Chapter 176 - AOE Bombardment 2

Riveting Night benefitted from Aether Imbuement for all her items, yet her skill alone guaranteed that it would be impossible for the beastly Void Destroyers to hit her. She had raised her Dex so high that she was as nimble as a leopard.

With her Control feeding her the results of every movement within its active range, it was as if she had eyes on the back of her head. As stated earlier, Riveting Night used her Control very differently from Draco.

Draco - maybe because he did not have his bloodline or any notable trait aside from Control - used Control as a foundation for everything he did.

He combined the Void of Perfection's sensory ability and the Body of Godliness' redistribution of force to maximize his attack power, accuracy and speed.

This meant that he hardly used it to sense around him during a battle, except for the time he had fought the Five Generals in the real world.

Riveting Night though, used Control as it was designed. She used the Void of Perfection separately from the Body of Godliness and only mixed the two occasionally.

She used the Void of Perfection exactly how everyone used a domain skill, which was to sense attacks coming from around them so that they could respond to it as soon as it entered that area. This meant that one could never 'get the jump' on Riveting Night in a fight.

She used the Body of Godliness to manipulate her body in ways that allowed her to be in the best position at all times.

How so?

For example, if she sensed that two Void Destroyers were attacking her in a pincer move from the left and right at the same time, she would twist her body in two different directions with the Body of Godliness' muscle control, then use that opening to deal heavy damage on the assailing monsters.

Riveting Night also had her own techniques, but most of them could be categorized into the movement type. She had very few combat techniques, which was normal when one thought about it.

An assassin was not meant for frontal combat, but for stealthy attacks. It would be better for the Evil Duo to team up and fight together as they did in the Underwater Wreckage Dungeon, but they didn't seem like they would.

The problem was that if they fought together, they would gather too many Void Destroyers in one place and things might turn unfavorable for the two of them.

It was better to pull them in two different directions and whittle down their numbers slowly.

Riveting Night would first strike them with the Chrono Blade and apply the overall defense reduction of 30% as well as the nuked healing of 50%.

This paved the way for her to bring the Void Blade into the equation, which allowed her to deal instant crits with almost every strike since she used her Control to analyze and grasp the weak points of each of the Void Destroyers.

Her base damage was currently 700. It could not be helped, as her Strength stat was much lower than Draco's who had buffed his to 30.

Not only that, but Draco also had the fraudulent Dragon Soul which boosted his combat stats by a factor of 10. If Draco wasn't held back by his Rank, he would be able to deal absurd amounts of damage - almost at the level of a Rank 4 entity.

Riveting Night did not have anything OP like that, but did this mean that she had no buffs?

｢Abyssal Ring – Ornamental Item

Rank: Legendary

Durability: 1,000,000/1,000,000

Effects:

Passive 1 – King Of Noct: All attributes are boosted by 70% during nighttime and in an area devoid of light. Every attack that lands on the user has a 30% chance to miss despite its accuracy.

Passive 2 – Shroud of Darkness: A permanent layer of darkness covers your form, making you 300% harder to detect in stealth and 70% resistant to darkness element attacks.

Active 1 – Abyssal Pull: Open a wormhole to the abyss that swallows all enemies within range. Cooldown: 1 day.

Note: Maximum suction range is 300 meters at Rank 1.

Note: Maximum suction targets are 100 at Rank 1.

Further abilities can only be unlocked by attaining a higher class tier.｣

The Abyssal Ring had the best effects for an assassin that both Riveting Night and Draco had ever seen. The first passive boosted her attributes by almost double their value if there was no light in the area.

Since it was currently morning, Riveting Night wasn't able to enjoy this benefit. However, the other benefit of this passive was that every attack that actually connected with her had a 30% chance to still miss.

This was a hackle raising boon, because it roughly meant that each and every swing you made at her had a 1/3 chance to miss. If one added in her natural evasion and skill, it meant that one would face better luck hitting Draco than hitting Riveting Night.

The second passive provided her immense benefits if she was partaking in stealthy activities, and even gave her an absurd resistance to darkness element attacks.

As for the active skill, it would play a role soon. It wasn't time to use it yet, due to its lengthy cooldown.

Riveting Night also had the following skills to help her.

｢Assassinate – Active skill

Effect: Stab into an enemy with less than 15% health with a 5% chance to execute them if they are within your Rank. If the execution fails, deal 200% damage.

Cooldown: 10 minutes｣

｢Shadow Tendrils – Active skill

Effect: Summon shadow tendrils to bind, pierce or harass an enemy target. Tendrils last as long as you have Mana to burn and consume 10 mana per second.

Cooldown: 7 minutes｣

｢Shadow Veil – Large-scale active spell

Effect: A veil of shadow envelops the battlefield, reducing visibility and accuracy of everyone within by 30%, unless they are allies of the caster.

Duration: 1 minute

Cooldown: 72 hours｣

｢Cloud Feet – Passive skill

Movement speed +20%

Attack speed +10%｣

｢Revenger – Passive skill

Weapon damage +20%

Magical damage +20%｣

｢Speed Break – Passive skill

Effect: Enemies within 100 meters of you have 10% reduced movement speed.｣

Cloud Feet and Revenger were Uncommon Avenger class skills that were simply amazing. Their usefulness grew with the owner of the skills, as they gave percentage-based boosts instead of the numerical kind.

