The Lower Stronghold Instance

"Great!

Let me introduce you to your future teammates!" Lin Qimeng said with a slight smile as Wang Qianduo agreed without any hesitation.

She then pointed to a crimson mech in the group and continued, "This is Sister Hua, my best friend. Her mech is the fire-element [Blazing Thorns]."

The Blazing Thorns mech was a rare, exceptionally designed mech, its stunning appearance rivaling that of the Dragon Princess.

Its body armor featured unique thorn reliefs on its slender frame, giving it a wild beauty.

Simultaneously, it was a fire-element, intelligence-based support mech, possessing powerful and outstanding abilities to provide energy shields for teammates, inflict negative status effects on enemies, and control the battlefield.

Then, Lin Qimeng pointed to a completely black mech and said, "This is Xiao Hai's team's assassin, piloting the [Shadow Blade]."

The Shadow Blade was an agile assassin mech. It was shorter than a standard initial mech, appearing very nimble.

It was rumored to be a super mech capable of disappearing into shadows, possessing the very rare dark attribute.

Finally, Lin Qimeng pointed to a yellow mech in the group that was significantly taller and looked very heavy, "And the last one is Old Ma, the team's tank, piloting the earth-attribute [War Rhino]."

The War Rhino mech was an earth-attribute, strength-based mech. It stood nearly 15 meters tall and weighed over 40 tons.

It was said that as long as the War Rhino mech's feet were on the ground, it could continuously recover HP and repair itself.

The moment Lin Qimeng spoke the names of the mechs, their data appeared before Ling's eyes.

Knowing yourself and your enemy, you will win every battle. Ling was truly amazing!

However, these individuals were also very powerful; their mechs were all rare, magic-oriented mechs.

"Alright, introduce yourself too!"

"Hello everyone, my name is Wang Qianduo. My mech is the all-attribute, intelligence-based evolved mech, the Lord of Elements. I'm very happy to be your teammate!" After Lin Qimeng finished, Old Wang also briefly introduced himself.

"Intelligence-based?" Lin Qimeng.

"All-attribute?" Sister Hua.

"Lord of Elements?" Xiao Hai.

"..." Ma Mingyuan, Old Ma.

Wang Qianduo's simple introduction had too many points to pick at; Lin Qimeng and the other two didn't know where to start their critique.

As for Old Ma, he only sent a few dots to avoid seeming out of place.

"Weren't you an agile-type mech? How did you become intelligence-based?" Lin Qimeng asked first.

"My initial mech was a bit special. Now it's intelligence-based!" Wang Qianduo replied.

"What kind of attribute is 'all-attribute'?" Sister Hua asked.

"It means exactly what it says. I can learn and use skills of all elemental attributes!"

"No wonder they call you Lord of Elements, awesome!" Xiao Hai exclaimed.

Regarding Lin Qimeng inviting Wang Qianduo to join their team, the three of them had no objections. They had personally witnessed his feat of wiping out a team with a single skill that day.

Even if Wang Qianduo had no operational skill, he was qualified to join them.

Moreover, speaking frankly, Wang Qianduo's current operational skills were actually quite decent.

After chatting for a while, the group entered the dungeon, "Black Shark Pirates' Secret Stronghold," believing action was the best way to get to know each other.

Since Wang Qianduo had never cleared this dungeon before, they could only enter the simple difficulty mode.

The "Black Shark Pirates' Secret Stronghold" had a total of 4 bosses, one more than the Dark Forest.

The mobs before the first boss were Black Shark Pirate lackeys piloting various custom mechs.

Their HP was around 1000, their attack was stronger than the magic rats, and they had more skills.

Even in a normal difficulty dungeon, the mobs were generally much stronger than wild monsters of the same level.

But it didn't matter. Wang Qianduo's Elemental Orb skill now dealt around 900 damage even without a critical hit.

This skill could be cast every two seconds, so this level of damage meant they could basically stroll through this normal difficulty dungeon.

Not to mention he had several powerful teammates who usually cleared difficult dungeons casually.

