The dune buggy drove until it reached the red coloured rocky peak. When it was about ten meters away from the campfire, it stopped moving. Then, a bald girl jumped out from the dune buggy.
The girl wore earrings and sported a flame shaped tattoo on her neck. Her clothes and pants were made of leather. As she jumped down from the dune buggy, they could see a shoulder bag slung across her left shoulder. She then tossed the shoulder bag down.
Phoenix continued observing the dune buggy as a middle-aged man stepped out from the dune buggy next. This man’s attire was in contrast with the bald girl. He was dressed in a suit. After getting off the dune buggy, he helped support an old man down from the dune buggy.
The old man was dressed entirely in large robes, hakama and black shoes. Amusingly, while wearing this obviously Japanese traditional attire, he also had a large pair of desert goggles on his face. As for his hair, they were completely ruffled into a messy state by the strong winds.
Monster’s eyes glinted and he stepped before Phoenix. Gripping the iron hammer, he asked in a cold tone, “Who might you be?”
The bald girl and the middle-aged man did not say anything. The old man gently took off the desert goggles and tossed it to the ground before laughing out loudly. He said, “May I ask which fellow associates have decided to make camp here? This place is quite good. I wonder if you would mind letting us squeeze in here?”
As he spoke, it was clear that he did not mind the fact that Monster was holding onto an iron hammer. Holding onto a small fan, he slowly walked forward.
“Japanese?” Studying the old man’s attire, Phoenix’s expression suddenly turned focused. She stared at the fan that he was holding and a peculiar expression then appeared on her face as she recalled a name.
She gently patted Monster’s shoulder, signalling to him not to do anything reckless. She took the initiative to walk forward. Looking at the old man, she said, “We are the Coffeehouse Guild and I am Guild Leader Phoenix. Senior… judging by the way you are dressed, I take it you are from Japan?”
“Yes,” answered the old man with a smile. Then, he assessed Phoenix carefully and sighed, “Ah, the times sure are changing. Are the Guild Leaders these days all so young? Just earlier this day, I had bumped into a young Guild Leader. To think that I would encounter yet another young Guild Leader now…”
After saying that, the old man turned to Phoenix again and smiled. “Guild Leader Phoenix, am I right? My name is Sawakita Mitsuo, please take care of me.”
“It turns out you are the infamous ‘Shogunate Generalissimo’,” Phoenix replied with a pursed smile.
“Eh? To think that even a young little girl would know of my nickname.” Sawakita Mitsuo smiled and continued, “It would appear that you fellows are not some rookies. You look so young, yet you are veterans?”
There was the hint of a smile within Phoenix’s eyes as she said, “You are a senior figure, how could I not know your name? This place is very big. If you wish to stay here, then go ahead. We have some fares here; if you want, you can sit together with us to enjoy it while we chat.”
When Monster who was beside her heard the name ‘Shogunate Generalissimo’ being mentioned, the corners of his mouth curled into a peculiar smile. He slowly put down the blade and iron hammer that he was holding.
Han Bi who was watching the exchange from up above became curious. It would appear that the young woman known as Phoenix and the one known as Monster was being polite toward the old man. At the same time, there was also not much amount of vigilance and hostility in the air.
“Thank you so much.”
Sawakita Mitsuo smiled lightly and said, “However, I think it would be better to deal with the things that are chasing us.”
After saying that, the old man tilted his head. Seeing that, the middle-aged man was quick to summon the dune buggy back into their storage equipment.
Some distance away in the direction that Sawakita Mitsuo and his team had appeared from, a burst of wolf howls tore through the air!
This time, Phoenix’s face turned solemn. Judging by the incoming howls, the number of wolves involved was much larger than the one earlier!
She quickly signalled to Monster who then pulled out a pair of military binoculars. He jumped onto a piece of rock that was located beside them and used the binoculars to look into the distance. One look caused him to suck in a deep breath. “Damn it! There are so many of them?”
In the direction west of the wasteland, the binoculars revealed innumerable number of wolves sprinting forward as they followed the tracks left by the dune buggy, moving ever closer toward them.
There were at least hundreds of them and even more following up behind. It was simply impossible to count exactly how many there were.
“What did you do? Did you lure over every single wolf in this area?” Monster did not know if he should laugh or cry.
He was not afraid of the wolves. Considering their strength, a few hundred wolves would simply mean having to slug it out a bit more. It could not actually pose a threat to them.
Phoenix accepted the binoculars and looked into the distant. She too frowned and said, “Let’s chase these annoying things away before discussing anything.”
Monster snorted and he put away the blade and iron hammer.
Using cold weapons against such a large number of wolves would be a waste of energy.
He then retrieved two submachine guns from his storage equipment. He held on to one each and placed one foot on a piece of rock. There was a sneer on his face.
Seeing the wolves coming closer, Monster sent a hail of bullets over to the sandy ground.
Those bullets were sent out as a test to familiarize himself with the range of the guns.
He watched as the pack of wolves continued sprinting forward. It seemed the sound of gunfire was insufficient to deter them.
Monster was slightly puzzled. However, he chose not to dwell too much on it and aimed at the two wolves in the front. As he was about to pull the trigger…
A hand suddenly reached out to hold Monster’s shoulder.
