Even after confirming the point-earning mechanics of the Explosive Mother-Child Trees, the group still had no idea what to do.
After all, it felt like standing in front of a house packed with gas canisters that was already on fire, where the only way to retrieve your belongings was to risk your life charging straight into the explosions.
Some people would give up immediately.
Others would still try to act as safely as possible, even if that so-called “safe” choice was already extremely dangerous.
Facing everyone’s expectant gazes, Yuexia Jiu considered it for a long time before finally making his decision.
“We’ll still eat them. It’s the pioneering phase right now, so we really shouldn’t waste any points.”
Even though he said that, Yuexia Jiu also issued detailed commands to the team in advance.
For example, frontline warriors could eat at most three explosions in a row.
Mages should pre-cast shields, and if they were lucky enough to use Blink at the exact moment of detonation, they should dodge. Otherwise they could eat one explosion and immediately retreat.
Assassins and rangers should use evasion skills with invincibility frames to avoid the damage, and so on.
“But Wine Bro, the healing pressure will be a massive problem then,” Timeless Serenity frowned. “If we insist on tanking the explosion damage, the burden on the priests won’t be ordinary at all. So we need to rotate properly, pay close attention to positioning, finish each wave and take a short break for the priests to heal and for everyone to use recovery potions before pulling the next group. Also, we have to keep the number of Explosive Mother-Child Trees we pull under control.”
Hearing this, Timeless Serenity couldn’t help worrying. “Won’t the efficiency be too low?”
“Don’t overthink it. The big guilds probably aren’t doing much better than us. Everyone’s in the same boat. As long as we can safely clear monsters and earn points, that’s good enough.” Yuexia Jiu shook his head. “But don’t worry. I already contacted the guild leader earlier. He’s checking the market, and our guild alchemists are rushing out more fire-resistance potions. Plus, if anyone randomly gets a flame-resistance ability, dealing with the swamp will become much easier later.”
He knew, of course, that such defensive abilities would most likely only appear on frontline professions.
Fortunately, although Oka Forest couldn’t compare to the elite raid teams of the top guilds, their gear and skill were still far above average players.
With Yuexia Jiu’s excellent command on top of that, even though everyone’s health bars swung dangerously near the red line during every wave and looked extremely thrilling, they still cleared each fight without any major incidents. The point-earning rate was low, but at least it was stable.
Yuexia Jiu felt the team didn’t need to return to town yet, so he contacted the dead members and told them to join other Oka Forest raid groups and try to link up.
He had barely ended the call and was about to step forward to help pull monster aggro when another friend message popped up. Seeing the frontline still holding, he retreated a few steps and answered.
“Hey, you there? You there?”
“If I weren’t here, how could I pick up your call? What made you suddenly contact me? Don’t tell me you want me to introduce you to more girls again?” Yuexia Jiu teased.
“Fuck you! You still have the nerve to say that? If you hadn’t told Yuqing that you needed a skilled thief to deliver something, I’d still be happily playing around with a few cute little sisters right now.” Mentioning it only made Wangchuan Shui complain even harder.
“Uh… the guild leader sent you?”
Yuexia Jiu couldn’t hide his surprise. Although he had asked the guild leader to send supplies and fire-resistance potions and had emphasized needing someone skilled because of the swamp, he never expected her to directly contact this guy.
After all, Wangchuan Shui’s background was no small matter. Ranked sixth among thieves in the entire Constanterna Empire, his technique and gear were top-notch. Plenty of famous experts had fallen to his ambushes. Even though major guilds had tried recruiting him with sky-high salaries, he had rejected every single one. He wasn’t short on money—his family owned a large hotel chain and he was the second son—so he had no pressure and had developed the personality of a carefree playboy.
Yuexia Jiu had once tried to recruit this childhood best friend as well, only to be turned down with all kinds of excuses.
As for why he eventually joined, it was because Yuexia Jiu had invited him to a guild gathering once.
The result? This cynical womanizer had somehow fallen for the guild leader at first sight and begun pursuing her passionately. He willingly joined the guild, and now a single word from the guild leader was enough to make this top expert willingly act as a delivery boy without complaint.
“I’m telling you, if you don’t introduce me to a few pretty sisters this time, don’t even think about me treating you during the New Year.” Wangchuan Shui spoke righteously, then quietly added, “Remember, don’t tell Yuqing.”
“Okay, okay.” Yuexia Jiu answered helplessly, thinking that even if he didn’t say anything, the guild leader had probably already heard rumors.
In truth, Yuexia Jiu also knew the guild leader had feelings for Wangchuan Shui. It was just that his playboy reputation and personality made her hesitate, which was why their relationship had stalled. As the clear-eyed bystander, Yuexia Jiu planned to find a good time to have a proper talk with his best friend, but obviously not right now.
