Chapter 148: The Attack of the Dark Creatures (1)

“Miss Lord, look at this.” Dolly picked up a piece of fiery red scale armor from her hands, gave it a shake, and then showed it to Su You from every angle—inside and out.

Su You had been absorbed in arranging the territory’s defenses, but when she saw this somewhat familiar-looking garment, she seemed to guess what it was.

“Is this the Flame Demon Armor?”

To be fair, the original Flame Demon Armor had been in such a terrible state that Su You really couldn’t connect that pile of tattered red rags from before with the now-complete, crystal-clear, and glossy scale armor in front of her.

“Yes, Miss Lord, take a look.” Dolly looked quite pleased, because not only had she helped Su You with another task by repairing the armor, but it also meant her repair skill had reached the intermediate level.

Su You took the Flame Demon Armor and examined it, then fetched the matching Flame Demon Leggings from the storage, handing both items to Dolly.

“Put them on, let me see.” Su You wanted Dolly to wear them to check the set bonus of the Flame Demon set. As the lord, she couldn’t equip high-level gear herself. While the Flame Demon set wasn’t exactly high-level, it was still a set.

No matter the level, she couldn’t equip any set items.

Dolly didn’t know why Su You wanted her to put on the outfit, but she nodded obediently and put it on right away.

[Flame Demon Armor] (Equipped)

Type: Equipment

Quality: Blue

Durability: 100/100

Attributes: Defense (20), Resistance (2%), Fire Resistance (5%)

Description: A complete set of Flame Demon Armor, offering strong defense and additional fire damage resistance. When equipped together with the Flame Demon Leggings, set bonuses are activated.

[Detected: Character has equipped Flame Demon Set (2/2). Set bonuses activated.]

Flame Demon Set (2/2):

Attribute 1 (Passive): Fire Resistance +5%

Attribute 2 (Passive): 10% chance to inflict additional fire damage on attack. Fire damage lasts for ten seconds, dealing 1% of the target’s current HP as fire damage per second.

Attribute 3 (Passive): When the wearer’s fire resistance reaches 50%, the chance to trigger Attribute 2 doubles (20%).

...

“20% chance to trigger fire damage…” Su You muttered to herself, a hint of excitement in her voice.

She’d already been surprised by the first two attributes, but when she saw the third, it felt like she’d just been hit by a stroke of luck.

She immediately opened Dolly’s detailed stats panel and found the “Elemental Resistances” section. Among all the resistances, she located Fire Resistance—18%.

Flame Demon Armor gives 5%, Flame Demon Leggings 3%, Set Bonus 1 gives 5%, and most people are born with 5–10% innate elemental resistance. Dolly’s innate fire resistance was probably 5%, bringing the total to 18%.

So, reaching the 50% required for Attribute 3 was actually quite difficult. But the territory had a fire mage, Meck!

Fire mages naturally have high fire resistance, as it’s determined by the elemental content in the human body.

A genius like Meck would have at least 15% fire resistance. With this set, his fire resistance would be at least 28%!

But that was still only halfway there...

There are many ways to increase fire resistance: besides equipment, you can take resistance potions, learn relevant passive skills, or use certain resistance-boosting abilities.

For example, the fire mage’s Magic Shield.

Magic Shield not only blocks some magic damage but also doubles the target’s corresponding magic resistance. Fire mages’ shields double fire resistance, water mages’ shields double water resistance, and so on...

So Meck’s 28% fire resistance would become 56% with Magic Shield—just enough for Attribute 3!

After a brief moment of excitement, Su You suddenly thought of something and sighed.

Dolly, who had been happy, was taken aback by the sudden sigh and quickly asked with concern, “Miss Lord, is there something wrong with this equipment?”

“No, it’s great.” It really was great—just that there wasn’t anyone suitable for it.

Even after all those calculations, Meck could technically trigger Attribute 3, but he wasn’t suited for this gear.

To be precise, mages weren’t suited for this kind of equipment.

Mages’ main attack method is casting spells. While their attacks are powerful, long-ranged, and wide-area, their fatal flaw is the casting time—in other words, their attack speed is slow.

If Meck were a high-level mage, that would be different. But as a beginner mage, even with his deep understanding of magic, his casting speed couldn’t be much faster than other beginner mages.

And since Attribute 2 triggers on attack, regardless of probability, the faster your attack speed, the better this set works.

Weapons with high attack speed are usually bows, daggers, and short swords.

Take Doya, for example—she can attack twice per second but can’t trigger Attribute 3. Compare that to Meck, who can only attack once every three seconds with magic but can trigger Attribute 3. Statistically, Doya has a higher chance of triggering Attribute 2.

And Doya’s abilities go beyond that.

Even when kiting a long-tailed crocodile and attacking at the same time, she could still shoot two arrows per second. If she focused solely on attacking, her speed would be even higher.

And if she had a light bow to boost her speed...

Su You took back the Flame Demon set from Dolly. After a moment’s thought, she decided to give it to Doya.

Lyle was also skilled with daggers, but as a melee fighter, he’d waste time dodging attacks, reducing his output. To maximize the set’s attributes, an archer was the best choice.

Sometimes, it’s not about how many attributes you can trigger, but about making the right choice for the situation.

...

...

Late at night, a faintly glowing blue flower quietly bloomed. Under the firelight, its soft petals sparkled like starlight.

