Chapter 392: Chapter 392: Showdown and Qualifications
 

“Little Cold Hands” dropped her head bashfully and instinctively touched her left eye. A faint red lens flashed momentarily.

“Master, rest assured. My teacher said that this lens of mine is the only one of its kind in the world. You’ve taught me so many useful things, I won’t tell anyone about it,” she assured him.

Shaking his head, Li Yao simply said, “It’s fine.”

Seeing Li Yao shake his head, Little Cold Hands mistook his gesture for disbelief. She hastenly explained with a reddening face, “Really, I won’t reveal anything. I feel you all are much kinder. Master, even though I forgot to take my materials back, you were willing to return them. Actually, I also realized that Sister Ephemeral Bloom is from the Dark Camp, but she has always taken care of me, preventing others from bullying me. I, I…”

“Alright, alright, we never said we didn’t trust you. Otherwise, why would I have brought you here?” Ephemeral Bloom interjected.

“I really don’t care, so don’t be nervous,” Li Yao laughed, his head shaking indicating that he was indifferent.

As long as he could take those chips back, his status would be legalized.

In the eyes of gnomes, the chip is one of the most important things. No gnome would believe that a person who could take the chips back was a sham. This fact is why Li Yao remained cool as a cucumber.

“We truly are destined, running into each other even here. But your method is indeed incredible, to be able to pass as an NPC without being recognized. I am impressed just for that,” Ephemeral Bloom laughed.

“That’s unlike your usual style,” Li Yao said, recalling their last encounter in the temple where despite being in the same camp, she insisted on competing with him in such a dangerous place.

“One thing at a time. Honestly, although transformation tools are rare, not only you can obtain them. From what I know all the players who have used transformation tools to infiltrate enemy camps have basically perished, incurring huge losses. Transformation tools are now known as the most disheartening transforming tools.”

Ephemeral Bloom was referring to a thread. A forum post had complained that transformation tools were utterly useless. Once to the enemy camp, one was instantly exposed, with dire consequences. Many who had obtained transformation tools supported this view, sharing screenshots to prove it. After such occurrences – bitter learning experiences – nobody used transformation tools any more.

Li Yao just smiled without explanation. In the game ‘Ancient Gods’, all NPCs of the intelligent species possessed wisdom like humans. To trick them was no easy feat. However, Li Yao did not want to explain this to them. Instead, he asked, “Putting all this aside, tell me, why are you here seeking me?”

“I, I’m following Ephemeral Bloom,” Little Cold Hands quickly replied.

Ephemeral Bloom laughed and said, “It is naturally for leveling-up. You have not leveled up in several days. Now many people are watching you with a hunger in their eyes. The level leaderboard is a whirlwind of activity. Even if you don’t care, your guild members would care. I knew you were going to go level up alone on your own when you separated.”

Li Yao laughed, and said, “You are very shrewd. But that can’t be a reason for me to bring you along for leveling-up. And, I want to clarify once again, knowing that I’m from the Dark Camp can’t be used as a means to threaten me.”

Ephemeral Bloom laughed like a sly fox, “You underestimate me. Threats are the lowest form of tactics. Besides, I’m also from the Dark Camp. I want to level-up with you, not for you to carry me, but to cooperate.”

“I like cooperation, but you should have the ability to cooperate with me. As far as I know, your thief class is generally weak in AoE damage. Maybe it’s fine for cooperation with a regular elite team, but for cooperation with me, it will only mean me carrying you,” Li Yao retorted.

Li Yao continued, turning to Little Cold Hands, “Little Cold Hands does have a piece of special equipment, but even though her attack power is at the top among elite players, it’s still not enough to qualify for cooperation.”

“You’re right. But who doesn’t have a secret or two? Although we can’t AoE by ourselves, we definitely won’t be deadweight if we cooperate with you. I can’t match your AoE, but I have a passive effect that will allow you to have Combo Attacks. Each of your hits will hit twice. This aura includes your pets. Tell me, wouldn’t that double your DPS?” Ephemeral Bloom concluded.

Ephemeral Bloom was satisfied with the astonished gazes from the two and continued, “Don’t think that’s all I’m good for. I can continuously clone Shadow Martial Spirit and lure monsters from the other side. You just have to drink this and you’ll become a perpetual motion machine, without needing to worry about your mana.”

Demon Summoning Potion

Quality: Superior Blue

Converts health regeneration speed into mana regeneration speed, and doubles the speed of mana recovery. Lasts for 4 hours.

Combat Potion: The effect remains even after the character has been revived from death.

“Impressive items indeed. With these two points, you can join the team. So how about Little Cold Hands?” Li Yao asked.

Li Yao was already tempted when he saw the Combo Aura. Adding his Repair Robot, it was as if there were two and a half of him doing damage simultaneously. Such a terrifying DPS output did indeed need someone to help with luring the monsters.

“You can’t underestimate Little Cold Hands. Little Cold Hands, show him your skills,” Ephemeral Bloom instructed.

Little Cold Hands nodded, “Okay.”

Mechanical Transformation: Destroys a piece of equipment, transforms its essence, and strengthens all mechanical items in the team. Normal white equipment is enhanced by 10%, excellent green items by 20%, and superior blue items by 50%. Lasts for 10 minutes.

“Join us,” said a speechless Li Yao. He had long been searching for this special skill book, but up until now, he had found no clue. He had never even seen it in the auction house. And now, when he finally encountered it, it had already been learned.

This skill was equally terrifying. Consuming a piece of blue equipment meant increasing his DPS by 50% once again, which was simply horrifying. It was one of the skills Li Yao thought was necessary for a Mechanical Hunter.

And the enhancement covers Li Yao’s firearms, Exploding Sheep, Arrow Towers, and turrets.

As Ephemeral Bloom pointed out, their skills could not enable them to AoE level, but if combined with Li Yao, their combat power would soar to a terrifying extent. Overall, they were only two people sharing a bit of experience, but equivalent to three Li Yao in terms of DPS, which was very favorable.

“Little Cold Hands, stand beside me. We’ll do our DPS from this position. Have your pets stand side by side with mine, blocking this platform. Be ready to drink my mechanical potions at any time,” Li Yao instructed Little Cold Hands and then said, “Alright, start luring the monsters.”

The place Li Yao was in had quite a few pipes in the distant hall constantly producing small robots, even smaller than Mechanical Gnomes.

As for Ephemeral Bloom, she stealthily went to the extreme distance, controlling herself and Shadow Martial Spirit to lure a large number of monsters over…

PS: Seeking monthly votes