The three of them quickly retreated from the battle zone. Only then, Dharma whipped out their spoils of battle, preparing to split it. "They dropped four equipment, Archer, Mage, Priest and Knight, one each. The Archer and Mage equipment are both silver tier, the other two are Iron Tier."
"The two of you can have the mage and archer equipment, I will take the remaining two. Agreeable?"
"Alright." The Queen of the Night and Dharma nodded.
The trio didn't care too much about the equipment loot. It was all only around Level 10 and not worth much money.
"Eh, Boss Dust, have you met Queen before?" Having seen the prowess of Ye Chen's leadership, Dharma was thoroughly convinced of Ye Chen's abilities, calling him Boss naturally. Now that they had split the loot equally, he could not help but find the answers to the questions he had.
"Hm, we met once and learnt of each other's names. Not friends, though."
"Wah! Only met once and she is so obedient? Wow, as expected of you, Boss!" Hearing of this, Dharma could already see himself prostrating in front of Ye Chen.
"Boss! Boss, what are we going to do now? Hunt more Warring Dragon Guild members?" Dharma asked on the party channel.
"Don't be hasty and overconfident. The success of our ambush is partly because of luck. Now, the Warring Dragon Guild knows all of our moves and would not be stupid enough to cram together again. Trying to kill them quickly like before would not be wise. Let's go find some equipment instead. If we are lucky, we can even find some that come with skills and maybe another two to three members. That will make killing the Warring Dragon Guild a lot easier." Ye Chen shook his head. Their levels were too low, limiting their skills to everything that they had used. Now that the enemy learned more about them, their defenses would be much higher. Leaving aside the efficiency, their battles would be more prolonged, and if enemy reinforcements arrived in that time, they would be in danger.
As such, the most important thing for the three currently would be to find the mission equipment and recruit more party members. If they could assemble a party of six, Ye Chen had solid confidence in ending a battle against twelve Warring Dragon Guild members quickly.
As Ye Chen spoke, his staff quivered. With Single Transplantation, he transplanted the Durian Bomb Tree used for fighting a while ago into the middle of several trees. He camouflaged it in a dense patch of forest, preventing the Warring Dragon Guild from killing his precious weapon. One Durian Bomb Tree was equivalent to one less seed. According to his usage of two trees a day, the seeds on hand could only last for less than a month.
"There seems to be a chest in front." Dharma pointed to the forest ahead.
"Let's go take a look." Within the Boundless World, Archers had a more extended range of sight. Moreover, Dharma was equipped with a Vision +5 silver necklace, further enhancing his sight. Ye Chen had no doubt of the accuracy of Dharma's sight. He and Queen silently followed behind.
"There are monsters defending it." As they approached, a grayish stone chest could be seen. However, a towering two meters tall, Stone Bear stood guard beside it. From the Stone Bear, a dominating aura radiated, especially so with its glistening razor-sharp teeth. Seeing the fearsome bear, Dharma's expression drained of colour. This Stone Bear was practically a mini Boss, and more importantly, they never encountered such a monster. It's abilities were utterly unknown to them.
"No worries, just jump in and attack." Ye Chen also saw the beast. However, he knew that the monsters defending the chest would not have their abilities heavily discounted when facing Adventurers from the same camp. Only when the Warring Dragon Guild attempted to destroy the chest would the Stone Bear turn into a knotty opponent. With the strength of one team, this bear would most likely be unbeatable.
While Dharma was sceptical, he proceeded according to Ye Chen's instructions.
With their combined strength, the results were just as Ye Chen anticipated. The seemingly menacing Stone Bear merely roared a few times and pounced towards them. Before it could even reach the three of them, it collapsed onto the ground, drained of life.
On the spot where the Stone Bear used to be, a stone key dropped. Picking it up, Ye Chen unlocked the chest.
"What did we get?" Dharma was curious and rushed forward beside Ye Chen. This being his first Restricted Regional-type Mission, he was curious about everything.
