C.3428 - - Times Have Changed

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Chapter 502 – Times Have Changed

In a vast jungle inside the Underground Crystal Palace…

Over a dozen streaks of light landed on the forest, startling many nearby small animals.

“We’ve arrived on the fourth floor, just like that?” Shock filled Ink Qilin’s eyes as she surveyed her surroundings. Although Shi Feng had already proven himself extraordinary with his performance outside the Underground Crystal Palace, she didn’t think he would have an equally surprising card up his sleeve.

The Underground Crystal Palace was a secret land with a level range of 120 to 200, and it had one floor for every ten levels. Normally, whenever players entered the Underground Crystal Palace, regardless of which floor was their actual destination, they would have to start from the first floor, which had a level range of 120 to 129.

Originally, such a setting wouldn’t have been a big deal as players simply needed to spend more time reaching their desired floor. However, the problem was that every player could only stay in the Underground Crystal Palace for three days. Regardless of whether players died, they would be teleported out of the secret land once the three-day time limit was up.

To make matters worse, according to their understanding, the Underground Crystal Palace’s floors were massive, with each floor being at least three times as big as the average large-sized map found in the outside world.

In a situation where even Tier 5 players could only rely on their two feet to travel, they would have wasted half of their three-day time limit by the time they reached a floor that corresponded to their levels. Moreover, that was under the premise that they didn’t encounter any obstructions from monsters. If they had to stop to defeat monsters or take detours, they would have to waste even more time reaching their destination.

However, after their team entered the Underground Crystal Palace, Shi Feng took out two tokens and handed them to Gentle Snow and Desolate Fury. Then, with the help of these tokens, their entire team was teleported to the Underground Crystal Palace’s fourth floor…

“Who exactly is your Guild Leader, Snow?” River Light asked as he turned to Gentle Snow after scanning the fourth floor’s environment. “Don’t say that he’s the leader of a Guild coming from some miniature world. Do you think I will still believe such a thing?”

Apart from River Light, several other members of Scarecrow Fox also turned to look at Gentle Snow with an inquiring gaze.

Originally, they thought Gentle Snow’s Guild Leader would only be an ordinary expert, and they were only willing to let Shi Feng join their team because of Gentle Snow. But now, they realized how laughable their previous thoughts were.

Setting aside the Scarlet Merchant Alliance’s matter, just Shi Feng’s ability to teleport them to the Underground Crystal Palace’s fourth floor was already beyond the means of any ordinary expert. After all, this was a mind-blowingly massive opportunity.

Currently, even though the various powers operating in the Crystal City of Secrets had already dispatched many powerful teams into the Underground Crystal Palace, it would still take them at least a day before they could reach the fourth floor. In other words, not only would their team be the first to explore the fourth floor, but they could also have the entire floor to themselves for at least a day.

Faced with River Light’s question, Gentle Snow didn’t know what to say. This was because she felt that even if she told the truth, neither River Light nor the other members of Scarecrow Fox would believe her. Though, honestly, even she was starting to wonder if she was in a dream.

According to Shi Feng, in the two months she had spent with Scarecrow Fox’s team, only several days had passed in the real world. Originally, she thought she must have bridged the gap between her and Shi Feng with the extra development time she managed to gain. After all, although two months wasn’t a long time, her worldview and strength had still undergone a qualitative transformation.

In fact, she had changed so much that even the Paimon Conglomerate, which previously seemed like a very troublesome opponent, no longer seemed as intimidating as before. She felt that so long as she returned to the Miniature Ancient World, she could help improve Zero Wing significantly.

However, by the looks of things, rather than her, Gentle Snow felt that Shi Feng was the one who had gained two extra months. Moreover, he must have encountered numerous opportunities to achieve such frightening growth.

While Gentle Snow was experiencing mixed feelings about Shi Feng’s growth, Shi Feng was busy surveying the surrounding environment.

In most parts of the Eternal Realm, Mana and Holy Power existed in the environment in a 50-50 ratio. However, on the Underground Crystal Palace’s fourth floor, Holy Power took up 95% of the energy present in the environment, whereas Mana took up only a measly 5%.

