Meanwhile \-----
As five to six hours have passed, the Crimson Draught members and their guild leader Crimson Fire were finally able to log back into the game. Unable to login, several hours ago Crimson Fire thought that there might be a problem with his Gaming Helmet. He switched to a different Gaming Helmet and tried to login again only to fail. He contacted his guild members and found that some of them also faced the same problem. Upon further investigation he realized that the members who weren't able to login were the ones who were killed by the mysterious player who called himself Death.
They reported the matter to the developers and found that they were killed by a soul wounding attack. This wound would only be healed after five hours and they won't be able to login before that.
"Is everyone here? Crimson Fire asked the Crimson Draught members who were gathered within the tavern. "Good. Now then, as you know that several hours ago we were killed by a User that used soul attacks. Upon death, we would receive a penalty that would bar us from logging in for more than five hours and this ..... we can't afford. So I have decided that we would place a bounty on his head and use other players to do our work. Like this, we won't have to risk killing him ourselves but his death will be because of us."
The players started to talk amongst themselves, while some of them nodded to show their affirmation for this decision. But from within them a player stepped forward and voiced his objection.
"I don't agree with this." Said the player while he faced his teammates.
"Why don't you agree with this proposal? Said Crimson Fire trying to hold back his anger. "Please speak your thoughts to others."
That player took a deep breath and started to speak.
"Was the Crimson Draught this weak that it would it would change its ways because of a single player? Was the guild this weak that it would take the help of others to achieve their revenge? Is the guild so weak that it would bend it's knees in front of other players? That a single person could make the guild lose all their conviction? If this is the Crimson Draught guild, then I choose the wrong guild."
Every surrounding player including their guild leader Crimson Fire was affected by this player. All of their heart were burning with shame. Had they all fallen to this stage? Were they always this cowardly?
"Let me tell you a story about my Uncle." continued that player. "He was once a member of the underworld. He always aspired to be one of the great bosses of underworld but he faced so many difficulties. He was beaten down at every turn, humiliated and betrayed by other members as well his gang members. He was kicked when he was down, thrown in to dirt in front of everyone but... he never gave up."
Every Crimson Draught member was comparing the difficulties they faced, with the difficulties that his Uncle faced and the conclusion greatly ashamed them of their own inferiority.
"It's good to have members like him who can raise the morale of the entire guild. After this is over, I shall promote him." Thought Crimson Fire who was sipping tea while sitting down on a chair.
"My Uncle was a failure.....no doubt about that. Even he himself knew that but..... he never gave up. And something happened that changed his destiny. Something that compelled him to end his life of inferiority for good: He was walking in his gangs headquarters when he-"
"Ahhh! My leg! Who the fucker left this spilled water on the floor? Ahhh! It is hurting so much...." All of the Crimson Draught members' attention was diverted towards the side hall where someone had slipped over the spilled water and now was hollering in pain.
"Exactly!..... that's what I wanted to tell you, that's exactly what happened to my uncle. When he was walking through his headquarters, he slipped on a wet floor and fell down headfirst."
Right! Something must have clicked inside him when he fell headfirst on the floor. He must have changed after that. This was the thought that was running through every Crimson Draught members' mind.
"He returned home, dialed a number and then did something that made him very famous. Something that put his name on every person's mouth, every newspaper and every television channel and it happened about seven months ago."
Seven months ago? Seven months ago, a known boss of the Underworld was killed by a nameless person, who then, replaced him and became the new boss. The name of that person was Lou Kang. The Crimson Draught members were excited to think that someone of Lou Kang's family was a part of their guild. Although they had pretty much guessed what happened but they still wanted to hear the story from the player's mouth.
"My uncle went home, dialed the number and talked to his wife and then..."
"And then what? Did he infiltrate into the headquarters and killed the Boss alone or did he gather his trusted comrades and left dead bodies in his wake?" asked a person unable to conceal his excitement.
"Yes tell us. What did he do to become this famous?" asked another one.
After hearing this that player was puzzled. "When did I tell you that he killed someone?"
"Then what?" This time it was Crimson Fire who asked the question.
"The thing he did was....... Suicide!"
"WTF! WTF!" Crimson Fire instantly spat out a mouthful of tea on the player before him.
"Cough! Cough! I can't breath. I can't breath. Someone save me." Shouted another player while clutching his throat.
"So that junkie who hung himself up seven months ago was your Uncle? No wonder you are like this, so it runs in the family." Said Rolling Sloth.
"What was the moral of this story?" Asked Crimson Fire on the verge of blowing with anger.
"I just saw some spilled water over there and wanted to tell you how risky is it to walk on wet floors. Even the Gods heard my plea and sent a person for a real-time practical example." Said the player slightly nervous.
"Then what about all that Crimson Draught falling so low and that humiliation stuff?"
"Oh that! I just wanted to draw all the guild members attention. That's why I said all that stuff." Answered that player. "Well, I did tell you guys that he ended his life. But still you people insisted on listening what happened after that so I had no choice but to complete my story."
This time Crimson Fire was unable to endure. "Everyone, before placing a bounty on Death guy, I want this guy killed until level 0 and then again killed and killed whenever you see him."
"Sloth, go and place a bounty on that Death guy." ordered Crimson Fire. "Make it a single Silver for every single time he's killed."
"But boss, that will quickly deplete our guild's treasury." Said Rolling Sloth. "We won't be able to sustain this kind of pressure for long."
"Don't worry about that, when he is killed once or twice, he will be scurrying like the dog he is to ask for our forgiveness." Explained Crimson Fire. "Then we will also be presented with an opportunity to recruit him to our guild."
"Haha, Killing two birds with one stone. Praised Rolling Sloth. "That's so well planned boss."
\------
Oblivious to all this, Cao Huang was making his towards the Spider Queen's Cavern in his Drifting Leaf character. On the way he found many players forming parties for raiding the Spider Queen's Cavern.
"In need for Level 3 and above Assassin as a part of our team." shouted a player.
"Any healer is eligible to join our team. We are all level 3 and have previously cleared the dungeon to 57%." Shouted someone else.
"Lacking three players in our team. Only those above level 2 are required. Unnecessary players should stay away." Shouted another player.
First Cao Huang went to the entrance of the dungeon and saw a golden tablet erected before the entrance. This was the Tablet of Honor. Cao Huang touched the tablet and a transparent window appeared in front of him. This was the difficulty selection menu of a dungeon. In addition to the Normal Difficulty mode, there is also the Hard Difficulty Mode and Hell Difficulty Mode. Some of the higher leveled dungeons also had a Disaster Difficulty mode. Also, below each mode, there were the names of the party or guild that had cleared the dungeon. The first clear being ranked at the top and the proceeding clears below it.
In this Spider Queen's Cavern, the only team that had their name mentioned was 'Shades of Sorrow'. It meant that except them nobody had been able to clear this dungeon yet. And that was only under Normal Difficulty. Nobody had been able to clear hard or hell mode of this dungeon as of yet.
Cao Huang tapped on the the team's name and a row containing the names of members of the clearing team appeared before him. Cao Huang wasn't a bit startled to find Piercing Needle and his team members names mentioned here. Only they had enough capabilities and....potions to clear the dungeon before anyone else could.
Cao Huang went towards the player who was requesting for a level 3 and above assassin to join their team.
The best way for him to train is to grind some monsters.