'I need to know who's behind this,' I said to myself as I immediately asked for Claire to barrier up as the skies started turning dark and the soils started turning black.
The intense bloodlust coming from him was overwhelming my team even when he's far away.
I looked at him indifferently, and it angered him more, which was funny. A king should never waver. One should always hold his ground, no matter what situation he's in. I could feel his anger rise every minute that passed. He could feel it. The threat to his throne. Real or not, the system doesn't tell you who is who, but everything will be unsettling for the lesser king, because if you are the strongest among your kin, then what is a ruler from beyond your territory doing in your realm? It will stir his pride and he won't like it at all, for the king should always be the strongest. What an immature piece of shit. Him staring at me to try to put me in place reminds me of a certain someone outside. They almost look the same. Except the fact that this one here is not a guild master.
Even with such provocation coming from the boss, I remained passive. Being affected will only alert my generals. Although they are on a different dimension, they can easily rip the rifts just to get to me. If that happens, then I'll be violating the rules. Everything will go against the conditions in the contract for my job.
I wanted to scream at someone. If only I didn't have restrictions, then I would've killed it even before the crisis arrived. My team was already exhausted and seeing that had boosted the enemies' morale.
We did have a chance, but this thing turned out to be a summoner. Each enraged shout makes four assassin-goblins appear. So much for expecting to fight a fanged beast in a low level dungeon. Who the heck is in their right mind to tamper with the lower dungeons? This guy was supposed to appear in the special class dungeons! Not on regular ones! Damn you Arthur! No wine for you!
I made five vials of each potion that I had appeared and applied it to my team. I should've bought energy potions for their exhaustion and an anti-poison. Sigh. You can never be safe in a dungeon.
Claire's barrier started to fade. She can no longer tri-cast.
We should end this now before the dungeon shifts. We only have twenty minutes to do so. Holding our ground made the fight so long. I guess I don't have a choice.
"Cassius," I called out.
"Yes?" he answered as he sliced another goblin.
"I need you to focus more on the summons. You need to get closer to the Boss."
"Uhh. Sure. I can do that, but how many meters?"
"Two."
"What?" The guys responded in shock. I mean, who the heck wants to go within reach of that giant? Obviously, me. I needed to get them closer to him so that they would be able to inflict stronger damage.
"We need to get closer in order to defeat him. Distance will make it harder for us. We don't have much time." he just nodded and resumed fighting, so I called for Marcus. "I want you to unequip your armor." He hesitated but did it nonetheless. "Great now use this!" I sent a katana to his inventory. It was one of the monsters dropped earlier. It had a purity affinity. It purifies the area surrounding it, so it will make the air clean and less suffocating.
As his armor disappeared, I saw the sword shine when in his hands. Ah. A birth of a destined Hero. With proper guidance, as long as he doesn't work for a guild, his fate should be better than the famous Heroes.
"I need you to support the team. Focus on the attacking enemies. Defend your teammates. I need you to make sure that they won't interrupt the others as we focus on the boss."
"Roger that, Sir!" he even saluted before slaying enemies with no further questions, so I let him be. The purified air helps them breathe, so it's already a plus.
"Claire, I want you to focus entirely on the boss. Throw any high damaging spells you can think of. We need to take him down before the shift or else we will be lost forever." I warned her. Rift walking is exhausting, especially with newbies, and I have no plans on doing that at the moment, as I am not sure if this was the only tampered dungeon.
She just nodded in response as she focused more on her spells. I then tapped Gab on his shoulder. "Yes?" he responded, and I whispered at him. "Ready you sword. They will attack the ladies when you get near. Make sure to reserve it." He nodded twice, which means he got it. Then, I said in a normal tone, "Aim for the weak spot. If you can spot it, don't hesitate to attack." Then I now faced the last member.
"Freya, I want you to walk with them but stay behind Claire and Gab." I instructed her, as I would only be watching them from afar. "Make sure to give them the potions when you hear Claire runs out of breath. If you can heal the team altogether in one setting, then it'll be great." I said while whispering the middle part to not get our mage's attention. Her temper reminds me of my sister's and I don't want to be the person to deal with her rampage as she might take it negatively if said out loud. Our healer, being a cute kid as she is, nodded cutely as she took the vials and looked at the others with determination. I sighed. Youth.
They started working as I looked for stones.
I found three large stones and a flat stone, so I set them up and looked for wood. Luckily, I didn't have to go far because little helpers provided me with sticks. Thank you so much for your help.
With the fire completely acquired, I cleaned the flat stone by rinsing it with water and then putting it on top of the other three. We're going stone-age cooking, so I put more 'wood' on the fire for more heat and to ensure that the stone will be properly heated.
I brought out the thin slices of 4-starred Horned-Rhino meat earlier. I was about to sell this to the five-star restaurants, but with their hard work, they deserve the best meat in the storage.
I put spices on it and herbs for more flavor and let it be for a few minutes before putting it on the makeshift grill.
I looked over at them to see how they were doing.
Ooooh. Damn.