It should have been a beautiful moment, but everyone in Sunset Territory was on edge.

Even the NPCs, who couldn’t see the information panels, could sense that something was off in the air.

(End of chapter)"

"149. The Attack of the Dark Creatures (2)

For a brief moment, it felt as if their very breath had stopped. When they snapped back to their senses, they immediately noticed a strange, repulsive stench filling the air.

Meck was clearly more familiar and sensitive to this odor than the others. The instant he detected it, he frowned, stood up from the bench, and made his way to the tall tower Su You had finished building that afternoon.

There were only three such towers near the city gates. The two on either side were for Meck and Doya to use during battle, while the third, set a bit farther away, was reserved by Su You for herself to observe the fight.

As for Lyle and Lake, they wouldn’t be fighting the dark creatures for now. If they wanted to join the battle, they’d have to go outside, but as always, the night was far too dangerous without the protection of the city’s heartfire.

Only if Doya and Meck, along with the nearby intermediate arrow towers, couldn’t hold the line, would they consider opening the stone gate to let the dark creatures inside the territory, so Lyle and Lake could help deal with or relieve some of the pressure from the attack.

“They’re here…” Doya seemed to sense something as well.

She, too, climbed up onto one of the towers, just like Meck.

“Do either of you know how to use an arrow tower? Or have any experience with bows?” Su You asked Lyle and Lake, who, though clearly nervous, seemed a bit bored with nothing to do.

Lyle and Lake shook their heads. “No.”

That was within Su You’s expectations. If they had such skills, it would have shown up on their information panels.

Still, Su You pointed to two of the intermediate arrow towers and said, “It’s fine if you don’t. If you want, you can give it a try.”

Their technique might not be great, but as long as they didn’t have negative talents related to archery—like Meck, who not only lacked any cooking talent but actually had a negative one—even basic participation could boost the arrow towers’ combat effectiveness.

Even if they just stood on the towers and did nothing, their presence would still provide some attribute bonuses to the towers.

“We’ll give it a try.” Lyle and Lake each climbed up onto the arrow towers Su You had indicated.

Once everyone was in position, the darkness outside seemed to grow even more oppressive, as if something unnatural was lurking within it. Standing atop her observation tower, Su You could clearly see that the area outside the city looked like a pot of boiling oil.

Though it was pitch black, she could somehow make out strange shapes churning in the darkness.

Suddenly—

A blob of “black sludge” slammed into the stone wall.

Su You frowned, but before she could say anything, Meck immediately cast a spell, wrapping the black sludge in magic and burning it to ashes.

“These are the dark creatures. Be careful, everyone.” Indeed, that blob of black sludge was a dark creature.

Dark creatures had no fixed form; they looked like lumps of black modeling clay—or perhaps slimes?

Call them what you will, these things were the dark creatures, the enemies they would face tonight.

They could change shape at will, only molding themselves into a more defined form when they needed to attack or defend.

Since they were still in their slime state, they couldn’t attack yet. But this wasn’t a turn-based game—if they didn’t attack, Su You would simply activate the arrow towers’ auto-attack, targeting the nearest slime.

[Dark Remnant]

HP: 300/300

Attack: 50

Defense: 10

…

“Dark Remnant” was the name for these dark creatures in their slime form. Before they shifted into a specific shape, they had high attack, low defense, and moderate HP.

As two arrows struck the nearest Dark Remnant, two large “-20”s floated up from above it. Its HP dropped from 300 to 260.

Even before Su You attacked, Meck—irritated from staying up late—had already begun chanting a fire spell that could deal area damage. He just wanted to get rid of these black things as quickly as possible and go back to sleep!

“Flame Rain—” As soon as the chant ended, a cluster of fiery red flames appeared, hovering above the area outside the city where the dark creatures were most densely gathered.

Before the creatures could react, the flames rained down like a storm.

Illuminated by the fire, everyone could clearly see the road outside was covered in blobs of black sludge.

Su You quickly counted—she could see about seventeen or eighteen of these black masses, meaning there were at least that many Dark Remnants in this wave. As for whether there were more hidden elsewhere, she couldn’t be sure for now.

As she finished counting, the searing flames fell onto the black sludge, igniting it like a barrel of oil. The sludge exploded, splattering sticky, disgusting black goo everywhere—

“Hiss—”

“Grrr—”

Though the Flame Rain was impressive, Meck was still only a novice mage and couldn’t unleash its full power. After the spell, the dark creatures had only lost about a tenth of their HP.

But that was already impressive—ten percent meant 30 HP, and at least seven or eight creatures were hit, so the Flame Rain had dealt over 200 points of damage!

This was exactly why Su You insisted on having a mage—area-of-effect spells were just too powerful.

As the fire burned the black sludge and the ground, the dark creatures outside let out wails and roars, some mournful, some furious. The sounds pierced the night, sending chills down everyone’s spines.

Su You was fine—she’d seen this kind of thing many times and wasn’t fazed in the slightest. She could even eat a bowl of rice with a straight face while watching.

Meck also had strong nerves. In fact, the more disgusting he found these things, the faster he chanted, eager to burn them all to ashes.

The others weren’t doing as well.

Doya, Lyle, and Lake—though none of them were exactly sheltered—had never seen dark creatures in person before. For a moment, they struggled to stomach the sight of the sticky, nauseating mess.

(End of chapter)"

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