"The Wither's second phase? That layer of white shield?" Herta immediately recalled the moment Fu Zhu had fought the Wither, when a white shield had suddenly appeared around its body. If that was a second phase, then that had to be it.
Fu Zhu nodded, then explained some of the details of the Wither's second phase to Herta and Ruan Mei.
When the Wither's health drops below half, a white shield appears around its body. During this period, every time its attacks hit an enemy, it will absorb their life force to restore its own health, and it is also immune to ranged damage.
After hearing Fu Zhu's explanation, the two women couldn't help but hiss. After their previous experiences, they now understood that in this MC world, settings were absolute.
Since the Wither was immune to ranged attacks, it was highly probable that it could even negate ranged attacks from Emanators, or perhaps even Aeons.
"Wait a minute." In her surprise, Herta thought of something else. "Back when you were fighting the Wither, why were your sword slashes able to damage it?"
Fu Zhu smiled and presented the Demon Blade "Hiruko" before the two women. "That's the special thing about this sword of mine. Its ranged attacks count as spell damage, which isn't within the scope of the Wither's immunity. Furthermore, it completely counters the Wither in its other mechanics as well. That's why I was able to handle it so easily. Understand now?"
Hearing this, Herta and Ruan Mei more or less understood everything. They immediately cast a sympathetic glance at Screwllum and Silver Wolf. Fu Zhu had dug a massive pit, just waiting for them to fall into it!
---o---
Although Fu Zhu's voice wasn't loud, Screwllum heard every word clearly. After learning about some of the Wither's properties, it, too, calmed down once more.
"It ignores shields and is immune to ranged damage, is that right?"
Screwllum instantly flashed forward, snatching Silver Wolf up just before the Wither's attack could hit her again. However, in doing so, its own left arm was caught in the aftershock of an exploding Wither Skull.
In just an instant, Screwllum watched with its own sensors as the components of its left arm began to rapidly age. It was as if, in that brief moment, its arm had gone ten years without maintenance. Even the simple action of raising it became difficult.
"It can even affect mechanical lifeforms? So this Wither effect can influence any 'living' creature? Truly astounding…"
As Screwllum expressed its amazement, it grabbed Silver Wolf by the collar and flew into the air. It had discovered earlier that while the Wither's attacks inflicted the Wither effect and bypassed its shields, their projectile speed was not particularly fast. They could be completely dodged.
Fu Zhu watched Screwllum take Silver Wolf into the sky, choosing to rely on speed to evade attacks rather than trying to tank the hits with an energy shield as before. He knew that it was only a matter of time before they defeated the Wither.
The Wither was indeed weaker than the Ender Dragon. His earlier rebuttal was just to let them know that even a seemingly weak Wither had some incredibly nasty mechanics. But as long as you found the right method, it was actually very easy to deal with.
Seeing that the battle was no longer in suspense, Fu Zhu stopped watching the fight in the sky and directly opened the system's mod shop, carefully browsing through the modules he had already purchased.
"Damn that Ender Dragon. Secretly buffing yourself is one thing, but since you came back from the future, couldn't you have helped buff me a little too? It would've saved me the achievement points for buying mods."
Fu Zhu grumbled under his breath. Although he didn't know what mods his future self would choose, getting a few for free would have been great. Unfortunately, the Ender Dragon was too inconsiderate!
But since he had already opened the mod shop, and he was here now, he might as well get himself a new mod.
Fu Zhu felt his current attack power was sufficient for now, but his defense—still wearing vanilla diamond armor with Protection IV—was only just enough for ordinary battles. Against an Emanator, he would probably be forced to respawn after taking just two hits without his shield.
The first thing that came to Fu Zhu's mind was a mod with powerful, comprehensive capabilities that appeared in many major modpacks—Apotheosis!
The Apotheosis mod included many things: more powerful enchantments, embeddable gems that provided various stats, equipment with more diverse affixes, and so on.
It could enhance his overall combat strength in every aspect. Moreover, some of the effects from Apotheosis equipment could be exceptionally useful in specific situations.
Excited, Fu Zhu searched for the Apotheosis mod in the shop. When he saw the price, he sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.
[Apotheosis]
[Price: 260 Achievement Points]
(This mod will automatically adapt to be compatible with other installed mods, including SlashBlade)
Originally, Fu Zhu felt the price was a bit painful, but when he saw the system prompt that purchasing Apotheosis would automatically make it compatible with his other mods, he knew he had to have it!
Bought!
In an instant, the achievement points he had accumulated for so long were wiped clean, leaving him with a pitiful 11 points. But it was all worth it.
Once he developed the content from the Apotheosis mod, he would even be able to take on an Emanator!
Gazing at his remaining 11 achievement points, Fu Zhu scrolled through the mod shop again. He might as well just spend it all. He probably wouldn't be able to afford any other large-scale mods for quite some time.
---o---
After rummaging around for a while, Fu Zhu found that the only mods he could afford with 11 achievement points were small, auxiliary ones. Most of their functions were either things he didn't need right now or were a bit useless.
However, he eventually found two mods that might be of some use in his future travels.
[Explorer's Compass] & [Nature's Compass]
The former could search for the locations of all structures in this world, while the latter could search for all natural biomes. Both would be quite useful for future adventures, and together they only cost 10 achievement points.
With a decisive wave, Fu Zhu bought them both. His once-flush account was now destitute.
[Apotheosis, Explorer's Compass, and Nature's Compass mods have been installed]
Hearing the system notification, Fu Zhu let out a long sigh of relief. Indeed, adding new mods for himself was one of the most satisfying things in the world.
"Wait a second! System, where am I supposed to find gems?"
Fu Zhu suddenly thought of something. The most important gems in the Apotheosis mod were mostly found by looting chests, but in this world… were there really that many chests left for him to loot?
Was he going to have to rely on grinding mobs for those low-drop-rate gems?
[All non-player-owned items with storage functionality will have a chance to generate various gems the moment a player opens them.]
"Oh, then I'm good!"
Author's Notes:
PS: My apologies to all you readers. These last few chapters have not been my best work. I will do my best to condense the content and avoid writing anything meaningless from now on.