Mike was more eager to level up than before.
He had too many problems to conquer. The Palace of Heavenly Kings and other palaces, the Exotic Beasts, and the mysterious existence behind the Exotic Beasts.
On Mike's main body's side, he had explored through the various kinds of hidden information.
Finally, he saw the information that satisfied him.
[Hidden Information: Open dungeon (Silver): Haifado Village, chance to drop 'Thunder Core'.]
Found it!
Mike had been studying all the private dungeons, personal, and group dungeons. Turns out that the Thunder Core was hidden in one of the open dungeons.
These types of dungeons were very difficult, and it required dozens or even hundreds of people to successfully clear them. But if it was cleared perfectly, the dungeon would disappear and be closed forever.
Mike entered Haifado Village.
[Haifado Village.]
[A village that's corrupted.]
[It used to be a quiet and peaceful mountain village, until one day, mysterious corruption came to this village and quickly infected the first person.]
[The infected person spread the corruption onto the second person... two people became four, and four became eight...]
[Soon, the entire village was corrupted.]
[The infected cannot die nor be destroyed.]
[Although they can be temporarily killed, they will be resurrected when night falls.]
[And those who are infected will split and multiply...]
[Every once in a while, the number of contaminated people will increase dramatically.]
[Hidden Information: All the corruption originated from the Demon Heart at the back of the mountain. Destroying the Demon Heart would clear the dungeon perfectly.]
Mike had just entered the dungeon and already he was getting a bunch of notifications.
It spoke about the history of Haifado Village.
Mike was currently in the safe zone outside Haifado Village. From here, Haifado Village looked calm, like there was nothing wrong with it.
A notification appeared in the upper right corner.
[You still have 3 hours before night falls... At that time, all of the infected people that were killed will be reborn.]
Time was limited.
Mike went further into Haifado Village.
As soon as he entered, the ground shook and many strange-looking ferocious creatures crawled out of the ground. They looked like zombies, so they should be the people infected by the corruption.
There were a lot of them and there were already hundreds of them waiting as he first entered the village.
[Corrupter]
[Overview: Melee Physical]
[Level: 35]
[HP: 10,000/10,000]
[Attack: 500/500]
[Dual Defense: 300/300, 300/300]
[Agility: 80/80]
[Skills: Bite (Bronze), Claw (Bronze)]
[Status: Irritable]
[Description: A Corrupter that has considerable combat power. Its attributes are relatively high and its methods are monotonous. However, it can still cause great trouble by relying on their strength in numbers. Threat: Low.]
Mike used his skill after looking at its attributes.
"Large Fireball."
Boom!
- 16,024.
- 15,782.
- 14,672.
Ignite.
- 8,946.
- 9,442.
- 8,478.
A Large Fireball was cast and the Corrupter that was hit died on the spot.
The Corrupter behind it was also affected by the Ignite, losing more than half of its HP in one second. It fell to the ground in two seconds.
A Fireball was thrown out.
Soon, the area was cleared.
[Obtained: 2,000 EXP]
[Obtained: 2,000 EXP]
...
[Level: Level 46]
...
Although these monsters were very high-leveled, they did not give much experience.
"Let's continue." Mike went deeper into Haifado Village.
After Mike entered Haifado Village, a few people appeared in the Safe Zone outside of the village. They were all about Level 30.
"It's getting harder and harder to level up now."
"When you reach Level 20, all you need to do is focus on killing monsters."
"After Level 20, there's a threshold for each level."
"When you reach Level 30, the difficulty in surpassing that threshold is more than 10 times harder than when you reach Level 20! It's 20 times, no 30 times harder!"
"We have to go to a large-scale dungeon."
After they appeared, dozens of people kept appearing one after another.
"There are NPCs here?"
"They're not NPCs, they're Miracle's lifeforms. They should be a form of extremely high-leveled artificial intelligence. Their thinking patterns are exactly the same as humans."
There were Earthlings and Miracle's native lifeforms among them.
Finally, over a hundred people had gathered. A party of more than 130 people!
"The NPCs are so high-level. They're already on Level 40, or some even Level 50!"
"The low-level NPCs are not willing to come. They said that they would definitely not be able to clear Haifado Village at Level 30."
Almost everyone had gathered, and they entered Haifado Village in an imposing manner.
Everyone could see the notification and knew that there were Corrupters here. They were very careful with every step they took. After entering the village, they were all prepared to face the Corrupters.
However, there were no Corrupters.
"It seems that the Corrupters are further in. Everyone, be careful," The captain of the party reminded them on the Private Channel.
They cautiously approached the village.
However, they did not encounter any Corrupters. Not to mention, they did not even see a single hint of any Corrupters.
It didn't feel like they were here to clear a dungeon, it was more like a one-day trip to Haifado Village.
"Where are the Corrupters? Why don't we see any of them?"
"Maybe they're all in the village."
"There's nothing in the village either..."
They entered the village.
It was filled with gloomy, shabby houses. The interior of the houses was pitch-black. It was unsettling to look at.
However, there was nothing else. Some of them mustered up their courage and entered the houses. There was a bad stench and corruption everywhere. It was very dirty, but there were no Corrupters.
"Could all the Corrupters have gone on vacation?"
"A vacation?"
Of course, they were joking. But no matter how they looked at it, that seemed to be true.
Indeed, there wasn't a single Corrupter.
"Maybe the Corrupters are all concentrated in one place. Let's keep looking," the captain said.
They had turned the entire Haifado Village upside down, but there was still no sign of any Corrupters.
"What's going on?"
The party captain did not understand either.
They had searched everywhere, both inside and outside the village. It was as though the Corrupters were shy.
There was not a single one in sight.
"Could it be that the Corrupters don't come out during the day?"
"It can't be. The hint said that they will come out during the day and resurrect at night."
They continued to search, and they found the village plaza.
"Huh?"
"Captain!!"
Someone noticed the situation and quickly mentioned it on the Private Channel.
"Look over here!"
"There's the corpse of a Corrupter!"
The captain and the others quickly came over to check it out.
"This is..."
Even those who were experienced and knowledgeable were shocked at this moment.
"This is the boss of Haifado Village! The chief of Haifado Village!!"
"The boss was killed?!"
"This dungeon was already cleared?"
They finally understood the reason.
Someone had beaten them and had cleared the dungeon.
"We can only wait for the resurrection of the Corrupters at night and come back the next day to clear it again," the captain said helplessly.
They definitely could not clear it at night as all of the Corrupters would resurrect. They would not be able to beat it even if they were to die of exhaustion.
Just as they were about to leave...
Boom!
Suddenly, a violent sound erupted from the back of the Haifado Village's mountain.
"Something is going on over there!"
Everyone looked towards the back of the mountain.
"Could it be that the party hasn't left yet after clearing the dungeon?"
"Let's go over and take a look." The captain had his own plans. "Maybe we can cooperate with them."
Everyone came to the back of the mountain behind Haifado Village. They followed the sound.
Soon, the source of the sound came into view.
They saw a Mage using a Fireball spell to fight a heart-shaped monster with one eye on it.
The heart was Level 50. However, it could not be considered a normal Level 50 monster.
It was at least a Boss-Tier monster.
Usually, it would take a dozen or even dozens of Level 50 players to defeat it.
Now, it was a one-on-one fight?
He was sure to lose, right?
A Fireball was thrown out.
Boom!
- 10,241! (Critical Hit!)
The heart-shaped monster trembled.
And then...
It died.
He had won?
No one understood what they were seeing.
A one-on-one with the boss?