Chapter 221: Chapter 221 – The True Capability of The Seeker
Attempting the final checkpoint for the second time, Ren Suo summoned Zhao Zili as external aid.
Interestingly, when Merlin saw Zhao Zili, he said:
[Disciple of the Foreign Gods, you are much more fortunate than me.]
Although Zhao Zili was not under Ren Suo’s control, he still fulfilled his mission duly. Acting as the toughest ‘meat shield’ and having the strongest healing ability, Zhao Zili managed to block Merlin, the demigod, from attacking.
However, Merlin attacked him a few times and quickly found that Zhao Zili’s combat power was negligible. Zhao Zili only served to obstruct his view, although he could not be killed—the three gods had granted Zhao Zili [Death Shield], [Rebirth Shield], and [Superhuman Shield], which made Zhao Zili comparable to the All-Devouring Spirit in terms of defense ability.
Upon seeing through Zhao Zili, Merlin stopped paying attention to Zhao Zili and focused on attacking the mages and Practitioners instead. Although Zhao Zili’s healing ability was also terrifyingly powerful, and almost anyone whom he shot at with his Gatling Gun of Profound Compassion would not die, he was only able to protect a small number of people.
When Merlin’s remaining health dropped to 50%, the Practitioner forces were completely wiped out again. Ren Suo quickly activated [Finger Iron Chain], and the other female mages also activated their Forbidden Spells in an attempt to kill Merlin at once!
Nonetheless, even though Merlin was bound, he still managed to quickly sacrifice the book in his hand that was made of human skin, and Librom was summoned.
Librom was able to use the vast majority of offerings that Ren Suo had come across, and his teleportation speed was not any slower than Merlin’s. In addition, he could also equip himself with effects like ‘defense buffs’. Even though Red Hood and the other mages could bear to kill their ex-lover and used Finger Iron Chain to bind him, the mages quickly discovered that Librom and Merlin shared their health among themselves!
In other words, Merlin had an additional health bar!
Very soon, the mages depleted all of their Forbidden Spells and could no longer restrain Merlin and Librom. They immediately launched their counterattack, and even with Zhao Zili around, the mages were still unable to withstand their attacks!
Most importantly, Librom was also able to recover the health of both Merlin and himself!
Not only was the damage dealt by the mages unable to kill them instantly, but their health would also be recovered after that. It was virtually impossible to defeat them!
Ren Suo thought for a few minutes, then attempted the checkpoint again separately with the other two benefits provided by the Holy Grail.
They were the three revival chances and the doubling of the overall capability of the character.
The effects were… well, worse than summoning Zhao Zili as external aid.
Being granted three revival chances only served to prolong the battle for slightly longer, while doubling the overall capability of Mage had no visible effect to Ren Suo—the latter option was specifically targeted at those who chose the balanced route, where the level of the Sacred Hand was slightly higher than that of the Magic Wrist.
“A game with a 3+ star difficulty rating is truly… either annoying or would require a lot of money to be spent.”
However, it was not entirely impossible for Ren Suo to clear the checkpoint. Through attempting the final checkpoint several times, Ren Suo gradually grasped the tactics of Merlin and Librom—it was actually not difficult to dodge their attacks. Merlin would not heal himself in the battle, and Ren Suo could, in fact, make use of magic spells to interrupt the process when Librom used his recovery offerings.
It was possible for Ren Suo to rely on his own character handling skills to drag out the fight and slowly kill Merlin and Librom. However, that would require a lot of time, and he would also have to sacrifice his fellow companions, as well as the warriors who took part in the fight. After all, his own skills could be improved, but that was not the case for the other mages.
Ren Suo suspected that there were actually restrictions in terms of the mages’ teleportation ability. For example, the ‘visual impact’ and ‘loss of balance’ caused by the rapid movement should limit the frequency with which the mages could teleport.
On the other hand, the only limiting factor to the frequency Ren Suo’s character could teleport was his own reaction speed and technical handling ability.
If he spent another three or four days practicing, Ren Suo should be able to hone his technical skills to the extent that he could clear the checkpoint perfectly without suffering any injuries.
“Indeed, the Magic Wrist route would be at an advantage here…” Ren Suo remarked with a sigh. Had he chosen the Magic Wrist route, he would certainly have honed his technical skills well, and his damage output would also be sufficiently high. Fighting the boss one on one could well have been much easier.
