Chapter 456: Change Of Objective

Chen Xiaolian exerted his strength to lift up a large piece of concrete rock and saw Roddy lying within an opening beneath, panting for breath. He wore a metal gauntlet on his hand, which was propped up to defend his body. When he saw Chen Xiaolian, he did not reveal too much of a surprised expression. Rather, he spat out the dust from his mouth and smiled wryly before saying in an exhausted tone. “You are finally here? We nearly suffered from a team wipe.”

Chen Xiaolian reached out with his hand and pulled Roddy up. “How are you holding up?”

“They are all external injuries.” After making his way out from the hole, Roddy found a spot and sat down cross-legged. He pulled out a spicy bar ([Beginner] class healing substance), tore it out and shoved it into his mouth.

Lun Tai had suffered the most. In the fight earlier, he had received the brunt of their attacks, having to go up against the leader of the team, One-eye. Chen Xiaolian propped Lun Tai to the side and retrieved a med kit to perform a basic examination on him. After that, he was unable to stop himself from frowning.

Lun Tai was suffering from at least six broken bones. His ribs were seriously damaged, his left shoulder dislocated and numerous muscles were torn. Most importantly, he had overused his Muscle Fruit skill, pushing his body beyond its limit, thereby injuring his body to a certain degree.

Lun Tai’s body was bloody.

Seeing his state, Chen Xiaolian felt vexed. He walked to the other side and pulled up the electronics specialist youngster. Without saying anything, Chen Xiaolian slapped his face in succession until his face became swollen.

“Wa, why did you do that?” asked the youngster fearfully.

“I am feeling unhappy, so I vented my anger on you. Do you have any objections?” Chen Xiaolian cast a cold stare at him.

The electronics specialist youngster lowered his head in fear.

After that, Chen Xiaolian gathered the rest of the team.

Qimu Xi and Xia Xiaolei too, came together and they sat down.

Chen Xiaolian spent the first few minutes listening to the team’s encounter in Stonecutter’s Mountain.

As he listened, Chen Xiaolian’s brows furrowed.

The Demon King… … so Shen was right.

Hearing that Qiao Qiao finished off the feather, the crease on Chen Xiaolian’s face sank deeper. He turned to look at Qiao Qiao, who was lying unconscious on Soo Soo’s legs. There was an anxious look on his face.

Child of Darkness… … the skill activated?

Chen Xiaolian sighed to himself.

This skill… is not a good thing!

All this while, there was a hidden rule among the guild members. As long as the member was unwilling to disclose it, the other members would not question that member for the specifics about his or her skill – that was the biggest secret of each Awakened.

Of course, given the special relationship between Chen Xiaolian, Roddy, Qiao Qiao and Soo Soo, there were no secrets between them.

When it came to the others however, they all followed this rule that was widely used in the circle of Awakened ones.

In other words, while they might reveal what their skills were, some special aspects of the skill would be kept secret.

For example: the shortcomings of the skill, the weaknesses etc.

Before this, all of them had known that Qiao Qiao’s skill was of the darkness type known as Child of Darkness.

This skill had to be activated. After which, she would be able to make her body intangible.

However, they did not ask her or comment on the rest of the details.

Chen Xiaolian was the only one who knew that this skill had a rather troublesome aspect. More accurately, it was a troublesome side effect that could end up being a hidden danger.

All this while, whenever he was fighting together with Qiao Qiao, Chen Xiaolian would carefully protect Qiao Qiao so as to ensure that she never needed to use the skill, or activate it.

But now…

Chen Xiaolian released a heavy sigh and decided not to comment further about that.

He then listened to them as they informed him what happened during the course of the earlier battle. His brows knitted up once more.

The battle was… … too chaotic!

And too miserable!

After they finally fell silent, Lun Tai’s face turned contorted. He wiped the blood off his face and there was a concerned look on his face.

“Xiaolian, as the Deputy Guild Leader, I have not been doing a good job.”

