Chapter 95
When Ye Bai broke through to the front of the sand controller, several raiders and players were retreating under the dispelling effect of the Light Purification, retreating outside the purification range and seeking cover from the sandstorm.
However, they had just retreated back to the sandstorm area and had not yet breathed a sigh of relief when the wind suddenly dropped around them and the dust in the sky fell to the ground.
"What happened? Why did Lord Somes stop casting spells?"
The raiders were caught off guard, and not only them, but the three players also felt a tightness in their hearts, and an ominous premonition enveloped them.
The two successful experiences in the past made them very clear that the success of the operation was mainly due to the spell cover of the sand control sorcerer.
The three players who have not yet changed their jobs have witnessed the abilities of the Sand Master and have even gone to ask the Sand Master Somes about it. They learned that as long as they pass his test, they can receive magic instruction.
Now that the three of them have come together to participate in the operation, it is a prerequisite for the job change task. To successfully complete 5 robberies, they have passed the basic test.
All three players were planning to change their jobs to become Sand Control Warlocks, which was clearly a hidden profession, and continue to work as bandits, a very lucrative job, in the future.
If this looting operation fails, I wonder if it will affect the evaluation of the mission.
The guards had seen the raiders retreat into the dust and were finding it difficult to pursue them. They were getting angry and frustrated when they suddenly saw dust scattering all over the sky. Even the dust outside the dispersion range disappeared.
The view in front of them suddenly became clear, and the looters who had just retreated into the dusty area were exposed again.
"Keep them!"
Roland and the other members of the escort team were immediately delighted. The sandstorm had such a huge impact on them because of their class restraint. The physical classes of the Alchemy School were basically ranged classes, and once their field of vision was disturbed, their combat effectiveness would be greatly restricted.
At this time, the vision was restored, and these raiders were just serving as food in front of the guards.
As a result, at this moment, something strange happened. The sound of wind was heard again not far away, accompanied by floating yellow sand. The sandstorm that had just subsided a few seconds ago swept in again, and this time the momentum was fiercer, more violent than the last time, and the boundary of the sandstorm could not be seen within the field of vision.
The looters were overjoyed at this, and without thinking anything else, they laughed wildly, "Hahaha, it's Lord Somes!"
"Huh..." Seeing the Sand Control Warlock showing off his prowess, the three players also breathed a sigh of relief and became excited. It seemed that Somes had a trick up his sleeve. It might have been a little accident just now, but now Somes had exploded and their mission might not be impossible to succeed!
The guards here froze in their expressions. It was not only the reversal of the battle situation that limited their vision again, but they were also thinking about their employer who had rushed to the front before. The enemy could continue to release sandstorms, which meant that the employer's action had failed. Could they have encountered some danger?
"You guys chase, I'll go support my employer!" Roland turned around, adjusted his goggles, and walked towards the sandstorm that was sweeping in front of him while supporting himself with one arm.
However, when the sandstorm swept everyone away, Roland, who was at the front, took a step but suddenly stopped and lowered his arm.
Roland stared at her hands in a daze, then took off her goggles with an incredible expression. A thin layer of yellow light flickered on her body. The seemingly fierce sandstorm now felt to her like a harmless breeze on ordinary days, as if the yellow sand in the sky was a false illusion.
However, when Roland looked back, he could still see various figures in the dust that should have been pitch dark.
There were his familiar teammates not far away, a group of wildebeests huddled together farther away, and four members of the transport team next to the wildebeests. They had originally held their heads when they saw the sandstorm, but now they slowly stood up and looked around in surprise.
In Roland's field of vision, all the people in the caravan camp, including the wildebeests, were shrouded in a faint yellow light. At the same time, the figures of the looters in the distance also emerged clearly. The difference was that their figures were completely outlined by the bright red light.
After a brief pause, Roland reacted. Just like the sandstorm just now that protected the raiders, the difference was that this time the sandstorm was protecting their side!
[Sandstorm] is the signature practical skill of Sand Magic. Its damage is not high among second-level spells, but it is a very practical auxiliary skill. It can play a strategic role when used in many situations.
In addition to the basic damage caused by the central sand, its most important ability is to blind enemies in a large area, but at the same time it will not affect the vision of friendly forces within the range. The raiders just now took advantage of this feature to put the guards who were originally stronger than them at a disadvantage.
Roland, who felt the characteristics of the sandstorm at this time, didn't know what had happened to his employer, but it was obvious that this development was beneficial to them. An employer who could do this must not have encountered any accidents.
Roland immediately turned around, laughed, and called out to his companions who hadn't yet fully reacted: "Hahaha, let's go! None of them will be able to escape today!"
After hearing Roland's reminder, the other members of the team also reacted and immediately rushed towards the looters in the sandstorm with laughter.
