Chapter 23 Occasionally Rely on Oneself

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Facing the sudden uprising of the intruder, Matte Gittler was initially stunned for a moment, before sensing something unusual from that onrushing arrow.

Demon-breaking Arrow!?

Normally, he would calmly conjure a magic shield and then use several illusion spells to create dissent among his enemies, followed by throwing out alchemy potions to slowly torment them until they became the humus on the ground here.

But this one arrow disrupted all his rhythms.

How could someone use such an expensive Demon-breaking Arrow just for a probing attack???

Although shocked, Matte was no pushover; he let out a furious roar as his body rapidly expanded!

With a tearing sound, his robe split apart, revealing a dark, robust physique.

"Crack"

The Demon-breaking Arrow shattered upon striking his shoulder.

The sound was extremely crisp, as if two Gold Coins had fallen to the ground.

Heine's heart bled.

"Opening with a Demon-breaking Arrow and pushing straight into P2, what a pro!"

Teacher Xia exclaimed in admiration, "I was actually worried about being hit by an illusion spell."

Zhuo Yang: "What are you worried about? Just cling to Heine's leg and have him find you a stealth tutor?"

"Fuck, Brother Yang, you're the devil..."

As the two bantered, they charged forward, one on the left and the other on the right.

Matte had completed his transformation by now, his body doubling in size with yellow-green veins bulging out, emitting waves of a nauseating odor.

Luckily, they were both skeletons and weren't much affected.

Zhuo Yang hurled his chopping block straight at the opponent's head.

Matte let out an inhuman roar, as if to mock his opponent's naivety.

He lifted his hand to catch the chopping block, but unexpectedly, two Armor-Piercing Arrows, one after the other, aimed straight for his eyes.

With two thuds, he swatted the arrows away with his claws, but the chopping block hit his head solidly.

"I often do this when I solo, it's the most efficient." Director Sa replied only now.

Whether it's aiming or consecutive precision shooting, it seems like a mind-draining task, and Director Sa doesn't talk much when it comes to that.

At the same time, two of Heine's curses, like threads of grey silk, wrapped into Matte's flesh, but seemed to have no effect at all.

But that didn't matter; it even made Matte completely ignore his existence.

The battle quickly fell into the rhythm that the three were most accustomed to.

Entanglement, and attrition.

Teacher Xia asked, "How long does it take you to solo the P2 form of the boss?"

"I usually kite to the first-floor lobby, the place where the golems are put; it's pretty much over before the dog's wedding ceremony is completed."

"Something's not right..."

After being forced back by Matte's immense strength and returning to the fight, Zhuo Yang's solid chopping block smacked against the opponent's bulging chest, causing his lunge towards Director Sa to falter slightly.

"With this intensity, how could you possibly drain him in half an hour?"

The two fell silent, realizing the issue at hand.

Although Zhuo Yang's solid close combat kept the transformed Matte confined to a small area.

He was hardly taking any damage.

Teacher Xia was scraping in close combat.

Director Sa was scraping from a distance.

Brother Yang doesn't need to be mentioned, his scraping was akin to trimming nails.

Heine himself only had the bone spear as an offensive move, also considered a physical attack, thus scraping as well.

Summons were all he had; he hadn't had time to learn advanced spells before the academy was gone.

The muscular body before them seemed to have the words "maxed out physical and magical resistance" written on its broad back.

"I'm puzzled too, how is this boss so tough outside the instance? If we keep this up, we'll empty out our resources."

Director Sa tersely stated.

Teacher Xia: "It's not just an illusion then, the Bone-Chopping Knife with an additional eight points of strength can't break through the defense, I've never seen this before..."

Zhuo Yang: "Could it be a skill issue?"

"No, I hadn't even learned Anka when I first started farming here."

The three pedicurists were also perplexed, so Heine began to think for himself.

—Why can Director Sa solo here in the manor?

It's either this Matte here has been enhanced, or some mechanism within the instance weakened Matte.

He was more inclined to believe the latter.

Because the one thing that is abundant here is Holy Light, and how could Holy Light possibly augment Matte...

Suddenly, a sentence surfaced from deep within his memory.

"Set the bookshelf ablaze during the third fight."

They had discussed the "Spirit Communicator's Reconstruction Notes" on the opponent's bookshelf and mentioned this phrase.

The third boss referred to Matte, who was also the creator of Scorpion Tail Needle, and the guy who hired Rowen.

This was clearly a scholarly researcher...

And the superficial properties of Holy Light are warmth and dryness.

