Chapter 533 - 500: Conditions for Incorporating the BOSS

The advancing Earth Element Army was swiftly defeated, and the giant lizard army, just tagging along, also retreated, while the Flower Demon Army’s attack was cautiously restrained, only releasing pollen poison fog on the forest’s perimeter. With pressure from three sides greatly reduced, Da Fei focused all his strength on fiercely attacking the Skeleton Army.

The Skeleton Army fell like waves of grain in the wind, with victory in sight, Da Fei was full of confidence!

Of course, a mere victory wasn’t Da Fei’s pursuit; what he sought was to recruit the Flower Demon BOSS!

There were two types of BOSSes: one was a regular outdoor scene BOSS guarding resources or treasures, or the BOSS in an instance, which the system had set with an attribute of "preferring death over surrender," and it would absolutely not surrender to players. Naturally, the system also restricted such BOSSes’ duties, and they would never leave their post to seize some divine level.

The other type was the story scene BOSS. Clearly, the current scenario was undoubtedly a story scene, where BOSSes were aware they could seize divine levels, undeniably making them story BOSSes. With the Forest Demon’s prior surrender and the giant lizard’s persuasion to retreat, it was entirely possible to recruit them!

So, what’s crucial is what’s missing for recruiting conditions? When recruiting the Forest Demon, I didn’t have Master Leadership Skill or diplomacy skills, it was just after a day of "emotional brewing," of course, Alina had Master Diplomacy skills. And now, I have two heroes with double Master Diplomacy, have prestige, have fame, and most importantly, my forces are overwhelmingly superior, yet it’s not making any progress, so there’s a big possibility that the BOSS was attracted by the divine level, which is above everything!

If that’s the case, perhaps there would be a turn of events after dismantling the divine level.

And maybe there’s another possibility that my Leadership Skill level was too low! If that’s the case, should I use this achievement to rush to a Master-level Leadership Skill?

No, no! Be calm, as this Master is meant for navigators, which is directly used to rush to God-level. I am about to head to the Eastern World, and God-level Navigation is essential. Moreover, recruiting the Flower Demon is merely icing on the cake, not a necessity!

Otherwise, even if I managed to recruit the Flower Demon, but with the navigator stuck at the Master level, unable to advance, and then the whole ship’s crew would struggle in the storm, I’d be at a loss of whom to blame! Being stuck at Master is being stuck at God-level! Stay calm and steady!

Time passed second by second, and the Forest Demon Leader’s persuasion to surrender continued but was to no avail. The Flower Demon Army still neither fought nor retreated nor surrendered nor responded.

Only the lone Earth Element BOSS resolutely continued its logging advance, completely unaffected by attempts to dissuade it.

Finally, Little Fei’s mana was drained, and as the Petrification Aura disappeared, the Dwarf Warriors’ momentum in clearing the skeletons also slowed, and more and more skeletons surged back into the woods. This Skeleton Sea was a relentless queue flowing endlessly from the wasteland!

This made Da Fei realize the problem’s complications! The most important condition for recruiting and persuading to surrender was not met, which was the comparison of forces on both sides! Although the giant lizard retreated, and the Earth Element Army collapsed, the opposing side was still three against one, and their forces were still stronger than my army!

At this point, Hangeval spoke deeply: "Friend! Things aren’t looking good, our brothers aren’t in good shape!"

Damn! When it rains, it pours, doesn’t it? Da Fei anxiously asked, "What happened?"

Hangeval cleared his throat, stating seriously: "It’s the pollen! Although the Forest Spring can reduce the harm from the pollen poison fog, it doesn’t mean the pollen isn’t effective; we must retract our offensive!"

Sure enough, at this time, the speed at which the Dwarf Warriors swung their axes and ran couldn’t compare to before, and people in the crowd coughed continuously from time to time.

Damn! It turned out to be a chronic attack. Presumably, this was also the reason the Flower Demon remained calm and didn’t attack? The more they acted superior, the more I wanted to recruit them!

Da Fei hurriedly turned to look at Alina, who was drenched in sweat, with her mana plummeting rapidly, presumably reaching a critical stage of collapse! Hold on! Go for it!

Just then, there was a flash of lightning above the forest!

—Boom! A lightning bolt exploded thunderously over the forest! A flash of red on Da Fei’s screen!

—System prompt: Warning! The Douglas Divine Artifact Fragment is about to complete its mutation! The mutated Divine Artifact Fragment will attract powerful entities to snatch it!

Da Fei’s heart was shocked, had the Mao God come knocking?

And at that moment, Alina shouted: "The divine level is forming, now is the time! Go all out, give it everything!" As she spoke, the array’s demon light surged, and with it, the remaining magic power in her body was instantly drained!

Boom! With a loud blast, Da Fei’s vision whitened; the entire forest floor shook thunderously!

—System Prompt: Your Vice Hero Alina dismantled the Divine Artifact Fragment, and you obtained a Douglas Fire Attribute Divine Artifact Fragment, Douglas Earth Attribute Divine Artifact Fragment... Douglas Light Attribute Divine Artifact Fragment.

Oh yeah! It succeeded! Turning one into six! Wahahaha, my darling, you were actually brewing something this whole time!

