Volume 2 Chapter 13: Entering the Imperial Mausoleum (4)
My God! There are only two possibilities for the marker stone here. The better one is that someone has been here before us, and this is a mark left by another thief.
However, this is almost impossible. Not to mention that it is currently difficult to find a team of players who are stronger than us and have entered the imperial mausoleum earlier than us. But since the Iron-Armored General is guarding there, it means that no one has been here for at least 6 hours.
I looked toward the evening star in the slim hope that the thieves would be able to tell whether the marker stone was left there by themselves.
One look at Evening Star's face told me my hopes were delusional.
The teleportation array actually sent us back to where we were before!
It's infuriating! No wonder everyone says that the imperial mausoleum is difficult to enter, the key is that the maze is difficult to break. Although the strategy also mentions that there are real and fake teleportation arrays, there is no way to tell them apart, only to test them one by one.
We still have too few people. If we can organize three or five teams with the same professions and search separately, our chances of entering the underground palace will be much greater. But we are all in great danger now, and we only have one thief, pharmacist, and foundry master, so we dare not disperse our forces.
After wasting half the night's work, everyone was frustrated and tired. I suggested that we rest here for a while, eat something, and see if we can think of another solution. Everyone agreed.
Bu San took out a stove, hammer and other tools from his backpack and asked everyone to take off their attribute equipment and white equipment and repair them during this time. Lao Zhou also took out a furnace, added some materials and started to refine medicine.
What no one expected was that Wenxin actually took out a small portable stove, lit a fire, took out two yellow sheep legs from his backpack, put them on the fire and started grilling them.
What's going on? In Fantasy, there is a business profession called chef, but it is a professional skill profession like a merchant or pharmacist. Wenxin is obviously a dwarf warrior. Is it possible for a combat profession to learn cooking skills? Could it be that he, like me, encountered a hidden quest and got a second profession?
After asking, I found out that Wenxin had indeed encountered a hidden task, but it was not a second job. Instead, he received a recipe book as a reward from the NPC in the restaurant. This recipe is actually a secret book. No matter what job you are in, you can learn a "barbecue" skill after using the recipe. Although you can't cook a variety of exquisite and delicious dishes like the "cooking" skill, you are specialized in barbecue skills. It happens that among the monsters in the wild, there are many animals that can be eaten. With this skill, when you go out to level up and your hunger level decreases, you don't have to waste time going back to the city to eat, or you don't have to eat dry food. You can use local ingredients and have a barbecue in the wild and feast on it!
Everyone was delighted. They asked themselves, since he had such a good cook, what was the point of carrying all the dry food? They had to endure the hunger for a while and wait for him to roast the lamb leg. It would be great.
Fortunately, in reality it takes at least two or three hours to roast a leg of lamb. Fantasy was very considerate in this regard. In less than ten minutes, two yellow, shiny, and fragrant legs of lamb were roasted. Everyone was drooling and almost had a "falling three thousand feet like a waterfall".
Wenxin took out a small knife and cut the lamb leg into palm-sized pieces. He said with a smile, "Come on, everyone, have a taste of my cooking skills!"
Everyone was eager to grab a piece. Just by smelling the aroma, they knew Wenxin's cooking skills were extraordinary, no less than the chef of Taibai Restaurant. They took a bite, the mutton was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and the mutton was fresh and salty. A unique barbecue flavor spread in the mouth, making people feel as if their tongues were melting!
How could two lamb legs be enough for fifteen people? Fortunately, Wenxin seemed to have a lot of food in his backpack, so he took out four large pheasants and roasted them. Everyone ate so much that they burped. Even a few girls covered their stomachs and groaned, "I'm so full, so full." Fortunately, Wenxin was not a real chef, otherwise the girls would have complained that he had gained another two pounds.
After eating, everyone was in high spirits, because the depression caused by taking the wrong road was also reduced a lot. Bu San continued his work, and soon he repaired all the equipment on everyone. Especially Wen Xin, he hadn't been back to the city for two days, and his equipment was already in tatters. Before he met us, he didn't dare to fight monsters. However, when I asked him if he needed to change his weapon because his axe couldn't be repaired, he said proudly: "No, my axe has the property of automatic recovery of 5% for a long time..."
Hmm, auto-recovery after long-lasting use? Wow, this is usually a property only available to Holy Spirit equipment. Judging from his axe, it should be a dark gold equipment, so it must be the best among dark gold equipment. With this property, the durability will automatically recover by 5% every hour. As long as it is not used too frequently, there will be no problem of breaking. It is perfect for operations like ours where we need to stop from time to time to explore the way and dismantle traps.
At this time, Lao Zhou's potion was also produced, which was enough to replenish our consumption.
Everything was in place, but we had no idea how to choose the right path, so we had to rely on luck. This time, we entered from a different intersection than the one marked by the stone.
