—-

“Thank god! It’s over,” Aspaira exclaimed happily.

“Why, oh why was that so stressful? I just don’t understand,” Sithik commented.

Now that Hrulhar was dead, the team could finally sigh in relief. A short while later, Hrulhar’s body was replaced by an extensive collection of copper coins, two silver coins, a pair of daggers, and a skill book.

The dagger even made Kieran’s eyebrow jump with astonishment. ‘How lucky of him. He got those Quicksilver Daggers and the Vanish Skill book.’

“That loot is all yours, Altair. You deserve it after dealing a decent amount of damage and stalling Hrulhar,” Kieran said. He tossed them towards Altair without a shred of hesitation. While both of these items could go for a decent amount of money, it paled in comparison to forging a relationship with Altair early on.

‘He’ll be incredibly strong in the future, but if I start now… I can make him so much stronger. I’ll turn him into a different beast,’ Kieran thought. It was difficult to accomplish now, as the game recently went online, but Kieran was confident he could dominate alongside Altair with the right amount of training.

Altair caught the items and stared in stupefaction when he read their information. The sparkling exterior of the silver daggers with light black inscriptions made Altair’s eyes glisten. This was a genuine Lv.10 Rare weapon! More importantly, the Vanish Skill Book was a skill that shared an independent cooldown from Conceal or its upgraded versions because it immediately cleansed aggro.

This loot was simply a godsend tailored for Altair’s increased contribution. “Are you serious right now? You dealt the majority of the damage.”

“Oh? I didn’t know a Warrior could make use of a Thief’s arsenal,” Kieran scoffed while shaking his head. He wouldn’t accept it even if Altair gave it back to him.

“Fine. Then I’ll forfeit all coins gained from this dungeon, and I’ll undoubtedly repay this favor in the future. Just name it,” Altair said seriously. This offer was too generous, so he felt it was only fitting to repay it in the future.

“Sounds good to me,” Kieran nodded. Afterward, he sifted through the loot and tossed an uncommon-grade Novice Cloth Robe to Sithik. It was a Lv.10 item, so it rewarded a decent increase in Intelligence, further increasing his Mana Pool.

Meanwhile, Kieran nodded toward Sithik and Cygnus. “You two did much better towards the end. Remember to keep calm as you battle. Nervousness is the number one cause of failure followed by inept leadership.”

Thanks to Kieran’s advice, both Sithik and Cygnus didn’t commit the same mistake of emptying their healing arsenal thoughtlessly. Although they were still unfamiliar with each other, they both felt some extent of happiness. After all, the way Kieran played, his skill was evident.

Suddenly, Kieran turned toward Aspaira again. It dawned upon him that she hadn’t used a single crowd control skill available to a Mage. “Do you not have Bind?”

“No,” Aspaira said with a light blush on her cheeks. “I thought about getting it, but I just didn’t have enough SP after leveling up my skills.”

Unlike Keiran and Altair, not everyone had the luxury of receiving a good starter package. Aspaira was one of the individuals with a shortage of SP skills. The Skill Level-Up System was purposely designed to inhibit the ability to unlock all skills and level them up to a suitable degree.

If a user unlocked all their skills with the SP granted upon leveling up, the skill level would be overall very lacking.

Conversely, if they leveled up their acquired skills too heavily, there’d be a lack of SP to unlock more. Therefore, it was advised to make prudent decisions.

“I see. In your case, you need foresight among other things. Start thinking of the future when you make decisions regarding skills. Also, think about how you can contribute to a fight outside of dealing damage, ‘kay?” Kieran suggested.

“Yes, I understand what you mean. I have the points for the skill now―should I get it?” Aspaira asked. Since it seemed like his suggestion to increase Control was a good one, Aspaira felt it was safe to heed Kieran’s advice.

“Absolutely, we will need it,” Kieran nodded.

Afterward, he fell silent while looking towards the center path. ‘The dungeon is almost done, but we still have to deal with all those…’

Kieran then looked at his stream. The fight against Hrulhar was bound to gain attention since it was very fast-paced and eye-grabbing. Sure enough, when he looked at the stream, the number had increased from 20,000 to almost 50,000!

Regrettably, along with more viewers came harsh comments that made Kieran smile helplessly. ‘Thank god they can’t see this. Otherwise, their spirits would have been crushed by this relentless bashing. What a toxic community!’

There were multiple comments regarding Sithik and Cygnus’s mistakes and Aspaira’s revolving ineptitude.

[Stream Chat <BotDetector187>: Yo! Not gonna lie, your teammates are BOTSS dude!]

[Stream Chat <IlikeGoldfish>: Dude, you’re crackeddd! But how doesn’t your teammate know she needs skills?! HUH?!]

