Scepter of Life Draining!
It was another one of the artifacts from the Twilight Forest.
It could inflict various effects on enemies, such as knockback, slowness, and damage.
Most importantly, it absorbed the enemy's status and added it to the user!
Health and hunger could both be gained through the Scepter of Life Draining!
To put it exaggeratively, with this, Galen Yu wouldn't even need to carry food anymore; if he was hungry, he could just find any creature!
"Another artifact!"
Galen Yu was even happier.
The Lich dropped four types of scepters: Twilight, Zombie, Life Draining, and Shield.
Among them, the Scepter of Life Draining was the strongest, but its drop rate was worrisome. In the game before, he didn't know how many times he had to kill it just to find one.
Now, it was done in one go!
After a quick test, he put everything back into his backpack.
Although there was no first-kill reward, the Lich's loot was no less impressive than the Naga's!
Leaving the high tower, Galen Yu looked at the map in his hand.
The third boss was the Minoshroom, which lived in the Minotaur Labyrinth.
There happened to be one right next to the Lich Tower, so he rushed over.
A raised earthen mound appeared, with vines in the middle leading straight down, hidden in the soil.
That was where the Minoshroom was located.
Before entering, he needed to make something: a Magic Map Focus.
He had made one when he first entered the Twilight Forest, and he followed the familiar process again. It was different from the Twilight Map.
The world map required a circle of paper, but the Maze Map Focus required a circle of logs.
By surrounding the Magic Map Focus with a ring of logs, it became a Maze Map Focus, which he then surrounded with nine sheets of paper.
Maze Map, success!
To be safe, he made two of them and jumped into the labyrinth.
The Minoshroom itself wasn't strong—even easier to deal with than the Naga—but finding it was quite complicated.
One had to navigate the labyrinth, which was a real time-sink.
'There's also an artifact in the labyrinth. I hope I'm lucky enough to get it.'
Galen Yu began his search in the labyrinth.
On the other side, the blonde old man had observed Galen Yu's tactics.
After cursing the intelligence department, he immediately sent a notice to Mark and the other player.
[THE ORBS CAN BE REFLECTED TO BREAK THE SHIELD. IN THE SECOND PHASE, YOU CAN HIDE IN A CORNER, BLOCK ENEMIES WITH BLOCKS, AND USE THE GAPS TO KILL THE ZOMBIES.]
"Jett, this is great! There's a Potion of Healing here!"
The Lich Tower had many independent small study rooms filled with bookshelves.
Hidden within some of the bookshelves were treasure chests.
Inside were many potions. Mark found a Potion of Regeneration.
For all the players except Galen Yu, this was a god-tier item!
In the mechanics of the block world, monsters were guaranteed to spawn every night. Some would burn and disappear during the day.
Others, like Creepers and Spiders, did not fear the sunlight.
To progress, one couldn't avoid contact with them; progress was inseparable from combat.
Where there was combat, there were bound to be casualties. Broken legs and fractured bones happened easily.
Normal wounds could slowly heal through food, but things like severed limbs or broken legs were difficult to recover from with food alone.
At such times, health regeneration became vital.
It could make broken legs heal and severed limbs regrow, like a miracle!
Galen Yu, however, didn't need these.
With Steve's physique, his code was superior!
He wouldn't suffer severed or broken limbs at all, so he didn't need to worry about recovery; in his hands, health regeneration was just simple health regeneration.
He fed Jett the potion to heal his fracture.
"The orbs can break the shield! Let's go, we're going back in!"
Knowing the mechanics and having the bonus tip for the second phase, Mark was full of confidence.
He went upstairs very carefully this time, intentionally avoiding any pitfalls and reaching the top of the tower safely.
He raised his shield. Smack!
The blue orb was reflected, successfully hitting the Lich and breaking one layer of its shield.
"It really works!"
He and Jett exchanged a look and immediately launched a coordinated attack.
Then...
...they were stunned.
Blue orbs were easy to reflect; shields, bows, and longswords could all trigger a reflection.
However, the Lich didn't just throw blue orbs; it also threw much more dangerous orange-red ones.
Once these things touched anything, they would explode instantly.
It was fine if blocked by a shield—there was a chance to reflect it and block the damage—but if it wasn't blocked...
Thrown while the shield was on cooldown, Mark instinctively tried to reflect it with his longsword.
Boom!
The explosion erupted from the sword. The recoil sent him stumbling back several steps, nearly making him drop his longsword.
[-10!]
Even with the Naga Armor's protection, he still lost half his health to the blast!
If another red orb came, he'd be blown to bits!
"Why are there red orbs too?"
Caught off guard, Mark hurriedly dug out an area to hide in.
He filled his hunger bar and used a potion to restore his health.
Re-entering the fray, Jett rushed over.
"I can't hold on!"
Letting Jett go to recover, Mark faced the Lich alone.
If it were just one Lich, he could certainly handle it. The problem was that there were four now.
Aside from their slightly dimmer color, they were no different from the original Lich.
They could fire orbs and trigger explosions.
Standing in the middle, he had to face orb attacks from all four sides!
As the battle intensified, Mark felt more and more dazzled and overwhelmed.
He already couldn't control reflections very well, and now there were red orbs that couldn't break the shield at all. His mind was in a whirl, and his body was exhausted.
Eventually, he jumped off the top of the tower and hid behind blocks with Jett.
The audience from the Nine Provinces laughed with relief.
"Gave me a scare! I thought they really stole God Galen's method!"
"So what if you know the technique? It's not like your strength is up to par anyway!"
"The second phase is about technique, but the first phase is about raw strength. Do you have the strength to copy God Galen?"
"This is more like a boss. Watching God Galen's play, I actually thought the Lich wasn't that strong!"
"It's a pity the Lich doesn't destroy blocks, or it would have blown you all up!"
"What a joke!"
The blocks in the second phase were a shortcut, but Galen Yu's first-phase skill was the real deal.
Being able to dodge the attacks of four Liches while simultaneously mastering the reflection angles to hit the true Lich was no easy feat.
These things couldn't be made up for in a short time; they required accumulation.
Before, the viewers only focused on the techniques, but now they understood.
Galen Yu's understanding of combat was just as formidable!
It would take a period of honing before there was any hope of defeating the Lich.
While ensuring their own safety, the two began to learn slowly.
Looking across the chunks, those making faster progress were killing the Naga and searching for the Lich.
Slower ones were still wandering in the Resource Zone or the Nether. Overall, they were divided into three tiers.
In the Labyrinth, Galen Yu was in a tier of his own, while others were in T1 or T2 based on their dimension.
Most were in the middle of time-consuming processes. Very soon...
...the sky grew dark again.
Soren Park rushed home from the resource zone and let out a long sigh of relief.
"I dug up two more blocks of dirt today, and even a hay bale!"
Hay bales were used to store wheat. With food...
...he could feed the Mooshrooms and other animals.
Through his efforts, Soren Park's farm was growing larger and larger.
Besides Mooshrooms, he also found eggs, hatched chicks, and built a chicken coop.
[CURRENT CHUNK COMPREHENSIVE SCORE: 6 (MICRO CHUNK)]
[PLAYER RANKING: 9]
Looking at the saplings he'd planted and his ever-expanding chunk, he was very satisfied.
'Building that damn wall every day... I can't figure out what Galen Yu is up to.'
Having blocked the view with stone walls in advance, Soren Park couldn't see the specifics of the Sky Island.
Bored at night, he could only lie down and look at the sky.
'Lately, there seem to be more zombies... Huh? Why is the moon so red?'
As he stared at the sky, a line of small text suddenly appeared.
[BLOOD MOON!]
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]