We kept wandering in the maze until after 6:00 in the morning, when we finally ran into another armored general. This time we had experience, so we followed the instructions. Everyone clearly defined their own tasks, and we resolved the battle with a little more ease than last time.
This general was indeed guarding a teleportation array, but no one was sure whether it was true or not. However, they had to give it a try anyway.
Just as everyone was about to step into the formation, Wan Xing suddenly said thoughtfully, "I think we are on the right track this time. This teleportation formation is the correct path."
"Why do you think so?" I asked.
"Look, the pattern on the center of the formation is exactly the same in shape, but the last one was red, and this time it's green."
Sure enough, there was a fist-sized green rune on Wanxing's finger, but I didn't notice whether the teleportation array last time had the same pattern, and I couldn't remember whether it was red or green. Girls may be more attentive!
Hehe, now that Wanxing pointed this out, I can figure it out with my knees. Red means stop and green means go. The probability that this teleportation array can correctly send us to the second floor of the maze is more than 90%.
In this case, what is there to hesitate about? Everyone walked into the formation, and the same white light flashed, and the same blackness appeared in front of our eyes. However, when we saw the surrounding scenery clearly, we immediately knew that we were indeed on the right path.
We are surrounded by a group of silver-armored guards!
According to the guide, Silver Armored Guards are a type of fourth-level soldier that can only be found on the second level of the Imperial Mausoleum Maze, and they have extremely strong combat power!
If we are well prepared, we won't be afraid. No matter how strong it is, it is just an ordinary monster. It can't be stronger than the Ironclad General, right? However, we have just been teleported out, the formation is messy, and there is no coordination at all!
Seeing the guards raising their silver swords, how many of our team members could survive this array of swords? Except for me, Wenxin, Jimo, Hanjiang, Shizhongyu, and Awei, I'm afraid the whole army will be wiped out? Is our trip to the imperial mausoleum only going to end here?
Suddenly, in the flashing silver light, a burst of dazzling golden light burst out!
It was bad, he used the Golden Roc Spreading Wings, but he didn’t aim at one target, but shot in all directions!
Golden light was like rain, and every guard around was hit by several bullets. The impact made them pause slightly. In just one or two seconds, several experienced people had already positions. The soldiers rushed to the periphery, and everyone ignored their own safety and tried to resist as many guards as possible. Although four or five guards still rushed close to the mage and his men, the situation was much better.
However, a scream was heard in the team, and a white light slowly floated up into the air. Someone was killed!
Without looking back, I knew it must be a bad guy. He used Golden Roc Spreading Wings in that situation, and the consequence was that he would definitely die, because after using this move, HP and MP would be instantly consumed by 4/5, and he could not replenish HP within 10 seconds! The guards who rushed over were attracted by his attack, and at least half of their attacks would be aimed at him!
Bad... He must have calculated all this long ago. He deliberately sacrificed himself in exchange for more chances for his teammates to survive!
I was filled with resentment, and with a long howl, I stabbed out with the magic spear wildly, forcing the four guards in front of me back two meters!
Everyone shared a common hatred for the enemy. The warriors tried their best to fight. Fatty, Crystal, Bird and Stone, regardless of the fact that they were low-health professions, almost attacked the five guards in the inner circle, hoping to kill them as soon as possible so that they could help us.
After a thrilling fight, the situation finally stabilized. We fought while moving towards the center and gradually formed a complete battle formation. Fatty and his men finally killed the five guards inside and were able to free their hands to attack outward.
Finally, after annihilating this group of silver-armored guards, each of us was sweating profusely. We were so nervous just now!
Alas, this Emperor's Mausoleum is really full of dangers and crises. As soon as we entered the second floor of the maze, we lost a brother. Moreover, I must reflect on myself. As a captain, I didn't consider it carefully enough. I knew that the second floor must be more dangerous than the first floor. Why didn't I divide the personnel into two groups, with the warriors coming first, and the mages and other professions a little slower, and the auxiliary professions should wait until there is no danger before sending them, so that the bad guys will definitely not be sacrificed. In the past online games, this is common sense. I, an old bird, actually made such a low-level mistake!
However, veteran players like Ji Mo and Han Jiang did not think of this. Maybe it was because we were getting impatient and too anxious after walking through the maze?
However, it is useless to regret now. Now that we have come to this point, we have no choice but to keep going. Even if we want to give up, we can't find the way back to the entrance of the maze, let alone use the return scroll. Either we all die here, or we successfully obtain the military seal and break out of the imperial tomb!
He continued to move forward, but after taking only two steps, Wanxing called a halt, then walked forward, examined it carefully for a while, and then drew on the ground with a dagger.
Wanxing turned around and said with a hint of apology: "There is a very dangerous mechanism ahead, but my level of mechanical skills is not high enough. Although I have found it, I cannot dismantle it. I have marked it. You must not touch the places I have marked. If you are careful, you should be able to get through it."
