Chapter 264: BOSS Strategy Team

Ahead lay an entrance flanked by towering gray-black cliffs.

Above the entrance hung a high sun, emitting an eerie green light that, when illuminated by it, gave one a dizzying sensation.

Sterl's vision was filled with a series of alerts.

[You have entered a chaotic area.]

[Warning: In this area, restrictions on attacks between members of the Hall of Valor cannot be enforced!!]

[Warning: In this area, all information cannot be transmitted normally. If killed by other members of the Hall of Valor, the Hall of Valor will be unable to determine if it was a mutual kill among members.]

[Warning: In this area, death will cause certain skills that transport souls to specific areas for resurrection to become ineffective.]

A series of blood-red alerts sent a chill through Sterl. Indeed, this Heavenly Curtain Canyon was anything but simple.

Before he could take any formal action, Sterl noticed a ripple in space behind him.

Using his spatial awareness, he quickly analyzed the newcomers—

It was a very standard mid-sized team, complete with front-line fighters, priests, mages, and controlling assassins, each position staffed with about 3 to 4 members.

As expected, a group of players clad in fine gear, all bearing the same insignia, stepped forward.

It seemed they all belonged to a high-ranking guild.

About twenty people in total filled the entrance to the canyon.

Sterl had initially planned to keep his distance from this group, even thinking he would wait for them to enter the canyon before making his move.

However, after some hushed discussions among the guild players, a young girl with a delicate appearance approached him with a smile.

"Um...

This young man," she began,

"Your strength seems to be only third-class. What brings you here? If you're here to do a task, why not join our team?"

"We've brought plenty of supplies, and our inventory is running low. You could contribute your inventory to us for materials."

"Of course, we'd need to sign a contract to prevent you from absconding with our goods."

Sterl was momentarily stunned, quickly grasping the meaning behind their words.

Earlier, Sonis and Sosia had mentioned that many materials could be purchased within the Hall of Valor. These resources couldn't possibly be supplied by the Hall of Valor itself; with so many players continuously buying materials, they would eventually run out.

Instead, they were being sold by other players, with the Hall of Valor merely taking a cut and providing the platform.

In fact, many players within the Hall of Valor spent their days accepting tasks, heading to task locations to complete their objectives while gathering materials, filling their inventories to the brim before returning to town to sell their goods.

In high-risk maps like the Heavenly Curtain Canyon, there were even legendary peak bosses.

Even with a legendary peak player leading a team of well-coordinated legendary players, taking them down would still be incredibly challenging. They needed to bring various buffs, supplies, and escape items along.

In such situations, players' inventories often became quite limited.

Their invitation for Sterl was simply for an extra inventory slot to store items.

Not everyone could have a small world like Sterl, where they could store as many items as they wished.

Naturally, Sterl smiled and shook his head. "I'm just here to broaden my horizons and haven't taken on any tasks, so I won't be intruding further."

After refusing, he didn't wait for the group to react and stepped into the canyon solo, disappearing after a wave of spatial fluctuations.

At that moment, the guild members frowned slightly. "Can you believe he actually turned us down?"

He understood why the boss strategy team had invited him; their inventories must not have been sufficient.

Before he even encountered the boss, he was already overwhelmed by the various special monsters that the Heavenly Curtain Canyon produced.

The Desert Fire Lizard was the easiest to deal with.

However, for Sterl, it was relatively easy to handle. His various buffs stacked together, resulting in an extremely high output.

For that boss strategy team, clearing thousands, even tens of thousands, of Desert Fire Lizards wouldn't be so straightforward. They would need to maintain their formation and spend 1 to 2 minutes clearing them out.

It seemed manageable, but the Desert Fire Lizard dealt consistent damage, meaning that spending a minute or two under the relentless assault of thousands of these small monsters would lead to significant health losses.

Just managing this wave would require a considerable amount of potions.

Of course, the boss strategy team might have prepared specific items for this situation, but again, it would take up inventory space.

Next, he encountered a type of large mantis monster. These creatures had extraordinarily powerful hidden abilities, striking with high damage after remaining undetected, and they were legendary-level monsters.

Sterl had grown accustomed to being cautious, so he always used Star Insight to scan the area first. It was then that he discovered these monsters, but they launched a surprise attack from stealth, and six of them appeared at once.

Fortunately, Sterl's Rain Curtain Sword had an automatic protection feature, slicing the mantises into pieces.

His blood force increased by 0.04.

Then there were butterfly-like monsters that self-destructed upon defeat, and fast-attacking creatures that hid in their shells—Sterl could only counterattack when they made their move.

For the former, he used Moon Law to immobilize them and avoided the self-detonation. For the latter, Sterl's output was so high that he simply broke through their shells.

His blood force increased by another 0.08.

After finishing off the monsters, Sterl couldn't help but reflect on how much trouble that legendary peak team must have faced while dealing with these wild creatures!

Of course, while these monsters were tough to beat, they dropped some excellent loot.

Sterl had already collected several pieces of legendary-level equipment and multiple golden skill books. However, he didn't intend to use any of these resources; he tossed everything into his small world.

After grinding monsters for a while, Sterl's blood force finally reached 0.4 points.

At this point, as the surrounding monsters had been mostly cleared out, his rate of gaining blood force and experience had noticeably slowed.

Fortunately, he had a plan...

Sterl seized a severely wounded Desert Fire Lizard.

With a flick of his finger, he cast Star Point Finger.

Immediately, the creature collapsed.

The effect of Starlight Spray triggered.

Sterl held the corpse of the Desert Fire Lizard and began spinning it rapidly in midair, unleashing countless blue threads that shot outwards.

This was a result of his improvements to the skill through Arcane Law.

The potency of Starlight Spray was minimized, but the number of threads generated from overflow damage surged dramatically.

They spread across the Heavenly Curtain Canyon, reaching countless locations.

Many wild monsters that were hit simply rolled lazily, hardly aware they had been injured.

But for Sterl, this was more than sufficient.

Cursed Vision activated!

Instantly, an array of monsters fell within his line of sight, and the most exciting discovery for Sterl was—

He had finally located the core target for this venture.