"Drake!" Sen yelled as he stared at his bloody body pinned to the wall.
"Fireball"
Aryan remained unperturbed by the circumstances and shot three successful fireballs in the direction of the wooden throne in the middle.
"Boom!Boom!Boom!"
The wooden throne was struck by three fireballs, causing it to burn up and scatter all over the place.
Just as the fire illuminated the cave , an 8-metre-tall, muscular green goblin appeared with a club in his hand and two spears on his back. His hands and neck were covered in bone ornaments, while his wide grin uncovered his sharp yellow teeth.
"It's a hobgoblin!"
Sen yelled to let the others know.
"Come forth."
Aahana, who had regained her balance by now, chanted a skill while pointing her staff towards the ground. Soon a large mass of black shadows covered the ground, and a tall figure emerged out of it. Its huge black body was covered with a purple aura, while the empty socket for one eye on its forehead lit up purple in colour.
Isn't that the troll we killed the other day? Aryan thought as he looked at the undead troll in amusement.
"Graghhhhhhhhhhh!!"
The undead troll let out a mighty roar while charging towards the enemy.
"Shreeeekkkk!!"
The hobgoblin replied to the roar with an ear-piercing scream as he threw two spears from his back directly at the charging enemy. To his surprise, however, the undead troll continued to run towards its target while remaining completely unaffected by the two spears that had already pierced through its chest.
"Shreeeekkk!"
The hobgoblin let out another ear-piercing sound before running towards its enemy. As soon as both of them closed the distance, the hobgoblin jumped in the air and swung its club, directly blasting the undead troll's head like watermelon. but before he could even land on the ground.
"Bangg!!"
The moment the hobgoblin was struck by the undead troll's fist from its side, the hobgoblin vanished from Aryan's view and immediately reappeared in a cartouche on the cave walls, accompanied by a loud cracking noise.
"What just happened here?" Aryan thought, looking at the headless undead troll with an expression of amusement.
The troll wasn't as tough as the last time they battled; its skin was more delicate, and he didn't have regeneration powers, but still! The idea of being able to control something so powerful was terrifying in and of itself.
Aryan then turned to look at Aahana, who was covered in a pool of sweat and appeared to be about to collapse, while Sen was still occupied with freeing Drake from the wall.
"Damnit, it's taking a toll on her body; she won't last very long like that," Aryan thought in his mind while running towards the hobgoblin.
"Fireball"
Aryan continuously fired fireballs at the hobgoblin's head as he got closer to it. The hobgoblin's skin was as tough as any normal goblin he had previously fought, in contrast to the troll from the test, making it simple for him to deal a respectable amount of damage.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Three blasts echoed through the air as black blood spurted from the hobgoblin's head, causing it to fall back onto Carter from where it had originally come.
"Looks like it's not as tough as I thought " Aryan said while moving out of the way of the undead troll.
"KABOOOOM!!"
To punch the hobgoblin head that was encased in Carter, the troll exerted all of its strength. As soon as the punch hit the hobgoblin's head and the troll's hand, they turned into meat paste, and black blood gushed out all over the place before the hobgoblin evaporated into black smoke.
[Ding! Goblin crypt floor 5 has been cleared ]
[Reward : 200 crypto coins]
"It was that easy!" Aryan thought before moving towards Drake.
Sen assisted in bringing down Drake, who had been pinned to the wall. Drake was currently just sitting on the floor and displaying the same emotionless face. Forget about his hurt expression; if there is anything noticeable about him, it is his sleepy eyes.
"Damn! "He is more serious than I thought," Aryan said, moving closer to him.
"Don't worry about me; I have strong regenerative capabilities." Drake said that while he stood up and casually pulled out the spear, the wound on his body disappeared the next second.
"See!!" Drake patted his stomach, where there had previously been a wound, and said with the same expressionless face, "As good as new."
"Doesn't that hurt, bro?"" Aryan asked with a dumb look on his face.
