Chapter 265: Girl Has Disappeared

"You guy. Why are you here!?" Tangjiked retreated a step subconsciously, his palm immediately reaching for the iron sword at his waist.

"Want to know why I'm still alive?" Looking at the other's shocked expression, Yun Mu raised an eyebrow.

She chuckled: "Do you think I'd tell you?"

"... Damn it." Recalling their previous battle, Tangjiked gritted his teeth.

He didn't think he could defeat Yun Mu, yet if he gave up now... that fellow, the Mayor, likely wouldn't give him a second chance.

"Inhale, exhale." Thinking of this, Tangjiked took a deep breath and slowly drew his long sword: "I, I cannot stop here!"

As long as the fuse is relit within a short time, everything is still possible! "Tch, looking at his appearance he's clearly old, yet the things he says are all lines from a hot-blooded manga protagonist."

It makes it seem like she's the villain.

Yun Mu was somewhat speechless.

"Who cares about you, you guy who stands behind and uses Touxixi!"

Recalling how she had been treated like debris by the other, tossed onto the ground and dragged back and forth, a wave of anger surged in Yun Mu's heart.

Besides that, there was also the sword that pierced her heart... even now, when she recalled it, she still felt a lingering fear.

Fortunately, she possessed the trait of 【Blood Core】, and fortunately, she possessed the painting 【Mechanical Heart】. If she didn't have these life-saving means, for a normal person, the moment their heart was pierced, everything would have ended.

Although she still had a few pieces of life-saving equipment on her, in the end, this incident was still caused by her not being careful enough.

The 【Blood Perception】 ability failed, and at the same time, she couldn't perceive the other's aura as a living being at all... She should have noticed this when they first met and raised her vigilance.

This time it was a narrow escape, but what about next time? Who could guarantee she would always be this lucky? "Can't be careless again..."

Shaking her head, Yun Mu raised her hand and summoned her teammate.

【Battle Start!】

【You have encountered the enemy 【Tangjiked lv25+ (Elite)】】

Max HP: 105 Race:??? Attack: 35+, Spell Strength: 20+ Traits: Undead Unarmed+, Knight Spirit+ Skills: Charge+, Continuous Strike+, Fierce Counterattack+, Sword Throw+】 【Note: The '+' effect means it is strengthened. If you encounter an enemy with a '+' after their name, please face them with caution!】

【Current Turn: 1】

【Player Yun Mu acts first!】

"Hah!"

Tangjiked suddenly let out a low shout.

He shifted his center of gravity downward, the tip of the iron sword in his hand pointing down, and held it in front of him to Block.

As a familiar silver-white radiance flashed across his body, the game's combat prompt slowly popped up.

【Charge!】

【Super Armor!】

【Note: Enemies with '+' have a certain probability to act first within a turn. This may cause Disturbance to the player's rhythm, please be careful.】

"It can do that?" Yun Mu's face darkened. She wondered how the other could act during her turn; it turned out to be a special effect of the strengthened state.

At the beginning, she thought this was some kind of plot setting, where regardless of the player's turn count, when the plot is triggered, the enemy will release the corresponding skill.

Then, during the skill release, they shout a couple of lines to increase immersion or supplement the setting.

Many games are designed this way. Similar to this is the "locked health" that prevents players from instantly killing a boss with a burst of damage, thereby skipping the strategy phase.

However, the latter is clearly not very popular with players. Here, one has to mention that some games deliberately design the Leader enemy's health bar into multiple segments, and then wait until one health bar is depleted to switch forms... It's really disgusting. Sometimes the output is completely swallowed by the last sliver of the first health bar, and then when the enemy switches forms and enters the second health bar, the second health bar is completely full... It's a purely disgusting design.

Fortunately, when she was making games, she never considered doing it this way.

Although it was a pie-in-the-sky promise to fans, she still designed it properly. Besides, if she hadn't transmigrated, the game she was making would probably just be a small eroge selling fanservice.

Normal people play these games to see the fanservice, so the difficulty definitely couldn't be too high. Of course, one couldn't completely ignore the gameplay either, otherwise... *cough*, I've digressed.

Coming back to her senses, Yun Mu began to think of a strategy.

According to her usual playstyle, she would definitely just use Mental Shock and mindlessly attack. However, now, looking at the other's stats and the plus signs behind the traits and skills, for some reason, she inexplicably felt a bit intimidated.