Monster was shocked! He jerked his head back and saw that Sawakita Mitsuo had, at an unknown moment appeared beside him!
That was a surprise!
Awakened ones were existences who had to endure countless battles to the death within instance dungeons. Every one of them would have a very acute sense of vigilance.
Within an instance dungeon, it was difficult to distinguish between friend or foe. Thus, excluding their own guild members, Awakened ones would not allow others to get near them!
The same look of shock was etched on Phoenix’s face!
She did not know how, but Sawakita Mitsuo had somehow appeared beside Monster. Seeing what had transpired, Phoenix clenched onto her wand.
If Sawakita Mitsuo attempted to do anything, then she would immediately unleash an attack using her wand!
Although the system had stated that this was a preparatory phase where participants were not allowed to kill each other, given the circumstances, no one was willing to leave things to the system.
“I have no malicious intent.” Sawakita Mitsuo could sense Monster’s state of caution. Monster was staring at him like a tiger who felt threatened.
The old man smiled and took a step back. He smiled bitterly and said, “I just want to advise you not to use guns.”
“What?”
“Don’t use guns!” Sawakita Mitsuo frowned and continued, “Why do you think we would be chased by them?”
Phoenix’s heart gave a pound and she walked forward. “Generalissimo, please speak in detail.”
Sawakita Mitsuo smiled bitterly, “Did you notice what was being said during the system prompt for the first phase? This instance dungeon imposes no restriction on any equipment or skills. However, the usage of high-class equipment or skills will affect the difficulty of the later phases of the quest.”
After he said that, Phoenix felt a bolt of lightning flash through her mind!
“You mean …”
The middle-aged man who was standing beside them showed a frustrated face and quickly said, “In the beginning, we encountered a pack of wolves. Without thinking too much about it, we opened fire on them using guns. Unexpectedly, after using guns on them, their numbers increased! Additionally… the more wolves we killed using guns, the more wolves would appear. Not only that, the wolves would become more powerful.”
More powerful?
Monster brought the binoculars to his eyes once more.
This time, he noticed it.
This pack of wolves was indeed somewhat different.
The body of each wolf was exceptionally powerful! Almost every one of them was an equal in size for the alpha wolf that they had encountered earlier!
Additionally… there were a few wolves far away in the darkness that were different. When Monster caught sight of them, he was unable to stop himself from sucking in a mouthful of cold air.
With their body size, they appeared like smaller sized cows!
Could those even be considered as wolves?
“We must not use guns. Guns are a technological type weapon, albeit the lowest grade one,” Sawakita Mitsuo was quick to speak out. “The reason we ran here was because there is a rocky mountain peak here. We should climb up and find a place to hide. Then, we can slowly figure something out!”
Phoenix decisively said, “Monster, listen to the Generalissimo.”
She quickly turned around and moved to the cliff of the rocky peak. With her bare hands, she swiftly climbed up. Monster kept his guns and jumped onto the cliff as he too, climbed up using his bare hands.
Monster’s movements were both deft and nimble. He was quickly able to cover a distance of several meters. At around seven or eight meters away from the ground, there was a rocky platform that was around five to six meters wide. After Monster made it up there, he quickly pulled out a rope and lowered it to Phoenix. Phoenix held onto the rope and Monster pulled her up.
As for Sawakita Mitsuo’s team, the middle-aged took several steps back before breaking into a sprint. He then jumped directly onto the rocky cliff and climbed up like a gecko. Next to go up was Sawakita Mitsuo who was seemingly performing a magic trick. He simply walked up. His body was straightened in parallel to the ground beneath him as he took one step after another toward the rocky platform.
Nagase Komi who had been keeping a low profile climbed up with her bare hands. Each of her fingertips transformed into sharp metal hooks. The metal hooks stabbed into the crevices upon the rocky cliff and she quickly climbed up.
Two minutes later, the pack of wolves made it to the bottom area of the red coloured rocky peak.
After circling around the campfire twice, several large wolves charged forward. These wolves seemed to have no fear toward the campfire!
At that moment, Phoenix and Sawakita Mitsuo’s teams had reached the rocky platform that was around seven to eight meters above ground.
Beneath them was Han Bi who was only three meters above the ground!
Earlier, when some of them were climbing up the rocky cliff, they had come close to the Chameleon Tent that Han Bi was hiding in. One of them climbed right over the entrance of the tent. Thankfully, that person did not notice the tent.
At that point in time, Han Bi was no longer able to see what they were doing as they were on the platform above him. However, he was able to observe the large number of wolves that were swarming forward. When he saw those gigantic wolves that resembled some mutated monsters, a chill went all the way down to his heart.
That was especially so when he saw the wolves raking the ground with their claws and snarling at the top of the rocky peak.
Occasionally, one or two wolves would attempt to jump up.
Not only did these large wolves possess an astonishing physique, even their jumping ability was shocking to behold.
One of the large wolves jumped up to a height of nearly three meters into the air!
If not for the fact that it was facing the wrong direction, it would have made contact with the entrance of the tent that Han Bi was in!
Han Bi was petrified!
In face of these pack of wolves, he who was only three meters away from the ground was unable to feel safe at all!