Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 45 Automaton Formation! First Five!

Even though Ye Ci had spoken to her in such a way, she didn’t show any trace of remorse. It wasn’t that she was seeking the limelight this time, but if these cannons were to be fired by three people simultaneously, they’d need extremely good coordination to kill their enemies in one attack. However, if their teamwork was poor, they could easily cause the eighty-one automatons to scatter, and with the automatons split up, a team wipe wouldn’t be to far off.

Ye Ci couldn’t say that Grim Moon and Traceless Aftermaths had poor coordination, but her own personal coordination with the two was definitely poor. Rather than wait for the the team to blame it on her arrogance when their uncoordinated team was wiped out, it was better for her to take care of everything herself.

Crimson Millions couldn’t bring himself to believe what Ye Ci had said. But since she’d already given them an explanation, it would be bad for him to pry any further. He was only able to nod awkwardly and said to the other party members, “Press forward, towards the stone tower.”

Cannonballs rained down on them the stone towers, but after several party members had been sacrificed, the rest of them figured out the way to dodge the cannonballs. They managed to easily destroy the cannon emplacements within 20 minutes.

“These foolish mortals have trespassed into the machine world. No.48 is angry. The invaders made up of flesh and blood are to be annihilated.” An ear-piercing sound of metal creaking resounded through the area.

Thus the battle against the reanimated Automaton No.48 began. With the most difficult part of the Automaton Formation taken care of, it was relatively easy to defeat the BOSS. A tank with decent skills was all that was needed to accomplish the job.

The MT of the second squadron was barely qualified for the job. Despite nearly dying several times, he’d survived thanks to the five healers they had in the party.

After a tough battle that lasted about half an hour, Automaton No.48 was finally defeated. The system notified them the moment Automaton No.48 had been defeated.

“Congratulations to Steel-Blooded Battle Spear Guild for completing the ‘First Kill’ of the Automaton Formation dungeon. Rewards: 300 guild prestige points, 5,000 global main city prestige points, 1,000 gold. Let us remember their names.”

“Congratulations on clearing the Automaton Formation Dungeon, Crimson Millions. Rewards: 100 Black Rock City prestige points, 1 Talent Point. Achievements: [Automaton Formation First Five].”

……

“Congratulations on clearing the Automaton Formation Dungeon, Traceless Aftermaths. Rewards: 100 Black Rock City prestige points, 1 Talent Point. Achievement: [Automaton Formation First Five].”

……

“Congratulations on clearing the Automaton Formation Dungeon, Seductive Dance. Rewards: 100 Black Rock City prestige points, 1 Talent Point. Achievement: [Automaton Formation First Five].”

……

“Congratulations on clearing the Automaton Formation Dungeon, ‘Gongzi You’. Rewards: 100 Black Rock City prestige points, 1 Talent Point. Achievement: [Automaton Formation First Five].”

……

The party was initially stunned when they heard the announcement. After they overcame their brief shock, they hugged each other tightly, and erupted with cheers. Ye Ci, who was standing to the side, also felt excited after witnessing their excitement. However, she didn’t betray any emotions, as she still didn’t have any sense of belonging.

“Gongzi, cheer up!” Out of the blue, a person gave Ye Ci a tight hug and slapped her on the back. “I’m so happy that we were able to get a First Blood! I didn’t think I’d ever get one!”

It was Traceless Aftermaths.

Ye Ci’s back hurt from the continued slaps she received. However, she was influenced by Traceless Aftermath joy, and didn’t stop him. She instead imitated his actions, and slapped him on the back as well.

Ye Ci couldn’t help but think of the first ever First Blood she’d gotten in her past life. The ecstasy that had come from the deepest part of her heart—the sheer excitement that had caused her to spread her arms wide and spin around in circles, screaming loudly as she spun, venting her joy.

Even though it was a long time ago, even though she’d been reborn, even though she’d achieved countless First Bloods, her blood still boiled from the excitement.

There were billions of players in the game. To be the first to clear a dungeon amongst countless other people was certainly a glorious and exciting feat.

However, Crimson Millions was probably the happiest amongst them. He was usually a relatively reserved person, but his current behavior was in direct contrast to his usually calm self. He hugged each and every party member, his eyes red with emotion. He probably would’ve cried out had nobody else been around.

The players present couldn’t hold back their excitement, thus their joy lasted for quite some time.

Crimson Millions walked to the fallen BOSS and took a deep breath before he looted it. There were players from both the “Black Hand”[1] army and the “Red Hand”[2] army. Ye Ci was from the “Black Hand” army, while Crimson Millions was from the “Red Hand” army.

A long list of items appeared. The rewards were much more plentiful than normal because this was the First Blood. Being one of the first five parties to clear the dungeon had lucrative benefits. After the five spots had been taken, no more additional rewards would be given out. The average loot dropped would be three to four pieces of equipment, along with some miscellaneous items.

