Chapter 112: Orb of Deception
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Kaboom—
Boom—
Fire magma condensed into blood-red fireballs, as though a pot of boiling water was bubbling continuously.
The scorching hot temperature burned the skin that was wrapped under the armor until it was bright red. Lin Jie immediately drank a bottle of Fire Resistance Potion, and his body felt slightly more comfortable.
That was the Dark Iron Castle!
Dark Iron Castle was the castle of the race of the smithing talents, Dark Iron Dwarves. If one was able to fly to the sky and look down from there, one would discover that the castle looked like a melting pot.
The Dark Iron Castle was extremely big. As a dungeon, it even hid a level 40 team dungeon within it. It was at the bottom of the Dark Iron Castle and was filled with magma, which was good material for smithing as it greatly reduced the forging time, so much that during the mid-game, many Blacksmiths would move there.
The dungeon was split into a total of three floors, every floor spawned one Guardian Boss.
For the mission to find the Four Sword Saints, only one Sword Saint was left, but he had no idea of his whereabouts: Earth Sword Saint Andros!
The reason he was given that title was not because of his swordsmanship but due to his technique—yes, that’s right, Andros was a Dwarf Swordsmith. With superb smithing skills, he had received recognition from the “Earthly Core”, forging it into a great sword. Therefore, becoming the Earth Sword Saint.
Every profession produced its own topmost masters!
After the Earth Sword Saint sealed the Devils Fork, he retired into seclusion, becoming a nameless Blacksmith. Every day, he would forge weapons for humans from alternate realms, he was pleased and happy with his life.
Meanwhile, the condition for the Earth Sword Saint to join the War of Light was to find an Earthly Core!
Earthly Core, as divine equipment for smithing, naturally belonged to the race of Dark Iron Dwarves who were specialized in smithing. That was the aim of Lin Jie’s trip this time.
Once the Dark Iron Castle’s first clear was taken, the Earthly Core would never respawn again. If he wanted to get that item again, he would have to wait until the release of the expansion pack at level 70.
In front of Lin Jie were three roads. Directly in front of him was a huge number of Dark Iron Dwarves Guards, level 25, Health Points 17,000, with five Dwarves as a team.
It was definitely impossible for Lin Jie to get past them all by himself, he could only find a chance in the future to form a team and clear the path.
The right path led towards the prison area. If players saved the fugitives, they could obtain their help, or if one even had good luck, they could obtain treasure chests that were left behind and so on. Lin Jie took a look around but got nothing.
On the left path were endless cage doors. After killing the Boss on the first floor, one could obtain the key, and thus open the door which led to the next floor.
There was another way to directly open the door, and that was the Bandit’s Lock Picking Skill.
Besides those, there were basically no other ways.
Lin Jie was the exception, that was because he had a good item that far surpassed the key—Heritage Broken Blade! Although the Broken Blade’s attributes had not totally recovered, its quality was extremely high, slicing through a lock was no problem at all.
After a few slashes at the door lock, Lin Jie headed into the passageway.
The design of the passageway was like duplex buildings. They were extremely short and small to suit the Dwarves’ bodies. Lin Jie’s head could touch the top of the passageway, so he could only bend over slightly while moving.
“Old Jack, be careful, I feel restless, there may be some danger.”
“Hahaha, you really are oversensitive.”
From a corner, a conversation could be heard. Lin Jie’s eyes lit up, and he silently hid at another corner. The two Dwarves slowly walked towards Lin Jie’s direction.
[Dwarf Team Leader Old Jack (Rare Elite)]
Level 25
Health Points: 21,000
Attack: 284-355
Defense: 150
Note: The Dark Iron Dwarves’ patrol leader, has powerful strength and endless desire for sleep.
[Dwarf Speaker Old Muda (Rare Elite)]
Level 25
Health Points: 19,000
Magic attack: 175-285
Defense: 75
In the entire “The New Age”, only the first player to enter the Dark Iron Castle would meet these two Rare Elites, the Two Dwarf Brothers!
