The Joy of Countering Every Move in Zane

We must take out the enemy right now! Who knows what he'll pull out next!

Matilda grabbed Fingel's head, and although she didn't speak, he could read the meaning in her glowing red eyes.

But these strange weapons aren't necessarily summoned by the Cursed. Even if we kill him here, there's no guarantee that even stranger weapons will appear later.

But he didn't dare say it aloud. He knew how destructive his team members could be when they went berserk. So he sighed, nodded, and agreed to kill the Cursed here.

Bullets rained down like a storm. The surrounding area was open and empty, with nowhere to take cover. It was also unclear whether the building materials of the Cathedral of the Deep roof could withstand these attacks that could even penetrate Mid Rank Magic Shield.

But people couldn't just sit and wait to die. Matilda transformed nearly half of her armor into a semi-circular giant shield to protect everyone inside. Aleya cast various protective spells on it and even created Hurricane Fruits on the Straw Man to counter the Gatling gun, trying to use the wind to weaken the bullets' power—something people used to do when dealing with arrows.

The giant shield trembled violently under the impact of the barrage of bullets, constantly being cratered and then repairing itself. It appeared to be undamaged, but it was consuming all of Matilda's stamina. When the shooting finally stopped, she quickly drank half a bottle of stamina potion.

The remaining half wasn't that she didn't want to drink it, but that she couldn't, because the Cursed's Greatsword had already pierced into the giant shield!

"Good opportunity, Matilda, you hold off his weapon!"

Fingel swiftly deployed his giant shield, positioned himself behind the Cursed, and unleashed a flurry of wild slashes. The Cursed One, after taking a few hits, immediately raised his shield to retaliate. The adventurer was knocked back a step by the impact, but secretly used the magic [Caria Piercing].

A Greatsword of azure magic formed in his hand, which he thrust forward with a fierce stab, piercing through the Greatshield and damaging the Cursed. This attack seemed to have dealt more damage than his previous frenzied slashing.

"We still need to use magic to deal with heavily armored enemies."

One important reason why Fingel, a magic swordsman, fell in love with the Zane Dungeon is that he is basically unable to use magic after his brain was damaged, and if he forces himself to use it, the effect of the magic will be greatly distorted.

However, the magic he obtained in the Zane Dungeon did not have this problem. The Caria Piercing he used was exactly the same as the ones used by others, with only differences in size and power.

Most importantly, you don't need to stand still to cast spells!

This gave him a feeling that he had finally become a normal person again, and he was also a little moved.

Because of the injury, the Cursed's strength surged, and he tried to use brute force to break the giant shield and take back his weapon. However, Matilda stopped in time and led the people to retreat. His heavy punch missed and he staggered. Seeing this, Fingel followed up with a piercing thrust.

Just as he was about to finish off the enemy, the sound of Gatling turning came. Fingel was startled and quickly retreated to dodge, but when he looked up, he found that the enemy had not fired at all.

Damn it, the monsters here can lie!

The Cursed seized the opportunity to distance himself from the adventurer. As the giant eagle carried him into the sky once more, a barrage of bullets rained down – this time it was for real.

This time, they still had to rely on Matilda. Fingel tried to build a high-level Magic Shield, but it didn't take long to form. Aleya released it ahead of time, but it only lasted for a dozen seconds.

Bloodborne's bullets are quite unique, containing mercury and the user's blood. They seem more like a product of metaphysics than technology, so it doesn't seem unreasonable that they deal more damage to Magic Shield.

Seeing Matilda chugging stamina potions, Aleya decided she had to help too. So the Straw Man stuck its hands into the ground, and a row of hard trees called "Ironwood" sprouted in front of the giant shield. The most distinctive feature of this thing is its hardness, and it was used to build city walls in ancient times.

However, because ironwood is a completely physical defense and has no resistance to magic, it was gradually phased out, and only botanists like Aleya could preserve its seeds.

Although Temu was very tough, it couldn't compare to Matilda's armor, which combined physical and magical properties. So Temu thought she wouldn't last long, but something amazing happened.

The clanging and banging sounds continued until the barrage stopped and the Cursed landed again. Only then did people realize that Ironwood had actually blocked all the bullets!

What's going on?

Fingel's eyes lit up; he seemed to understand something. Suddenly, he asked Aleya for a piece of ironwood and grabbed a piece of armor from Matilda. Then he ran back, saying, "You guys fight first, I'll go verify my guess!"

The sound of muskets firing came from behind, and just two minutes later he ran back, excitedly saying:

"Those strange weapons deal high damage to magical creations, but their damage to ordinary objects without magic is halved!"

The adventurers' eyes lit up; they had finally found a way to break the deadlock.

I knew it! Sion wouldn't pull out something completely unsolvable and disgusting; there's always a solution.

Since the area was open and there were no shelters, they decided to build their own. Aleya quickly created several rows of ironwood on the rooftops for people to take cover. At that moment, Fingel shouted again:

"Once that guy takes off, his companions will attack. Aleya, kill the giant eagle before it takes off!"

Although Aleya didn't understand why it had to be at this particular moment, she obediently did as she was told, and then she understood.

As the Cursed seized the giant eagle, the Gatling on the platform was already spinning, ready to seamlessly engage him!

Matilda used her immense strength to uproot the ironwood and smash it down, knocking the poor giant eagle to the ground, along with the Cursed.

