Hell-Difficulty Dungeon, Conservation of Luck

"Understood, we're very skilled at this job, we'll just be your assistant."

"Haha, only in his team can I relax and play support without worry."

"Running dungeons with people from my own guild is exhausting; it's so hectic."

"Here, we are all just supporting characters..."

As expected, with everyone's combined efforts, the heavy stone door slowly opened with a rumbling sound.

The scene behind the door was unexpected.

A large number of mechanical constructs of various shapes and sizes emerged like a tide, including wooden stakes and bionic animal shapes, with a wide variety of types.

The sudden surge of monsters made the unprepared team members tense.

Before they could even summon their respective battle companions, Chongxing's magical radiance and the figure of the Wildsea Candle Dragon had already swept into the enemy ranks.

In an instant, this wave of machinery was completely swept away.

"It's been a while since I played dungeons with him. I almost forgot about his overwhelming destructive power. I'm really ashamed."

"It's so lonely."

After clearing the area ahead, Zhang Mingzhen reminded his teammates to keep their distance and follow.

"Wait until I'm a little further away before you follow."

We will notify you when the mechanism needs to be activated. Don't get too close to avoid attracting monsters.

After saying that, he led the Wildsea Candle Dragon ahead, letting the summoned creature go first to scout the way.

Ordinary enemies can be dealt with by the Wildsea Candle Dragon alone.

Dragon Diagram Frenzy checked the system records and compared the experience gained from the previous Monster Altar. He discovered that although it was the same Hell difficulty dungeon and the same task of clearing mobs, the experience gained here was more than double.

Dishitian asked curiously, "Is this also your first time playing this level 60 dungeon?"

"Didn't I see you posted a system announcement before?"

This question hits a nerve with some people.

"Our dungeon attempt failed before we even got started! And forget about the announcement!"

If it weren't for the 1,000 achievement points reward, they would have felt that the announcement was a loss.

"He's gone far away, let's follow him."

"Speaking of which, his summoned creatures were much stronger than ours; one of them took care of all the mobs."

"You'll get used to it; it's not the first time."

"He's a player who's using cheat codes, why compare yourself to him? That's just asking for trouble."

"Speaking of cheating, we have talent too, so why can't we?"

"That means you don't have enough talent."

Zhang Mingzhen disarmed all the traps and finally arrived at the end of this floor—the leader's room.

What awaited them was an extremely large puppet creation, resembling a humanoid golem sealed within heavy armor.

It held a giant hammer in each hand, and its head was completely covered by a huge metal shield, making it impossible to see its true appearance.

The system identifies it by the name "Demon Armor Puppet Beast".

At this time, the rest of the team members also arrived one after another.

Upon seeing this enormous puppet, an invisible sense of oppression washed over me.

"I don't know if it's because this is the first time I've teamed up with a pro to clear this dungeon, but I'm experiencing this feeling of helplessness and panic for the first time," someone said somewhat uneasily.

"Perhaps it was because it was too large, and we couldn't see its specific appearance."

"The red glow emanating from beneath that helmet was truly terrifying."

"Notice its body structure; it appears to be humanoid, but magnified countless times, like a giant."

"Be careful, I'm starting." Zhang Mingzhen casually notified them, and then launched an attack on the still giant statue.

The attacked Demon Armor Puppet Beast seemed to be instantly activated, its red eyes suddenly lighting up, and its huge warhammer, accompanied by the sound of wind, smashed down on him!

At that very moment, two elite puppets appeared in the battle formation.

They were much larger than the enemy soldiers they had encountered before, and they pounced straight at the other players on the side.

"Tsk, they're coming for us! This thing only picks on the weak! Why don't they go and challenge Chongxing to Chongxing?"

"Enough talk, let's attack! This is a good opportunity to test the strength of this dungeon monster!"

The group here happened to form a formation with Shield Guard, damage dealers, and Priest. Believing they could put up a fight, they immediately assumed a defensive stance.

The two elite puppets were surrounded by strangely colored light, one crimson and the other a deep blue.

As they approached each other, the players around them suddenly felt a strange pulling force, their bodies swaying back and forth uncontrollably.

Dragon Diagram Jinghe quickly analyzed the characteristics of the two puppets.

"It's likely an attack pattern with magnetic force; we must separate the two to prevent their magnetic forces from interfering with each other."

"Qin Xiao, Kuang Zhan, each of you draw one! The rest of you split into two groups to provide support, and the Priest keeps a close eye on the health!"