In the dust, the looting team, who had just smiled and thought "I can fight back", had their smiles frozen when the dust obscured their vision. For a moment, they were just like the guards and could not react to what had happened.
It wasn't until Roland led his team to kill them that they were caught off guard and discovered—
This sandstorm...isn't coming from their side, but, how could it not be?!
“Run!”
The three players, who had lost half of their health after being blasted by two gunners in the guard team, smelled the scent of death and immediately turned around and ran away. While running away, the three of them all recalled their last death experience.
It was the same robbery, the same wildebeest team pulling the goods, and the same ten-man escort team... Is there any curse behind this configuration?
"boom!"
The sandstorm that swept across suddenly blocked the sand control sorcerer who was preparing to retreat.
The center of a sandstorm is relatively the safest place. If the sand controller continues to retreat, he will enter the position in the storm where the damage is the highest.
The sand-controlling sorcerer in a cloth robe and a turban had to stop. At the same time, the yellow sand guards summoned earlier had rushed to Ye Bai.
The Yellow Sand Guard looked like a flexible warrior made entirely of sand. At this moment, it held two extremely sharp swords also made of sand, and slashed at Ye Bai without mercy.
Ye Bai, who was consuming his spiritual energy to maintain the sandstorm, did not dodge and took the blow head-on.
'-238'
The Sand Guardian appears to be dealing physical damage, but in reality it is actually spell damage from sand magic, as its form and weapons are reinforced and driven by magic.
This amount of damage was nothing to Ye Bai, whose health was nearly 3,000. After suffering this attack, Ye Bai's skill return slot, which was vacant after casting the sandstorm, immediately had a new summoning spell added to it.
[Yellow Sand Guardian] Summons a Yellow Sand Guardian with 5000 HP and lasts for 5 minutes. The Yellow Sand Guardian (characteristic - desertification) is immune to 80% physical damage. Its dual blade attacks can cause current 856 (+ spell power) magic damage to the enemy each time.
release!
Just like the sand control sorcerer just now, Ye Bai raised his hand, and in the stunned look of the sand control sorcerer opposite, a pool of sand appeared out of thin air on the ground, and then quickly took shape, turning into a yellow sand guard who also held two swords.
And the yellow sand guard summoned by Ye Bai was obviously larger than the one summoned by the sand control sorcerer.
The Sand Guardians summoned by the Sand Control Warlock have only 2200 HP. The ones summoned by Ye Bai not only have higher HP but also higher damage.
Ye Bai stood still. The newly born Yellow Sand Guard caught up with the Sand Control Warlock in two steps and slashed at him, causing 1,564 points of damage, which was far less than the more than 200 points that Ye Bai had just resisted.
"Ah! You...how is it possible?!"
The sand-controlling sorcerer cried out in pain and looked at Ye Bai in disbelief.
This move of "returning the favor in his own way" shocked not only the players, but also the NPCs.
What is even more incomprehensible to the sand control sorcerer is that Ye Bai can maintain the release state of the sandstorm at the same time as releasing the yellow sand guard.
The regular casting sequence should be the same as that of the Sand Control Warlock just now. Because of the casting time and the public CD, if the Sand Control Warlock wants to release the Yellow Sand Guardian, he must first stop the ongoing sandstorm before switching to the new skill.
As for Ye Bai's [Disintegration Return] feature, the sandstorm has already been released. Even if Ye Bai maintains it, it is still consuming mana, but it has a different casting cooldown and casting sequence from regular skills.
Because there is no casting time and casting cooldown, even if it is a continuous skill like Sandstorm, after it is released, the return slot will be empty and new skills can be obtained, and Ye Bai can also release it immediately.
Originally, the ability to maintain a continuous spell while releasing other instant spells should have been achieved after level 60, by lighting up the [Multiple Release] talent.
The current situation is equivalent to Ye Bai taking advantage of the characteristics of his profession, hitting a skill bug, and achieving the talent effect of "multiple releases" in advance.
This is not over yet. Ye Bai took the initiative to be hit by the Yellow Sand Guard again, and saved another skill of the Yellow Sand Guard in the skill bar.
The sand control sorcerer over there could no longer withstand Ye Bai's 'Yellow Sand Guard Enhanced Version' and commanded his own Yellow Sand Guard to return for support.
The two yellow sand guards, one big and one small, soon started fighting each other. They slashed at each other, and the parts of their bodies that were hit by the blades would spray out a cloud of fine sand when they were scratched, and then return to their original shape. There was basically no physical damage to each other, only spell damage.
The sand controller took this opportunity to rush into the sandstorm, apparently trying to escape.
Seeing this, Ye Bai raised his hand, and the scene from just a few seconds ago reappeared. The sand accumulated, and another yellow sand guard was released in the blink of an eye, blocking the sand control sorcerer's escape route.