“No, Lun Tai, you have performed very well.” Chen Xiaolian smiled bitterly. “If we are going to go into the details, it was my mistake. As the leader of this team, I bear the biggest responsibility, I should have… … been together with you all. I left the team to act alone, causing the team to lose a portion of its combat power. When you had to face the Demon King quest, I was not around. All of those are on me.”

If they were to write down a comprehensive evaluation of Meteor Rock Guild’s current combat power on paper, the results would be dazzling.

Even without Chen Xiaolian, their combat power was certainly that of a first-class team.

Lun Tai was a strong melee-type. With his Muscle Fruit skill, he could force out a strength that was very close to [A] class. Additionally, he was equipped with the skillset for tough melee battles. He was practically a king of melee fights. An innate tank class character.

Soo Soo was an archetype in energy-based attacks. She possessed [S] class powers in the flame division, a child of light and the embodiment of the Blazing Phoenix.

Roddy was of the electronics and mechanical division. He could control all forms of electronics and machines. At the same time, he also possessed super powerful equipment such as the Floater and the Mech.

Qiao Qiao, who had just activated her Child of Darkness skill, could make her body intangible and unleash Anti-materialization attacks. Her intangible body would give her a nigh immortal body when face with physical based attacks. Additionally, her Anti-materialization attacks were highly lethal.

Xia Xiaolei and Qimu Xi were lacking somewhat when it came to combat power. However, looking at the other four, their skills were enough to dazzle everyone.

However, this battle had been a miserable one. If Chen Xiaolian had not made it in time, the ones to be wiped out would not have been their enemies, but themselves.

In the earlier battle, Lun Tai was the only one to have displayed his full ability… truth be told, if one were to examine Lun Tai’s combat power on paper, they would see that Lun Tai’s power was weaker than Qiao Qiao, Soo Soo and Roddy’s. His forte, melee battles imposed a large restriction on him. Even so, thanks to his vast amount of combat experience, he was able to fully make use of his strength. He had displayed 100 per cent of his strength and did much more.

In comparison, Qiao Qiao, Soo Soo and Roddy’s performance were worse.

Soo Soo’s temperament was too lacking… … although the second personality appeared calm all the time, she would lose her wits and become distracted whenever Qiao Qiao was attacked or wounded. Thus, during battle, she was unable to concentrate properly. More than once just now, Soo Soo had gained the upper hand against her opponent with her flame powers. However, she became distracted, giving her enemy the opportunity to escape and turn the tables on her.

Mm, Roddy’s case was different. His Floater was not in perfect state. It was still damaged and was unable to properly release its combat power. Additionally, the restriction placed on him by their surroundings made it impossible for him to summon the Mech – if he were to summon the Mech inside this narrow underground tunnel, it would have collapsed, burying everyone.

In Qiao Qiao’s case, she had only just activated her skill and was not too accustomed to it. Not only was she not able to fully utilize her skill, she was also distracted by Soo Soo during the battle.

The two sisters could be considered as each other’s weakness.

Their enemies managed to latch onto the weakness and swept them up thanks to that.

Their enemies… … were very strong. However, they were not strong enough to push Meteor Rock Guild to the point of a team wipe.

This other team was a pure mechanically and technologically based team. They relied heavily on equipment.

They were different from Meteor Rock Guild’s team, a very well-rounded team in terms of skills.

Meteor Rock Guild’s team possessed magic, physical strength, long range, etc.

Even so, Meteor Rock Guild’s team ended with a miserable result.

Truth be told, even if Lun Tai were to be excluded, if Qiao Qiao, Soo Soo or Roddy was able to fully unleash his or her abilities, each of them could solo One-eye and his team – if they were able to unleash their full abilities.

“It seems we really do need a proper training.” Chen Xiaolian sighed. “Although the level of difficulty in this instance dungeon is unexpected, this training was necessary.”

“Yeah,” said Roddy. “Now that I think about it, our earlier battle was terrible.” He appeared aggrieved. “If we were on open land, I alone could have beamed them to death.”

“Don’t rely too much on your Mech.” Chen Xiaolian shook his head. “We will be encountering more terrain restrictions.”