“Speaking of which, A Shui, you really don’t want to join the event? The rewards this time are pretty generous.”
“No need. You know I’m not a team player. Being free is better for me… Huh? Is it this lively in your swamp?”
“You’ve already entered the swamp?”
Yuexia Jiu kept commanding the team while curiously asking.
“Yeah. Man, all that boom boom boom… it’s like fireworks. And not just any fireworks—this is seriously intense. All these firelights popping up. Don’t tell me someone actually set off a full hall of red here?”
Yuexia Jiu couldn’t help laughing at the strange metaphor. He roughly explained the monster mechanics and terrain effects to him. “There should be a few teams fighting Explosive Mother-Child Trees over there.”
“Oh, so that’s how it is. Wait…” The voice on the other end suddenly paused for over ten seconds, then burst into loud laughter. “A Jiu, guess what I just saw? A team tried to go around, and the whole pack of monsters suddenly self-destructed and sent them straight home.”
“Suddenly self-destructed?”
Yuexia Jiu was stunned. “They weren’t even attacking them?”
“Nope. Why?”
“Nothing. Just be careful over there.”
Yuexia Jiu frowned slightly. Right as he noticed one of the mother trees ahead dropping below two-thirds health, he reminded the team channel.
At the same time, Wangchuan Shui—who had been bragging—suddenly cried out in alarm.
“Relax, with my sk—Holy shit!”
“What’s wrong?” Yuexia Jiu asked, drawn by his friend’s startled shout.
“Nothing, a random child tree next to me just exploded. Good thing my reflexes are fast and I dodged… Weird. I was in stealth. How did it even notice me?” Wangchuan Shui sounded genuinely puzzled.
“Maybe you got too close.”
Yuexia Jiu felt puzzled as well. He was about to tell him to be more careful when his peripheral vision caught another mother tree ahead that had just been knocked below one-third health.
“I wasn’t even that close… Fuck!”
“What now?” Yuexia Jiu asked quickly.
This time the voice on the other end didn’t even finish before another alarmed cry rang out, sounding even more frantic than before. The fact that the instinctive curse didn’t even fully leave his mouth proved how dangerous it was.
“Another dumbass thing beside me just exploded! If my reaction wasn’t fast enough… WDNMD!”
Yuexia Jiu waited a long time but received no reply. He hesitated before calling out, “Hey, A Shui, you okay? What exactly happened just now?”
“I died. Respawned at the Naldun point.”
The other end stayed silent for a moment, then spoke in an eerily calm tone.
Yet the words that followed genuinely shocked Yuexia Jiu. “Died? Wait, you’re not joking, right?”
A top-tier thief who could still escape unscathed from encirclements of over a thousand players, who could toy with opponents using terrain and even counter-kill several pursuers when chased by more than ten thieves, was now telling him he had died?
Yuexia Jiu wondered if he was hearing things.
Fortunately, the other party proved his hearing was perfectly fine.
“I really died. The kind where you can’t get any deader.” Wangchuan Shui took a deep breath. “Six straight fucking waves of explosions! The first few I could still react and use skills to escape, but after that there was nothing I could do. My fragile little body couldn’t survive two explosions. What do you want me to do?”
Just from his friend’s description, Yuexia Jiu could already picture the utter despair of the situation. “Uh… then maybe have someone else deliver it?”
“Pfft! Are you doubting my ability? I refuse to believe this nonsense. Today I’m definitely delivering this thing to you no matter what. Stop talking and just send me the coordinates. I’m getting serious now.”
Yuexia Jiu knew his friend was probably pissed off now. After all, for a top thief expert to die to monsters like this was more than just embarrassing. So he didn’t say much more, sent the coordinates, and ended the call.
“How strange. I didn’t touch anything—why did they suddenly explode?”
Yuexia Jiu pondered carefully but couldn’t figure it out. The team had just finished clearing the monsters, though it seemed a new problem had appeared.
“Can’t find the mother trees?”
Yuexia Jiu frowned at the few child trees ahead.
According to the pattern they had figured out, there should definitely be a mother tree within twenty yards of any child trees.
Yet according to Timeless Serenity’s report, they had searched the area thoroughly, and these child trees were still stubbornly alive.
“Forget it. If that’s the case, just ignore them and go around.”
Under Yuexia Jiu’s order, the team followed the usual method: frontline pulled aggro while everyone else quickly left the alert range.
However, right when the team was halfway through retreating, Yuexia Jiu—who was walking at the front—suddenly heard two consecutive explosions.
He spun around. Half the backline was already lying on the ground, while the frontline tanks who had been holding aggro were inexplicably left in critical health. Looking to the side, two brand-new Explosive Child Trees were slowly crawling out of the swamp.