The Sand Control Warlock's eyes nearly popped out as he looked at the new Sand Guardian that had appeared in the blink of an eye. "...You???"
Ye Bai smiled modestly.
In addition to continuous skills, summoning skills are also the favorite of spellbreakers. As long as it is not a high-level summoning spell that limits only one at a time, you can obtain the summoning skill by taking an attack from the summoned creature.
In other words, as long as you have enough health and mana, you can even use this method to spawn an army of summons.
Of course, summoning spells and continuous spells consume a lot of mana. Even though Ye Bai has now activated the [Sensing] talent that speeds up mana recovery, maintaining the sandstorm and summoning two yellow sand guards have already consumed 60% of his mana.
Ye Bai summoned two yellow sand guards in succession, and quickly smashed the yellow sand guards summoned by the sand controller into a pool of sand.
Of course, before the Yellow Sand Guard was killed, Ye Bai did not forget to step forward and take another blow to save a skill.
After all, the magic he casts will not cause harm to himself, and the Spellbreaker's Disintegration Return cannot be generated by himself, so it will probably become a habit for Ye Bai to go up and get hit whenever he encounters a good skill in the future.
Estimating that the battle over there should be over, Ye Bai stopped the sandstorm.
On this side, Ye Bai didn't need to take any action himself. The remaining two yellow sand guards had completely surrounded the sand controller. Before their own 5-minute summoning time was over, they had beaten the sand controller to a low health state with only more than 2,000 health points left.
Ye Bai looked at the Sand Control Warlock and couldn't help but sigh. For tasks like the Golden Clan Bloodline required for the Compass Task, as long as the player has a related task on hand, the Sand Control Warlock will definitely drop the related task items when he dies.
This sand control sorcerer's skill is so useful that if it weren't for the mission, she wouldn't be willing to kill him... Wait, it seems that he doesn't have to be killed?
Ye Bai looked at the Sand Control Warlock who had been beaten to a low health by two Yellow Sand Guards and had lost the power to resist. Suddenly, an idea came to him and he asked the two guards to stop attacking.
The Sand Control Warlock was fleeing in a panic to resist the attack of the Yellow Sand Guard. He had previously maintained a sandstorm attack for a long time and summoned another Yellow Sand Guard. His energy bar was empty, and it goes without saying how powerful the magic profession was with its mana exhausted.
Suddenly, the sand controller who thought he was going to die here today felt the attack stop. As soon as he raised his head, a cold sword was pressed against his neck.
The snow-colored sword flashes with an elegant and cold light. If you don't know its damage, it still looks very intimidating.
The Sand Control Warlock had already lost all resistance and subconsciously raised his hands.
"Don't kill me, as long as you let me go, I can give you all the items on me!"
Humanoid monsters are essentially just NPCs of different factions. They also have intelligence and personalities. They will kill enemies fearlessly, but they will also be afraid of death. When encountering enemies that are beyond their level, they will run away and have a chance to trigger surrender. After accepting the surrender, they can make the other party their prisoner.
After meeting Ye Bai and discovering that she was a second-level professional, the Sand Control Warlock mainly tried to escape. Now that he was beaten by Ye Bai, he suddenly lost his will to fight.
[You gain 'Threat' proficiency 5]
"Very good." The threat proficiency that had not been seen for a long time had increased... Ye Bai raised her eyebrows, not too surprised. Listening to the system prompts, she had already suspected whether her snow-colored sword had any hidden attributes that she didn't know about.
Then, Ye Bai took out the [Ancient Compass] from his backpack and said to the Sand Control Warlock, "Give me some blood."
The sand control sorcerer was stunned and didn't react for a moment: "Huh?"
"Let's drop some blood on it." Ye Bai extended the snow-colored sword a little forward.
"Okay, okay, I got it..." The sand control sorcerer quickly followed Ye Bai's instructions and imprinted the bleeding wound on his hand where he had been injured by the yellow sand guard on the compass in Ye Bai's hand.
The bleeding stalk is widely used in the world. Killing it will drop the quest item "Blood of the Golden Clan". Ye Bai plans to try to see if he can pass the system's identification by getting some blood on it without killing it. If so, he can save the sand controller's life.
As bright red blood dripped onto the [Ancient Compass], a moment later, there was only... no change.
It turns out that the only option is to kill him... Seeing this, Ye Bai shook his head in disappointment.
The Sand Control Warlock had been observing Ye Bai's expression. Seeing her expression, he realized something and his face suddenly changed. He hurriedly said, "Wait! It must be that you don't have enough blood!"
“Chi——!”
The sand-controlling sorcerer gritted his teeth, stretched out his hand and squeezed the wound hard. Blood spurted out, covering the entire compass with blood.
Good man, what a ruthless person.
Ye Bai, who was watching this scene, couldn't help but twitch her eyes. In just this moment, she saw the opponent's health bar drop by 100 in an instant.
