Chapter 14

Time slipped away second by second. Everyone was mostly listening to East Sea Dragon King talk. True to his managerial background, the guy had a real talent for public speaking. After talking for a bit, he started trying to recruit everyone into his Guild. Taiyi Zhenren couldn't resist the temptation and was the first to agree to join.

"Oh right, why hasn't Wine God Huahua arrived yet? Captain, can you ask?" East Sea Dragon King asked.

Xiao Yu sent a message to Wine God Huahua.

"Where are you?" "Almost there, almost there, on the way!" After about a minute, Wine God Huahua finally replied. "Hurry up!" "Right away!"

Five minutes passed, and Wine God Huahua still didn't show up.

Xiao Yu sent another message: "How much longer?" "Almost there, almost there, on the way!"

Another five minutes passed, and there was still no sign of Wine God Huahua.

Xiao Yu lost his patience. "Even if you started from Iraq, you should have run here by now! Where are you right now?" "Almost there, I'm at the place where we fought!"

A fight? Wasn't that Wild Boar Forest? Good grief, running from there to here would take at least another 10 minutes! "Why are you so far away? Don't tell me you ran from the [Skeleton Cave]?" Ceng Jing Shu Guang remembered the furthest map in the newbie village. "Ah, you're so smart! I did run from there! How did you know? That's amazing!"

Xiao Yu felt a bit dizzy. The monsters in that Skeleton Cave were level 18—what was this kid doing running all the way over there? But even if he ran from the [Skeleton Cave], it shouldn't have taken this long. It had been nearly half an hour since he was told to come!

Ten minutes later, Wine God Huahua finally rushed over.

When everyone asked, the kid actually said he got lost in Wild Boar Forest!

Turning on voice chat, Xiao Yu noticed the kid wasn't stuttering at all. His speech was fluent, answering questions just like a normal person. If not for the voice being identical to the one from the afternoon, he would have really suspected someone else had taken over the account.

After forming the party and reminding everyone to get their potions ready, Xiao Yu took one last look at the party status before opening the dungeon.

Ceng Jing Shu Guang, level 14, Mo Family Witchcraft Poison Master. Hua Feihua, level 13, Strategists Great Spear Sect Lance Cavalry. East Sea Dragon King, level 13, Strategists Great Spear Sect Lance Cavalry. Xiao Yueya, level 10, Buddhist Saint Hand Doctor. Taiyi Zhenren, level 9, Taoist Taiyi Daoist. Wine God Huahua, level 11, Layman Shuqing Workshop Drunkard.

"Alright, we're going in."

With that shout, Xiao Yu clicked on the nearby NPC, and a system prompt popped up.

Ding! System prompt: Congratulations on obtaining entry privileges for the [Spider Cave] dungeon. Would you like to enter Competition Mode?

This prompt was sent to everyone in the party. Before Xiao Yu could even ask, everyone else selected Yes.

"What is Competition Mode?" Wine God Huahua asked.

The kid had already clicked Yes before even thinking to ask.

East Sea Dragon King spoke up: "It's a dungeon time trial to see who finishes the fastest. The winning side gets better rewards, and the losing side gets reduced rewards." "Oh, how do you know that?" "Read it on the forums." "What forums? I'll go check it out." Wine God Huahua's attention was drifting again.

Xiao Yu had to cut him off. "Alright, let's select Competition Mode. You can check out whatever forums after we finish the dungeon. Let's go in first, and I'll explain things as we fight."

Xiao Yu also selected Competition Mode.

Less than two seconds later, the system prompt rang out again.

Ding! System prompt: Competition grouping random allocation result: [Ceng Jing Shu Guang] party versus [Wuji Zhanshen] party!

Wuji Zhanshen? Wasn't that the guy hunting him down all over the world? "Ah, what a coincidence. It's actually the people from Wuji Temple. Talk about a small world," East Sea Dragon King said with a laugh. Wine God Huahua: "Dragon King has a grudge against them?" East Sea Dragon King: "Yeah, for many years. Blood feud." Wine God Huahua: "Then why aren't you getting payback? Are you even a man? Let's go! I'll help you kill them!"

East Sea Dragon King was a bit dizzy. How was he supposed to get payback in a guild rivalry like this?

Xiao Yueya also chimed in: "Shu Guang, are they the ones hunting you down?" "Yeah, and me too!" Before Xiao Yu could reply, Wine God Huahua jumped in again. "......"

At that moment, Xiao Yu received a message from Wuji Zhanshen: "Haha, what a coincidence. Never thought you'd make it into the dungeon too. You better stay in there and never come out, our guild is still looking for you!" "Yeah, sure, anytime!" "Switch accounts, stop playing, you're just wasting time..."