Alternatively, if he had chosen the balanced route, the best option in the exchange list of the Holy Grail would be the second one—to double the character’s overall capability. The final battle might end up being easier than with the Magic Wrist route, although the difficulty of the game in the other ordinary checkpoints would be higher. Either way, the balanced route was neither the best nor the worst.
On the other hand, the advantage of choosing the Sacred Hand route in the final checkpoint was undoubtedly to be able to summon external aid.
Ren Suo thought that, if there was a character whose damage output and movement speed were sufficiently high, he should be able to clear the checkpoint without much problem, as long as he continuously healed the character while interrupting Librom’s own healing spells from time to time.
However, there was no such character in the list that was selectable.
The Hitman had a sufficiently fast movement speed, but his damage output was too low—firearms were too weak against Merlin and Librom.
Zhao Zili was not worthy of mentioning.
The Seeker…
Ren Suo thought of that character which he had previously overlooked and a sudden idea emerged in his mind.
Perhaps it was because Ren Suo was wearing [Hat of Cultivation and Practice] that he quickly recalled an idea he had previously.
Putting his idea into action, Ren Suo immediately made an exchange with the Holy Grail and summoned the Seeker. Then, he equipped the Seeker with [Secret Records of Glorious Xuan: Chapter One] on the [Equipment] screen.
When Ren Suo entered the checkpoint in the game, Merlin saw the Seeker and also said:
[I have never seen you before… If you had been around, the Holy Grail would never have chosen me.]
It was undoubtedly an extremely high appraisal coming from Merlin, but the performance of the Seeker was still not satisfactory—
Equipped with [Secret Records of Glorious Xuan: Chapter 1], the Seeker could levitate in the air and move freely through the air like the mages, but… her attacks were extremely weak.
Her movement speed was slightly slower than teleportation, but it was sufficient. However, her mode of attack was punching and kicking, which was essentially nothing more than a tickle to Merlin.
In contrast, although the Seeker could react extremely quickly, she inevitably suffered injuries from the numerous full map attacks.
Or in other words, she was killed.
Although [Secret Records of Glorious Xuan: Chapter 1] enhanced the Seeker’s defense ability, it was still lower than the effect of the defense offerings of the mages. According to Ren Suo’s own understanding of the Secret Records of Glorious Xuan, after Practicing the first chapter, it could only allow one to reach the level of a mini-superhuman.
Contrastingly, mages were not human.
There was no way to enhance the capabilities of the Seeker to an extremely high level just with [Secret Records of Glorious Xuan: Chapter 1] alone. Ren Suo was out of options—after all, he had only that many ability slots. If only he had more slots, it would be possible to equip the Seeker with more abilities.
Ren Suo was unwilling to give up and tried again. This time, although the Seeker did not die in the early stages of the battle, she was also slain when the entire team was annihilated after Librom appeared and the mages used up all of their Forbidden Spells.
“Ahhhh–”
A sense of warmth began radiating from the curtains in the living room—it was almost morning, but Ren Suo still had not thought of a way to clear the checkpoint.
“Is training my technical handling skills the only option now?” a frustrated Ren Suo thought.
He pressed down firmly on the hat on top of his head and took a deep breath. He calmed himself down and analyzed whether he still stood a chance in the battle just now.
The Hitman…
Zhao Zili…
The Seeker…
Perhaps due to the hat, Ren Suo suddenly noticed something.
“The Seeker has been fighting for… longer than 10 minutes, no?”
When the mages used [Secret Records of Glorious Xuan: Chapter 1], their enhanced state could only persist for 10 minutes. If he had chosen the Magic Wrist route, the enhancement would be quite powerful. However, he chose the Sacred Hand route, and the benefit was not significant. As such, Ren Suo did not use that ability often.
Ren Suo attempted to fight again, but when he entered the seventh checkpoint this time, he swapped [Secret Records of Glorious Xuan: Chapter 1] for [Ability: Clothes] on the [Equipment] screen.
Returning to the game, Ren Suo found that a visible coat of energy surrounded the body of the Seeker. The flow of air around her was disrupted due to that, as if there was energy flowing around the Seeker.
Boom–
The next second, the Seeker broke into an extremely quick sprint, and she crashed right into Merlin!
Her right hand, which was wrapped with [Clothes], turned into the sharpest and most terrifying blade in the world, and she pierced it directly through Merlin’s body!
At the same time, the effect of [Secret Records of Glorious Xuan: Chapter 1] was still present on the Seeker!
“Indeed, when the Seeker is equipped with an ability… it is equivalent to her learning the ability!”