However, they’d received fourteen pieces of equipment, along with four skill books, and a huge amount of various items.

As an unspoken rule, the MT, the healer that had healed the most, and the DPS that had dealt the most damage, all had the privilege of taking precedence when it came to equipment distribution. Seductive Dance was usually the top DPS, but his place had been taken by Ye Ci. She alone had dealt a staggering 1.7 million damage in the dungeon. Seductive Dance, who was in second place, had only dealt around 1 million points of damage total. The difference in their total damage dealt was just too great.

Seductive Dance was impressed after when he saw Ye Ci’s mechanical skills and ability to adapt,. He was open-minded, and knew that he wasn’t as good as Ye Ci. His could only work hard and improve himself. He hoped that he could, one day, clear a dungeon with this Huntress again, and compete against her.

Ye Ci examined the equipment closely, and realized that none of them were ideal for her, even though there were a few that could be worn by professions related to agility, so Ye Ci gave up on choosing any of the equipment. Instead, she aimed for the “Multi-Arrow” skill book that she’d seen when she was first looking over the rewards. At that time, she’d decided that she’d give up on everything else, just to get this skill book.

The Multi-Arrow skill book wasn’t considered rare, but certainly didn’t have a high drop rate either, with a 1 in 5000 chance. The skill book would be dropped from BOSSes between Level 20 and Level 50, but with many new players playing as the Hunter class, the Multi-Arrow skill book was still considered a valuable item. Before Ye Ci had reincarnated, a Multi-Arrow skill book could be auctioned for up to 10,000 gold coins.

This was why Ye Ci had picked the skill book without any hesitation.

The Multi-Arrow skill was one of very few Hunter skills capable of dealing damage to multiple targets. At its initial stage, Multi Arrow would release three arrows in a cone shape, dealing damage to any enemies in its path. At lvl 20, Multi Arrow would release 48 arrows in a circle around the Hunter. It was an overpowered skill. However, the skill could only be leveled up by a specific NPC after it reached lvl 12. As to where that NPC was…..

Only God knew.

In her past life, the highest level Multi-Arrow that she’d encountered had only been lvl 12, which fired arrows out in a 160 degrees cone shape. She could clearly remember her fight against Fleeting Years from her past life. She’d been defeated by that lvl 12 Multi-Arrow.

Ye Ci couldn’t help but tear up at that particular memory.

“You don’t want any of the equipment? Just that skill book?” Although Crimson Millions had already expected Ye Ci to choose the Multi-Arrow skill book, he was still surprised that she didn’t want any of the equipment.

“No thanks, everyone did their part. I’m content with just this skill book. I don’t need anything else.” Ye Ci shook her head. There was no way that she could tell Crimson Millions that the equipment dropped wasn’t as good as her current equipment.

Crimson Millions didn’t insist on giving Ye Ci anything else after witnessing her generosity. He proceeded to distribute the equipment and items amongst the remaining party members. Ye Ci’s action left a good impression on the other party members. The Rogue, Ranger, and other Hunters expected her to hoard all of the equipment, but she’d unexpectedly only taken a single skill book. Their appreciation towards Ye Ci wasn’t something that could be described with words.

Each of the party members received quite a large amount of loot due to the First Blood rewards being as they were. The ones who were able to obtain equipment were happy despite having to deduct the DKP they received, while the others were happy with whatever they got, as they could exchange the guild rewarded DKP for real world cash.

Everyone was happy.

After leaving the dungeon, Ye Ci checked the time. It was nearly 3 in the morning. She hurriedly said farewell to Traceless Aftermath, logged out of the game, and went to sleep.

The person in charge of the second squadron, Crimson Millions, headed straight to their guild’s encampment, and walked into the conference room.

The guild conference room was a special room that could only be entered by players invited by the guild leader.

Thousand Sunsets and Zero Arsenic were currently watching the recording from the second squadron’s First Blood. Thousand Sunsets pointed to the part when Ye Ci had been aggroing the Elite Guards and said, “Rewind it, let’s watch this part again.”

Zero Arsenic rewound the video, and the two began to carefully study her movements.

Crimson Millions stood there silently for almost an eternity. He then realised that the Guild leader and the Vice Guild Leader were so focused that they hadn’t noticed his presence. He could only take the initiative to greet them. “Leader, Vice Leader.”

“Crimson, you came?” Zero Arsenic greeted him promptly, and told him to sit. Afterwards, he pointed at the recording and smiled. “Have you seen it yourself?”

“I was there myself, but I didn’t see the whole thing.” Crimson Millions walked to the front of the room to see the recording with a strange look on his face that was hard to describe.

Thousand Sunsets suddenly asked, “What do you think of her performance?”

Translator’s Notes:

[1]Black Hand: Very unlucky especially when it comes to looting

[2]Red Hand: Yeah, you guessed it.