The fireball spell from Jada wasn't able to deal any useful amount of damage to the Wailing Woman, but that hadn't been what Jada was aiming for anyway. Just like Rina, Riveting Night had trained the spellcasters of Umbra in the arts of battle in the game, and she divulged a core secret of combat that many players would take a while to grasp.
That was the real effects of attacks or spells. As should be expected, a hurtling ball of fire would definitely deal some minor explosive damage, so using it to knockback a foe at a crucial moment would be important.
While this might seem like common sense, it hadn't been something players figured out easily. After all, the system did its best to let the players figure out everything on their own.
So naturally, most had to learn this nifty trick through repeated battles against foes. Some of the Elite and above players outside had already gotten an inkling of this, yet this wasn't that much of a big deal anyway.
Riveting Night had taught them a lot more powerful stuff, so this alone didn't make much of a difference.
In the two seconds that the Wailing Woman had been blown back and regained her senses, Jada had already fired out a plethora of spells while Jade erected two barriers on either side of the banshee without hesitation.
This had two utilities. The first was to limit the lateral movement of the banshee - its racial ability to phase through solid object would not work against magic - and the second was to narrow down Jada's crosshairs.
After confining it, it was like Jada had become a marksman. Twenty attacks rained down on the banshee's front, all of them hitting it right in the face. Her damage was boosted by 250%, meaning that Jada should deal 1,250 damage per attack.
However, the Wailing Woman had 75% physical and magical resistance, meaning that Jada actually only dealt around 315 damage per attack. This was even lower than her base value of 500 fixed damage!
The Wand of Eternal Fire's second passive allowed her auto-attacks to ignore magic defense, but this did not include magic resistance. Those were two completely different things, and it only served to show the limitation of the Wand.
Then again, it was only at the Semi-Legendary level. It was likely that the second passive would become much stronger once it was upgraded to Legendary Rank, so there was that.
For now though, Jada had to deal with the nerfed damage due to the Wailing Woman's form. However, her rate of attack was unchanged, so the auto-attacks kept coming like a burst dam.
She had landed 13 hits on the Wailing Woman in this short period of time, dealing 4,095 damage in just 2 seconds. The Wailing Woman screamed and backpedaled, eventually exiting the area of the erected walls and shifting to the side.
After being taught a lesson, it didn't dare to rush up to the duo. Instead, it craftily began to stay back while casting its various sound-based skills.
｢Hateful Cry – Active skill
Effect: Damage the hearing of a single target for 5 seconds, dealing 20% sound damage.
Cooldown: 30 seconds｣
｢Anguished Wail – Active skill
Effect: Send all enemies within 20 yards into a stunned state for 5 seconds.
Cooldown: 15 seconds｣
｢Dark Scream – Active skill
Effect: Send out a soundwave that damages all enemies within 50 yards, dealing 70% sound damage.
Cooldown: 1 minute｣
The Wailing Woman alternated between these three skills over the span of 3 minutes, making the Fire and Ice Twins have a horrible time. Putting aside how painful it was to hear such jarring sounds from the banshee, their effects were really strong.
After all, the Wailing Woman was an offensive monster, so her average damage was much higher than other Captain Rank monsters. Her single target Hateful Cry dealt over 3,000 damage while her Dark Scream was a party wipe skill that dealt just about 10,500 damage!
That would be enough to kill any level 25 player - fortunately, Jada and Jade had leveled up ever since they entered - with ease, unless they had formidable Mage Guard tanks who could shave off the damage.
Jade's auto-defense ice barriers could deal with the Hateful Cry - although the damaged hearing debuff was annoying since it sounded like static was in their ears - but the Dark Scream overwhelmed it and destroyed one of them.
Thankfully, Jade was incomparably smart, and decided to use layered ice barriers to defend herself. After all, the ice barriers would not despawn unless destroyed, while it would take hours for them to melt naturally.