Speed Break was an Uncommon passive skill of the Shadow Assassin class. It allowed them to control a battlefield by limiting the speeds of the enemy's movement.

Assassinate was a Common skill of the Assassin classes. However, as a Shadow Assassin, she benefitted from having an upgraded version of it.

While it might seem weak compared to the Void Blade's passive of 20%, it was still crazy. This skill had been Riveting Night's - and every other Shadow Assassin's - secret to success.

As long as the enemy was within their Rank and had 15% health, they could attempt to execute them every 10 minutes. Against a particularly powerful Captain Rank boss or the like, this skill displayed extreme power.

Shadow Tendrils was an Uncommon skill of the Shadow Assassin class that worked as their crowd control.

She could maintain the tendrils and direct them how she wanted to as long as she had mana to burn, so Riveting Night used the skill to hold the last Void Destroyer of the three that were battling her in check.

Shadow Veil was a trump card Rare skill which was a large-scale active spell, just like Armageddon. However, Armageddon belonged to the fire category whereas Shadow Veil belonged to the darkness category.

Unlike Rina, who had a common/normal Pyromancer class, Riveting Night had an uncommon/hidden class that was focused on darkness.

How was this relevant though? After all, everyone needed to grind for mastery in whatever element or field that pertained to the large-scale active spell, right?

This was true to an extent.

Why were hidden classes so valued? Why did Umbra include it into their list as something one needed to have to become eligible as a core member?

What was so special about hidden classes?

The answer to this question would be unearthed soon.

Riveting Night was saving this large-scale active spell for an opportune moment, just as Draco was saving Armageddon for later.

-1,092! -3,276!

Her damage with the Chrono Blade was quite impressive for an Assassin class at Rank 1. Her damage with the Void Blade though, was outright fraudulent.

Due to the nature of getting crits with every hit, she even reached Draco's base damage with every strike.

One should not forget, Draco had a lot of items and skills that boosted his damage, which was why he was so strong. Riveting Night had only one Epic item - aside from the Chaotic Blades - and one Legendary, yet she could deal this much…

For comparison, Gentle Flower and Noble Soul were each dealing 300 or slightly more damage with every hit. The other members of Umbra were even below that, despite their power and skill.

It wasn't that they were weak, but their enemies were too strong and their acc.u.mulations weren't as potent.

The core members of Umbra though, dealt surprising amounts of damage which easily surpassed Gentle Flower and Noble Soul. After all, they had Epic items that Draco and Riveting Night had generously given out.

As such, everyone was making great progress on their battlefronts. The Four Guilds naturally established parties with an optimal distribution of classes, so that everyone could enjoy a healthy share of experience.

Since almost all of the Void Fodder and Void Monsters had been culled by Draco, the remainder were in small enough numbers for the members of Umbra, Meiren, Kamisuo and Desecrators to handle.

They gained levels as they fought, as the experience gain for killed void monsters was too great. Even though they were in parties, each of them earned almost 25% experience per kill of a Void Fodder monster.

They were also lower leveled than these monsters, hovering around the early 20's. They suffered from level suppression, but their skills and synergy made up for this weakness.

Combating the Specialist Rank Void Monsters - who had 150,000 HP - were the Advanced and Expert members of the four guilds. They teamed up and dealt with each monster individually, culling them slowly but professionally.

The members of Umbra especially took the lead, as they had been trained by Riveting Night. It became an unspoken agreement between the four guilds that they would listen to the instructions of the members of Umbra.

The members of Umbra also showed their mettle by expertly leading their own parties as well as their partner guild members to succeed in each battle.

Of course, it wasn't all rosy peachy. Some people got damaged to an inch of their lives, either due to a rough chemistry or a careless mistake, and the healers of their parties would be forced to waste precious mana healing them.

Fortunately, with the way they had divided themselves carefully and chased after targets at their relative skill levels, no member of theirs died in this confrontation… yet. The fact that the number of monsters they had to face at their level was much lower also helped.

As for the core members of the four guilds, as well as Gentle Flower and Noble Soul, they were completely pressured by the Sergeant Ranked Void Killers, who had 1,500,000 HP.

A huge amount of them had thankfully been removed by Riveting Night, but that didn't mean the surviving - and arriving - monsters were easy to handle.

They only thing that saved them from being wiped was the expert healing from Warm Spring and Sublime Notion.

The two healers were real paragons of the healing class, Warm Spring thanks to the teachings of Riveting Night - lessons she had based on her knowledge from future Sublime Notion - and Sublime Notion because… well, she was the future Sublime Notion to be.

Armed with the Legendary Tome of Healing, her presence was like the advent of the Gods.

｢Tome of Healing – Tome

Rank: Legendary

Durability: 1,000,000/1,000,000

Effects:

Passive 1 – Blessing: Healing grants the beneficiary a buff with every cast that lasts 30 seconds.

Passive 2 – Dispel: Healing removes all sequelae, negative status or sickness regardless of source.

