With Aquaramparts rising up right before him one after another, Qin Ruo’s Defense was like an iron bucket.
Although the Frostlances, the Frost Arrows, the Icicle Barrages covered the sky as they rained upon Qin Ruo from the opposite with loud noises, unstoppable and seemed to be able to destroy Qin Ruo, everything was just a graphical presentation. Qin Ruo had already mentally calculated the true impact of those attacks. His expression remained unchanged as he stood still in the middle of the lake, holding on to his staff and his shield. He cast his enchantments as fast as he could. He treated the Snow Wolves, which were having difficulties moving through water, as if they did not exist at all. Qin Ruo only focused on setting up more Aquaramparts in front of him.
Seven, eight…
Puff! Puff! Puff!
The Aquaramparts penetrated through the Water Magic Attacks, leaving holes in each of the Aquaramparts. In the splashing water, Qin Ruo felt a little dizzy after he saw all that happened. But then again, he could barely maintain the outer appearance of the Aquaramparts so that the walls were not directly struck down by the attacks. At the same time, he also continued to cast more Aquaramparts.
As the Aquaramparts increased, the amount of MP that Qin Ruo needed with every passing second also increased. In order to make sure that he could completely cast the estimated number of Aquaramparts required in the shortest amount of time, Qin Ruo did not dare to delay even by a bit. He made his calculation in that unprecedented stressful situation as he cast and controlled his skills.
In just a few seconds, Qin Ruo had lost count of the number of Water Magic Attacks that penetrated the Aquaramparts he had cast as the attacks landed on the Aquabarrier outside his body. But after the effects of the attacks were weakened by several Aquaramparts as Qin Ruo also relied on his own Magic Defense and his job’s resistance, these Magic Attacks were no longer a huge threat to him. (Qin Ruo’s attacks had been partially weakened by the Snow Wolves’ Resistance. The attacks from the Snow Wolves were also weakened)
After the attacks were weakened by the Aquaramparts Qin Ruo cast, the amount of damage caused had been greatly limited. But, there were also one or two moments that shocked him pretty good during that period of time.
Two Frostlances, whether or not they slipped through the net, came through with the other attacks as the momentum of the two Frostlances was not weakened at all. It penetrated through the Barrier and landed on Qin Ruo. The impacts of the two attacks almost blasted Qin Ruo into the depth of the lake, causing the ten Aquaramparts that he was working on to shatter.
Fortunately for him, the Freezing Effect did not affect him. Qin Ruo had also reacted to the extremely perilous moment when he changed the state of his Aquaramparts.
“Ice!”
The ten Aquaramparts that were standing tall in the lake instantly froze.
The Twelve Frostrampart Formation activated.
The chill in the air of the Frostsnow Island intensified. Even the Snow Wolves that were Water-type monsters roared in extreme shock and fear when the Twelve Frostrampart Formation was activated.
“Wu!”
“Woo woo!”
They did not dread the cold air. With their special physiques, they were able to survive in the coldest area without freezing to death. But the thing that caused them to fear was the effect caused by the intense cold in the air.
When the Twelve Frostrampart Formation was activated, the light blue lake became ice cold as the flow of Water Element slowed down and condensed. It took less than two seconds before the lake was completely frozen.
Roaring in fear and misery, the Snow Wolves witnessed the twelve Frostramparts suddenly releasing extreme cold and froze the small lake. They also witnessed the lake water around them froze and stranded them in the middle of thick ice. Only their wolf heads and their snowy backs were exposed. They all looked funny and pathetic.
However…
Though the Snow Wolves were trapped, Qin Ruo had also trapped himself in the ice.
It was funny that Qin Ruo had never expected the lake water to freeze him too. It was an accident he did not anticipate. When he activated the Twelve Frostrampart Formation, Qin Ruo immediately felt his movements limited by a resisting force. He felt like everything was getting tighter and tighter. In just an instant, he felt his entire lower body tightened and he felt suffocated.
Fortunately for him, both of his hands were above the surface of the lake. His hands were not affected. Or else the situation would have been worse—if his hands were frozen, even the simplest magic spell would have been limited too.
But at the moment, it was a little ridiculous. The player was on this side, and there were more than ten Frostramparts in the middle but there were fifty Snow Wolves on the opposite side… all of them frozen in the smooth and clean blue little lake. If someone saw this, they would probably think that this was some exotic place in another country where a man was bathing with the wolves.
It was a great scenery. Unfortunately, Qin Ruo did not have the mood to take a photo with the Snow Wolves. He did not dare to show even the slightest negligence as he quickly said the last word.
“Explode!”
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
More than ten Frostramparts on the surface of the frozen lake instantly exploded at the same time as dust and shards of snow and ice flew all over the place. It looked as if ten gigantic white ice flowers had bloomed. The Frostramparts were “blooming” splendidly above the surface of the lake as the impacts of the explosions expanded toward the fifty poor Snow Wolves.
