NOVEL FROG CHAPTER 18 Chamber of Sacrifice 2
As soon as Adam arrived, he saw the desperate fight the players were in. In his first life, he vividly remembers that everybody in the room was soundly defeated.
The players who didn’t go to the catacombs are of considerably lower level than those who went to hunt the undead. On top of being outnumbered, their low level is the other reason why they couldn’t handle the monster swarm.
It was only when the catacomb players arrived that things turned to the player’s favor.
With the help of the fallen players, they were able to piece together what was happening: the Chamber of Sacrifice needed a certain number of sacrifices in order to open.
But where it gets interesting is that the chamber takes every living who has fallen as a sacrificial tribute! Be it players or monsters, anyone and anything alive that died in the room is counted as a sacrifice.
In other words, a player must fight to survive long enough for the exit to open to clear the quest.
Adam, fully aware of this fact, came prepared.
His first order of business is to ensure this group doesn’t die. He could not afford to wait for the catacomb players.
He filled the various helmets he picked up with potions and started tossing them to players who looked like the leader of a team.
Health Potion (Notable Quality)
Description: A mixture that restores a decent portion of one’s health. Users can drink up to 4 flasks of this potion before any side effects start to manifest.
Details: Restores 70 HP
Cooldown: 45 Minutes
Stamina Potion (Notable Quality)
Description: A mixture that restores a decent portion of one’s stamina. Users can drink up to 3 flasks of this potion before any side effects start to manifest.
Details: Recovers lost stamina and reduces fatigue accumulation
Cooldown: 1 Hour
Mana Potion (Notable Quality)
Description: A mixture that restores a decent portion of one’s health. Users can drink up to 3 flasks of this potion before any side effects start to manifest.
Details: Restores 100 MP
Cooldown: 1 Hour
It was the potions that Adam has been crafting for the past 2 days. And the fruit of his labor is apparent. He has more than enough to supply at least 500 players.
Adam focused on improving the quality and yield of the health potion. Now, it has a cooldown of less than an hour and can be taken at least 4 times. A 70 HP restoration at this point in time is a huge boon for warriors.
Since a cleric’s heal can only restore 50 HP at best, Adam’s potion right now is a far better health replenishment resource than healing magic.
After the potions had been distributed to key players, the battle slowly turned in the player’s favor. The players who were starting to retreat and lose hope suddenly regained their morale and started attacking with renewed vigor.
Taunt! Shield Charge! Shield Bash!
Divine Protection! Strength Boon! Stamina Boost!
Shadow Step! Backstab!
Power Shot! Pinning Arrow!
Fireball! Frozen Blast! Razor Wind!
Skills and spells are being used all over the place. Now that their health, stamina, and mana are replenished, they have also regained their fighting spirit.
Of course, Adam didn’t just stand still. He started firing off spells of his own.
After he finished crafting potions, he used his skill points to add Fireball to his arsenal and upgraded it to level 3.
Fireball 3
Description: Hurls an explosive ball of flame and explodes upon impact causing 80 points of damage in a 7-foot radius.
Cost: 40 MP
Cooldown: 20 seconds
Before joining the fray, Adam used a scanning scroll to determine the level of the players and the monsters. The highest level amongst the players is level 35 while the highest monster is at level 42.
Needless to say, Adam is on top of both food chains at level 60.
As the players started hurling spells and shooting arrows at the monsters, Adam started casting spells of his own.
Fireball! Firebolt!
Thanks to his Ignition Gloves, his spells are stronger and he has a reduced casting cost.
-96 damage, -88 damage, -94 damage, -97 damage, -87 damage…
The other elemental mages deal 40 to 50 damage with their AoE, but Adam is dealing twice as much damage. Not only that but he is casting nearly twice as fast.
His Firebolt in particular is delivering the kill shot on those damaged by Fireball. He’s focusing on the monsters that look like a mini-boss to maximize his efficiency and essence yield.
-104 damage, -108 damage, -111 damage…
[You have slain…]
[You have slain…]
[You have slain…]
Once again, essence in great quantity is finding their way towards Adam. Despite the relative low level of the swarm, their number makes up for it and the essence yield is quite considerable.
In just a few seconds, Adam has dispatched several dozens of monsters by himself.
And he is nowhere near done. After all, he didn’t just craft potions during the past 3 days.
Paralytic Gas! Hallucinogenic Gas! Poison Flask!
