"So we gonna do this in party mode or solo mode?" Emma asked as the duo were now standing in front of the Echo bat dungeon.
Zack had chosen the hard mode even though it was Emma's first time entering a dungeon after the battle in the fairy king's forest.
This was because he was already strong enough to take on the dungeon alone and could easily get them out of a tight spot.
"We are doing party mode. There will be more monsters to fight this way and we will get to test our weapons better." The white-haired boy replied as the duo entered the dungeon.
The base level of monsters would be between 15 to 20 since they were doing party mode. The boss would be around level 25 and Zack hoped to make WolfHeart at least level up to level 20 before fighting the boss.
The duo took out their weapons when the screeching sound of bats entered their ears. In the darkness of the dungeon, the bow and sword were acting as a source of light.
But when Zack jumped forward to kill one of the bats that had spawned up, a notification suddenly appeared in front of him.
[ Warning! Attacking living beings or beasts allied with the neutral or light side will result in gaining infamy. You will belong to the neutral side if your infamy rises over 100 ]
The white-haired boy immediately summoned Gugnir in his other hand and threw the lance at the bat. It disintegrated the moment the tip of the lance collided with it and Gugnir returned to Zack's hands.
"I thought we were going to test our new weapons?" Emma asked in a confused tone as she armed her bow with steel arrows and pointed them towards the bats.
She released the string and the steel arrows shot forward and hit the bats with deadly accuracy.
The pink-haired woman smiled as she went on to kill all of the bats present in the area before they could even realize what had happened. She then reached level 20 before looking at the white-haired boy with a confused expression.
"Apparently I can only attack beings on the dark side with this sword." The teenager replied with a sigh while staring at the sword.
Many people would have called it a nerf but it was actually a perfect balance. The sword was overpowered as it was and if he fought people from the dark side while using it, he would get overpowered buffs.
He then shifted to Gugnir but for the rest of the dungeon, Emma was the one doing the kills but sadly, she didn't level up any further despite all the monsters she had killed.
While looking at the door to the dungeon boss, Zack's grip on his lance tightened a little. Looks like he was going to have to throw his lance a few times.
As the doors opened up, two simultaneous screeching sounds echoed around the entire place. Most players wouldn't have heard these sounds but Zack and Emma had the echo detection skill.
[ Evolved Echo Bat (level 25) (20000 HP) ]
Two such bats were clinging to the top of the cave. Their eyes were fixed on the two figures standing near the gates and the moment they stepped forward, the two bats launched them towards the duo.
But Zack and Emma were a step ahead of the two bats as the white-haired boy shot energy blasts from the top of the lance. Three of the blasts hit one of the bats while the remaining two hit the second bat.
Emma used this chance to shoot ten arrows around the two bats in a circle before grinning.
"Explosion!"
The arrows exploded around each other as the bats screeched in pain. The fire from the explosion caught the wings of the bats.
The fire quickly burned through their wings as the bat fell towards the ground where the hunter had already placed her traps.
As soon as they touched the ground, they triggered an explosion that was caused by the mines the hunter had placed.
And with that, the duo cleared the dungeon and set a new record of nine minutes and thirty-two seconds.
[ Start again or quit? ]
A new notification appeared in front of the duo as they pressed start again. After choosing the hard mode once again, they began their conquest.
***
A few kilometers away from the dungeon, a huge group of people were moving through the border of the Eizenburgh kingdom.
They were moving through a forest while being camouflaged to merge with the surroundings. They were armed with rare-ranked armor and swords and looked like a commando legion.
The forest they were moving through was situated at the border of the Eizenburgh kingdom and the Heridor kingdom and stretched on for a few kilometers.
Either side of the forest marked the end of rule for both the kingdoms and the forest was a neutral area. Both the kingdoms had tried to conquer the forest but there was a ferocious beast that protected it.
Due to the beast's rule, many of the beasts in the forest were high-level beasts so most players avoided the area.
The group was also moving alongside the edge of the forest since they didn't want to encounter a powerful beast and get massacred.
'The echo bat dungeon should only be a few kilometers away now.' Elyon, still covered in shadows, was leading the group towards the Echo bat dungeon which was situated 45 kilometers away from the entrance of the forest on the Eizenburgh kingdom's side.
The forest had many dungeons surrounding it on both the sides due to the fact that a thick layer of mana surrounded it.
The dungeons' ranks started from uncommon all the way up to mythic. But most of these dungeons were inaccessible because of the level gap.
Elyon had used one of the uncommon ranked dungeons to level up all of the people behind him. As far as he knew, Lin Fan only had Chastiefol as his most strongest weapon and was grinding the dungeon alone.
But even with the spear, there was no way that he would be able to beat 502 players singlehandedly.
'And once his avatar is defeated, I will take the spear and the boss will be satisfied.' Elyon thought with an internal smile as he and the 501 people continued to make their way to the Echo Bat Dungeon.
It was the first time that the world would witness the fight between the number one and number two player.