Genius Chapter 46: Clearing time

Chapter 46: Clearing time

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

Inside the dungeon, Su Mo and the others had already reduced the second boss’s health to 40%. The second boss was a high-attack magic creature, causing high damage but having thin skin. Overall, it was easier to defeat than the first boss, with more conventional skills.

The team maintained their original lineup. The main force of teams 2 and 3 received double care from the array master and cleric. The commander kept a close eye on the team’s battle data list, ensuring that everyone’s damage per second did not fall below the estimated value. They had to output with all their might. When the last group defeated the second boss, only 40 minutes had passed, more than 10 minutes faster than their previous speed.

At this point, the group moved toward the location of the final boss. Between the second and third bosses, there were nearly three waves of small monsters. Watermelon had to step up again, nervously pulling the monsters to one side, then awkwardly healing with minimal health, before running out again to lure more monsters.

“Oh, there are red envelopes in the guild chat.”

“I didn’t get any!”

“Guild master sent a lot!”

As he pulled the third wave of monsters, he heard the teammates discussing in the team voice chat. He felt a surge of bitterness. Why did he agree to help Apple’s team? There were assassins in the elite team with thicker health. If he had known, he would have recommended those assassins to come over!

The earliest to rise, the least to eat, enduring the hardest hits, doing the most tiring work. With so many monsters to lure, he even felt like the assassin was born to lure monsters.

While Watermelon was pulling monsters, Yu Zhen noticed that Momo’s expression was somewhat solemn. He walked over to him and asked, “What’s wrong?”

They entered a private chat channel.

“Full-mage lineup needs the double buffs from the array master and cleric to match the high damage per second of melee professions.” Su Mo opened the output statistics list and pulled out the damage per second column. “The start was too poor. Their damage per second only caught up with our expected value later on. At this rate, if we continue, we should be able to control the time for the third boss to around 1 hour and 10 minutes under skilled conditions.”

Yu Zhen asked, “Your ideal target?”

“The time for the Temple of the Gods is 1 hour and 15 minutes. If we follow this order, we should be able to do it, but it’s not stable enough.” Su Mo continued, “Since we invited the Zenith Expanse as reinforcements for the Temple of the Gods, just surpassing the current record is not enough. We need to achieve a result that they cannot surpass in a short time.”

Yu Zhen understood his idea. “One hour?”

“Yea,” Su Mo frowned slightly, “but their enthusiasm isn’t high enough. I doubt we can make it this time.”

The time gained by leveraging the advantages of luring monsters with a full-mage lineup could easily be dragged back by the mechanics of the third boss.

The third boss was also a magic creature, but it specialized in mid to long-range magical attacks, which meant that the advantages for melee professions were more pronounced. Being a magic creature implied lower physical defense, allowing physical swordsmen and assassins to demonstrate their output advantages more prominently. On the other hand, magic professions were constrained by higher magic defense and the demands of positioning for higher attacks, leading to a more passive role here.

This lineup had a high margin for error but demanded that the output meet certain standards. Their team’s output was sufficient; under ideal conditions, they could reach the first hour mark. However, since it was their first time cooperating, they were still adjusting while outputting. Achieving this level could only be considered decent, not excellent. In this regard, they had wasted a lot of time.

In the distance, Watermelon, having finished pulling the last wave of monsters, was running back in their direction.

But at this moment, Yu Zhen said, “Do you want to boost their enthusiasm? I have an idea. Why not give it a try?”

Upon hearing his suggestion, Su Mo’s eyes flickered slightly. “We might not make it this time. Let’s have them familiarize themselves with our strategy first.”

When Watermelon returned, there was hardly any time for rest. After he was back in good shape, the commander led them into the territory of the third boss.

Everyone in the team was familiar with the special mechanics of the third boss. The third boss, known as the False Mountain God, was a special demon boss occupying the town of Pear Blossom. It controlled the entire town with its abilities, enslaving the people and causing all the trouble. Even the first two bosses were under its control, becoming tools driven by it.

So its skills were also very evident. Apart from the conventional three ultimate skills of group attack and single-target attack, the most difficult points were its two special mechanisms: Abyssal Fear and Demon Power.

Abyssal Fear randomly targeted two people, stacking them with the fearful status. Players under the fearful status couldn’t use skills, and their defense became very weak. Generally, DPS and healing would be targeted, rather than the main tank, with the status lasting for 10 seconds.

