Hearing that Ye Luo would protect her nearby after she joined the Misty Pavilion studio, Zhi Yue was thrilled. After their brief time together, she had clearly developed a good impression of the members of Misty Pavilion.
"Brother Ye, are you going to run an Instance Mission with Sister Yan Hua next?" Zhi Yue asked casually while eating. "It seems there are only two of you, so you can only choose a two-person instance. What difficulty will you choose?"
"Hard." Ye Luo did not hide it. He asked, "Yan Hua seems to place great importance on instances, so the others in Misty Pavilion must care about them too. You should be running one as well, right? What difficulty and how many people?"
"Six people, Hard difficulty." Zhi Yue said. Seeing Ye Luo frown, she explained, "Sister Feng said it was Sister Yan Hua's suggestion. She said that with our current strength, we have no hope of being among the first three to clear the instance. We might as well maximize our gains and get some useful equipment."
After pondering briefly, Ye Luo nodded. "Yan Hua's reasoning makes sense. By the way, how is your equipment? Do any of you have Bronze Grade gear?"
"We're not as lucky as you, Brother Ye. Sister Feng said that each of you has two Bronze items, and that the Level 2 Jade Poison Bead has powerful attributes—stronger than ordinary Bronze equipment." Zhi Yue's pretty face was full of envy. "The six of us only have two or three Bronze items. We're far behind you."
"Don't worry. Once we reach Level 40, we'll go to the same town. Then we'll help you get some good equipment." Thinking of something, Ye Luo reminded her, "After clearing the instance, wait around Toad Slope in the Novice Village. The Toad King is guaranteed to drop a Jade Poison Bead. Then kill Demonized Scorpions. Before long, you'll have Level 2 Jade Poison Beads."
The Level 2 Jade Poison Bead had excellent attributes and was relatively easy to obtain. With it, Zhi Yue and the others would gain a considerable advantage, which was why Ye Luo reminded her.
"As if you needed to remind us. Sister Yan Hua told us long ago, and we were lucky enough to kill the Toad King once." Zhi Yue grew excited at the mention of it. "Sister Yan Hua arranged everything. For example, only those wearing Jade Poison Beads can obtain Jade Poison Bead fragments from Demonized Scorpions, and the wearer has to land both the first and final hits..."
"Yan Hua really is a qualified strategist." Ye Luo praised her, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. "With her around, I don't need to worry about reminding you of such things."
"Of course. Sister Yan Hua is the female Zhuge of the online gaming world. She thinks of everything." At the mention of Yan Hua Yi Leng, Zhi Yue's pretty face shone with admiration. "She even organizes dedicated teams to record all this information and turn it into guides. That's why Misty Pavilion's information database is the most complete, and it's one reason Misty Pavilion became the ninth-ranked guild in the country."
"So, leveling with her makes me pretty lucky?" Ye Luo had also realized Yan Hua Yi Leng's value.
"Hehe, naturally." Zhi Yue looked as if it were only right, then said enviously, "If Sister Yan Hua were with us, we might even get the Instance First Kill. With Brother Ye by her side, even if you don't get the first kill in a two-person instance, you'll definitely be in the top three."
"Our goal is the first kill." Ye Luo spoke calmly, but his tone carried immense confidence.
Afterward, Ye Luo and Zhi Yue chatted casually for a while before logging into the game and heading toward the North Gate of the Novice Village.
Everyone understood the value of instances, so the North Gate of the Novice Village was packed with people waiting to accept missions. The Heavenly Tribulation Envoy's avatar was surrounded three layers deep inside and three layers out, making it nearly impossible to squeeze through. Ye Luo found it quite a headache and regretted arriving so late.
"The game already anticipated this situation, so you can accept the mission remotely and then enter the instance." A calm voice rang out. Yan Hua Yi Leng came up behind Ye Luo and sent him a party invitation.
After joining the party, Yan Hua Yi Leng accepted the Instance Mission. However, the time had not yet arrived, so they could not enter the instance.
Demon Ant Calamity (Instance Mission, selected difficulty: Hard) Mission Objective: Kill all demon ants in the ant nest (100 worker ants, 20 soldier ants, 3 male ants, 1 ant queen) Killed: Worker Ants 0/100 Soldier Ants 0/20 Male Ants 0/3 Ant Queen 0/1 Mission Reward: Generous experience and coins Mission Start Countdown: 5 minutes
"Only by killing all the demon ants in the ant nest can we complete the mission. Straightforward enough." Yan Hua Yi Leng spoke calmly, then looked at Ye Luo. "That means we need to kill enemies with maximum efficiency. Don't hold back when the time comes. Use your strongest methods."
"I understand." Ye Luo nodded, then fell silent and waited for the instance to truly open.
Five minutes passed quickly. With one second left on the countdown, Yan Hua Yi Leng got ready. Then a flash of white light swept over them, and Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng entered the instance.
The instance was a sealed space. From its appearance, it looked like a massive ant nest with only one passageway. There was no choice to make, so Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng sprinted forward at top speed while Yan Hua Yi Leng checked the system map.
