Chapter 106 - 86: Slaughter Trial
Chapter 106: Chapter 86: Slaughter Trial
After receiving their rewards, the two returned to the spectator stands and sat back down beside Lin Yu.
"Why didn’t you keep going?"
"Lord, the battle royale is a little boring. No one would even fight me," Lin Chenxi said sweetly.
"Me too. I challenged the entire field, and still no one came to fight me. I thought they’d all swarm me the moment I issued the challenge. I could have even tried to see what it’s like to fight one against five hundred! But in the end, nothing!" Yuan Xiaobo was also a bit disappointed.
"No wonder. There are still some high-tier heroes over in the arena battles, but you don’t see a single one here."
"Alright then. Since you both think it’s pointless, let’s go somewhere else. Let’s go see what this Tower of Slaughter trial is all about."
The three left the battle royale area, picked a random Tower of Slaughter, and walked over.
"Place your bets, place your bets! Let’s see how many waves the next challenger can pass!"
Before they even got close, the clamor from the base of the Tower of Slaughter reached Lin Yu’s ears.
"Waves 1 through 10, a 1-to-1 payout."
"Waves 11 through 20, a 1-to-1.1 payout."
"Waves 21 through 30, a 1-to-1.2 payout, and so on."
"Waves 91 through 99, a 1-to-1.9 payout."
"Passing wave 100, a 1-to-2 payout!"
...
Lin Yu walked closer and watched curiously for a moment. He quickly figured it out: the man was acting as the bookie, taking bets on how many waves the next person to challenge the Tower of Slaughter would clear.
The payout odds were easy to calculate, but winning a bet was difficult.
First, it was impossible to predict who the next challenger would be. To challenge the Slaughter Trial, one simply had to walk up to the base of the Tower of Slaughter and register.
However, due to the large number of people signing up, no one knew how many were ahead of them in line, so they had no idea how long the wait would be.
Moreover, when it was your turn, you weren’t guaranteed to be in this specific Tower of Slaughter. Instead, you would be teleported to whichever tower was currently empty. But the bookie was only taking bets on the tower right in front of him. So, even if you were confident in your abilities and knew you were up next, there was no guarantee your trial would even take place in this tower.
His setup was also quite clever. Everyone bet on a range of waves, which was very friendly to the bettors.
However, if the result wasn’t within that range—whether they surpassed it or fell short—it didn’t count as a win.
After understanding the rules, Lin Yu walked away. Gambling is a crooked game, though this setup wasn’t exactly a scam. The bookie’s design seemed arbitrary, and in fact, it was. But the probability of winning was too low; without big data to back it up, it was nearly impossible to guess correctly.
After Lin Chenxi and Yuan Xiaobo registered and returned to Lin Yu’s side, they saw him standing with a group of people by the betting table, shouting loudly, "Wave 20, wave 20!"
"Lord, did you place a bet?" Lin Chenxi pulled on Lin Yu’s arm and asked quizzically. "Didn’t you say gambling is a scam?"
"Oh, I didn’t bet. The atmosphere was just so great, I couldn’t help but join in and shout along. It reminds me of the old days watching ball games. Ah, what fond memories!"
Even after being pulled away, Lin Yu was still savoring the feeling of that moment.
"Lord, gambling is bad for you. Let’s go!"
At a loss for whether to laugh or cry, Lin Chenxi and Yuan Xiaobo half-carried Lin Yu, dragging him to the other side of the Tower of Slaughter.
Over here, there were many small stalls, mostly run by heroes who had joined lords, as well as some vending machines.
The items sold here were mainly: Recovery Potions, Recovery Food, weapons, equipment, and so on.
They were all things that enhanced recovery or increased individual combat power.
"Come, come, see what you need! I’ll buy it for you!" Lin Yu immediately took charge, telling Lin Chenxi and Yuan Xiaobo to pick out some Recovery Potions or food.
"Is that necessary, Lord? We could try it out first. If we can’t handle it, we can come back and buy things then."
"Yeah, Lord. My defense is high, so there’s not much for me to buy."
"What are you talking about? At worst, we buy them and don’t use them, but we can’t go in without them. Especially you, Yuan Xiaobo. Actively using your talent consumes energy. If you don’t buy something to restore it, are you just planning to go in there and get beaten until you’re out of energy?"
"But, Lord, their stuff is so expensive! And the effects are terrible!" Lin Chenxi said with disgust after looking at the prices.
Lin Yu took a serious look at the vendors’ goods and nodded in agreement.
"They really aren’t great. Oh well, let’s just buy some for now. We can bring some honey from the territory tomorrow."
"Why don’t I go back and get some now!" As soon as he heard Lin Yu mention honey, Yuan Xiaobo was eager to run back to the territory and grab some.
Ever since the Highly Poisonous Bees had settled in their territory, the quality of the honey they produced had risen by a grade. It had changed from the original Grassland Honey to "Spiritual Honey." Its restorative effect and duration had doubled, and its flavor had improved as well. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it edible Spiritual Energy.
Due to limited production and a large population of residents, the "Spiritual Honey" was rationed. It was only available in limited quantities at the canteen at the end of each month. The rest of the honey was stored away. Lin Yu hadn’t yet decided whether to sell it on the market. ’Our own territory doesn’t even have enough, so selling it for a profit feels wrong.’
"No, the exit is too far. By the time you run back, we’ll have to get in line again, and who knows how long we’ll have to wait. Let’s go in first and scout it out. We’ll see what it’s like inside before deciding anything else," Lin Yu sternly rejected Yuan Xiaobo’s request.
