"Great," Ren thought when the exit and entrance disappeared.
He then used [Teleport] to be right next to Evie. It was chaos wherever he looked, and he couldn't afford to waste time navigating his way toward her.
Evie was a good twenty-meter distance away from him, and he didn't want to leave her there alone with all the pandemonium that was happening around.
"Ren, what's going on?" Evie asked as soon as Ren was by her side.
"Some idiot attacked the monsters here." Ren shielded Evie behind him. "Don't worry. If we kill all the monsters here, those exits will appear again."
Ren really thought that the monsters here would attack the players and overwhelm them with their numbers. But much to his surprise and glee, the disfigured humans morphed together and turned into a giant [Charnel Hound].
It was a six meters tall and twelve meters wide dog made of bones with jagged, sharp teeth.
While the creatures in cloaks fused together to form dozens of [Bone Golems], a three-meter tall skeleton that was thrice as big as humans. It had multiple skulls on its shoulders, as well as skeletal arms.
Ren's head tilted to the side. The monsters could have overwhelmed them with their numbers, but they chose to merge instead.
He wasn't complaining, though. It worked in his favor.
Having them condensed into a single mass made it easier for him to target them with a single spell, conserving his mana in the process.
The Charnel Hound howled, its roar amplified by the enclosed space, ringing in the ears of the players, who froze in Fear.
Ren nulled the status effect of [Fear] with [Monarch Sovereign], while Evie repelled all status effects with [Meriyaah's Cloak].
They were situated in a corner, hidden by the crumbling stones, so the monsters didn't take notice of them. The Charnel Hound leaped into the area where most players congregated and gnawed on their flesh.
Those who recovered from [Fear] immediately helped their comrades and attacked the monster, but their damage was insignificant because of the Charnel Dog's high HP and DEF.
Not to mention it's passive [Bone Integration] that allowed it to heal whenever it consumed its prey.
While the Charnel Hound was busy, the Bone Golems were slamming players left and right, knocking them back with bludgeoning damage, disrupting their chanting and focus.
Others who attempted to fight the Bone Golems found that the monsters were immune to physical attacks. Whenever it was hit by weapons, the bones on its body shattered and flew apart from the blow, but then, those scattered parts would crawl their way back to its main body.
The same was true with the Charnel Dog, adding fear and distraught to the players present.
"How do we defeat them?" Evie asked Ren. "Should we use explosives?"
"We could. Multiple blasts from those would surely end them without a chance for recovery. But let's see what happened first. They're not attacking us yet, so let's leave them be."
Looking over at Ren, Evie found that there was a slight smile on his face. He was probably enjoying how the monsters were eliminating players left and right.
Evie knew him, if not too well, then enough for her to confidently say that Ren wanted to eliminate all competing variables in this server, so they could have all the treasures to themselves.
"Come to think of it." Ren suddenly thought and asked Evie, "What happened to that blob you acquired from Jibblinplip?"
He wanted to ask that for a long time but always forgot in the heat of the situation.
Like nothing was happening in their surroundings, Evie opened her hand, and the blob appeared on her palm.
The white blob produced bubbling sounds, and it seemed happy that it was let out after like forever as it hopped from Evie's hand up and down, jiggling like a balloon of water.
"What does it do again?" Ren asked after he shot a series of fires at the unfortunate Bone Golem who stormed their way.
The Bone Golem exploded, and the fire consumed it, turning the Bone Golem into ashes that got swept away by the wind.
Evie shrugged. "It could spit a blob of water and inflict random status effects on the affected enemies," she read Bubble's information, her first ever Djinni.
"One at a time or the whole area?" asked Ren. Though he could just simply use [Probe], he liked hearing Evie's voice, so he let her explain.
"It could produce a large blob of water and inflict random status effects within a hundred square meter area," Evie re-read the information again and this time more complete.
"Good. It's quite handy to have," said Ren.
"Do you want to use it against the monsters here?" Evie questioned.
Ren merely shook his head. "No. The Charnel Dog and the Bone Golems are immune to all status effect . . . but the players here aren't."
". . . Don't tell me."
Ren gazed at Evie and beamed. "It's taking too long for the players to die, so let's speed things up. Once the players are gone, all the monsters' attention will be on us, and they will congregate in our direction. When that happens, we can finish them in one blow."
Currently, the monsters were scattered in all directions, and Ren didn't want to waste mana by shooting spells one at a time. He wanted them in one single spot and eliminate them with one single spell.
". . . Aren't you worried that it would affect World Conqueror's reputation, though?"
"No worries. They wouldn't know where the attack came from with all the chaos here."
Ren could wipe out the players if he wanted to, but he wouldn't personally do that since it would affect his reputation like what Evie said. But they wouldn't notice it at all if it was from a small blob and they would think of it as an enemy.
Besides, Ren didn't want to waste mana on players. He could excuse his action by saying they died in the crossfire, but too much of that same excuse would lead to suspicions in the end.
( . . . continuation on NOTES)
