Novel Bin Chapter 60 - 60: 060 Pushing Across Mermaid Lake
South Hill Base, Mermaid Lake.
Upon Dean McKenzie’s tactical formation, his journey truly equated to cutting through chunks of watermelon effortlessly.
He didn’t spare any merfolk he encountered.
Dean McKenzie further adopted his consistent strategy on these despicable merfolk – scorched earth.
Basically, it was no mercy to the ones he chanced upon.
For this purpose, Dean McKenzie spent three days traversing all the wooden bridges in Mermaid Lake.
Hence, he single-handedly slaughtered all the encountered common merfolk and managed to transfer as many of the elites as possible to the Land of Bone.
Over these three days, the number of merfolk falling by Dean McKenzie’s hand reached into the thousands.
Dean McKenzie and his six dogs experienced a significant advancement in their levels.
Especially for the latter four dogs, they skyrocketed from level 8 to level 17 in merely three days.
However, Dean McKenzie had to spend 80 Silver Coins to fully upgrade their attribute points.
Meanwhile, Dean himself has reached the middle of level 19.
On the benefit side, Dean mostly saved the Elite Monsters, so the drops from thousands of common monsters only barely covered the cost of enhancing four dogs.
Regarding the elite monsters.
Dean noticed that there don’t seem to be many elite merfolk residing in the lake.
Currently, the Land of Bone holds only about 30 Merfolk.
30 elite merfolk might sound like a lot.
But take note that over these three days, Dean killed at least a couple of thousand regular merfolk.
To put things into perspective, one elite merfolk comes into being for every fifty to sixty regular merfolk killed. This ratio is lower than expected.
Therefore, Dean figures that the elite merfolk should be residing on Mermaid Island.
So, after almost eradicating the merfolk population in the lake, Dean set his sights on Mermaid Island.
However, before initiating his attack on Mermaid Island, Dean’s first action was to call back Doggy Two and the other dogs.
There was no choice. Despite the terrifying defense of the Bone Shield, its equally terrifying cost was burning a hole in his pocket – a whopping 100 Mana Points. Dean simply couldn’t afford it.
So, he decided to single-handedly eradicate Mermaid Island.
Otherwise, if the six dogs, each of which had already gobbled up at least 50 of his Silver Coins, were to die, he would indeed be at a net loss.
In any case, he himself was capable of single-handedly pillaging Mermaid Island.
But while calling back the dogs, Dean was once again reminded about his firm resolution – to enhance the ‘Summon Skeleton’ skill.
Otherwise, raising dogs and not putting them to use would defeat the purpose of spending that money.
“First, enhance Meditation. Then, I will go all in on Summon Skeleton!”
Dean muttered angrily as he activated his Bone Shield and set foot on Mermaid Island.
Just as he stepped onto the island, a dozen fish spears, mixed with three blue water arrows, hit him.
‘miss’
The attack didn’t even make a dent in his Bone Shield.
Dean swiftly scanned his surroundings. He launched his Appraisal Skill and two merfolk profiles appeared before his eyes.
Name: Carpfish Mermaid
Template: Common
Level: 19
Attributes:
Strength: 4, Agility: 5, Physique: 3, Spirit: 3
Attack: 4 (8)
Defense: 1.5 (4)
Skills: Merfolk Throw (level 2), Underwater Breathing (level 3)
Equipment: Merfolk Spear, Merfolk Armor
Name: Carpfish Mermaid with a Touch of Awakened Bloodline
Template: Elite
Level: 20
Attributes:
Strength: 4, Agility: 5, Physique: 4, Spirit: 12 (6) points
Mana Attack: 18 (12)
Defense: 2 (2)
Skills: Merfolk Throw (Level 2), Underwater Breathing (Level 3), Water Arrow (Level 2), Water Wave Recovery (Level 1)
Equipment: Merfolk Magic Wand, Merfolk Robe
I have to say, the Mermaid Lake map is both nauseating and troublesome.
Even if the gamers manage to cross the preceding lakes, they are immediately greeted by critical strikes when they get onto the shore.
The Merfolk Elite Monsters are formidable on their own.
What’s worse, each wave consists of 15 merfolk, and there are 3 elite monsters among them coming your way.
The total damage from their collective attack, I’d say, would conservatively be between two to three hundred.
If the Bone Shield hadn’t been upgraded, it probably wouldn’t be able to withstand such an onslaught.
Unfortunately for the merfolk, they have met their match in Dean McKenzie who masters Level 2 Bone Shield.
The Level 2 Bone Shield has a fixed defense of 160. Although the merfolk cause damage between two to three hundred, they are unable to focus this into one single point, hence they can’t get past the fixed defense.
Against Dean, these merfolk are lambs for the slaughter.
Dean stands firm, not backing down!
With each release of Bone Fang, he whittles down the normal merfolk one by one.
The remaining Elite Monsters, Dean strikes on their limbs, inflicting heavy damage, before sending them one by one into the Land of Bone.
To increase his collection of Elite Monsters, Dean’s approach to clean out Mermaid Island is different from the others.
Instead of attacking head-on, he goes around in circles.
He works his way towards the center of Mermaid Island, going in circles.
The entire process isn’t thrilling, but an absolute crush by sheer power.
With the combination of Level 1 Bone Fang, Level 2 Bone Shield and the ring given by Anthony, Dean is confident that he can crush any one-turn enemies, not to mention these Level 20 merfolk.
After a day’s journey, Dean makes his way effortlessly to the most crucial part of Mermaid Island, the Merfolk Tribe
What surprises Dean is that such a vast Merfolk Tribe is home to no more than 100 merfolk.
In reality, this is the most disgusting part of the Merfolk Tribe to gamers from previous generations.
What appears to be a not-so-strong tribe becomes formidable once they invade it.
They would soon find out that fewer than 100 merfolk gather in a stronghold within the tribe and blow their horns at the same time.
The moment the horn sounds, all the merfolk scattered around Mermaid
Island and Mermaid Lake regroup, marching in a densely packed manner that makes the invading gamers question their existence.
However, this time it’s the merfolk’s turn to doubt their existence when Dean shows up.
Their horns are blown to exhaustion, but not a single merfolk from Mermaid Island and Mermaid Lake responds.
Mainly because they couldn’t respond—I mean, Dean had already wiped them all out.
So, fewer than 100 merfolk in the Merfolk Tribe could only shiver in their stronghold, watching helplessly as one merfolk is taken down by Dean’s Bone Fang.
Once Dean eliminates the ordinary merfolk…
He stops the Bone Fang attack, summons Doggy Two and equips them each with a Bone Shield, and then leads them into the attack.
In less than two minutes, all the remaining merfolk are taken down.
That even includes the Level 20 Elite Template Merfolk Boss!
Name: Awakened Bloodline Merfolk Lord.
Template: Excellent
Level: Level 20
Trait: Mental Sensing (D-Class) (Can increase the sensing range by 50%)
Attribute:
Strength: 5, Agility: 6, Physique: 5, Spirit: 45 (12) points
Mana Attack: 25 (20)
Defense: 2.5 (10)
Skills: Underwater Breathing (Level 3), Water Arrow (Level 3), Water Shield
(Level 1), Water Wave Sensing (Level 1), Water Wave Recovery (Level 2)
Equipment: Mermaid Lord Staff (Black Iron), Mermaid Lord Robe (Black Iron)
Looking at the attributes of the Merfolk Lord Boss, Dean doesn’t hesitate.. He drags it to the Land of Bone and starts a Skill Enhancement!