Child of Destiny

“Ah!” Huahua started to panic when she saw the number of mini-golems scattered in the cave, especially when they started overturning the totems that she had set up earlier.

But as she was having a hard time thinking about what to do next, Shin’s voice quickly calmed her down as he gave out a series of commands. “Akailu, summon your monster pets and cover the left side! Chaos, call out your Solar Undead and form a blockade to block those golems coming from the right side!”

“Huahua, summon your Ghost Gate and let it release some Ghost Soldiers to help Akailu,” he paused as he patted the little shaman’s shoulder in a gentle manner to calm her.

He then turned to the others and continued. “Alucard, cover Chaos’ side. Lorraine, you handle those that are going to break from Akailu’s side.”

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

The group quickly responded in a very organized manner, executing all his instructions one after another.

Huahua was slightly behind as she was still trying to recover herself, but she was still able to follow right on time.

“Mages, focus casting your AOE (Area of Effect) Spells where the larger number of golems are gathered,” Shin continued to give out orders as he oversaw everything.

Roar! Roar!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Beasts and Undead roars resounded in the entire cave as the battle became more chaotic. The usually dark cave was illuminated by the series of explosions of spells and skills that were being cast one after another.

Despite having the situation under control, the experts of the group could not help but wear serious expressions on their faces as they knew that what was happening was bad news for them.

They knew that such a huge commotion could attract the other monsters from the deeper area of the cave, especially when this was an enclosed space.

The vibrations produced by the explosions of their skills and spells could be sent to those at the deeper parts of the cave.

Rumble!

Not long after, Leonard quickly sensed a series of heavy footsteps coming from the deeper parts of the cave.

They might be about to kill this Special Elite Komodo Lizard in front of them and wipe out the earthen golems summoned by it, but they would be quickly besieged by another horde of monsters not long after.

“Shin!” shouted Leonard, seemingly wanting to ask how they would deal with the situation.

Shin knew what Leonard was about to say, so he quickly shouted and instructed. “Focus on eliminating that Komodo Lizard first, then we will be retreating to the channels of the cave with a narrow path.”

“If they give up on chasing us, then it will be for the best. But if they continue, then we will take advantage of the limited spaces of those narrow channels and form a blockade while fighting,” he added.

“But-… aren’t these guys lizards? Can’t they stick on the walls and climb the ceiling of the cave?” refuted Leonard.

“We will deal with that later. Let’s deal with this guy first!” said Shin as he joined the battle, leaving the command to Cloe and Lorraine.

Roar!

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With the final cry, the Komodo Lizard finally fell, which was immediately followed by the earthen golems that it had summoned earlier.

Without the support of their summoner, the mini-golems started turning into rock fragments one after another and fell to the ground.

The Komodo Lizard, on the other hand, slowly turned into specks of light while leaving a spherical object on the ground.

Arthur quickly picked it up as he swiftly retreated along with the others, who were already running toward the direction where they had come from earlier.

Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!

But as he was sprinting toward the others, the entire cave started trembling due to the heavy footsteps coming from the deeper part of the cave.

This indicated that the number of monsters heading their way was quite large.

As the group rushed towards the cave channel with a narrower path, they saw a horde of Komodo Lizard behind them.

They somewhat heaved a sigh of relief when they saw that there were still some common-rank monsters among the horde, which indicated that this dungeon was not only filled with Elite and Special Elite Monsters.

But that also did not mean that this dungeon housed a huge number of monsters within it. The group was not confident that they would be able to clear it within a day. It was clear that it would require them quite a lot of time before fully exploring the cave and clearing the entire dungeon.

This reminded veteran experts like Arthur, Leonard, and Cloe, who played the said hardest game of all time – the «True Era» Online, to be reminded of their experience during that time.

Dungeons with higher difficulty in that game also required a couple of days to be cleared, some even took an entire week, especially those dungeons that needed to be raided by 50 people.

As for the super dungeons with ultra-hard difficulty and required a hundred-man party filled with top-class experts – such dungeons would at least take 2 weeks up to a whole month to be cleared.

The dangers enveloping such dungeons were insanely high, but they also gave the players a lot of benefits and rewards.

Grinding in such dungeons not only netted the players a lot of experience points, but they also gained a lot of top-class weapons and high-quality equipment.