There was a total of fifteen Frostramparts. With the cautious calculation of Qin Ruo, that was the maximum limit that he could bear on his own. Furthermore, there was a 100% chance that he could wipe out most of the Snow Wolves instantly at the same time. The only price that he had to pay was his MP—it would be less than five points when he was done.
However, Qin Ruo did not expect another accident to happen.
When the fifteen Frostramparts had “bloomed” beautifully, the frozen lake beneath his body had also responded to Qin Ruo’s “explode” command.
It felt like ten kilograms of explosive charges was thrown into the frozen lake, with a violent explosion that was could rouse the deaf and awaken the dead, a huge wave rose.
The ice and snow splashed up high, completely covering the ice and snow that initially filled the sky and covered the earth, causing them to once again fly high up into the sky.
Qin Ruo and the horde of Snow Wolves suffered the same fate—they were blasted out of the area at the same time and fell into the lake water that was no longer cold.
Qin Ruo coughed and was caught by surprise again by another accident. He was being blasted away by the impact and fell into the bottom of the lake. He must have gulped down a great amount of lake water. It was so salty that he started to spit out the vile taste in his mouth.
While looking to the blurry System Notification, Qin Ruo struggled hard to stand back up in the still-violently splashing lake water. There were a few small tsunamis as the lake has yet to calm completely from the impact of the great explosion. With white frosts and snow covering up his vision, circles of gigantic ripples rolled across the lake.
As for the fifty Snow Wolves…
Qin Ruo swiftly glanced at his own Quest Log. The log stated that he had slain fifty Snow Wolves. The first task for his quest was completed!
‘Phew…’
“I have done it!”
Qin Ruo exhaled in relief. He walked towards the corpses of the Snow Wolves floating on the lake. He had completed the first part of the quest without spending even a single bottle of his potions. Although he almost froze himself to death in the process of completing that task, and also almost blown himself to bits and drown, his attempt was technically a success, right?
Feeling a little traumatized and surprised, Qin Ruo gathered the loot dropped by the Snow Wolves at the bottom of the lake.
After he scanned through the loot, Qin Ruo’s interest was piqued.
Haha!
Slayer’s Heart was right about one thing. The drop rate here was extremely high.
This was truly a rare opportunity that only happened once in every ten levels. These fifty Tier 3 Snow Wolves alone had already dropped three pieces of Mana Cores—three pieces of Tier 3 Mana Core cost 1,200 gold coins. That could cover the cost of twenty bottles of MP Potion (M). It was truly fortunate that he did not give up on the quest this time. Or else he would have regretted it for the rest of his life. With the current drop rate, even if he constantly used his Potions to get through the quest, he would still be profiting.
He delightedly chuckled to himself and felt fortunate for a moment. But soon, he found another two pieces of Tier 3 Violet Equipment and a few more pieces of Blue Equipment. He was overwhelmed with joy. F*ck yea! For this sort of quest with this sort of difficulty, the rewards were quite high. But, Qin Ruo remained cautious as he activated his Aquamorph and searched through every inch of the entire area. After ensuring that he did not miss anything behind, he felt very pleased with the result. So, he shifted his focus back to his quest and started to plan and design his own strategies again.
The material rewards were always the factor that could interested Qin Ruo the most to make determined effort to do well. The fact that he had already obtained two pieces of Tier 3 Violet Equipment, three Mana Cores and four pieces of Violet Equipment for completing the first part of the quest, it was possible that the rewards that he would be getting for completing later tasks of the quests would be even better.
Immediately, Qin Ruo cast away his own principles—even if he died in the Advancement Quest, he would not waste a single bottle of MP Potion. He decided that, in the second round of the quest, as long as he did not spend more MP Potions that cost more than what he got in the first round of the quest, he would keep pushing himself to complete the quest.
First, he would have to find and slay thirty Yetis and two Snow Giants. Only then could he check the specific situations for the Ice Pythons and the Wintry Vajra before deciding what he should do next.
***
After readjusting his plan, Qin Ruo continued his journey.
The Frostsnow Island was not that complicated. Standing on the slope, Qin Ruo could see most of the island. Other than the small lake, the valley, there was the snowy mountain that reached into the clouds and looked extremely steep and difficult to climb at the other end of the island.
It seemed impossible to reach the peak of the snowy mountain.
So, the Yetis and the Ice Pythons would most probably be along the route that leads towards the snowy mountain… or perhaps they were in some caves. Due to the great distance, it was impossible for Qin Ruo to use the small lake to his advantage again.
However, the Yetis and the Ice Pythons were not social monsters that lived together closely. Perhaps the difficulty of taking them on was not as great as taking on the Snow Wolves. At least, that was what Qin Ruo told himself to comfort himself.
