Genius Chapter 10: Was he directionally challenged? Couldn’t even run away properly?

Chapter 10: Was he directionally challenged? Couldn’t even run away properly?

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

ScarletFruit leaned forward and shouted, “Let’s open the box and see what’s inside.”

The Daoist priest happened to be standing in front of the box. “Could it be that we’re really going to encounter a level boss?”

ScarletFruit walked over with a calm expression. “No, although these kinds of boxes usually contain trash, occasionally they yield good materials. Summoner, would you like to open it? This box might even contain Evergreen Wood.”

Su Mo’s gaze flickered slightly; this ScarletFruit was deliberately trying to butter him up. Keeping his expression neutral, he asked naturally, “Just open it directly?”

The swordsman waved his hand casually. “Boss, feel free to open it.”

The box was about knee-high, with a very rustic design. Su Mo had just opened the box when a flash of red light swept past, extremely glaring in the predominantly black and white dungeon environment.

[Congratulations, player, for triggering the Guardian Deity [Stone Warden]]

Su Mo blinked.

Swordsman: “…”

ScarletFruit exclaimed, “Damn it!”

The Daoist priest stood still in shock, watching as the red light transformed into a giant stone monster towering above. “Wow, did we trigger some hidden boss? We encountered a Guardian Deity!”

ScarletFruit muttered, “This is bad.”

Su Mo was puzzled and asked, “What?”

Daoist priest: “Why?”

The swordsman stepped back nervously. “Sister, what kind of Guardian Deity is this? Isn’t this the rumored de-leveling monster?!”

The Guardian Deity boss wasalso known as the de-leveling boss in the Celestial Horizon game.

Based on the dungeon, this special boss inherited the basic skills of the original dungeon boss but had its overall stats increased to 120%. In short, it was tough to defeat, and upon death, players would lose levels, making it a nightmare for ordinary players.

Su Mo looked up at the colossal creature, several times larger than the previous boss. Aside from everything else, just its appearance alone was several times cooler than before, with its own red glow, and its color scheme completely different from the dungeon environment.

The swordsman exclaimed, “This is bad! How are the four of us supposed to fight it?”

“Stay optimistic,” ScarletFruit’s complexion slightly worsened. “At most, we’ll only lose two levels. We can leave after dying twice.”

The Daoist priest’s sister asked in confusion, “Didn’t they say if you can’t defeat it, you won’t be allowed to leave?”

“It’s not exactly like that. Wouldn’t that mean players who haven’t defeated it would be stuck here forever?” The swordsman explained, “This type of boss must be defeated. If you can’t beat it, after dying twice, you’ll be ejected from the dungeon. The de-leveling mechanism of the boss is based on the number of deaths, not a percentage of experience loss. You lose one level per death, so as I said earlier, either we defeat it or we lose two levels.”

Dying in the wilderness results in a fixed percentage of experience loss, 30% of the current level’s experience. However, the de-leveling mechanism inside the dungeon, with the Guardian Deity, was extremely unreasonable; dying once resulted in losing one level. High-level dungeons often spawned Guardian Deities, and a group of people dying twice would emerge, setting foot on the path of leveling up the next day.

Su Mo paused at the words. “Does this boss drop rewards then?”

“Provided we can clear it, and the rewards are random, with a high chance of getting trash in lower-level dungeons,” ScarletFruit said. “According to official data, the probability of encountering this kind of boss is 0.1%, and Celestial Horizon has been online for so long without any player triggering the de-leveling boss from this dungeon. And I’m wearing all lucky gear, so our chances of encountering this boss should be even lower than 0.1%. This is outrageous; how could the four of us encountered a Guardian Deity?”

In the end, this was a thankless boss. After saying this, among the group of four, three of them felt disheartened. After painstakingly leveling up for half a day, dying and returning to liberation in the dungeon was unbearable for anyone.

“Let’s give it a try; we might as well fight it instead of doing nothing. Summoner, you’ll still be the one to take on the monster,” ScarletFruit decided to give it a shot. “Momo, are you okay with this?”

Su Mo was suddenly called out, and his hand on the operation system panel paused. “I’ve never fought a Stone Warden before.”

The swordsman hastily said, “None of us have. Boss, your monster pulling just now was good; it’s all up to you!”

Su Mo nodded. “Then wait a moment; let me change into my two new pieces of equipment.”

The two pieces of equipment he had just obtained were perfect for the situation. With them on, fighting should be smoother. After changing his equipment, he suddenly thought of something and looked at the Daoist priest beside him. “Oh, by the way, what plug-in were you talking about earlier?”

Daoist priest: “Huh? Do you mean the damage reminder plug-in?”

Su Mo didn’t know what plug-in it was, so he simply said, “The one you’re using.”

The Daoist priest’s sister realized, “That’s an auxiliary plug-in used for dungeon runs. You have to download it. There’s an official plug-in recommendation in the system settings. My master said to download all the plug-ins; they’ll come in handy in the future.”

“Okay,” Su Mo followed her suggestion and found the plug-in location. “Thank you.”

The Daoist priest was pleasantly surprised. “You’re welcome!”