The appearance of this skill could easily lead to situations where healing and output were interrupted. Moreover, the weak defense would make the feared players unable to withstand the boss’s damage, making the situation particularly severe.

Demon Power, like the demon power that previously controlled the people, caused by the False Mountain God summoning ten peasant minions within its attack range. These peasant minions were similar to those outside, but they existed for 20 seconds, and their entire area was their action range. The mechanism was the same; they couldn’t be killed. Killing them would lead to a challenge failure.

So when encountering this mechanism, since there were only ten of them, other than the main tank, everyone else in the team would switch targets to pull the monsters to the side to control their health. Some teams would even send off-tanks to pull the monsters, persisting for 20 seconds before returning.

After the fight started, the three team leaders quickly found their designated positions. Other team members followed suit, quickly familiarizing themselves with their positions and action ranges under Momo’s command.

Watermelon asked, “How do we handle Demon Power… Should I pull?”

Su Mo was somewhat surprised by this, “Alright, then it’s up to you.”

ScarletFruit exclaimed, “Bro, you’re so proactive!”

Watermelon felt a bit puzzled, sensing something was off, “It’s not that I’m just…”

“That’s great! My brother originally planned for me to pull, but now it’s perfect for you to take over.” ClearWind showed surprise, “Thanks, bro. I’ll work hard together with you.”

Other team members remained silent. Apple and StrawberryYogurt stayed silent. Watermelon was speechless, “I was just asking out of courtesy! Is this response polite?” 

“‘Ignorant mortals, thinking they can oppose me with their puny strength, come forth, my minions.'” The mountain god then recited the spell to summon the people. Watermelon glanced around, seeing that no one else moved, and even shrank back further. He had to quickly step forward, charging directly to the summoning site, drawing away all the little monsters’ hatred, and resignedly began to run laps.

Su Mo frowned slightly at the sight. “Watermelon, you’re pulling a bit off course, stay away from the crowd.”

Watermelon changed direction and ran further away, resignedly. “Sorry, it’s my first time pulling demon power.”

Before when fighting the third boss, he was always the main damage dealer, and pulling monsters was a job for off-tanks!

“No worries, you’ll learn.” Su Mo continued to command. “Others, watch his position, don’t let the pulled monsters get too close to the main group, so they don’t scatter their hatred.”

Others nodded in response, giving sympathetic glances towards Watermelon amidst their damage output.

The holographic game retained some sensation, so when attacked by monsters, there was a feeling, though not excessively realistic pain, but the sense of weakening was there, pulling monsters was indeed physically demanding work. The most crucial thing was experiencing being chased and the constant tense feeling of possibly losing one’s life.

Watermelon was speechless. “I really don’t want to learn!”

“Watch out for the Abyssal Terror, array master UnchainedWanderer, and cleric…” Su Mo was commanding when he suddenly paused, then continued, “Grape… FriedChicken is controlled, ScarletFruit, watch the health.”

After saying that, the commanding voice resumed, “…GrapeFriedChicken, is it grape-flavored fried chicken?”

The group fell silent. The cleric GrapeFriedChicken hesitated for a moment and weakly said, “…No, it’s just a simple ID.”

Upon hearing this, Su Mo said, “Oh.”

GrapeFriedChicken was speechless. Oh no, why did he feel like the commander was particularly interested in his name? He really didn’t want to be noticed by the commander!

In the following time, Su Mo’s attention was focused on the team’s positioning and the constantly fluctuating DPS statistics. Although there was some spare time, the team’s output rhythm briefly plateaued with slightly more time available, and the damage per second no longer soared but fluctuated between highs and lows.

The top position on the DPS meter was held by “UnchainedWanderer”, followed closely by “Apple” and “Strawberry yogurt”. Su Mo was in the fourth position, with a gap ahead and tight competition behind. The output could only be said to catch up with high-ranking competitive groups, but this output could probably be increased further.

The warrior’s positioning was fine, the healing rhythm was orderly, but the skill usage was not conservative enough. He assessed the situation of each team member one by one. Deaths only occurred twice, the health was safe, and the healing could handle the pressure after fear…

As time passed, the boss’s health dropped to about 40%, and suddenly all the team members heard the commander’s voice, “Everyone familiar with the mechanics and tactics, right?”

The team members looked bewildered. They were familiar, but was there something wrong?

A moment later, the commander completed the second half of the sentence, “Since there’s still time in the morning, let’s redo it.”

Before the team members could react, a prompt popped up in front of them: “The leader has abandoned the challenge.”

