"Three difficulty choices?"
Shi Feng looked at the system prompt and roughly understood why the previous life's Glorious Sword Saint had been able to complete the quest.
The Bronze Rank was undoubtedly the simplest—it was very likely that the Glorious Sword Saint had chosen Bronze Rank difficulty to complete the epic team quest.
However, the only problem was that the system hadn't provided any specific criteria for these three difficulties.
What difficulty level did fighting three legendary monsters simultaneously fall under?
If what stood before him already counted as Bronze Rank, then even he might as well throw in the towel, because in his previous life, the Hell Difficulty Eclipse Throne had only one boss—Amas himself—with absolutely no subordinates. With his current team, they would stand no chance whatsoever.
If this was Gold Rank, then Bronze and Silver Ranks might be worth a shot.
"The system's difficulty selection is really tricky—it won't even give us the most basic criteria, making it impossible to make the best judgment," Feng Qianyu said, her crescent brows furrowed as she stared at Amas and the other two legendary monsters seated on the throne.
Without criteria, a wrong choice would mean everything was for nothing.
"Brave adventurers, Amas and his companions are very powerful. When the battle begins, if you can't hold, try to gather near me. Although my power hasn't fully recovered, I can still deploy a domain in the surrounding area to weaken their strength to some extent," Grand Sword Saint Edward suddenly spoke up.
"Power not fully recovered? Deploy a domain?" Shi Feng couldn't help but glance at Edward, and realization dawned on him. "So that's how it is!"
"Guild Leader, what is it?" Shuise Qiangwei asked curiously, looking at Shi Feng who had broken into a smile.
"I understand the difficulty criteria for this quest." Shi Feng pointed at Edward. "The so-called difficulty isn't about the three bosses—it's about Grand Sword Saint Edward's strength as a combat ally. The harder the difficulty we choose, the less Edward can help us."
The moment they heard this, everyone immediately understood, and it made perfect sense.
But the group quickly fell silent again, because even if Edward could help, his assistance would be very limited—they still had to face three legendary monsters in the end...
Regarding the inevitable fight against three legendary monsters, Shi Feng thought it over and decided Silver Rank was the safer choice. He was confident that his current team was definitely stronger than the Glorious Sword Saint's team had been back then. If the Glorious Sword Saint's team could clear Bronze Rank, then their chances of clearing Silver Rank were quite high.
As for Gold Rank—perhaps the rewards were very generous, and the difficulty selection opportunity only came once. If they failed, it wouldn't be as simple as dying once and retrying—the quest itself would be rendered void, and they'd get nothing at all.
Shi Feng selected Silver Rank difficulty.
System: Player has chosen to challenge Silver Rank. System loading...
System: Detecting that this is the player's first attempt at "Crown of the Sun." Difficulty selection can be changed to Normal Mode or Hero Mode. Normal Mode: boss attributes reduced by 20%. Rewards will range between Bronze and Silver Rank based on battle evaluation. Hero Mode: boss attributes reduced by 10%. Rewards will range between Silver and Gold Rank based on battle evaluation. Difficulty changes are only available for first-time attempts. The player may also forfeit and keep the original fixed difficulty. Please choose carefully.
"A first-time challenger's privilege?" Shi Feng couldn't help but smile. Now he understood why the Glorious Sword Saint had been able to complete the quest. He immediately selected Hero Mode.
The three legendary monsters' base attributes were reduced by 20%—undoubtedly a considerable boost to the team. No wonder the Glorious Sword Saint's team had been able to defeat three legendary bosses. And Hero Mode also offered a 10% reduction. Combined with the Ring of the Gospel's suppression, the total attribute reduction would approach nearly 30%. With the combined strength of Ke Le, Banjiu, and Ye Wumian, along with the other second-tier main tanks providing support, they could definitely hold.
"Challenging Hero Mode?" Bumie Zhanxin saw Shi Feng's choice and was at a loss for words. "Has he lost his mind?"
Feng Qianyu was equally shocked. The previous choice had been unavoidable—the team's chances of passing had already been slim, since they'd be facing three legendary monsters regardless. But now that there was a choice, selecting Hero Mode was incomprehensible.
They all understood that with Shi Feng's Ring of the Gospel, they could indeed further suppress the bosses. But when facing three bosses simultaneously, the biggest test was no longer whether the main tanks could hold—it was whether the team's damage output was sufficient.
Because fighting three bosses at once, the healing pressure on the entire team would be absolutely massive. Mana consumption would be astronomical. Very likely, before they could take down the bosses, the healers' mana would be completely depleted, and what awaited them would be a total party wipe.
So what they should be doing was minimizing the bosses' HP as much as possible—that was the way to increase their chances of clearing. A mere 10% difference might not sound like much, but when applied to the HP of three bosses, that was over a hundred million points. And there was also the issue of combat health regeneration—that would require an enormous amount of healing mana to overcome...
The moment Shi Feng finished making his selection, the attributes of Amas, the Headless Knight, and the Serpent-Scorpion King on the throne began to plummet, quickly dropping by 10%.
"Alright, Ke Le, Banjiu, Ye Wumian—the three of you will each tank one boss. The other off-tanks will assist them. Priority target: the massive Serpent-Scorpion King!" As he spoke, Shi Feng pulled out the Book of Darkness and began summoning a third-tier demon. "Everyone, simultaneously remove your weapon restrictions!"
For this team dungeon, he had long since made everyone in Zero Wing equip second and third-tier magic weapons. Especially the second-tier magic weapons—all eighty-plus members of the team each had at least three weapons. This had originally been a precaution to compensate for any shortfall in damage output.