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Published at 3rd of October 2022 07:12:51 AM


Chapter 64

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"Wait, we're still going to the Living Statue?" Megan asked in surprise.

"Time to get squished again," said Nitana, rolling her eyes.

Kezo raised his hands, "Relax, guys. We're returning to the Living Statue, but Herald has a plan so it won't be a repeat of yesterday. He explained it to me, and I think it could work."

Only 'could work'? It was going to work because it was the plan of the Great Herald Stone. "We're going to try just a few rounds," I said to calm them down. "If it's not panning out, then we'll find some other boss." 

A day had passed, and we gathered again for team practice.

We met deep in the Golden Forest to avoid Luds—assuming he was lurking around—before we warped to the area of Zoar Elab, the Living Statue. It was time to unveil my prototype build, the product of my quantum, five-dimensional, extra crispy with spicy sauce, gold-plated brain.

"Um, okay then, Herald," Nitana said with a bored tone. "What is this plan of yours to stop us from getting killed over and over again?"

"It's not that we don't believe you, by the way," Megan hastily clarified. "The boss is tough for us, and I don't think there's anything we can do to change the situation."

"Getting killed over and over again…" I repeated Nitana's words. "Yeah, that was a rough time we had yesterday. And to avoid it, I will give the boss something to kill over and over again instead of us."

"Huh? What are you on about?" asked Nitana.

"Herald's idea is great," Kezo said. "I was impressed when he explained it to me. And you'd think the same way too."

"Really?" Megan eagerly said. "Tell us about it."

"Before I do that," I said, "Nitana, can we test something first?" I cast [Lesser Replicant Totem] on the ground, paying for it with fifteen percent of my health which I quickly regenerated.

A slightly transparent blue statue rose out of the snow about three Mirdabons high, one Mirdabon wide—what a weird unit of measurement. It depicted a two-faced, goblin-like creature, with one face facing front and the other back, sitting while hugging its bony knees.

"What do you want me to do?" she said, frowning at my peculiar summon.

"Can you cast your barrier sprite on this?" An orange shell enveloped the Totem. I snapped my fingers in triumph. "Your skill does work on Totems. It will add a bit of longevity to them. Kezo, can you please attack this?"

"Just slash it with my sword?" he asked.

"Yes, any hit will do," I said. "I turned on my 'PvP' settings.” This way, he could damage me and my summons even if we were party mates and not in a PvP area.  

Kezo swung the massive curved blade he wielded at the blue Totem. Nitana's barrier shattered into dozens of crystal shards. The Totem stayed standing.

"Erm, are you thinking of using my barrier sprite to protect this ugly thing?" Nitana said, pointing at the Totem. "I already told you that it's a crappy skill."

"Saving it from one hit is already enough." I turned to Kezo. "Can you attack it again?" With no more barrier sprite, the Totem itself dissipated. "This is what I mean by giving the boss something to kill over and over again."

Next, I summoned both versions of the Totem, paying with forty percent of my maximum health. A couple of seconds later, my health bar was back to full. 

The [Superior Replicant Totem] had a more intricate appearance than its weaker version. The goblin creature had four faces; each face turned in one of the four cardinal directions. It also had four arms, all hugging its knees, and it was bulkier in form, with more muscle than its thinner counterpart.

"Are all Totems ugly?" Nitana said. She grinned at Megan. "Even your very expensive Totem looks—"

"Yeah, I know you think it's ugly," Megan said. "But no one is going to examine its face during a fight."

"These two are linked to an Enraging Call Shard," I told them.

"Are they going to taunt the boss?" said Megan.

"But they'll just die in one hit," Nitana pointed out. "Two hits if I protect them with my barrier sprite."

"Yes, and I'll summon them again," I said. “And again, and again…”

Getting the hint, Kezo slashed the [Superior Replicant Totem] in front of us, destroying it. I summoned a [Lesser Replicant Totem] behind him.

He turned around as quickly as possible, which wasn't easy to do with a long and bulky Mardukryon body compared to a human body, and hacked it. With the Lesser Totem still on cooldown for about half a second, I summoned the Superior version and placed it behind him again.

"And this is what's going to happen to the boss," Kezo said as he faced the next Totem to kill it.

"The key is to make the Living Statue continue turning and turning around," I said. "If I summon the Totems in front of the boss, it'll just kill them and then quickly target Kezo because of its very high attack speed. But that is negated if it turns to attack a target behind it.

