Mo Fan was never one to speak nimbly. As soon as he thought of what to say, Ye Xiu had logged off. For a ten player dungeon, Ye Xiu would obviously choose to use Lord Grim over Sullen Kitten.
Gray Corner.
One of the six new areas.
It was located in the southeast region of the Heavenly Domain mainland. It was the largest of the six new areas and the one with the most dungeons.
Gray Corner had three five-player dungeons, one ten-player dungeon, one twenty-player dungeon, one fifty-player dungeon, and one hundred-player dungeon. Every dungeon option was available at Gray Corner.
All six new areas opened simultaneously, but if you followed the quest chains, the areas were linked together in certain places. Gray Corner was considered the final map for those who were rushing to Level 75.
Gray Corner was set up as a gray area, where fish and dragons mixed together. This sort of place was an especially vicious and atrocious place. Gray Corner’s ten player dungeon was located inside the city, but it wasn’t difficult to find. If you went through the teleportation formation to the city, you would find it rather quickly.
Ten player dungeon: Underground Market.
Yes, the Underground Market became a place of slaughter. The environment of Gray Corner could clearly be seen here.
Happy’s team of ten didn’t talk too much about this place and quickly reached the dungeon entrance. It was already four in the morning. The number of players in the game had decreased significantly compared to before, especially near ten-player dungeons. There weren’t many sightseeing teams left. Even if you were just there to take a look around, it still used your dungeon entry.
Without saying a word, the team entered the dungeon.
The monsters in the Underground Market looked like dutiful buyers and sellers, but the fight they put wasn’t any worse than those Sealed Mountain Thieves. The team followed their usual strategy. Lord Grim assumed the role of the main tank. Everyone fought cautiously against them as if these monsters were all bosses. After familiarizing themselves with the features of these monsters and a certain level of coordination had been established, they slowly increased their speed through the dungeon.
The Underground Market had five bosses, just like Sealed Mountain Thief Hideout. It took them longer to familiarize themselves with the monsters this time. They had already spent around forty minutes before meeting the boss.
Blackhearted Peddler Niles. He had a ferocious appearance. It looked like he’d have more of a future as thief than a peddler. When this guy appeared, he wasn’t alone. He dragged his entire gang of hoodlums into the fray. As soon as he saw Lord Grim and the others emerge, he shouted for them to attack. There was no time for any sort of negotiation. The aggression towards them was completely unreasonable.
Team Happy was helpless. Wei Chen cursed at the system’s stupidity, but they could only square up and face them.
Including Niles, there were ten enemies, the same as the player count.
Fortunately, the team’s strength was up to par. Moreover, at Sealed Mountain Thief Hideout against Advisor Frigid Eagle, they had some practice on how to deal with a mob of monsters with the same numbers as them. The only difference was that the boss had come out to battle as well. The boss led the assault too. Before the two sides clashed, he raised his hands and roared. A shadow flew out. On their side, Steamed Bun cried out, "Ah!"
Steamed Bun Invasion had been hit. His "Ah!" appeared to be of a cry of joy though.
Soon afterwards, Steamed Bun’s overjoyed voice followed: "He’s a Brawler!"
Everyone was speechless.
Blackhearted Peddler Niles had thrown a brick. It was the Brawler’s Brick Buster. Steamed Bun seemed to have found a sense of belonging with the boss.
"Let me deal with him!" Steamed Bun wanted to rush over.
"First, deal with that one next to you. I’ll handle him for now." Ye Xiu hastily said. Even with a five level disadvantage, Tang Rou and Steamed Bun wouldn’t have any problems dueling small mobs. However, against an unfamiliar ten-player dungeon boss, Ye Xiu felt like it was more reliable for him to be the one to sense out the boss. After all, he was more experienced. Even though the boss was unfamiliar, just from his actions so far, he could already make numerous predictions. Tang Rou and Steamed Bun didn’t have the ability to do that just yet.
Steamed Bun didn’t object to Ye Xiu’s words. He turned his hands and threw the brick at the monster next to him, while saying: "Okay boss! Take good care of him for me!"
"Sure….." Ye Xiu replied and then went to block Niles.
In this chaotic battle, An Wenyi once again had the most pressure on him. If any of them messed up, the healing pressure on him was enormous.
The experience felt scarier than the outcome. Apart from the boss, his nine followers were cleared away rather easily. During this time, Ye Xiu had grasped the boss’s attack patterns. Afterwards, he adjusted their formation and everyone attacked. Everything went smoothly. Soon, the boss reached red blood. Ye Xiu waited the instant before the boss turned Enraged before escaping, while everyone else retreated first. Nile’s Enrage wasn’t a terrifying killer move though, and he quickly fell under their attacks.
First Kill!
As expected, a First Kill appeared for a mini-boss in this dungeon. The team was pleased with the outcome. The outside players quietly cursed. The club guilds continued to cry.
Not waiting for Ye Xiu to speak up, Mo Fan checked the DPS charts.
As soon as he checked, his mind went blank. He hoped Ye Xiu would forget to check just like he did in the five-player dungeon.
But Ye Xiu just had to mention it. He even added more fuel to the fire: "Didn’t that someone want to check the DPS charts just a moment ago?"
That someone had been Mo Fan of course. He had already checked the charts. When he heard Ye Xiu point at him, he couldn’t help but tighten his grip around the mouse.