With Aquaramparts rising up right before him one after another, Qin Ruo’s Defense was like an iron bucket.
Although the Frostlances, the Frost Arrows, the Icicle Barrages covered the sky as they rained upon Qin Ruo from the opposite with loud noises, unstoppable and seemed to be able to destroy Qin Ruo, everything was just a graphical presentation. Qin Ruo had already mentally calculated the true impact of those attacks. His expression remained unchanged as he stood still in the middle of the lake, holding on to his staff and his shield. He cast his enchantments as fast as he could. He treated the Snow Wolves, which were having difficulties moving through water, as if they did not exist at all. Qin Ruo only focused on setting up more Aquaramparts in front of him.
Seven, eight…
Puff! Puff! Puff!
The Aquaramparts penetrated through the Water Magic Attacks, leaving holes in each of the Aquaramparts. In the splashing water, Qin Ruo felt a little dizzy after he saw all that happened. But then again, he could barely maintain the outer appearance of the Aquaramparts so that the walls were not directly struck down by the attacks. At the same time, he also continued to cast more Aquaramparts.
As the Aquaramparts increased, the amount of MP that Qin Ruo needed with every passing second also increased. In order to make sure that he could completely cast the estimated number of Aquaramparts required in the shortest amount of time, Qin Ruo did not dare to delay even by a bit. He made his calculation in that unprecedented stressful situation as he cast and controlled his skills.
In just a few seconds, Qin Ruo had lost count of the number of Water Magic Attacks that penetrated the Aquaramparts he had cast as the attacks landed on the Aquabarrier outside his body. But after the effects of the attacks were weakened by several Aquaramparts as Qin Ruo also relied on his own Magic Defense and his job’s resistance, these Magic Attacks were no longer a huge threat to him. (Qin Ruo’s attacks had been partially weakened by the Snow Wolves’ Resistance. The attacks from the Snow Wolves were also weakened)
After the attacks were weakened by the Aquaramparts Qin Ruo cast, the amount of damage caused had been greatly limited. But, there were also one or two moments that shocked him pretty good during that period of time.
Two Frostlances, whether or not they slipped through the net, came through with the other attacks as the momentum of the two Frostlances was not weakened at all. It penetrated through the Barrier and landed on Qin Ruo. The impacts of the two attacks almost blasted Qin Ruo into the depth of the lake, causing the ten Aquaramparts that he was working on to shatter.
Fortunately for him, the Freezing Effect did not affect him. Qin Ruo had also reacted to the extremely perilous moment when he changed the state of his Aquaramparts.
“Ice!”
The ten Aquaramparts that were standing tall in the lake instantly froze.
The Twelve Frostrampart Formation activated.
The chill in the air of the Frostsnow Island intensified. Even the Snow Wolves that were Water-type monsters roared in extreme shock and fear when the Twelve Frostrampart Formation was activated.
“Wu!”
“Woo woo!”
They did not dread the cold air. With their special physiques, they were able to survive in the coldest area without freezing to death. But the thing that caused them to fear was the effect caused by the intense cold in the air.
When the Twelve Frostrampart Formation was activated, the light blue lake became ice cold as the flow of Water Element slowed down and condensed. It took less than two seconds before the lake was completely frozen.
Roaring in fear and misery, the Snow Wolves witnessed the twelve Frostramparts suddenly releasing extreme cold and froze the small lake. They also witnessed the lake water around them froze and stranded them in the middle of thick ice. Only their wolf heads and their snowy backs were exposed. They all looked funny and pathetic.
However…
Though the Snow Wolves were trapped, Qin Ruo had also trapped himself in the ice.
It was funny that Qin Ruo had never expected the lake water to freeze him too. It was an accident he did not anticipate. When he activated the Twelve Frostrampart Formation, Qin Ruo immediately felt his movements limited by a resisting force. He felt like everything was getting tighter and tighter. In just an instant, he felt his entire lower body tightened and he felt suffocated.
Fortunately for him, both of his hands were above the surface of the lake. His hands were not affected. Or else the situation would have been worse—if his hands were frozen, even the simplest magic spell would have been limited too.
But at the moment, it was a little ridiculous. The player was on this side, and there were more than ten Frostramparts in the middle but there were fifty Snow Wolves on the opposite side… all of them frozen in the smooth and clean blue little lake. If someone saw this, they would probably think that this was some exotic place in another country where a man was bathing with the wolves.
It was a great scenery. Unfortunately, Qin Ruo did not have the mood to take a photo with the Snow Wolves. He did not dare to show even the slightest negligence as he quickly said the last word.
“Explode!”
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
More than ten Frostramparts on the surface of the frozen lake instantly exploded at the same time as dust and shards of snow and ice flew all over the place. It looked as if ten gigantic white ice flowers had bloomed. The Frostramparts were “blooming” splendidly above the surface of the lake as the impacts of the explosions expanded toward the fifty poor Snow Wolves.
