Chapter 1567: Different Goals

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

Chapter 1567 – Different Goals

As Shi Feng’s 3-man party ascended the altar, Skyhawk and the others, who rested and recovered their Concentration and Stamina before the mountain, turned to watch.

“Commander, Hidden Soul’s party is up next.”

“What a joke! An Assassin, a Berserker, and a Swordsman? Do they really plan to challenge the Epic Test with that kind of party configuration?”

“If she really lets these slots go to waste, not even her brother can help her keep her position!”

After sending Hidden Soul a contemptuous glance, Skyhawk closed his eyes and focused on recuperation, paying no attention to the upcoming battle.

He had severely depleted both his Stamina and Concentration in the previous intense battle. Although the World Summit was a relatively safe place, it was not completely void of danger. He had to remain in peak condition.

As soon as Shi Feng stepped on the altar, the sound of a system notification reached his ears.

…

System: Defeat all enemies before you, and you will be granted entry to the World Summit.

System: As a three-man party, you will gain 30 minutes for every Special Elite killed, 100 minutes for Chieftains, 500 minutes for Lords, 1,000 minutes for High Lords, 2,000 minutes for Great Lords, and 5,000 minutes for Grand Lords.

System: Your party must choose 20 monsters to face. If you are unable to defeat your opponents, you will die.

System: As a three-man party, the party leader may choose 10 monsters, while party members may choose 5 monsters each. The chosen monsters will prioritize the players that chose them. Your party has 10 minutes to consider. Failure to do so will result in automatic forfeit. You will die if you forfeit.

…

“Based on our previous discussion, I’ll choose one Grand Lord and Nine Chieftains; Brute, you’ll choose three Great Lords and two Chieftains; Maple Leaf, you’ll choose one Great Lord and four Chieftains. Try to buy as much time as possible. Brute and I will deal with the Chieftains as quickly as possible, and then we’ll focus on your Great Lord,” Hidden Soul said as she looked at Shi Feng.

“Understood.” Shi Feng nodded.

Shi Feng hadn’t given Hidden Soul and Brute Spear any of the names he usually used. Instead, he had given them a fake name that he had thought up on the fly.

The World Summit was a paradise of treasure. It was also a hub for Demon Players. It certainly wasn’t a good idea to expose either his Ye Feng ID or Black Flame ID. Hence, he had decided to use another name to avoid complications. Moreover, he had the Nightwalker’s Cape. Even if others used high-ranking Identification Skills on him, they couldn’t see through his concealment.

When Shi Feng nodded, Hidden Soul chose her monsters.

However, once Shi Feng chose his Great Lord, he didn’t immediately select four Chieftains. Instead, he chose one Grand Lord and three Chieftains.

Now that he had the rare opportunity of joining a party in the World Summit, he had to earn as much time as possible. After all, he needed to secure a large number of God Crystals, not just one or two. Even though an Epic party test would award a lot of time, it wasn’t enough for his purposes.

Moreover, since Hidden Soul and Brute Spear were confident of dealing with their own monsters, trading one Chieftain for a Grand Lord wouldn’t matter much.

By the time Shi Feng finished with his selection, Hidden Soul and Brute Spear had finished choosing their monsters. Following which, they quietly waited for their chosen monsters to spawn.

When their allotted ten minutes ended, a magic array formed above the altar. Combat puppets then dropped from the magic array.

Once the twenty combat puppets had spawned, gasps filled the air.

“What!? More players are challenging the Epic difficulty?!”

“Huh? Wait! Why are there two Grand Lords? Did they select one by accident?”

“That shouldn’t be the case. How could they possibly mess up such an important decision? If they really made a mistake, they’ll lose their lives.”

Everyone below the altar was dumbfounded when they saw the combat puppets.

In their opinion, the Epic party test was already difficult enough. Adding a single Great Lord would amplify the test’s difficulty, not to mention adding an extra Grand Lord.

Although Skyhawk’s party seemed to have cleared the Epic test relatively easily, it had been the result of precise calculation. The Guardian Knight had only tanked one Purgatory Puppet and four Magisteel Puppets due to the Domain Skill’s suppression. However, had there been one more Magisteel Puppet, the Guardian Knight would not have been able to maintain his HP above a safe margin. In that case, Skyhawk’s party would’ve likely died before the combat puppets.

The players weren’t the only ones who were stupefied. The sudden arrival of two Grand Lords on the altar stunned Hidden Soul and Brute Spear.

…

[Purgatory Puppet] (Grand Lord)

Level 49

HP 27,000,000/27,000,000

[Magisteel Puppet] (Great Lord)

Level 49

HP 16,000,000/16,000,000

[Silver Puppet] (Chieftain)

Level 49

HP 1,400,000/1,400,000

…

It seems that I guessed correctly. Shi Feng could not help but breathe a sigh of relief when he saw the combat puppets’ levels.

He was currently Level 60. To current players, this was an absurdly high level, and he wanted to keep this from others.

However, the World Summit’s entrance test decided the trial monsters’ levels based on the highest-leveled player in the party. Hence, Shi Feng had utilized the Growth System and temporarily lowered his level to the next highest-leveled player in the party. Although doing so would reduce his Basic Attributes, it would not affect the quality of his equipment.

This mechanic had been created to allow high-level players to help their lower-leveled companions grind and level quickly, as players of significantly higher levels would take the majority of a monster’s EXP. Now, however, this mechanic had helped Shi Feng avoid exposing his level and lower the difficulty of the test.

…

“Has Hidden Soul lost her mind?” Skyhawk was astonished when he saw the two Purgatory Puppets on the altar.

