67: Team destroyer?
Leaving the Black Rye Tavern, the night air of the City of Glory was especially cool and crisp.
The bright moonlight shone upon the cobblestone path, casting three long, stretched-out shadows.
Walking at the very front was still Lin Mo, who wore a cloak and whose aura was as deep and steady as an abyss. Trailing closely behind him were Iron Wall and Summer Rain, the atmosphere between them now drastically different from when they had arrived.
If, upon arrival, their hearts had been filled with anxiety and apprehension, then now, a blazing fire named "Heroic Spirit" burned in their chests.
"Captain, the 100 gold coins you gave us were incredible!" Iron Wall stroked the brand-new kite shield on his chest, his excitement palpable. "I went straight to the auction house and snatched this [guardian's bulwark]. Heh heh, the block value alone is nearly double that of my old broken shield! Now I feel like I could withstand a charging rhinoceros!"
Summer Rain had also equipped a glittering silver [Moon God Scepter]. Not only was her healing output greatly improved, but it also came with a "Prayer of Healing" area-of-effect recovery skill. She smiled slightly, her clear eyes sparkling with confidence: "My mana pool is much larger now too, so my sustained output will definitely keep up."
Having upgraded their gear significantly, their strength had soared. The direct improvement brought by the money gave them a solid foundation for the challenges ahead.
But the moment they thought of their destination, the confidence that had just ignited was inevitably replaced by a hint of nervousness.
The Wailing Mines.
At this stage in the City of Glory, that name was practically every player's nightmare.
It was not just a dungeon; it was a "quality inspector" measuring the strength of a guild's top team. Sadly, to this day, no team had managed to pass its inspection.
"Captain, are we... really going with just the three of us?" Iron Wall scratched his head. Although he had resolved to follow Lin Mo all the way, he was still a little apprehensive. "I heard that the Ba Tian Guild organized two more hundred-person elite teams to raid it yesterday, but they didn't even see the first boss—they were turned away by the trash mobs at the entrance."
"A hundred-person team?" Hearing this, Lin Mo's mouth curled into an ambiguous arc. "Having more people is sometimes not an advantage, but a burden."
"Huh?" Iron Wall didn't understand.
"The terrain of the Wailing Mines is narrow and rugged; many places only allow a few people to pass through," Lin Mo's voice was exceptionally clear in the quiet night. "If a hundred-person team enters, they can't spread out their formation. The Healers can't cover everyone, the damage dealers block each other's positions, and once casualties occur, Chaos spreads like a plague. The Ba Tian Guild is simply throwing lives at it, with no discernible strategy."
In just a few words, he clearly analyzed the root cause of the top guilds' repeated failures.
Iron Wall and Summer Rain were stunned. They had never considered the problem from this perspective. In their view, strength in numbers was an undeniable truth.
"Then... how should we approach the fight?" Summer Rain asked humbly.
"It's simple."
At this point, the three of them had arrived at the dungeon entrance located in the eastern suburbs of the City of Glory.
The Wailing Mines was situated beneath a desolate cliff face. The pitch-black entrance resembled the gaping maw of a man-eating behemoth, and gusts of cold wind poured out, mixed with faint, spine-chilling wails that sent shivers down their backs.
Lin Mo stopped, turned back to look at the two of them, his gaze sharp as a knife.
"They use addition; we use subtraction."
"They strive for blanket firepower, while we strive for precise execution."
"Remember, from now on, you don't need to think about how to clear entire groups of monsters. You only need to trust my judgment and execute every single one of my commands. If I tell you to hit someone, you hit them; if I tell you to stop, you stop immediately. Can you do that?"
His tone was calm, yet carried an undeniable authority.
"Yes!" Iron Wall shouted without hesitation, puffing out his chest.
"No problem, Captain!" Summer Rain also nodded emphatically.
"Very well." Lin Mo smiled contentedly. "Then let's go in and see what this so-called 'team grinder' is truly capable of."
With that, he was the first to step into the profound darkness.
[System Notification: You have entered the Level 25 Heroic Dungeon — Wailing Mines!]