While his mana is low, he chose not to drink a potion and just let it regenerate naturally.
He switched to throwing alchemical grenades that caused nearly as much damage as a spell. Furthermore, it had a nice effect of controlling the monster crowd due to effects such as paralysis and hallucination- meanwhile these monsters are being poisoned.
He would also occasionally throw his favorite oil flask and fire grenade combo for even more carnage.
And thus, Adam’s brutal cycle took a huge chunk of the monster population all by himself; pyromancy, alchemical grenades, then oil and fire grenades. He hasn’t even personally fought yet.
Needless to say, his feat did not go unnoticed.
“Who is that machine gun?”
“Now that’s a ranker! I wonder which guild he belongs to.”
“Are you recording this? This would be a good video highlight.”
Of course, Adam is well aware of this so he wore the ranger’s cloak in order to keep his identity a secret. If anyone were to try and cast a scanning spell or scroll on him, his level would also be concealed. And to anyone recording what they can see, even if they see Adam’s face, it would automatically be blurred in the recording.
Lorik Ranger’s Stealth Cloak (Uncommon)
Type: Cloak
Armor: 0
Weight: 1
Durability: 9/10
Requirements: 5 STR
Description: A cloak enchanted to make the user make 50% less noise. It protects the user from basic identification or scouting skills. It is an ancient equipment but magically preserved.
While many of the players were amazed by his damage output, he started discreetly throwing smoke bombs alongside his spells. Not long after, the place started getting covered by smoke.
“What’s happening, why is the place being covered by smoke?”
“I dunno dude! Maybe it’s from all the fire spells!”
“It’s getting difficult to see the enemy. Tell the mages to chill the fuck out!”
“You hear that mages? Slow down with the fireballs, okay?”
“Watch what you say idiot! You will look silly on my NewTube stream. Fireballs don’t cause smoke!”
“That’s right, noob. Fire spells don’t create smoke like this!”
Thanks to Adam’s timely assistance with his potions, the atmosphere has undergone a tremendous change. Now, the players are engaging in light banter despite being outnumbered at least 10 to 1; and winning, too!
Slowly but surely, the monster's number dwindled.
However, the spells coming from the players have also slowed down. No doubt, they’re starting to ration their spell casting now that the monster’s numbers have lessened. Furthermore, the potion isn’t in such a huge quantity that they can keep on spamming spells endlessly.
Adam made it a point to give out enough potions to turn the tide, but not enough that they can easily clear the monster swam. He helped these players who originally died in this fight so that he can achieve his own ends after all.
The fight must be difficult, yet barely doable. Only then can it give him his golden opportunity.
Adam kept throwing a few more smoke bombs in the area. As the number of fallen monsters grows, the thicker the smoke gets.
‘Just a few more hundred and it should activate.’ Adam thought while doing a quick count on his head.
So far, he and the players have killed over 800 monsters. Soon enough, the required sacrifice will be reached and the array in the area will be activated, thus opening the exit to the chamber.
As for the approximate number needed, it is about ten thousand. This is with the players and monster’s casualty combined; all deaths in the Chamber of Sacrifice is considered a sacrifice. And only then will the exit be opened.
Of course, none of the players know this. For them, it’s just a battle to dispatch the monster swarm.
Now that smoke has concealed a good portion of the area, spells and arrows have slowed down for fear of friendly fire.
Now, it is the melee classes’ turn to shine.
Adam drank a Potion of Haste, then drew his Superior Longsword and Vetius’ Dagger.
He poured venom on his dagger and sword.
Unbelievably, the number of monsters dwindled even faster than even when the mages slowed down in casting their AoEs.
After throwing a few more flasks of paralytic and hallucinogenic mixtures, he rushed forward into the monster swarm.
***
“Now that everyone is here, let’s go!”
Tyler shouted his order at the 262 Maxima members that gathered at the summoning room. The total number of members should have been 300 but some had died over the course of the exploration and grinding period.
Fortunately, the casualty was kept to a minimum and they still have a decent force.
They’ve learned of what is happening at the Chamber of Sacrifice and how outnumbered the players are.
So Tyler has reached out to the various guilds for an alliance to gather enough numbers to fight the monsters.
His proposal was met with approval by the vast majority of the professional guilds and independent teams..
Maxima Guild, Hao-Wei Guild, Flora Team, Dark Sun Team, Magick Maidens, among others and several notable independent players have gathered in the summoning room.
