You can clear the game with just one life by relying on a useless person!

Chapter 74 The Labyrinth's Strange Changes!

The so-called duel invitation is one of the mechanics of Gareth, the dungeon boss and commander of the Knights, or it should be considered his special skill.

Basically, he can activate this skill as long as his health drops to around 75%.

The specific effect is that Gareth designates a player target and sends an invitation. If the other party accepts, a duel area will be set up on the battlefield for three minutes, and the two parties will enter a one-on-one duel mode.

The two players within the duel area cannot interfere with each other from the outside world. Gareth will receive a temporary panel, and his health and panel attributes will be automatically adjusted to be 5 levels higher than the target player.

Additionally, Gareth will randomly acquire a skill from a previous dungeon boss during the duel, and this skill will switch every 30 seconds.

The damage dealt to Gareth by the player who accepts the challenge in Duel Mode will not affect Gareth's original health. However, if the player defeats him, 50% of his current health will be deducted at once, and he will enter a weakened state with a large amount of vulnerability.

Of course, there are rewards for winning and punishments for losing.

If the player loses to Gareth in a duel or the duel times out, Gareth will recover 15% of his maximum health and enter a berserk state after winning. The player will then be on the verge of death, which would be equivalent to being carted back to base in the game.

In his berserk state, Gareth will gain the skills of three mini-bosses in the maze and receive a boost to all his attributes, except for a 20% decrease in defense.

He will also receive an exaggerated buff that halves skill cooldowns, randomly switches aggro targets and prioritizes attacking healers and ranged DPS, and grants immunity to most crowd control abilities.

Basically, if you lose, you can just wait for the teleportation bar to load, unless your level is significantly higher than the dungeon's difficulty, otherwise you're guaranteed to be wiped out.

As for refusing the invitation?

Then Gareth will immediately enter a berserk state —

However, the berserk state after being rejected does not provide as dramatic an attribute boost as the state after winning, leaving players with room for maneuver.

In short, in this duel mode, if you are confident of winning, the rewards for accepting the challenge are high, but the risks are also greater.

In reality, especially during the early stages of the game, a single thread on the forum can easily spark hundreds of arguments about whether or not to accept a randomly generated duel invitation when fighting a boss.

Later, players concluded that if the squad configuration was capable of a quick kill, then refusing the invitation was actually the fastest way to play.

After all, the berserk state after rejection doesn't significantly increase all attributes, but the 20% reduction in defense is a real benefit, which speed-kill teams will love.

As for now, needless to say, You Che will naturally only have one choice.

He accepted without hesitation.

"Buzz".

The golden magic circle spread out, transforming into a light screen somewhat similar to the previous one, enveloping a large area of ​​land around Youche and Gareth, turning it into a fixed duel area.

A faint light flashed across Gareth's body, and then his attributes quickly adjusted, generating a temporary panel.

He looked down at his hands, his brow furrowing slightly, and said, "Such weak strength—it's probably about the same as a commoner with no talent. Is this how you've gotten all this way?"

You Che shrugged: "That's just how your talent is. What can you do? You can't start over."

"How's it going, Commander? Haven't seen such low stats in a long time, have you?"

Gareth nodded: "Yes. I haven't felt this weak power since I was about eight years old."

Yu Che: "————"

I was just saying it casually; I didn't expect you to actually answer.

So what if you have good talent and high growth value?

You Che said no more, and raised the knife in his hand: "Come on, I don't have that much time."

Gareth nodded, gripped his sword, and then swiftly brought it down!

Although his attributes were greatly weakened, Gareth's combat experience allowed him to quickly adapt to the weaker stats, and his sword-wielding movements became smoother and more natural. However, his tactical choices were still somewhat affected.

As the old saying goes, you can lower your enemy to the same level as you, and then defeat him with your rich experience. You Che is in a similar situation at this point.

So he immediately put away his shield, brandished his dagger, and engaged Gareth in battle.

The closer Gareth got to the fight, the more alarmed he became!

How could a level 10 young man possess such skills, experience, and combat awareness?

Who exactly is this guy?!

