Chapter 172 – Hellfire Cavern (1/2)
Chapter 172 – Hellfire Cavern
「Bang! Bang! Bang!」
Several dozen spells battered Broad Blade’s group, instantly killing five of them as they were transformed into brilliant rays of light. Two of them had red names, so all of their gear dropped to the ground when they died. Only three survived the barrage of spells with just a sliver of health remaining.
The survivors tried to escape from the area, but several dozen Fighters and Berserkers caught up and surrounded them before they could take a single step.
With the sheer disparity in numbers, Broad Blade’s group wasn’t able to put up the least bit of resistance.
They were immediately slaughtered.
“Thank you, brothers!” Paladin of the Elegy shouted to the crowd. Without the timely and enthusiastic assistance from his fellow guildmates, his party would’ve been wiped out by Broad Blade’s group.
“Ah, it feels good to finally blow off some steam after being pushed around by those bastards for so long.”
“Sooner or later, we’ll wipe them all out!”
“There’s a report from our brothers stationed at the East. They say they’ve spotted roughly three to four hundred Victorious Return players heading towards us!”
All of the Asskicker United members’ faces turned ashen. They hadn’t even been here for five minutes, yet Victorious Return somehow already deployed forces to their location. The response was just a little too fast to be a coincidence.
“We definitely have moles in our guild; there’s no way they could’ve reacted so quickly!”
“So what! Let’s take them on!”
“No, we’ll suffer heavy losses if we try to clash with them. Let’s just go back.” Paladin of the Elegy shook his head. Even after that frantic battle, he still managed to remain level-headed. Guo Huai had repeatedly warned them that now was not the right time to start a full-scale conflict with Victorious Return.
“Pick up all the equipment they dropped! We’re withdrawing!” shouted an influential Warrior among the crowd.
Everyone took out a Return Scroll, and after twenty seconds, the crowd disappeared in a symphony of flashing lights.
Several minutes later, a large group of Victorious Return players arrived at the area. They were led by Underworld Flame.
“The bastards ran away!” Underworld Flame cursed in frustration. “These runts have been reacting too quickly lately. I can’t rule out the possibility that we’ve been infiltrated by them…”
“Boss, what are we gonna do now?”
“What are we gonna do…? What do you think we can do!? We’re going back!”
Just because a battle didn’t break out this time didn’t mean that everything would calm down. With so much friction between them, it was obvious to everyone that both sides hated each other. Asskickers United was constantly suppressed in the conflict, and suffered far more than Victorious Return did. There were only a few skirmishes where they got off lightly. Despite all of this, Asskickers United endured patiently. They were slowly raising their strength, waiting for the day when they would finally have the power to fight back.
…
In a vibrant forest—a beautiful paradise, lush with green, where various wildflowers bloomed abundantly, giant Golden Beetles carrying pitchforks whizzed about. The sunlight reflected brilliantly off their glossy carapaces. They flew around the forest, occasionally landing to rest on the ashen-coloured barks of the trees.
Nie Yan activated Stealth, blended into the forest background, and made a detour around the Golden Beetles. He found a certain tree and uncovered a locked silver chest by its roots. He crouched down and started opening it with Lockpicking Specialist.
Opening… Estimated Completion: 3%… 37%…
You’ve unlocked a Silver Chest! Lockpicking Specialist has gained 1 point of proficiency!
The chest popped open with a click. Nie Yan dug around and fished out a Warrior’s chestplate and a Paladin’s spiked hammer, both of which were Level 20 Silver-grade. Not bad… he thought after examining their properties and tossing them into his bag.
Perhaps alerted by the sound of Nie Yan opening the chest or just plain bad luck, several dozen Golden Beetles in the vicinity charged at him, brandishing their pitchforks.
The Golden Beetles were Level 21 mobs. Nie Yan wouldn’t last a second against such a large swarm. Just as he was about to be skewered by the pitchforks, he vanished from their sight by activating Shadow Dance. He fled for his life, while the Golden Beetles looked around for him.
Once they lost sight of their target, the Golden Beetles returned to flying around aimlessly.
Nie Yan ran through the forest for about ten minutes before he reached the base of a mountain. After searching around the rubble for what seemed like half-a-day, he finally found another locked silver chest tucked away behind several boulders. He dropped down on one knee and proceeded to open it.
The chest opened with a click a short moment later.
After rummaging through the contents of the chest, he took out a Lesser Heal skill book for Priests. It was a good find for the guild. Only players that contributed heavily to the guild could obtain skill books and other similar items.
He threw the skill book into his bag.
「Nie Yan, are you there?」Guo Huai sent a message.
「Yeah, what’s up? Need anything?」Nie Yan cloaked himself in stealth before proceeding to his next destination.
「I want to apply for a couple of guild quests. We’ve gathered a little over 10 gold, but it’s still not enough.」
「How much do you need?」
「About 3 gold.」
「You can head over to the Starry Night Potion Shop and withdraw 10 gold.」Nie Yan replied. Applying for guild quests required a huge sum of gold. During the initial phase of a guild’s growth, guild quests were like a black hole where money disappeared. Despite their exorbitant cost, they were quintessential to raising the overall quality of the guild.
「Has there been any activity from Victorious Return lately?」Nie Yan asked.
「Minor skirmishes… they don’t seem to stop,」Guo Huai answered before letting Nie Yan know what had happened with Paladin of the Elegy’s group earlier in the afternoon.「It’s a pity four of them died. They were too rash; otherwise, they would’ve all lived.」
Nie Yan thought about the incident for a minute. These sorts of disputes occurred frequently among the major guilds. If repeated calls for help from a fellow guildmate were ignored in the guild chat, that was a sign that the guild was done for. He was quite pleased that so many guild members joined forces to help out a fellow guildmate, and decided that this was something that should be encouraged. After going through situations like this one, everyone, especially those rowdy players that always looked for a fight, would grow devoted to the guild and each other.
「Four for eight, and three of the enemies even had red names! Not a bad trade!」Nie Yan laughed.
「Reward every member that participated in the battle with 10 merit points!」
「Are you sure? Over a hundred players joined in. That’s more than a thousand merit points!」Guo Huai cried out in shock.