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Chapter 195 - Forbidden Skill, Activate!
Chapter 195 - Forbidden Skill, Activate!
Chapter 195: Chapter 195 – Forbidden Skill, Activate!
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Ren Suo had long noticed that the “Secret Records of Glorious Xuan (Chapter 1)” appeared on the [Equipment] page.
Unlike the [Advanced Practice Method], the Secret Records of Glorious Xuan appeared to be deemed as a ‘Special Ability’ by the game console. Nevertheless, after Ren Suo equipped himself with it, he found that its effect on his Practice was not much different from him doing without it.
There was still a slight difference, however. Simply put, if Ren Suo’s efficiency when practicing the Secret Records of Glorious Xuan was about 60% ~ 70%, equipping himself with the ability allowed him to achieve 100% efficiency.
However, since Ren Suo could still improve his proficiency in the Secret Records of Glorious Xuan through continuous practice, he naturally did not take such a shortcut. In the long run, Ren Suo would have mastered a method of Practice, at the very least; and in the short term, Ren Suo could free up an ability slot.
Most importantly, if Ren Suo chose to equip himself with the “Secret Records of Glorious Xuan” to Practice, would it not have been a waste of his over ten days practicing in the small room, somewhere in Tianjing City…
It was just that Ren Suo had not expected [Secret Records of Glorious Xuan (Chapter One] to become an offering in the game.
Regardless, the prerequisite of using the offering was also unrelated to health or mana; the cooldown time was the only limiting factor.
As long as it was used, the offering of [Secret Records of Glorious Xuan (Chapter 1)] would enter a cooldown period of 1 checkpoint, even if Ren Suo reloaded another savegame.
In other words, after using it once in a checkpoint, [Secret Records of Glorious Xuan] would remain in cooldown until Ren Suo cleared the current checkpoint and started on a new one.
The effect of [Secret Records of Glorious Xuan (Chapter 1)] was also very straightforward: [Upon activation, the user’s defense power, mana, rate of mana recovery, health, rate of health recovery, movement speed, unstoppable durability, attack speed, attack power, and physical attributes will increase. The effect lasts for 10 minutes.]
Naturally, such skills would only be used in boss battles. Moreover, because it was impossible to reset the cooldown time even when loading other savegames, Ren Suo did not dare to use it earlier on, but it was now the time to do so!
On the screen, Mage suddenly began hovering above the ground and his silver-white hair was flowing even without the wind. A strange-looking black-colored rune suddenly attached to the silver-white robe of Mage. His health and mana increased by a third, and the scene seemed to darken.
Following which, everything that was happening around Mage appeared to slow down slightly.
The difference was actually very subtle. If not for the fact that the screams coming from the extraordinary warriors were suddenly prolonged by a short duration, Ren Suo would not have noticed the difference in the perceived speed of the surrounding movements.
It was similar to when Ren Suo used Monkey King in the fight against the Angel. In order to match Ren Suo’s control speed, the overall speed of the game had to be slowed down to highlight the difference when the fighting speed of the game character increased!
“What a powerful ability!” Ren Suo exclaimed as he breathed in deeply. He then changed to the next offering: [Data Stream].
There were no restrictions on using that offering, and it had only one effect: to query the status of the boss.
[Target: Holy Grail Monster]
[Health Remaining: 86%]
It was quite a tank… Ren Suo cursed under his breath as he controlled Mage to move instantly towards the monster and threw a blow at it with his Fire Broadsword!
At first, the Fire Broadsword of the Mage could only carve out a crack of fire on its body that was slightly over a meter wide. However, after activating the Secret Records of Glorious Xuan, the blow from Mage immediately caused a crack of fire that was about 7 to 8 meters wide!
The monster shrieked in agony, and it swung the blood sickle, which had been accumulating with energy, towards the ground. The bloodstorm that was triggered by its impact with the ground covered the entire monastery!
The extraordinary soldiers groaned as they were all thrown against the wall due to the shockwave caused by the blood sickle, and the sound of their heavy impact with the stones was deafening!
All of them should have activated [Clothes], but they were still injured due to the impact!
However, both Red Hood and Mage were still able to evade the impact of the blood sickle. They approached the monster and rained a slew of attacks on the monster.
As the health of the monster dropped, the combat power it displayed also became more terrifying. It either swept the crowd with the blood sickle or threw the iron skull mask recklessly in madness. The speed at which the iron skull mask flew threw the air was extremely fast, and even Ren Suo might not have been able to avoid all of the attacks if not for the Secret Records of Glorious Xuan.
At that juncture, the warriors of Xuan Nation also managed to catch their breath and attempted to shift their wounded comrades out of the monastery. However, as they approached the exit of the monastery, the monster seemed to turn berserk, roaring:
[Don’t leave—]
The monster ignored Mage and Red Hood to chase after the injured Xuan Nation warriors!
