A few days had already passed since the announcement of the special event.
Somewhere inside a dungeon.
"These types of dungeons with monsters are much easier to clear than the puzzle ones," one of the men from Gareth's group said. He had introduced himself as Mark earlier. He was talking to Dustin, who was busy looking at his status window.
They had already cleared the last dungeon about a day and a half ago. They had entered this new dungeon about ten hours ago, but they still could not find any monsters or anything dangerous.
Dustin did not reply. He was still looking at his glowing stats window.
[ Physical Strength: 49 ]
[ Vitality: 44 ]
[ Agility: 59 ]
[ Stamina: 47 ]
[ Endurance: 40 ]
[ Perception: 50 (maxed out) ]
[ Wisdom: 15 ]
[ Intelligence: 26 ]
[ Bonus stat points: +3 ]
[ One of your skill stats has maxed out. ]
[ You can now either upgrade it or evolve it to another passive skill after reaching Level 20. ]
Dustin had already reached Level 15 after clearing the previous dungeon with the group.
"You have been staring at your status window for the fifth time since we entered this dungeon," Mark pointed out with a loud sigh.
"I hear you," Dustin said. He finally closed his status window. "I was just thinking about this maxed out skill. Do you guys know anything about this? All of you already have much higher levels than mine."
"Not really," Arina replied while walking alongside them. "Even though we have many people in the camp, none of them have any of their skills maxed out yet."
"Do you know anyone who does?" Arina asked while looking at Gareth.
"No," Gareth said. He looked at Dustin with a serious expression. "Actually, your Perception stat is much higher than your overall level. We have many Rogue class people in the camp, but none of them have fifty points in their perception and other classes have even less. Even the guy with the highest level in Rouge class is Level 22, and his highest perception stat is only forty-three points."
"I am only Level 15 right now," Dustin muttered. "I guess I will just have to find out what happens when I reach Level 20."
"Anyway, what do you guys think of this new event?" Dustin asked to change the topic. "It is called Choose A Cicada. Do we have to catch a bug and make them fight with other people's bugs? Or will we get gigantic bugs and have to ride them in a race? Haha."
It turned out that no one laughed at his joke. The tunnel remained awkwardly silent. Dustin just turned toward Mark, who had become a decent friend to him over these last few days.
Mark was very talkative. Dustin was not very social and did not like to talk much, so he usually ignored Mark just like everyone else did. But right now, the awkward silence was too much. Dustin thought starting another conversation with Mark would be a better choice.
"Like I was saying, killing monsters is way easier than that dungeon we cleared first," Mark started speaking immediately as soon as Dustin turned toward him. "We had to solve so many different puzzles just to move forward, while also killing many monsters along the way."
Mark kept speaking happily, but Dustin just pretended to listen to him. Mark had already told this exact same story to him four times.
"We have not encountered anything in this dungeon so far, and it has been around twelve hours," Gareth said, interrupting Mark.
"Yeah, I also think it is very suspicious," Arina added.
"Let us take a small break for now," Gareth commanded. "But everyone be on guard. This is a medium grade dungeon."
About eleven hours ago.
[ You have discovered a Medium Grade Dungeon ] [ Minimum number of people required to enter: 4 ] [ Minimum average level of all people entering: 20 ] [ Maximum number of people allowed at a time: 10 ] [ Task: Kill the Dungeon Bosses under 24 hours ] [ Rewards: 3500 points per person and Experience based on performance ] [ Enter: Y / N ]
"So..." Dustin started calculating on his fingers while looking at the floating text. "Now I get it. Our average level will be..."
"It will be twenty-four," Arina said, turning toward Gareth. "Let us enter now. After this, let us return to the camp."
All of them accepted the dungeon challenge and walked inside.
Back to the present.
More than half an hour had passed since Dustin and the group had decided to take a little break in the dungeon exploration.
Rumble. Rumble.
Suddenly, the ground and the whole dungeon started shaking heavily.
"Get around a corner and cover your heads!" Gareth commanded loudly. He moved to a corner himself.
Everyone quickly got to the corners of the cavern to avoid the falling rocks from the dungeon's ceiling. They covered their heads with their arms.
After around fifteen minutes, the violent shaking finally stopped.
"What is happening?" Mark asked.
"We should get out of here as soon as possible," Arina said while dusting off her clothes.
"Is this an earthquake?" Boj asked.
Everyone came together again and started discussing the strange event.
"We cannot leave the dungeon unless we clear it," Dustin suggested. "So let us just be quick and kill the bosses."
"But we have not seen anything since we entered, and it has almost been twelve hours," Arina added.
"Let us get going," Gareth said. He moved deeper into the dungeon and the others quickly followed him.
Another hour passed in walking, and they still found nothing. That terrible earthquake had happened once again.
Hiss.