The swordsman: “?”

ScarletFruit was dumbfounded and blurted out, “Wait a minute, brother, you didn’t use the plug-in when you were pulling monsters just now!? Fuck, how did you avoid damage then?”

“Before the boss uses its ultimate skill, there will be a status reminder and a facing action,” Su Mo glanced at the other plug-ins and finally downloaded the damage reminder. He then casually closed the system panel. “I relied on that to dodge.”

ScarletFruit was stunned. “Even when pulling monsters?”

Su Mo: “The boss has a skill range, and my position overlaps with the small skill range it uses. By careful observation, it’s not hard to predict.”

ScarletFruit: “…And you interrupted the boss’s casting at the end?”

“I saw that the swordsman had a skill for interrupting, so I tried using Solitary Wolf’s stun. It failed about five or six times, but the last time it worked,” Su Mo looked at them puzzled. “What’s wrong? Is there a problem?”

The swordsman’s steps faltered. “No, I believe you really are a newbie.”

Su Mo glanced at the others and felt that players of holographic games seemed a bit easily startled. After he was ready, he looked at ScarletFruit and pointed to the colossal creature on the other side. “Did you just say that the Guardian Deity boss inherits the skills of the original boss? Does the damage range change?”

“No,” ScarletFruit snapped back to reality. “The boss’s skills will become more powerful, but the range won’t change.”

Su Mo nodded. “Should we try my method then?”

“What method?” ScarletFruit asked.

Su Mo released Soul Rabbit, moved slightly, glanced at the mini-map, and then said, “The coordinates should be approximately west 1030, south 140, with a possible deviation of 5-10. Try standing at these coordinates to output damage.”

The swordsman and the Daoist priest froze in place.

Su Mo asked, “Is there a problem?”

ScarletFruit replied, “…No.”

He looked at the map coordinates with a complex expression. “Wait for us for a moment; we need to check the coordinates.”

[System] Player ScarletFruit14, CheeseBoba, TimelessLove, and momo have alerted the Guardian Deity in Inked Landscape, and [Stone Warden] has descended into the wonders of Inked Landscape.

[Global] RestlessRover: Guardian Deity in Inked Landscape??

[Global] MidnightGale: This is too unlucky.

[Global] CleverLittleLily: Wait? Triggering the Guardian Deity shouldn’t cause a system announcement.

[Global] ExtraMischievousKid: The first triggering will cause a system announcement; it seems like it’s the first triggering of the Guardian Deity in the Inked Landscape dungeon.

Inside the dungeon, Su Mo touched the Myriad Palace Insight skill and a sudden flash of skill popped up.

[You have used [Myriad Palace Insight], gaining the positive attribute [Luck], lasting for 24 hours.]

Alright, he shouldn’t have any expectations for this skill.

The three people adjusted their coordinates and stood at the position indicated by momo, anxiously watching the person standing in front of the boss. The swordsman frowned, “I can’t output damage from this position; it’s beyond the range of my skills.”

Daoist priest: “This position is just right for me, but taking two steps will put me out of range.”

ScarletFruit looked at the healing skill glowing in the skill bar and then glanced at the range scale displayed in the auxiliary plug-in. This position happened to be the maximum healing distance, which couldn’t be so coincidental. How could that person fight?

After a while, the summoner standing under the boss’s feet pulled out a fishing rod.

Soul Rabbit dashed out, directly pulling the monster. The damage of the Stone Warden’s skill was much stronger than the original boss. The opening move directly took half of Soul Rabbit’s health, but the summoner calmly summoned Solitary Wolf and Zephyr Hawk, controlling the boss in an orderly manner with the same rhythm as before.

Daoist priest said, “I didn’t seem to lose health from that ultimate skill just now…”

Swordsman: “Me neither.”

ScarletFruit glanced at the two people beside him; he did lose health. He had moved forward after receiving healing just now. This coordinate position was too remote, almost cutting off the melee profession’s ability to output damage but maximizing the ranged profession’s output. When they were fighting earlier, he noticed that the summoner had been hovering around this vicinity. He originally thought the summoner was afraid of dying and stayed away, but now he realized that perhaps the summoner had already noticed the problem at that time.

If the main tank could position the boss well, this place would be a blind spot for the boss’s skills. The Stone Warden’s health continued to decrease slowly, but unprecedentedly steadily. Although the summoner’s health had been unhealthy, his skill of stunning and interrupting skills had a success rate of 70%, coupled with stable monster pulling, reducing ScarletFruit’s healing pressure significantly.

This summoner was so flexible and especially strong. ScarletFruit, who had been playing Spirit Sanctuary healing for so long, encountered such a special summoner for the first time.

When the Stone Warden’s health reached 50%, it triggered its ultimate skill, causing damage across the screen.

“Be careful!” ScarletFruit couldn’t help but shout.

The summoner took a step forward, directly leaping over the center of the boss’s ultimate skill, leaving only 2% of his health bar. ScarletFruit was shocked, thinking the summoner was done for, but he unexpectedly managed to dodge it.

“Heal me,” Su Mo said. “We should be able to make it; don’t panic.”

