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When dealing with magic-type mobs, the Wishkeeper with the highest magic defense should be the one taking the front line.

As Zane transformed, DumbCitrus fiddled with her musical score, layering one battle-enhancing anthem after another. A melodious BGM echoed through the cold, shadowy cavern, its notes reverberating against the icy walls.

Zane also raised his small hand and declared, “Invoke: Blessing!”

Under the stacked buffs, Zane’s stats surged by more than twenty percent.

Naturally, the monsters weren’t going to stand there and watch. Several icy arrows rose from the frost-blue souls, then abruptly shifted direction in the next instant, locking onto the blonde girl at the front.

And it wasn’t just one or two of them. The other Deep Frostcrystal Souls followed suit, unleashing their attacks simultaneously.

“Gulp…” Shiu swallowed hard. “This first wave of firepower really tests the main tank’s durability. If you can’t withstand it, the attacks will go straight into the backline!”

“Knights at least have Guardian Shield and Ironclad Constitution. With double damage reduction, they can barely survive it. But if you don’t have defensive skills, you’ll be in seriou…”

Before he could finish, countless ice arrows had already rained down onto Zane’s body. He could have avoided them with Blink, but if he dodged, the attacks would immediately target his teammates instead.

…

At least twenty damage numbers popped up simultaneously, yet even the critical hits barely broke past a hundred damage. Altogether, the combined damage was only around 1,200.

“Huh… it doesn’t really hurt that much?” Zane said in confusion as he patted away the ice arrows sticking out of his body.

“…” Shiu’s mouth twitched. “Why the hell are you so tanky?”

“Zanny’s so amazing…” YoyoPink and DumbCitrus widened their mouths in shock.

“Looks like I don’t need to stare at the HP bars and calculate cooldowns like before anymore.” Dukeette spread her hands with a liberated expression.

“It’s probably because I swapped into several Unique equipment. Plus, there’s no level suppression anymore,” Zane analyzed.

The Deep Frostcrystal Souls were Level 32 Unique monsters, and Zane himself had already reached Level 32 as well. Against enemies of the same level, there was no stat suppression. Since the monsters couldn’t even break his defenses, the outcome wasn’t surprising at all.

“Several!?” Shiu instantly lost his composure.

“Yeah. Mana Blade, Shadowfiend Shoulderpads, Demonized Gauntlets, and the Elemental Horn… just those four.”

“Do you know why seals always die?”
“Hey, you’re the one who told me to say it!”
“Couldn’t you at least keep a low profile!?”
“How’s this my fault!?”

Even while bantering, Zane never stopped observing the monsters’ movements. After unleashing the arrow barrage, the Deep Frostcrystal Souls floated closer, flickering on and off intermittently. With each flicker, clusters of deep-blue mana burst out from their bodies.

That appeared to be their basic attacks.

The damage was downright pitiful. Without skill multipliers boosting them, the attacks could only force out the minimum mandatory damage. Since there was no real threat, there was no need to keep fighting at the cave entrance.

The group stepped out of the narrow tunnel, and what greeted them was a massive open chamber. It was hard to imagine such an enormous space existing within the mountain itself. By rough estimation, it was at least the size of a football field.

More than ten meters overhead, inverted ice crystals hung in uneven clusters, forming a breathtaking natural spectacle.

Before Zane could properly admire the scenery, he was struck by several more attacks.

“Better take care of them first! Invoke: Blazing Fire!”

A blazing wall of flames erupted instantly, engulfing two mobs within it.

…

The damage ticked once every half-second. Under elemental advantage, the DPS had already reached a terrifying 24,000 per second. The Deep Frostcrystal Souls only had around 43,500 HP total, so in less than two seconds, they were reduced to experience points and coins.

At the same time, Starry adjusted herself into the perfect straight-line angle. Her Autumn Moon Sword slashed out violently, and the unstoppable sword aura pierced through three mobs in succession, producing three astonishing damage numbers.

The monsters’ HP bars instantly dropped by a massive chunk. And she still wasn’t finished. The moment the monsters entered a staggered state, Starry stepped directly into the center and followed up with Blade Dance!

She even lucked into triggering Autumn Strike, leaving all three Frostcrystal Souls on the brink of death.

“Holy s̲h̲i̲t̲, Unique monsters are getting insta-killed just like that?” Shiu was dumbfounded. He hadn’t even started attacking yet!

On the party DPS rankings, four glaring zeroes stood out, while Zane and Starry firmly occupied first and second place.

