The sudden shriek and ensuing tremors made everyone inside the Labyrinth of Caves panic.
Wu Wei's reaction was swift. He immediately summoned his Book of Runes and pressed on 'Log-out.'
In the next instant, his face turned pale.
"It can't be?"
The log-out function was supposed to be the most reliable function available to a Runemaster.
Runemasters could go their entire life without encountering any issue. Still, unfortunately for Wu Wei, the impossible had happened - twice in a week.
And what happened only made matters worse.
When Wu Wei failed to log out, he noticed the black treasure chest light up.
It was the sign of a monster respawning.
The treasure had been right within his grasp, but now, he could not open it anymore.
Imagine successfully asking a beautiful girl out to dinner only to be told by her at the restaurant that she wasn't hungry and would leave.
At this moment, this was how Wu Wei felt.
However, Wu Wei did not dally over his emotions.
"Retreat!"
Wu Wei ran away with Yellow and Golem Doll as fast as he could.
His decisiveness allowed him to make a quick decision. Although the treasure chest was very tempting, his life was more important.
Risk it? No way!
Just like in Spider Lair, Wu Wei only acted when he was confident.
And what happened next proved that Wu Wei had made the correct choice. When he turned around to look at the silhouette of the respawning Runic Monster, he saw its attributes:
..
Runic Monster: Vicious-Mud Golem Chieftain
Rank: Rare
Level: 13
Spirit: 1.7
Strength: 1.1
Vitality: 1.5
Mastered Skill(s):
Earth Spike,
Earth Shield
Might of the Chieftain (Able to summon 1,000 Mini Mud Golems to fight for it. Increases the combat strength of all Mud Golems by 50%!)
..
When Wu Wei saw these attributes, he almost spat a mouthful of blood.
Its strength and overall abilities seemed to be on par with an unarmed Yellow – not to mention it had a whopping 1.7 points of Spirit.
This was the first time Wu Wei had seen a monster with a higher attribute than Yellow.
But what was truly terrifying was its skill, [Might of the Chieftain]. If Wu Wei had retreated even a moment later, he would likely have been unable to escape.
And even now, Wu Wei was not entirely out of range yet.
When the Mud Golem Chieftain noticed Wu Wei running away, it 'gently' snapped his fingers, causing a mysterious power to ripple out.
..
Meanwhile, on the other side of the second level.
Team 8911, Wu Wei's former team, was making its move.
Their situation was similar to Wu Wei's – having also stumbled upon a treasure chest.
Although they had proceeded differently from Wu Wei's, their lines of thought were similar.
The most significant difference lay in how they reacted after the tremors started.
While Wu Wei had quickly assessed the danger and attempted to escape by logging out, Team 8911 saw the situation as an opportunity.
"It's a mess! The Kobolds are in a mess!"
"Let's seize this opportunity. We'll split up and lure the Kobold away. Leopard Boy, go up and find an opportunity to open the treasure chest. Once you open the treasure chest, immediately log out.
But if things get worse, forget the chest and just log out!"
"Although that bastard Wu Wei was always annoying, he was right about one thing - safety is always the most important thing!"
"Okay!"
Under Zhou Hong's command, Team 8911 proceeded with their plan. Zhou Hong and the two other teammates began to attract the attention of the Kobolds.
With them drawing the aggro, Leopard Boy soon found his chance and sneaked inside the Kobold camp.
Leopard Boy was chosen for this task despite only having a [Common]-rank [Leopard Transformation Rune] because he possessed a Runic Armament that could hide his presence.
Relying on this Runic Armament, he was able to quickly invade the Kobold camp and approach the treasure chest.
The ease at which he had succeeded put a smile of confidence on his face.
Just as Leopard Boy was about five meters away from the treasure chest, a light suddenly appeared beside it. Clearly, a monster was about to respawn.
Leopard Boy's expression changed as soon as he saw it.
He realized that to proceed at this point would be walking right into danger.
'Should I retreat?'
The moment the thought had occurred to him, Leopard Boy dismissed it.
"Retreat, my ass! I'm not a coward like Wu Wei. The risk is always proportional to the reward. Once I open the treasure chest, I'll log off. Even if that monster spawns, what can it do to me when I'm offline?"
"Fuck it!"
As he made up his mind, Leopard Boy rushed towards the treasure chest.
He arrived in front of the treasure chest at the exact moment that the monster's silhouette started to form, and he opened the treasure chest, revealing a green Runic Armament.
The sight of the green Runic Armament overjoyed him.
"I knew I made the right decision! If it were that coward, Wu Wei, he would have stopped me from obtaining this treasure!"
As Leopard Boy spoke, the silhouette beside him had fully spawned.
It was a level 12 Kobold Chieftain. The moment it had spawned, Leopard Boy felt a powerful aura emanating from it.
However, Leopard Boy was not afraid and even taunted the Kobold Chieftain.
"What are you looking at, huh? Come and f*ck me if you can~."
He then attempted to activate the log-out function, but…
What happened next was… too bloody to describe.
..
On the other side, the other members of Team 8911 were not doing too well.
Having planned to rely on Lightspeed Logout, they were in despair due to discovering that it was not working. As they despaired, the surrounding Kobolds closed in...
..
Team 8911 was not the only one facing this situation.
After the tremors had begun, many other teams ended up in similar trouble due to the log-out malfunction.
In this short span of minutes, countless students were thrown into dangerous situations – and this was only the beginning.
Wu Wei was the first to have realized the gravity of the situation.
He had initially felt that something was off when he had checked the attributes of the Mud Golem Chieftain. On its attribute window was something that Wu Wei had never seen before – the prefix before its name: 'Vicious.'
At first, Wu Wei assumed it was just part of its name. However, it was only after the Mud Golem Chieftain used [Might of the Chieftain] to surround him with Mud Golems that he realized how bad things were.
It was not the fact that he was being surrounded. In fact, instead of feeling pressured, Wu Wei felt their grouping up would make hunting them more convenient.
However, Wu Wei only truly realized the gravity of the situation when he checked the attribute windows of the ordinary Mud Golems.
Instead of just 'Mud Golem,' each and every one of them had all sorts of ominous prefixes tagged before their names, such as 'Savage, 'Frenzied,' and 'Bloodthirsty.'
Coupled with the fact that the log-out function was malfunctioning, Wu Wei realized that something huge was going on in the Labyrinth of Caves.