Chapter 19：Learning the Study of War Machines

If the player's hero had some troops and chose to use the Ballista, he could assign his subordinates to fire on his behalf. The damage from the Ballista would still count as the hero's. However, since Da Fei had no soldiers, he had to operate this himself. It felt like driving a tank. Furthermore, this was a Master-level Ballista. 30 Defense and 600 Health. This really felt like a tank!

Unfortunately, Da Fei's "tank" was barely functional, as it only had less than half of its maximum health! If he lost the Ballista, Da Fei would definitely be screwed.

Hence, Da Fei had no time to think. Once the Zombie was forced back, Da Fei hurriedly reloaded for the third time!

Just then, the Zombie slowly stood up in the distance. He curled his body again!

What the heck! He still can jump! How can I fight him?! What kind of Zombie is it?! Why is it like a leapfrog? Da Fei was completely stunned as he watched the approaching Zombie!

—Boom! The Ballista was hit again! -37!!!

The Ballista survived! The damage was not as high this time! It still had 5 HP left!

The unexpected event made Da Fei overjoyed. He did not hesitate at all—fire!

—Boom!!! The arrow went straight through the Zombie's chest! However, it did not fly off again!

Da Fei's eyes widened. The Ballista's damage doubled again! Could this Zombie's attacks be self-destructive? The further he jumped, the higher the damage, but the more he jumped, the more injured he would become?

There was no time for Da Fei to gather information now during this intense battle. Even the Sea Anemone King knew how to do the Catapult Attack, why would the Zombie not?

Da Fei instantly stopped the reloading process. Instead, he stabbed at the Zombie with his own pike! This was because the Attack Speed of the Ballista was 5, whereas the Zombie's Attack Speed was 6. There was no way the Ballista could land the first strike in the next round! Hence, he went with close quarter combat instead!

First strike—"-16!"

Da Fei stared at his base damage of 4-7. In reality, his damage should only be 3-6, as the enchanted toxins were ineffective against undead monsters. He was completely shocked! Indeed, this was the side effect of the Zombie's Catapult Attack.

Da Fei struck again without hesitation! At the same time, the Zombie waved its claws! Although Pikemen had 10 Speed, much higher than Zombie's 6, he could not land two strikes in a row before the Zombie retaliated.

It doesn't matter. Pikemen's advantage lies in our long-range weapon attacks. I can hit him, but he can't hit me. Hence, the Zombie's target must be the Ballista!

—Boom!!! -5! The Ballista collapsed! At the same time, Da Fei took off another 16 HP from the Zombie!

Now that the tank was gone, the main battle was about to start!

Da Fei struck again while the Zombie moved towards him. As the Zombie could not reach Da Fei yet, he chose to rush forward!

"-16!" That was Da Fei's final cheap shot!

By now, Da Fei had taken off 155 HP from this BOSS! He used up all his tricks. Now, he had to trade blow for blow!

Judging by the BOSS' fight against Raging Sea of Blood last night, he did 15 damage per hit. Da Fei's 32 HP could thus only last two hits. Since Da Fei had an Attack Speed of 10, he could unleash three strikes before the Zombie landed his second hit! This was the true difference that Attack Speed made. If it was just one strike, both sides could each get one hit off, just in a different sequence. However, once the rounds added up, the difference would be more significant too! This was Da Fei's final advantage!

If Da Fei could not kill this BOSS within the next three strikes, he would have nothing else to say. The outcome would be decided within three moves!

"-16!" That was Da Fei's first hit!

"-20!" The Zombie returned the favor! Da Fei only had 12 HP remaining.

"-16!" After absorbing the hit, Da Fei's second strike landed!

Then, it was the final strike that would determine the outcome of the fight—Da Fei closed his eyes in anticipation!

—"-13!" A flash of golden light descended from the sky!

Da Fei opened his eyes excitedly once he heard the System Message notification!

—System Message: You have defeated the Swift Zombie. You received 6,000 EXP! You received item, "Study of the War Machines Skill Book". You received item, "War Machine Parts Storage Pack". You received item, "Artillery Chief Grint's Voyage Diary (Mission Item)". You received item, "Cargo Door Key".

—System Message: Congratulations! You have leveled up to Level 8! You received 1 Strategy Attribute point, 1 Skill Point, Health +2, Command Power +1.

—System Message: You improved your information collected about the Swift Zombie!

—System Message: Your progress in "Lonely Hero 10 Straight Wins" improved to 2/10.

…

Ha! Wahaha! Da Fei laughed excitedly! I won! I won! So the Skill Book was on him! He kindly gave me a complimentary Storage Pack! He also has the key! I've been waiting for so long. Let's check out this Artillery Chief's attributes!

—Swift Zombie: Small Undead troops leader. Attack: 10, Defense: 2, Base Damage: 10-20, Health: 200, Attack Speed: 6, Movement Speed: 4, Command Value: ?, EXP: 6,000, Special Skill: Catapult Attack.

