"Great!
Let me introduce you to your future teammates!" Lin Qimeng said, the corners of her mouth curving up slightly after Wang Qianduo agreed without a moment's hesitation.
Then she pointed to a scarlet Mecha in the group and continued, "This is Sister Hua, my best friend. Her Mecha is the Fire-type Blazing Thorns."
Blazing Thorns was a rare Mecha with an exceptional appearance. Its design was every bit as stunning as Dragon Princess.
Its slender frame was covered in armor, with unusual thorn-like reliefs in several places that gave it a wild, beautiful look.
It was also an Intelligence-type support Mecha with the Fire element. It excelled at providing teammates with Energy Shields, inflicting negative status effects on enemies, and controlling the battlefield.
Next, Lin Qimeng pointed to an entirely black Mecha. "This is Xiao Hai, the assassin on our team. His Mecha is Shadow Blade."
Shadow Blade was an Agility-type assassin Mecha. It was even shorter than an ordinary starter Mecha and looked extremely nimble.
They said it was a super Mecha that could slip into the shadows, with the exceedingly rare Dark attribute.
Finally, Lin Qimeng pointed to the yellow Mecha in the group. It towered over the others and looked incredibly heavy. "And last is Old Ma, our team's tank. His Mecha is the Earth-type War Rhino."
War Rhino was an Earth-element Mecha of the Strength type. It stood nearly fifteen meters tall and weighed more than forty tons.
They said that as long as War Rhino's feet were planted on the ground, it could continuously recover HP and repair itself.
The moment Lin Qimeng mentioned each Mecha's name, Zero displayed its information in front of Wang Qianduo.
Knowing yourself and your enemy meant you could win a hundred battles—Zero really came through!
These people were all very impressive, too. Their Mechas were all rare, magic-oriented types.
"Okay, now introduce yourself!"
"Hello, everyone. I'm Wang Qianduo. My Mecha is the all-attribute Intelligence-type evolved form, Lord of the Elements. I'm glad to be your teammate!" After Lin Qimeng finished, Old Wang gave a brief introduction of his own.
"Intelligence-type?" Lin Qimeng said.
"All attributes?" Sister Hua said.
"Lord of the Elements?" Xiao Hai said.
"..." Old Ma, Ma Mingyuan, said nothing.
There was so much to question in Wang Qianduo's brief introduction that Lin Qimeng and the others didn't know where to start.
As for Old Ma, he only added a few dots so he wouldn't seem like he was being left out.
"Weren't you an Agility-type Mecha? How did you become Intelligence-type?" Lin Qimeng asked first.
"My starter Mecha was a little unusual. It's Intelligence-type now," Wang Qianduo replied.
"What kind of attribute is 'all attributes'?" Sister Hua asked.
"Just what it sounds like. I can learn and use skills of every elemental attribute."
"No wonder it's called Lord of the Elements. That's awesome!" Xiao Hai said.
The three of them had no objections to Lin Qimeng inviting Wang Qianduo to join their team. They'd seen him wipe out an entire team with a single skill that day.
Even if Wang Qianduo had no control skills at all, he was more than qualified to join them.
And to be fair, his control was actually pretty decent now.
After chatting for a while, they entered the Black Shark Pirates' Secret Stronghold Instance Dungeon. Fighting together was the best way to get to know one another.
Since Wang Qianduo had never cleared this Instance Dungeon, the group could only enter on Easy mode.
The Black Shark Pirates' Secret Stronghold had four bosses in total, one more than the Dark Forest.
The mobs before the first boss were Black Shark Pirate underlings piloting various man-made Mechas.
They had around 1,000 HP, hit a little harder than the Demon Rats, and had more skills, too.
Even on Normal difficulty, the mobs in an Instance Dungeon were generally much stronger than same-level monsters out in the wild.
But that didn't matter. Wang Qianduo could now deal around 900 damage with one Elemental Orb, even without a critical hit.
He could cast the skill every two seconds or so. Against the mobs in this Normal-difficulty Instance Dungeon, he strolled through them as if he were taking a leisurely walk.
And that was before you even counted his powerful teammates. They usually ran Hard-difficulty dungeons without a problem.
