Child of Destiny

Chapter 1574: Dungeon: Lesser Hatchling Lair (Part 5)

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As the Empyrean Talons continued to explore the dungeon, they discovered that the number of monsters scattered in different channels of the cave grew exponentially.

Their encounters with the groups of Komodo Lizards within the cave became more frequent, while their numbers grew quite a lot.

Starting from the scattered common-rank monsters, the team started to encounter groups of Komodo Lizards composed of elite-rank monsters and multiple common-rank ones. Their numbers might be quite overwhelming for regular players, but for the Empyrean Talons, who became accustomed to fighting them, such a number was not enough.

With top-class frontliners along with the best healer in the game, dealing with these monsters became much easier the more time passed.

The more they became familiar with these monsters, the easier for the entire team to deal with them.

Moreover, the number of Komodo Lizards remained at a manageable level, so the group was able to deal with them without any issues.

What made the group quite confused was they had never found any Komodo Lizards with special elite rank.

”Strange, why we havenʼt encountered another Special Elite Komodo Lizard up until now? Aside from the one that we first encountered earlier, we have never seen one anymore,” commented Owen as they proceeded deeper into the cave.

Their experience when dealing with that Special Elite Rank Monster was still vivid in his memory as it was much more powerful than any monster that he had encountered up until now.

It was not only powerful and capable of both melee and long-range battle, but quite crafty and cunning as well, making it much harder to deal with. There was also the time when they had to deal with the mini-golems that it summoned right on the brink of death, which also made the situation quite dangerous for them.

It was also the reason why they had been chased by the swarm of Komodo Lizards to the starting point of the dungeon.

Moreover, he seemed to remember that there were quite a lot of Special Elite Komodo Lizards in the mix in the swarm earlier, which was why he found it strange to not find even a single one up until now.

”If my guess is right, then it is most likely an event monster that triggers the ʼrealʼ dungeon,” said Shin, voicing out his guess, before continuing. ”Its death must be the main condition to truly initiate the raid, which was the earlier event happened.”

”And from the looks of it, we are still in the outer regions of the dungeon, so it is not surprising not to encounter the real challenge for us,” added Arthur.

As someone who was used to dealing with these kinds of dungeons, which were filled with draconic species, Arthur was very familiar with its interior and the methods on how to clear them.

Meanwhile, Cloe glanced at the digital clock from the corner of her eyes and realized that it was about time for them to log out. She turned at Shin and the others and said. ”We have been grinding here for a long time already. We should log out for the time being and recover ourselves before coming back.”

She then pointed at Huahua, who was not used to this kind of high-end raid, before saying. ”Look, even Huahua is already reaching her limit. We should rest for now and come back again later.”

”And I am sure that everyone still has to deal with their daily lives in the real world, so we have to pause for now and continue again at our regular time,” she added.

The group paused as they also realized that fatigue was somewhat catching up with everyone and started affecting their performance, so it was a good idea to rest for now and come back again once they recovered their peak forms.

Even after exploring the dungeon for quite a while, the team still hadnʼt found the first main checkpoint, so Arthur and other experts were quite reluctant to stop.

But they also understood that this dungeon could not be cleared for a short time, so they could not force themselves into over-exhausting themselves.

Shin looked at everyone and saw that some of them were indeed quite fatigued already, so he told them. ”Alright, letʼs find a safe spot to log out first before resting. Then letʼs meet again tomorrow at the usual time.”

…

The next day, the group continued their exploration of the dungeon. They were then finally able to find a certain section of the cave that was different from the rest that they had encountered before.

”We have already cleared all the monsters and explored the other cave channels along the way. All of them ended up in a dead end and did not give us any clues about the dungeon,” commented Arthur before continuing. ”But given our current findings, I think this is an extermination-type of the dungeon where we have to continuously kill the monsters that we find and wipe them out.”

He then paused and turned at the cave channel in front of them before adding. ”This channel is not here before, so I think these pathways will only appear once we have cleared a certain section of the cave.”

They were currently advancing with his lead as Shin and Diablo scouted the path ahead as usual.

Since those two were doing their jobs quite well, the group did not have to worry about any accidents happening like some ambushes from the Komodo Lizards.

Those two thoroughly checked the path for everyone, making sure that they did not miss everything.

But the group still threaded their way through the channel while advancing. After all, there was nothing to lose for being extra careful.

As for this section of the cave that they had just found, it seemed to be a certain ʼpointʼ within the cave with a place ahead that was connected to multiple channels, which would lead them in different directions.

If their guess was right, then this was one of the ʼmainʼ sections that they were looking for.

Swoosh!

”There are three Elites ahead and they are leading five common-rank Komodo Lizards each,” reported Diablo after he returned from scouting ahead.

As for Shin, he was left to keep the Komodo Lizards in check, closely observing their activities. He was also trying to see if there were any patterns in their movements.

The group quickly frowned after hearing his report as the number of these monsters was the highest from what they had encountered up until now.

Even if they were quite experienced at dealing with these monsters now, such a number of monsters still far surpassed their current limit, especially when there were three Elites mixed in the group.

Swoosh!

Shin then returned and rejoined everyone.

Diablo turned to him and asked. ”How is it? Do find anything?”

Shin reorganized his discoveries before telling everyone about them. ”This is quite troublesome. The three groups seem to be connected to each other. If we try to lure one of them, then the rest will quickly follow.”

”It is as if they are a unit,” he added as he tried to recall more details from what he had seen before continuing. ”It also looks like they are guarding a pathway each.”

”There are three huge channels over there, but there are still some smaller ones just like we have encountered up until now.”

”My guess is that those three huge cave channels will be leading us to the major sections of the dungeon while the smaller ones are the sub-sections that need to be clear for some sort of condition,” he said as he shared his thoughts.

He quickly stopped saying useless things after seeing that everyone was waiting for him to tell them how they would take on this battle.

”We will go with a tri-front strategy. Leo, Arthur, and Owen will be holding off the three Elites while Akailu, Chaos, and Huahua will be summoning their respective summons to create a blockade to block common-rank monsters.”

”The mages will focus on taking down the common-rank monsters with their AOE Spells while the marksmen will be assisting our frontline with their cover fires.”

”Samael will be focusing on supporting everyone with buffs for the time being while protecting everyone from any common-rank monsters that will break through from our defensive formation.”

”You only have to hold them for a moment until Akailu throws them back. You also donʼt have to feel too much pressure as Alucard and Lorraine will be assisting you if something happens.”

”Meanwhile, Diablo and I will be helping the frontline keeping those Elite Komodo Lizards busy,” after ending his instructions, he turned to Alucard. ”I will be leaving their safety in your care.

Alucard just shrugged his shoulders and did not say anything.

”Alright, letʼs clear this place so that we can finally have proper progress,” he said as he led everyone toward the center point.

He could already feel that the next batch of monsters after this would be giving them more trouble given the current stages that they had encountered up until now.

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