No Next Time, Idiot

"Auto-Battle!"

This was a high-level map for sure — even with Auto-Battle running, Overwhelming and Decisive results barely ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ever popped up. Most of the time it was Meaningful or Narrow. That meant I still had to manually work the water wheel mid-fight while Auto-Battle was going, so the mental drain was bigger than I'd expected. But in exchange…

"The XP is so sweet… hehe…"

My class effect cut experience in half against lower-level enemies, but against higher-level ones it boosted what I gained by half — so compared to a same-level map, the experience I could pull in here was overwhelmingly better.

That said, once you hit the high-level maps, the monsters' quality jumped quite a bit and their numbers on the field dropped off sharply. Clearing dungeons still let me farm slaughter energy in bulk, at least — though staying in one too long slapped you with a penalty, so I couldn't just camp forever.

The whole reason I'd come to a high-level map was to freeload off high-level monsters via the regional penalty. Unfortunately, the regional penalty didn't apply cleanly inside dungeons. The minor Heavenly Tribulation falling from the Upper Realm down to the Lower Realm would strike nearby monsters or neutral NPCs long before it ever punched into a dungeon, so there wasn't much I could do about it.

Obviously I wasn't about to do something insane like charging into a high-level dungeon without the regional penalty's help. So I was just poking at field monsters that had been hiding from the minor Heavenly Tribulation, or landing last hits on wheezing neutral NPCs as I wandered around — when:

Of course, wandering the field meant running into that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠kind of existence — a field boss.

"Ah, fuck."

The second I saw the high-level map field boss spawn message, I tried to Base Return — but it had already been flagged as a [Combat Situation], so the skill fizzled on the spot.

"So you're the worm who killed my husband."

"No, I'm not."

Who the hell was that even about.

I denied it without a shred of hesitation. The field boss paused for a beat, then the spiritual energy around him began to boil over in rage.

"Are you mocking me? If it weren't for the upheaval in the Upper Realm, my husband never would have died to the likes of you! To meet such a fate while trying to protect the other disciples…"

I watched the senior cultivator pretend to talk while clearly shifting spiritual power under the table, and pretended not to notice. He was a red-dot enemy to begin with, and even if you hide spiritual energy, you can't hide killing intent — so the way his power was moving was plain as day.

Boss-tier meant I couldn't lean on Auto-Battle. I'd already yeeted Cheon Nan-cho off on a Prisoner Expedition the moment her cooldown came up, so I couldn't count on her help either.

Judging by the spiritual energy, though, I knew who he was talking about. I'd thought it was a monster, but it was just a hostile NPC. Explained why Auto-Battle had felt so disgustingly hard against that one.

"You dare—!!!"

I rummaged through my inventory and pulled out a Unique-grade stone hammer. The way he flew into a rage the second I did confirmed my guess, which was weirdly satisfying.

"Ebebebeb."

Just in case, I deadpan teabagged him a little more for provocation value. The field boss grabbed the back of his neck. Man, his cultivation was shallow.

The moment he lost it, his invisible, colorless spiritual energy — thick with killing intent — scattered. I drew my Natal Dharma Treasure and spun up the water wheel.

As the killing intent got absorbed and the spiritual energy caught in it fell into disarray, the field boss's face went rigid in an instant. He flicked his sleeve, produced a small stone knife, and carved a line through empty air.

"Be sealed."

A tidal wave of spiritual energy crashed over me all at once, wrapping me whole. Curling characters that looked like nothing more than pretty decorative script to me rose in unison, forming a hemisphere of spiritual power that began blasting waves of energy straight at me.

The idea was clearly to crush me to death inside it. It was almost funny.

Field boss or not, NPCs sometimes just had garbage combat ability. Throwing a technique or locking me in this sphere was way less threatening than just yeeting the whole thing at me.

Then again, giving me time only made things worse for him.

The elite mob from before had been way scarier. No, seriously — what the hell was with that melee character's mobility skill? If it hadn't been for Cheon Nan-cho, I wouldn't even have reacted in time. I'd have lost, gotten captured, the whole mess.

The water wheel spun and spun.