A moment later, she looked at Ye Luo. "The map is simple. This passage leads into one large space. See the red dots above? Those are the demon ants. The outermost ones are worker ants, followed by twenty soldier ants. The final four large red dots are the three male ants and the ant queen. We'll push forward in order, as fast as possible."
As she spoke, Ye Luo saw the demon ants, each about the size of a small dog:
Ant Nest Worker Ant (Enhanced Monster) Level: 12 Physical Attack: 55-60 Defense: 108 HP: 3600
The worker ants were Level 12 enhanced monsters, with attributes far stronger than monsters of the same level. They were even much stronger than Level 15 Demonized Scorpions, though still inferior to Level 18 Demonized Wild Bulls.
Without hesitation, Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng immediately swallowed mutated Strength Pills, further increasing their attack power. Then they charged toward the worker ants. While still more than ten meters away, Yan Hua Yi Leng raised her Wolf Fang Bow and fired an Energy Arrow with a whistle.
After being attacked, the worker ant became ferocious and charged at Yan Hua Yi Leng with its mandibles waving. The four or five worker ants around it were also drawn in, driving forward on their six legs as they rushed her together.
Ye Luo flashed forward to block them. Ignoring the one Yan Hua had attacked, he launched a combined attack of Slash + normal strike + Combo Strike against the second worker ant. The ant instantly lost more than 1,800 HP and was actually knocked back by Ye Luo's immense strength.
Without continuing to deal with that worker ant, Ye Luo moved on to attack another one. Yan Hua Yi Leng did the same. After attacking one worker ant, she ignored it and instead attacked a worker ant that had not yet been hit.
The Level 2 Jade Poison Bead had an additional effect: attacks carried poison damage that drained 10 HP per second. With Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng attacking together, they could ensure that five or six demon ants were infected with the poison. Without question, this was the method that dealt the most damage per unit of time.
A few seconds later, the poison effect on one demon ant had just faded when it was struck again and poisoned once more. Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng took turns targeting the demon ants whose poison effects had worn off.
Facing attacks from five or six demon ants, Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng attacked while moving, doing their best to avoid being hit. However, there were too many demon ants, and their HP fell quickly. After losing more than 100 HP, they took Major Blood Recovery Pills and ate roast chicken, rapidly restoring their health. Their recovery even reached a delicate balance with the damage they were taking, keeping their HP above 300 at all times.
Soon, the first demon ant died, and most of the others were also at low health. Yan Hua Yi Leng had reached a suitable position by then and fired an arrow toward the distant swarm, drawing several more demon ants charging over.
When those demon ants arrived, the first batch had just died. Ye Luo ignored the loot, flashed forward to meet them, and began another round of monster slaying.
The two of them kept killing monsters at an unbelievably high intensity. If outsiders had seen them fighting like this, their jaws would have dropped.
That was right. Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng had only thought of this fighting method after working together for some time. By using the Poisonous Invasion effect of the Level 2 Jade Poison Bead, they achieved something similar to an area-of-effect killing skill.
When the first demon ant died, two flashes of white light appeared. Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng reached Level 13. After quickly assigning their stat points, they continued killing demon ants at high speed.
Once inside the ant nest, the demon ants' levels were fixed. Even if Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng leveled up, the monsters would not level up with them. Meanwhile, Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng grew stronger from leveling and assigning stat points. This was one small trick they had found to take advantage of the system.
Batch after batch of demon ants died, and batch after batch arrived. Several minutes later, all one hundred worker ants had been killed. Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng ignored the loot and hurried toward the soldier ants deeper inside.
Inside an instance, items dropped by monsters would not disappear. Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng could clean up the loot after killing all the demon ants and completing the mission.
Soon, Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng saw the soldier ants. They were much larger than the worker ants, with enormous black and powerful mandibles. Their attributes had also improved greatly.
Ant Nest Soldier Ant (Enhanced Monster) Level: 15 Physical Attack: 65-72 Defense: 145 HP: 4500
Although they were only Level 15 monsters, their overall attributes rivaled those of Level 18 Demonized Wild Bulls. They were much stronger than the worker ants, but Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng had already adapted to the intensity of killing wild bulls, so they felt no pressure. They lured over three at once and attacked with maximum intensity.
Several more minutes passed before Ye Luo and Yan Hua Yi Leng finally killed all twenty soldier ants. Then they headed toward the final four demon ants.
The male ants were far larger than the soldier ants, nearly the size of calves. Their mandibles were muscular and powerful, gleaming with a deep, ominous sheen. One glance was enough to tell they were not easy to deal with. The ant queen was even more outrageous, as large as an adult wild bull. Its huge abdomen bulged, radiating an extremely savage aura.
"Uh, a quasi-boss and a Bronze Grade boss. Their attributes are extremely powerful." Ye Luo was slightly startled, but after checking their detailed attributes, he smiled. "But the situation seems very favorable for us. Good thing I refined Level 2 Detoxification Pills."
For the fastest error-free novel updates, please visit this site and bookmark it to read the latest novel!
Before you continue