He had personally experienced the power of a Purgatory Puppet. Although it didn’t have as much HP as a normal Grand Lord, its combat power was the real deal. If not for the Tier 3 Domain Skill suppressing and attacking the Purgatory Puppet, his party wouldn’t have defeated the Grand Lord.

Based on his information, the Sin of Pride shouldn’t have any Tier 3 Domain Scrolls. Even if Hidden Soul had one, how could a Berserker like Brute Spear possibly hold two Grand Lords on his own? Hidden Soul’s party didn’t even have a healer.

…

Everyone was flabbergasted. But what they didn’t know was that Hidden Soul was more confused than any of them.

However, once the combat puppets appeared, they didn’t give Hidden Soul much time to consider the surprising development. Immediately, the 20 combat puppets charged at the three players before them.

“Commander, what should we do?” Brute Spear panicked.

“We don’t have any other choice. We’ll use our Berserk Skills[1] and the two Mana Soul Crystals! Then we’ll use Tier 3 Magic Scrolls to kill the Chieftains! Kill as many as you can!” Hidden Soul gritted her teeth as she took a crystal shard from her bag that radiated a dark-purple glow and threw it on the ground.

Reluctantly, Brute Spear retrieved a similar crystal shard and did the same.

When the two Mana Soul Crystals shattered, the space around the party grew stagnant. As a result, the approaching combat puppet’s movements stiffened slightly. At the same time, their Basic Attributes decreased by 20%.

Unfortunately, despite being weakened, the Purgatory Puppets were still significantly stronger than Great Lords of the same level in terms of Attributes.

Meanwhile, although both Hidden Soul and Brute Spear wore top-tier equipment, their Attributes could only rival a Great Lord of the same level even after they activated their Berserk Skills. They were still no match against the weakened Purgatory Puppets.

Despite knowing this, however, Hidden Soul clenched her jaw and fought with everything she had.

Both Hidden Soul and Brute Spear simultaneously used a Tier 3 Magic Scroll, with one containing a Control Spell, and the other containing a large-scale destruction Spell.

The scrolls temporarily immobilized all of the combat puppets, but after the large-scale destruction Spell struck, the Silver Puppets still had over 50% of their HPs remaining. Seeing this, Hidden Soul quickly took out and used another large-scale destruction Magic Scroll.

In quick succession, Hidden Soul used three Tier 3 large-scale destruction Magic Scrolls, killing all Chieftain ranked Silver Puppets. Although the large-scale destruction Spells dealt a lot of damage, their effects were no match for those that Skyhawk had used after consuming the Mana Burning Potion. As a result, Hidden Soul’s large-scale destruction Spells A moment later, both Purgatory Puppets arrived before Hidden Soul and only heavily injured the Great Lord ranked Magisteel Puppets. As for the Grand Lord ranked Purgatory Puppets, they had only lost some HP; their bodies were still intact.

Brandishing their one-handed sabers against the female Assassin, each of the Purgatory Puppets had two pairs of arms, so Hidden Soul had to face eight sabers simultaneously. As the Purgatory Puppets attacked, they sealed off all paths of retreat. Seeing this, Hidden Soul had no choice but to activate Wind Steps and utilize the brief period of invulnerability the Skill granted to block the incoming attacks and retreat. She planned to kite the Grand Lords, since fighting them head-on would be suicidal.

Unfortunately, before she could get 10 yards away from the monsters, both Purgatory Puppets caught up with her. One Purgatory Puppet appeared beside her and sent an energy slash to cut off her path, while the other attacked from behind.

So fast! Realizing that she couldn’t advance, Hidden Soul spun around and met the Purgatory Puppet behind her.

Hidden Soul gracefully avoided half of the Purgatory Puppet’s dozen or so attacks. She deflected the remaining strikes with her daggers and used the force to push her away from both puppets. At the same time, she also used the force of the attacks to push herself away from both Purgatory Puppets.

As a result of deflecting several of the Purgatory Puppet’s attacks, Hidden Soul lost over 8,000 HP. After activating her Berserk Skill, Hidden Soul only had slightly more than 90,000 HP in total. Hence, she couldn’t ignore such high damage.

Yet, seconds after Hidden Soul escaped from the pincer attack, the other Purgatory Puppet leaped powerfully and arrived before her, launching yet another pincer attack…

…

“And here I thought Hidden Soul was strong enough to actually challenge two Purgatory Puppets. She’s definitely going to die!”

“Her party wouldn’t be able to hold its ground against one Purgatory Puppet. They don’t even have a healer. The suppression they’re using against the puppets isn’t strong enough. Even if they used Regeneration Potions to recovery their HPs, they wouldn’t last long. In the end, no matter what they do, they’ll still die.”

“That’s right! She has overestimated herself. Does she think she can do anything just because she has high combat standards?”

The Guardian Knight and Cleric in Skyhawk’s party quietly ridiculed Hidden Soul as they watched the female Assassin desperately flee from the two Purgatory Puppets. As for Skyhawk, he no longer bothered to pay attention to the battle on the altar. The outcome of this test was already evident.

…

Is this the end? Hidden Soul could not help her bitter smile when she saw that her HP had fallen below the 30% threshold.

The two Purgatory Puppets launched another two-pronged assault against the Assassin, but just as everyone assumed the battle would end, the air above the alter rippled.

Suddenly, the Purgatory Puppets, Hidden Soul, and Brute Spear felt weaker.

A shadow then appeared behind one of the Purgatory Puppets, followed by a blue flash. The Purgatory Puppet was abruptly thrown over a dozen yards away, slamming into the altar as it landed…

“Maple?”

Seeing this, Hidden Soul and Brute Spear turned to their mysterious companion with wide eyes.

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