If it weren't for the fact that nightmare dungeons were too draining, with the time and energy invested not matching the rewards, they might have considered tackling nightmare dungeons.

This situation led to the group essentially crushing the dungeon mobs.

A mob would jump out, and before they could even get a good look, they would be taken down in one second.

"We finally don't lack damage output!" Sister Hua said sincerely, looking at the exceptionally smooth dungeon run.

"Yeah!" Lin Qimeng agreed.

Before Wang Qianduo joined their team, their composition was one tank, one assassin, one warrior, and one support, but they lacked a long-range damage dealer.

This put them at a disadvantage many times, such as in the underground world of the Magic Rat Star.

If their team had had a sniper mech with long-range vision technology or a hunter mech with magic capabilities at that time, they wouldn't have been so severely suppressed by the enemy.

In fact, their current team composition still had some issues. Wang Qianduo was indeed a long-range damage dealer, but he was currently a magic-based damage dealer.

They were still lacking a physical damage dealer, like a hunter or sniper.

But life rarely offers perfect solutions, and who's to say Old Wang couldn't provide physical output?

After all, his Universalist trait was still there.

The group easily mowed down monsters, soon arriving before the dungeon's first gate boss.

He was the infamous Black Shark Pirate Leader Mark B, piloting a Level 10 Arcane Mech Warrior and guarding the entrance to an underground laboratory.

"Intruders! You truly don't know your place, daring to..."

Critical Hit -5510, Stun 0.3s

-592

-1255

Weak Point Break -1804, Burn

-288

Before Mark B could even finish his sentence, a string of damage numbers floated above his head.

Even the Flame Elemental Orb struck a weak point.

Then he exploded on the spot. This was the unreasonable power of the Elemental Lord; as long as you had enough skills, you could instantly kill anyone.

Lin Qimeng and the others: "..."

"Whoa, you're too ruthless! I haven't even buffed you guys yet!" Sister Hua was the first to speak.

"Your skills have almost no charge time. Is that a characteristic of your mech?" Old Ma asked next.

"Yes, it's a characteristic of the Elemental Lord. Skills with a charge time of less than 5 seconds become instant casts," Wang Qianduo replied after a moment's thought.

He didn't intend to reveal the full stats of the Elemental Lord to anyone, so he decided to just make up a lie.

However, Wang Qianduo didn't realize at that moment that one lie would breed many more.

After defeating the first boss, the group obtained two common materials and one common equipment. Without even looking at them, they entered the underground laboratory through the entrance.

The moment they stepped inside, a piercing alarm blared.

Then, a large iron gate dropped behind them, sealing them in completely. It seemed the enemy intended to trap them like a turtle in a jar.

But no one panicked. Lin Qimeng and the others had run this dungeon many times; this sort of thing happened almost daily, and they were used to it.

As for Wang Qianduo, he wasn't scared at all. He had read the guide, after all!

After the iron gate fell, red eyes began to light up throughout the underground base. These were the most annoying monsters at this stage of the game: Modified Humans.

They varied in shape but shared a common feature: all these monsters had human heads.

Some had heads on spider bodies, while others had them on snake bodies.

These monsters were agile and had high attack power, but the terrain limited them. Their low defense made them somewhat awkward.

The existence of this narrow passage actually limited their difficulty; otherwise, their difficulty level would have been at least two tiers higher.

After another round of brutal output from the group, they killed them and then set them on fire for cremation.

Not in the mood to linger in the passage, they quickly proceeded to the large hall ahead.

The hall housed the boss for this stage: Advanced Modified Human No. 19. This was a modified human with both a human head and the head and body of a lion.

In addition, it had a long scorpion tail, making it look very much like the mythical Chimera.

Upon seeing it, Wang Qianduo didn't even consider holding back. He unleashed another skill burst and killed it, ending its sinful existence.

This game had been running for a year, and most of the story backgrounds for the dungeons had been thoroughly dissected by players.

Most of the modified humans in this stronghold dungeon were originally ordinary citizens and tourists from Fairy City, forcibly abducted by the Black Shark Pirates for human experimentation.

But this boss was a bit special...

Thanks to Boss Yichao for the reward!