The three wandered around the Tower of Slaughter for a while longer. Along the way, they each challenged the Mirror Room one more time. This time, Yuan Xiaobo didn’t take off his equipment and, just like the other two, was beaten out of it. He just lasted a bit longer, is all. After all, with his Defense Power, he could just stand there and let his mirror image whale on him with a stick, and it would still take a long time.
Lin Yu also made some progress this time. In the Mirror Room, he successfully cast the "Thorn Guard" Magic. Then he died amidst a barrage of his mirror’s attack Magic, like Swamp Technique, Water Ball, Fireball...
Compared to last time, when he died the moment he went in, he lasted an extra 10 seconds. Congratulations were in order!!!
After leaving the Mirror Room, before he could even wait for the next chance to enter, Yuan Xiaobo was teleported into the Tower of Slaughter.
"Come on, let’s go watch his performance!"
Lin Yu took Lin Chenxi and ran to a nearby Tower of Slaughter. Information could be transmitted between the towers.
Therefore, Lin Yu didn’t need to go to the specific tower his hero was in. He could watch any of his territory’s heroes challenge the Slaughter Trial from any Tower of Slaughter.
After choosing to share the challenge feed with members of his territory, Lin Chenxi and Lin Yu found a place to sit and began to watch Yuan Xiaobo’s show.
Yuan Xiaobo was currently standing in a vast grassland.
In the short time it took Lin Yu to walk over, he had already reached the 10th wave.
The monsters he was facing were 100 level-10 Grassland Wolves of Excellent tier. He was seen raising a large club and bringing it down on the wolves’ heads with a series of THWACKS. A single blow was all it took to make a Grassland Wolf drop to the ground, motionless. They say wolves have heads of bronze and bones of iron, but waists of tofu. However, under absolute stat suppression, even the hardest head would be smashed to a pulp.
In just a few seconds, all the Grassland Wolves were dead.
Then, a staircase leading upward appeared in front of Yuan Xiaobo. He stepped onto it and arrived at the 11th floor.
The 11th floor was a desert. After Yuan Xiaobo stepped off the stairs, the entrance vanished. Ten seconds later, 10 level-10 sand scorpions of Excellent tier appeared in the surrounding desert. Compared to the Grassland Wolves, these sand scorpions were tougher to deal with, mainly because they had the ability to burrow into the ground.
But this wasn’t a problem for Yuan Xiaobo. Brute force works wonders; as long as you’re strong enough and your attack is powerful enough, you can kill them with shockwaves no matter how deep they burrow.
He was seen targeting the ground where one sand scorpion had poked its head out and bringing his club down in a heavy slam. Ripples spread across the desert floor.
The sand scorpions died silently beneath the sand without even understanding what had happened.
"CLICK, CLACK~~"
Accompanied by the sound of pincers, another group of sand scorpions appeared around Yuan Xiaobo. This was the 12th wave of attack, consisting of 20 level-10 sand scorpions of Excellent tier.
But even with 10 more, it was useless. It just meant one more swing of his club.
Sand waves constantly erupted in the desert as wave after wave of sand scorpions died cleanly under Yuan Xiaobo’s club.
After the 20th wave, once all 100 sand scorpions were dead, a staircase appeared before Yuan Xiaobo again.
Climbing the stairs, he appeared in a forest, beginning the 21st wave of the Slaughter Trial.
This time, Yuan Xiaobo was facing 100 level-10 poisonous bees of Legendary Tier.
The poisonous bees were very small. Although their attack power wasn’t high, every attack carried a poison effect.
Facing these tiny poisonous bees, Yuan Xiaobo immediately found it difficult. The bees had high agility. Although a targeted bee couldn’t dodge his club, the wind pressure from the swing would blow the other bees away, meaning each swing only hit a few of them.
Compared to the Grassland Wolves and sand scorpions, he needed to attack many more times each wave.
After the 30th wave, when 1,000 poisonous bees were dead, an exhausted Yuan Xiaobo collapsed on the ground to rest. Many parts of his exposed skin were red from the poisonous injuries caused by the bees’ bites and stinger attacks. Of course, this only looked scary; Yuan Xiaobo’s health hadn’t actually decreased by much.
This time, he didn’t immediately climb the stairs to the 31st wave. Following the pattern, the next floor would feature level-10 monsters of the Mythic tier. He had to recover to ensure he could pass the next stage smoothly.
Yuan Xiaobo drank the stamina recovery potion Lin Yu had bought. He still had plenty of energy in his body; it was just that fighting the poisonous bees had been physically draining.
As the 10-minute rest period was about to end, Yuan Xiaobo stepped onto the stairs. If he exceeded 10 minutes, he would be considered to have forfeited, and the recovery potion he drank would have been wasted.
The space for the 31st wave was still a forest. As Yuan Xiaobo stepped into it, a giant brown bear walked out from the jungle. This was a level-10 Mythic-tier monster—the Earth Bear.
Yuan Xiaobo’s expression didn’t change.
In this Tower of Slaughter, facing 10 monsters was considered normal difficulty. He had already experienced the grueling difficulty of increased numbers. This time, the number was smaller, but the difficulty would surely be no lower.
Sure enough, the Earth Bear displayed astonishing attack power and Defense Power right from the start.
While still no match for Yuan Xiaobo, it was comparable to the attack and defense values of an ordinary Legendary Tier hero. (The Earth Bear had used its own talent ability.)
After trading a few blows, Yuan Xiaobo also discovered that the Earth Bear’s regenerative ability was astounding; minor wounds would heal in the span of a breath. He decisively activated his own talent ability.
With his attack and defense amplified tenfold, he instantly obliterated the Earth Bear.
After quickly obliterating 10 waves of Earth Bears one by one, Yuan Xiaobo took a full 10-minute rest, recovered some of the Spiritual Energy in his body, and began the trial for the 41st wave.