Chapter 9: Mana Backfire

Translator: Atlas Studios

Editor: Atlas Studios

The Doomsday Devotees were not ordinary monsters that merely had simple AI. As Elite humanoid monsters, their intelligence was no different from that of normal humans.

When an enemy showed up at the door, one would usually either rush forth to fight the people outside or just pack up their belongings and flee immediately. Even though Liu Ming had already barged in, the Doomsday Devotees actually remained still like blocks.

There was clearly something fishy about this.

After discovering this fact, Liu Ming began scrutinizing his surroundings in the underground palace in a bid to find a strange point about it. Liu Ming soon kept his eyes fixed on the stone on top of the altar that could bring about Mental Pollution.

After all, the underground palace was simply too clean!

Other than the red stone and the white bone altar, everything else could be seen clearly. The red stone had also already put Liu Ming in a Mental Pollution state right from the beginning. While it raised the difficulty of clearing the stage for Liu Ming, it was also a hint.

If he were to pick the wrong target and was killed in a siege by the Doomsday Devotees, he would, at most, just be revived in the city. Hence, Liu Ming slowly walked towards the spot where the white bone altar was at.

As Liu Ming slowly approached the altar, some of the Doomsday Devotees’ bodies began to tremble slightly.

Upon seeing their actions, Liu Ming was increasingly sure that the Doomsday Devotees did not attack him, an outsider, simply because they could not do so.

Soon, Liu Ming walked up to the white bone altar.

The three Doomsday Friars were standing still and straight on the altar, looking like three statues.

As for the Doomsday Devotees, they were all shaking like sieves. Their psychological qualities were clearly far inferior to the Doomsday Friars’. However, that also complied with the setting of the Doomsday Devotees being of the lowest level.

Liu Ming walked away from a Doomsday Friar and headed toward the side of a red stone. Liu Ming then turned around and took a few glances at the Doomsday Devotees before swinging his sword and slashing the red stone.

Ding!

After a soft sound, the red stone flew far away.

After the red stone was sent flying by Liu Ming’s sword, all the Doomsday Devotees seemed to have been struck by an invisible force as they shriveled up and fell onto the ground one after another.

Massive damage indicators appeared above their heads one after another.

-1,252

-1,243

-1,801

…

Including the three Doomsday Friars, all of the Doomsday Devotees lost about half of their HP.

However, that was secondary. What truly surprised Liu Ming was that there was an additional ‘Mana Backfire’ state below the information bar above the Doomsday Devotees’ heads.

[Mana Backfire: Attacking Power reduced by 50% and Skill release speed decreased by 50%. During Skill release, there is a certain possibility of failure. Duration: 10 minutes.]

Their Attacking Power was reduced by half, and so had the Skill release speed. This probably made the Doomsday Devotees inferior to even ordinary Level 10 monsters other than their Defense and HP.

Most importantly, Mana Backfire also caused the Doomsday Devotees to face a chance of failure while using Skills; thus, reducing their combat power once again.

A Doomsday Devotee soon stood up and glared at Liu Ming with resentment in his eyes.

The Doomsday Friar that led the group looked as if he wanted to swallow Liu Ming alive. He cursed, “Horrendous adventurer, how dare you ruin my God’s noble plan? I curse you to forever be embroiled with suffering.”

[Adventurer has activated the hidden relationship with the hidden force, the Doomsday Priory. Current Relationship: Animosity (50/100)]

Liu Ming instantly felt a little amused when he saw the system prompt that suddenly appeared.

It turned out that he could establish relationships with cults.

The relationships between players and individual characters or forces were largely similar. There were nine levels of hierarchy—Worship, Respect, Trusted, Friendship, Neutrality (indifference), Disgust, Animosity, Aggro, and Arch Enemy. There were 100 Relationship Points for each level.

The relationship between the player and most forces and NPCs would usually begin with Neutrality (indifference). After which, it would continue to progress positively or turn for the worse, depending on the player’s behavior.

However, generally speaking, the Relationship Points between players and individual characters would fluctuate more easily, unlike the Relationship Points between players and forces. Players would have to successfully change the outcome of a major event in one shot for a drastic change in the relationship between the player and a force to occur.

Besides, Liu Ming’s relationship with the Doomsday Priory suddenly turned into Animosity in no time. The Doomsday Devotees clearly had a grand plan. Now that their plan had been ruined, they were naturally infuriated with Liu Ming’s actions.

Although it did not feel good to be at odds with a large force before he even left the novice village, Liu Ming—who had never planned to seek support from a dark force—was not too bothered. Hence, after the Doomsday Friar finished saying his piece, Liu Ming calmly said, “Are you done speaking? If you are, hurry up and start the fight so I can go back and complete the mission.”

Liu Ming’s words made the Doomsday Friar fly into a rage.

“Hurry and kill him! Kill this kid! I will report your achievements to the Lord Bishop when we return to our quarters.”

However, after hearing the Doomsday Friar’s words, a few Doomsday Devotees took a few steps back instead of moving forward.

This was the drawback of being too intelligent. Although highly-intelligent monsters could trump ordinary players in terms of battle awareness, they would hesitate when faced with a crisis.

The Doomsday Devotees were much weaker than the giant rat outside the underground palace in the first place. If not for the Mana Backfire debuff, they would have dared to attack Liu Ming, whom they outnumbered.

Now that their abilities had been weakened, they did not dare to go toe-to-toe against Liu Ming. In fact, if they did not know that they would also die if they escaped, they would have long fled.

Looking at the hesitant Doomsday Devotees, the Doomsday Friar’s face grew even more sullen. “What are you people hesitating for? Aren’t you afraid of the punishment bestowed by the Highlord!?!”

After hearing the word ‘punishment,’ the Doomsday Devotees immediately shivered uncontrollably. A look of determination then emerged in their eyes as they began raising their weapons while facing Liu Ming.

The Highlord Of Doom’s punishment was clearly far more terrifying than death to the Doomsday Devotees.

Five of the ten Doomsday Devotees were holding onto wands while the other five were each holding onto black skulls that had different decorations. They were clearly all Mages.

As the ten Doomsday Devotees’ weapons began to condense the glow of their Skills, the three Doomsday Friars also took out their weapons.

The Doomsday Friars’ weapons were a staff that was as tall as a human, a pair of daggers that shone with a sanguine glow, and a chain that was wrapped in a black halo, respectively.

Chains were the weapons of Combat Priests in God Domain; the last Doomsday Friar was obviously in a profession related to Combat Priests.

After all 13 half-damaged Elite monsters got into their battle stances, Liu Ming finally started moving.

Liu Ming charged forward and immediately reached the leading Doomsday Friar, who was also the one holding the staff. He then slashed the Doomsday Friar ruthlessly.

Long-range Raid!

-272

Liu Ming did not attack right from the start, purely because he wanted to see if he could get more information.

Now that they were all about to start fighting, Liu Ming naturally wouldn’t hesitate anymore.