#704 - The equipment has exploded (asking for monthly ticket recommendation ticket)

"What do you guys think we should do later? I've been observing, and the entrance to the entire instance is mainly divided into two parts: the main road and the ruins. There are three obvious roads: left, middle, and right, including two small paths and a central avenue. The rest is ruins. We can choose a road to take, or we can choose to advance across those ruins."

Cedric, who was appointed as the team leader, behaved very democratically, taking the initiative to solicit opinions from everyone.

"Of course, we should just go straight down the middle road and rush towards the target point!" George said first. "Did you guys notice the key points the professor mentioned? Those hostages are all distributed in those high-rise buildings, and our main task is to save people. We don't really need to pay attention to the monsters outside."

"That's right." Fred also agreed. "I think we should aim directly for the central shopping mall. I bet the 'princess' is definitely inside, she's the most valuable!"

The twins both grasped the key point: the score depends on the number of hostages they rescue, not how many monsters they defeat.

"Do you mean we should go straight for the shopping mall? Wouldn't that be a bit rash?" Terence asked, frowning.

"What else can we do?" George didn't show any dissatisfaction with Terence's rebuttal, but instead looked at Hermione, the youngest in the team. "What are your thoughts? I just think the straight line between two points is the shortest, and the view on the central road is the best, isn't it?"

"If we follow your logic, it does make sense." Hermione nodded in agreement, but still raised her own question. "But I always feel that this ruin that the professor created is probably not that simple. Since there is a road that goes straight to the end, why did he create such a vast area next to it?"

"Hermione is right!" Cedric also nodded in agreement. "How about this, since we are Team Four and the last to start, let's take this opportunity to observe more, so we can act accordingly when the time comes!"

Cedric's suggestion was unanimously approved by everyone, but they didn't notice that there was a guy eavesdropping nearby.

"Hey, let's just go straight down the middle road later, towards the shopping mall at the deepest point. That's definitely where the princess is trapped!" After eavesdropping on Team Four, Ron returned to his own team and said excitedly.

"How do you know?" Malfoy looked at Ron with a questioning expression. "The professor doesn't seem to have said where the hostages are."

"This is of course deduced from my wisdom. Such an important character like the princess must be placed in the largest building. How can you be so stupid?" Ron didn't mention anything about eavesdropping, but said with certainty.

"Ron makes sense." Their leader, Penelope, nodded. "Besides, the main road has the best view. If we don't know the internal information, this might be a good idea."

"Then let's do it!" Susan shouted. "It's better than traversing those uncertain ruins."

Just as the group discussed their plan of action, Anduin spoke up, "Attention everyone, the operation begins now, Team One prepare to enter!"

"Yes, Professor!" Penelope and the others from Team One responded loudly, and then walked out of the tent.

The others naturally wouldn't miss this good opportunity to gather information, and gathered outside the entrance to the ruins, watching the five people walk onto the main road.

"Everyone, take out your wands and be careful!" Penelope, as the leader, was quite qualified, and didn't waste any time when giving commands.

Then the group of five walked openly on the main road, holding their wands and carefully looking around.

However, after they advanced two or three hundred meters, the surroundings were still eerily quiet, without even a single enemy running out to hinder them.

"Isn't it a bit too quiet?" Malfoy felt the uneven stone road under his feet and the silent surroundings, and couldn't help but feel a little flustered.

"Doesn't this mean that the route we chose is correct?" Ron seemed very confident in his decision. "The professor's so-called monsters are probably all staying in the surrounding ruins. Maybe we'll only see the real enemies after we enter the shopping mall!"

"It's better to be careful and vigilant. I also feel that something is not right!" Penelope's perception wasn't weak, and she faintly sensed that some danger was quietly approaching.

"Bang!"

Just as the group was chatting, a large hole suddenly exploded in the ground five meters in front of them, and then an extremely burly figure jumped out.

After the smoke gradually dissipated, everyone discovered that it was a giant skeleton more than five meters tall, and it was also holding a long-handled giant hammer in its hand.

"Roar!!"

As soon as it appeared, the giant skeleton waved the hammer in its hand and roared as it charged towards the group.

"Cover!" After seeing the enemy that suddenly appeared, Penelope immediately shouted, and at the same time immediately fired a Disarming Charm.

However, her spell was like tickling after hitting the skeleton, and couldn't发挥 its effect at all.