Yet in this mine with such a high concentration of Holy Light, why was it as cold as winter?

So it was...

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Temperature!?

Heine looked around and saw that everything was combustible. He pulled out his last few incendiary bottles.

Burn it up!

Crash, crash, crash, the bottles shattered everywhere, the fuel oil was ignited by the sparks, and the tents, straw mats, and dead grass were instantly set ablaze!

Especially the container in the very center, its wooden frame covered in fuel oil, turned into a giant torch in an instant!

"No—"

Matte didn't know if he was pained by the container being lit or scorched by the fire, but he suddenly roared in anger.

He let the Bone-Chopping Knife blind one of his eyes and, with brute force, pushed Zhuo Yang aside. Like a cannonball fired from its chamber, he charged straight at Heine at the entrance!

He wanted to crush this detestable insect to death and then escape from here!

"Die————"

At the critical moment, Heine didn't flee outside the cave; he knew that would be a dead end.

His gaze passed over Matte and onto Zhuo Yang who was rushing over here without any regard for himself.

The feeling came.

His chest was burning hot!

He didn't hesitate any longer, transferring all the heat to Zhuo Yang.

Then, he raised his electric shock magic wand and aimed it at Matte.

Aimed at his pitifully small, deformed head compared to his massive body!

A gentle white light suddenly fell upon him.

Heine felt his heart filled with conviction!

It was as if some power was drawn from within him, and the electric shock magic wand also completely disintegrated at that moment!

But the tip of the wand suddenly shot out an arc of electricity that was several times more blinding than usual!

Crack!

The electric arc struck Matte's head dead on, causing his upper body to lean backward, his face scorched black, stalling his forward momentum.

At that instant, Director Sa rushed over and rolled away with Heine, avoiding the attack.

Zhuo Yang also followed, tightly hugging Matte's waist from behind and rolling with him into the fire!

Just a moment's proximity to Matte emitted a yellow-green gas that induced mild hallucinations in Heine.

He felt like he had been thrown into a tumble dryer, spinning wildly.

Teacher Xia: "What the fuck, what's that? A Blessing of Faith? Brother Yang, did you level up?"

"Yes, I suddenly leveled up. The good news is I got a new skill. The bad news is it's a support skill…"

Director Sa: "So, you still don't have 'special energy'?"

"Yep."

"Haha, a shield warrior who can support."

"I fucking…"

The fact that they still had the energy to joke meant that the three of them had found a breakthrough.

Zhuo Yang and Teacher Xia worked together to restrain the electrically-dazed Matte in the fire, his body smeared with fuel oil.

Under the intense burning of the fire, his black muscles melted away like wax figures.

Director Sa's Armor-Piercing Arrow finally landed a critical hit, successively hitting his joints and ensuring he could never escape the sea of fire.

After a pain-filled wail, the much slimmer Matte finally fell to the ground.

All three heaved a sigh of relief.

"We almost lost everyone." Director Sa said gloomily, "We talk big but end up struggling to take down a minor boss outside of the instance…"

Teacher Xia: "Who would have thought he was weak to fire? Damn it, I always thought that fire area was just to annoy players… and you can't tell from the in-game models either."

Brother Yang said: "Now you can rest assured, right? If it were entirely up to us, he'd be gone by now."

Director Sa: "Feel reassured now, but I'm just wondering how he thought of that."

Teacher Xia: "Let me speak for Brother Yang, that's the wisdom of a native. He really did study at the Bone Burial Ground for three years; let's put away our arrogance, everyone."

Brother Yang laughed and cursed: "You really something, huh..."

While the three chatted, a large amount of experience emerged from Matte, hundreds of small orbs, all rushing into Heine's body.

Heine felt like he had taken a hot bath, noticeably feeling better.

He felt he wasn't too far from leveling up.

Then there came a "pop" sound, as if something had cracked.

"Ah, the pipe is cracked." Teacher Xia called out.

Director Sa immediately panicked, "Could it explode? Are we going to get hit by a railgun to the face?"

"What are you thinking? This is just a pipe, and when a water pipe cracks, of course, it leaks water. To blow up a well directly you'd need at least a Fifth Level caster, and those people can't come in."

At this moment, Zhuo Yang suddenly said:

"Guys, have you noticed anything?"

"What—the fuck?"

Both were startled.

Heine quickly patted his swollen head and took a closer look.

What the fuck?

The Holy Light leaking from the pipe was gathering into a thin golden line, continuously flowing towards Zhuo Yang.