The Fourth Calamity: Starting with Dungeon Slimes

Before long, the players gathered at the designated location.

At this moment, all the players are on high alert, waiting for the BOSS to arrive.

"They're here!"

"The salted fish is out! Get ready, guys!"

For a moment, all the players held their breath.

Then...

"Salted Fish, where's the boss?"

"Damn it, salted fish, how did you suddenly appear as the boss? You've managed to pull all the aggro and lost it!"

"This is completely unreliable. It made me nervous for nothing. By the way, next time you pull a monster, can you check the monster's aggro first?"

"No, guys, I didn't pull it." Salty Fish continued, "When I got there, I saw the boss was already engaged."

"It's the Nightmare Clan and Dark Elf forces fighting over there."

"And I took away almost a fifth of his health, so I retreated."

Upon hearing what the salted fish said, everyone present couldn't help but look at each other in bewilderment.

"So, the NPC stole our monsters?"

"That's hilarious. The game's mechanics are quite interesting; NPCs can even steal monsters from you."

"Shouldn't your main concern be that this monster is actually losing health?"

Players are no strangers to the scenario of NPCs fighting against monsters.

This is perfectly normal.

Many games have this kind of scene in their CG designs.

Or in some special scenarios, you might see different monsters fighting each other.

However, in most of these scenarios, neither side suffers any damage; it's just a fight scene.

However, upon hearing what the salted fish said, everyone felt it was outrageous.

"In other words, if this NPC puts in a little more effort, he might even be able to help us defeat the boss."

"That's outrageous."

Just as everyone was still discussing it, the salted fish's voice continued to come.

"Brothers, I have a bold plan."

"We'll sneak up and ambush them, then observe the NPCs' performance. If they manage to kill the monster, we'll steal the kill while it's still low on health."

Upon hearing this, everyone's eyes lit up.

"I think it's possible."

"I think we can be a bit bolder, for example, our current relationship with those two races can be considered unfriendly."

"We'll launch a surprise attack and take care of the boss, the nightmares, and the dark elves all at once."

"This wave could be successful."

"Alright, brothers, let's do it this way and quietly move our belongings over."

As they talked, the players finalized their plan and immediately got to work.

Several players scouted ahead, while the players behind them kept a certain distance and kept carrying their belongings towards them.

This time, the players brought quite a lot of stuff, and most importantly, they had to move it discreetly, so they couldn't make too much noise, and the overall progress was not fast.

Fortunately, the boss on this floor did not disappoint the players.

The amount of health is indeed quite high.

The players worked for almost three hours to move everything to a roughly suitable location.

However, the Balrog still had about one-sixth of its health remaining.

Hiding behind a stone pillar, the players were discussing amongst themselves.

"They've also suffered significant losses; by now, they're probably down to at least half their original number."

"That's really ruthless; it was all built by manpower."

"Even if they suffer heavy losses, it will still be much less than if we were to fight this boss."

"There's nothing we can do; the attribute gap is too large, unless we initiate the next stage of evolution."

The players watched as the NPCs challenged the guardians of this level, offering their opinions and comments.

However, players also have to admit one thing.

This group of NPCs is very powerful, at least for now, that seems to be the case.

According to the players' estimates, the output of this group of NPCs was definitely several times that of them, which led the players to a terrifying conclusion.

"In other words, to defeat this boss, given our current situation, it would take at least 10 hours."

"Holy crap, this is a bit too difficult."

"I don't even know how many times I'll die."

"Are the bosses in this game seriously difficult? At this rate, I'd have to do nothing else but grind for the bosses all day."

"It's similar to the games I used to play, like fighting those so-called world bosses."

The group discussed the matter, each offering their own opinion.

They also had to admit that their preparations for facing this boss might not be sufficient.

Simply put, they underestimated the boss's health.

They hadn't expected it to take so long to defeat a boss.

However, players no longer need to do this, as they have just encountered an NPC who came to start the fight, leading many players to suspect that this was intentionally arranged by the developers.

........

While the players were still discussing this matter, at this moment, on the Nightmare Clan and the Dark Elf Clan's side...

