Genius Chapter 114: Hungry Boss

Chapter 114: Hungry Boss

Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

Everything happened too suddenly. In an instant, they lost their only healer. The team fell into a brief silence, everyone still in shock. At that moment, the commander decisively spoke up, “ScarletFruit, retreat now! Everyone, back to the cave, quickly!”

“Use potions, don’t die! ChatMasterWu, lead the fish monster away!”

The summoner’s summoned beasts all descended at this critical moment. The summoned bear immediately grabbed aggro, while the Zephyr Hawk used its slowing skill to buy time for the fleeing group. The six of them turned and ran, with no more team order in place. Speed-enhancing skills and damage reduction skills were used one after another…

In a life-and-death sprint, they squeezed into the cracks of the cave. The next moment, the boss’s tentacles attacked directly, forcing them to move further inside until they reached the safety of the corridor.

And at that moment, all six of them were almost on their last legs. ChatMasterWu, who had been pulling monsters, was the worst off, hanging on with just 1% health, nearly dying outside the cave. Everyone looked at each other in dismay, having lost their healer, feeling utterly vulnerable.

“Don’t use any mana-recovering potions or skills. Wait until daylight,” Su Mo observed the surroundings. There were about 5 minutes until dawn. They had already identified five of the boss’s mechanics, but one challenge remained: understanding the boss’s defensive mechanism.

Although the boss in their current mission scene wasn’t particularly tough, with their combined efforts, they could slowly chip away at its health. However, that didn’t solve the problem.

After a brief silence, the summoner asked, “Did anyone bring ScarletFruit inside?”

“This place is far from the Vicinity channel. Even if ScarletFruit shouted, it wouldn’t have helped. They died outside,” ClearWind replied.

“It’s not that we’re heartless, it was just a matter of survival. We didn’t have time to save anyone,” ChatMasterWu said.

“What are we going to do now? Without our healer, we can’t go head-to-head with the boss,” ZenSlasher lamented.

“Enough,” ClearWind sighed. “Apple said he’s muted.”

“When ScarletFruit went out to tank the explosion, someone should have used a defensive skill to protect him,” Su Mo continued, “We have our own issues as well, which I overlooked. Later, when it’s daylight, we’ll retrieve ScarletFruit’s body and then figure out another plan.”

At this point, that was all they could do. A healer with such low tolerance wasn’t suitable for a 5-star difficulty level. Perhaps by daylight, they could use the resurrection scrolls from their inventory.

“The healing capacity is clearly insufficient. The damage skills are too high. In a ten-person team, having just two healers is insufficient. The game mechanics shouldn’t be this difficult,” the summoner remarked.

“Yeah, boss’s attacks leave very few safe spots. Even if we try to hide in them, without healing, a couple of hits from its tentacles would be fatal. Currently, we’ve only brought its health down to around 80%. With this level of healing, it’s going to be really difficult later on,” ClearWind said. “If we had kept Honey-roasted Goose with us from the beginning, maybe we could have cleared this with more strength.”

In the blink of an eye, daylight arrived, and the attacks from outside ceased.

Several of them hurried out and found the boss’s health remained at 82%, unaffected by their retreat into the cave. The aggro was still on the summoned bear, and ScarletFruit’s body wasn’t far. As soon as he noticed the daylight team channel was available, he started speaking, “Finally, you guys are out. I went through a nightmare. Those fish monsters stepped on my body and even touched me!!! And this main brain has issues, disabling team channels and email channels at night, and even setting it so that you can’t type after death. Doesn’t it know how pitiful it is for someone to die alone outside, exposed to wind and rain, and being stepped on by monsters?”

“Can you use your resurrection scrolls?” Su Mo asked.

“No, I’ve tried several times. They’re not locked, but I can’t use them,” ScarletFruit replied.

During the night, their resurrection elixirs and scrolls were disabled, and they were locked out during that time. Although the elixirs and scrolls weren’t locked during the day, they still couldn’t use them. This clearly indicated a detail: there might be another solution during the day to revive ScarletFruit.

“The boss can’t be disengaged. Little Bear and I will stay here to study the boss with ScarletFruit. The rest of you leave the forest and go to the village. Look for any other clues, especially related to resurrection. Notify us immediately if there’s any lead,” Su Mo instructed. “Hurry, we don’t have much time. Remember to return before nightfall.”