Xiao Yu naturally understood what Wuji Zhanshen meant. "Just playing for fun, let's get a dungeon record first." "Haha, a dungeon record? What are you dreaming about? If you can get the record, I'll call off the bounty on you!" "No need, I get lonely when I'm idle." "Fuck, for that single sentence alone, if I don't hunt you out of this server, my name isn't Wuji Zhanshen!" "That name sounded retarded to begin with..." "Fuck!"

Ding! System prompt: The other party has blocked your private messages!

Wuji Zhanshen was furious. How could this guy be such a scumbag? He threw insults and bolted, took advantage and ran—what a piece of work?!

After dealing with Wuji Zhanshen, Xiao Yu finally chose to enter the dungeon.

The six members of the party felt their vision blur, and the entire world turned pitch black. When the light returned, everything around them had changed.

This was a dim cave, its walls covered in spider webs. Standing at the cave entrance, one could faintly hear various strange noises echoing from within—noises that were exceptionally harsh and thoroughly grating to the ear.

"Th-this is the Spider Cave?"

Xiao Yueya's voice trembled slightly, and her expression was filled with panic. After all, for a young girl to find herself in a cave like this, it would be a lie to say she wasn't scared. Especially with these high-fidelity special effects, it felt no different from being there in person.

"If you really can't handle it, you can use the mouse and keyboard to play. That might make it a bit better," Xiao Yu reminded her. "No need, I'll get used to it in a moment." "Alright, everyone keep up, save time!"

With that, Xiao Yu took the lead and charged into the cave. The other five followed closely behind, glancing around as they moved.

"There are two levels in the Spider Cave. The regular mobs on the first level are Wolf-Fang Spiders, close-range physical attackers with medium defense and attack stats. The boss is the Green-Clawed Spider King Tie Wang. We'll start with the regular mobs, and when we reach the boss, I'll tell you what to watch out for..."

At that moment, a massive spider the size of a millstone, its body covered in black and yellow markings, appeared in their line of sight.

[Wolf-Fang Spider] Level: 15 HP: 1350 Attack: 135 Defense: 110 ...

"Holy crap, this spider has such a high attack," Hua Feihua cried out. "Its health pool is pretty big too, almost catching up to mine. I'll go pull the mob!" East Sea Dragon King spurred his warhorse and charged forward first. "Me too..." Wine God Huahua hugged a jar of wine in his arms and staggered closely behind him.

Soon, East Sea Dragon King entered the Wolf-Fang Spider's aggro range. Seeing someone approach, the spider frantically scraped its eight thick legs against the ground and lunged straight at East Sea Dragon King.

"Eight Immortals Stride!"

Just as East Sea Dragon King was about to attack, his vision blurred, and Wine God Huahua had already darted in front of him.

"Table Kick!" "31!"

Wine God Huahua landed a kick, chipping 31 HP off the Wolf-Fang Spider. Looking at its health bar, it had barely budged.

Seeing Huahua make the first move, East Sea Dragon King spurred his warhorse, thrusting his spear forward. Horse and rider instantly surged forward several meters, while a massive wolf-head shadow flashed across everyone's eyes, followed by a resounding wolf howl: Azure Wolf Howls at the Moon! "56!"

As fellow external-kung fu classes, just by looking at the damage dealt to the Wolf-Fang Spider, one could tell that East Sea Dragon King's attack power was considerably higher than Wine God Huahua's.

"Xiao Yueya, use [Rejuvenation] to heal the Dragon King. Mind your timing intervals, and be careful not to draw aggro. Hua Feihua, assist the Dragon King, use whatever skills you like. Zhenren, use [Flowing Light Sword], don't use AOE. Huahua... never mind, just do whatever you want." Seeing Wine God Huahua hacking and slashing blindly at the Wolf-Fang Spider with zero methodology, Xiao Yu couldn't even be bothered to lecture him.

With six people beating down a single Wolf-Fang Spider, no matter how much health it had, it was quickly wiped out. At that moment, Xiao Yu saw a piece of information that made his balls ache.

Xiao Yueya: "Wait, Rejuvenation can heal other people too?" "What do you think?" Xiao Yu was utterly defeated. Xiao Yueya: "I thought it could only heal myself..."

A gaming idiot, Xiao Yu couldn't help sighing. He finally understood why this chick hadn't healed him back in the mine. Ignorance was truly terrifying!

With a doctor healing on the side, fighting monsters became an easy and pleasant affair.

The group continued forward, searching for their next target.

Another spider appeared. Needless to say, it was a gang beatdown—a chaotic swarming of bodies and a flurry of blows. After fighting five spiders in a row, Wine God Huahua grew a bit impatient. "Little Guangguang, this is too slow. Can't you pull a few more?"

With a muffled chuckle, Xiao Yueya was amused by the overly affectionate nickname.