As such, the attack was blocked by another barrier that had quickly been spawned after it. Jade could only silently thank Draco for providing them with so much useful information, yet once more she wondered just how he had come upon so much if he hadn't cleared it out before.
The Wailing Woman was swift enough to avoid most of Jada's shots due to the distance and her levitation ability, but more than 20% managed to land. After all, even if Jada missed a lot, shooting out ten attacks in a single second was hard to avoid.
The Wailing Woman wasn't like the Magic Hind that had extremely high agility. Her mobility stemmed from her ability to levitate, but her reaction speed was normal. So even if she dodged many of the shots in the initial barrage, more and more managed to land upon her form.
Jada's first fireball dealt only 45 damage due to the 75% magic resistance of the Wailing Woman as well as her magic defense, and her recent barrage did over 4,500 damage. However, compared to the Wailing Woman's 135000 HP, this was but a drop in the ocean.
The Wailing Woman also kept up her long-distance barrage, aiming to kill them without getting too close. Jade occasionally tried to lay some traps for the Captain Rank monster, but barely any succeeded.
Whenever she was slowed, Jada would go crazy and bombard it with all her might. The Wailing Woman had a dispel skill, but such a thing couldn't be used too often, and Jade had more than one debuff and crowd control skill in her arsenal.
After five more minutes of this, the Wailing Woman's health had dropped down to 50%.
｢Name: Wailing Woman – Captain Rank monster
Level: 45
HP: 67,500/135,000｣
As soon as this threshold was reached, she screamed at an irritatingly high volume, causing the duo to wince with pain. The soundwave even carried a powerful momentum that pushed them back.
When they glimpsed at the Wailing Woman, they noticed that she had lost what had been left of her ethereal beauty and had become more savage. Her eyes had hollowed out and her mouth was stretched wide in a grotesque manner.
Not only that, but her fair and dainty hands had turned into horrifyingly long claws. It was certainly a chilling sight, and the twins were greatly disturbed by this. It was one thing to see this kind of stuff in movies and another to see it in what was no different from real life.
At this stage, the Wailing Woman seemed to have given up on long-distance offense and she darted towards the twins. Jada's face became black when she realized that the agility of the Captain Rank monster had increased greatly.
Now, she could dart around super-fast, forcing Jada to get clever with how she fired her shots. She couldn't afford to just aim in a random direction but had to predict where the Wailing Woman would be at every moment.
Jade helped out by using many buffers, but her crowd control spells were all on cooldown. Only Draco could ignore spell cooldowns with subjective magic, but well, subjective magic also had its own problems.
As such, Jade decided to go all out before the monster reached them. She wasn't the least bit interested to turn this into a slugfest, as they would be on the losing end for sure.
Therefore, she used her active spell which she had been saving all this while!
｢Active 1 – Field of Ice: Send out a wave of ice that traps all enemies over an area of 50 miles. Cooldown: 1 day ｣
The wave of ice erupted from her body and instantly turned the small cavern into an ice land, freezing everything on land and in the air that wasn't an ally of hers.
The Wailing Woman froze in mid-air, as if someone had pushed pause during a movie. Her dispel skill was still on cooldown, so she had to break out from the confinement the good old-fashioned way.
Jada didn't need to be told what to do. She immediately began throwing out her attacks with a single-minded focus. Since her target was unmoving, every single hit connected and dealt damage.
After 30 seconds, cracks began to appear on the body of the Wailing Woman, as the thin layer of extremely firm ice that held her began to break.
At this point, Jada had dealt over 45,000 damage to the Wailing Woman, sending her deep into the red! The Captain Rank monster now had less than 25,000 HP left, which would only take Jada another 10 seconds to take away.
However, after a gross total of 38 seconds had passed, the cracks had become so plentiful that it looked close to shattering. The Fire and Ice Twins became serious.
In these few seconds, Jade had erected many walls around the Wailing Woman to confine her totally, even if she came out. She also readied some of her Uncommon slow spells, her alertness raised to the max.