The heavily wounded mobs still refused to give up. Their bodies trembled as countless tiny ice crystals condensed around them, wrapping their forms in a tightly sealed layer. Not only that, they stopped attacking altogether and began floating toward the surrounding Frostcrystal Vein.

“Oh no! They’re trying to regenerate HP!”

“Trying to run after attacking? Not that easy! Invoke: Vines!” Tough branches shot out at high speed and instantly bound one of the Frostcrystal Souls.

Zane nearly cried tears of joy. How long had it been since he last encountered a monster that could actually be crowd-controlled!?

Starry also locked onto another target. Frosty energy erupted violently as a layer of ice formed across her blade. “Icy Moon Slash!”

A massive crack split across the Ice Crystal Shield, yet the mob hiding within remained completely unharmed.

‘Pretty sturdy, huh?’

Meanwhile, YoyoPink activated Whiplash, binding the third monster that was trying to flee.

“You can’t brute-force these things. It’s best to use crowd control and stall until their shield duratio…” Before he could even finish speaking, Starry unleashed Triple Frenzy Slash. The first strike shattered the shield, and the second instantly killed the mob!

“…” Watching the monster get defeated so effortlessly, Shiu muttered with lingering resentment, “This has to be cheating…”

“Aren’t these just five gatekeeper mobs? Do we really need to be this cautious? I checked the rankings earlier, and some people have even solo-cleared this place.”

“The hell you mean ‘just’!? Do you know how many times we got wiped by these mobs yesterday?”

“How many times?” Zane asked curiously.

Shiu awkwardly reddened. “Less than ten times.”

“…”

***

After cleaning up the battlefield, aside from a pair of white-glowing cloth shoes and a few gold coins, nothing else had dropped.

“The drop rate’s this low?” It felt a little strange. Equipment aside, the monsters should have at least dropped over a hundred coins.

“That’s just how dungeons are designed. Each week, only the first kill of a monster has the highest drop rate. After that, every repeated kill lowers the drop rate more and more. The fact that this equipment dropped at all was probably because of you and Starry.”

“What do you mean?”

“The drop rate is calculated based on the party as a whole. In other words, even though the four of us have already farmed the entrance mobs many times and reduced the drop rate to almost nothing, you two haven’t cleared them before, so your presence raised the monsters’ drop rates.” Shiu explained in an orderly manner.

“Then couldn’t you just keep bringing people who haven’t cleared the dungeon yet and farm equipment forever?”

“In theory, yeah. The developers probably designed it this way to help solo players form parties more easily. But with how difficult this dungeon is, ordinary players can’t really afford to carry dead weight. Besides, even at normal drop rates, the loot chances are disgustingly low, only slightly better than field monsters. You’d already be thanking the heavens if an Epic gear dropped. As for completing a full set… who knows how many years that’d take.”

“I see…” Zane nodded and reached out to touch the pair of cloth shoes. Their stats immediately appeared.

Stat-wise, it was basically an ordinary Epic gear. The special skill was definitely the selling point. A 500-point shield was an excellent bonus for current-stage mages who still hadn’t learned Magic Shield.

And from the stat distribution alone, it was clearly designed for magic-type classes. Wishkeepers could use it too. Zane glanced at his own Decayed Bone Boots.

‘Yeah… Level 14 Rare equipment. It really is time to replace them. Should I keep them for myself?’

Just as he was about to ask for everyone’s opinion, Shiu suddenly stared at him with blazing eyes.

“Don’t look at me like that, I’m not gay!” Zane hurriedly defended himself. Seriously, if the other girls here misunderstood, things would get awkward fast.

Unexpectedly, Shiu didn’t seem to hear a single word he said. Eyes blazing with fervor, he lunged straight at Zane!

“Mother of god!” Zane yelped in fright and reflexively flung the Frostcrystal Boots away. They flew straight into Shiu’s arms, and he immediately hugged them close, rubbing his face against the pair of cloth shoes with a blissfully intoxicated expression.

“…” Why did everyone around suddenly feel so weird?

“Pfft!” YoyoPink couldn’t hold back her laughter any longer.

“What’s going on here?” Zane hurriedly asked.

“Well, yesterday we happened to find the chest-piece of the Brilliant Frostcrystal set too. We never expected a second piece to drop today.”

“Uh… is the set effect really that strong?”

“Mmm… from a certain point of view, it really is pretty amazing.” Dukeette nodded seriously.