At the same time, the Old Yharnam Hunter above also opened fire, prioritizing the nearest adventurers without cover, such as Fingel next to the Cursed.

"Da da da—"

Fingel barely managed to prop up the Cursed's Greatshield and hold his ground, determined to make sure the Gatling gun bullets hit the Cursed as well!

After the previous battle, he realized that the big guy in front of him was not human, but a controlled armor, or a puppet.

These puppets usually need magic to move, right? Then wouldn't Gatling guns use Quicksilver Bullets?

"A very good idea."

In the city lord's room, Gong Qiying looked at Fingel with admiration. The people he had met with the best adventurous skills before were Leon and Lu Lu Wo. Now he saw that Fingel was also a rare talent. He really wanted him to stay in Sain forever and perform for him.

"As expected of a Gold-level, their strength is truly formidable. They even managed to bring out the Gatling with their [Strength Balance]."

Gong Qiying granted the "Strength Balance" permission, which allows the user to access the monster resource pool and automatically control monsters of C+ level and below. This makes it easier to adjust the difficulty based on the adventurer's strength. However, this permission, like its master, likes to cause trouble and has brought out things like muskets.

Originally, Gong Qiying's idea was that monster equipment upgrades would stop at the Repeating Crossbow, with the possibility of creating some fixed crossbow bolts like the ballista. If the adventurer was too strong, he would create an avatar of the Monster Hunter light/heavy crossbow.

"Firearms are too big a leap and are not worth considering. We'll take them off the shelves after today."

If the Cathedral of the Deep had muskets, why didn't they just run to Anor Londo and tell Gwyn, "My lord, times have changed"?

Although in the end Gwyn will definitely turn him back to his original size with the Sunlight Spear, preventing him from changing size at will.

"It's been tough for Fingel and his team to challenge the Industrial Revolution; they deserve a bigger reward."

He stared at the scene on the Crystal Ball. After the adventurers finally defeated the Cursed amidst a hail of bullets, climbed the high platform, and engaged in a high-speed and exciting chase with the Old Yharnam Hunter who used pile drivers as weapons, and narrowly won, Gong Qiying finally made up his mind.

In addition to the fixed reward of [The Cursed Soul], he increased the amount of souls some adventurers received, gave each person an Experience Candy, a Flame Transformation Gem as a reminder, and a Lake Rune from Bloodborne, the specific effect of which is a single-digit percentage reduction in physical damage.

In Bloodborne's lore, runes are transcribed from the voices of Great One and require special tools to memorize in one's mind. It's hard to say whether there will be any side effects, such as hearing the sound of a giant octopus playing a flute in the deep sea.

However, Gong Qiying tested it on his own clone. As long as the runes in his mind were not too extreme, such as the [Blood Drunk] rune that made people crave blood, there was no problem. Runes like the [Lake] rune, which protected adventurers, were very safe.

There are no Great One in this world, so there's no need to worry about mental health issues. And Gong Qiying would never release unreliable things to harm adventurers.

A rune of incomprehensible meaning suddenly flashed through Fingel's mind, but it disappeared before he could react.

"Is it an illusion?"

He felt a subtle change in his body, yet nothing seemed to be happening, so he stopped paying attention. The unpredictable fighting style of the Old Yharnam Hunter was really exhausting him, even more so than fighting the Cursed.

He stood on the high platform, looking down over the entire roof of the church.

The good news is that his previous guess was correct. The fact that the Cursed abandoned the battle and ran away midway, besides making things difficult for adventurers with the monsters along the way, actually led them on the right path.

In other words, the trouble caused by the Cursed and monsters is a test to guide unsuspecting adventurers onto the right path. If the Cursed weren't so conspicuously hanging in the sky, most people would probably get lost and die.

Fingel had long heard that the strength of the monsters in the Zane Dungeon varied depending on the strength of the entrant, so he speculated that other adventurers probably wouldn't have such a "happy" experience when they entered the roof of the Cathedral of the Deep. The weapons of the Wraith Soldiers might not be so overpowered, and the stats of the Cursed might not be too strong.

On the contrary, the Cursed's methodical and sweeping fighting style is quite admirable, leaving a lasting impression after the fight.

"Another great work from the Zane Dungeon. This day has not been wasted."

After arriving at the high platform, which was originally intended to be a Gong Qiying but is now Gatling, the exploration of the entire rooftop is actually coming to an end. Going around this area and walking further back, you can reach a terrace where the door can finally be pushed open, leading to a staircase leading downwards.

A cold wind blew in from inside the door, accompanied by faint murmurs.

The route from here on out is clear: either go back and clear the unexplored side paths, or go inside the church.

No one can resist the allure of moving forward!

Fingel and his companions descended the stairs, and halfway down, they encountered a corridor that extended outwards, which was another fork in the road. Ultimately, they chose to continue downwards.

At the end of the room was a small house, the purpose of which was unclear, but the door next to the house looked familiar.

"Wait, no way?"

Fingel raised an eyebrow, pushed the door, and the words "Door Unmoved" appeared on the door. There was a mechanism next to the door; after pulling it, the door slowly opened, and a familiar scene appeared before people.

The campfire in the Cleansing Chapel crackled and popped, and the adventurers stared wide-eyed.

"Have we gone in a huge circle and ended up back here again?"

"What a peculiar map!"