[They're here!]
[Holy crap, why are there so many?!]
[Streamer, look outside the window!]
[It's over, it's over! He's really done for this time!]
[If he survives this, I'll eat shit standing on my head.]
[The monsters are targeting the Coral Shell Room this time. He can't even escape!]
The chat suddenly flooded with comments, and Xiao Hao had a very bad feeling.
Even sitting inside, Xiao Hao could hear the surging currents outside.
It was the sound of those currents battering the Coral Shell Room.
Even the objects on the floor trembled slightly. The rattling between the wooden bed and the floor grew more violent, as though heralding an approaching disaster.
Xiao Hao walked grimly to the window. Since the seahorses had reached level 8, his night vision had also improved to a range of around twenty meters.
The wild monsters had already caused this much commotion before even entering Xiao Hao's field of vision.
The dark seabed only made Xiao Hao more uneasy.
What exactly were these monsters?
Something unexpected had happened before he could even put his plan into action.
Xiao Hao's brows knitted tightly. Cold sweat ran past the ends of his sharp brows, merged with the beads on his cheeks, and dripped straight down.
A speck of pink fluorescence suddenly lit up in the distance, followed by several blue and purple lights that glowed like lanterns. The scattered points of light gradually multiplied.
As the glow drew closer, Xiao Hao recognized what they were.
A school of Primordial Snailfish!
Weren't those glowing, translucent blobs of crystal jelly the Snail Fish?
But why had they left their habitat to attack the Coral Shell Room?!
A skull with scraps of flesh clinging to it floated out of the darkness. Its two uneven rows of teeth snapped together a few times, producing several low syllables.
"Heh... hmm..."
Ten scythe-like fingers thrust out of the darkness, followed by withered arms that looked dusted with cremation ashes. A few rags covered the essential parts of its skeletal body. Through the gaps between its ribs, even its rotting organs were visible.
The Deep-Sea Ghost!
The Ghost had driven them here!
The Ghost had not even attacked yet. The school of Snail Fish alone was draining the Coral Shell Room's magic at a terrifying rate!
[There's absolutely no way he survives this.]
[Says who? I believe our streamer can work a miracle!]
[Where did this delusional kid come from?]
[Stop arguing. This is a crucial moment. Watch the stream!]
Xiao Hao ignored the chat and immediately used the Slowdown Card and Maintenance Card, while releasing his seahorses to stack their Darkness Domains.
Darkness began to erode them, but self-healing was what the Snail Fish did best!
Xiao Hao was frantic. Even with the Slowdown Card and Maintenance Card active, the Coral Shell Room's magic was still dropping rapidly by over ten liters per second under the swarm's assault!
Xiao Hao forced down his panic, then suddenly remembered something.
Was the Snail Fish's self-healing a skill, or an innate physical trait?
Xiao Hao remembered the chat mentioning that the Snail Fish's gelatinous bodies gave them nearly invincible physical defense.
But physical defense was not the same as healing!
If the Snail Fish's self-healing was a skill, and they were currently attacking the Coral Shell Room...
Could the Calm Card seal their self-healing skill?
There was only one way to find out!
Xiao Hao quickly clicked the Calm Card.
Since the Snail Fish attacked in turns, he could not exploit a bug with the Calm Card. He had to keep it active.
Still, as long as he could speed up Darkness Erosion, he would soon wear them all down to death!
As the Calm Card took effect, the Snail Fish's glow visibly dimmed.
It really worked!
Soon, several Snail Fish broke down. The resulting liquid splashed onto the Coral Shell Room, making it hiss as the corrosive fluid ate away at it.
Apparently, the liquid left behind by the decomposed Snail Fish did not dissolve in water and was denser than the surrounding deep-sea water.
Xiao Hao checked the Coral Shell Room's magic gauge and found that its magic was draining even faster.
The corrosive liquid could actually wear away the Coral Shell Room's magic too!
Xiao Hao scanned his ten cards, his gaze settling on the Magic Defense Card.
Corrosion from this liquid shouldn't count as a physical attack, right?