ZenSlasher and ChatMasterWu were familiar with the route outside, and they quickly departed with ClearWind and Apple. After the others left, Su Mo compiled the descriptions of the boss’s five mechanism skills into a text message and sent them to Yu Zhen. Then, using the prominent rocks on the hillside, Su Mo jumped onto the boss and attempted a few strikes. Not only did the boss not lose any health, but it also gained a status called “[Blessing of Dormancy].”

During this testing period, Yu Zhen sent a voice message explaining the current status of the Global situation to Momo. They utilized the daytime to move the boss to the coastal area near the fishing village in Vicinity. During nighttime, players in the seawater were not attacked by the boss. However, in contrast, the boss’s attacks in the seawater were more ferocious, even randomly targeting players, resulting in significant losses.

The only advantage was that this boss’s progress was shared across the entire server, with various branch players’ attacks aggregated together. From the current situation, the combat power of players across the server was quite sufficient. The problem lay in how to break through its defense mechanism.

“The boss is mobile. During this nighttime period, it has moved away from the sea and continues to advance. Players are scattered and gathering. From the current situation, it seems it will continue to move closer to the inland, likely aiming for the resource base outside Sunset City,” Yu Zhen explained. “During daytime, our attacks basically do not affect its health. At night, its health decreases very slowly. Now, after two nights, its health is still at 90%. At this rate, it will become increasingly difficult to defeat as time goes on.”

Su Mo frowned and continued to climb up. He reached behind the boss. In the darkness, he couldn’t see clearly before, but now upon closer inspection, he noticed strange patterns on the boss’s body, resembling bizarrely shaped characters.

“In terms of defense mechanisms, have you made any new discoveries?” Yu Zhen asked.

“There’s a status called ‘Blessing of Dormancy.’ When the boss enters dormancy, its defense increases to the extreme, rendering external attacks ineffective,” Su Mo explained. “That’s probably why attacks during the day are futile. You probably won’t be able to defeat it now. CloudTraveller mentioned something about mana that might offer another solution. I’ll continue to investigate what exactly ‘Blessing of Dormancy’ entails.”

The two interrupted their voice chat. As Su Mo returned his attention, he noticed the silence within the team.

ScarletFruit asked, “Hey bro, finished chatting with Brother Wanderer?”

Su Mo just realized he hadn’t closed the team voice chat earlier. “Yeah, Little Bear, see if you can tug the boss’s tentacles and move it to the left.”

Little Bear immediately got to work. The boss was massive, but the warrior wasn’t heavily specced in stamina and strength, managing to move it slightly. “It’s slow to budge. It’s stuck on something next to it.”

Su Mo paused for a moment and brought up the in-game drawing board. “Then try pulling it straight.”

From the same perspective, ScarletFruit watched for a long while. “Bro, what are you doing?”

“The patterns on its body are a bit peculiar,” Su Mo quickly sketched out the pattern on one of the tentacles and then jumped to the other side.

ScarletFruit was surprised. “Huh? Isn’t that just its skin? That’s what the forums say. The skin of big bosses is all fancy, the more intricate, the more it shows its style.”

ClearWind, who had already descended to the fishing village, agreed deeply upon hearing this. “Exactly, especially humanoid bosses. Many people on the forums are urging the devs to strip them naked for fashion items.”

ZenSlasher teased, “You wanna wear octopus skin?”

ClearWind chuckled. “I’m just giving an example.”

The team chatted casually, one comment after another, after ScarletFruit died and was bored, unable to move, only able to chat as a newbie in voice chat. Su Mo and Little Bear worked together, circling around the mountain. The boss had a total of eight tentacles, with patterns varying in depth from top to bottom. It took them over twenty minutes to record all the patterns.

“By the way, that status, ‘Blessing of Dormancy,’ does it only happen when it’s sleeping?” ScarletFruit suddenly wondered. “Can’t we prevent it from sleeping? If it doesn’t sleep, then it wouldn’t be considered dormant, right?”

Apple, who had been silent with switched off mic for a long time, couldn’t help but say, “Fruit, your attention to detail really is something.”

ScarletFruit replied, “I’m just stating the facts. The description of the status says the boss receives divine protection when it enters dormancy. So, if the boss doesn’t enter dormancy, it wouldn’t have protection.”