Zhang Mingzhen caught a glimpse of the group fiercely battling the monster, the two fighting back and forth.

Just then, he noticed a sudden glint in the eyes of the leader in the arena, who raised his arms high, and a huge light shield that covered half the battlefield was suddenly unleashed!

Before any of the players inside the light shield could understand what was happening, their health bars were completely depleted, and they collapsed to the ground in despair.

He was the only one in the entire team who survived by chance after triggering the "Heart of Undeath."

Goodness, this is too difficult!

The change came too suddenly; many people were unable to activate their innate abilities in time!

He was the same.

This incident also confirms one point: the light shield must not remain inside it!

The players, still lying on the ground in a daze, were bewildered. The fierce battle had been raging just moments before; how could they have been wiped out in an instant?

"What happened? Everyone went down at once? Instant kill from full health? Did some kind of death mechanic trigger?"

Only Dragon Diagram Jinghe had already made a deduction in his mind. He had just taken on the temporary command and was paying extra attention to the battlefield movements.

"It must be due to the large-scale light shield released by the leader just now. Staying inside the shield for a certain period of time will result in forced death."

"My rough estimate is that the time limit is only about two seconds."

"So, we've been eliminated by the rules? Two seconds is far too short. How large is the area covered by that light shield?"

"Judging from the looks of it, it covers at least half the field, but it's cast from the leader's location as the origin."

"We can avoid it by staying on the other side of the leader. We were just unlucky and happened to be in the coverage area."

"Fine, now I can just sit back and watch the pros clear the game."

"Both of those little monsters went towards him."

Now freed from the restraint of other players, the two puppets charged straight at Zhang Mingzhen, who stood at the leader's feet.

He had previously observed that the team members adopted a strategy of splitting up to meet the enemy, and he surmised that these puppets and their leader must possess some kind of combined attack technique.

Sure enough, the moment the puppet and the leader's figures overlapped, he used "Demon Transformation" to break free from the controlled state.

Immediately, a Ling Yue was released beneath his feet, enveloping both the minions and the leader in an offensive.

The onlookers only saw Chongxing wipe out the puppets they had been fighting together with a single blow, and could only think, "He really did cheat."

"You also know those moves that Chongxing used, like the ones used by the Seaside Wave. How come there's such a big difference?" Zhan Heavenly Dao voiced everyone's doubts.

If it weren't for the fact that the other party was the leader of the War Alliance and the disparity in strength was too great, Seaside Wave would have really wanted to go up and beat him up.

"I didn't use any cheats. If I could still Chongxing with Chongxing, then I'd be a top expert too."

"Damn, there's a limit to how much money you can spend in this game."

"Yes, it also depends on talent."

"Talent and skills determine how high your potential is."

"That's right, even the best equipment you buy is still much weaker than the dungeon boss."

"That's right. Even if the skills are the same, different talents will lead to different effects, so how can we generalize?"

"In my opinion, this expert not only maxed out all his skill points, but his talents might even further enhance the skill effects!"

"This may not be just wishful thinking."

"The higher the skill level, the more skill points it consumes. Currently, few players dare to invest in multiple skills; they usually only master the few that they are most comfortable with and use frequently."

"But Chongxing is clearly formidable in both defense and healing attacks."

"That's cheating."

What's the point of discussing these things now?

"The talents of top-tier combatants are secrets; who would reveal them casually? In short, they're strong."

"Look, the leader is about to deploy the light shield again!"

At this moment, the leader's health was below half, and it once again released a magnificent light shield that covered half the field.

Zhang Mingzhen was well-prepared this time, and quickly moved to the other half of the field.

As a result, the BOSS's ultimate attack missed.

The Wildsea Candle Dragon had already been withdrawn when the light shield first appeared;

He was currently facing the leader alone. As long as he controlled his position and orientation, he could easily escape the moment the light shield was deployed.

After its health drops to half, the boss uses its skills more frequently and summons more and more puppets.

The number of bodies increased from the initial two to four, and now it has reached eight.

If the number of participants is large, this situation could become extremely difficult.

They need to deal with the puppets separately, and also spread out as much as possible; otherwise, once the red light shield is on them, it will be difficult to escape in time.

The few who were lying on the ground watching the battle silently calculated the rhythm of their leader's skills.

The summoning of puppets occurs approximately every sixty seconds, while the light shield triggers once every twenty-five percent of its health is lost.

The number of puppets will continue to rise.

If they are not dealt with within the specified time, the monsters will only accumulate and slow down the pace of the entire strategy.