The moment the Wailing Woman came out, she would be hit by Jade's slow, giving Jada enough time to finish it off.
However, both twins were surprised when the Wailing Woman was still unable to break out before Jada bombarded her to death. It seemed as if Jade's active skill was really strong.
Then again, it was a Semi-Legendary active skill, so that was understandable. If it was so easily shattered, then it wouldn't be living up to its name.
Being able to confine a Captain Rank monster that was in its second phase, while said monster was of the high offense type for almost 1 minute was already extremely good.
｢Congratulations on completing: Reaver's Grotto normal mode
Time elapsed: 2:00:02
Enemies killed: 453
Team Deaths: 0
Team Members: 2/10
Assessment: S+
Reward:
450% EXP
40 Gold
2 Rare Treasure Chest｣
Apart from the 323% experience the Wailing Woman had granted them, Jada and Jade were also awarded a hefty amount of exp for completing the dungeon in good time, with only two people, no deaths and clearing out every single enemy.
Unfortunately for them, Draco had raised the bar with his earlier feats in the Nightingale's Cry dungeon, so even though the twins got an S+ for finishing this dungeon on normal mode, the reward paled in comparison to what Draco usually got.
Still, they were honestly moved and excited. Especially when a System Announcement told of their first clear of the normal mode of the dungeon. It was like hearing their names called to come up to the stage to receive an award.
Now, each of their wands had 1,065% of 15,000%, which was pretty good progress given the amount of time they had spent. Since they only had one upgradeable item, and that one needed far less experience than Rina's, it was clear that these two would upgrade theirs very soon.
They also got two Rare Treasure Chests, which would further outfit them with great items necessary for their success. As such, the Fire and Ice Twins happily exited the Reaver's Grotto with large smiles on their cute faces. If Draco had been here, he would have thrown away all decorum and kissed them all over their adorable cheeks.
After coming out into a Meadowland Zone, Jada seemed to lose her air of reliability and seriousness, reverting to her true state. She smiled wickedly, flashing a fang in the process.
"Hehe, I'm bored sis. Let's go and visit Farst City. I heard the players there have been rapidly increasing their strength due to a certain special quest going on."
Jade just looked at her sister calmly, as if she could see through all of Jada's thoughts. "You just want to play the pig to eat the tiger, then verbally torment all those who were hopeful while laughing uproariously, right?"
Jada didn't seem the least bit ashamed by being outed, instead becoming more playful. "Teehee, of course, you'd understand me, Jade, you truly are my other half."
Jade smirked and teased Jada. "I thought that was Draco?"
Jada's happiness fled as her face became red. "T-That… you!!"
Jade shook her head and began walking. "Let's go then, just try to keep the collateral damage to a minimum. Also, don't forget to unequip your emblem, otherwise everyone will be too afraid to even breathe in your presence."
Jada regained her vibe as they traversed, and that evil smile was soon back as she began laughing under her breath, picturing the sweet results of her future actions.
Jade was aware that trying to suppress a devil like Jada would only make things worse. As such, she always accompanied her when Jada wanted to watch the world burn, so that not too many people would be affected.
Thanks to Jade's efforts, many lives had been saved over the years. Jade was a hero who deserved a statue.
...............…
Sublime Notion rubbed her temples and got up from her seat. She had already received the Legendary Scroll for the Seneschal class change quest from Draco. As well as the one for the Merchant King class change quest and the Great Commander class change quest.
She had already summoned Money Lover and Slim Fatty over a while ago, and just a moment ago she received confirmation that they had both arrived. Sublime Notion turned to Zaine, Roma and Hikari, who were all displaying slight bulges on their stomachs.
It wasn't that pronounced, but one could certainly see it if they were sharp enough. Sublime Notion could only smile bitterly inside and wonder what was wrong with her blood sister to allow her 'soulmate' to i.m.p.r.e.g.n.a.t.e so many other women.
