This move threw the zombies’ formation into complete chaos, and the frontal pressure dropped sharply. The group immediately took the opportunity to tighten their formation, straightening out the previously scattered line.
Xiao Jie was also quick to react.
"Group seven go to the right, group eight follow me to the left," he ordered.
The two groups instantly filled the gaps on the flanks.
Just as Xiao Jie led his group into position, he saw several mining zombies growl and lunge at them.
It was more of a collision than a lunge, as the mining zombies carried heavy wooden baskets filled with ore on their backs, making their movements extremely slow.
But this also gave them super high resilience.
Xiao Jie swung his blade at an oncoming zombie.
Clang! The blade was repelled.
What the hell! Xiao Jie was taken aback. His strike seemed to hit a wall.
The information had stated that mining zombies were highly resilient, making light weapons ineffective against them, but he hadn’t expected it to be this bad.
He swung his blade again, only to have it repelled once more.
Not only was the damage low, but the repelling also prevented him from connecting his attacks. Each strike resulted in a minor stagger—his own stagger.
As the mining zombie brandished its pickaxe, Xiao Jie performed a Hawk Roll to easily dodge the clumsy attack. Fortunately, while the creature was tough, it was also very slow.
Xiao Jie immediately adjusted his tactics.
Running Wolf Slash! He leapt into the air and spun around before slashing down.
The Running Wolf Slash converted a chop into a slashing attack, which was the right type of attack for dealing with highly resilient enemies.
System prompt: Your weapon durability -3.
Damn, does this game have to be so detailed?
As he saw another mining zombie lunging at him, Xiao Jie opened his backpack and decisively switched to his backup weapon—the Mountain-opening Great Saber.
[Mountain-opening Great Saber (Two-handed)
Attack Power: 22 Slashing.
Equipment Requirement: 30 Strength.
Weapon Introduction: A hefty saber forged from thick iron blocks, capable of dealing slashing damage.]
A plain weapon with low damage, but at least it dealt slashing damage.
Requiring 30 points of strength, Xiao Jie gripped it with both hands just right.
For dealing with high resilience monsters, the best type of attack was blunt impact (100% damage), followed by slashing (75% damage).
Chopping and stabbing were almost ineffective.
It would actually be better to switch to a hammer, but then Xiao Jie wouldn’t be able to use his combat skills. The current setup was just perfect.
Running Wolf Slash! Running Wolf Slash! Running Wolf Slash!
Each slash induced a stagger in the mining zombie. Against such tough but slow monsters, there was no need for fancy martial arts moves—blindly using combat skills was the way to go.
After several slashes, a loud thud marked the fall of a zombie to the ground.
Xiao Jie quickly looted the body.
The money wasn’t short in coming.
Then he moved straight to the next one.
The others followed suit, switching to large hammers and axes to crazily smash at the zombies in front of them.
At that moment, Salted Fish led the rear squad to the scene and froze at the fiery spectacle.
"What the hell!" he exclaimed.
"Stop talking and help," someone responded.
Salted Fish immediately directed everyone to switch to large axes and hammers, joining the ranks of those swinging their weapons.
The mining zombies too swung their picks, but their slow speed made them miss nine times out of ten. On the rare occasion they hit someone, the damage was substantial, but the injured player would immediately retreat to heal and recover.
Someone was always there to take their place.
Seeing that the line had stabilized, Hidden Dragon Do Not Use immediately ordered a formation change.
"The middle should slowly retreat backward, while the flanks push forward; squeeze them together!" he commanded.
The group in the middle began stepping back slowly, and the brainless zombies, seeing their opponents retreat, immediately advanced, inadvertently squeezing the zombies on the flanks towards the center. In a blink of an eye, the players surrounded the zombies, allowing them to outnumber and overpower the zombies in localized areas.
Fiery Flame Magic Ball!
Boom! It was Dida La who timed his moment and hurled a massive fireball into the mob, knocking down a swath of them.
Boom, boom, boom! A few more fireballs rained down, burning a swath to death.
Xiao Jie watched enviously; indeed, magic users had the most fun killing monsters.
After about five minutes of relentless attacking, with a final loud crash, the last mining zombie was chopped down.
"Haha, what a fight!" Salted Fish commented with some amusement.
However, not many others could muster a laugh. They were all tense and exhausted. It was a relief to have dealt with the enemies, and many sighed with both relief and fatigue.
Xiao Jie tallied up his gains. Though the mining zombies didn’t drop much equipment—aside from the Cross Shovels, of which he obtained two—they dropped quite a lot of money and various ores that seemed valuable.
"Wow, so many mining spots!" someone shouted suddenly.
Xiao Jie noticed as well that the entire Dumping Area was scattered with mining spots. Where one might occasionally encounter a mining spot in the wilderness, this place was littered with them.
Hidden Dragon Do Not Use, however, was not excited and instead warned coolly, "Don’t rush to mine; everyone split up by groups and search to make sure there are no remaining monsters around. Also, light the bonfires."
Although they were coveting the numerous mining spots, everyone knew better than to be impetuous. They split up by groups and began searching the Dumping Area.
This search revealed several mining zombies hiding in dark corners. After a noisy bout of smashing, the area was finally quiet.
Then they gathered wood bundles and lit several bonfires, illuminating the Dumping Area. As the fires lit up, the tension and unease in everyone’s hearts started to fade away.