ScarletFruit calmed down and stabilized the healing. Finally, after about 20 minutes of grinding, with the summoner hanging on with only 1% of his health bar left, the Stone Warden boss was successfully defeated.

Daoist priest’s sister was stunned. “Did we pass? Is it that simple?”

The swordsman was even more bewildered. “You guys are too strong. I only have one ranged skill, I didn’t expect us to beat this.”

Su Mo stood in place, breathing slightly harder. In the days he had been playing Celestial Horizon, this was the first time he had focused so much on defeating a boss. And this was different from his usual terminal gaming; it required both physical and mental effort. In his memory, he hadn’t experienced such intense physical activity for many years.

Normally, he wasn’t accustomed to high-intensity physical activity, and even during his regular exercise, he was only allowed to engage in moderate activities. But at this moment, he felt extremely energized mentally, and the physical strain from the high-intensity exercise seemed completely absent. As the boss died, he felt a sense of relaxation after leaving combat—a feeling of exhilaration that he had never experienced before and couldn’t quite describe.

So this was what it felt like to play holographic games… Su Mo stretched out his hand, feeling a bit fond of this sensation.

“Boss!” Daoist priest sister’s voice suddenly rang out. “Quick, open the chests!”

Su Mo snapped out of his reverie, realizing with their reminder that there were two extra chests in his inventory.

“This is the first clear reward for Stone Warden in Inked Landscape. In addition to the regular rewards, there’s also a first clear reward,” ScarletFruit explained.

Su Mo opened the chests, and the system popped up a notification:

[Congratulations on obtaining [Evergreen Wood], [Dragon Spring Water], [Spirit Flower Water], [Basic Beast Trap]]

[Congratulations on clearing Stone Warden for the first time and obtaining the special reward [Crimson Venom Core]]

He was a bit surprised; it seemed like the Myriad Palace Insight skill wasn’t entirely useless.

“This first clear reward is really good! I got a high-level beast trap!” the swordsman exclaimed.

Daoist priest’s sister was excited. “I got a purple weapon, usable at level 40, with great stats. Boss, what did you get?”

“An item, I don’t understand,” Su Mo posted [Crimson Venom Core] in the channel. This item had no description and was also untradeable, leaving everyone puzzled.

The swordsman scratched his head. “It seems quite valuable, better keep it.”

“Yeah,” Su Mo was already satisfied. At least he got a special item to upgrade the Soul Rabbit skill, saving him quite a bit of money.

At this moment, ScarletFruit, who was standing a bit farther away, remained silent. Taking advantage of everyone’s inattention, he quickly ran to the NPC for exiting the dungeon and disappeared with a swift step, transferring the dungeon leader’s authority to the Daoist priest.

Daoist priest, noticing this, said, “Ah? There are still some items in the bags that haven’t been distributed yet. Why did the leader leave?”

Su Mo arranged the remaining items and looked at the two teammates who were looking confused. “Oh, he took two special items; he probably ran off with the loot, right?”

The swordsman: “???”

***

Outside the dungeon, ScarletFruit was enthusiastically fleeing. In the next lower-level Inked Landscape challenge dungeon, he unexpectedly encountered a Guardian Deity and even cleared it for the first time. Coupled with the materials he obtained earlier, he made three to four hundred gold from this dungeon run. What a windfall!

At this moment, there were only five or six people outside the dungeon. ScarletFruit ran to the base of a tree near the dungeon entrance, intending to teleport back to the city. But before he could stabilize himself, a spell suddenly descended from the sky, and a Daoist priest, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, cast an immobilizing spell on him.

“Hold him down, don’t let him escape!”

“Damn, just kicked me, really asking for it.”

ScarletFruit tilted his head and saw a warrior not far from the dungeon entrance, with the ID “EverFaithful” hovering above his head. It was the same warrior he had kicked out earlier for being deceitful.

“…What grudge does he hold? Can’t handle a joke? He’s actually camping at the entrance!”

Beside the warrior stood several individuals, one of whom was a high-level swordsman with a conspicuously yellow emblem, indicating he was from the Eternal Flame guild. Seeing this, the swordsman sneered, “Then just kill him; I’m in the mood to vent some anger. Let’s take him down a few levels first.”

“He just cleared the Stone Warden for the first time; he must have materials on him. Let’s loot him.”

“That works; just don’t let him escape.”

ScarletFruit sighed inwardly. Damn, this warrior actually knows people from Eternal Flame.

“Boss, he’s getting away!” The warrior noticed ScarletFruit breaking free from the immobilization spell and running off.

“Chase him!”

With no other choice, ScarletFruit could only run towards the direction of the Inked Landscape dungeon. After running for a bit, he saw three people coming out of the dungeon. Spotting the summoner among them, he hastily shouted, “Help… help meeee!!”

Su Mo glanced sideways upon hearing the commotion, surprised to see ScarletFruit sprinting towards them with a panicked expression. “Is he directionally challenged? Can’t even run away properly?”

Daoist priest sister weakly remarked, “Boss, I think I heard him shouting for help.”

Author’s note:

Su Mo: Oh, I don’t really feel like rescuing him.