Seeing this, the other young wizards didn't dare to delay, and ran back a dozen steps, quickly looking for cover.

At the same time, Ron was shocked, because he had never seen this giant skeleton in Anduin's construct warehouse, and didn't know if it was a new model or a hidden special construct.

The appearance of this giant skeleton was too sudden, and it appeared close to the group as soon as it appeared, so someone was still caught up by it.

The giant skeleton rushed forward two steps and caught Mandy Brocklehurst, who was trying to escape. It raised its hammer and swung it hard, then hit Mandy's back heart like hitting a golf ball, instantly turning her into a white light.

Mandy, who turned into light and disappeared, naturally triggered the transmission vest on her body, which also showed how powerful the skeleton's attack was. Each attack was a one-hit kill for everyone.

Just as the group was shocked by Mandy's 'sacrifice', a rustling sound suddenly rang out from the surrounding dilapidated houses.

When they looked up, they realized that a row of skeleton archers had appeared on the second floors of those houses, and they were drawing their longbows, ready to shoot at everyone!

"We can't stay on the road, retreat into the houses!" After seeing the archers, Penelope immediately realized that they had been ambushed. She couldn't care so much now, and after shouting, she rushed towards the broken house on her left, and crashed into the room with a flying leap.

Seeing this, Susan, who was next to Penelope, immediately took action. Of course, she might have been scared silly, and her current actions were just instinctive blind obedience.

Ron and Draco on the other side were also terrified. After hearing Penelope's order, they didn't have time to think, and screamed as they rushed into a broken house like headless flies.

At this time, the skeleton archers had already begun to shoot, and the overwhelming rain of arrows made the already dilapidated street even more desolate.

Malfoy, running wildly under the rain of arrows, closely followed Ron in front. During this period, he vaguely felt a pain in his neck, but Malfoy didn't have time to think so much at this time, and only knew to grit his teeth and run wildly.

He didn't feel relieved until they climbed along the broken walls of the house and escaped a hundred or two hundred meters away, even unable to hear the giant skeleton's shouts.

"Damn it! What a bad idea you came up with? We almost wiped out the entire army just now!" After seeing that it was temporarily safe, Draco immediately yelled at Ron in displeasure.

"How would I know these ghosts would suddenly appear?" Ron's expression was a little embarrassed at this time, and then he suddenly widened his eyes and looked at Malfoy.

"What's wrong?" Malfoy looked at Ron in confusion.

"You...your neck is bleeding!" Ron pointed to the other's neck with some nervousness.

Hearing this, Draco raised his hand and wiped it, only to see that his palm was covered with scarlet blood! It must have been accidentally shot by an arrow before.

"Ah!!!" Draco, this pampered young master, had never seen bleeding, let alone his own blood!

"Oh my god, help, I'm bleeding, am I going to die!" Draco wailed loudly, at a loss, and his face turned pale.

Seeing Draco injured, Ron immediately approached to help check, and then rolled his eyes and said speechlessly, "It's just a little scratch, what are you nervous about?"

"Hmph, it's not you who's injured, of course you don't care. I feel like I'm going to die now. I want to go to the school infirmary! This practical exercise is not fun at all!" Draco cried with a sad face, he never expected that this practical exercise was actually real, and now he's even seen blood.

"Then you can leave if you want! You can be teleported out as long as you activate the emblem on the vest." Ron glanced at the other with disdain. "Coward! It's just a little scratch, you were still bragging before you came in."

"Who's a coward?" Hearing Ron's ridicule, Draco's dissatisfaction was immediately aroused. "But this is different from what was agreed before, I'm really injured."

"Then you can teleport out, anyway, I'm going to find the princess, then you can wait and envy the legendary item in my hand!" Ron stood up, pretending not to care.

"You..." Malfoy was so stimulated by Ron that he gritted his teeth and said, "Just you alone? I'm afraid you won't even see the princess before you die. Come over and bandage my wound!"

"Tch, so pretentious..." Ron pouted unhappily, but still neatly tore a piece of cloth from his robe and carefully bandaged Malfoy's neck.

During the bandaging, Malfoy couldn't help but mutter to Ron, "By the way, did you notice just now? The skeletons that came out..."

"Of course I noticed, names and health bars appeared on the heads of those monsters." Ron nodded seriously. "I guess that's probably another use of these glasses. It seems to be able to help us identify those monsters."