"Fortunately, it was just Chongxing this time, so I could focus on clearing out the smaller monsters."

But if it's a full team, clearing out so many mobs within the time limit while maintaining formation and dodging the light circles is much more difficult."

As they watched Chongxing's battle unfold, the guild leaders mentally rehearsed team-based combat strategies.

Ultimately, it comes down to insufficient overall combat strength.

If your level and strength are sufficient, you should eliminate the smaller monsters as soon as they appear to avoid interfering with your main damage output.

Especially in the later stages, when the number of mobs increases dramatically, the entire raid should not be distracted by dealing with them.

The ideal strategy is to have a small team dedicated to quickly clearing out the smaller monsters, while the main raid group keeps the monsters locked in – this is the correct approach for this type of dungeon.

"It's probably also related to the difficulty of the dungeon."

"In easy mode, there wouldn't be so many monsters, and their defense wouldn't be so high. Perhaps a small team could handle them."

"We'll have to wait and see when the guild organizes its own raids to verify this."

While the group was discussing, on the other side, Chongxing had completely depleted the BOSS's health.

In addition to a level 60 gold equipment item, the team's inventory also contained a shard that shimmered with a faint light.

The system prompt will sound at an appropriate time:

"Congratulations to player Chongxing for successfully defeating the Demon Armor Puppet Beast on Hell difficulty, gaining experience points... Achievement Points increased by 1,000."

Immediately afterwards, a server-wide announcement appeared. "Congratulations to Chongxing, Qin Xiao Youhui, Dragon Diagram Frenzy... for being the first team to break through the first level of the Mechanism Island, the Demon Armor Puppet Beast! Reward: 1,000 achievement points!"

At the same time, a new equipment category – "Amulet" – was activated and updated in real time in the character inventory.

"Oh?"

Chongxing's heart stirred.

Is the Amulet function now available?

The "Wonderful Dharma Talisman" he wore was obtained from the city lord's treasury in his early years, and it is unknown how it differs from Amulet obtained through conventional means.

In addition to the level 60 gold equipment, the team's inventory did indeed contain an extra Amulet Fragment, which seemed to be the necessary material for crafting the Amulet.

However, this method is exactly the same as when they synthesized the wings in the first place.

This is yet another deep pit.

The description of the Amulet Fragment reads, "Collect ninety-nine fragments to synthesize a complete Amulet. After identification, you will randomly obtain Amulet equipment of different qualities."

This not only means that you have to painstakingly collect ninety-nine fragments, but even if you manage to synthesize them, the quality you get depends entirely on luck.

If he gets the same kind of "unique" luck he had when he was farming for his exclusive Skill Book, that would be troublesome.

Currently, it seems that the fragments can only be obtained from this dungeon, and cannot even be found in the achievement shop.

I just defeated the first gatekeeper and only got three fragments.

I wonder how much I'll get after completing the Hell difficulty level.

If even someone with his skill level finds it difficult, then it must be even more challenging for players in other guilds.

The world chat was already buzzing with excitement over the new equipment:

"A new part has been released! Amulet!"

Does anyone know what kind of equipment this is?

"Our guild leader said in the guild chat that it's a special piece of equipment outside the regular equipment slot, requiring ninety-nine fragments to craft!"

"Oh my god, how long are we going to have to save this up? I heard they only got three from Hell difficulty dungeons!"

"The key is that even if you save up enough, the quality of the item you get is random."

"This is entirely the domain of European Emperor and high-level players; ordinary people like me are already feeling suffocated."

"If it's this difficult in our region, what about players in other regions? Without expert players to lead them, they'll have to start from the easy dungeons and figure it out themselves."

"Starting next week, we should see a significant increase in level 60 players in our region."

"I wonder if those top-tier teams can clear it. I'll book a boosting service for them first!"

"Damn it, the gap is getting bigger and bigger. I haven't even collected the basic gear for dungeons yet. Nobody wants me in a party, so I can only do support work. How am I going to survive?"

"Spend money, it's just money, what's wrong with spending a million?"

"The people upstairs are really rich and powerful."

"For a 20-player dungeon like this, the power leveling fee would probably be astronomical, and you'd also need to equip it with high-level players. I don't recommend that clients book entire groups."

"If several familiar business owners form a group to book a tour and split the costs, that wouldn't be a problem."

"A group of twenty people indicates that the dungeon is not simple. I heard that even the top players almost got wiped out at the boss's place."