"Everyone, pay attention to your own condition. If you are not feeling well, evacuate the battlefield immediately."

"When will the reinforcements from the rear arrive?"

The dark elf captain, while directing the pace of the attack, asked his lieutenant questions.

"Captain, the new team has arrived at this level and will be joining the battle soon."

Upon hearing this, the dark elf captain nodded.

"Now there shouldn't be any major problems. We should be able to take care of the guardians on this floor as well."

"However, this time the losses are still too great for us."

The elders gave orders for them to advance to the 60th floor as quickly as possible.

This is also a huge challenge for them.

So, the captain led the team all the way to where they are now, and challenging the guardians is completely different from other battles.

Normally, you need to be fully prepared, otherwise it's easy to mess things up.

The guardians of each floor are much stronger than other monsters. For example, if this floor has a dragon, then the guardian of the same type of dragon at the same level will have at least 10 times more health.

This is the challenge of the Guardians. Although their weakness is that they lack the intelligence of normal creatures, they still possess basic combat instincts.

The higher the level of the dungeon, the heavier the losses will be when facing these powerful guardians, especially in a hasty attack like this.

It is no exaggeration to say that the losses suffered by the Guardians during this period are greater than the combined losses of the Guardians in the previous 10 years.

He sighed.

The captain couldn't help but feel a bit of a headache.

"They don't value our lives at all."

The captain felt a dull ache in his heart when he thought of his brothers who had all died tragically while trying to conquer the first few floors.

There are hardly any of the combat teams that were trained before left.

The people under his command have changed batch after batch.

However, he had no choice but to carry out the tasks assigned by the elders.

"Finally, this fire demon has been defeated, so we can rest for a while now."

This might be the only piece of good news that the captain could feel.

Because they came up from the 50th floor at top speed.

This means that the earlier levels cannot be explored as precisely as the previous levels, and that the threatening monsters on each level can be almost completely eliminated.

From floor 50 to the current floor 59, the monsters have basically not been cleared.

This is probably what the group needs to do for a while afterward.

During this time, they can finally get some rest.

However, for the captain, he was not going to rest, but to pay tribute to his lost old friends.

"I heard that they are also fighting the succubus race up there. Although we won in the end, we suffered heavy losses."

Thinking about this, the captain couldn't help but feel a little confused.

He didn't know what was wrong with his tribe, or why they had been fighting all this time.

With a sigh, the captain put those thoughts aside and returned his attention to the battle.

"Hang in there, brothers."

"It can't hold on for much longer."

"And our reinforcements are arriving soon. Once they arrive, we'll be able to easily take down this guy."

However, while the Dark Elf captain was still boosting morale, little did they know that the players had already set up all the turrets.

Hundreds of mortars have been deployed to suitable positions.

They are just waiting for the order to launch an attack.

"Let's wait a little longer. There's no rush now. It doesn't have much health left. Let's see if the guardian will use a berserk skill or something."

"I think it's possible."

Players are somewhat familiar with the mechanics of these types of bosses.

Normally, when you're at low health, you might activate Berserk mode and quickly recover health.

Therefore, just in case, the players did not rush to make a move.

And so, as the players waited, time ticked by.

"Brothers, something's not right."

"Yeah, why didn't you activate Berserk mode?"

After waiting for a while, the players estimate that the boss's health is now down to only 5%.

The attack pattern remained largely unchanged, leaving players somewhat confused.

"I was wondering if this boss will only go berserk when its health is even lower?" one player speculated.

However, this was quickly refuted by other players.

"Do you think that's possible? Usually, the percentage is below 40%, some are below 10%, but I've never seen a boss with a percentage below 5%."

Hearing the players' discussion, Salty Fish also shared his opinion.

"If nothing unexpected happens, this boss shouldn't go berserk, because if it hasn't gone berserk at this health level, then it's practically impossible for it to."

"Many games take into account the possibility of extremely high damage that could instantly kill a boss, so the minimum health required for this mechanism is usually around 10%."

"Below this value, it's considered unsafe for the planners. Simply put, there's a possibility of being instantly killed without having time to activate Berserk."