At the moment of leaving the dungeon, the commander continued speaking.

“To avoid wasting each other’s time, I just consulted with your manager, Apple. During the raid later, we’ll use DPS to rank, warriors and healers will be assessed based on damage taken and healing output, while DPS will be evaluated based on damage per second. The player with the highest DPS will receive a rare material as a reward, and the top three will receive gold rewards. Additional rewards may be given based on circumstances.”

Upon hearing this, the team members were suddenly energized. Rare materials!

“Except for physical swordsmen and assassins who don’t have additional damage reduction buffs, the player with the lowest DPS and whose DPS is lower than the group’s average…” Su Mo’s tone was very calm. “Won’t receive any additional rewards and will be ranked last as well as—Responsible for pulling demon power.”

The members were stunned.

“I’m now starting the team assembly, confirm if you’re ready.” The commander’s voice was calm, as if announcing a very ordinary arrangement. “If there are any objections, let’s address them now.”

Watermelon, however, was concerned about something else. “Wait… What about the previous wave of small monsters?”

Su Mo nodded. “Thank you for reminding me.”

***

The members of the [Fruit Platter] guild no longer saw any messages from Apple, who led the competitive raid team, in the group chat. The various managers who were originally spectating became even more nervous. After waiting for a long time, new information came—

“Have they come out?” the guild master asked.

One of the managers received the message. “Yes, they have.”

The guild master said, “Arrange a small group for me. I’ll give them red packets. It’s not easy to wake up early to raid, whether they pass or not, everyone has worked hard.”

The manager replied, “Boss, they’ve gone back in.”

The guild master asked, “?”

The manager explained, “They all seem quite spirited. I think we don’t need to worry too much.”

The guild master paused for a moment upon hearing this. “It’s not easy to wake up early to raid and still be so determined.”

“Youth is a wonderful thing.”

In the management group of the Temple of the Gods, LethalSlash looked at the guild dungeon speedrun leaderboard. Their position had not changed, and [Fruit Platter]’s guild was still in seventh place. He sneered and said, “Fruit is good at PvP, but why do they suck at PvE? Don’t they have quite a few people on the dungeon score leaderboard? How come they can only manage seventh place in a simple guild dungeon?”

Another manager said, “They’ve been helping Watermelon and Strawberry push the elite group rankings these past few days. I’ve been watching for several days now, and they still haven’t moved up. They must be in bad shape. Aren’t they on good terms with CloudTraveller? Why hasn’t CloudTraveller helped them this time?”

“Zenith Expanse is above Veiled Cloud Sanctuary. The rewards for the first week’s ranking are rich, and CloudTraveller is still aiming for the top spot. They don’t have time to help Fruit.”

LethalSlash replied, “CloudTraveller can’t surpass them. The Zenith Expanse record was achieved by their elite team performing perfectly and using buff items. Even if CloudTraveller knows Zenith Expanse’s clear method, with only one day left, even if they make no mistakes, it’s hard to beat the 1 hour 5 minute mark.”

“Great, then our Alliance’s score can be even higher this time. Maybe we can even surpass CloudTraveller.” The manager laughed and said, “I’ve disliked them for a long time. Why do others say the Eclipse faction’s top Alliance is led by them? They don’t respect us at all. Since Celestial Horizon opened the Apocalypse Gate, Veiled Cloud Sanctuary hasn’t been doing well. Recently, BrokenOracle has been rising fast, even surpassing ReturnToSimplicity.”

“Let’s not talk about this anymore. I just heard that Fruit’s team was seen outside Pear Blossom Hollow. They’re pushing the rankings again. It looks like it’s still a mage team? It’s hilarious, are they just giving up? Getting up early to run dungeons with so many mages.”

At this moment, as LethalSlash was looking at the guild speedrun leaderboard, he suddenly saw a change in the top ten positions. Temple of the Gods, originally in fourth place, had dropped one position. Relieved to see that the names around their guild hadn’t changed, he looked up and was stunned—

The guild originally in first place, [Zenith Expanse], had dropped one position, and now in the first place position was [Fruit Platter]’s guild name with their clear time—”Clear Time 01:00:35″.

Simultaneously, the guild had an emblem next to it, and clicking on it showed the detailed 15-person lineup for the clear, which was completely different from all the other guilds below.

Apart from the assassin [WhatAHugeWatermelon] and the physical swordsman [ClearWindIsHere], the DPS of the Fruit Platter team was entirely composed of magic professions. This was an unprecedented team composition.