Attacking someone while they are Charging will trigger the effect of the skill 【Fierce Counterattack】.

Although with her HP and defense, even if she took this hit, it probably wouldn't be a problem, not to mention she also had Dodge... but when one is afraid, one is afraid; she couldn't help it.

"Come out, Thor!"

With a thought from Yun Mu, the phantom of the painting 【Thor】 suddenly emerged from behind her.

The next second, the whistling sound of a Medical Transport rang out, and the tall Thunder God Mecha dropped straight onto the ground beside Yun Mu.

"Thor Is Here."

Just as she boarded Thor's cockpit, as the mecha's operating system officially came online, a synthesized mecha startup voice rang in her ears.

"Ah, this thick sense of security."

Yun Mu lay on the cockpit's control panel, her nose tip gently sniffing the cool scent of cold metal.

【Tangjiked begins his action!】

"Eh!?"

"Didn't he just act?"

Seeing the message prompt pop up on the Game Panel, Yun Mu was so shocked she immediately stood up from the cockpit.

Could it be that the preemptive action was an extra turn and didn't occupy the original turn order? Damn it, you're cheating! Acting once more than others in a single turn, you're playing dirty! If Tangjiked knew what Yun Mu was thinking right now, he would probably be so angry he'd point at her nose and curse: "Why don't you mention that you have three teammates!?"

Of course, this is just a hypothesis.

【Sword Throw!】

Tangjiked, exuding a dangerous aura, immediately threw the long sword in his hand, the sharp tip flying straight toward Lucy!

As Yun Mu watched, her heart almost jumping out of her chest from nervousness, Lucy casually shifted half a step to the side, and the long sword flew past her ear.

【Dodge!】

"Phew!"

Yun Mu's tense heart instantly relaxed. Come to think of it, for skills like Sword Throw that use long-range thrown weapons, the accuracy stat is usually not very good.

That said, those with good luck can successfully Dodge every time, while those who are unlucky will often be hit and suffer a critical strike at the same time.

I won't go into detail about that here.

【Undead Unarmed!】

【Tangjiked's attributes have been increased!】

【Lucy begins her turn!】

"Hiss."

The effect of the skill 【Sword Throw】 can directly trigger the trait 【Undead Unarmed】.

Watching the various attribute bonuses popping up above Tangjiked's head, Yun Mu couldn't help but take a deep breath.

"Use equipment on me, the active effect of the Immoral Notebook... no, wait."

Halfway through her sentence, she suddenly thought of something.

After pondering for a brief moment, Yun Mu changed her mind: "Use the skill 【Blade Seat II】 on me."

The skill effect of 【Immoral Pleasure】 is to give her a +10% damage modifier and +5% critical strike. However, just now, she suddenly realized that the effect of Blade Seat II is to enchant a weapon, adding 【Spell Strength 15%】 to it.

And her Spell Strength, under the bonuses of various equipment, far exceeds her attack power.

Which is to say, when she uses skills related to attack power.

The damage increase from Blade Seat II is higher than 【Immoral Pleasure】; of course, the latter can be used at any time and also has the +5% critical strike effect.

One can only say that each has its own pros and cons.

By the way, the Thunder God Mecha summoned by the painting 【Thor】, although it is Yun Mu's creation of Spirituality.

Its attributes are fixed, unlike the skill 【Artillery Barrage】 of the painting Cold Crow, where the damage caused fluctuates according to Yun Mu's Spell Strength.

Furthermore, all of Thor's skills are determined based on the mecha's attack power, rather than the magic damage of 【Artillery Barrage】.

This is a rather important detail~ So, the buff effect of Blade Seat II is determined by the caster's Spell Strength. When Lucy uses this skill to enchant this mecha, Thor, what kind of effect will it produce?

The Thunder God Mecha's attack power is 80 points, while Yun Mu's Spell Strength, under the support of various equipment and her Path.

Is 102 points!

【Spell Strength 15%】

Under the illumination of the azure starlight, the entire body of the Thunder God Mecha is imbued with a layer of pale purple halo, looking just like an enchantment effect in some game.

And after it became the Goblin Brave's turn to act, Yun Mu decisively had them use the skill 【Command Lock】 to mark Tangjiked as the target.

This way, she could get an additional 5% damage increase.

As for the Scarlet Knight, this guy doesn't have any skills with buff effects.

