Game’s Dogma

Everyone stayed in the dungeon while Windstrider picked up the drops after they defeated the beastmen chief. As expected, the drops were only Level 40 rare items as it was the Easy difficulty. Epic items likely dropped starting from Hard.

Meanwhile, Idyllic Poet kept bombarding Drako Yau with questions. “What about the skill you used to pin the beastmen chief’s armpit?”

Drako Yau felt rather annoyed; females were the one thing he wasn’t good with. “It’s the Cryoflame Spear’s special function.”

He summoned the Cryoflame Spear again. His forearms glowed red and blue, and the glow condensed into their physical form. Summoning the spear was far different from simply taking it out from the item bag. The process alone was a spectacular view.

Fiddling with the two spears, Drako Yau explained, “Cryoflame Spear consists of two detachable parts.” He detached and combined them repeatedly for demonstration. 

Danting widened his eyes, then glanced at his sword on his back. Why is the boss’ legendary weapon so fun to play with? Look at mine…

If anyone knew Danting was deriding his Divine Martial Sword, they’d undoubtedly scorn him to death.

Drako Yau continued, “The spears can store skills in them temporarily. The attack I used was a Frozen Strike stored in the Cryo Spear.”

His palms gave off a gentle blue glow. Once it faded, he threw his short spear to the ground. It drew an arc and embedded into the ground, producing a semi-circle of frost—it was the effect of his skill, Snowy Doorstep.

“This effect has a prerequisite. It can only store skills that are imbued with internal forces. The skills will be more powerful, but it also consumes internal forces, so it depends on the situation.”

They all showed envious looks. Among the five, Danting, Greenstone, and Idyllic Poet had cultivation styles. Danting cultivated the Vitality Mantra, which only bolstered his foundations and physicality, making it unusable in combat in the foreseeable future. Greenstone’s style was Three Treasures Integration, a style that focused on sustainability and lacked offensive capabilities. It was an enhancement style according to the cultivation style categorisation. Idyllic Poet’s Verity of Flames was an attack cultivation style, but she had no reason to throw her staff at the enemy like Drako Yau.

Although they now knew the principle behind its usage, Drako Yau was the only one who could utilise it fully.

Drako Yau pondered for a while and had a general idea about the dungeon, though he still needed to verify it.

Their dungeon trip today was surprisingly uneventful. However, things were in utter chaos for most players, except the top elites. The ongoing battles never ceased even though both sides were not sending their main forces to the fray. The Western server lost primarily players from the Twelve Chambers, while the Eastern server’s major guilds also suffered minimal losses only.

Rather than having signed non-aggression pacts, the higher-ups refrained from acting because they were busy dungeon diving. The dungeons were the key to their conflict, and the all-out war could wait until they were done investigating the dungeons. Both sides knew what the other side was thinking, so they were racing to figure out the dungeons first. The quicker they were, the earlier they could launch an assault and take the lead.

Easy, Normal, and Hard were no obstacles for the elites. While the difficulty might seem well-classified, the first three difficulties were no more than levelling zones and training grounds for the real deal. The major challenge was Hell difficulty. Apart from having a similar plot and dungeon map, most things were significantly different.

Like the Demon City dungeon, everything ranging from starting location to monster variety and strength differed vastly from the previous difficulties. Those who thought the dungeon would be easy simply because they could clear the previous difficulties comfortably would suffer unimaginable failure in Hell difficulty.

After clearing the dungeon’s Hard difficulty, Drako Yau and his companions rested for a while before delving into Hell difficulty. Once they were inside, they felt a drastic change in the atmosphere. The sun was down, unlike previous runs where it was daytime, and torches lit up the encampment all over.

“Boss, what should we do?”

Sensing the change, they all focused their minds. Drako Yau thought for a moment, then said, “Let’s walk and see.”

This time, their starting location was in the woods. The moment they stepped out of the trees, a notification rang out.

“The beastmen are now aware of intruders. Difficulty raised.”

They were surprised but unfazed. This notification showed up at some point every time they delved into this dungeon, though it only appeared after encountering a beastman previously. How were they discovered when there was no beastman in proximity?

They didn’t have time to think as howls and a pungent scent reached them quickly. In Normal difficulty, three beastmen spawned once they were noticed. The number was raised to four in Normal and five in Hard, yet over ten beastmen were racing towards them right now.

All of them were Level 43 uncommon enemies and were much stronger than ordinary monsters. In Warring Wastelands, every monster was equivalent to a mini-boss on the regular map. Now, a dozen or so mini-bosses were charging toward them.

Even worse was their variety. In previous difficulties, all beastmen only held swords and knives, but some held bows while others held shields in Hell difficulty. They covered for one another during their charge, showing their chemistry.

The sight of beastmen cooperating sent shivers down their spines. Even so, Drako Yau stood forth with the Cryoflame Spear in hand and held the frontline. Three swords struck his spear simultaneously, and his knees almost gave out.

Such strength! he thought.

The beastmen in the rear drew their bows and let fly, their target naturally being Drako Yau who stood out the most. The three arrows gave off red glows as they whizzed through the air—Explosive Arrow! Thankfully, a shield of flames appeared before him and blocked the projectiles; Idyllic Poet supported him with Fire Shield just in time.

“Fall back, all of you!” Drako Yau ordered while he swung his spear rapidly, deflecting and blocking every attack that went his way.

Sneak attacks of this degree were no threat to him. Back in the days, the old geezers would throw all sorts of assassination weapons at him while he was on the Plum Flower Posts. The most terrifying of them all had to be the beehive. The hive itself was harmless, but its inhabitants? Not so much.

If he could fend off even a hive full of bees, these measly arrows could hardly hit him. The only thing he was aware of was the Explosive Arrows because the subsequent explosion knocked him back a fair bit, which was a pain to deal with.

Danting also noticed what was bothering his boss. He leapt into his teleportation, appeared behind the archers, and hacked away with his sword. Magic swordsmen had excellent mobility and attack, but their defence was lower than most melee classes. As such, he immediately withdrew once he achieved his goal.

In case of the unfortunate situation where they were surrounded by beastmen, Drako Yau would be left with no choice but to activate Boiling Form.

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