A few hours ago.
A group of people had arrived at the goblin village.
Those huge guys were all three meters tall, bulging with muscles, with bull horns growing out of their heads. They're equipped with steel armor and their main armormants tend toward battleaxes, warhammers, and spike clubs.
They're minotaurs!
A race famed for their strength and endurance!
There were even countries established by minotaurs in certain areas far off to the north.
They're definitely not one of the weak races on this continent.
These minotaurs came from the nearby Bloodhoof Tribe.
This tribe is considered one of the tyrants in the nearby area.
Practically all the weaker tribes around have been savaged by them. This time, they basically came to this goblin village specifically to sack it and plunder the goblins living here.
Contrary to their expectations, however, the village had already been abandoned.
"We seem to have gotten here late."
"A major battle had occurred here."
"The goblins were either killed or have left."
Zhang Kai summarized the situation.
He's a minotaur Hero player.
Besides him, there were also two other Heroes.
After the three minotaurs were possessed by descending Heroes, their strength had quickly risen. By now, they've gained some fame among their tribe.
Of course, the tribe had more than just those three Heroes.
The Bloodhoof Tribe is a tribe with over 800 minotaurs. Seven Heroes had descended upon them in total, and the strongest one had directly taken over the chieftain.
A minotaur Hero with a shield asked, "Did a Demon King do this?"
Another female minotaur Hero in robes and carrying a priest's staff spoke, "Possible. There's a Demon King nest nearby. We should deal with him right away. It also saves the boss the hassle of doing it himself."
Although one reason the three of them brought so many minotaurs with them was to sack the goblin village, the other reason was to investigate the Demon King nest in the Darkness Valley.
Demon Kings and Heroes are natural enemies
When a Hero destroys a Demon King nest or kills a Demon King, their strength will rise drastically as well as gain enormous amounts of resources. The advantages of such are hard to resist.
The Hero with the shield frowned, "Since the Demon King was able to deal with this village, he and his faction probably isn't all that weak. Shouldn't we first report this to the boss then, just to be safe?"
"Hahaha! What are you so scared of? Isn't it just a goblin village? How hard could it be to deal with those weaklings? There's no way that the Demon King's all that strong!"
Zhang Kai's order was just to investigate.
However, he doesn't want to miss such a great opportunity.
They're all Heroes here.
So why do their positions have to be so different?
He had long since disliked that guy.
If he could take this chance to kill this Demon King, then it's still up in the air just who will get to call the shots then!
"Think about it. Are there more Heroes or Demon Kings? We need to grasp what chances we can!"
The female minotaur Hero nodded, "Zhang Kai's right. Grinding on mobs will only net us two training points at most every month. It'll take ages for us to get strong at that point. If we want to overturn the situation, the only chance we'll have is by killing Demon Kings!"
The Hero with the shield had a cautious personality, so he originally wouldn't agree to any reckless adventuring. However, he did find his comrades' words to be quite convincing.
The three of them are all Elite levels in power.
The 50 minotaur warriors with them are also well trained.
Of them, ten of them are also Elite level. The other 40 aren't quite at the Elite level, but with their inherent minotaur constitutions, they shouldn't be all that much worse than an Elite monster.
This is a very powerful group they have here.
Just how strong could this Demon King be?
He's the one being too conservative here.
Soon, the three Heroes have come to an agreement!
Later, the squad of minotaurs reached the Darkness Canyon.
"Be careful everyone."
"This is the only path into the Valley."
"Given that the Demon King's Valley is sealed off except for this one lone path, the Demon King and his minions may likely set a trap here."
Zhang Kai spoke dismissively, "So what if he set up traps though? We're not weaklings that can be defeated by mere traps. I for one look forward to seeing just what this Demon King will try to pull."
As they headed deeper in, the environment turned spooky.
Five towers suddenly appeared up ahead.
Every single one of them was made of bones, and all of them are situated up on high ground nearby. They didn't look like something constructed by anyone's hand.
"What's that?"
The minotaurs were somewhat unsettled.
For such things to suddenly appear in a chilling and spooky canyon. That really is horrifying and scary.
"Hmph, mere tricks. The Demon King can't possibly be so stupid that he thinks such things can scare away Heroes, right? He's far too naive!"
Zhang Kai continued, "Hurry up and get through already. The Demon King shouldn't have noticed us yet, so let's hit him before he can react!"
The bow had been drawn.
The arrow loosened.
How could they possibly turn back at this point?
The spooky towers didn't convince the Demon King subjugation squad to retreat. Instead, it only served to spur them on to move quicker in an attempt to get through as fast as possible. The Heroes have thus shown just how determined they are to kill the Demon King.
At this point, the Towers of Grudges started reacting.
The countless skulls on them opened their jaws and blew out spooky black fog. Instantly, the sky darkened, screams and moans filled the air, and grudge ghosts took form one after another.
They were horrifying in appearance. They bared their ten sharp claws, their bloody eyes locked onto the invaders, and with a piercing screech, they charged down in an instant.
"Holy shit!"
"What the heck?"
"What are those things?"
"Are they the Demon King's minions?"
"Is this Demon King an undead of some kind?"
A minotaur warrior activated his rage skill.
His battleaxe furiously ripped a grudge ghost coming at him in two.
However, the grudge ghost just turned into black fog before taking form right next to him. Its ten sharp ghost claws stabbed forth, ripping open his breastplate and instantly tearing a wound into him.
And before any counterattack could happen, that grudge ghost suddenly stuck right to the minotaur and self-destructed.
The minotaur warrior fell with a pained scream.
It was obvious that he won't be able to live past this.
Those grudge ghosts have two ways of attacking.
The first is its ghost claws. This is a single target attack skill.
The second is its self-destruct. The grudge ghost can instantly blow itself up and cause massive AoE damage.
This reckless squad of Heroes were instantly surrounded by hundreds of grudge ghosts.