Everything seemed to be the same as Sealed Mountain Thief Hideout.
Number one was Dawn Rifle. Wu Chen had come from the pro scene. His skill was practiced. Launchers were high DPS characters to begin with, so Wu Chen’s performance had stayed on top.
Number two was Lord Grim. This time, he wasn’t higher than Dawn Rifle, but his pull over the aggro was very steady, so his DPS wasn’t far behind Dawn Rifle’s. He also belonged in the top ranks of the DPS chart.
Third and fourth place was Soft Mist and Steamed Bun Invasion. Fifth place was Windward Formation. Sixth place was One Inch Ash.
Seventh, eighth, ninth belonged to the sandbaggers: Deception, Concealed Light, Chasing Haze.
However, Concealed Light and Chasing Haze had good reason for their poor DPS. Everyone recognized their contributions.
Mo Fan wanted to go mad. What’s going on? Why is my DPS a total mess when I play with the team? It wasn’t like that in the five-player dungeon!
Not even mentioning how far away the six above him were, just among the three in the bottom group, Chen Guo’s Chasing Haze was only slightly lower than Deception and Concealed Light. Although Concealed Light lost to Deception by only a bit, Mo Fan knew very well that Ye Xiu had restricted his usage of summons to just four. It was only under these restrictions that Concealed Light had lost to him. If it was under normal circumstances and Concealed Light went all out? Deception would probably lose by quite a lot more.
In reality, Deception had even lost to the four summons Concealed Light occasionally.
"Mm, the DPS chart is still like this. There’s nothing much to say. Those who did well, keep up the good work. Those who did bad, continue being a deadweight." Ye Xiu said.
Everyone knew who he was pointing to. They laughed and then continued onwards. Mo Fan was in turmoil. Deception seemed to be swaying when he moved.
The team continued to clear monsters and clear bosses.
They advanced through the second boss and third boss. Every time they checked the DPS carts, Deception continued to falter.
Mo Fan was about to fall apart. He resisted asking about it because he knew that Ye Xiu was trying to make him realize something through these unsatisfactory results. If he asked, wouldn’t that mean he was doing what that guy wanted? Mo Fan endured and endured. He swore that he would find what the problem was on his own.
But as a result, he wasn’t able to focus. Ye Xiu’s instructions never included him. When the fourth boss fell, Mo Fan wasn’t careful and actually died.
In dungeons, deaths happened. The probability of equipment dropping was rather low. After all, dying was normal in a dungeon, so the penalty was much smaller to not excessively destroy a player’s morale.
Today just wasn’t Mo Fan’s day though. When he died, he actually dropped a piece of equipment.
But at this moment, how could Mo Fan be hurt over a piece of equipment? His character was kicked from the dungeon. Mo Fan continued to be in a daze.
Everyone continued to quietly take care of the fourth boss. No one said anything. Console him? It wasn’t worth wasting their breath!
The loss of Deception didn’t affect the battle much. The fourth boss soon fell and another First Kill record was announced.
"Continue." Mo Fan’s Deception wasn’t there. As expected, Ye XIu didn’t bring up the DPS chart and the team advanced.
Deception was still standing outside of the dungeon in a daze. Mo Fan was also staring blankly from his seat.
Why?
Mo Fan wasn’t thinking about why he died. Because he knew that it was his mistake. If he hadn’t been careless, he wouldn’t have died there.
He was still thinking about his DPS.
Although he couldn’t see the fourth boss statistics, he didn’t think there’d be much of a difference compared to before.
Because he couldn’t find a breakthrough direction, he felt like he had hit a wall. However, was the reason why the others were outdamaging him because they were that much better than him?
Mo Fan looked around.
With a cigarette in his mouth and smoke obscuring his face, Ye Xiu.
With a look of hatred on his face and the occasional cursing, Wei Chen.
With his brows raised and his eyes laughing, and who knew what he was so happy about, Steamed Bun.
Mo Fan couldn’t keep looking around. Why was his DPS lower than theirs! Why?
Mo Fan needed a logical explanation. He knew that Ye Xiu definitely knew the reason, but compared to asking him, Mo Fan would rather spend ten times the effort to look for the issue.
Everyone continued to dungeon. Mo Fan started looking through today’s DPS charts. He was going to thoroughly study them.
Starting from Sealed Mountain Thief Hideout to Gray Corner’s Underground Market, the DPS charts hadn’t change much. The high-performing ones were just those and the bottom feeders had always been the three of them.
Mo Fan checked each and every boss, but couldn’t find any clues.
There was also the five player dungeon. Mo Fan checked those. Even though he also lost to Wu Chen’s Dawn Rifle, the difference wasn’t that big. That Wu Chen really was quite good too. Just by looking at his good sitting posture and calm face, he seemed a lot more like an expert compared to those other guys.
As he looked through the statistics for the five-player dungeon and the ten-player dungeons, Mo Fan suddenly noticed a difference.
He didn’t look at their rankings, but rather the damage.
From the five-player dungeon to the ten-player dungeon, his DPS had dropped. That was normal. Ten-player dungeons were much harder than five-player dungeons.
But the others? In the ten-player dungeons, not only did their DPS not fall, their DPS had actually gone up.
Was that the reason? Just how were they playing?