Chapter 31: A Sudden Change in the Dungeon
The team then resumed their march, entering the next tunnel heading towards the next hall. San was silent along the way, while others were, excitedly, discussing their gains.
"Do you know how much XP we can get from these monsters? Will it be increased as well?" suddenly, the wizard, called Gimmy, said. Bloom was impressed by his AOE skill that made the monsters move in unison to attack them in first place. Bloom lacked any AOE skills so far, so he respected the Gimmy to obtain one.
It was strange, for him, that in the beginning the thought Gimmy wasn't reliable, and San was, but now the tables were turned. He learnt to not judge by just appearances, as players might seem untrustworthy but at the critical moments, their core would shine, either brightly or dimly.
"Risk comes with equal prizes, so the XP would be exponentially increased, by three folds at least," he replied.
"That's awesome!" Gored said, "that means we can reach level six here!"
Bloom smiled and said nothing, as this might be true. They needed at least three normal dungeons to be cleared, so they would raise from level four to level six. Their presence in this dungeon might simply give them even more than that, which was one the beauties in this disaster.
After five minutes, they finally reached the next hall. Bloom didn't order them to move, as he observed the monsters inside at first, confirming the presence of this mighty rune effect.
After he confirmed that this hall was exact copy of the past one, he turned to San and directly asked:
"Are you ready this time?"
San's face turned paler, but he nervously nodded, without saying a word. Everyone could see his body was shaking out of nervousness, which made Bloom sigh.
He just hoped San could pull this out, successfully, and not be a hindrance. He wasn't that stressful or demanding for San's performance, as he could interfere at any time, solving this problem.
But this would be taxing! The previous battle he met death face to face many times, and if he had the option, he wouldn't experience the same nervous experience again.
The battle started again by that impressive AOE skill of Gimmy, and for the second time in row San messed up! Bloom was forced to act, as he darted alone inside the hall, using his barrage of skills one after another.
"Stab."
"Slice."
"280"
"150"
He moved, under the skill effect, evading the monsters' attacks, putting them all behind him. there was only one monster here left behind, and as previous time, he used his stunning skill.
"Dash!"
He moved, hitting the monster with his sword, rendering it unable to move. The monster was, like the previous one, only a few inches away from touching the stone. This time Bloom wasn't distracted, as he turned, without the need to use his skill, and observed the incoming monsters.
The moment he spotted an opening, he immediately used it, activating his second Dash skill, escaping from the imminent threat, moving among the monsters, reaching the last one.
"Slice."
He used slice skill to move again around the monster. He was surprised to see all the members of his team, all except San, standing in front of him, attacking monsters without fear.
"Great!"
He muttered, before using his ground breaker skill, blocking the monster's claw, turning around himself to face it.
"Stab."
"Stab."
"Slice."
"Stab."
"140"
"280'
"300"
"280"
Just as he finished his own barrage of attacks, the runes were activated. All the monsters were stunned in their places, while the team started their massacre towards them. in less time than before they managed to kill all of them, clearing the second hall successfully.
They didn't waste any second, learning from their previous lesson, as they all dispersed, heading towards one monster and started collecting materials from them.
Each monster would grant them ten materials, and that was enough to do in the short span of two minutes. Bloom managed to collect twelve materials this time, breaking the record again, gaining the most out of them.
"Let's go," Bloom said, acting as their current leader in name and soul, leading them into the next hall.
They all were excited, laughing and joking all the way from one hall to another, while one person only remained gloomy, feeling more isolated with each hall cleared.
San was doing terrible one time after another, which made Bloom not ask him for anything starting from the third hall. Bloom had already got a good grasp over the process, and the same process kept recurring again, until the last two halls!
At the ninth hall, they acted as usual. Gimmy used his AOE skill, attracting the aggro of most monsters, while Bloom moved, using his stab and slice skills to evade the monsters.
However, the moment he turned over the last monster, ready to use his dash skill, he was faced with another monster, appearing out of blue, waving its sharp claw towards his heart!
Bloom was an experienced swordsman, not a mere newbie, so this sudden change in events didn't startle him, as he immediately coped.
"Slice."
"300"
His second slice made him able to dodge the incoming attack, with its monster. He glided on the side of the monster, with a smirking smile over his face.
"Dash!"
He didn't waste any more time, and used his last skill, managing to hit the last monster just a few millimeters away from the rock!