A very long white creature came into their sight right after they entered a huge, empty room.
A massive white snake dropped down from the ceiling. It was over thirty meters long and about a meter wide.
DING.
[ Dungeon Boss Found (1/3) ]
[ Glass Serpent ]
[ Level 47 ]
[ Description: The Glass Serpent is one of the evolved species of a normal serpent. It is highly venomous and has high agility. It can also turn its skin into glass and shoot glass shards coated with poison at its enemies. ]
[ Loot: Serpent Fangs (Use these fangs to create weapons with powers or magic related to poisons) ]
The screen popped up in everyone's vision.
"So there are a total of three bosses in this dungeon," Dustin said as he analyzed the information in front of him.
"Let us go!" Mark yelled. He moved quickly and attacked the massive white snake with his heavy sword.
Skreeeeek.
Mark's sword just slid right across the snake's skin. It made a terrible sound and only left a tiny scratch. It looked exactly like a scratch made on a thick glass window with a sharp object.
"Normal attacks are completely ineffective!" Mark shouted. He backed away a bit to distract the snake.
Boj, who was an archer, shot arrows back to back. He aimed directly at the snake's head using his active skill called Consecutive Shots. This skill allowed him to replenish his arrows instantly if he landed a good shot. But even his glowing arrows did not deal much damage to the hard scales.
"I really hate doing physical jobs," Dustin said to himself.
He lunged sideways right after Arina moved forward to attack the snake. Dustin had already upgraded his fire dagger to Level 4 after they cleared the last dungeon. He quickly went behind the giant snake. Instead of attacking it directly from the back, he activated his Silent Steps skill and then crept silently toward the beast.
Since the snake was already Level 47, it was highly likely that it could easily sense Dustin. However, it was also possible that it could not focus on him since there were already many enemies in front of it. The beast had to defend itself while attacking Gareth, Mark, Arina, and Boj all at once.
Just like Dustin had thought, it did not sense him approaching from the blind spot. Dustin went right near its open mouth, jumped high into the air, and attacked its eye with his dagger.
Unfortunately, the giant snake sensed the heat of the blade at the last second. It dodged the attack aimed at its eye and took the heavy hit on its thick body instead.
Sizzle.
Due to the strong fire affinity in Dustin's upgraded dagger, the skin where the blade hit started burning and quickly became glowing red.
Suddenly, the snake's entire skin started shining brightly. Dustin quickly pulled his dagger back and retreated a few steps.
Crash.
Tens of sharp glass shards were shot out in every direction from the snake's body. The snake's skin became completely translucent and started shining just like a mirror. The angry serpent also started attacking much more fiercely.
Luckily, everyone dove for cover and no one got hit by the poisonous glass shards.
Gareth was also preparing his strongest attack.
Swoosh.
A huge fireball shot toward the snake at a very rapid speed. It flew across the room and directly hit the massive serpent. The snake tried to dodge, but it simply could not move fast enough due to the extreme speed of the fireball.
Baam.
The snake was blasted off the ground and hit the far wall.
Dustin, Mark, and Arina immediately ganged up on the stunned snake. They started attacking it continuously while jumping around to dodge its frantic tail swipes and the poisonous glass shards it shot out from time to time. Boj also kept shooting his arrows to pierce its softer spots.
The snake got completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of attacks. Its shiny glass body slowly started turning back into white, vulnerable flesh.
Squelch.
After many long rounds of fighting, Dustin lunged forward and landed the final, fatal blow right through the serpent's neck. He killed the snake instantly.
DING.
[ Congratulations. You have defeated one of the three bosses. ]
DING.
DING.
DING.
Dustin, Mark, and Boj all got their levels up after killing the massive snake.
[ Level 18 Reached ]
[ Physical Strength: 58 ]
[ Vitality: 49 ]
[ Agility: 67 ]
[ Stamina: 55 ]
[ Endurance: 48 ]
[ Perception: 50 (maxed out) ]
[ Wisdom: 15 ]
[ Intelligence: 26 ]
[ Bonus stat points: +9 ]
"I got three whole levels! Here we go," Dustin said happily as he looked toward Mark and Boj.
"We got just one level," both of them replied in unison. They looked slightly disappointed. "Maybe because your level is lower than ours, and you also landed the final blow and stole the kill."
"That is mean," Dustin replied.
"I will be taking these," Gareth said. He walked over and ripped the massive fangs from the snake's bloody corpse. "Do not worry. You all will be paid in return for this later."
No one objected to him taking the loot.
Rumble. Rumble.
The dungeon started shaking violently once again. Everyone quickly ran to take good cover toward a corner. But due to the explosive fight earlier, the room's walls and ceiling were already heavily damaged.
Crack.
While running to take cover, a huge stone fell from the ceiling. It landed right on Boj, crushing his right leg completely.