They waited in the summoning room until they had gathered the necessary numbers to combat the ten-thousand monster horde in the Chamber of Sacrifice.
According to what they’ve learned of the situation, the player’s levels are vastly inferior to theirs. Furthermore, there are only about a thousand of them fighting. That is why they were deemed a lost cause.
They judged that it’s no longer efficient to try and save them and instead waited for the higher-leveled catacomb grinders to join an alliance to fight the monsters.
And now, over three thousand catacomb players have gathered. The leaders of each guild and teams have judged their number and overall level as sufficient enough to find a ten thousand strong army of monsters.
“Maxima is ready. Let’s go!”
“Hao-Wei is ready. Let’s go!”
“Flora Team is ready!”
“Dark Sun!”
And so the order of Tyler is echoed by the other leaders to their respective team members. Everyone is getting ready to march for battle.
It would take them approximately 30 minutes to get to the Chamber of Sacrifice. And it is expected that the Chamber players would have perished by then.
***
Paralytic Gas! Hallucinogenic Gas!
Oil Flask! Fire Grenade!
[You have slain…]
[You have slain…]
[You have slain…]
Stab! Slash! Thrust!
[You have slain…]
[You have slain…]
[You have slain…]
Adam is busy thinning the herd. With his impressive damage output and wide variety of means to dispatch enemies, approximately over five hundred monsters have fallen by his hands alone.
While he eliminated an undead horde a few days ago, it is through the use of a carefully laid trap and items that he did it.
But now, he is personally dishing out the damage in open combat. Of course, he’s still using items, but this time there is no fiery death trap that makes things convenient for him.
Nevertheless, monsters continue to die by the dozens.
The poison mixtures in particular are proving to be very effective in thinning the herd. Not only is the poison incredibly potent against most of the monsters, it is also weakening their combat effectiveness which further made it easy for Adam to take them out.
Of course, there are certain exceptions.
While the poison is doing its work on the lesser enemies, Adam is currently locked in combat against a boss-type monster.
Ax-Wielding Minotaur Level 42
HP 822/900
Thwuuuuck! Clang! Swing!
[You have taken -22 damage.]
Beast-type monsters are usually characterized by their high vitality and enhanced physical abilities- usually either strength or agility-type beasts.
It is clear that the minotaur belongs to the strength category and is a troublesome foe to deal with. Its constitution is strong enough to withstand the worst of the poison’s effects, its thick hide doesn’t burn easily and is highly resilient to physical attacks.
Adam’s mana is currently regenerating so he can’t use spells. Instead, he’s locked in a melee combat against a physically superior opponent. For the first time since he started the game, he is fighting an enemy he could not overpower.
Each of its blows is making Adam take a step back, while inflicting indirect damage to him due to the shock of the blows
[You have taken -26 damage.]
[You have taken -21 damage.]
[You have taken -24 damage.]
‘I’m blocking it and there’s still this much residual damage? A direct blow would take a huge chunk out of my health.’ Adam thought.
It wasn’t just his health, even his sword’s durability was starting to reach critical levels; the minotaur’s strikes were just that impactful. There’s no benefit to be gained by blocking them anymore.
He has to change his strategy.
The minotaur favors powerful swings of its ax. It usually starts with swings from right to left, left to right, then an overhead attack. And if his distance gets too far, it charges with its horned head.
Adam once again started a deadly dance of blades. He would avoid every swing of the enemy and only strike once before once again dodging the enemy’s attacks.
There is no shortcut to winning against these types of enemies.
Dodge, dodge, dodge, strike!
[You have dealt 62 damage...]
Dodge, dodge, dodge, thrust!
-64 damage
Dodge, dodge, dodge, slash!
-66 damage
Fortunately, he was quickly able to gain a full understanding of the minotaur’s tendencies and got the timing down. Initially, he had to avoid three attacks from the minotaur.
But now, he was able to reduce it to three attacks before he could counter attack.
-58 damage, -60 damage, -59 damage
Even with his stat and quality weapons, he’s barely dealing damage in the 60s. If anyone else were to attack this boss, their damage would have been in the low 20s.
But Adam’s persistence was rewarded. Eventually, the minotaur’s HP reached less than 20% and it entered a berserk state.
Gwurwark! Gwurwark! Gwurwark!
The minotaur roared loudly. And like a bull, it prepared to charge at Adam with his horned head.