Lin Jie was elated, he instantly remembered a very practical and famous item in his previous life—Orb of Deception! These two would definitely drop it! If he could kill these two fellows and get the orb, then it would be much easier to execute his plan afterward.
If players came to clear this dungeon, then they would not meet those two Rare Elites but just normal patrolling elites which would not drop anything, only providing experience. Naturally, the later players would not obtain the Orb of Deception and could only depend on the team’s ability to clear it by themselves.
Lin Jie immediately drank a low-level Berserker Potion and used Forward Charge while aiming at Old Jack, Army Obliteration landed on his head repeatedly as if slapping his face!
-848!
-412!
-455!
Old Jack’s Health Bar instantly decreased by 1/15, Lin Jie’s attacking output was still awesome. Old Jack pulled out his axe with his backhand and slashed towards Lin Jie’s head.
-218!
The Level 25 Rare Elite’s damage value was too frightening! It shocked Lin Jie so much that he immediately drank a Slow Restoring Potions, and clamped another Health Potion between his teeth just in case his HP dropped too low. He then turned and hacked his dual swords towards Old Jack’s head.
“My comrade, I will provide help to you! This human that intruded into the castle is as weak as an ant, you can crush it with just one leg.”
—’Old Jack has been influenced by [War Encouragement], his attack speed has increased by 5%, Critical Hit Damage has decreased by 10%.’
Old Jack slashed towards Lin Jie but it went past Lin Jie’s pauldron, the attack had missed!
MISS!
Lin Jie gave hearty laughter, this pair of Rare Elites were really interesting. He just did not care about that Dwarf Speaker, who could only shout out loud, and concentrated in dealing with Old Jack that was in front of him.
Old Jack’s weapon was dual axes, and he grasped the combo skill. He was able to consecutively attack two to four times, his explosive force was also extremely high, and because of that, Lin Jie had to beware of his own Health Bar at all times.
“Try your best, Old Jack! I bless you with…” Just as the Dwarf Speaker started to chant, Lin Jie used Outraged Roar to interrupt him! The speaker’s blessings were on par with a Paladin’s level 4 divine spells. If he were to give Old Jack a weapon blessing, then Lin Jie would definitely be a goner.
Army Obliteration!
-844!
-856!
-902!
The power of venting it all out was really the best feeling! With three consecutive Critical Hits, Lin Jie’s HP instantly regen by a huge portion from sucking the damage. Old Jack’s HP decreased by 70%!
Old Jack raised his dual axes and slashed them towards Lin Jie in turns. That was [Desperate Strike], a skill that would be used as one’s last resort. It dealt 15 to 25 times of consecutive attacks to the target, which could not be interrupted. If it killed the target, one would regen 500 Health Points. But after the skill was finished releasing and the target was still not dead, then the next hit would definitely be a Critical Hit!
“Clank, clank!”
Lin Jie instantly changed his equipment to Shield of Courage, blocking Old Jack’s attack non-stop, but even so, every attack still dealt over 100 HP!
“Wahahaha, comrade, your bravery has already captivated me,” the Speaker praised, “Come, receive my blessing…”
Ice Soul Slash!
Lin Jie pulled out his Broken Blade and froze him, sending him to under Old Jack’s axe. The axe slashed on the Speaker’s face, blood and flesh flew around. Then, Lin Jie activated the enhanced version of Blood Soul Multi-Slash, sweeping past the Speaker’s head, instantly dealing damage that almost wiped clean his HP!
At that time, Old Jack’s attack finally ended and the dual-wielding axes that were most certainly to deal Critical Hit chopped towards Lin Jie!
“Die!”
Lin Jie activated Flame Boost, the irascible fire Blade Aura tore the heads of the two Dwarves and the two fellows died at the same time!