"Wait a little longer, this time it will definitely be enough..."
The sand-controlling sorcerer looked up and looked at Ye Bai carefully.
[You gain 'Threat' proficiency 10]
Ye Bai: “…Okay.”
After all, she's not a devil, is she?
But this time it really worked. Ye Bai felt a surge of heat in his hand holding the compass. With the infiltration of the sand controller's blood, the ancient compass seemed to have undergone a transformation, and the originally dark shell became bright again.
A glimmer of light flashed, and in Ye Bai's hand, it changed from a rusty brown compass to an exquisite and heavy golden compass.
Ye Bai checked the compass's properties again and found that there had indeed been changes.
The Golden Compass
Level: Legend
Attribute: Archaeological tools
Status: Fixed
Effect: You can use the 'historical clues' you have mastered to obtain corresponding direction guidance, with a current accuracy rate of 99%; you have a certain treasure hunting ability.
Description: This is a compass inherited from the Golden Clan. It is quite accurate and has the magical ability to identify treasures - among a pile of treasures, it can always find the most expensive one.
Very good... Ye Bai was very satisfied with the compass's properties. The 99% accuracy rate meant that there would basically be no mistakes, and the 1% probability would not cause her to run into it. At worst, she could just try it a few more times to eliminate the wrong options.
As for this treasure hunting ability which has not been described in detail, we can test it when we have the chance in the future.
The two yellow sand guards had exceeded their duration and turned into two streams of yellow sand that dissipated between heaven and earth. However, at this time, the sand controller no longer dared to resist or escape, and became a neutral state of Huang Ming.
"employer!"
At this moment, shouts were heard. Ye Bai came back to his senses and looked up. It turned out that Roland and others who had already dealt with the other robbers had rushed over.
Roland and the others breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Ye Bai was safe and sound, but at the same time they were not surprised.
"Employer, who is he?"
They soon saw the sand controller in a miserable state again and had some vague guesses.
Ye Bai glanced at the sand control sorcerer and explained to the others, "He is my prisoner."
After saying this, she finally remembered and asked, "By the way, what's your name?"
The Sand Control Warlock saw the guards coming, and after hearing Ye Bai's words, he knew that it was impossible for him to escape. With a bitter face, he replied dejectedly, "Somes."
Ye Bai nodded and said to the others, "Please help me tie him up. I want to take him back to my territory."
"No problem." This was no problem at all. Roland directly took out two alchemical tools made of small balls from his bag. After pulling them apart, two chains made of energy appeared in the middle, firmly trapping the sand controller's hands.
This time, they were safe and sound thanks to Ye Bai's help. It would be more accurate to say that Ye Bai protected all of them rather than that they protected the caravan.
Moreover, the strong will be respected wherever they are.
After Ye Bai showed her strength, the attitude of everyone in the caravan towards her changed, and they were obviously more respectful than before.
"Thank you. How are the other raiders?" Ye Bai continued to ask.
"We killed most of them, and the other two ran very fast, so they escaped."
Ye Bai nodded, guessing that the two people who escaped might be players. However, after this incident, he thought that the two would definitely not dare to come again. If they dared to come again, they would be killed.
As night was approaching, the caravan began to build a campfire and rest in an orderly manner. Knowing that there was a second-level professional in the team, everyone felt very safe and at ease.
Unlike the caravan, the two players who had finally escaped from the guards after consuming their potions and items were soon hit by another bolt from the blue after their companion died.
[The mission 'The Test of Somes' has expired]
Mission failed?
Thinking of Somes, who also hadn't returned, the two players realized that the class transfer instructor could also be killed...
Somes, who thought he was killed, followed Ye Bai's caravan all the way. After three days of smooth travel, he arrived at Baiye Town on the eighth day of his departure.
[The trade route between 'Larn City and White Night Town' has been opened.]
[Foresighted Lord, you have successfully opened up a second route outwards for your territory. Your territory gains an additional 3 productivity points!]
[You have opened trade with an Alchemy School capital (Lahn City). Your territory will gain 3 additional production points per month, and your territory's Alchemy School tendency will increase by 10.]
Following the system prompt, Ye Bai took the captured Somes to the prison.
"Lord, why are you in the prison? The man from last time has already been released... Hey, who is this person?"
“This is a special talent.”
In response to Blaise's question, Ye Bai answered seriously and then sent Somes in.
"Special talent?" Blaise was confused. Talent... sent to prison?
Ye Bai smiled and kept Somes in prison. If he needed a skill in the future, he could just run to the cell and ask the other party to release one.
Any enemies with good skills you encounter in the future can be brought back and stored.
With this in mind, we will have to build another special prison in the future to detain these "skilled" talents who find it difficult to switch camps.
By then it won’t be appropriate to call it a prison, it should be called her exclusive skills library!
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