Because of this environment, every monster present on the floor was brimming with Holy Power. If a human player were to stand within 30 yards of the monsters here, they would immediately find their use of mana getting interrupted. Even players with Tier 5 Epic Mana Bodies wouldn’t be spared from this influence.

If players were to fight a bunch of Tier 4 Mythic monsters brimming with Holy Power in such a situation, even Tier 5 players would face great difficulty.

Meanwhile, this was something Ink Qilin and the others also quickly noticed.

“Battle Apes?” Ink Qilin frowned as she looked at the group of over a hundred Level 152 Mythic monsters gathered in the distance.

…

[Graystone Battle Ape] (Ferocious Beast, Mythic)

Level 152

HP 4,000,000,000

…

The Graystone Battle Apes were only three meters tall, but all of them were clad in armor and wielded weapons. Different from the average monster, these Battle Apes were clearly creatures that excelled at group combat.

Going by past experiences, Ink Qilin knew that Battle Apes were highly intelligent. These Graystone Battle Apes also looked like they were using standardized equipment inscribed with Secret Runes, similar to what NPC guards of NPC Cities used. So, they should be able to form a battle array that boosted their overall combat power.

Even in the outside world, a dozen of these Tier 4 Mythic-ranked Graystone Battle Apes fighting together with the support of a battle array could kill a Tier 5 player. In this place where players could not use mana, fighting these Graystone Battle Apes would be a nightmare for players.

“River, you and your group get ready,” Ink Qilin commanded after pondering for a moment. “We’ll go with the traditional method and trap a portion within a barrier first. Everyone else, use a Holy Power Bottle and quickly eliminate the commanding Battle Apes!”

At Ink Qilin’s command, River Light and the others nodded before quickly taking out several Tier 4 Magic Scrolls from their bag spaces.

The fourth floor’s environment and monsters might be tougher than expected, but they were experts of the Scarecrow Fox adventurer team. They had come across many such situations before this, so it was only a matter of wasting a little more time to eliminate these Grayston Battle Apes.

While everyone was getting ready for battle, though, Shi Feng, who had been feeling the mana around him all this time, suddenly said, “Vice Commander Qilin, I have a way for us to clear out these monsters quickly.”

“A way to clear out these Battle Apes quickly?” Shi Feng’s words immediately piqued Ink Qilin’s curiosity. “Do you really have a way to do so, Guild Leader Black Flame? Going by our adventurer team’s past experiences of fighting Battle Apes, these Graystone Battle Apes should be able to form battle arrays. Moreover, the battle array’s strength would grow stronger the more Battle Apes there are to maintain it. If we try to fight them as one big group instead of splitting them up into smaller groups, killing them will be challenging.”

They might not be a match for the Demon Cave Trio, but fighting monsters was Scarecrow Fox’s specialty.

However, out of all the times she had watched and personally fought in fights involving Battle Arrays, the best way she could think of for their current team of fewer than twenty players to eliminate the 100-plus Graystone Battle Apes would be to tackle them in batches. She also found it hard to imagine there would be any better methods.

“I can prevent them from using battle arrays within 100 yards of me,” Shi Feng said, chuckling. “If we are talking about Battle Apes that cannot use battle arrays, I’m sure you all can deal with them easily, right?”

The suppression by Holy Power was indeed powerful on the fourth floor, and even players with Tier 5 Epic Mana Bodies would be greatly affected. However, Shi Feng had previously tested and found that his Tier 5 Advanced Legendary Mana Body remained unaffected. He could even maintain control over the mana within a 100-yard radius.

Within this radius, none of the Battle Apes should think of activating their battle arrays, which relied on mana to activate.

“If what you say is true, we can try to take them on all at once,” Ink Qilin said, still somewhat skeptical. However, because of Shi Feng’s previous performance and the massive opportunity he had provided them by bringing them straight to the fourth floor, she felt she should at least give his suggestion a try out of respect. And even if Shi Feng’s plan failed, they could simply execute the original plan.

Subsequently, several players separated from the team to lure the Graystone Battle Apes.