Game’s Dogma

The Undead Tribal Lands dungeon was set in a graveyard. Skeletal hands poked from the ground before skeletons crawled back to the human realm from Hell. Even though it was a creepy sight, the squad treading the graveyard were fearless. They charged forwards calmly while ignoring the sea of undead soldiers on their tails.

“Heeee!” A screech tore apart the silent night, and the ground trembled.

Two massive, boney claws broke out from the ground. A skeleton crawled up and denied their advance. It held the name “Undead Tribemaster” above its head.

The squad leader’s golden hair wavered in the night, giving out a radiance that even the darkness couldn’t contain. “Poseidon, watch our back.”

“Mhm,” the man with aquamarine hair hummed. A staff appeared in his hands with a blue flash. It appeared to be a staff used by clerics, but he lifted it high above his head and glared at the sea of skeletons approaching them from behind.

A blue glow spawned before him. Fist-sized at first, the glow spun at high speed and gradually enlarged. As it grew larger and larger, it turned into an endless swamp that devoured the pursuing undead.

“You have ten minutes,” said Poseidon.

The blonde man beamed. “That’s enough.”

Lightning and thunder accompanied the man’s lance. Standing behind him were two of the Four Generals, Musashi and Butcherer; the man’s identity was obvious. When Zeus made his move, a shadow also fired a dark flame at the huge Undead Tribemaster.

Zeus’ squad forsook healers and only consisted of five damage dealers!

Ten minutes later, the system revealed a piece of shocking news that stunned both servers.

“Team ‘Olympus’ has cleared the dungeon, Undead Tribal Lands (Hell), for the first time ever. The record is 20 minutes, 33 seconds.”

The four dungeons had been made public a month ago, meaning half the period before the result settlement had gone by. Still, countless players were helpless with the dungeons’ Hell difficulty. They probably spent more time battling with opposing players than clearing the dungeons as the war raged on, with the West’s Five Palaces and the East’s three major alliances entering the fray.

Even so, the higher-ups never stopped exploring the four dungeons. Chau Yu’s squad was in the leading position most of the time. They had already broken through to the Dark Elven Village’s boss area and were only a step away from clearing the dungeon, yet Olympus still came out on top in the end.

Olympus was the Western server’s most prominent and only major power. However, only one person had the authority to name their squad Olympus—and that was Zeus.

Countless players from the West splurged on global announcements and flooded the channel with chants of “Zeus!”.

Zeus’ feat greatly affected the East’s soaring morale. The four dungeons were known to be almost impossible to clear, and he had shown the world who was the stronger one by clearing one first. No one knew how, but the fact was, he did.

Chau Yu gritted his teeth. He had to be the one most embittered by Zeus’ achievement. Having spent a whole month investigating the Dark Elven Village dungeon, he was still stuck at the final boss.

He glared at the notification and the endless cheers on the global channel from the Western players. After a brief hesitation, he sent a message to a player.

“Should we team up?”

Five players stood in silence outside the Dark Elven Village’s entrance.

“Listen to my orders when we’re inside,” said Chau Yu. The other four merely shrugged.

If anyone saw the squad, they’d be utterly surprised; it consisted of Chau Yu, Hades, Tripurity, Chan Ka Lok, and Bloodless Bladester. Empyreal Alliance and Underworld were cooperating!

Hades coldly stated, “Just to be clear, I’m only doing this because I can’t stand the smug faces on those Olympus people.”

Chau Yu snickered in response. “Do you think I want to team up with you? You can’t even get to the boss without me!”

“You!”

The two exchanged fierce glares. Bloodless Bladester and Tripurity smiled awkwardly and calmed down their guild masters. With that settled, Chau Yu led the way.

The Dark Elven Village was most feared for its inhabitants that could innately lurk in the shadows. While Chau Yu was a cleric, he also cultivated the Lee family’s Divine Purple Arts and Stargaze. Though unsure why, he discovered that Stargaze functioned in the game, and any form of lurking was effectively useless before him. That was how he located Lothbrok during the Stygien quest even though he was using Advanced Lurk.

The Dark Elven Village didn’t pose a challenge at all to Chau Yu. The dark elves without their lurking capability were simply glass cannons with low Health despite their extremely high attack. Though dangerous moments occurred from time to time, the five elites still managed to reach the boss without fail.

The dark elven tribemaster had a troublesome ability. Whenever its Health went below ten per cent, it’d absorb the moon’s essence for thirty seconds and fully heal itself. The skill cannot be interrupted, nor could it be forcefully terminated. After exploring many possibilities, Chau Yu concluded that the only way to defeat it was to blast away its remaining Health while it was healing.

Ten per cent might not sound like a lot, but the dark elven tribemaster was a Level 40 ultimate boss of a Hell difficulty dungeon. Chau Yu’s squad could barely scrape away five per cent of its Health in thirty seconds even if they went all out; Empyreal Alliance couldn’t achieve such a feat.

However, Bloodless Bladester and Chan Ka Lok wielded legendary weapons. Their damage-dealing capability was at the pinnacle, and they were the only ones with a chance of achieving the impossible.

Six hours after Olympus cleared the Undead Tribal Lands, another shocking news emerged.

“Team ‘The East is No Sick Man’ has cleared the dungeon, Dark Elven VIllage (Hell), for the first time ever. The record is 26 minutes, 12 seconds.”

The notification was a major boost to the Eastern server’s morale. Everyone was thrilled to find out that the squad members were all elites of the East; the East and West were going head to head once again!

Despite the cheerful atmosphere, some had doubts: Where was Mask?

The greatly anticipated Mask was lying leisurely on his bed with a black puppy lying sound asleep on his chest. It drooled all over him, drenching his clothes in saliva.

This little guy is such a heavy sleeper.

As if sensing his thoughts, the little fellow slowly opened its eyes, crawled towards his face, and gently licked him.

During the past month, Drako Yau had been clearing the dungeon’s Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulties with his companions instead of challenging Hell. His goal was to catch up in levels, and after a month, he was finally Level 44.

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