Sacred Souls: Genesis

Chapter 195: Chapter 194 Instance Mechanism Handling Team (1st Update)

The Shadow Sect… as the name of the cult suggests, it’s the faith of thieves, bandits, rogues, and assassins.

The Shadow Goddess herself represents the dark side of the society in this world, and the sect was born from this.

The sect brings together some of the lowest scum of the earth, even she… who, since birth, was a thief from the bottom of society, as the saintess of the Shadow Sect.

Never having been recognized by anyone, she was, however, chosen by the Shadow Goddess, and the brand from the goddess granted her great power and, at the same time, the respect and recognition of others.

Although there are not only the dregs of society here but also ruffians and haughty nobles, as well as religious sacrificers from the great sects in the cities, they all had to give way to her when they saw her.

This made her the Shadow Goddess’s most devoted follower, until several months ago when the Shadow Goddess asked her, “Are you willing to sacrifice yourself to save the world?”

Her answer was no… because she had no interest whatsoever in saving the world. Yet, after her refusal, she came up with a new answer, “I am willing to sacrifice myself for you, and that is all.”

So she came to this island fully prepared to dedicate herself to the Shadow Goddess.

This was the greatest ideal of her life, the ultimate pursuit.

What she had to do was to be consumed by any of the seven lords of the island as food when they were in a weakened state…

She didn’t know the significance of doing so, but she would follow the will of the Shadow Goddess as if it were her own life, which also constituted the supreme honor for her as a thief.

The only difficult part of this honor… was that any of the seven lords of the island had power not weaker than that of the Chosen by the Gods; it was nearly impossible for her to weaken this Heavenly Frost Dragon all by herself!

Even if her magic and attacks worked on this Heavenly Frost Dragon, it would not be possible.

But these powerful spiritual beings solved the problem, one hundred, ninety, eighty, seventy… The Shadow Chosen used the life perception granted by the Goddess to gauge the remaining life inside the Heavenly Frost Dragon.

Five hours, thirty-two minutes, and eleven seconds, the Shadow Chosen was accurately calculating the time the spiritual beings had been fighting with the Heavenly Frost Dragon, and its remaining life.

The more she calculated, the more she felt that the spiritual beings were a terrifying group of warriors. They did not understand fatigue, hunger, and could revive quickly after death, which, in the eyes of the Shadow Chosen, were not exactly unfair advantages.

What truly seemed unreasonable to the Shadow Chosen was their fighting spirit.

Any warrior, even one blessed by the Death God and capable of reviving countless times after falling, would still lose their will to fight against such a horrific dragon, especially after being torn to shreds by it over and over again.

But, these spiritual beings did not lose their will; they fought with more vigor, and they even talked about mundane life matters during combat.

It was as if they did not take this battle as a dangerous campaign against a dragon, but rather, as a pleasant game.

But all this was unrelated to the Shadow Chosen.

When the Heavenly Frost Dragon’s life force dropped to thirty, the Shadow Chosen could feel the dragon, which dominated the entire Snow Plain and whose wings could stir up blizzards, beginning to weaken.

She approached the Frenzy State Heavenly Frost Dragon, and the moment it spotted her and wanted to ingest her as a ‘supplemental meal’ to heal itself, the Shadow Chosen had already closed her eyes, ready to welcome the arrival of her destiny.

But her destiny did not arrive.

When the Shadow Chosen opened her eyes again, she only felt a dull pain on her cheek, which was likely swollen quite a bit, and her skull might have cracked.

A damage figure of -82210 popped up above the Shadow Chosen’s head.

The player practicing boxing was indeed heavy-handed; the Martial God Strong Kick was his professional awakening skill, and one kick dealt over eighty thousand points of damage.

The worst part was that the Shadow Chosen was sent flying a hundred meters away by that one kick, eventually landing in a snowy pit, her brain still in a dizzy state.

There is no doubt that if the Shadow Chosen had not been protected by the Goddess, that one kick would have been enough to send her to meet her Goddess, not just cause a minor concussion.

“Shary! You were too careless! If it wasn’t for Lord White Cut Chicken’s rescue, you might have already been eaten by the Heavenly Frost Dragon!” The Solar Chosen ran over to the Shadow Chosen, grabbed her collar, and pulled her out of the snowdrift.

A rescue? That kick just now looked like it was trying to finish me off, right? The Shadow Chosen, holding her now swollen left cheek, always wanted to shout at that spiritual being called White Cut Chicken, “Even my father has never beaten me!”

The sudden howl of the Heavenly Frost Dragon brought the Shadow Chosen back to reality from her daze.

Now was not the time to think about these things… The Shadow Chosen brushed off the Solar Chosen’s hand, and after falling back onto the snow, she ran somewhat unsteadily toward the distant Heavenly Frost Dragon.

The Heavenly Frost Dragon, a lord-level monster, does not become stronger with less health, it gets weaker!

After five whole hours of fighting, the scales that covered the Heavenly Frost Dragon were almost totally destroyed by the spiritual beings, and now, all it could rely on was conjuring frost magic on its body to fend off the attacks of the spiritual beings.