We followed closely behind Evening Star and carefully crossed this dangerous area.
The density of traps and monsters on the second floor was much higher than that on the first floor. We had to stop almost every thirty to fifty steps, either to fight a battle or to wait for Wanxing to clear the traps. Moreover, two-thirds of them could not be removed by Wanxing. Although she could lead us through, it was also very dangerous. If a team member accidentally triggered a trap, the entire team would be in danger of being wiped out.
When the fifth-level silver-armored guards appeared, I began to regret this trip to the imperial mausoleum. Maybe I should have waited another week to come back when I was more prepared, at a higher level, and with more manpower. Each of these guys was almost as strong as a wolf king. With my strength, it was very difficult to pick three of them, and the rest of the team members could only fight one-on-one at best. But they appeared in numbers of more than 10 at a time, and we could only barely win thanks to the advantage of overall coordination. Every battle was extremely difficult, and we almost suffered casualties several times.
Fortunately, there are only these two types of monsters on the second floor, and there will be no more level 6 soldiers. But I'm not sure if I can hold on to the end, it all depends on luck.
Wanxing discovered another trap and is trying to dismantle it...
Suddenly, she screamed, "Oh no!"
Before I could figure out what she meant, I heard a loud "boom" above my head. Looking up, I saw an enormous square stone falling right towards the evening star!
Wanxing was so frightened that she even forgot to dodge, although she might not be able to avoid it given the speed at which the boulder was falling.
In order to protect Wanxing's safety while she was dismantling the trap, Wenxin and I were standing about three meters behind her. We could have escape the crushing range of the boulder by just jumping backwards, but we didn't think twice and rushed forward at the same time, pushed our hands upwards with all our strength, and held up the boulder!
I felt an extremely heavy pressure on my hands, and my chest felt tight and I almost vomited blood. To use a phrase from martial arts novels: I have internal injuries!
There was a "creaking" sound from my knees, which made my teeth ache, and my feet were pressed more than a foot deep into the stone slabs on the ground. My height was almost level with my heart!
The physical discomfort is nothing, but the terrible thing is that Wenxin and I's HP is rapidly decreasing, losing 200 points of blood per second, but we can't spare the hands to take medicine (you have to take medicine yourself, no one else can feed it to you)!
My favorite fish eater noticed that something was wrong and tried desperately to cast enhanced healing spells on us, but the effect of the enhanced healing spells was only +150 HP points per second. Our lives continued to decrease. Even with the extra health of Wenxin and I, we could only last for more than half a minute at most!
Wanxing recovered from his shock and said urgently, "Quick! Everyone, rush over ! The passage will be blocked if the boulder falls, and we won't be able to move forward!"
Everyone was shocked and quickly seized the short time that Wenxin and I had bought for them, and rushed under the boulder.
But even if they could get through, how could Wenxin and I escape? As soon as we let go, the boulder would fall down and smash us into pulp!
Liu Badao, the last one to pass the boulder, stopped beside us and said quickly: "You, go over, I'll do it!"
I looked at his determined eyes and immediately understood his intention: he sacrificed himself in exchange for the chance for me and Wenxin to escape danger. After all, he was the member with the least contribution in the team, and it wouldn't make much difference whether he was there or not. But if Wenxin and I, the two first-line meat shields, were gone, we might as well rush into the monster group and commit suicide immediately, since there would be absolutely no hope of moving forward anyway.
But Wenxin was still confused and pretending to be a hero, shouting, "I'll hold on, you guys go!"
Damn it, there was no time to explain to Wenxin, Badao had already reached out to hold the boulder, his HP began to drop rapidly, and at his level, even with the fish healing him, he could not last more than 10 seconds.
I kicked Wenxin on the butt and kicked him away. At the same time, I crouched down and shot forward like an arrow!
Looking back, Tyrant Blade was still standing like an iron tower, and Fish Lover, even though he knew it was meaningless, still kept casting healing spells on him...
But Badao's HP eventually dropped to 0. A smile appeared on his face, and his body fell down with a bang. The boulder smashed down with a "bang", pressing his body underneath. Soon, white spots of light floated out from the gap between the boulder and the floor.
The second casualty appeared in the Imperial Mausoleum, and the scene was so tragic! The sacrifice of the bad guy happened suddenly. Although everyone was sad, they would not feel too much. However, Ba Dao used his own death in exchange for the lives of his teammates in front of everyone. How could everyone not feel anything? Fei Niao and Wan Xing even sobbed.
I am no less sad than anyone else, because my life was saved by Ba Dao! However, I am the captain, I cannot show my excitement in words, I still have to lead everyone to move forward and try my best to complete the mission, so as not to let down Ba Dao and Huai Huai's sacrifice!