Active 1 – Heal the Land: Perform an ultimate healing spell that cures every ailment of every kind for allied and neutral parties within an area zone. This includes inanimate objects. Cooldown: 3 months.｣

The quantity of healing hadn't been augmented in any way, but the quality of it was absolutely amazing. The first passive allowed her to grant a buff with every heal she made.

Not only would Sublime Notion restore your health, but she could bless you with random buffs like 10% increased damage for 30 seconds, 50% more healing on the next heal, 10% higher defense for 30 seconds, 10% higher evasion for 30 seconds, and more like this.

These buffs always lasted exactly 30 seconds, so should Sublime Notion cast another heal, they would gain an additional buff for such a period of time.

This naturally strengthened the party the more they were damaged.

The second passive removed all hidden damage and cleared status effects. Just with this, Sublime Notion could open her own church or hospital and be revered across the land by all NPCs.

Her healing would be just as good as living in Vita City State, or even slightly better.

For example, while she might not have been able to remove the <Incurable Coma> Draco had foolishly put on himself, she would have no problem with a <Critical Coma> which normally would require a visit to the Church of Light.

This meant that the harm that the Void Killers did due to their anti-matter like nature was removed with every heal, preventing players from becoming weaker as the battle wore on.

Warm Spring also had some crazy healing spells that were unique to the Holymancer class. All of them had been purchased for her by Riveting Night, and the cute girl wanted to show her big sister that she wasn't a wasted investment.

｢Noble Light – Stave (Holymancer only)

Rank: Rare

Heal spd: 13

Heal: 135-256

Effect: Healing mastery +20, Healing boost +40%｣

She also used this Rare stave which happened to be the first item she had gained by following the Lady Boss. As could be expected, class restricted items were leagues stronger than other items in that same Rank.

Why was this so?

Just like how the offensive magic classes like Pyromancer, Cryomancer, etc had an auto-attack skill that consumed no mana, but was very weak, healing classes also had an auto-heal skill.

However, this mechanic was limited to players only.

Aside from that, most healing classes had an auto-heal value of 30-60 per second. This wasn't really impressive considering that currently, the average players had more than 10,000 HP.

If a person with such HP was struck and lowered to the red zone, it would take 165 seconds to heal them back to full health on the auto-heal. This was already assuming that they consistently got the maximum healing amount off.

In a party of four to five people, this would be absolutely useless, so most healers had to compensate and rely on their skills. Those skills came in one of two versions.

There were those that had very low - or sometimes no - cooldowns, which came at a high cost, leading to them drinking mana potions like it was soda.

Then there were those of the opposite type, which barely cost any mana, but had a very long cooldown. Usually, Group Heals and Group Buffs belonged to that category.

How to manage mana consumption with well-timed heals was the balance that every healer needed to focus on and master.

Sublime Notion, thanks to her experience in other games, was a master in this regard. It showed in how she was able to heal everyone in time without looking strained.

Her mind was great, which was why she was able to juggle too many administrative duties easily.

Those healers from Umbra as well as from the other guilds actually felt themselves pale in comparison, but watching her work provided great benefits for them.

She correctly calculated when to use a heal spell and when to use auto-heal. Both types - spells and auto-heals - were in the same category of healing, so the boons of the Legendary item were even more amazing.

Yet Warm Spring could match up with her, even though she had significantly less finesse. This wasn't because she was a prodigy, though with more training it was likely she would become one, but due to her class and this very stave.

It granted a heal speed of 13. That meant that Warm Spring could cast heals 13 times faster than on average.

(Author's Note: It has been brought to my attention that I never explained the 'atk spd' value on Rare and below items. I'm sorry for that confusion. Basically, 1 atk speed is the basic real-world speed of doing an action with a weapon.

So, if you see an atk spd of something like 7 or 8, it means that a person could swing that weapon 7 or 8 times faster than one could do in the real world.

I feel sheepish, thinking that I continually stated that battles in the game were 100x faster than in the real world without actually explaining this.)

The stave also gave her a fraudulent auto-heal range, which was in the hundreds. If a typical healer would need 165 seconds to bring the average player back to health, Warm Spring only needed 40 seconds to do the same.

Then, there was the effect of the stave that boosted her healing by 40%. This was the true benefit of the stave that made it greater than any other Rare weapon for healing due to its class-locked nature.

Both Warm Spring's auto-heals and skill-based heals were 40% stronger, meaning more healing done for the same mana cost. If Sublime Notion was the one preventing players from being weakened, then Warm Spring was the one keeping them alive.

What was the most surprising thing was that when the two timed their heals together they worked in tandem, instead of over each other. This helped them conserve mana and raised their efficiency greatly.

Rambunctious Buttlover continuously buffed the group with his lute, as he used his Rare skill that drained all his stamina and was a continuous cast that left him vulnerable, but the effects were great!

｢Emergency Quest Local Area Announcement

Player Rambunctious Buttlover has boosted his allies' morale through music! The enemy is cowed by his lyrical might!

All players:

Attack +50%

Defense +70%

Speed +20%

All enemies:

Attack -50%

Defense -70%

Speed -20%｣

This was just like giving wings to a tiger.