But instead of falling for the taunt and engaging further in melee, Adam switched back to using pyromancy and grenades to end the fight once and for all
Oil Flask! Firebolt! Fireball!
He initially didn’t want to douse the minotaur in oil and set it on fire because he’s still engaged in a melee confrontation; it would have been challenging to fight a burning boss. But now that the boss’ health is low enough, the damage over time is sufficient to take it down.
But of course, the minotaur will not let things go easy for Adam. The fire damage he’s inflicting isn’t as high as he expected, and what’s more, the minotaur’s HP is regenerating even when it’s on fire.
But if he hadn’t set it on fire, its health regen would even be faster. It would have regenerated back to 100% before another skirmish to bring it down to 20%. Then after the next berserk state and regeneration of health, it would reach up to 70%. Then 50%, before once again healing.
That’s typically how most beast-type boss monsters with high vitality and strength are.
It is meant to be a battle of attrition where the players must overpower the minotaur’s healing ability with a high DPS.
He had no choice but to re-engage in melee to put pressure again. And now, Adam is fighting an enemy he didn’t want to; a boss-level strength based beast that is on fire.
Dodge, dodge, dodge, strike! He is back to dodging three attacks before he can return an attack of his own.
Dodge, dodge, dodge, thrust! Clearly, the minotaur is regaining his health and stamina but at least the fire is keeping the recovery to a minimum.
He once again familiarized himself with the minotaur’s pattern.
Dodge, dodge, slash! Adam started to increase the frequency of his attacks. But unfortunately, this means his weapon’s durability is continuously decreasing.
But he has no choice. He had to commit to the fight until the boss was down.
Dodge, slash! Dodge, strike! Dodge, thrust!
Clang! Ka-ching! Clang!
Then-
SNAP!
After yet another strong clash of weapons, his sword finally broke and the Superior Longsword is no more. But he had no time to be distracted; the fight is still on. He immediately considered his options.
The dagger’s reach is too short, and he can’t afford to risk getting too close to the minotaur. He can’t afford to rummage through his bag while a huge ax is being waved at his face.
His only remaining option is to continue bombarding it with spells.
Firebolt! Fireball! Firebolt! Fireball!
Until finally-
[You have slain Minotaur Lvl. 42. You have absorbed 3500 Essence.]
At level 42, the essence it gave was considerable. It goes to show how tough a boss it was. He had just taken down a boss-class monster in the middle of a horde, single-handedly.
And he was rewarded handsomely for it.
[You are now an Apprentice Pyromancer]
[Willpower stat conversion increased by 2.]
[Pyromancer-related Traits have slightly improved.]
[Apprentice-tier spells are now available.]
Although it came at the cost of his sword, it was worth it. With the fall of the Minotaur, the highest level boss has been taken out of the equation. And as an added bonus, his Pyromancy has increased a rank.
But the fight is far from over. Adam sheathed Vetius’ Dagger for fear of it breaking like his sword, and equipped an Old Longsword from his inventory.
Although it’s not as good as his previous Superior Longsword, it’s damage is decent enough and can be increased thanks to his high level stat and with the buff that the new Apprentice-tier Pyromancy spell that was just unlocked- which Adam plans to add to his arsenal.
After he reached Apprentice-rank Pyromancy, the new spells were unlocked. If he had invested a few more points in Mystery stat, more Apprentice-level spells would be unlocked. But fortunately, what he’s looking for is available. In particular, what he's interested in is one of the ways to boost his attack power despite not having a weapon-specific class. And that is what Fire Enchantment is for.
The skill works by enchanting a weapon with flames and granting a bonus of 10 fire damage for 10 seconds.
However, he deemed this insufficient so he kept on upgrading it until the damage and duration was at a satisfactory level; he has a lot of unused skill points. He did not hesitate to upgrade it to level 3.
Fire Enchantment 3
Description: The caster enchants a weapon with flames, granting an additional 30 fire damage for 30 seconds. Has a certain probability of setting the target on fire.
Cost: 40 MP
Cooldown: 60 seconds
Be it undead, insect, beast, or fiend-type monsters, a fire-buffed weapon is a huge edge against these monsters. And the best part is, the buff can be applied with any weapons- even the body of the caster.
And after finishing his level-up, he then chugged a health, stamina and fatigue recovering potion.
And now, he is ready to resume his onslaught.
Fire Enchantment!