Making him attack Tangjiked wouldn't do much, and he would just get Counterattacked by the opponent.

Seeing that this turn is about to end, let's just have him use the skill 【Call Mount】.

Hmm... lately, I've been feeling like the Scarlet Knight's strength isn't quite enough.

After all, he is just a Leader in a lv15 Dungeon; although he is lv22 himself, he still suffers from having attributes that are too low.

After all, in higher-level Dungeons, even if the level is the same, the monsters in the higher-level Dungeons will have better attributes.

And the Dungeon level... according to her observations, it is roughly determined by her own character level and Path level.

The Path level determines the lower limit of the Dungeon level; for example, the lower limit for lv1 is Apprentice, the lower limit for lv2 is Elite, and so on. And her own level, hmm... how should I put it?

When she breaks through to Elite, the Dungeon level for a lv1 Path will also rise to Elite.

However, the lv3 Dungeon level is Expert, because the Path level determines the lower limit of the Dungeon level... simply put, the Dungeon level is related to her character level, but the lower limit of the Dungeon level, which is the lowest rank, cannot be lower than the rank of the Path level.

That's probably how it is.

Yun Mu herself isn't too sure, after all, these are all things she deduced herself.

The Game Panel doesn't have any instruction manual, so she can only grope her way through using it like this.

【Current Turn Number: 2】

【Player Yun Mu acts first!】

"Ha!!"

【Charge!】

【Immovable!】

The turn had just begun, and Tangjiked immediately refreshed the 【Charge】 that had lost its effect.

How is this a probability of acting first? It's clearly a guaranteed first action every turn.

Well... perhaps only Tangjiked is like this; after all, he is the first reinforced enemy encountered, so he counts as a tutorial-type enemy?

So he triggers a first-action effect every turn—could this even be considered a specific mechanic monster? "Forget it, why worry about so much?"

"Ha, let me show you the power of Thor's Hammer!"

Yun Mu curled the corner of her mouth upward and decisively controlled the Thunder God Mecha to release a skill.

【Thor's Hammer!】

【-47!】

【58/105】

"Tsk, it didn't even take off half?" Yun Mu frowned.

The damage of this shot of hers, not counting defense, should have been 119 points.

Because of the trait, the defense increased by Undead Unarmed, and the damage reduction from Immovable... how disgusting!

However, this wasn't over yet; don't forget, being attacked while Immovable will trigger Tangjiked's skill, the effect of Fierce Counterattack!

"Hah!"

A fist flashing with bright silver radiance struck the chest of the Thunder God Mecha heavily.

Yun Mu only felt the mecha body tremble, and then 【-0】.

"."

"Ah, this." She looked at the defense of the Thunder God Mecha with some belated realization.

【105】

Although she was not clear on what the damage value of that punch just now was, it clearly did not exceed this number.

If only he could have had 106 points of damage, the Thunder God Mecha would not have lost a single drop of health.

Now Yun Mu was finally relieved; it seemed her stats were still able to crush this Dungeon.

Hahaha, my stats are above yours! 【Tangjiked begins to act!】

It was Tangjiked's turn to act again, because Charge had already been used once, and Fierce Counterattack required being attacked by someone before it could be triggered.

Coupled with the fact that Sword Throw could only be used once, he could only use the skill 【Continuous Strike】 to launch an attack.

As for the skill effect of 【Continuous Strike】... simply put, it dealt four segments of damage to the target, and each attack had a 20% chance to add one additional attack count.

Perhaps realizing that attacking Yun Mu could not break her defense at all, Tangjiked selected the Scarlet Knight, who had lower defense and not enough health, as his target!

Ahem, he certainly wanted to attack Lucy, who was hiding in the back, but unfortunately.

The Dungeon granted him abnormal attributes, so naturally, it would also restrict his performance in other areas.

The attack range of Continuous Strike was only 3, so he couldn't reach Lucy, who was standing in the fourth position at all! 【-24!】

【-24!】

【-11!】 ×4!

The Scarlet Knight's Mount was first killed by two punches, and then the main body received four consecutive attacks, totaling 44 points of damage.

The enemy had good luck; with four 20% probability segments, he actually managed to land 6 punches in a row.

If the Scarlet Knight had not used Call Mount, the six segments of 11 points of damage would have been just enough to wipe out his 65 points of health.

Entering the Near Death state, but unfortunately, there are no "ifs."

(End of chapter)