If Nightmare Dungeons didn't take so much effort, making the time and energy spent on each run so out of proportion to the rewards, they could take those on, too.
As a result, the group completely overwhelmed the dungeon's mobs.
Any mob that popped out barely had time to look at them before the group took it down in a second.
"Finally, we're not short on damage!" Sister Hua said sincerely, watching how smoothly the run was going.
"Yeah," Lin Qimeng agreed.
Before Wang Qianduo joined them, their lineup consisted of a tank, an assassin, a warrior, and a support—but no ranged damage dealer.
That put them at a disadvantage in a lot of situations, like when they were in the underground world of Demon Rat Star.
If they'd had a sniper with ranged vision technology, or a magic-oriented Hunter Mech, their team wouldn't have been suppressed so badly.
Their lineup still had some issues, actually. Wang Qianduo did deal ranged damage, but he was a magic-type damage dealer.
They still lacked a physical damage dealer like a Hunter or a sniper.
But life was never perfect, and who said Old Wang couldn't deal physical damage?
His Universal User trait was still right there, after all.
They cleared the mobs with ease and soon reached the dungeon's first gatekeeper boss.
He was the notorious Black Shark Pirate captain, Mark Bi. Piloting a level-ten Mana Mech warrior, he guarded the entrance to an underground laboratory.
"Invaders! You don't know your place. How dare you—"
Critical Hit -5510, Stunned 0.3s
-592
-1255
Weak Point Break -1804, Burning
-288
Before Mark Bi could finish speaking, a string of damage numbers appeared above his head.
The Fire-element Elemental Orb had even struck his weak point.
Then he exploded right on the spot. That was what made Lord of the Elements so unreasonable: as long as you had enough skills, you could hammer anyone to death in an instant.
Lin Qimeng and the others: "..."
"Seriously, you're way too ruthless. I hadn't even had time to buff you!" Sister Hua was the first to speak.
"Your skills have practically no charge time. Is that a trait of your Mecha?" Old Ma asked next.
"Yes. It's one of Lord of the Elements' traits. Skills with a charge time under five seconds become instant," Wang Qianduo replied after a moment's thought.
He didn't plan to tell anyone Lord of the Elements' full attributes, so he figured he'd make up a story instead.
But at that moment, Wang Qianduo didn't realize that covering up one lie would only lead to more lies.
After they defeated the first boss, the group received two common materials and one common piece of equipment. They didn't even look at the loot before entering the underground laboratory.
The moment they stepped through the entrance, a piercing alarm rang out.
Then a huge metal gate slammed down behind them, trapping them inside. It seemed their enemies wanted to catch them like turtles in a jar.
But no one panicked. Lin Qimeng and the others had been running this Instance Dungeon for ages. Things like this happened almost every day, so they were used to it.
Wang Qianduo wasn't worried at all, either. He'd read the guide, hadn't he?
Once the gate dropped, pairs of red eyes lit up throughout the underground base. These were the most annoying monsters in the game at its current stage: Modified Humans.
They came in all shapes and sizes, but they shared one feature: every one of them had a human head.
Some had their heads on spider bodies, while others had theirs on snake bodies.
They were agile and hit hard, but the terrain held them back. Their low defense also put them at a disadvantage.
The passage actually limited the difficulty they posed. Without it, their difficulty would be at least two levels higher.
The group unleashed another brutal barrage, killed them all, and set their bodies on fire.
Unwilling to spend any more time in the passage, they hurried toward the hall ahead.
The boss at this stage was Advanced Modified Human No. 19, a Modified Human with a human head, a lion's head, and a lion's body.
On top of that, it had a long scorpion tail, making it look a lot like the legendary two-headed manticore.
Wang Qianduo had no intention of holding back. He unleashed another burst of skills, killed it, and ended its wicked life.
The game had been running for a year, and the players had pretty much uncovered the stories behind all kinds of Instance Dungeons.
Most of the Modified Humans in this stronghold had originally been ordinary residents and tourists from Fairy City. The Black Shark Pirates had kidnapped them by force to use in human experiments.
But this boss was different...
Before you continue