Chapter 535 - 502: Comprehending Master-level Leadership Skill
——System Prompt: You accepted the surrender of the Earth Altar Guardian, and the Earth Altar Guardian joined your troops.
Da Fei laughed heartily, and all the dwarves cheered!
They finally surrendered! Recruiting the earth elementals wasn’t the goal, just a tactic. With the surrender of the earth elementals, the Flower Demon Army was now completely isolated, and the balance of power between both sides shifted.
Now the objective conditions to recruit them were fully met, especially since Da Fei’s Flower Demon reverence reputation was a huge advantage. As for the disadvantage, it was that Da Fei still couldn’t determine if they truly had no way out. After all, their situation was slightly different from when the Forest Demon’s home was burned.
Da Fei decided not to launch a strong attack for now, lest they be blasted away by a few bolts of lightning. He would continue to wait, keep shouting, and now the most needed thing was patience. Since he was waiting, the dwarves who were injured, poisoned, and fatigued in the last battle should seize this chance to rest. And these Flower Demons were so far from home; do they have any supplies? Fine, I’ll wait you out for a day!
Now, my goal is not just to incorporate them, but also to use this valuable opportunity to advance my Leadership Skill to Grandmaster! So, this is how you push Leadership Skill to Grandmaster, huh? Wahahaha! It can be done; with so many troops and the concept of the earth elemental as a Commander, it’s only natural to absorb them all and not level up to Grandmaster? No justice otherwise!
Wait a minute! Suddenly, Da Fei recalled something. Why didn’t I get any notification when I recruited the Forest Demons? Although at the time I didn’t have Diplomacy Skill and only had Intermediate Leadership Skill, it would’ve been normal to be directly rewarded up to an advanced level after successfully recruiting, just like how I once achieved Crisis Management in the Nether Sea, which directly rewarded me to an advanced level. But as a result, there was no movement for me, and even Vice Hero Alina had no notification at all! She was the main force in recruiting! There’s no reason for her not to get any notification, right?
Perhaps, there is only one possibility! Da Fei’s eyebrows twitched, casting his gaze upon Hangeval. Although he was hit at the time and kept sleeping, was he really sleeping? If my waiting in the forest all day was also fighting the Forest Demons, was he actually fighting on the frontline of a dream battle?
Da Fei asked, "Friend, your Leadership Skill level must be very high, right?"
Hangeval laughed, "Did you figure that out already?"
Da Fei’s heart raced with sudden realization!
Indeed! The recovery of the Forest Demons, he was the one who played the major role! Or rather, for this recruitment of the earth element, he also made a significant contribution; otherwise, this low-probability event of recruiting a BOSS, especially such a strong BOSS, would not have gone so smoothly with just me and Alina, both at Master-level! Otherwise, players all around the world would have learned Master-level Leadership Skill, and a group team-up to recruit BOSS would be incredibly thrilling, wouldn’t it?
So, he is the unassuming heroic figure holding down the fort! Considering his former profession was helping princes capture god-level beasts everywhere, he must have mastered the skills to subdue bosses!
I see! That must be it!
Alright, now is the time to show my cards. I want to take this opportunity to praise you and fully win your allegiance! Damn, after I already rescued all of you from prison so long ago, when are you going to give the mission reward? What if his attribute truly is notorious, and he screws me over once we go out, then this game will be a real pain to play!
Da Fei quickly bowed and said, "Friend, without you, these two battles wouldn’t have been so smooth, and we couldn’t have recruited the opponent. I have to thank you!"
Hangeval laughed heartily, "Friend, the key is still your own strong capabilities, otherwise I would be powerless to help even if I wanted to! And without you, we’d still be in jail waiting to die! So you don’t have to be so polite with us."
Not polite, huh? Fine, then I’ll really be impolite then!
Da Fei chuckled, "I want to learn from you the secrets of advancing to Grandmaster-level Leadership Skill."
Hangeval pointed towards the Flower Demons outside the forest and laughed, "Friend, why do you even need to ask about that? However, if you do advance to Grandmaster-level, I can teach you a leadership skill that only Grandmasters can learn; it’s not found in ordinary books!"
Oh my! Offering to teach hidden skills? That’s a sign of outstanding favor! The praise was definitely worth it!
Da Fei immediately pulled out two bottles of beer, "A toast to our friendship!"
Hangeval shook his head with a smile, "Originally, I shouldn’t drink for fear of causing trouble, but for our friendship, cheers!"
All the dwarves also shouted, "Big brother, we also want to toast to celebrate our friendship!"
Hangeval helplessly said, "Alright, Bazaar, just a sip for everyone!"
All the dwarves cheered.
Now, Da Fei further respected this dwarf hero. As a hero, to gain such unwavering loyalty from NPC subordinates, the hidden skills he taught must be extraordinary. Da Fei eagerly awaited advancing to Grandmaster-level.
After taking a sip, Hangeval shook his head and said, "We dwarves only drink when we’re happy, and now this atmosphere is quite off-putting. How about this, let’s drink and sing together, let the Flower Demon ladies outside feel the harmony, we actually don’t want to be enemies with them!"
All the dwarves laughed, "It’s our Lord who doesn’t want to be enemies with the flower ladies!"