If it were her, she could never share her man with others, but then again, this was just a game and it wasn't her, so Sublime kept her opinion to herself.
"I'll be going on my quest now, and it could take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. I'll be leaving the management of Vita City-State in your capable hands."
Zaine nodded and smiled. "You can leave it to us and do what you have to."
Sublime Notion was only confident in leaving if Zaine would be the one in charge, as this woman was no worse than herself. Roma and Hikari were there mostly for symbolic purposes, they couldn't contribute much towards management of this level.
Sublime Notion exited the office in the Aether Hall and went outside to meet with Money Lover and Slim Fatty. The two were patiently waiting for her as they had just arrived, but Sublime Notion was surprised to see someone else with Slim Fatty.
It was a tall fellow with a medium tan, his brown eyes shining with sharpness. He had a light stubble on his otherwise clean-shaven face, as well as closely cropped black hair. He stood in a very formal and disciplined pose, making Sublime immediately feel respect towards him.
She saw that his ID was Deployed Soldier, and she realized who he might be. Before that though, she addressed everyone present.
"The Guildmaster has acquired special class change scrolls through his hard work and decided to allow the most fitting members of our guild to use them. I have been selected to go on the Seneschal quest which will turn me into the best advisor to the ruler with access to the greatest magical as well as administrative skills."
"The Merchant King quest will allow someone to become the greatest Merchant in the world, able to control the flow of money for the whole continent through clever trade practices. Money Lover, do you accept?"
Money Lover put away his abacus for once and seemed serious. "I do."
"Good," Sublime nodded. "Take this and activate it to begin your quest."
The moment he was handed the scroll, he unhesitatingly ripped it up, disappearing in a flash of light as if he had been abducted by aliens.
After he left, Sublime turned to Slim Fatty and Deployed Soldier, repeating a similar thing. "This is the Legendary Scroll containing the Great Commander class change quest, and it allows one to become the aptest military commander available. The person using it will gain the best passives to boost an army as well as special skills and means to move said army about."
"Do you accept, Slim Fatty?"
Slim Fatty shook her head. "I do not."
Sublime Notion wasn't surprised by this. When she saw that Slim Fatty had come here with someone else, she had already figured that something like this might occur.
"What do you suggest then?" Sublime asked slowly.
Slim Fatty turned to Deployed Soldier and introduced him. "This is my elder brother, Justin Davis Banks. He's currently serving in the army and had been trained by our father when he was young, before the war… well, you know what happened."
Sublime nodded, there were few who didn't know the tumultuous events of World War 3, so she waited for Slim Fatty to finish her proposal.
"As such, I feel that my brother would be a better option for this quest than myself. He's already joined Umbra as a core member, and he really seems to like the guild." Slim Fatty added with a smile.
"Good day, 2nd Vice Guildmaster Sublime Notion. My name - as stated by Sheila - is Justin Davis. I understand your modus operandi in managing this guild, and I honestly admire it. My sister has praised the Guildmaster and 1st Vice Guildmaster over and over, so I hope to meet them one day."
Justin's voice was clear and concise, and one could not mistake his words. Sublime Notion pondered for a bit, then remembered that Draco gave her free rein over the scrolls. After all, he trusted the judgment of Sublime, and so did Riveting Night.
As such, Sublime silently observed Justin for a few minutes before nodding. "Good luck then."
She sent over the scroll for the quest and Deployed Soldier activated it without hesitation. He also disappeared in a similar manner to Money Lover, and it was just Sublime Notion and Slim Fatty left.
"You won't regret your choice." Slim Fatty stated with complete confidence.
Sublime silently agreed, as the aura Deployed Soldier had around him was truly one suited to lead an army. She had a feeling that such a fellow might become a key player later on.
She then activated her own scroll, feeling the area around her shift suddenly. When Sublime Notion disappeared, Slim Fatty took in a deep breath and looked to the sky.
"I wish all of you good luck…"