Chapter 151: Attack of the Dark Creatures 4

Now that Su You noticed the difficulty had increased, she was quite worried that this would make the elite monsters even stronger—or give them even more troublesome abilities.

Judging by their current progress, Su You felt that this wave of dark creatures wasn’t actually that difficult—there were a lot of them, but the pressure wasn’t particularly high.

After all, in practical terms, they didn’t even need to open the gates to let Lyle and Lake out to fight. Just a few arrow towers, plus Duoya and Meck, were enough to wipe out this batch of dark creatures.

Granted, this was partly because Su You had prepared thoroughly and, with some luck, managed to recruit Duoya and Meck. Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that things weren’t so simple.

A familiar sense of unease crept in. Su You forced herself to calm down and carefully observed the situation outside... But since the dark creatures almost blended into the night, even with her keen eyesight, it was impossible to pick out those pitch-black shapes in the darkness.

And maybe it was just her imagination, but Su You felt like there were even more dark creatures down there than she could see... They’d already killed so many, yet below, the mass of darkness still surged like a black swamp. Staring at it too long even gave her the illusion that she might get sucked in herself.

“Lord, there are still a lot of dark creatures down there,” Duoya said, frowning as she fired her arrows, voicing her own sense that something was off.

She hadn’t counted exactly how many she’d killed, but with two empty quivers (each holding fifty arrows), and knowing her own damage output, she could estimate she’d taken out at least twenty-something dark creatures!

Even without counting Meck’s kills, Lyle and Lake should have managed to kill at least a dozen between them, even if they weren’t that strong.

Not to mention the other automated intermediate arrow towers!

Those towers must have killed at least ten as well.

All together, that was close to fifty dark creatures! That number just didn’t add up!

And after observing for a while, Su You noticed another problem—

These dark creatures seemed to be constantly moving toward the territory, but something was affecting them, slowing them down so much that they were killed before they could even get close.

At this point, the territory’s defensive structures had only lost a bit of durability from the initial attack; since then, they’d barely taken any damage and were still almost at full strength.

“Lyle, Lake, go down and guard the stone gate,” Su You ordered as soon as she realized something was wrong.

Even if the durability was dropping slowly, it was still dropping. She couldn’t just stand by and watch it get depleted.

These dark creatures seemed endless. Since they couldn’t kill them all, it was better to stop attacking for now, to avoid triggering some kind of negative chain reaction.

As long as the stone gate was held, she’d have time to think...

The weirdness outside clearly wasn’t caused by ordinary dark creature mobs. If even the small fry were this tough, she might as well give up—the mobs would be unbeatable, and it would be game over.

“It’s the elite monster causing this...” If it wasn’t the mobs, then it had to be the elite monster’s doing.

Even though it was dark outside, Meck’s fire attacks gave off some light, so Su You could just barely make out what was happening.

But after watching carefully for a long time, she still didn’t spot the elite monster—just piles of ordinary dark creature remains everywhere... Unless there was no elite monster in this wave, it must be hiding on purpose.

Besides, if it were a combat-type elite, it might not charge in first, but it wouldn’t be hiding either. Would it really wait until all its minions were dead before taking on everyone by itself?

Su You strongly suspected she was dealing with a non-combat elite monster. Non-combat elites had almost no fighting ability—much like lord players—but they usually had all sorts of strange skills, most of which boosted the dark creatures’ offensive power.

If she was right, this elite’s skill was probably something like summoning or resurrection, which would explain why the dark creatures kept coming endlessly.

She’d reached a conclusion, but it didn’t help much—she still couldn’t find it, because it was just too dark outside.

Night was like a natural cloak of invisibility for dark creatures.

Su You thought for a moment, then turned to Meck for help. “Something’s wrong, Meck. I need a light spell—there’s an elite monster hiding out there.”

“Got it.” After hurling another fireball down below, Meck picked up his staff. “I can only keep it up for five seconds.”

Illumination magic was the most basic of beginner spells, but because it was so dark outside and the area to be lit was so large—and with his own power suppressed—Meck could only maintain the spell for five seconds if he wanted to light up the whole area.

“Shrink the area a bit—just light up the edges, not the center,” Su You said. The center was the most dangerous spot; even AOE (area-of-effect) splash damage could hit other monsters, so there was no way the elite would hide somewhere so risky.

Besides lacking combat power, elites were also notoriously fragile—easy to kill if you could find them.

“Ten seconds,” Meck replied, raising his staff a little higher.

“Lyle, Lake, stay alert and defend!” Su You shouted as she saw Meck preparing the spell.

A few seconds later, the world outside lit up as if someone had switched on a giant bulb, turning night into day all around them.

Su You could clearly sense the dark creatures outside freeze for a split second.

Then, as if injected with adrenaline, they suddenly charged furiously at the territory’s gate and stone walls.

With their assault, the gate and walls—which had only lost a few dozen points of durability before—now began to lose durability rapidly... faster and faster...!

Fortunately, Su You had reinforced the stone walls and gate. The gate’s durability had doubled from 1,000 to 2,000, and the walls had gone from 800 to 1,500.

Lyle and Lake, who had already come down from the arrow towers, stood tensely at the gate, fists clenched, watching as the stone gate shook under the relentless assault—still sturdy, but clearly under strain...

(End of chapter)"

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