While they were fighting, their teammates outside the dueling area had already gathered together.

Liz, Lin Fan, and the others looked at each other in bewilderment: "The duel has started just as he planned—so we're just going to watch?"

Isn't this a bit too much?

Luna said, "Don't overthink it. Mr. Yu Che has planned everything. We just need to follow his instructions. Doing things recklessly might only cause him trouble."

Luna, who had followed You Che throughout the entire process, had gotten used to the style of this big shot surnamed You, so she would advise her companions.

However, even though Liz and the others could understand her words, they couldn't help but feel strange about the current situation.

We've all been adventurers for years, when have we ever seen such an easy boss battle?

You Che had previously explained the mechanics of the Knight Commander BOSS to them. The BOSS opening the duel field is a random event, and it can only happen twice in a single battle. As long as you win, you can significantly reduce the BOSS's health.

The logic behind challenges is generally to target the enemy with the highest hatred, so if it's opened, Youche will definitely accept it.

In other battles, Yuche would draw the BOSS's attention, while the other teammates would coordinate with him at crucial moments to interrupt certain skills of the Knight Commander, thus creating opportunities for damage output. This is a very standard tactic.

However, Yuche's plan did not end there. He specifically went to learn the magic of necromancy, largely for Gareth's sake.

Because there is a hidden mechanism in Gareth.

"clang"

The hound's claws clashed with Gareth's broken longsword once more, and then, by skillfully deflecting the force and altering Gareth's attack, You Che spun around, leaving another cut on Gareth's arm.

"Pfft!"

Blood erupts!

"Ha ha ha ha-!!"

Despite taking a heavy blow, Gareth burst into laughter: "How amusing! No one has been to the deepest part of this labyrinth for a long time, let alone an adventurer like you who has never seen anything like it before!"

"Despite having extremely poor growth potential, you possess such strength; it truly makes one curious to see how far you can go!"

Yu Che chuckled, "You activated the Duel Domain when you still had over 80% of your health remaining, and you even specifically reminded me before your move. You did it on purpose, didn't you?"

Gareth swung his sword again, laughing as he replied, "That's right! I told you, a single victory or defeat is completely irrelevant to me."

"Within this labyrinth, I am immortal, yet I cannot escape. Meeting an extraordinary adventurer like you, bringing some surprises to my long journey, is of course more important."

You Che said, "Actually—your predicament may not be unsolvable."

This time, Gareth was completely stunned: "What did you say—!?"

But You Che suddenly became a riddle-maker, no longer explaining, but instead drawing his green rusted short sword with his left hand and attacking with both daggers at once!

He launched a series of rapid attacks. With his attributes suppressed to not much higher than Yu Che's, Gareth was unable to defend himself for a while and was forced to retreat step by step, with his health points decreasing continuously!

Soon, his temporary health bar was almost depleted!

At that moment, Youche suddenly stopped his fierce attack, put away the hound's claws and the green rusted short sword, and instead took out a black dagger and a rotten wood wand.

He ducked to avoid Gareth's sweeping longsword, and at the same time, he waved his wand across the surface of the black dagger, instantly coating it with a layer of dark gray poison!

Gareth's pupils dilated!

His movements hesitated almost subconsciously for a moment, and then he was unable to withstand You Che's next attack. The black dagger covered with undead poison pierced his abdomen!

[Undead Toxin!]

An abnormal status message popped up, and Gareth's remaining health points began to drop.

[—1、—1、—1]

[HP: 0/160]

In that instant, Gareth's entire face was enveloped in gray undead poison!

"Ugh... Ughhhhh!!"

To the surprise of the others watching, Gareth did not enter a weakened state after the duel as described in the guild information. Instead, he knelt down on the ground, emitting a large amount of strange black and white light!

Not only that, his attribute panel should have recovered from the duel state, and his health should have been halved, but at this moment—

Gareth, Commander of the Dawn Knights

[HP: 0/1000]

"What's going on!?"

His companions were all taken aback and instinctively gathered around You Che.

But just then, Gareth suddenly raised his head!

He suddenly waved his hand, and a large cloud of mist gathered, enveloping everyone except You Che, before teleporting away!