Unlike the chill outside the cave, the interior of the mine was filled with a dry, hot air mixed with sulfur and metal.
The entire space was oppressive and warped. Unidentified ores were embedded in the rock walls, emitting a faint, sickly green phosphorescence in the darkness, making their shadows look like ghosts.
"Gulp..."
Iron Wall nervously swallowed, instinctively raising his shield in front of him. The atmosphere here was truly too suffocating.
"Stay close to me, and watch your step."
Lin Mo's voice came from the front, slightly reassuring them.
The three of them proceeded cautiously for about a hundred meters until the path suddenly opened up into a massive mine hall.
"Roar!"
Almost the instant they stepped into the hall, several furious roars erupted from all directions!
They saw massive, muscular monsters holding mining picks, their eyes blood-red, rising from the shadows in every corner of the hall. Behind them were several tall, skinny figures, hunched over, holding long whips and muttering incantations.
[Raging Miner (Elite)]: Level 25, Life 8000.
[Wailing Overseer (Elite)]: Level 25, Life 5000.
"It's the Miner and Overseer combination!" Summer Rain cried out softly, her face instantly turning pale. "The forums said this combination is the trickiest! The Overseers grant the Miners 'Bloodlust,' doubling their attack power, and they also cast 'Fatigue Curse' on us, lowering our attack and movement speed!"
"Exactly. This is where the major guild teams were wiped out," Lin Mo's tone remained calm. "Iron Wall, prepare to engage. Summer Rain, move to the safe spot behind me and be ready to Dispel."
"Understood!"
"Leave it to me!"
The two immediately entered combat stance.
"Wait, Captain, aren't you going to initiate?" Iron Wall was confused, seeing that Lin Mo had no intention of moving, merely retreating into the shadows.
"My job is not damage output," Lin Mo's voice drifted from the shadows like a ghost. "It is battlefield control."
Before he finished speaking, the Raging Miner closest to them was already charging forward with a roar!
"For the tribe... ah, no, for the foreman!"
Iron Wall let out a battle cry and activated the warrior's Charge skill, hitting the Miner precisely, while simultaneously striking hard with his shield!
"Shield Bash!"
- 85!
A damage number indicating a forced Taunt popped up, and the Raging Miner's aggro was firmly drawn to him.
"Nice job!" Summer Rain immediately cast a Restoration spell on Iron Wall.
However, this was only the beginning!
As the first Miner was engaged, the Wailing Overseer in the distance raised its long whip high and began chanting an incantation!
"Now!"
Lin Mo's voice, like the most precise command, rang out in their ears.
"Iron Wall, activate Block and tank the damage for three seconds! Summer Rain, prepare to Dispel!"
Almost the instant Lin Mo's words fell, a blood-red light erupted from the Overseer, instantly connecting to the Miner attacking Iron Wall.
[Bloodlust]!
The Raging Miner's body visibly swelled, and blood-red flames ignited on its pickaxe. Its attack power instantly skyrocketed!
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
- 180!
- 210!
- 195!
A string of terrifying damage numbers appeared above Iron Wall's head. Even with Block activated, his health bar instantly dropped significantly!
"Such high damage!" Iron Wall was shocked.
"Dispel!"
Lin Mo's command came again.
Summer Rain reacted swiftly. The Moon God Scepter in her hand flashed, and a holy radiance fell upon Iron Wall, successfully dispelling the subsequent [Fatigue Curse] cast by the Overseer.
"Captain! If we don't take down the Overseer, I can't hold out much longer!" Iron Wall shouted while retreating.
"Who said we weren't hitting it?"
In the darkness, Lin Mo's figure appeared like a phantom. Without them noticing, he had already circled around to the flank of the entire battlefield.
With a flick of his wrist, streams of dark green light, like the tongues of venomous snakes, landed with extreme precision on the Wailing Overseer who was chanting in the distance.
- 21 (Deadly Poison)
- 21 (Deadly Poison)
... Layer after layer, in the blink of an eye, five stacks of poison were applied!
The [Corrosion] effect triggered!
