Chapter 23: They're Finally Here!
"Is it finally over?"
Two figures drenched in blood approached Wang Tao as he was panting heavily beside the corpse of the Hobgoblin. This fight was considered one of the hardest fights he has encountered so far with the enemy being ten times his level! But in the end, they won!
Lifting his head up, he saw the figures of Ying Yue and old man Zhang as they sluggishly approached him. There was a bloody scar now on old man Zhang's face making his weary and wrinkled face look ferocious.
"Are you okay?" asked Wang Tao worriedly as he pointed at the scar
"Just a scratch, those damned midgets dared to mess with my face! Now they're all dead, serves them right!" said old man Zhang with a hmph as he touched his face
Woo!
The sounds of Kiki's howls entered their ears as a gust of wind passed by as she landed right beside Wang Tao as she rubbed her head on his body.
"Did you miss me so much?" said Wang Tao with a chuckle as the others laughed at the sight
It was at that moment rustling sounds could be heard as all of them turned their heads around. Fire, who was hit by the Hobgoblin was struggling to stand on his feet as blood trickled down from it's forehead.
"Fire!" screamed Wang Tao as he immediately rushed to his side before taking the burly figure into a bear hug
Ying Yue and old man Zhang watched the man and dog hug each other wit their bruised bodies as they sighed a breath of relief.
As they hugged each other, Wang Tao immediately felt something was different about Fire. Looking closer, he could see his body has grown by a few inches and that it's muscles that were hidden by his red hair were even more robust than before. The claws were longer than before, but even sharper!
Checking the system, Wang Tao was struck by surprise as he looked at Fire's Stats.
Name: Fire (Tibetan Mastiff)
Level: 5
Race: Dog
Rank: Common
Strenght: 10
Agility: 17
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 0
Luck: 1
Unique Awakened Skills:
[Man's best friend.]
If a lethal strike were to hit owner, pet can sacrifice their life to protect the owner from all damage. The waiting period though until next respawn will be double the amount of time and the owner will suffer a decrease in all stats by half for a set amount of time added to the original waiting period depending on the Dog's level. Dog loses 2 levels for activation.
[Animalistic Fear] Cats-like units will have an instinctive fear against this dog-type pet. There will be a 50% chance to add the 'Fear Effect' on any cat-based unit for 3 seconds when at the same level. Percent either increases or decreases depending on the level difference. Every level difference when Fire is a higher level, +5% chance of the 'Fear Effect' occurring per level difference. Increases 'Fear Effect' time by 0.2 seconds. For every level lower -10% chance for each level and -0.6s per level difference.
Skills:
"Fireball Skill. Tier 1 Skill – Allows the user to form Fireballs and attack the user!"
"Fire, you've gotten even stronger now!" said Wang Tao excitedly as he patted Fire's head
With a proud look on his face, Fire raised his head high in the air as he looked at them.
'Praise me, humans!' thought Fire to himself
Looking at that smug face on the dog's face, the others could not help but burst into laughter. Then, they saw Fire start walking towards the Hobgoblin's corpse with that prideful look on his face.
Stretching his paws, Fire slapped the Hobgoblin's face a few times as his tail wagged around and his ears were high up in the air, leaving the group dumbstruck. Then, after having finished slapping the poor body of the Hobgoblin, he pushed away the Hobgoblin's body before pulling out a Golden Treasure Box as he excitedly ran to Wang Tao's side.
But just as he left the Golden Treasure Box down, he immediately ran towards the corpse once more which startled the group.
'Are there more Golden Treasure Boxes?' they thought in their hearts as excitement rushed into their heads
However, Fire didn't seem to care about their feelings. Once he reached the body, he lifted his leg up in the air before a natural bodily discharge happened, as a small streak of yellow fluid fell like a waterfall right on the Hobgoblin's face, leaving the group dumbstruck.
Then Wang Tao remembered a saying from the past that he read from a book.
'When you're strong enough, the whole world trembles under your feet. But once you're dead, you're nothing more than a lifeless corpse.'
Shaking his head, Wang Tao immediately shifted his gaze at the Golden Treasure Box. Pressing the button in the middle, the box soon opened with a Ting!. The Box immediately detached into three compartiments, with a Ring standing on the middle surrounded by dozens of round stones with inscriptions on them.
"Just a Ring? And Energy Stones?" asked Ying Yue in disappointment as old man Zhang shaked his head as well
Wang Tao didn't answer. Putting the ring on his hand, information was immediately sent in his mind as his eyes lit up.
With a swipe of his hand over the golden box, all the Energy Stones disappeared under the shocked gazes of old man Zhang and Ying Yue.