“The movement speed reduction of my Withering Brand will also affect how fast the boss turns. The Living Statue will spend more time turning instead of attacking, giving Kezo the opportunity to safely fight the boss with his full DPS build. Well...relatively safely."

Kezo chuckled. "I still have to dodge the vines, the quakes, and other AoE skills."

"The energy ball too. But we have Nitana's barrier to counter it.”

"Wow...that might just work," Megan said, all four eyes widening in amazement.

"Hang on. How can you continuously cast them like this?" Nitana asked. She didn't sound bored or disbelieving anymore.

"It's like my Spell Bonded Totem, isn't it?" Megan asked. "It has a limit of one Totem, but you can keep summoning them no problem. The old one will just disappear."

"That's not what I mean," said Nitana. "I was asking how could Herald pay for its cost?"

"Oh yeah, I see what you mean. My Spell Bonded Totem costs twenty-five percent of max health to cast. Is that the same with your Totems?"

"The Superior Replicant Totem has the same cost," I said. "The Lesser Totem costs only fifteen percent."

Megan gasped. "That's a total of forty percent of your max health that you lose when casting both Totems! And that's per second if you use them each time they're off their cooldowns! How are you doing that?"

"I saw that he was regenerating very, very quickly," said Nitana.

“Given the Totems costs a percentage of maximum health to cast,” I said, “I thought of lowering my health pool so that I’ll actually pay fewer health points. It helps that I’m only level twelve. And so, I removed my Vigor points, dumping them all to Spirit because my debuffs are heavy Energy guzzlers.”

Visiting the town NPC that reset points to redo my primary attributes, I also decided to transfer the Lesser Skill Points of [Greater Pyro Shell] to [Gnawing Rot] and [Withering Brand].

Whether I had a shell or not didn’t matter against the Living Statue. Any one of its attacks could kill me in one hit, so why bother being tanky? My LSPs were better used to further increase our party DPS and also to reduce the boss' damage, making things a bit safer for Kezo in the rare event I’d mess up my strategy.

Lvl. 7 Gnawing Rot: Spread a festering miasma over a small area (maximum of four), causing any enemies entering it to lose 97 Armor and Magic Resilience (maximum 545), 2% Armor and Magic Resilience (maximum 10%). The effect of the decay persists for 13 seconds after leaving the area.
  Cost: 85 Energy
  Duration: 45 Seconds
  Cooldown: 5 Seconds

Lvl. 6 Withering Brand: A long-forgotten incantation that targets an enemy with a curse, reducing its Movement Speed, Attack Power, and Magic Power by 30%.
  Cost: 75 Energy
  Duration: 15 Seconds
  Cooldown: 7 Seconds

I didn't use any LSPs on my three new Shards. I tested it and found that leveling up the Totems only increased the percentage of the offensive and defensive attributes they'd copy from the caster. Whether level one or maxed at level five, these Totems would die with one strike from the Living Statue, just like me.

A level one [Enraging Call] was also sufficient. Higher levels reduced the attack boost of the taunted target, made the caster tankier, and increased the taunt duration—all useless because the Totem would immediately die after it cast the skill.

“Now that I lose fewer health points each time I summon a Totem, I’ll have a relatively easier time covering it with healing and regeneration. Let me show you my equipment so that you’ll understand.” I opened my inventory and waved my arm to flip it around and allow them to view it. “Don’t laugh at my terrible items, okay?”

I had bought another shield with three slots for my debuff Shards—I wasn't using my three-slotted [Reinforced Pavise] as it added health and Vigor, which I didn't want. For that same reason, I unequipped my [Thorny Worn Targe] with its health bonus. As for my Bramble armor pieces, I unequipped only the [Bramble Pauldron] while keeping the rest because I did need some Vigor to cover equipment requirements.

Buckler of the Invigorated Pygmy {3} | Item Level: 10
Rare | Shield | Off-hand
  73 Armor
  25% Chance to Block 85 Damage
  Head-On Block 160 Damage
  Requires: 26 Might, 40 Vigor
--------------------
  +15 Health per Second
  +10 Energy per Second
  +4% Physical and Magical Damage Reduction

I bought two more armor pieces from the same set. One of them, a replacement for my crappy [Leather Crupper], had three slots for the three new Ocadule Shards I bought yesterday—[Superior Replicant Totem], [Lesser Replicant Totem], and [Enraging Call]. The other was for my hand slot to reach the set bonus I wanted.