Lin Jie heaved a sigh of relief as the Dwarf Brothers must die at the same time within 2 seconds, or else they would revive endlessly. They were relatively hard to deal with. It was a good thing that he was reborn!
He took a look at the experience bar, the experience points in Expert-level dungeon was already abnormally abundant, not to mention 2 Rare Elites! Lin Jie’s experience Bar increased rapidly by 21%. If these two funny fellows were respawned every time, then Lin Jie’s leveling up speed would be as if riding a rocket.
They dropped a total of 21 Dwarf currency silver coins, a leg guard, and a gem.
[Fire Fury Leg Guard] (Silver)
Can be used by Warriors and Paladins.
Requires: Level 15
Defense: 35-67
Strength: +8
Endurance: +2
Additional effect: When the damage you receive is over your Health Points limit by 20%, increases 20% of your movement speed. Lasts for 5 seconds.
To a Warrior, any item that added movement speed were all good items! Lin Jie equipped it and his stats increased by a little. Then, he continued picking up another item.
[Orb of Deception] (Dark Gold)
Attributes: None.
Additional effect: Allows you to transform into a copy of any living creature. Unable to use skills and items during transformation. Pay attention to your actions, maintain it, inappropriate actions and language will expose you.
Orb of Deception, special-type accessory item, one of the best items within disguise-type items.
In Lin Jie’s previous life, there had been an awesome person named “Unexpected Childe”, who had once used the Orb of Deception to pretend to be the husband of a woman Gnoll. He had stolen the most valuable spoil from the Gnoll’s territory—Ice Tiger’s egg!
Lin Jie was elated, as that was a good item! It was the essential item for traveling and… committing murder and arson! ‘Sure enough, it really did drop!’
He suppressed the joy in his heart and immediately equipped the Orb of Deception, choosing to copy the appearance of the Speaker.
Activate!
Lin Jie’s body transformed, his line of sight gradually decreased, while his appearance became that of a Dark Iron Dwarf. The reason why he did not transform into Old Jack was that the patrol team leader had a fixed patrolling route, but the Speaker was different. The so-called Dwarf Speaker could enhance all kinds of blessing status to Dwarf Warriors through his speech so he could wander around everywhere.
Lin Jie moved his body around and suddenly realized that all his skills were in unable to be used status.
Lin Jie quickly hid the corpses of the two Dwarves, or else it would be troublesome once they were found. He headed towards the floor below, a total of 12 Dark Iron Dwarves were gathered at the staircase entrance! They greeted Lin Jie with smiles, “Hey, where did your darling Old Jack go? It can’t be he doesn’t want you anymore, right?”
Lin Jie felt chills down his back. ‘These two Dwarves are actually gay…’
“Old Jack’s bladder is not that good, he went to find somewhere to release.”
“Hahaha, looks like the both of you had a pleasant night yesterday.” The Dwarf laughed loudly.
Lin Jie walked out from the staircase and came to a place full of magma. There was only a female Dwarf standing in the middle of the magma on a rock. Lipsticks were applied onto her lips until they were all red, it looked very scary.
Meanwhile, there were plenty of Combat Puppets wandering around in the surroundings. Combat Puppets were similar to Mountain Giants, they had high resistance to physical attacks, their Health Points were also quite high, but most importantly, they were the tools of battle for Dwarves.
“Old Muda, have you come to see me?” The female Dwarf shouted in excitement once she saw Lin Jie appear.
Lin Jie was stunned. “Uh, yes…”
“That’s great! Nice, now that Old Jack isn’t around, quick, quickly come here!” The female Dwarf smiled shyly with bashfulness. It nearly made Lin Jie vomit out his dinner.
‘Wait… This relationship is a bit messy!’
Old Muda and Old Jack were gay, Old Jack’s Wife and Old Muda had an affair… That was to say, that guy was bisexual, and he laid his hands on one family!
‘Just what did I transform into!?’