"The first one that appeared was called 'Giant Skeleton', and its health bar was surprisingly long, while those 'Skeleton Archers' were much shorter, but Penelope's Disarming Charm didn't seem to work on them. What should we do if we encounter similar opponents again?" Malfoy muttered worriedly.

"The 'Confringo' and 'Repulso' spells work better on those normal-sized skeletons. They have high resistance to 'Expelliarmus' and 'Stupefy', and their weakness is that their bodies are relatively fragile and their hearing is very poor."

"I'm not very clear about the giant skeleton, but I think there won't be too many elite monsters like it. As long as we are careful, we still have a chance to avoid this kind of enemy." Ron recalled the information he had obtained when he helped Anduin test the constructs, and said very calmly.

"How do you know so much?" Malfoy looked at Ron with a suspicious expression. He didn't believe that with the other party's intelligence, he could summarize this information in such a short time.

"What's it to you?" Ron rolled his eyes at Malfoy, and then slapped him hard on the back. "Let's go, we should move."

"Ouch!" Malfoy complained and glared at Ron, then didn't continue to pursue the other's little secret, just muttered with some worry, "Penelope and Susan escaped to the left side of the road, and we are now on the right. What should we do now? Should we go back and find them?"

"Wouldn't it be too dangerous to go back?" Ron hesitated. "We finally ran this far, and now we don't know if those skeletons have chased along the road, and are you confident that you can find Penelope's whereabouts?"

"This..." Malfoy thought that what Ron said made sense. "Okay, then let's find a way to lean towards the shopping center and see if we can meet them there."

After the two discussed the countermeasures, they carefully shuttled directly through the building remains. They didn't dare to return to the road now.

After groping forward towards the shopping center for a while, they happened to run into two skeleton soldiers who seemed to be patrolling.

"It's a skeleton swordsman and a skeleton spearman." Malfoy retracted his head that was poking out to observe the ruins. "What should we do next? Should we bypass them? If these skeleton soldiers really have poor hearing as you said, it seems that we can avoid conflict with them."

"I said their hearing is poor, but that doesn't mean these skeletons are deaf?" Ron rolled his eyes. "What level is your Confringo? Let's see if we can solve them in one go."

"I know level 2 Confringo and Binding Curse, I haven't learned Repulso yet, but I know level 3 Tarantallegra, is it okay to use this kind of spell?" After hearing Ron's words, Malfoy deliberately lowered his voice, for fear of disturbing the enemy.

"Level 2 Confringo should be enough, forget about the Tarantallegra, I don't want to see a skeleton dance a funny dance." Ron also poked his head out and glanced. "Okay, when they walk past this broken wall, then we two rush out and attack, I'll deal with the swordsman on the left, you deal with the spearman, be careful of the swordsman's shield, it can defend against many attack spells."

"Okay!" At this critical moment, Malfoy rarely didn't refute Ron.

Then the two quietly lurked behind the wall, waiting for the two patrolling skeletons to slowly pass by.

Immediately afterwards, Malfoy gave Ron a suggestive look, and the two rushed out from the broken wall at the same time, casting spells in unison.

"Confringo!" "Confringo!"

Two Confringo spells were generated almost simultaneously, and the two skeletons didn't react at all to such an attack, and were scattered into pieces with two 'bang' 'bang' sounds.

"Quick, throw away their bones, otherwise they will be resurrected in place after a while!" Seeing that the attack was effective, Ron immediately shouted excitedly.

"Got it, I really don't know where you got the information on these guys from." Malfoy grumbled and followed, throwing the bones of the two skeleton soldiers around with Ron.

"Wait...look!" Malfoy's eyes suddenly widened after picking up a skeleton soldier's spear, then he excitedly shouted at Ron, "This...this weapon has attributes!"

"Huh?" Ron curiously leaned his head over when he heard the words, and then found that Malfoy was right, a row of words did flash above the spear.

【Bone Spear】

Attack Power: 7-12

Attack Range: 4 meters

Durability: 19/20

Characteristic: None

"Could it be..." Ron's eyes lit up, "Can we also use the equipment dropped by these monsters?"

"I think that's probably the case!" Malfoy excitedly stood the spear beside him, as if declaring its ownership, "Quickly look at the skeleton you knocked down, its equipment might also be useful!"