"This kind of thing is normal when you're facing an early-game boss with fully geared-up equipment, but if it happens during the early stages of the game, then the game's playability will be greatly reduced."

"So I estimate that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, this boss probably doesn't have a berserk mechanic."

Even the salted fish himself finds this absurd; a world-class boss without a berserk mechanic is utter nonsense.

But that's just how this game is.

"Alright everyone, since we won't be able to activate Berserk mode, we still need to be ready to pick off enemies at any time."

"We'll take action as soon as your health drops to 2%."

But just as Salty Fish was about to say something, he suddenly noticed that something was wrong in the distance.

Because another team has joined the battlefield.

"Holy crap, these NPCs have reinforcements?" Seeing this, everyone felt it was a bit outrageous.

"This is a bit outrageous. At this rate, doesn't that mean we don't need to do anything and the boss can be defeated on its own?"

"I just don't understand what the game designers are thinking!"

"Are you suggesting the developers use this tactic to speed things up because our game progression is too slow?"

To everyone's surprise, this guess seemed quite reasonable at first glance.

Given their current pace of progress, if they hadn't been scheduled to challenge the boss today, they might have continued to slack off for a while longer.

Moreover, this game has been in a lull period for quite some time now. As a new game, it's only been a short time, and it's already experiencing a lull period. This is definitely something the developers don't want to see.

Hearing the crowd's discussion, Tianqiong seemed to have thought of something.

"If I'm not mistaken, the planners must have realized that the Guardians are too difficult. Given the development speed they've planned, it will be extremely difficult for us to defeat the Guardians at this stage."

"That's why they sent NPCs to help us speed up the progress. I guess if we wait until the public beta, they might lower the difficulty of these guardians."

Hearing Tianqiong's analysis, everyone agreed that it made sense.

"Forget it, why think so much? What's next?"

"Originally, I was planning to wait until the health dropped to around 2% before making my move, but now it seems I should make my move when it reaches 3%."

"We need to at least make sure we take down both the NPCs and the boss."

As he spoke, Salty Fish continued to add to the list.

"I won't go into detail about the others, I'll just talk about the situation of these NPCs and Bosses."

"Both sides are our targets. Given how this game works, once we kill the boss, the NPCs will definitely not leave. They'll probably fight us again. So let's find an opportunity to send them all away together."

"Of course, the most crucial thing is that the game's mechanics are based on the last hit, so we can't let the NPCs steal the last hit."

Everyone nodded in agreement upon hearing what the salted fish said.

"In that case, we will now make tactical adjustments."

"First, we'll focus on the NPCs; our DPS will prioritize taking care of them later."

"First, target the mages behind them, then clear out the warriors. When the time is right, then attack the guardians."

"The boss's aggro is definitely on them now. Let's take them out first using the boss, and then we can take out the boss. That way, all the rewards will be ours."

Everyone naturally had no objections to Salty Fish's suggestion.

........

While the players were still making plans, at this moment, the Dark Elf captain was on his side.

Seeing that everything was going smoothly, the Dark Elf Captain, who was already seriously injured, breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the Nightmare Captain beside him.

"With the guardian of this level defeated, our mission is complete."

The latter nodded in agreement.

"I should be able to rest for a long time now, since my daughter was born and I can go take care of her."

"Congratulations, that's pretty good too."

Upon hearing the Dark Elf captain's congratulations, the Nightmare captain seemed to have thought of something.

"And you?"

"Me?" The Dark Elf Captain pointed to himself and smiled. "I confessed to the goddess I've had a crush on for 10 years and was rejected no less than a hundred times. Just yesterday, she finally said yes."

Congratulations on finally having your own home!

Because the Flame Demon, which was now severely injured, was not as fierce as it had been in its previous counterattacks. Its attack frequency and the range of its skills had been greatly weakened.

If we just keep up the current pace, this guardian will be killed in no time.

This gradually made everyone relax.

Seeing the Flame Demon, who was now severely injured and on the verge of death, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Lava could be seen flowing from the huge wound.

Each movement of the Flame Demon caused the wound to grow larger.