"Low level HP Scroll." Ye Chen took out a deep red scroll. It was really simple in design, nothing fanciful, very obviously a low-quality product.
[HP Scroll (Elementary): After use, the user will experience an increase of 10% HP (minimally 50 HP), lasting for 3 minutes. The effect cannot be overlapped with the other HP scroll.]
"Good stuff." But when Dharma saw it, his eyes lit up with excitement.
"Nice, let's keep looking."
Ye Chen nodded, 50 HP was not much, but at their level, it could be a life and death difference. It would allow low-level adventurers to bear one more attack, maybe even turn the tables.
Having collected their first chest, Ye Chen led the other two, carefully combing through Gray Stone Forest for more. The process was lightened majorly with Dharma's super long-distance vision, broadening their searching vision. In fact, many of the chests were spotted by Dharma from a distance. If not for him, they would have brushed by many of them without noticing.
In the next two chests, they found two mission-specific HP potions. It would regenerate 50 HP for the next 10 seconds upon use, proving to be a precious life saviour. Within the search process, they also spotted twoWarring Dragon Guild teams far away.
As Ye Chen suspected, the two teams were not tightly packed together anymore. Now, the Durian Bomb Tree attacks would at most envelop three men. However, they were not as spread out as Ye Chen would have thought. In his mind, he had imagined the Warring Dragon Guild teams to have a much wider gap between each man.
Perplexed, Ye Chen thought of the many possibilities within his mind. "Could it be, they are also cautious of ambushes from other Adventurers?"
Currently, there were no benefits of taking out another two teams. It would only expose themselves further and attract unneeded attention. Moreover, Warring Dragon Guild had already put up further precautions, killing them would not be as easy as before. As such, the party avoided Warring Dragon Guild teams as far as possible, while searching for more chests.
"Stone Tribe's Ritual Necklace, finally, a proper piece of equipment. Come, Queen, you wear this."
At their fourth chest, the trio finally found a piece of Mage-type equipment. Giving the necklace a quick sizing up, Ye Chen tossed it to the Queen.
[Stone Tribe's Ritual Necklace: A necklace passed down in the Stone Tribe, wore during Rituals. A high-quality product.
Attributes: Magic Attack +3, Spirit +2, Minimum Level 10.
Profession Lock: Only equippable by adventurers in the mission "Stone Tribe's Totem".
Additional Skill: None]
The attributes of the special equipment were within Ye Chen's prediction. Similarly, the equipment was not specific to any profession, as expected of Restricted Regional-type Missions. Mostly, these special equipment would only be split into magic and physical. As long as they were found, anyone could equip them.
This necklace boosted the magic attack of the wearer substantially, perfect for the Queen. While Ye Chen also had the Withering Light as a Magic Attack, the buff from the necklace was insufficient to make a huge difference.
The three adventurers continued their conquest for more treasure chests, specifically around the periphery of the Gray Stone Forest's central region. Even with their heightened caution, the three met several Warring Dragon Guild teams within an hour. Fortunately, they avoided much unnecessary fighting with Dharma as their early warning system.
Still, deep ridges formed on Ye Chen's forehead.
Within this short hour, each of them gained at least three new equipment. Yet, they did not even meet a single Adventurer in the same camp as them. There was only one possibility, the Warring Dragon Guild had wiped the others off this region.
Of course. Hope was always present. The adventurers may have gathered together and hidden in some other area. But, this chance was close to a pipe dream.
"Boss, someone is fighting over there!" suddenly, Dharma exclaimed.
"Quick, let's go over!" Ye Chen's attention jolted straight up.
An hour had already passed, he had to find some way to strengthen their party and kill as much of the Warring Dragon Guild as possible. Or else, all of the elite equipment they had gathered would be for nigh.
At their top speed, the three of them bolted to the white-hot battleground. The battle was nearing its end, and the situation was extremely shocking.