Ultra Rare and Unique Skill Books were also not a problem for those dungeons. They also gave the challengers a series of bonus stat points after every challenge.

There was also a time when they were rewarded with some Class-Conversion Manuals, which could give the players rare and special classes.

Of course, these kinds of dungeons could not be grinded continuously to maintain the balance of the game. Instead, they had insanely long cooldowns, making them somewhat of an event dungeon that was only available for a limited time.

Those dungeons that required a whole week to clear had a month-long cooldown while the ultra-hard dungeons that could be cleared in a month had two to three months cooldowns depending on the type and difficulty level.

The event dungeons, on the other hand, were only available during certain events issued by the game companies.

…

Being reminded of this, Leonard could not help but frown deeply and said to Arthur. “Why do I feel that the design of this dungeon greatly resembles those from «True Era» Online?”

“You bet! Of course, it can! After all, the World Gaming Organization is a collective group of the previous gaming companies that used to be independent!” said Arthur as he ran as fast as he could.

He then continued after catching his breath a little. “There is a high chance that the sadist developers of that stupid game are invited to the World Gaming Organization, so it will not be strange if they inputted such impossible-to-complete continents in the game!”

“Of course, I know about that!” Leonard smiled bitterly before clarifying what he meant. “What I am saying is – don’t you feel that this place is kind of familiar? Or more specifically, it greatly resembles a certain place from that game?”

Arthur slightly frowned as he became somewhat confused. “What do you mean? What place?”

Leonard sighed before further implying. “That place! That place where you first got your title as the Dragon God.”

Hearing those words, Arthur could not help but halt his tracks. His eyes turned wide as a flood of memories flashed through his head.

He then slowly turned to Leonard, who also came to an abrupt stop and was slightly ahead of him. “Now that you mentioned it-…”

Arthur wanted to say something, but he was immediately interrupted by Shin, who came back to knock on his head. “Yeah! Yeah! We can talk about it later!”

“Stay here if you want to die,” added Shin before running ahead and adding. “Just look behind you!”

Arthur then turned his head behind him and saw the horde of Komodo Lizards approaching them. Even if their speed were not that fast and their movements were being obstructed by the narrow path of the cave channel that they were in and those monsters that stumbled over one another, the sheer number of the monsters coming after them was still extremely large.

Then his gaze was attracted by a massive shadow behind this horde of monsters, that was trying to enter the narrow cave channel.

Using his Dragon Eyes, Arthur was able to see some of its details. His eyes turned even wider as he saw that it was a Chieftain-Rank Monster. It was no longer called a Komodo Lizard, but a Komodo Drake instead.

Without further ado, Arthur quickly used one of his speed-boost buffs and started running back to the group.

“Hey! Why is a Chieftain-Rank Monster being among them? Isn’t it supposedly a boss monster that stayed on its home?” complained Arthur as he further added. “What kind of dungeon lets a boss monster freely roam around?!”

“Isn’t it obvious? It just means that this is no ordinary dungeon!” responded Shin as he ran slightly ahead of the two.

He then paused for a moment before quickly adding. “Or there is also a possibility that it is not even a boss monster of this place rather just a leader-of-the-pack-type of monster.”

The corner of Leonard’s mouth suddenly twitched when he heard that before carefully saying. “Are you telling us that there is a Lord-Rank Monster in this place?”

Shin shrugged his shoulders as he added. “We don’t know. But will not hurt to be mentally prepared at the very least.”

“Hey! Are you asking us to die? Given our current strength, a Chieftain-Rank Monster is our utmost limit,” said Arthur and continued. “Given that these monsters are of Draconic Species as well, our chances of defeating a chieftain are not that high even if we go all out and use all our trump cards.”

“Like I said-… It is just a possibility,” Shin rolled his eyes as he added. “Moreover, this is a one-time event dungeon, which is also related to your quest.”

“There is a high chance that there will be a Quest Scenario later at the end of the dungeon, so don’t lose hope yet,” he said as they caught up with everyone.

Looking behind them once again, Shin saw that the number of monsters chasing them was noticeably smaller than before. These monsters were mostly at Common-Rank as well, so he signaled everyone to get ready to fight.

“We will talk about what you two are discussing later. But first, let’s deal with these annoying lizards,” he said as the entire team got in position.

…