[Stream Chat <FourEyedPessimist>: Aside from the Warrior and Thief, this team would have failed ten times over. Kinda trash. But hey, the fight was ok, I guess. KEKW]

“Sheesh,” Kieran mumbled. However, the income of streaming was too lucrative for Kieran not to keep it going, especially since profiles without an official contract with the Gamer Republic made viewers pay a small fee to watch. There was no subscribe function as of yet.

Again, Kieran minimized the chat menu. Additionally, Kieran’s stream audio went silent for a moment. Despite streaming, Kieran didn’t reveal any of his unusual actions to the public. All they saw was the fight against the Shadow Wolves and the fight against Hrulhar.

The public wasn’t aware that aside from the center path, the rest were dead ends. Anyone who attempted the dungeon would still be doing so blindly. Kieran only went back to regular settings when he wasn’t discussing anything sensitive or about to do something that shouldn’t be revealed.

While the stream audio was off, Kieran turned to the others, “We’re near the end, but it’ll probably be the majority of the time spent in this dungeon. I estimate we’ll reach the end of the pathway soon. So, let’s go.”

As he moved, Kieran consumed a Beginner Mana Potion while canceling Warrior’s Aura. It made no sense for him to consume Mana while out of combat.

“Right behind you. Let’s go,” Altair responded.

The rest nodded along as well, moving down the center path. The center path was exponentially longer than the other paths holding a dead-end. It took over 15 minutes more to come to its end, which was greeted by a rocky opening with withered trees.

What’s more, the party immediately noticed a change in opponents. Unlike the earlier wolves, the opponents had shifted to bears! While wolves possessed inferior defenses, bears were a different story.

「Lv.12 Quartz Bear (Elite)

Beast Type

Health: 1,700/1,700 (100%) 」

“Thank the lord for your new weapon, right? Otherwise, we’d be sorry out of luck,” Kieran chuckled softly. Each of the bears present looked like standard grizzly bears, except there was some type of gem embedded in their furs. There were only a few areas not covered by gems.

However, Kieran’s gaze remained on the two large bears towards the back. They were at least twice the size of the other bears.

「Lv.12 Razing Guraha (Rare Mini-Boss)

Beast Type

Health: 5,000/5,000 (100%)

Special Traits: «Quake» «Level» 」

「Lv.12 Reinforced Shibak (Rare Mini-Boss)

Beast Type

Health: 6,000/6,000 (100%)

Special Traits: «Hardened» «Sturdy» 」

Fortunately, the bears in the area were only Elite Monsters. They were much slower than the Shadow Wolves, so they wouldn’t be troublesome. Nevertheless, the same couldn’t be said about Guraha and Shibak. They were bonafide Mini-Bosses!

While a mini-boss wasn’t as strong as a real boss, it was still far superior to typical monsters. Even their special traits experienced increased effect just by possessing the boss ranking.

“We need to separate the Elite from those two right now. Afterward, we’ll hard-focus Guraha. She’s the real problem here,” Kieran ordered while readying himself for battle.

He didn’t lead with Charge at all. He needed to conserve that skill for as long as possible. Instead of separating their firepower, Kieran and Altair focused one beast at a time. Fortunately, there were only ten of them. Any more and it’d be difficult to pick them off without starting the fight against Guraha.

Kieran lowered their defenses by hitting one Elite Monster with a Savage Break. Altair then followed up by activating Silver Blitz, the skill attached to the Quicksilver Daggers. It increased his attack speed by 40% and attack damage by 10%.

Thus, Kieran assisted with Force Slash and Heavy Slash to deal quick bursts of damage. The first Elite Quartz Bear fell within 30 seconds.

〈System: You have gained 620 Experience.〉

〈System: You have leveled up! [Lv.12 → Lv.13]〉

〈System: You have received 5 Unassigned Attribute Points and 2 Skill Points.〉

For now, Kieran conserved his Attribute Points. Before he could apply them properly, he needed to understand how heavy Guraha’s attack would be. Only then could he justify placing Attribute Points in certain places.

Afterward, Aspaira led the assault on the next monster with a Fireball. It dealt a decent amount of damage, allowing Kieran to follow up with his deadly rotation. This bear fell even quicker but only rewarded 600 Experience now that Kieran had reached Lv.13.

Altair then led another bear over without triggering Guhara’s aggro. Vanish worked wonders for this, decreasing his aggro generation to a nearly negligible amount. But to fully grasp it, Kieran would launch a Force Slash at a range that allowed only one Quartz Bear to be hit.

‘So far, so good,’ Kieran thought while watching the remaining bears continually decrease. By the time the last bear fell, Kieran’s Experience Bar was 92% full.