Xiao Hao clicked to use the Magic Defense Card, and the rate of magic depletion immediately fell.
As more and more Snail Fish broke down, the Ghost quickly realized something was wrong.
Low-level monsters could not sense Darkness Erosion, but the Ghost could!
The Ghost began herding the Snail Fish, driving those inside the domains back out and sending a fresh wave in.
It intended to send the Snail Fish in shifts and wear Xiao Hao down to death!
Xiao Hao had always been the one using Darkness Erosion to wear wild monsters down. He had never imagined that one day the monsters would turn the tables on him!
The Ghost could herd the Snail Fish, but it could not control their every move.
It rotated them once every minute, but there were always a few Snail Fish that failed to get out in time and were worn down to death.
And so, the two sides entered a war of attrition.
One hour, two hours...
Xiao Hao's Slowdown Card ran out of time and vanished.
Watching this, the Ghost finally tasted the pleasure of revenge.
It knew its opponent had six cards like this!
Every last one had been pilfered from it!
By driving these swarms of wild monsters at him, it would exhaust all his cards and Spirit Pearls in one go. This time, the Ghost would not give him another chance!
As time passed, the school of Snail Fish gradually thinned.
Their lights went out one by one, like candles burning down to ash, creating a sense of ruin and decay.
The outer walls of the Coral Shell Room were coated in corrosive liquid. Even the dark red ground along its edges had been eaten away into a shallow trench.
Many Snail Fish died before their bodies could strike the Coral Shell Room. They fell onto the nearby ground, forming small pits filled with corrosive liquid.
The once-level ground became riddled with muddy pits, like a country lane after rain.
[Beautiful!]
[You can use the Calm Card like that?!]
[I thought the Calm Card was only for sealing monsters' attack skills. I never imagined he'd use it to seal their healing skills!]
[That was such a slick play!]
At the three-hour mark, Xiao Hao's Magic Defense Card and Calm Card were exhausted too, and the Coral Shell Room was on the verge of collapse.
He clicked upgrade, restoring it to a brand-new level 9 Coral Shell Room.
Although he had used up three cards, thanks to the Ghost, the school of Snail Fish had brought Xiao Hao quite a few Spirit Pearls.
It probably had never imagined that its plan to let the Snail Fish wear down the Coral Shell Room would turn into a delivery of welcome supplies.
Xiao Hao had originally had no intention of provoking the school of Snail Fish.
Their self-healing was far too obnoxious.
Yet sending them to attack the Coral Shell Room had instead allowed the Calm Card to seal their skills.
After hours of fighting, Xiao Hao actually had more Spirit Pearls than before.
Xiao Hao upgraded all his seahorses and mantis shrimp to level 9, leaving him with 1,400 Spirit Pearls.
Enough to upgrade them all to level 10.
Thanks, Ghost.
With the Calm Card and Magic Defense Card fully exhausted and more than half the Maintenance Card's duration gone, the few remaining Snail Fish actually wore away even more of the Coral Shell Room's magic.
Only after more than half its magic had been depleted did the last of the snailfish die.
Once the final Snail Fish broke down and splashed onto the Coral Shell Room, the Ghost began attacking it.
By then, the seahorses were already exhausted.
Xiao Hao recalled the Seahorses so they could recover some stamina.
He checked the time. It was only a little after twelve.
The level 9 Coral Shell Room could probably hold the Ghost off for another hour or so.
His nerves had been stretched taut throughout the fight. Now that the situation had stabilized, Xiao Hao felt hungry.
Food was fuel; even skipping one meal left him ravenous.
The decisive battle would come in the early morning, once the Ghost's buffs wore off.
Until then, Xiao Hao had to wear down the Ghost's health as much as possible and break its composure.
Hmm...
Eating right in front of the Ghost seemed like a pretty good choice.
Xiao Hao glanced at the kitchen, then turned back toward the Ghost with a wicked grin.
The Ghost's smug satisfaction suddenly evaporated. It had a bad feeling.
Before you continue