In the blink of an eye, only Yu Che and Gareth remained.

Gareth exhaled a cloud of turbid air, then slowly stood up.

At this moment, holy light and dark power were intertwined on his body. The two forces, which should have been opposing forces, coexisted peacefully on him for a brief period of time, which seemed extremely strange.

The boss, Commander of the Knights, has a hidden form, which is unlocked by using Undead Poison to reduce its health to zero.

Originally, this should only happen when the Knight Commander's health is reduced to zero. However, after testing by players during the game era, it was discovered that using Undead Poison to temporarily reduce the BOSS's health to zero in Duel Mode can also successfully trigger this effect.

At the time, players were saying that the developers had messed up the code and were speculating when the bug would be fixed. Unexpectedly, the developers chose not to fix it and instead added it to a later setting.

No, don't talk nonsense. This isn't a bug, it's a feature!

Naturally, this move drew criticism from players at the time, but it has now helped Youche.

Since the official statement says this is part of the setting, it means that this method would work even in this world!

And the result was exactly as Yu Che had predicted.

"There really is such a method—how did you know?"

At this moment, Gareth was looking at Yu Che and asked.

You Che simply smiled and said, "There are very few things in this world that I don't know."

Gareth gave Yu Che a deep look: "If I were still alive, I might have suspected that you were a hero sent by the gods."

"Then why not think that way now?"

"Because I've come to realize that the gods don't care about our lives or deaths at all, just like the kingdoms do."

Upon hearing this, You Che said, "That might be a biased view—"

But Gareth had no intention of further conversation. He abruptly swung his sword: "No need for further words! Although I don't know how you learned of this method, since you've done this, you must have been prepared for the current situation!"

"Come on, this is the real battle to the death!"

At this moment, his panel reappeared, but it had completely changed.

【Gareth, the Wandering Knight Commander】

[Level: 48]

[HP: 1592/1600]

[—1、—1、—1]

Yu Che gripped his knife tightly: "Of course—that's why I came!"

Meanwhile, outside the maze, inside the Adventurers' Guild in Watchtower Town.

Within the designated teleportation area, Qingling, Liss, and the other four appeared there as if they had been forcibly teleported.

What they saw was a guild in chaos.

"There's a problem with the maze! Quickly, go get the branch leader!"

"Magic power is leaking abnormally! Activate magic arrays number three and five immediately!"

"What's going on with these adventurers? Did they just come out of a dungeon?"

"Someone come here and take them in for questioning! Also, get them out of here; don't let outsiders stay!"

So, the group was taken away by the Adventurers' Guild staff in a daze, and after being questioned one by one, they naturally got no results.

All the guild knows is that something seems to have gone wrong during their raid, and that someone is still trapped inside the dungeon.

"Damn it, what on earth is wrong?!"

Although some people suspected that Yu Che's team had done something, the highest level among them was only LV14, and Yu Che, who was now trapped, was only LV10 without a profession. The guild racked their brains but couldn't figure out how they could have caused such a large-scale change in the labyrinth.

So in the end, the guild let the group leave.

The five people who walked out of the reception room stood in the guild hall, looking at the chaotic scene and the bewildered adventurers, and were equally confused.

Only Luna looked at Qingling: "Do you know what happened?"

Qingling rarely expresses her thoughts and clings to You Che at all times, as everyone has noticed. Yet, she shows no sign of urgency, which suggests she knows something.

Qingling wasn't in a hurry, because You Che had instructed her beforehand what to do: ignore everyone, go back to the hotel and wait a while; he would be back soon.

So Qingling simply waved to Luna and the others as she had seen before, and then walked out of the Adventurers' Guild alone.

",wait----"

Watching Qingling leave, everyone was even more at a loss.

"What are we doing now?" Sean asked.

"Anyway, let's go find Mr. Mycroft first," Lin Fan said.

Everyone thought this made sense, so they prepared to take action.

Just then, the doors of the Adventurers' Guild were pushed open from the outside, and a blonde girl wearing magical half-armor walked in.

"Excuse me! There's a guy here named You—what happened?"