Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 25 Sandstorm Scorpion

Sandy Plains was situated near the Human race’s Sunset City. It was not a fertile land. Howling winds blew over the plains constantly, creating sandstorm that obstructed one’s vision. The in-game timer was at sunset when Ye Ci arrived at Sandy Plains.

The setting sun was like a huge ball of fire that scorched the land.

Ye Ci could only squint at the road as she made her way to the Flowing Sand village. She purchased a gauze cap from the tailor with 1 silver coin. The cap had no special uses aside from shielding its wearer against the raging sandstorm.

Ye Ci was relieved after putting on the cap.

She travelled into the depth of Sandy Plains from Flowing Sand Village with Ol’ Three, the latter of whom had reached 80 Loyalty points.

Sandy Plains was the map hosting the dungeon Forest of Stone. There were not many players around as the minimum level requirement for the players to enter the dungeon was lv8. If they followed the flow of their main quest, they would have reached here by the time they were at least lv11 or lv12.

That was why Ye Ci didn’t encounter many other players on her way to her destination aside from a few parties. Ye Ci was not in a hurry. Her main aim was not the Forest of Stone. She was going after the Wild BOSS of Sandy Plains — Sandstorm Scorpion.

Sandstorm Scorpion was a lv15 BOSS that spawns once every 10 days. If it was not defeated within 3 days of its appearance, it would disappear until the next reset.

Ye Ci had been keeping track of wild World BOSSes ever since Fate was launched. Although the lv5 Wild BOSS Rabid Boar was slain, there was no news regarding the Sandstorm Scorpion.

The position of the Sandstorm Scorpion played an important role.

There were no monsters in the Sandy Plains except for some lv1 and occasionally lv2 Yellow named (neutral monsters). The players arriving at the place were at least lv10. They had no time for the neutral monsters. Their goal was the Forest of Stone dungeon.

Besides that, the Sandstorm Scorpion was well hidden. It was hidden beneath the sands and would never attack unless a player directly stepped on it....

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Ye Ci walked as slow as possible on the warm and soft sand. She had deviated quite far from the Forest of Stones and was the only one within visual range.

This was where the Sandstorm Scorpion was hiding itself.

In a quiet and isolated corner of the Sandy Plains, a BOSS that would sought after by countless players in the later stages of the game, Sandstorm Scorpion, laid in wait.

The sands beneath Ye Ci’s feet gave way all of a sudden...

It appeared!

Ye Ci leapt backwards like a kite unaffected by gravity. Ol’ Three was already on the move, casting Taunt on the shifting sands. Ye Ci had also casted her Hunter’s Mark and Snake Venom Needle in the blink of an eye.

Critical! Armor Penetration! -571

Ye Ci laughed at the damage she dealt.

Critical Strikes and Armor Penetration were rare against a World Boss, but her first attack achieved just that.

She performed several attacks in the blink of an eye, heavily damaging the Sandstorm Scorpion which had yet emerged from the sand.

The Sandstorm Scorpion was agitated. It crawled out of the sands, raising its two gigantic pincers and tail stinger with angry hisses. It ignored Ol’ Three’s Taunt and charged straight at Ye Ci.

The BOSS was 3 to 5 times larger than Ol’ Three. It appeared intimidating with its black carapace gleaming underneath the red sun.

Ye Ci was fast, but the Sandstorm Scorpion was even faster than her. Just as it was about to grab Ye Ci....

She jumped onto one of its pincers and somersaulted away. The Sandstorm Scorpion grew even more agitated and this process repeated several times. Its red eyes glared at Ye Ci menacingly.

Ye Ci repeated again the maneuver she had been using on the scorpion but immediately felt a sharp pain. She was stung.

“You have been poisoned.”

The system notification chimed in, announcing Ye Ci’s status. She creased her eyebrows and jumped onto a poplar tree not far away.

The Sandstorm Scorpion was still charging at Ye Ci angrily in the direction of the tree.

As Ye Ci landed in front of the poplar tree, she could hear a loud “crack” from behind her.

A smile formed on Ye Ci’s lips.

She had succeeded.

She turned around slowly while chugging down a health potion and chuckled at her handiwork.

The upper torso of the Sandstorm Scorpion was stuck in between a few poplar trees. The branches were like a steel cage, entrapping the Sandstorm Scorpion. Its two pincers were entangled between the branches and its stinger was trapped as well. It could do nothing but hiss angrily at Ye Ci.

A wild World BOSS was far superior than a BOSS in the dungeons. They had a very low spawn rate and were way tougher than a dungeon BOSS of the same level. A more important factor was that World BOSSes had a wider movement area in the wild, gravely increasing their lethality.

Of course, a wild World BOSS would drop rare loots such as mounts, special accessories, and treasure maps..... Those were things that normal BOSSes could never produce.

That was also a main reason why players would camp at the spawn locations of World Bosses at the later stages of Fate.

Ye Ci bandaged the sole of her foot and directed Ol’ Three towards the Sandstorm Scorpion, allowing it to attack at will.

The scorpion was too venomous! If not for her fast reaction time as well as the large amount of health potions she carried, Ye Ci would’ve died right there and then.

The strategy of trapping the Sandstorm Scorpion between the poplar trees was not originally Ye Ci’s idea. She had learnt it from a video that was taken down by Fate officials 3 minutes right after its release. They claimed that it was a BUG exploitation.

The BUG took three whole days to be rectified after the release of the video. Within that period of time, Ye Ci did nothing but train vigorously to achieve the bug.

She finally mastered the art after dozens of times. By the time the BUG was repaired, Ye Ci had already memorised all the necessary steps.

It was because of her practice that Ye Ci that could easily entrap the Sandstorm Scorpion at lv12.

After burning through 3 bottles of Large Health Potions and dozens of bandages, Ye Ci finally escaped from the verge of death. Staring at the few bandages she had left, she decided to hand more fabrics to Flutter n’ Sway for her to craft more bandages.

Life is precious.

Ye Ci stood up and walked up to a spot where she could have the best view of the Sandstorm Scorpion. She began to fire arrow after arrow at the BOSS.

Wild World BOSSes were indeed rare creatures. The Sandstorm Scorpion, at lv15, had an astonishing 800,000 hit points. It took her approximately 4 hours to finish off the Sandstorm Scorpion.

As usual, the system allowed Ye Ci the choice of revealing her name, to which she declined.

Red words flooded the system channel, “Player xxx have successfully slain the lv15 wild World BOSS, Sandstorm Scorpion, alone and survived. Special rewards: Global Prestige Points x 3000, Sunset City Prestige Points x 10000, 100 Gold Coins, 3 Talent points!”

“Player xxx have successfully slain the lv15 wild World BOSS, Sandstorm Scorpion, alone and survived. Special rewards: Global Prestige Points x 3000, Sunset City Prestige Points x 10000, 100 Gold Coins, 3 Talent points!”

......

The world channel and official forums went mad. It was not because of the 3 Talent points, nor was it because of the wild World BOSS. It was because of the word “alone”.

World BOSSes was synonymous to meat grinders. And someone had slain a World BOSS alone! How could the players not go crazy with this news?

The madness and mayhem had nothing to do with Ye Ci. At that moment, there was only one word that could describe her, and the word was — tired.

She was so tired that she almost threw up.

Ye Ci could no longer feel her arms. Her Stamina was still lacking. She was lucky she had the overpowered skill that could replenish her mana. A normal person would not be able to last three to four hours of continuous attack without consuming vast amounts of mana potions...