After several seconds, Apophis's party arrived in the Dungeon.
Since they were instanced zones, Dungeons were totally independent micro-spaces that were seen as spatial anomalies by NPCs. Only players could cross the portals safely, in fact. All NPCs who tried to enter were immediately reduced to ash.
System: You've entered the Dungeon LvL 5~10 [Gravedigger Tower] on Nightmare difficulty.
The place was very peculiar, a dead and icy planet. Some vegetation had once existed, but it had been fossilized for centuries. Some kilometers in the distance, Apophis could see a black stone tower rising up, looking like the Tower of Babel.
Ceasar was shocked.
On the lower difficulty he'd already beaten, the Dungeon had taken place on a radiant planet, full of vegetation. Fairly similar to the green valley surrounding the Dungeon portal, in fact.
But in Nightmare mode, that same planet was dead. Its atmosphere was cold and cynical, looking more like a horror movie than anything else. He wondered how different the other difficulty modes were, and what significance that held for deciphering Horus's lore.
The party began to walk towards the tower. Some shadowy shapes had appeared to be fossilized trees at first, but as the party came closer, they saw what the figures really were: huge, faceless, black, and motionless humanoids.
In Apophis's former life, players had called these unidentifiable figures "Specters." Strangely, they appeared in all Nightmare difficulty Dungeons, but not in lower difficulties.
Many theories had circulated about the Specters. Some claimed that these men had been trapped in the space rift for thousands of years, while others thought they were evil gods simply there to enjoy the show.
Nobody ever found a concrete answer why the Specters appeared in Dungeons. Apophis himself wondered if they also appeared in Ironman mode, but only five people in his previous life could have answered that question.
As it happened, all players who failed to complete the IronMan difficulty had every memory of the Dungeon wiped from their minds. Therefore, only Lucifer's party knew the answer, and they never shared it.
At the present time, Apophis's party discussed what they thought these Specters might be.
Of course, nobody had a good explanation. Since the Dungeon didn't direct the players to approach the Specters, they simply continued along the main path and avoided them, watching warily to see if the Specters would ambush them from behind.
As Apophis knew would happen, the figures simply remained in their places.
However, Apophis soon saw a group of monsters they couldn't simply avoid.
In front of the entrance to the tower, a group of monsters swarmed around, chewing on the corpse of some giant beast. The monsters were alien creatures with six legs and two arms that ended in bony blades shaped like cleavers.
Apophis inspected one of the creatures.
╔══════════════╕
╟─╼ELITE MONSTER
║ ╰╼[Name]: Zerg
║ ╰╼[LvL]: 15
║ ╰╼[Rank]: E
╚══════════════╛
Everyone sighed as they read these details.
Hulk said, "I think our chances are ruined. Not only are they ten levels higher than us, but they're also Elite creatures!"
Everyone nodded—except for Apophis and Ceasar.
"They're obviously pure melee creatures," said Apophis, "so we can manage them with aggro. I'll team up with White to create some heavy ranged DPS. That will draw the creatures in our direction. Once they've almost come into melee range, Hulk and Ceasar can draw away the aggro."
From his first life, he knew that most of the Zergs' power ranking came from their damage potential, and that their defenses were quite low. Of course, he didn't share this information.
This plan was obviously risky, though. If Apophis died before Hulk could divert the aggro back onto himself, the group would be finished. If there were only one or two monsters, this might be a simple plan… but there were so many that Apophis and White would need to very carefully spread their attacks to hit as many of the Zerg as possible.
They would only win if everyone Apophis had invited was far more skilled than the average Horus player.
But, after seeing him fight Ceasar—or having fought him, in Ceasar's case—everyone trusted Apophis's judgment, and he was confident that they could succeed.
Apophis moved into position and entered a fighting stance. He drew two lines of flame thirty meters apart, then threw a huge fireball at the Zerg group!
Meanwhile, White took careful aim and began firing accurate shots from her heavy rifle.
The fireball exploded in a huge Area of Effect (AoE), hitting all Zergs within five meters of the impact! All the damaged enemies immediately suffered a fire DOT that Ceasar knew quite well.
Enraged, the Zergs scurried towards Apophis. They stayed between the two lines of flames, just as Apophis had planned.
He made a hand gesture, summoning hundreds of tiny fireballs from the lines of flame to pelt the Zergs!
Meanwhile, White maintained her focus and landed one heavy shot after another.
System: Zerg killed. Gain 5,789 EXP.
Thankfully, the Zergs had no additional tricks besides their numbers and melee attacks. Over a dozen Zergs died before they managed to get within melee range of Apophis and White.
Just before the Zergs would become a threat, Hulk and Ceasar leaped forward to engage the remaining Zergs, drawing their attention away from the ranged DPS duo.
Ceasar skillfully drew aggro away from Apophis and White but then backed off his skill usage for a few moments, allowing Hulk to pull all the aggro onto himself.
Once the tank had a solid grip on the whole party's aggro, the three DPS players brutally slaughtered one Zerg at a time, focusing all their firepower rather than spreading it out as they had before
And, of course, Chocolate was healing Hulk and Ceasar the whole time, carefully managing a good tempo of switching between healing Skills and drinking Energy potions. Not a single player was defeated during the encounter.
After two minutes of fighting, the last Zerg was dead.
Apophis received a notification.
System: Level 8 achieved. Gain 5 Skill Points for the Talent Tree.
Everyone in the party applauded. Reaching this level was quite a feat!
"I really doubted that everyone here was skilled enough to pull off such a delicate plan," said White, "but you've all proved me wrong. Thank you very much, everybody."
Chocolate spoke up. "Yes, and thank you very much, Apophis, for picking such a good team! It's so nice to heal people who aren't just throwing their lives away and hoping that I'll keep them alive."
Hulk thanked everyone, too, especially Apophis. As a former military man, he knew quite well that a trustworthy team was the best asset a warrior could bring to the battlefield.
Among the whole party, only Ceasar didn't say a word. He knew that Apophis was still hiding some of his power, and he wasn't sure why. Apophis hadn't even used the now-famous spiritual skeleton technique which he'd used to defeat Ceasar.
But he didn't ask about this. If Apophis was hiding his power, it was likely for a reason that Ceasar would learn as time passed.
The pathway to Gravedigger Tower was now open, and the party continued on through its open gate.