Ren Suo naturally controlled Mage to hurry over to slow the monster’s advance towards the warriors. However, no matter how much damage Mage dealt to the monster with his Fire Broadsword, the monster completely ignored him. Instead, it raised its blood sickle high in the air as it took aim at the Xuan Nation warriors who were attempting to escape!
The unharmed Xuan Nation warriors naturally noticed what the monster was about to do. They aimed their rifles and shot at the monster with all their might, but in the monster’s state of sliding over the ground, it would not be hindered by the slew of bullets landing on the monster!
Ren Suo took a quick glance at them and saw that it was Yuan Dang who was leading his wounded comrades to escape then.
“I can’t watch him die in here… I guess I’ll have to give it a try…” Ren Suo muttered to himself.
At that point in time, although Yuan Dang and the wounded comrades were still running away, they tripped over a stone in their haste when they saw the monster charging towards them. When they turned back around, they saw the monster, which occupied the entire field of vision, lifting the blood sickle above its head and about to end their lives.
The next second, the silver-haired Mage teleported and appeared right in front of them.
It was about to be too late, however. Even if Mage was able to kill the monster in one blow of his sword, the blood sickle of the monster would still end up killing Yuan Dang and the wounded comrades.
Just as they had resigned to fate, a black current of air encircled Mage and he screamed in anguish: [Ahhhhh—]!
The next moment, all five of Mage’s right-hand knuckles broke off from his hand, exposing the iron-colored bones of his fingers with traces of deep-red-colored blood on them!
Forbidden Skill, [Iron Chain Fingers], activate!
The iron chain of five fingers shot towards the monster as if it were a living creature and wrapped around it. Comparing it to the size of the monster, the thin iron chain of fingers looked like a rubber band that would be broken even with a slight force from the monster.
However, it was that thin chain of fingers which stopped the monster and anchored it to the ground at its original position!
At that juncture, several messages popped up consecutively on the left side of the screen:
[You activated a Forbidden Skill and completely lost the fingers of your right hand.]
[As you are in an unknown state of enhancement, the effect of your Forbidden Ability is further enhanced: the target would be restrained and be unable to move for an additional 10 seconds for a total duration of 30 seconds.]
[The damage of all close-ranged attacks will be decreased by 50%.]
Mage yelled: [It would not be able to move for the next 30 seconds, leave now!]
Ren Suo naturally said that to the extraordinary warriors, but Yuan Dang immediately turned around and said: [There is an invisible wall of air at the exit, we can’t get out!]
Ren Suo was slightly surprised and changed the language to ask Red Hood about the air wall. Red Hood replied: [This is the monster’s monastery, if it does not want anyone to escape, the entire monastery will listen to it!]
At that point in time, ten seconds out of the 30 seconds had passed. Ren Suo immediately changed the language again and said: [You won’t be able to leave for now. Hurry, use whatever you have on it!]
Following that, the warriors retreated as they shot at the monster with their assault rifles, except for Cheng Wenchao who dropped his rifle, took out a dagger from around his waist, and approached the monster.
He let out a shout and a frosty glow emerged from his dagger as he plunged the dagger into the iron skull mask. The iron skull mask shattered!
Ren Suo was slightly surprised. He recognized that to be the tier 3 ability [Sonic Dagger] in the Abilities Universe. The sonic dagger was able to produce continuous vibrations and unsurprisingly, it dealt an extreme amount of damage. Ren Suo had not expected that Cheng Wenchao was actually able to master that ability.
However, after the head of the iron skull mask shattered to pieces, a large viscous mass of blood poured out from it, and then it was reformed.
The monster yelled: [My blood… Look… Look at it!]
After 30 seconds, the monster’s remaining health dropped to 60%. When it finally broke free of the restraint, it suddenly shouted: [Ahhhhhh, is it because my love is still not enough—]
Then, the blood sickle making up its right hand turned into a flail and it swung the flail viciously at itself!
The blood-colored flowers split into countless pieces. Along with the blood-colored wooden roots and wood shavings, the fragments flew in all directions like sharp arrows. Even Ren Suo could not avoid being hit by them!
Furthermore, at the same time, the monster did not remain at one spot and was still moving around!
The Xuan Nation Practitioners figured that they were unable to escape, so they set their minds solely on attacking the monster instead. Mage had also lost its right hand and focused on healing the warriors instead. He continuously fired Holy Light bullets to heal the wounded warriors and allow them to rejoin the battle as soon as possible!
However, the game was not as simple as merely fighting.
The monster often changed its moves. When its health dropped below 40%, its movements became even more erratic. It suddenly swung its flail backward instead and sliced a Xuan Nation warrior named ‘Zhong Zhou’ into two!
Mage shot numerous Holy Light bullets at Zhong Zhou, but he did not respond at all. Just as he was on the brink of death, a black vortex appeared beneath his body. It was the same black vortex that appeared when the monsters which had been slain by Mage were about to revert to their original form.
As Mage walked nearer to Zhong Zhou, two choices appeared on the screen:
[Salvation] or [Sacrifice]?