Crupper of the Invigorated Pygmy {3}| Item Level: 10
Rare | Light-Armor | Legs
  58 Armor
  Requires: 23 Might, 38 Vigor
--------------------
  +12 Health per Second
  +7 Spirit
  +20 Energy

Gloves of the Invigorated Pygmy | Item Level: 10
Rare | Light-Armor | Hands
  56 Armor
  Requires: 22 Might, 37 Vigor
--------------------
  +10 Health per Second
  +10 Energy per Second
  +3% Physical and Magical Damage Reduction

[Invigorated Pygmy] Set Bonuses:
(2 pieces) +15 Health per Second, +40 Health
(3 pieces) +20 Health per Second, +20 Energy per Second, +15 Spirit
(4 pieces) +4% Physical and Magical Damage Reduction, +250 Health

“I didn’t complete the Invigorated Pygmy set because it will increase my health,” I explained. “The two-piece combo already gave forty points, but it’s fine because I wanted to unlock the three-piece bonus.”

“Wow, you bought a lot of new stuff!” Megan said.

“That’s not all,” I said. “I also bought two rings that add even more regeneration and boots that give movement speed. I need to run around fast to survive the many skills of the Living Statue. If I die, this strategy fails.”

Wellness Ring | Item Level: 7
Rare | Ring
  33 Magic Resilience
  Requires: 22 Might, 17 Vigor
--------------------
  +8 Health per Second
  +5% Healing Received

Boots of Swiftness| Item Level: 8
Rare | Med-Armor | Feet
  64 Armor
  10% Movement Speed
  Requires: 25 Might, 17 Vigor
--------------------
  +6% Movement Speed
  +10% Slow Resistance

With three stacks of [Rejuvenation Charge] after spamming [Healing Touch], and no [Ancestral Constitution] or [Greater Pyro Shell], my primary and secondary attributes were:

Name: Herald Stone | Lvl 12 Exp: 68.1%
Base: Mardukryon       
  Health: 591/591
  Energy: 493/493
  Ancestral Shroud: 406/430

ATTRIBUTES:
  Might...................27
  Vigor....................42
  Spirit....................92  
  Sense..................15

OFFENSE 
  Attack Power...........151
  Physical Dmg. Inc.....13.1%
  Magic Power............248  
  Magical Dmg. Inc.......32.6%
  Movement Speed.......16%

DEFENSE
  Armor.......................438
  Magic Resilience.....158
  Fire Resistance….….35%
  Slow Resistance…….10%
  Phys. Dmg. Red..........7%
  Mag. Dmg. Red...........7%

RETRIBUTION
  Physical Damage.........45

HEALTH / ENERGY
  Healing Increase..........9%
  Healing Received.......19%
  Health per Sec…......125
  Energy per Sec...........49.2
  AS per Sec..................34.75

“After testing, I found that Healing Touch and my high health regeneration can cover spamming Totems with of wiggle room in case of mistakes. And because of my low health, the burst heal of Healing Touch could refill more than half of it in one go.”

Lvl. 2 Healing Touch: Use a touch of your revitalizing Ancestral Flames to heal yourself or an ally for (200 + (Vigor x 1.5) + 4% Ancestral Shroud) Health Points, and grant the target a buff that heals by the same value over 10 seconds. (Heal buff does not stack for a target.)
  Generate for target: 1 Rejuvenation Charge
  Cost: 25 Ancestral Shroud
  Cooldown: 3 Seconds

“I didn’t need the two Wellness Rings, but I bought them for added safety," I said. "Maybe I'd have to cast a Totem instead of Healing Touch or something.” I paused, waiting for applause. But none came. “Anyway, that’s it. My Totem Juggling strategy to hold the Living Statue.”

"That’s so cool that you thought of this," said Megan.

“Right?” Kezo said. “I haven’t heard of this before.”

“Maybe because this is harder to pull off for higher level players with bigger health pools,” I said. “And it requires hefty sacrifices, using gear with health regeneration instead of those useful to your build, whether it be a DPS, a conventional tank, or other supports.”

“That’s true,” he replied. “It needs dedicated effort to go down your route. Just slapping it on any build won’t do.”

“Furthermore, the devs limited the Totems to link only with skills that have low cooldowns.”

“I’d really like it if my Totem can use skills with a couple of minutes of cooldown,” Megan said wistfully.

“So, we’re all good?” I placed my hand in the middle of our group. Kezo placed his hand on top of mine. Megan followed him.   

“Yeah…this really might work,” Nitana slowly said as she also placed her hand on the pile.

Just a typical day of being Herald Stone, I thought. "Let's try fighting the Living Statue again!"





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