53, The Curse of Amumu Dungeon (Part Two)

During this time, Amumu continued to attack the body of the Desert Emperor, but his damage was pathetic, still only -5 and -8.
When the health dropped to 30%, the Desert Emperor entered the second phase.
In the second phase, all the sand soldiers on the battlefield vanished instantly, and the body of the Desert Emperor exploded, transforming into 10 streaks of golden light.
The 10 streaks of golden light traced parabolas through the air and landed on the ground, turning into 10 large golden roosters.
One of these 10 roosters was the true body of the Desert Emperor, while the remaining 9 were illusions.
All the roosters stood leisurely on the ground, pecking at the yellow sand, their health rapidly regenerating at a rate of 1% per second.
Players had to find the true body of the boss from among the illusions and unleash full firepower on it to clear the stage.
If a player misjudged and poured all their attacks into an illusion, they would simply have to wait for the boss's true body to fully regenerate its health and fight it all over again.
On the surface, the ten roosters looked identical, but the true body had subtle differences in its details compared to the other nine. Ultimately, it was a game of "spot the difference."
Su Yu was extremely skilled at such "spot the difference" games. With his sharp eyes, he quickly spotted the boss's true body among the flock—a rooster with black spots on its comb.
A flurry of high-damage single-target spells was hurled consecutively, reducing the boss's health to zero, and a golden heroic spirit came to escort the soul of the Desert Emperor away.
Only a glittering golden treasure chest was left behind on the spot. This boss was defeated with ease!
Opening the treasure chest revealed a staff inside, and astonishingly, it was a blue rare-quality staff!
[Staff of the Desert Emperor Lv10 (Rare)]
Spell Power +30
Intelligence +10
Trait: When you attack or cast a spell, there is a 5% chance to summon a [Sand Soldier] to fight for you.
"It's actually a rare-grade staff!" Su Yu's eyes lit up.
In the game, monsters below level 10 could drop items of at most excellent quality, while monsters from level 10 to 29 could drop rare-quality equipment.
He hadn't expected the very first level-10 boss Su Yu killed to drop a rare piece of equipment!
Su Yu immediately equipped the staff and upgraded its quality to epic.
"Ding, please confirm the enhancement direction for the [Staff of the Desert Emperor]: 1. Spell Power +10; 2. Trait trigger probability increased to 15%."
Su Yu thought about it and felt that summoning [Sand Soldiers] was not very useful, so he chose "Spell Power +10."
After switching to the new staff, his spell power increased by 23 points, reaching 89 points, and his damage output took another massive leap forward!
...
At that moment, Amumu walked over to the spot where the Desert Emperor had been taken away by the heroic spirit, and muttered softly, "Annie, did you see that? I defeated the Desert Emperor Azur. I have the ability to protect you. Are you willing to be with me?"
(1/3)

"In your dreams!"
A red figure suddenly appeared at the peak of the pyramid right ahead—it was none other than Annie!
"Look at how poor, ugly, short, and pathetic you are! Even if I die, I will never be with you!" Annie said heartlessly.
"Ah—"
Amumu let out a despairing roar, and the surrounding desert scene filled with flying sand instantly shattered, transitioning the instance into the second scenario.
The second scenario was a pitch-black, gloomy forest.
"Annie, don't leave me! This must be you testing my feelings, right?"
"You are the entirety of my world. How am I supposed to live without you?"
Amumu knelt on the ground of the gloomy forest, weeping bitterly.
After crying for a while, he slowly stood up: "No! Annie must be ahead! Adventurer, are you willing to accompany me to find Annie?"
"As you wish." Su Yu shrugged.
The second phase of the instance took place within the gloomy forest.
Amumu was completely broken now, so the monsters in the second phase were colossal, eyed tentacles, and even terrifying, incomprehensible entities, exuding a heavy Cthulhu-esque vibe.
After fighting their way through these monsters, they arrived before the second boss.
The second boss was [Annie and Tibbers].
In this battle, Annie and the little bear Tibbers would attack the player simultaneously.
Annie still used her classic set of skills: [Disintegrate], [Incinerate], and [Molten Shield].
However, the difficulty of this boss fight lay in the fact that while killing Tibbers, players must not deal any damage to Annie whatsoever; Annie's health must remain at 100%!
If a player accidentally injured Annie with a spell or a physical attack, Amumu would cast his ultimate ability, [Curse of the Mummy], dealing "-9999" damage to all players!
Moreover, Annie was well aware of this and would frequently step into the line of fire between ranged classes and Tibbers, intentionally trying to take damage from the players.
Fortunately, Su Yu's [Magic Missile] had been upgraded.
Relying on the upgraded trait of [Magic Missile] that allowed for "guided trajectory within a small range," Su Yu successfully bypassed Annie and killed the little bear Tibbers.
After Tibbers died, Annie glared at Amumu with a livid expression: "Give up already! The one I like is the Swift Scout of Bandle City, Teemo. He is much more handsome than you!"
"Ah—"
Amumu let out another despairing roar, and the surrounding gloomy forest scenery shattered once again.
The instance transitioned into the third scenario: the bright and sunny Bandle City.
(2/3)

Amumu crawled on the ground, weeping softly: "Annie, I will definitely find you. But before that! Teemo must die!"
Blazing fury flashed within Amumu's eye sockets: "Adventurer, are you willing to go with me to Bandle City and eliminate Teemo?"
"As you wish." Su Yu shrugged.
......
Following the only path through the instance, he cleared out the trash mobs along the way.
Finally, Su Yu and Amumu arrived before a massive lawn.
On the opposite side of the lawn stood the final boss of the instance—[Swift Scout Teemo].
At this point, Su Yu began to take things seriously.
Because the Teemo boss was notoriously difficult to beat, even with his current strength, it would not be easy.
At the start of the boss fight, the massive lawn in front of them would be divided into a 16x30 grid totaling 480 squares, among which 99 contained Teemo's mushrooms.
When a player stepped on a square, if there was a mushroom adjacent to that square, the square would display the number "1". If there were two mushrooms nearby, it would display the number "2", and so on...
If there were no mushrooms surrounding the square, it would reveal other surrounding squares until it reached squares with numbers.
Stepping on a mushroom square would result in instant death for the entire party.
Clearing all squares within 10 minutes without stepping on a single mushroom square would successfully clear the instance.
This gameplay mechanic was derived from the classic game—Minesweeper.
Furthermore, the game took it a step further.
While "sweeping mines," players also had to endure attacks from the boss Teemo.
Teemo would spit darts to blind the player, rendering them unable to see the surrounding numbers and forcing them to stay frozen in place.
Additionally, Teemo would alter the locations of the mushrooms, posing an extreme test of the player's memory.
For Su Yu, this boss was exceptionally difficult to beat.
Because this was originally a 5-player version of Minesweeper, and since he was soloing the instance now, every single square had to be stepped on by him alone, multiplying the difficulty by five!
However, Su Yu had no other choice; since he had already reached this point, he could only bite the bullet and push forward.
(3/3)