Su Mo looked at the drawing board and pondered for a moment upon hearing this. “That’s actually a thought. Think of a way to wake it up.”

Upon hearing this, ScarletFruit deflated, “I’m just a little healer lying on the floor.”

“Oh,” Su Mo casually responded, not saying anything further.

ScarletFruit suddenly felt uneasy, “Bro, it’s not a good habit to stop halfway through a conversation.”

Little Bear noticed Su Mo’s unusual expression. He came down from the high slope and walked up to Su Mo. “So, any ideas about these patterns?”

ClearWind interjected, “Huh? There are really characters carved on its skin?”

“Yes,” Su Mo displayed the assembled drawing board in the team channel. Everyone could see the intersecting lines on the image, with lines of varying lengths, some jagged, some curved, and some just straight. Without careful examination, it was difficult to discern any text.

ChatMasterWu said frankly, “Honestly, my literacy level isn’t high. I don’t understand.”

ZenSlasher looked at it for a while, “It seems like there are characters, but also seems like there aren’t. Is it some kind of ancient script?”

“It’s normal not to understand, because within these assembled patterns, there are many mixed lines. Among all these lines, there’s actually only one hidden character,” Su Mo wiped away some unnecessary lines with his hand. Gradually, a clear ancient Chinese character appeared in front of everyone.

“Oh, I saw this character last time I was browsing StarNet. There was a literary blogger who did a popular science post about it. This character means ‘hungry,'” ClearWind quickly recognized it. “Does it mean hungry?”

“Yeah, just the character for ‘hungry,'” Su Mo glanced towards the boss sleeping on top. “It’s probably just hungry.”

Apple pondered, “Hungry for what? Mana? Hasn’t it been constantly targeting mana?”

“Didn’t we say before that the Global boss ate the Fruit Alliance’s base and even healed?” ScarletFruit suddenly remembered. “Ah? Doesn’t this mean that the boss is very hungry and likes to eat mana?”

ChatMasterWu couldn’t quite grasp it. “Isn’t this something we already knew? It attacks us because it likes mana.”

ClearWind added, “Is that so? Can we tempt it with some mana potions?”

“You’re silly, feeding it will make it stronger, won’t it? Look outside, even drinking water can heal it!” Apple retorted.

“Can we poison it with mana potions? Poison it to death?” ScarletFruit asked.

ChatMasterWu said, “Does Celestial Horizon have that kind of poison? The kind that can kill the boss.”

Small Bear Biscuit replied, “You’re overthinking it; an alchemist can’t make that.”

This information seemed useless, but it actually opened up a certain line of thinking.

Su Mo pondered for a moment. This information could actually be used to deduce the boss’s behavior and motives. It attacked players because it was hungry, it seized strongholds because it was hungry, and the mana-related resources and materials it seized could heal it…

No, the information was not enough.

They entered the scene, the fisherman took them to the yard, they were drugged, sacrificed as offerings, human bone cavern… the differences inside and outside the boss.

“I understand,” Su Mo suddenly said.

The team members, who were still discussing poisoning the boss, stopped when they heard this. ScarletFruit, shocked, asked, “Bro, did you figure out how to make the poison?”

Su Mo was speechless.

“Not making poison, but understanding the boss’s defense mechanism.” He cleared the drawing board and wrote his thoughts on it again, “There’s a line of thinking that the boss’s defense and attack power getting stronger might be related to it being fed. What we know is that it’s very hungry. When it comes ashore, its first target is to look for mana-rich materials or players, not its aggro target. After successfully consuming mana, its overall attributes should change, most notably its defense and attack power. The most obvious evidence of this is the boss’s health bar inside and outside. Outside, after fighting for two full days with so many players attacking, it only lost 10% of its health. But in our mission scenario, seven people managed to take down 20% of its health in two hours.”

“The possible reason for the boss’s higher defense outside is that it has already been fed. However, the boss in the mission scenario has not been fed.”

Upon hearing this, Apple frowned, “But that doesn’t make sense. It only ate the stronghold from our group. Even before it consumed the stronghold’s resources, it was already very tough.”

“You’re misunderstanding. Its targets for empowerment aren’t limited to base resources; it involves more players outside,” Su Mo explained. “Just think about the bone cave we just encountered. Those were once sacrifices offered to the boss. You have to realize, after death, we respawn with empty mana. Normally, in usual scenarios, it’s normal to have empty mana after death. But imagine in a battle with the Lord of the Deep Sea, if every death gives the boss a bit more strength from the mana, and with so many players outside, they’re essentially a continuous source of power for the boss.”

