Chapter Twenty-Six: Conceptions of the Heavy Artillery Battlemage!
This time, Yi Shen primarily relied on wind elements to pull and kite his enemies, gradually whittling down their health with burning bombs. The Gobi disciples themselves mainly used four or five skills, occasionally releasing sneak attacks and a special corrosive ability that caused Yi Shen’s health to steadily decrease. As a mage, Yi Shen had no purification spells, but fortunately, he had previously acquired a healing skill book; otherwise, his health would certainly have been pressured.
Relying on healing spells and the blocking power of wind elements, Yi Shen quickly dealt with the minor monsters, then used the terrain to maximize his damage output. In the past, Yi Shen thought that as long as his stats were good enough and his level high, killing monsters should be simple, and that the training equipment his father prepared at home was of little use. Only through actual combat did Yi Shen realize that aside from differences in statistics, the techniques and stamina developed through regular training provided tremendous help.
Spells continually poured out from Yi Shen, and the Gobi disciples grew increasingly frenzied, clearly intent on risking their lives in battle. Thankfully, the monsters in this secret realm could not call for reinforcements from very far away; otherwise, if more appeared, Yi Shen might have been forced to retreat.
The time it took to kill a Gobi disciple was longer than Yi Shen had anticipated, and the difficulty was much greater. When he finally brought it down, although his status was still full, he felt exhausted. The advantage, however, was that Yi Shen gained new insights into combat, realizing he could not rely solely on brute force. If possible, he needed to acquire more skill books.
...
[Ding, you have slain Gobi Disciple (Secret Realm Elite) and gained 431 experience points.]
[Ding, you have slain Gobi Disciple (Secret Realm Elite), and gained...]
...
[Ding, you have obtained Disciple’s Blade (E).]
[Ding, you have obtained Disciple’s Cloak (E).]
...
[Disciple’s Blade]
[Required Level: 16]
[Quality: E]
[Attributes: Strength +24, Agility +30]
[Special Effect: When attacking, has a chance to inflict 50 points of poison damage, can trigger once every three seconds.]
...
[Disciple’s Cloak]
[Required Level: 16]
[Quality: E]
[Agility +27, Stamina +20]
[Special Effect: Defense +2]
...
The new drops from the disciples were all physical equipment. Yi Shen glanced at his status bar and was surprised to find that he hadn’t yet completed his mage set, but he already had a full set of E-level physical gear. These items were mainly used by rogues, warriors, or other close-combat professions. For a mage like Yi Shen, dropping these was a waste.
But on second thought, Yi Shen realized that as his specialization progressed, his strength and agility were not much lower than other explorers of the same level. Apart from being unable to learn special skills, he could occasionally act as a melee mage if needed.
This opened up new possibilities for Yi Shen. He considered collecting a set of defensive gear, such as another shield like the one he had previously obtained, to keep in his inventory rather than dismantling it. When facing certain monsters, he could use the shield to take hits directly and rely on mage skills for sustained damage, becoming a unique heavy-armored artillery mage!
...
After dealing with the Gobi disciples, Yi Shen headed toward another management area on the right. The distance between the two management zones was not short—Yi Shen walked for seven or eight minutes before reaching the next stronghold.
With experience gained, he became increasingly adept at clearing monsters in this area. Despite the kobolds seeming to possess a certain level of intelligence, their thinking was actually quite dull.
Especially after the battle with the Gobi disciples, Yi Shen’s understanding of combat had reached a new level. He no longer needed to hide or dodge; simply exploiting a few vantage points allowed him to easily dispose of the monsters.
These creatures granted Yi Shen ample experience, raising his level from sixteen to seventeen. Upon reaching level eighteen, the required experience had already climbed to seven thousand—he’d need to slay nearly two hundred monsters to gain a single level. Clearly, the experience required would only keep increasing; after level twenty, each level would require tens of thousands of experience points. If he wanted to catch up to the high-level veterans in a short time, he would have to give it his all!
The elite of the second management area was a priest, formally known as the Gobi Disciple Priest. According to forum guides, this priest was a mage-type monster capable of large-scale area attacks, easily causing party wipes.
In this world, a party wipe meant death—there was no resurrection, no second chance. Unless a team was fully prepared, they would not attempt a boss lightly. Even the forum guides were compiled from bitter experience.
However, after reviewing the priest’s skills and attributes, Yi Shen felt little pressure. Ten-member groups usually had two or three healers, and if everyone was hit by an area attack, it could be hard to keep up with healing. But Yi Shen was alone and could cast healing spells without limit; as long as the priest couldn’t instantly kill him, he could even withstand attacks head-on.
Due to his ongoing specialization, Yi Shen’s health cap was over 1900; with full defensive gear, it could reach up to 2700 or 2800. So his final decision was to tank the damage, using wind elements to block major attacks and enduring minor area damage while trading blows!
Of course, Yi Shen also picked a high vantage point for his offense, so if things went wrong, he could quickly escape.
“Shua!” Several wind blades swept out, pulling the boss. After clearing the surrounding mobs, the Disciple Priest was drawn to the base of a slope, where Yi Shen confronted it directly with Arcane Impact and a barrage of skills.
The opponent occasionally launched shadow arrows and similar attacks, which Yi Shen blocked with wind elements—summoned endlessly, they were like natural meat shields.
Initially, Yi Shen thought the fight would be dangerous, but in practice his health dropped by less than a thousand. Aside from some dizziness and pain, it was far easier than killing the previous Gobi disciple.
When the Gobi Priest fell, the first thing Yi Shen noticed was the bone staff on its back. Though not listed as loot, it was a genuine E-grade bone staff—some even farmed this boss solely for the staff, to sell outside the secret realm!