I laughed. They didn't really need me then.
They strategize and everything was bright because Claire had set up a sphere barrier of raging hot fire. It provided a clear vision for the swordsman as he clear the path for the team. He was much faster and had better mobility because the restrictions of the armor were no longer there. With the proper weapon, he could now use his skills, so with a swing, ten goblin heads were sent flying with bodies falling on the ground that also ended up getting burned by the fire as they move forward. Talking about brutal.
Their plan made it easier for them to get closer and when wolves started to lunge at Marcus, they would crystallize because of a freezing arrow sent in their foreheads. A combo attack. I felt proud. Crystallizing the corpses to make sure the bodies will not burn later. I'm so glad they decided to fight freely.
The aroma coming from the food I'm cooking has attracted strays, so I have to take care of them quickly as I need to see how the fight will result.
"Shadow walk." I shifted myself in the dark and, with a few strikes, I got back to cooking. Turning it to the other side, then setting up another cooking grill for productivity. Cooking more meat before taking care of a few guests and, oh, fudge.
In a glimpse, I caught sight of the crystal bears that made me shake my head.
I guess the battle could wait. I need to gather those materials. A crystal from that bear is already prized a million, but having it still connected to the whole body is worth billions. A crystal bear is a rare find, and they can only be found in ice dungeons. Seeing them here made sense. Smugglers had resettled the bears here for later and set traps to make sure no one gets to clear the dungeon. Unlucky for them, we were the ones to get hold on the last day permit clearance.
They should consider themselves lucky as this is enough to compensate for the damages and the trouble they got us into.
The bear roared as they saw my silhouette.
>>>>>>> Back to the Goblin King<<<<<<
Freya gave Claire another mana potion before healing the others. The fire her friend had conjured was from a fire-spirit, and it was fueling her unlimited pure energy, making her able to auto-heal them even if they were far from her. Their skills are in tune with each other, and it amazed her how they fit perfectly as a team.
Gab was observing the king's movements. The huge hammer it carries would make the ground shake upon impact. It was more an orc than a goblin, but the title it holds made it clear that he's just a powerful goblin. He sends 'rain of arrows' in his direction, but an unknown force shields the king.
"What the fuck." was the only thing he could say. This king is clearly cheating. There's no way the arrows will just break without piercing anything. 'Let's see how strong your shield is.' and started firing again.
Cassius was thinking hard. Something's definitely not right here. He had never heard of a goblin king sighted in a low-leveled dungeon. The brief information they got did not mention any goblins at all. He thinks it's because of the existence of a star-marked rabbit, but seeing Yami's disbelief earlier confirmed that there is indeed amiss. If it was a high orc, then it might be able to have abilities including an impenetrable shield, so the enemy having such has to be a wizard's work. The problem is, there's no wizard in sight. So it must be a rune's work. Ahh, more puzzles to solve.
Marcus was focused on fighting when he tripped on something invisible.
Everyone was shocked as he fell. He was never clumsy in a fight.
He angrily got up and strike the area where he tripped over and over again until something cracked.
On the ground, lies a deactivated broken rune.
They nodded to each other as Gab sent another 'rain of arrows' at the boss.
They watched carefully as the arrows fell.
Some started to break, but there are some that managed to pierce. The shield is not broken but was weakened.
Cassius estimated the probabilities and suggested the two to fire at certain locations. First was in uncertain areas. The second batch was for the dark areas and the third was towards the skies.
He then asked Gab if he saw something and the two discussed the locations that seemed odd and out of ordinary.
Minutes later, with a snap of his fingers, he pointed in two directions. Behind the rubble and towards a gaseous pond not far away on the east side.
Claire tilted her head at Gab to ask, but he just shrugged. The places he mentioned were far from the ones he pointed out, so he had no clue how Cassius did the math.
They just fired and nothing happened.
There was another roar, and they covered their ears and flinched as it was louder than before.
The barrier was clearly broken.
The plan was...
There was no plan at all.
Activating their strongest skills, they attacked hoping for the best results to come.
***************
Fireworks erupted in the skies!
[Congratulations on clearing the dungeon!] was seen on their screens, and a huge notification was sent on the screens, not knowing that the announcement was being aired around the world. [The Goblin King's Domain has been cleared!!!] Turns out, it was indeed a rare class dungeon.
They cheered and laughed as they sat down to relax, but as the air cleared, a delicious smell made them stand back up. Their eyes widened as they thought of Yami.
Never mind the reward, they can check it later. They ran in his direction.
Upon getting near, the smell gets heavier, and it made them salivate as fighting made them hungry.
The scene was brutal. Goblins that they hadn't encountered before were lifeless on the ground along with venomous plant-type monsters uprooted and sliced up.
They saw spearheads on the campfire as well as the ones below the grill.
"Oh, you're back." He greeted them as he was putting the extracted venom in his storage. "I cooked for you, but we have to eat it all outside as we have no time."
"But we have crystallized bodies back there." Claire managed to say.
He gave them a close-eyed smile. "Devour."
They were enveloped in darkness.