"Fine, I'll go pull. How many do you want?" Xiao Yu knew clearing like this was a bit slow, but since it was the first time the group was running a dungeon together, many minor details needed to be ironed out. Building synergy took a process. "As many as there are! I have AOE!" Wine God Huahua declared without a care in the world. Xiao Yueya chimed in: "Include the boss too?" "Sure! But you have to heal me, otherwise I'm afraid I won't survive the beating!" Wine God Huahua said earnestly. Dragon King laughed: "You can survive it, I believe in you!" Wine God Huahua thought for a moment and said even more earnestly: "Unlikely..."

The entire party burst into laughter. Wine God Huahua, are you brainless, or are you brainless, or are you just brainless? Everyone was pondering which of those three answers was correct.

"I'd better go pull. I feel like pulling four or five at once should be fine," East Sea Dragon King said. Hearing this, Wine God Huahua panicked: "Me too, me too!" "Let the Dragon King pull to avoid messing things up. Huahua, wait to output damage," Xiao Yu hurriedly intervened.

Though somewhat reluctant, Wine God Huahua reined it in and didn't charge forward.

East Sea Dragon King spurred his horse forward and returned shortly after, five or six spiders trailing behind him.

"Huahua, use [Cup Smash] and [Drunken Fist], do not use [Table Kick]. From now on, whenever there are many mobs, do not use [Table Kick]."

[Drunken Fist] was a level 10 skill learned by Drunkards. It had high attack power, and while it could only target a single enemy, it had a certain chance to trigger the [Dranken Universe] move, doubling attack power. "Why? I love kicking tables the most! Crack, and it even knocks people back. How satisfying is that?"

Hua Feihua couldn't hold it in anymore: "Hey Drunkard, my brother told you not to kick tables so you wouldn't knock the monsters away. Are you drunk or something?" "Nope! I drank in the afternoon, I sobered up half an hour ago..."

Wine God Huahua's words made Xiao Yu finally understand: the kid really had been drunk back in the Wild Boar Forest that afternoon.

Ignoring Wine God Huahua, Xiao Yu continued: "Taiyi, use [Three Purities Sword Technique]. Mind the time interval, use it once every five seconds. If the move triggers its effect, wait a couple extra seconds."

[Three Purities Sword Technique] was a level 10 AOE skill for the Taiyi Sword Sect. It had high attack power, and upon execution, it unleashed three sword qi attacks against targets in front of the user, with a certain chance to trigger the [Three Purities in One] move, increasing attack power by thirty percent. "Why wait five seconds? Ah... Little Guangguang, my bad!" Wine God Huahua had already charged toward the spiders, executing a [Cup Smash] followed immediately by a [Table Kick]. It was only after seeing the spider get knocked back that he remembered Xiao Yu's warning. "Because Taoist Taiyi is an internal-kung fu class with high attack, and spiders have low internal defense. Continuous attacking makes it easy to draw aggro. You savvy, my man?" "Oh, I get it. So am I external or internal kung fu?" "You're qigong!" Xiao Yueya interjected. "Qigong? Oh, is qigong external or internal kung fu?" Wine God Huahua asked deadpan. "Hahahaha..." East Sea Dragon King couldn't hold it in any longer and burst out laughing.

Fighting the urge to commit suicide, Xiao Yu patiently explained: "Drunkards are an external-kung fu class. Didn't you even know that?" "I knew, just asking..." "Haha, *cough*..." Everyone was about to go crazy.

While directing the group, Xiao Yu checked the [Ebony King Cauldron]. That Gu Mother Fly King certainly hadn't been idle; over the course of the afternoon, it had actually produced over 500 ordinary Gu insects. On top of that, it had produced over 100 Gu insects for each of the four elemental systems: venom, blood, spirit, and magic.

However, the Fly King's lifespan was down to just over 400 left, and its production speed had noticeably slowed down. A Gu Mother consumed its own health to produce Gu, and the lower the health, the slower the speed. If he didn't feed it something soon, it wouldn't be long before it faced difficult labor or even stopped producing altogether.

After checking the Gu insects, Xiao Yu continued outputting damage while commanding the party members to kill monsters. The others were relatively fine, but this Wine God Huahua kept blurting out bizarre questions from time to time, leaving everyone torn between laughter and tears.

Still, after being collectively disciplined by the group a few times, he finally stopped kicking tables altogether, sticking strictly to [Cup Smash] and [Drunken Fist] to fight mobs. The only issue was that he would occasionally dash off a huge distance using [Eight Immortals Stride], throwing everyone into a flurry of panic. When asked what he was doing, he claimed he was training skill proficiency, leaving the rest completely speechless.

The first wave of spiders was cleared out quickly. Wine God Huahua couldn't sit still any longer and insisted on pulling mobs. Xiao Yu couldn't talk him out of it, so he made a strict condition that he wasn't allowed to run around using [Eight Immortals Stride] while pulling. The kid bounced off happily to do his job.

