on his bread. He knew that he had been too greedy and too concerned about his reputation, thus he did not dare to rebut any of Crimson Millions’s words. However, when Crimson Millions once again announced that there were going to press on forward, he looked toward Ye Ci, who appeared as if she had no regard for the others around her.

Ye Ci intended to send a friend request to Traceless Insanity while they were having a break, but he unexpectedly sent her a friend request of his own.

After the two of them added each other as friends, Traceless Insanity sent a private message, “Hey, your mechanical skill was really good. Earlier, when I saw it, it really stirred me up. Would you be able to teach me?”

Ye Ci did not reject him and said, “A Hunter’s and a Warrior’s movements are different. But if you don’t mind, we can exchange pointers when we have time.”

“Alright, alright. Let’s do it when we get out of the dungeon.” Traceless Insanity was an impatient person. If not for the fact that they were still in the dungeon, he would have wanted to immediate exchange pointers with Ye Ci.

“No problem.”

The party continued to advance and very quickly, arrived at the deepest point of the dungeon. Rows and rows of automaton were perfectly lined up, seemingly inanimate.Behind these automatons, there were two tall stone towers, with a few Dark Gnome on the top. There were two huge gates behind the two blocks of towers, with a giant robot right in front of it.

That was the Automatons Formation’s final BOSS, Number 48.

Based on the dungeon’s design, this was the entrance that lead to a cold and humid land. They must bring out the quest item from the Cruel Pit and it must be brought out and place onto the large gates behind robot number 48. When that was done, the path toward the cold and humid land would be unobstructed.

Number 48 was massive in size, but the most challenging point of the dungeon was not the BOSS. After all, even a tough BOSS would not be able to hold its ground if it was swarmed by players. Moreover, Number 48 was merely a blockhead. It was simply too easy to defeat.

The hardest challenge in the dungeon was that Automatons Formation and the two blocks of stone towers behind them.

Steel Blooded Battle Spear’s intention was for them to explore the new dungeon, various guilds had just broken through the Cruel Pit recently and there were not many of them who had challenged the Automatons Formation. With no information and no video guides online, Steel Blooded Battle Axe could only brace themselves and challenge the dungeon head on.

Crimson Millions did not know how difficult this dungeon was, but Ye Ci knew very well that it was not easy.

There were a total of 81 automatons and attacking one of them would trigger the rest of the automatons to attack all at once. The Dark Gnomes on the two towers will also fire their cannons at targets that were besieged by the automatons. Those did not know of clearing away the swarm of automatons would suffer massive casualties.

Crimson Millions got the others to take a break while he looked toward the automatons Formation from afar, remaining silent. After a short while, he turned to say to the rest, “Although there are many monsters around, we’ll do what we usually does, attract them one at a time and slowly kill them all.”

When Ye Ci heard this, she was dumbfounded. Wasn’t that just asking for defeat? Not wanting to rebut the party leader in front of so many players, Ye Ci sent a privately message to Crimson Millions,“Leader, I don’t think that is plausible. These monsters seemed to be linked and if one was attacked, it’s likely that the others would be triggered and attack all at once. Can we use another method to tackle this? ”

Those in the lead would tend to have their own way of thinking, as most of them would feel as if they had more battle experiences and had seen more things. There were not many who would be willing to accept other people’s opinions before they were put into an unfavorable position.

Crimson Millions was no different. He had been playing games for five to six years and had taken the lead in parties for over four years. He took pride in the fact that his leadership ability was not too bad. Although he thought well of Ye Ci, it did not mean that he fully recognized this strength of this Huntress.

Therefore, he interrupted her with his unique and pleasant voice, “Gongzi, have you come here before?”

It was bullshit. Not only that she had entered the dungeon before, she even did it multiple times. She was extremely familiar with the entire Fate. But these were all things that Ye Ci could not say. Therefore, she shook her head, “No.”

Crimson Millions smiled and continued to use that pleasant voice to emphasize, “Since we’re exploring a new dungeon, we should try things a little at a time. Only then would we be able to find the best solution. You don’t have to try and resort to trickeries right from the start.”

Although what Crimson Millions said was not wrong, Ye Ci was still speechless. What did he meant by resorting to trickeries? Her intention was not to have unnecessary sacrifices and she had not wanted to waste money on fixing her equipment. How could he call that as resorting to trickeries?

However, no matter what she says, Crimson Millions would probably not be willing to listen. Humans are creatures who would only learn after experiencing the worst. Ye Ci sighed, and retreated back to the very back of the long-range attackers, no longer trying to persuade Crimson Millions. She would just wait for his command to launch their attacks. Once the monsters began to swarm up, she would immediately make her escape out of the dungeon.

She had wanted to tell Traceless Insanity to get him to escape together with her, but eventually only sent out a private message, “During times of emergencies, you got to be smart and think for yourself.” She did not want to blatantly tell him to escape. Moreover, she had just met Traceless Insanity and they could not even be considered close. She did not wish to let her words be spread out or it would eventually be blackmail materials for others.

Traceless Insanity actually did not really agree to Crimson Millions’s plan either. When he received Ye Ci’s private message, he instantly understood that they had both thought of the same thing. He immediately replied, “Understood. If things doesn’t look right, immediately escape out of the dungeon.”

The two were still talking when Crimson Millions gave the command and the long-range attackers began to launch their attacks on a robot in the extreme corner and then…

Ye Ci only remembered that the whole place became a big mess and that all the automatons swarmed toward them like gushing waves.

Looking at the multitude of automatons, the people who had trypophobia immediately turned pale and their legs gave way. Those whose legs did not give way also immediately turned to run. Under this situation, they could no longer care for any battle rhythm or whatsoever. If they did not run, the many automatons would only bring about their utter destruction.

Ye Ci was standing furthest away and also she also had great agility and speed, thus she was the first to escape out from dungeon. Following behind her were a few other Rogues, Hunters, and Rangers who were quick on their feet. These classes with high agility showed their superiority while they made their escape.

Traceless Insanity was not as lucky. He was a Warrior and did not have high agility. Although he had started making his escape at the first possible moment, he eventually died a heroic death right before the dungeon’s entrance.

The few who escaped reckoned that those inside were all dead, and the entered the dungeon once again. As expected, the long line of corpses really formed a trail of marker, guiding their way.

The party managed to regroup.

As they were exploring a new land and he had not accepted Ye Ci’s suggestion in the first place, Crimson Millions did not blame the members who managed to make their escapes. Saving their actual strength was also an important battle technique.

Ye Ci also pretended that she had not mentioned anything to Crimson Millions, and instead lowered her head and sat in a corner, munching on her bread, occasionally throwing two pieces of roasted meat to Ol’ Three who was unrelentingly acting cute. Suddenly, the sound of a private chat rang out. It was Crimson Millions.

“Gongzi, what method do you think is best to deal with this automatons Formation?”

Although Crimson Millions was a leader with his own views, this did not meant that he was obstinate. When they first attacked, he had already realized that he had made an extremely grave mistake. Therefore, now that everyone was taking a break, he sent Ye Ci a private message, hoping to get the Huntress’ opinions.

Ye Ci turned to look toward Crimson Millions, only to realize that he was looking at her, smiling as he nodded his head, appearing very humble…