A tiny, barely noticeable green halo appeared beneath the Wailing Overseer's feet.
However, Lin Mo's movements did not stop.
"Summer Rain, cast Holy Light on Iron Wall, stabilize his health!"
"Iron Wall, retreat three steps to the back left, and lead the Miner next to that green ore!"
The commands came one after another, clear and precise.
Although the two didn't understand Lin Mo's intention, out of absolute trust, they followed his instructions immediately.
Just as Iron Wall led the Raging Miner to the designated spot, an anomaly suddenly occurred!
"Now!"
Lin Mo let out a low cry and activated the new skill he had obtained after God Slaying!
[Deadly Poison Mist]!
Whoosh—
A dense cloud of dark green poison mist, almost materialized, appeared out of thin air, instantly engulfing an area of twenty yards!
This area, precisely calculated by Lin Mo, perfectly encompassed the two Wailing Overseers in the distance, as well as the two other Raging Miners that had not yet been activated!
Meanwhile, Iron Wall and the Miner he was kiting were perfectly positioned right on the edge of the mist, not a hair out of place!
- 50, - 50, - 50... Within the poison mist, continuous damage numbers began floating above the heads of all the monsters.
More importantly, their vision was completely stripped away!
The skill chants of the two Wailing Overseers were instantly interrupted. They spun around haphazardly in the mist like headless flies, unable to provide any further support to the Miner in front of Iron Wall!
The battlefield had been perfectly divided!
"Oh my god..."
Summer Rain watched the miraculous scene before her, covering her mouth in shock.
A single skill had completely dismantled a monster combination that had rendered hundred-person teams helpless!
"Don't stare!" Lin Mo's voice pulled her back to reality. "Focus fire on the one in front of Iron Wall! Finish it quickly!"
"Okay!"
Stripped of the Overseer's buffs and curse support, and stacked with several layers of Lin Mo's poison, the Raging Miner instantly transformed from a fierce tiger into a sick kitten.
Under the focused fire of the three, its 8,000 Life points rapidly decreased. In less than half a minute, it let out a wail and crashed to the ground.
"Beautiful!" Iron Wall roared excitedly.
"Don't celebrate yet." Lin Mo walked out of the poison mist, his expression calm. "Clear the battlefield and prepare for the next wave."
As the mist dissipated, the remaining two Overseers and two Miners had already lost nearly a quarter of their health and were covered in negative effects like slow and Corrosion.
The subsequent fighting turned into an absolute slaughter.
In less than five minutes, this monster combination, which was enough to wipe out the Ba Tian Guild's elite teams all afternoon, was easily and smoothly dealt with by the three of them.
"Cap... Captain... we... we're done already?" Iron Wall looked at the loot scattered everywhere, still somewhat disbelieving.
The entire process was fluid and effortless, as easy as clearing trash mobs in a normal dungeon.
"This... this is your strategy?" Summer Rain's beautiful eyes shone brightly, filled with admiration for Lin Mo.
"That was just an appetizer."
Lin Mo picked up a piece of bronze armor dropped by a monster and casually tossed it to Iron Wall, his gaze fixed on the deeper parts of the mine.
"The real challenge is yet to come."
The moment his voice faded.
"ROAR—!!!"
A tremendous roar, laced with anger and pain, sounding as if it could tear the soul apart, suddenly erupted from the depths of the mine!
The entire mine shook violently with the roar, and countless fragments of rock rattled down from the ceiling.
A savage aura, a hundred times more terrifying than that of the Raging Miners before, swept over them like a tide!
Iron Wall and Summer Rain's faces instantly turned ghastly pale.
"What... what is that sound?" Iron Wall's voice was shaking. "That definitely isn't the first boss! Its presence is even stronger than the Abyssal Lord clone we killed before!"
Summer Rain nervously gripped her staff, her palms slick with sweat.
Yet, under this suffocating pressure, Lin Mo's face showed no fear at all; instead... he wore a smile of intense interest.
"Interesting."
He narrowed his eyes and murmured softly to himself.
"It seems this trip was truly worth it."