Wine God Huahua ran ahead, quickly disappearing from sight. Ceng Jing Shu Guang and the others walked forward for a bit and stopped in an open area to wait for Huahua to pull the mobs back. After waiting quite a while without any movement from Huahua, Xiao Yueya couldn't help speaking up.

"Huahua, why aren't you back yet? How many did you pull?" "Not many, almost there." "Don't pull too many, five or six is enough." "Yeah, yeah, I know."

After another moment passed, Huahua still hadn't returned. East Sea Dragon King vaguely felt something was amiss and asked, "Huahua, it's been so long, you should be back by now, right?" "Yeah, almost. Just finishing up this big one and I'll head back." "Oh. Wait, what? Big one? Don't tell me you pulled the BOSS?!"

Wine God Huahua suddenly shrieked: "Holy crap! This thing spits webs! It's so fierce!"

Crap! The idiot had pulled the boss! How was this dungeon supposed to be cleared now? Aside from Xiao Yu and Xiao Yueya, everyone's heart sank.

Soon, a cluster of shadows appeared deep within the cave, led at the front by Wine God Huahua.

He was flailing his bulging belly, his wine jar swaying wildly left and right, running for his life like a madman.

Trailing right behind him was a massive spider standing six or seven meters tall. Its body was roughly the size of half a house, and its eight thick steel legs were at least eight to nine meters long each, covered in dense, emerald-green hair. A pair of soccer-sized, dark-green eyes protruded high atop its head. As it ran, it let out a chilling "hissing" sound that could be heard clearly from far away.

Behind the giant spider followed at least fifteen or sixteen Wolf-Fang Spiders. These Wolf-Fang Spiders were packed tightly together, crawling at an astonishing speed. From a distance, they looked like rolling waves whipped up by a sea breeze—surging forward in tumbling swells.

"Huahua, you've gotten us killed! How are we supposed to fight this?" East Sea Dragon King's voice was filled with despair. Were they really going to wipe before even clearing the first floor? "I'll go pull the boss away, you guys kill the small ones!" Hua Feihua volunteered bravely. Under the current circumstances, someone had to pull the big monster away. Among the entire party, when it came to movement speed, only he and the Dragon King were the fastest—their warhorses came with a 10 percent speed bonus. In terms of health, he had even more than the Dragon King. Taiyi was a Taoist with low HP, the Doctor and the Poison Master couldn't act as MTs, and Wine God Huahua was on the verge of getting chain-ganked. Naturally, the responsibility of pulling the boss fell squarely on his shoulders. "No need, I'll pull the boss, you guys clear the Wolf-Fangs," Xiao Yu commanded. "You're pulling?" Dragon King and Hua Feihua cried out almost simultaneously. "Huahua, Eight Immortals Stride!" Xiao Yu answered with actions instead of words as he charged straight toward the Green-Clawed Spider King. "The captain has lost his mind," the usually quiet Taiyi Zhenren said in despair. "Ten Wolf-Fangs, can you handle them?" Ceng Jing Shu Guang's voice came through the voice chat again. "Dragon King, Huahua, I'm asking you." "Ah? Yes! Yes!"

Stunned for a second, East Sea Dragon King hurriedly replied. Though he didn't quite catch what that meant at first, if there were only ten Wolf-Fangs, Dragon King still had confidence. After all, the party had a healer; while trying to hard-tank them was pushing it, kiting them using [Azure Wolf Howls at the Moon] would definitely work. After all, Wolf-Fang Spiders only had basic attacks and couldn't inflict status ailments, and having killed the previous wave, they had gained some experience.

No one moved. Everyone watched with bated breath as Ceng Jing Shu Guang charged straight toward the Green-Clawed Spider King. From afar, they saw him wave his hand at the Spider King, and a dark, murky blob burrowed straight into the Spider King's body. That was followed immediately by three piercing whistling sounds—the telltale sign of Wind-Breaking Claw—and a row of bright red numbers instantly popped up over the Spider King's head.

"18!" "19!" "15!" ...

Looking at the Spider King now, it had whipped its head around, crouched its body, and lunged forward abruptly, hurling a massive green web straight toward Ceng Jing Shu Guang.

With a frog-like croak, Ceng Jing Shu Guang actually leaped directly into the oncoming web. "We're done for!"

Even though they were standing some distance away, Dragon King and the others saw it clearly: that giant web had completely enveloped Ceng Jing Shu Guang. No one dared underestimate a boss's attack power; with Ceng Jing Shu Guang's fragile physique, once caught in the web, he would be dead in three hits at most.

"MISS!"

The giant "MISS" text made the despairing looks in their eyes instantly morph into sheer astonishment.

"No way, big bro! You dodged the net?!" Hua Feihua cried out in shock.