In the great sea of slaughter energy, the wheel turned, hauling that sea upward and pouring it out — slaughter energy straining to punch through the wall of spiritual power. I held it back, controlled it, and packed the inside of the spiritual sphere full of slaughter energy.

Then, with that filled space, I started stacking slaughter energy brick by brick like Tetris. Prep work for the Bomb skill.

A Bomb used as a skill was a ramshackle hut of loosely woven twigs. Auto-Battle's Bomb skill was a pretty painted set of dominoes. Used manually, it became Tetris.

The difference? Power. Naturally, the Tetris version — refined slaughter energy stacked solid and tight — hit several times harder than the dominoes, and double the hut.

Skill and Auto-Battle versions were overwhelmingly faster on cast and prep time, sure. But if they were going to hand me this much free time, I could set up out in the open no problem!

I kept hauling slaughter energy up from the sea with the water wheel, fretting over when to detonate the Bomb skill — pure raw power-wise, the strongest skill I had, capable of wiping an entire map with just a few years' stockpile.

"Ah."

I was stacking Tetris hard when the spiritual sphere imprisoning me warped, cracks opening here and there. What — duration up? Or was he running out of spiritual energy and losing strength?

Should I blow it now? I was still thinking that when, through the warped and holed spiritual sphere, I saw the field boss with white steam rising off his whole body.

Aha. He'd gotten hit by an event Eok-kka!

The second I saw the field boss who'd just been smacked by the regional penalty — the minor Heavenly Tribulation — I collapsed the Tetris stack. This much should be plenty to drop a field boss!

Before he could even restore the briefly disrupted spiritual sphere, the refined slaughter-energy bombs detonated all at once along the collapsing Tetris lines.

Sheer, overwhelming violence swallowed half the map in an instant.

"What… cough… in the world… is this…"

"Whoa, he didn't even die. Fuck. Wait — thinking about it, I've been running Field Boss Enhancement Mode, so maybe he got buffed."

"What… nonsense… are you…!"

"Gotta hope the rewards got that much better too."

"Don't you look down on me with those eyes!!!"

The ugly, half-shattered stone knife flared with blue spiritual energy as he swung it — but with no related weapon skill in sight, there was no way a single blow was landing on me. The water wheel shot out like it was the most natural thing in the world, crushed the stone knife flat, and smashed it to pieces. The field boss — already reduced to just an upper body from the bomb blast — vomited blood in a gush.

Ah, so that stone knife was his Natal Dharma Treasure. Kind of a waste — it would've dropped if I'd killed him with it intact. While thinking that, I floated up my Chopsticks.

"Heh heh… I'll remember you, girl. Next time, I'll kill you for re—"

"There is no next time, you idiot."

He was talking like a cultivator who'd reached Golden Core — as long as the core itself was intact, resurrection was possible, and you could even transfer onto a Mortal body using a fragment of the core and keep cultivating. But once you got swallowed by my slaughter energy, none of that applied.

Body and soul both became part of the slaughter energy and experience. Completely dead.

The Chopsticks harvested the field boss on the spot.

A massive influx of experience and slaughter energy, plus items glittering as they dropped — caught by the Item Filter Mode. I nodded in satisfaction.

Field Boss Enhancement Mode really had buffed the rewards to match. And since he was higher level than me, the experience came in so sweetly I couldn't help feeling giddy.

It was dozens of times the experience of Auto-Battling regular monsters in one go!

The higher the monsters' levels on a map, the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠more sharply their numbers dropped — which meant spending forever hunting them down on the minimap. Taking a field boss was way more efficient.

"Thank god it was a dumbass field boss!"

If that axe-wielding elite from before had been the field boss, I'd have gotten diced without Auto-Battle's help, forced a Recall, and had my mental completely shatter!

Neutral NPCs really did have wildly inconsistent combat difficulty.

If he hadn't been a field boss and Auto-Battle had been available, I honestly felt like it would've been a Narrow Victory at worst — that easy.

Of course, the elite had been running the Immovable prefix and chewing through the regional penalty, while the field ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠boss had gotten smacked by it mid-technique against me… but still!

A flash!

"Ack, you absolute piece of—?! That stings!"

This one had rolled a pretty nasty random damage hit. White steam rose off my whole body in curling plumes. I shuddered and rolled across the ground.