Therefore, the high defense of the boss outside is likely due to the large number of player deaths, which have fattened up the boss. Inside their team, it was easier to deal damage because they only had seven people, and the boss’s energy was depleting. They didn’t experience large-scale deaths in their group, so in their scenario, the boss’s defense decreased as they fought.

Suddenly, ZenSlasher remembered, “Yes, at the beginning, we were dealing damage to it very slowly, but later on, the damage definitely increased.” At the time, she thought it was due to the team’s coordinated efforts and increased output, but she hadn’t considered that it might be due to the boss’s lowered defense.

ChatMasterWu was shocked to hear this, “Then how do we fight this? There are so many people outside. How can you ensure that no one dies? Moreover, if we continue attacking the boss after losing the healer, won’t we just make it harder by feeding the boss?”

It was a complete deadlock. With the healer dead, how could they ensure their survival while defeating the boss? If this approach was correct, deaths would burden the team, and ScarletFruit had just died during the previous night. If another night came, it might be even more difficult to fight.

“Excuse me for interrupting,” ZenSlasher’s voice suddenly appeared on the channel, “I’ve found a clue. It seems like we can resurrect.”

ChatMasterWu and ClearWind were shocked to hear this news. They quickly followed the map to find ZenSlasher’s location.

ZenSlasher’s clue led them to a small fishing village, where an old man’s house held legends of resurrection.

This fishing village worshiped sea monsters, and most villagers engaged in dark practices, offering sacrifices to the Lord of the Deep Sea in exchange for blessings. However, not all villagers were involved in such acts. Some were kind-hearted and did not participate in these evil deeds. ZenSlasher found an old man of this kind among them, who possessed a manual in his home.

For generations, the village had relied on fishing for sustenance, and the sea monster manual was a collection of mythical creatures depicted by generations of fishermen. Among these depictions was the Lord of the Deep Sea , but there was also another creature.

This creature was called the “Little Fortune Fish.” According to legend, if fishermen caught the Little Fortune Fish, it could bring them good luck.

The old man said that his cousin’s stepmother was seriously ill before unexpectedly encountering a Little Fortune Fish. After releasing it, she miraculously recovered from her illness.” ZenSlasher explained, “I think this might be a clue?”

“Blessing?” Su Mo pondered slightly at the words, indeed considering it as a lead.

“I’ve arrived too. What the old man said seems to be true. He also mentioned that the Little Fortune Fish is caught along the coastline in the hills behind,” ChatMasterWu said.

“Is it the legendary Wish Fish?!” ScarletFruit exclaimed in shock.

“I’m here now. ScarletFruit, wait for me to come and rescue you,” Apple said.

ScarletFruit was slightly touched, “Apple, for your hard work, I forgive you.”

“But the Little Fortune Fish is extremely rare. Even in hundreds of years, the small fishing village may not encounter it once. Do any of you have exceptionally good luck?” ZenSlasher added, pouring cold water on everyone, The others were speechless.

“Yeah, the luckiest one among us is currently lying on the ground,” ScarletFruit said. “Shouldn’t you guys carry my body over there?” 

ClearWind asked, “ZenSlasher, can you bring ScarletFruit over? Just a little bit each time. Oh, by the way, does anyone have bait? Give me two. I only have a fishing rod in my arsenal.”

“Who carries bait around for no reason? Occupies inventory,” ChatMasterWu joked.

Apple asked, “Is there a place in the village that sells bait?”

Receiving a piece of good news, but this news was more face-dependent than opening a treasure chest. Except for ScarletFruit, the luck of the others was only average to slightly above. Trying to find the Little Fortune Fish before nightfall was simply wishful thinking. Moreover, they now had a fishing rod but no bait. Even if they found a place selling bait in the small fishing village, time was running out!

“Should we still move ScarletFruit over there?” ZenSlasher asked.

The others fell silent.

At this moment, another reassuring voice came through the team channel. Su Mo’s voice was calm, “Send me the coordinates of the drop point. We still have time. We can make it.”

Author’s note: 

ClearWind recalled a distant memory: “I think my brother was the Fish King of Newbie Village.”