As expected, I knew it was the Catapult Attack! I'm omniscient! Wahahaha, I knew that I'm an expert. There's a reason why I succeed! I'm so amazing!

However, why does this type of soldier possess such a weird balance of Attack and Defense attributes? They don't even have the normal Defense Skill and Plague Special Skill like normal Zombies? Their attack range varies so much between a Level 4 and Level 6 soldier. This is so strange?!

Forget it, you never know what's going on with these BOSS units. Anyways, good thing I won! This information should sell for quite a bit.

Da Fei sighed a long breath of relief! This life. When you're unlucky, it pours when it rains. When you're fortunate, good things happen continuously. From one victory to the next, my luck is about to change for the better!

After thinking about his life, Da Fei calmed himself down and inspected his rewards.

Of course, he started off with the golden Skill Book on the Study of War Machines. I can be sure that this was the toughest Skill Book to acquire in this entire world! Look at how easily other ordinary players learned such skills! They could just head to a machinery workshop in a big city and pay their fees. Who else risks their lives to challenge a BOSS like me?

Hence, I have to learn this to pay homage to my efforts! Luckily I have two Skill Points now. I'll spend one on the main skill, War Machine, and the other on the sub-skill, Master of Ballista.

Da Fei opened the book and saw a golden flash!

—System Message: You learned Elementary Study of War Machines. Your Ballista, Siege Machine, and Medical Tent Durability and Effects have improved. You are able to repair damaged War Machines.

Elementary Study of War Machines Ballista attributes: Attack: 10, Defense: 10, Base Damage: 2-3 (Total Damage = Base Damage * Total Hero attributes), Health: 200, Attack Speed: 5, Movement Speed: 1, Special Skill: Knock Back, Puncture.

—Master of Ballista: Fire two consecutive arrows with the Ballista.

I can fire two shots consecutively with the Ballista now! From now on, I'm part of the mechanical-style group! With the Ballista and the War Machines, missions like "Lonely Hero 10 Straight Wins" will be a piece of cake! Wahahaha!

Then, he looked at the equipment obtained.

—War Machine Parts Storage Pack: Portable storage pack that allows players to bring War Machine parts.

This was self-explanatory. The mechanical-style players all had to carry one. The System would give them out for free once you completed missions at the Machinery Workshops. These were closely related to War Machines.

War Machines moved extremely slowly. Furthermore, as they were overly huge in size, they could not march across certain landscapes. Hence, the solution was to disassemble them into parts and then re-assemble them when fighting in wars. In other words, players had to spend ten minutes for assembly and ten minutes for stripping every battle, at least twenty minutes in total. In this game, a day worth of gameplay was 2.4 hours in real-time! How many battles could people fight in a day then?

Was it troublesome! Of course! However, this was the price to pay for greatness! Players just had to think about how real wars were like in ancient times to feel less troublesome! After all, the Ottoman Navy even stripped entire warships into parts and transported them from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea across an entire dessert. There was no such thing as Storage Packs back then!

However, these books, packs, and ballistas can all be easily obtained by normal mechanical-style players in their starter missions. I had to put in so much effort to kill this BOSS. Yet, this is all I got in return? Isn't that too unfair? Perhaps, there are secrets hidden on this key? Is this a key to a treasury? Or, are there any secrets in this Voyage Diary?

Let's check out the diary first. Maybe I'll get another Epic mission? Maybe I'll get a God-level Skill? That may be better for me. Epic missions are too troublesome. I just want to be a merchant and earn some money peacefully. I seriously don't want to bother with those weird Epic missions. However, there's nothing I can do if these missions just happen to find me! Is he worried about his wife or his daughter? Hehe!

After his previous experience with the seafarer's journal, Da Fei carefully flipped this diary to the first page for inspection.

—January 1st, Year 150. Today is a glorious and holy day. Today, our St. Anthony will officially set sail! Under the order of the Emperor, I have been tasked to become the Artillery Chief of St. Anthony because of my excellent track record. The safety of the entire ship depends on me. I will not fail my Emperor! From today onwards, I will record all the details about our grand journey every day!

—January 2nd, Year 150. Sunny. Our ship is sailing safely on the sea. The farewell speech from the emperor motivated me significantly yesterday. I will not be careless just because we are sailing through a safe area. I have gathered my artillery soldiers for the first round of training!

—January 3rd, Year 150. Sunny. Training!

—January 4th, Year 150. Sunny. Training!

—January 5th, Year 150. Sunny. Training!

—January 6th, Year 150. No signs of any enemies today.

Eh? No training?

…

—February 1st, Year 150. Sunny. Nothing.

—February 2nd, Year 150. Sunny. Nothing.

—February 3rd, Year 150. Sunny. Nothing.

—February 6th, Year 150. Sunny. Boring.

What the heck! What happened to recording the details every day? Do you know that this is boring too?! Why couldn't you record something interesting? Where's the God-level skill? Continue!