However, this kind of ice was far less effective than the original scales of the Heavenly Frost Dragon, which meant that over sixty percent of the damage dealt by the spiritual beings before the dragon reached thirty percent health was reduced by its defenses. Now, the Heavenly Frost Dragon could only fend off about thirty percent of the damage.

The Heavenly Frost Dragon wouldn’t last much longer before being taken down by the spiritual beings, and the Shadow Chosen had to be consumed by it before that happened!

The Divine Spirits would save her, and to the Shadow Chosen, it seemed purely out of the kindness of the Divine Spirits; they probably couldn’t just watch a girl get eaten by a dragon.

So this time, the Shadow Chosen learned her lesson—she entered stealth mode… ready to take her own life as bait for the Heavenly Frost Dragon when the Divine Spirits were not paying attention.

The Heavenly Frost Dragon noticed the approaching Shadow Chosen, even though she was in a stealth state.

This time… no one would stop her, right?

The Shadow Chosen stood on the empty Snow Plain, locking eyes with the scar-ridden Heavenly Frost Dragon, and just then… she felt a gaze.

The eyes of all the Divine Spirits on the battlefield were focused on her.

What’s going on? The Shadow Chosen thought that there was no way her stealth skill could be discovered so quickly!

But in that instant, nearly half of the Divine Spirits put down their attacks and charged towards the Shadow Chosen.

“Hunter! Fire a flare, this BOSS’s mechanic is so disgusting.”

“It’s the stupid NPC that’s disgusting, okay! She’s running! Block her! Hurry up!”

The Shadow Chosen realized something was wrong and tried to rush towards the Heavenly Frost Dragon, but a Shield Warrior player appeared precisely in front of the Shadow Chosen, blocking her path with his shield.

However, the Shadow Chosen simply leaped up, effortlessly dodging the blockade of the Shield Warrior; but as soon as she landed on the snowy ground, she found something heavy dragging on her legs.

“?” The Shadow Chosen looked back in stupor to see the Shield Warrior player… hugging her thigh.

“I’ve caught this stupid NPC!”

“Let go of me!”

The Shadow Chosen was already frantic, pulling out a knife, but it was of no use. She had no choice but to drag the Shield Warrior player with her towards the Heavenly Frost Dragon, leaving deep furrows in the snow along the way.

“Damn it! This NPC’s strength is stronger than mine! Can some passing brothers help?”

“Coming, coming!”

Under the desperate gaze of the Shadow Chosen, another player clad in heavy armor lunged from the other side and grabbed her other leg.

These Divine Spirits… Have they no shame?

Grinding her teeth, the Shadow Chosen advanced step by step toward the distant Heavenly Frost Dragon, even with two Divine Spirits hanging on to her, weighing her down.

“Does this NPC have infinite strength or what?”

“No… her speed has slowed down! Where are the instance mechanic handling teams from other guilds? People, come on!”

“Here we come!”

This was a method uniquely developed by VR players for dealing with NPCs that attempted to sacrifice themselves to the BOSS in an instance.

The Shadow Chosen wanted to sacrifice herself, and honestly, the players weren’t too keen to intervene. The key issue was that Jiang Qiao had made the intention of the Shadow Chosen known to all players, which now appeared before all of them.

‘The Heavenly Frost Dragon is keeping its gaze on the Shadow Goddess’s Chosen. Once devoured, the Heavenly Frost Dragon’s health will recover by 50%, and it will gain the power of the Shadows.’

Players who were familiar with such mechanics in the instance learned to use their bodies to block NPCs, just like now… The Shadow Chosen looked back in desperation to see six or seven Divine Spirits piling on her.

Perhaps her brain was damaged by the Sando player’s kick; there she was, pushing forward with her legs, despite being weighed down by eight Divine Spirits clinging onto her thighs, heading towards the Heavenly Frost Dragon.

Jiang Qiao watched the persistent figure of the Shadow Chosen, still determined to move forward, and couldn’t help but want to cheer, “Go for it, big sis who’s sacrificing herself to the dragon!”

But merely cheering was useless. The players slowed down the Shadow Chosen’s progress with their bodyweight, while the DPS (damage per second) team on the other side sped up their attacks and drew the Heavenly Frost Dragon elsewhere to prevent it from devouring the Shadow Chosen and regaining health.

In the end, the Shadow Chosen was pinned down by a pile of Divine Spirits on the ground.

“Why do I feel like this NPC’s AI is just designed to feed the dragon?”

“Artificial Idiot?”

“She’s hacking at us with a dagger again! The reinforcements, cover up! Pin down her hands! Right! Hold down the legs too! Healers, remember to buff!”

Damn it… if it weren’t for the Shadow Goddess’s command for the Shadow Chosen not to anger these Divine Spirits.

The Shadow Chosen was pinned down in the snow by the group of Divine Spirits, forced to simply watch as the last sliver of life of the distant Heavenly Frost Dragon dissipated under the relentless attacks of the Divine Spirits.