Its powerful regenerative ability has somehow become ineffective.

The battle just now, with the release of various skills, had depleted all of the Flame Demon's magic power.

It's no exaggeration to say that he's now a lamb to the slaughter, just making his last desperate struggle.

This allowed the other Dark Elf and Nightmare Clan members involved in the battle to relax a bit, just like the two captains.

"Hey buddy, give it your all! Haven't you eaten? Let's finish this quickly so I can go back and get married."

"I'm also eager to get back. Everyone, let's work harder. I've been challenging the Guardians for almost two years now, and I haven't made a single mistake in those two years. This time, I'll be able to get a large reward when I get back."

"My wife's shop is opening tomorrow. It would be great if I could make it back to attend the opening ceremony."

"I've been a member of the Guardian Challenge team for 5 years, and in those 5 years, I've always brought enough equipment and consumables for every mission."

"Who would have thought that I would forget quite a few things this time? Fortunately, it's almost over, so it won't affect anything."

For a time, the Shadow Elves and Nightmare Clan fought while discussing amongst themselves.

The victory in this battle is no longer in doubt.

This made everyone feel much more relaxed.

The content of their conversations also increased.

Although the captains of the Love Elf and Succubus clans generally do not allow such things to happen during wartime, this time is completely different from before.

Because victory is in sight this time, and they will receive a large reward and a long period of rest after the battle.

So I didn't pay attention to such minor details.

Anyway, after all these years, this is the only time to let these teammates who have gone through thick and thin with me relax. What's the big deal?

However, what they didn't know at the moment was that this situation was completely different in their eyes and in the eyes of the players.

If players encountered this situation, they would definitely be on high alert.

What he just said was, in the players' eyes, simply meant that the buff was almost fully stacked.

In this situation, if you're not careful, a crash is absolutely inevitable.

However, it is clear that they did not know.

So when everyone thought victory was in sight, when they saw countless shells falling from the sky, exploding around them, and setting off a blaze of fire, everyone was stunned.

The conversation immediately stopped.

After a brief pause, everyone realized that something was wrong.

"Damn it!"

"Enemy attack! It's an enemy attack!"

"What kind of weapon is this? How can it attack us from such a distance?"

The range of a mortar is naturally much greater than that of most spells.

Most importantly, compared to magic, its power decreases significantly after a certain distance. Otherwise, the explosive power of a mortar would not decrease even if it flew a long distance.

This is why, even though it's a magical world, players are still willing to create these kinds of weapons.

In terms of long-range attacks, these weapons are in no way inferior to magic, and may even be more effective.

And so, under the relentless bombardment of the well-prepared players, the Dark Elf and Nightmare Clan squads were instantly thrown into chaos.

"Everyone, fight back immediately!"

"It's a 'thud'!"

"What's going on with these Pata? How are they able to create weapons like this?"

"Everyone calm down. Squads 1 and 2, you go and take care of those annoying Pata. The rest of you continue attacking the Guardians, keep the pace the same."

"receive!"

Immediately afterwards, a squad of fifty or sixty people rushed toward where the players were.

However, despite the surprise attack by this small squad, the players' primary target remained the main force that was fighting the Balrog.

Because of the players' interference, the team has immediately run into trouble.

Sometimes, in an attempt to avoid attacks from other players, the player gets hit directly by the Flame Demon's attacks; other times, in an attempt to avoid the Flame Demon's attacks, the player gets blown up by the players.

The situation, which had been very favorable, suddenly took a turn for the worse.

This infuriated both captains.

"These bastards who only know how to take advantage of others in their time of need."

Their gazes unconsciously drifted towards the players, and seeing that the two teams they had sent out were about to approach, the two breathed a sigh of relief.

However, the next moment, a huge roar came from afar, and the approaching team was instantly blown to pieces.

"What is this now?"

The two captains were dumbfounded as they watched their squads being engulfed in flames.

The team naturally knew that the other side would definitely send a squad to interfere, so they had planted bombs in advance.

If you enter a minefield, you will most likely be carried away without warning.

And that is indeed the case.