There was a total of fifteen Frostramparts. With the cautious calculation of Qin Ruo, that was the maximum limit that he could bear on his own. Furthermore, there was a 100% chance that he could wipe out most of the Snow Wolves instantly at the same time. The only price that he had to pay was his MP—it would be less than five points when he was done.
However, Qin Ruo did not expect another accident to happen.
When the fifteen Frostramparts had “bloomed” beautifully, the frozen lake beneath his body had also responded to Qin Ruo’s “explode” command.
It felt like ten kilograms of explosive charges was thrown into the frozen lake, with a violent explosion that was could rouse the deaf and awaken the dead, a huge wave rose.
The ice and snow splashed up high, completely covering the ice and snow that initially filled the sky and covered the earth, causing them to once again fly high up into the sky.
Qin Ruo and the horde of Snow Wolves suffered the same fate—they were blasted out of the area at the same time and fell into the lake water that was no longer cold.
Qin Ruo coughed and was caught by surprise again by another accident. He was being blasted away by the impact and fell into the bottom of the lake. He must have gulped down a great amount of lake water. It was so salty that he started to spit out the vile taste in his mouth.
While looking to the blurry System Notification, Qin Ruo struggled hard to stand back up in the still-violently splashing lake water. There were a few small tsunamis as the lake has yet to calm completely from the impact of the great explosion. With white frosts and snow covering up his vision, circles of gigantic ripples rolled across the lake.
As for the fifty Snow Wolves…
Qin Ruo swiftly glanced at his own Quest Log. The log stated that he had slain fifty Snow Wolves. The first task for his quest was completed!
‘Phew…’
“I have done it!”
Qin Ruo exhaled in relief. He walked towards the corpses of the Snow Wolves floating on the lake. He had completed the first part of the quest without spending even a single bottle of his potions. Although he almost froze himself to death in the process of completing that task, and also almost blown himself to bits and drown, his attempt was technically a success, right?
Feeling a little traumatized and surprised, Qin Ruo gathered the loot dropped by the Snow Wolves at the bottom of the lake.
After he scanned through the loot, Qin Ruo’s interest was piqued.
Haha!
Slayer’s Heart was right about one thing. The drop rate here was extremely high.
This was truly a rare opportunity that only happened once in every ten levels. These fifty Tier 3 Snow Wolves alone had already dropped three pieces of Mana Cores—three pieces of Tier 3 Mana Core cost 1,200 gold coins. That could cover the cost of twenty bottles of MP Potion (M). It was truly fortunate that he did not give up on the quest this time. Or else he would have regretted it for the rest of his life. With the current drop rate, even if he constantly used his Potions to get through the quest, he would still be profiting.
He delightedly chuckled to himself and felt fortunate for a moment. But soon, he found another two pieces of Tier 3 Violet Equipment and a few more pieces of Blue Equipment. He was overwhelmed with joy. F*ck yea! For this sort of quest with this sort of difficulty, the rewards were quite high. But, Qin Ruo remained cautious as he activated his Aquamorph and searched through every inch of the entire area. After ensuring that he did not miss anything behind, he felt very pleased with the result. So, he shifted his focus back to his quest and started to plan and design his own strategies again.
The material rewards were always the factor that could interested Qin Ruo the most to make determined effort to do well. The fact that he had already obtained two pieces of Tier 3 Violet Equipment, three Mana Cores and four pieces of Violet Equipment for completing the first part of the quest, it was possible that the rewards that he would be getting for completing later tasks of the quests would be even better.
Immediately, Qin Ruo cast away his own principles—even if he died in the Advancement Quest, he would not waste a single bottle of MP Potion. He decided that, in the second round of the quest, as long as he did not spend more MP Potions that cost more than what he got in the first round of the quest, he would keep pushing himself to complete the quest.
First, he would have to find and slay thirty Yetis and two Snow Giants. Only then could he check the specific situations for the Ice Pythons and the Wintry Vajra before deciding what he should do next.
***
After readjusting his plan, Qin Ruo continued his journey.
The Frostsnow Island was not that complicated. Standing on the slope, Qin Ruo could see most of the island. Other than the small lake, the valley, there was the snowy mountain that reached into the clouds and looked extremely steep and difficult to climb at the other end of the island.
It seemed impossible to reach the peak of the snowy mountain.
So, the Yetis and the Ice Pythons would most probably be along the route that leads towards the snowy mountain… or perhaps they were in some caves. Due to the great distance, it was impossible for Qin Ruo to use the small lake to his advantage again.
However, the Yetis and the Ice Pythons were not social monsters that lived together closely. Perhaps the difficulty of taking them on was not as great as taking on the Snow Wolves. At least, that was what Qin Ruo told himself to comfort himself.
