Chapter Fifty-Three: The Altar Guardian

The incantation required for the quest was carved onto the massive stone pillar at the center of the altar. Taking out the recording tool gifted by his beautiful mentor, Ye Chen swiftly made a rubbing of the inscription on the pillar. After putting away the tool, he checked the time—it was already past 11:30 at night. In order to complete his job change before midnight, Ye Chen hurriedly fished out a town portal scroll to prepare for his return.

He casually tore up a scroll. One second, two seconds, three seconds—nothing happened. Ye Chen was furious; how could the official shop dare sell counterfeit goods? This was outrageous—one gold coin down the drain! He swore to call and complain, demanding compensation for one gold coin—no, two.

But with time running out, there was no room for argument. Ye Chen quickly pulled out another town portal scroll, silently praising his foresight in bringing an extra one. Stretching out his hand, he tore it. One second, two seconds, three seconds—still no response.

Just as Ye Chen was about to unleash a tirade, a piercing, cackling laugh suddenly echoed in his ears: “Human apprentice of shadow, did you think you could simply copy the sacred incantation of my people’s altar and walk away so easily? Put down that inferior spatial scroll in your hand. On the altar of our holy deity, such things are utterly useless.”

As the words fell, a twisted sorcerer’s face struggled out from the central pillar of the altar. Next came the neck, shoulders, arms, and torso—in the blink of an eye, a naked, grotesque warlock stood before Ye Chen.

How disgusting! At the very least, you could cover up your little appendage.

Health: 160,000
Level: 30
Skill: Summon Wraith

Ye Chen shivered all over. So this so-called powerful warlock had been hiding inside the pillar all along—no wonder it hadn’t shown on the minimap. He was doomed. A silver-tier boss, and he wasn’t a tank; there was no way he could withstand its attacks. Heartbroken, he thought of the hundred gold coins slipping from his grasp.

But surrendering without a fight was not his way. Even if he was going to die, he would go down fighting. Ye Chen began to retreat, putting distance between himself and the monster while raising his Abyssal Staff and hurling a black fireball at Modinkara. With a bang, Modinkara lost more than 820 health—its defenses were indeed formidable.

At the same time, Modinkara began chanting a spell. His voice was even more grating than that of ordinary warlocks. Ye Chen, curious about its damage, refrained from using Silence—besides, Silence had a cooldown and couldn’t be used to block every regular magical attack.

Bang, bang. As Modinkara finished chanting, the air before him crackled with explosive force, and two shadowy wraiths appeared on the altar.

Health: 2,000
Level: 25

“My children, go—kill this vile intruder!” Modinkara roared, pointing forward. The two wraiths lunged at Ye Chen, while Modinkara himself hid behind them, chanting the same incantation once more.

So that’s how it is! Ye Chen silently cursed his own foolishness. The officials would never design an impossible quest for players. Those pursuing the Dark Arbiter job were all apprentice shadow priests, and a level-20 apprentice would never be able to defeat an offensive silver-tier boss in single combat. Therefore, this silver boss wasn’t offensive at all—it was clearly a pure summoner, the kind that calls for endless minions in battle but lacks direct attack power itself.

A glimmer of hope stirred in Ye Chen’s heart. Perhaps his hundred gold coins weren’t lost after all. With a golden staff in hand and donning the Dark Magic set, he might just have a chance to take down this summoner-type silver boss.

Wraiths weren’t particularly strong monsters—in fact, they were even weaker than ordinary warlocks and relied solely on physical attacks. Two wraiths were hardly worth Ye Chen’s concern. However, it seemed Modinkara could endlessly summon them, two at a time. If this went on, even if Ye Chen could handle the wraiths, he’d have no time to deal with Modinkara himself.

Hurling a Silence spell to interrupt Modinkara’s next summoning, Ye Chen threw another black fireball at him. In that brief moment, Ye Chen realized that killing the wraiths was pointless; even with Silence’s help, he couldn’t kill them as fast as Modinkara summoned them. If he wanted to complete the quest, he had to strike directly at Modinkara.

In the blink of an eye, Modinkara had already summoned six wraiths. Luckily, Ye Chen’s maneuvering skills were quite good; with deft movements, he led the six wraiths in a merry chase, causing them to bunch up and fail to catch him. Yet as their numbers grew, the pressure mounted—after all, the altar was far too small. It wouldn’t be long before the entire space was filled with summoned wraiths, at which point even the most brilliant movement would be useless.

Fortunately, after a period of observation, Ye Chen made a thrilling discovery: this silver-tier boss, Modinkara, couldn’t move at all. He stayed plastered against the massive central pillar of the altar.

This revelation gave Ye Chen hope of victory. If he pressed up close to Modinkara against the pillar, at most only five wraiths could attack him at once, dealing a maximum of 150 damage per round. With Dark Heal and Coagulation Pills to restore health, he could hold out.

As the number of wraiths continued to rise, Ye Chen didn’t hesitate any longer. He darted over to Modinkara, pressed tightly against him by the gigantic pillar, and unleashed black fireballs at point-blank range.

What followed was exactly as Ye Chen had anticipated. Six wraiths battered him relentlessly, but their attacks weren’t as threatening as those from the melee monsters, especially with Ye Chen clad in the Dark Magic set. Drinking regular health potions and casting Dark Heal on himself, he could easily endure the onslaught. Even if a monster landed a critical hit, a single Coagulation Pill would instantly restore his health.

Minutes ticked by, and midnight had long since passed. Yet Ye Chen could no longer care about his wish to change jobs before twelve—he had to devote himself entirely to this grueling war of attrition. Each black fireball shaved around 800 points from Modinkara’s health, but he couldn’t endlessly spam that spell. He also needed to heal, drink potions, and stay alert for any critical hits—if one landed, he’d have to consume a Coagulation Pill right away. All in all, his damage output per minute barely reached six or seven thousand. After more than twenty minutes of fierce battle, Modinkara’s health bar finally ran dry.

Another five minutes at most, and this silver boss would fall by his hand. Ye Chen felt a surge of excitement—this would be the first time he had vanquished a high-level foe relying entirely on his own strength.