"Okay!" Ron immediately rummaged through the skeleton swordsman's equipment, and then found that their attributes were indeed displayed in his glasses.

【Bone One-Handed Sword】

Attack Power: 5-10

Attack Range: 1 meter

Durability: 18/20

Characteristic: None

【Bone Shield】

Durability: 50/50

Magic Resistance: Weak

Characteristic: None

"This shield can even withstand spells!" Ron excitedly showed Malfoy, then couldn't wait to wear it on his left arm.

"It seems that this dungeon is not just about monsters and hostages, there may be other good things hidden!" Malfoy's sense of smell was very keen, and he immediately concluded.

"Then what do we do next, how about searching those broken houses a bit?" Ron heard Malfoy's meaning.

"I think it's a good idea, let's still head towards the shopping center, but don't miss the opportunity to search along the way. When I passed by a few broken houses before, I found boxes and cabinets inside. At the time, I thought they were just decorations, but now I regret it," Malfoy grumbled angrily.

"Then what are we waiting for, let's go. Don't let go of small groups of enemies we encounter on the road, and get you a shield first. This thing might save our lives!" Ron was also extremely excited at this time. They were both people who were very obsessed with alchemy props. Now that they found that fighting monsters could drop equipment, their eyes immediately turned red.

On the other side, the crowd watching outside the ruins dungeon saw Ron and his team's encounter from a distance.

The giant skeleton that suddenly appeared, and the skeleton archers ambushing from all directions, even watching from a distance, this scene was still very shocking.

And Mandy, who was instantly killed, turned into white light and appeared directly in front of everyone, while looking at everyone with a dazed expression.

"What happened to me, where is this?" Mandy only felt a flash in front of her, and hadn't even reacted yet.

"You seem to be, perhaps...killed. Strictly speaking, you are now a corpse." George on the side saw that she seemed to be fine, and then joked.

"How is it, Mandy, are you hurt? I saw that big skeleton knocked you flying!" Terry from the same house was very nervous, stepped forward and looked her up and down, trying to check her injuries.

"No..." Mandy shook her head slightly confused, "I felt like I was knocked away by something, and then I appeared here, I didn't even feel any pain."

"Well, it seems that the transmission vest is working normally." Andoan nodded with satisfaction, then took out a clipboard and wrote something.

"What exactly happened at that time?" Hermione was more concerned about the information inside the ruins. They were too far away, and in fact there were many things they couldn't see clearly.

"I'm also a mess right now. It was very normal at the beginning, but suddenly the giant skeleton rushed out. Penelope told us to hide, but I was slow to react..." Mandy sighed with some self-reproach.

"Did you find anything before the attack? Such as special sounds, figures, or smells." Hermione asked very carefully, trying to find some rules from her.

"No, I didn't notice anything." Mandy shook her head regretfully, then looked at Andoan with some hesitation, "Professor, does this mean I've been eliminated?"

"You are carrying out the mission in groups. You will not be eliminated until all of them are resolved, but George was right, you are now in a fallen state."

After saying that, Andoan specifically looked at the others, "Fallen people cannot speak. Next time anyone 'falls' back, pay attention, and are not allowed to exchange information with other people who have not entered."

"Yes, Professor!" Mandy was very obedient when she heard the words, and directly closed her mouth, which made the others who wanted to inquire feel a little disappointed.

"It seems that the choice of taking the main road is not feasible. There is a high probability that traps have been set up along the main road, and listening to Mandy's words, those ambushing enemies are very well hidden and did not reveal any flaws." Hermione said anxiously to the other members of the group.

"Well, but this only means that the main road in the center is not safe, and I don't know if the two paths next to it are similar." Fred analyzed seriously.

"Pay attention to observation next. I just saw from a distance that Penelope's team seemed to be scattered. See if they will appear in the field of vision again, maybe we can collect useful information from their state," Cedric carefully instructed.

And at this moment, Andoan next to him spoke again, "Next, the second group is ready to enter!"

"Ah?" Wood, who was in charge of the second team, was surprised, "Aren't you supposed to send the next team after each team's mission is over or all of them have fallen?"

"Who told you that was the rule?" Andoan curled his lips, "You think too beautifully, do you think you can collect information from your predecessors here in peace, and then act with confidence? Wouldn't the later teams take advantage of it more and more?"