“I’ll go in first and clash with the boss,” Almond said. “With this gear set and my skill, I am not confident of at least not getting hit or getting one-shotted by this Heroic Boss.”
Almond had a 200 Strength stat, which could go up to 1000 just with his Mana techniques—Strength Boost and Body Enfold both gave a 200% boost each.
The other stats could go up 600 because he had been naturally gaining levels in his Mana techniques along with his memories. His expertise had reached Stage 2 level 10 in all techniques.
So Body Enfold boosted all stats by 200% at Stage 2 level 10.
With his Perception and Focus further adding 100% from his class perk, those two could reach 800.
And his Legendary Gear set of high-tier, which he named Golden Ruin Grimlord Set, gave him tons of stat points from its perks—each of the four items gave him 400 stat points, the maximum possible from high-tier legendary items.
Legendary Low-tier items could give anywhere between 200-250. Mid-tier items could give anywhere between 250-300. High-tier items could give anywhere between 300-400.
And since he crafted his gears in Spirit Forge Factory with high-tier options, he got a full 400 from all four items.
His current status with items equipped looked something like this:
-Strength: 200 (+420) | With Mana Techniques +800
-Health: 200 (+215) | With M.Ts +400
-Stamina: 200 (+200) | With M.Ts +400
-Mana: 200 (+300) (+90) | With M.Ts +400
-Focus: 200 (+200) (+145) | With M.Ts +400
-Perception: 200 (+200) (+130) | With M.Ts +400
-Will: 100.
The Legendary Gear sets’ items gave more Strength stat overall, reaching 420 in bonus from the perks.
And along with benefits from his high-tier Legendary items’ effects, Almond was feeling good.
He just needed to divide the boss’s Perception and harvest it to keep up with it while remaining careful and clashing properly so that others could prepare and launch their strategy.
“Look at my status. Boss has only 200 Strength above mine,” Almond’s expression was ferocious and confident. “Do you think he can stand a chance against me?”
Everyone looked at his status and gulped.
There was too much power packed in Almond at the moment!
And it definitely gave a surge of confidence to them, especially since they knew that Almond was a freak of nature when it came to using swordplays.
They had just finished the practice session with him, so they knew it. Only Lily could barely keep up with him even though his stats were close to theirs and he was outnumbered, but even so, nobody managed to peg him down even a single step during the combat.
“We can do this shit, yeah!” Marcus clenched his fist as he growled. “I have my new talent, which is at Legendary rank, so I will join you, boss. We’ll go together at the start, so we will have more defense overall.”
Almond faintly smiled and nodded, “Good. We’ll go together. And after me will enter Sylvia, Lily, and Mira.”
“Lily and Mira can reduce their presence significantly with their darkness element’s attributes and move through the overgrown meadow. Their attacks will also affect the meadow most in case we have to destroy the magical flowers and plants that Brynjal saw.”
“I said in case because before you two do that, I want Sylvia to make a move,” Almond looked at Sylvia. “If you can take control of the Meadow or prevent those magical floras from harming us and use them for your own benefit, I want you to do it.”
Sylvia’s expression was determined, “I will do my best to make that possible, Master!”
Almond nodded and looked at the others, “Afterward, the ones to enter will be Julian, Kira, Eliara, Noah, Ron, Adrian, Jian, Finn, and Xavier. You all are close to medium-range combatants, and your first job is to use your buff skills and then hit the impactful or control skills to the boss or some other troubles, if there are any, like a flora monster. I can’t be sure, I’m just saying based on this boss’ theme.”
Almond then looked at Amir, Kayla, and others, “One second after they enter, Emma, Amir, Talia, and Kayla enter. You four have good buff skills. Emma, you will use poison buff on my weapon since it’s only a single target. Amir and Talia, you will use your skills to increase all close-range fighters’ movement and action speed. Kayla, you are more versatile with your druid skills, so act accordingly. Your absolute parry is to be used instantly if you see someone in danger. Don’t observe and act. Observe, predict, and act. When your prediction is based on observation that collects data in your mind, it is often true.”
“Understood.”
The four of them nodded.
“Lastly,” Almond looked at Maya, Natalia, and Brynjal. “Maya and Natalia, you will enter and immediately start preparing your powerful control attacks. Nyssara, you will tag with Maya as usual.”
“If Brynjal’s forceful taunt is as useful as I think, then that’ll be our chance,” Almond looked at Brynjal. “No need to save puppets. Use every puppet you have and give them a forceful taunt.”
“Got it,” Brynjal nodded.
“And you all,” Almond looked at his Spirit Wraiths with a grin. “When the Boss is getting taunted, I want you all to jump on him with everything you got and buy as much time as you can.”
“We shall die spectacularly,” Galvaren said with a wide grin.
“As usual,” Benedict smiled as his eyes lit up with fighting spirit. “I have improved somewhat, so I will use my darkness to its full power to bind the boss.”
“We will not disappoint you, my lord,” Ashkar knelt on one knee. “Your faith in us will not be in vain.”
“Roar!!” Starlight Beast loudly roared.
“Less than six minutes left,” Lily said.
“Let’s go! Enter with an interval of one to two seconds!” Almond walked the stairs with Marcus following right behind him.
Sylvia walked behind next, and others also walked up as the stairs were wide and pretty big.
Almond and Marcus chugged the potions, boosting their stats by 50%, though this 50% only applied to their foundational stats and boosts from their class perks.
“Active the Mana techniques here,” Almond said as he activated his Mana techniques.
Marcus nodded as he did the same.
“Let’s go,” Almond entered through the door, arriving inside the Heroic Challenge Area with a greeting from the Grand Abyss Labyrinth.
[Defeat the Shamanic Druid Melameron of Wandering Cursed Meadow. Good luck.]