Filled with joy, Da Fei hurriedly supported the weak and slumping Alina: "Thank you for your hard work!"

Alina’s face was pale and she panted lightly: "The divine level has been dismantled, which means the god probably won’t want it anymore, but for these monsters, it still is an item of great value. They still feel the abundant power of the Divine Artifact, so the master still must fully cope with it, I’m sorry, I urgently need to rest and can’t help the master temporarily..."

What? Da Fei turned his head to look, the Skeleton Sea showed no signs of retreating! Damn it!

Crash! Another loud noise, the sound of trees falling. The massive, tree-height body of the Earth Element BOSS appeared in Da Fei’s sight, the BOSS had finally overcome all obstacles and reached Da Fei!

Da Fei’s heart sank! Damn it! Is this somewhere anyone can stay? Don’t you just want it? If you want it, just say so, I’m not a stingy old miser who won’t give a thread! Let me show you what diplomacy is all about!

Da Fei took out the Light, Dark, and Earth Element Fragments and shouted: "Do you want power? Here is the power you need; if you follow me, I’ll give it to you!"

No response! Seeing Da Fei take out the Earth Element Fragment, the Earth Element roared, chopping trees even more vigorously!

Damn it! Da Fei shook the fragments vigorously in the direction of the Flower Demons: "Grassland Guardians, join me! Join me, and I’ll give it to you!"

Still no response. Damn it! What am I doing? Even I feel like an idiot!

In fact, upon careful consideration, recruiting BOSSes, such a low-probability thing, is as unreliable as striving for Master. Perhaps because I somehow succeeded in recruiting the Forest Demon, I got carried away, treating a highly low-probability chance event as something pursued as inevitable, isn’t this the kind of idiocy akin to waiting for luck to fall into your lap?

Da Fei shook his head with a wry smile, then let it be, I’ll go for the ultimate move! I was thinking of doing this from the start, but I was concerned that the Mao God might come to snatch it, so I was lazy to do it. Now I’m no longer worried.

Da Fei then equipped the three fragments in Little Fei’s equipment bar. If even this doesn’t lead the monsters away, I have nothing more to say but to fight to the bitter end—uh, can I give it for free? Do you really think I don’t dare to give it for free?

Sure enough, when Little Fei intentionally shook it in front of the Earth Element, the Earth’s gaze indeed turned to the sky! Da Fei couldn’t help but smile with satisfaction, at least I did one reliable thing, right? See how I mess with you.

At this time, Alina, who was in Da Fei’s arms, also chuckled softly: "Master, let your Flying Eagle fly far and high, far enough to where these creatures can’t feel the divine artifact’s power, perhaps then the creatures will retreat."

Indeed, retreating is probably that simple; it’s just that the fact I couldn’t achieve maximum expected value is still quite a regretful thing!

Da Fei sighed slightly: "Alright, everyone’s tired, it would be super if no sacrifices were needed."

As soon as he said this, Little Fei’s vision suddenly became blurry, Da Fei raised an eyebrow, this—is a scene change! That’s right! It’s time for the scene reshuffle again!

Da Fei laughed heartily, so this is also a way to break the deadlock! With the scene reshuffled, you’re left with no choice but to retreat!

Wait a minute! It doesn’t seem right either! Even if the scene reshuffled, isn’t this Earth Element still in my territory? What if its old haunt got reshuffled to who knows where, how would it retreat then?

Da Fei suddenly found this problem very interesting and began to watch intently.

After a moment of blurriness, the scene changed. The surrounding forest scenario was repositioned to Ice Lake, mountains, and the Lava Pool. In short, the grassland was gone, the swamp was gone, and the wasteland ceaselessly spawning skeletons was gone too!

And at this moment, crash after crash echoed, the Skeleton Sea that invaded the forest collapsed piece by piece—a typical phenomenon of losing its master’s magic power supply!

Da Fei raised an eyebrow; no more skeletons! This means that I retreated a path with troops? Which means the greatest obstacle to recruiting has also been removed; now my forces are absolutely dominant!

At this point, seeing the Earth Element BOSS in the forest looking around in confusion, Da Fei suddenly realized! Actually, there’s one more crucial condition: the BOSS can’t go back now, there’s no retreat!

That’s right, a BOSS can flee if defeated, if it can flee, the BOSS still wouldn’t surrender; this no-retreat situation is actually similar to when the Fishmen were trapped in the cabin! On closer inspection, the reason the Forest Demon surrendered was not because I was going to burn the forest, leaving them homeless without retreat?

Da Fei finally realized!

It can work! Now I meet all the conditions for recruiting the BOSS, the flames of hope burned brightly in Da Fei’s heart!

Da Fei excitedly instructed the Forest Demon Leader: "Persuade! Persuade the Flower Demon to surrender! Tell them they are homeless now!"

It’s not just the Flower Demon! If the Flower Demon surrenders, what about this Earth Element BOSS? Even if the Flower Demon can still fly back, this Earth Element can’t go back, can it? Earth Elements don’t have faction requirements; being a Commander, its chances of surrendering are actually higher than the Flower Demon!

(Sorry, I fell asleep while writing; it’s already 2 AM when I woke up. I’ll humbly ask for votes in the middle of the night then!) (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you’re welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly passes at Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)