Drake simply replied to the man's query while staring up at the ceiling of the cave. "Nothing hurts me anymore since she left.".
"…"
"Then this won't hurt you either," Aryan said, kicking Drake's nuts, to which the other just gave back a cold smile.
"Let's just stay away from him in the future," Aryan thought, walking towards Aahana, who was unconscious on the floor.
Then, in an effort to wake her up, Aryan poured the entirety of a water bottle that he had taken from Sen's inventory.
Wow, that guy is really wealthy. I've been known to simply kidnap him and demand money from his parents. I can think of no easier way to become wealthy in this world than that. Aryan thought as an evil smile appeared on his face.
Aryan finally managed to wake her up after a few minutes of nonstop experiments and a determined effort to refuse to perform CPR on her.
After everyone went back to normal, the group entered the goblin merchant space as they had planned earlier. Aryan saw quite a lot of items there, and some of them even caught his interest. But what attracted him most was a unique skill book worth 1200 crypto coins.
But sadly for him, they were only there to purchase a jade tiger blue orb that Ruyi had specified was necessary for him to create something that was only worth a few gold coins.
The group then left the dungeon as they had planned earlier, and Sen made the rest of the payment to Drake as promised.
"Isn't this more than what you promised?" Drake asked with a confused look.
"Let's just say... you managed to impress me with your work, and this is your reward." Sen replied with a cheerful smile.
"I will give you life advice worth the same amount of silver coins since you are giving me a few extra coins." Drake spoke in a sluggish, slow tone while maintaining eye contact with Sen.
"And that is?" Sen asked, trying to hide his amused expression.
Drake came closer to Sen and whispered in his ears, "If you ever see a bathroom in your dreams, don't use it."
Sen's lips twitched twice, looking at Drake lazily going back in a direction.
No one was seriously injured, and the mission was successfully completed on schedule. Apart from Aryan, everyone looked delighted.
For Aryan, this mission didn't yield any benefits, at least not yet. The reason he always hated grouping is just the same. Either in group study back in his world or group hunting in this world , these things always worked in favour of those who refused to work hard and tried to accomplish things through others hard work. Even if you do most things for them or work your socks off along with them, at the end of the day, they will just label it as a group effort.
But thankfully, Aryan already had a plan for it; from the moment he joined the clan, he was aware that these things would occur and had made preparations for them.
"Are you certain you don't want to go with us?" Sen questioned Aryan.
"Ya... I just kind of like the environment here, so I guess I will stay here for today and see some cityside views." Aryan said while rubbing the back of his head.
"Alright then, see you in the clan." Sen smiled as he left, along with Aahana, towards the platform.
Aryan sighed in relief as he moved towards the vault hall, where he had submitted his bag earlier.
He took his bag from the vault and went towards the restroom.
"Time to see my new equipment," Aryan said, pulling out two "Kukri" from it and placing them on his back.
[A/N: A kukri is a kind of knife that is used more for fighting in close combat. [Search on Google for the image.]
He then swapped out his regular leather armour for black premium leather, added black enchanted boots, and dressed in a very thin black enchanted gown that reached his knees. The buttonless dress, which had sleeves that were rolled up to his elbows, ruffled the leather armour on his chest as it moved in the same direction as the wind.
"Now for the last and most important," Aryan said as he took a face mask made of black metallic material out of his bag. His eyes beamed a bright red, and his hair turned silver as soon as he put the mask on. Just a moment ago, Aryan had combed his silver hair into a side part, but now it was messily combed down.
As he turned to face the mirror in front of him, he saw a figure dressed entirely in black, with silver hair covering his forehead up to his eyes and a black metallic mask covering his mouth and half of his face, allowing him to alter both his voice and appearance.
He spoke while maintaining a direct gaze in the mirror with crimson eyes.
"From now on, my name is Eone."
[Preview, Next Chapter: Level 3]