"How did you do that!" asked Ying Yue increduously
"It's because of the ring." said Wang Tao helplessly before removing the ring and throwing it to her
Seeing the ring fly at her, Ying Yue's imagination immediately started to run wild. Getting a ring thrown at her...maybe.., but she immediately shaked her head. Catching the ring, she immediately inspected it before a startled gaze appeared on her face as well. Pointing at the Pistol TypeF, it disappeared just like the Energy Stones from before.
"Come on, stop playing already. Tell me what it is!" said old man Zhang exasperatedly as he looked at them acting all mysterious
"It's a Spatial Ring. It has a storage of 10 cubic meters inside, where you can store everything inside except for living beings." said Wang Tao with a grin as he looked at old man Zhang
"This is incredible! Doesn't that mean we won't have to carry bags with us anymore?"
"It is just like that!" said Wang Tao chuckling in happiness
This Spatial Ring should be worth a lot! It might not help them in a fight, but storing items and decreasing their baggage is already great!
Knowing the use of the Ring, old man Zhang had a happy look on his face. An idea immediately struck him as he looked at the Hobgoblin before he immediately rushed to it's body before picking up the two bastard swords.
Lifting them up, his hands fell down for a moment before he could finally hold them properly. He tried to swing them, but they were too heavy! Looks like he might need to increase his strength stat in the future to use them, but he was happy with them.
"Can i take them?"
"If you can wield them, sure, they're yours!"
"Put them in the Spatial Ring for now, i'm still too weak to wield them properly. But if i level up two or three more times, i'll be able to use them properly!" said old man Zhang with a grin, happily
The Bastard Swords were not common items either. They had an Uncommon rarity and added +25 Attack Power to the user. Seeing how strong the Hobgoblin was when he used them, old man Zhang couldn't wait to wield them!
As they talked happily, the others were watching from the distance at the group. There were a few people who eyed the group greedily, but many of them were too busy searching the bodies of the goblins for Metallic Boxes.
Some of the lucky ones were happy, while some who were unlucky had a displeased look on their faces as they shaked their heads at their own luck.
Even though the people were envious of Wang Tao and the others, they could only accept their fate and their strength. None of them were able to fight the Hobgoblin, but Wang Tao did and he even killed it, but nothing comes without a risk. Huang Lu, who wanted to greedily deal the finishing blow actually ended dying at the hands of the desperate attack of the Hobgoblin, which ended up benefiting Wang Tao's group.
The ones who where the most dissatisfied with the situation were the once subordinates of Huang Lu, but now with their leader dead, they were at a loss of words as they looked hatefully at Wang Tao.
"Why didn't you kill the Hobgoblin faster?! It was because of you that boss died!" roared one of the subordinates who was closest to Huang Lu as he pointed angrily to Wang Tao
The scream startled the people as they curiously watched the show from the side. After all these deaths, nobody really cared about the death of Huang Lu. In the past, he was strong and they feared yet respected him. But now that he's death, he is worthless, thoughtt he people in their hearts as they looked.
Wang Tao and his group were chatting happily before they heard the scream of the man. The group turned to look at him, not saying anything as they waited for him to continue.
"If only you shot the damn monster earlier, boss wouldn't have died! It's all your fault" screamed the man like a lunatic
In the past, he was always by Huang Lu's side. Huang Lu's achievements were just like his achievements, he was his right hand and he willingly took the job as the shadow of Huang Lu. Of course, it was mainly because Huang Lu knew how to invest in the people who dedicadely worked for him. The Skills he had all came from Huang Lu and now without him, he's gonna have to rely on someone else! Relying on himself?! He knew his limits! That's why he was so angry.
"And you are?" asked Wang Tao codly
"Zhang Qiang!"
"Go f**k yourself, Zhang Qiang! Where were you when we were fighting the Hobgoblin? You were just hiding somewhere trying not to p**s your pants, it was not my fault that Huang Lu died, he only has himself to blame and his greed! Now, shut up!" said Wang Tao with a glare as he looked at the man coldly, before turning around
"You!!! You!!! You!!!" said the man but no other words came out of his mouth as his face flushed red like a tomato before turning aroung and going back to searching the goblin corpses as he lowered his head in hatred
The others who watched shook their heads before going back to do their own stuff. They all saw how Huang Lu wanted to snatch the last hit, but alas...he ended up dying from a last hit. It was karma.
Crack
It was at that moment, the space around the center of the marketplace started to crack before it fell down like glass as a portal appeared.
Klok klok klok
The sound of footsteps could be heard from inside the Portal as the people watched stupefiedly.
"They're finally here..." mumbled Wang Tao to himself, but with Ying Yue close to him she clearly heard his words
"Who is supposed to come?"
"Dimensional Merchants."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
FutureReader
FutureReader Hello everyone, i hope you'll enjoy this chapter and wait patiently for tomorrow's chapter! The story is gonna get more interesting from now on, so please don't miss it! This is the start of the volume 2, let's celebrate!
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