At that moment, the cheerful singing and hearty laughter echoed through the forest, sweeping away the tension and stern atmosphere from before.
Da Fei’s eyebrows twitched! Was he demonstrating to me how to properly use diplomacy? Oh my, so it comes down to this kind of thing, huh? So, when recruiting in the future, I should bring along the band and circus I’m cultivating, banging drums and cymbals?
I see! Haha, wahahaha! You sing, you laugh! All thanks to you!
For now, Da Fei began to inspect the attributes of the newly recruited earth element. Like the Forest Demon Leader, after surrendering to the player, it was "punished by the gods" and lost its divinity, its massive size shrank from tree height to half of a tree height, allowing the forest to no longer block it entirely. Of course, a BOSS without divinity meant the Divine Artifact shards were useless on it.
——Earth Altar Guardian: Massive leader-level elemental life, Attack 60, Defense 85, Damage 55-115, Life Value 10500, Magic Resistance 75%, Attack Speed 8, Move Speed 14, Command Value 150, special skills: Earth Rebirth, Catapult Attack, Attack Rebound, Master-level Defense Skill, Dazing Strike, Crushing Attack, horizontal slash.
. . . . . .
Da Fei’s eyelid twitched! Even though being systemically weakened, this earth elemental’s over ten thousand Life Value was still glaringly strong! For a BOSS of the same scene, its attributes were far superior to the Forest Demon Leader with an extra thousand Life!
Of course, it isn’t comprehensive to evaluate a troop’s combat power solely by attributes; the key is also to consider special skills. Moreover, the inconvenient thing about elemental life is they can’t be healed by magic; they can’t be resurrected by magic post-battle, nor can they enjoy magic buff effects (though they’re also not affected by negative magic debuffs). So, their attributes being far superior to life forms of the same level is quite normal.
Da Fei hurried to view its first special skill:
——Earth Rebirth: This life form regains 1% of its Life per second while standing on the earth.
Oh my gosh! With its total blood volume of ten thousand, it regains 100 Life every second! Coupled with its high defense, Master-level Defense Skill, and the earth element’s trademark skill Attack Rebound, it’s definitely not something that low-level soldiers can besiege. Even after being weakened, it recovers 100 Life every second, what level of strength was it at before weakening? Da Fei couldn’t help but be grateful for not rashly attacking this giant creature.
——Catapult Attack: This life form can improvise with large stones on gravel barren land, mountains, city ruins, mines, and other terrains to launch ultra-long-range attacks. Attack attributes are equal to those of a catapult with Advanced War Machine Technology, and no longer enjoy Heroic Archery and War Machine Science increments.
Da Fei’s eyelid jumped in surprise! Hell! It turns out to be a mobile siege car! Move Speed 15, and a catapult that requires no assembly. I really stumbled upon a treasure! It was fortunate that the battle took place in a forest, or else I would have been smashed with multiple head bumps!
Da Fei let out a long sigh of relief, this BOSS was truly worth the effort in capturing it. However, as precious as it was, figuring out how to protect it was an important issue.
Though it was almost impervious to physical damage under my defensive bonuses, it was still vulnerable to spells! For example, Alina’s lightning struck it for 5000 earlier. In a large-scale battlefield, with its large size and conspicuous presence, if the opponent concentrated the power of hundreds of magic troops to blast it in one go, I wouldn’t even be able to cry when the time came!
Therefore, it was necessary to equip it with a large number of earth elemental minions, and have them share a tactical position with it to absorb spell damage. But, the trouble was recruiting elemental buildings was tricky, seemingly out of reach for players at this stage.
In any case, if there’s a chance, I’ll buy them or trade with equipment if possible.
Time unknowingly passed, and the dwarves’ singing showed no sign of fatigue, and what was supposed to come, finally came! The system notification sound chimed!
——System Prompt: The troops of the Grassland Guardian admire you greatly and wish to join your team, do you accept?
——System Prompt: Congratulations! You successfully subdued the powerful leader life form Grassland Guardian and its army, your Leadership Skill successfully advanced to Grandmaster-level!
——System Prompt: Congratulations! Your Vice Hero Alina’s Leadership Skill successfully advanced to Grandmaster-level!
Oh yes! This is the moment I’ve been waiting for! Accept!!!
——System Prompt: The Grassland Guardian’s army of 200 Elite Flower Demons has joined your team!
——System Prompt: Battle over! You’ve won the battle! You gained 4 million Experience!
And just then, a familiar upgrade golden light descended from the sky!
——System Prompt: Congratulations! You’ve successfully leveled up to 41! You gained 1 attribute point, 1 Free Skill Point, 1 free attribute point from Master-level Navigator profession bonus, 1 Attack bonus from Ranger profession, 1 Attack bonus from Primary Sentinel Profession...
At the same time, Alina was also shining with golden light, skyrocketing in levels like a rocket!
——System Prompt: Congratulations! Your Vice Hero Alina leveled up to level 11...
——System Prompt: Congratulations! Your Vice Hero Alina leveled up to level 12...
. . . . . .
Da Fei breathed a sigh of relief, the long 1 vs. 4 battle, finally ended! Hahaha, wahahahaha...
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