“And this Floater is not mine.” Roddy smiled bitterly. “I keep getting this feeling. Although I can control the Floater, it seems to be resisting my attempts to understand it. I cannot even glimpse its core functions. Also, I am unable to control it as well as…”

Roddy took a deep breath and continued in a hoarse voice, “As Nicole. Man and machine as one, I am unable to achieve that. Perhaps, there exists a special form of connection between the Floater and its host.”

Hearing that, Chen Xiaolian was at a loss at how to continue… … Chen Xiaolian understood that matters relating to Nicole brought feelings of sorrow to Roddy’s heart.

“Right now, we need to re-evaluate this instance dungeon.”

Chen Xiaolian looked at the others.

Those who were hurt remained hurt, and those who were exhausted remained exhausted.

“At present, this instance dungeon had, due to the Demon King branch quest, changed. Its level of difficulty is far greater than what we had anticipated. As the only ones in the Demon Faction, the other game participants will attack us. That does not only include Awakened ones, but also Players.”

After saying that, Chen Xiaolian thought of something.

He suddenly understood why Thorned Flower Guild would indiscriminately attack the other game participants in the first phase of this instance dungeon.

Perhaps…

That Shen had long since known of this Demon King branch quest. Thus, he had wanted to complete this route. Thorned Flower Guild planned to join the Demon Faction! In order to lower the difficulty in the second phase, they took advantage of the fact that the other game participants were ignorant of what the next phase would pertain and killed them. All for the sake of weakening the strength of the Light Faction.

Reaching that line of thought, Chen Xiaolian’s heart felt more at ease.

“There is indeed a need for re-evaluation,” said Lun Tai with a frown. “Xiaolian, what do you think?”

“Our main objective is team training. This objective has been reached – that miserable battle just now should have given us enough experience.”

“So…” Lun Tai’s heart skipped a beat. “You think we should give up on this instance dungeon?”

Roddy’s eyes lit up as well. “Right! Give up on this instance dungeon. At most, the system will judge it as a failure and have us participate in a punishment instance dungeon! As for the punishment instance dungeon… we have a method of getting past it!”

The rest of the team, especially Qimu Xi, who had gone through the punishment instance dungeon with Chen Xiaolian, quickly raised her head to look at Chen Xiaolian.

Chen Xiaolian looked at the others. There was concern in his heart.

A few seconds later, Chen Xiaolian sighed. “From a certain perspective, giving up on this instance dungeon is the wisest decision. At present, this instance dungeon’s level of difficulty had gone way too high. We have become the common enemy of everyone in this instance dungeon!

“By the way, I should mention this. Back in Jerusalem, I encountered a bunch of fellows in knightly armours. Those fellows are probably Awakened ones and their level of strength is nothing to scoff at… I was fortunate enough to kill one of them before making my escape.

“Additionally, there is the Thorned Flower Guild.”

He added silently: Although that Shen said that he would not be interfering… his Thorned Flower Guild is still inside this instance dungeon! Shen only said that he would not personally take action, he did not say Thorned Flower Guild would not be taking action.

There was no need to question the difference in strength between the two of them. Meteor Rock Guild was most certainly the weaker one.

“So, we will give up on this instance dungeon? There is no way to quit an instance dungeon while it is still going on. We can only wait for the next phase. We will deliberately not complete the objective of the second phase and get ourselves kicked out of this instance dungeon before the third phase begins,” Lun Tai said slowly. “Is that what you have in mind, Xiaolian?”

“That might be the safest course of action.” Chen Xiaolian continued slowly, “Looking at the present circumstance, continuing on toward Tel Aviv to complete the second phase and trigger the third phase brings too high a risk. There is no need for us to risk our lives… … this has nothing to do with courage. Rather, there is simply no such need.”

After a pause, Chen Xiaolian added, “Furthermore, there is a reason why we became the common enemy of the other game participants.”

Next, Chen Xiaolian informed the others about the system prompts that Shen showed him.

When he informed them about how killing a member of the Demon Faction would give a reward of 500 points…

Everyone from Meteor Rock Guild twisted their faces.

This was simply an enticement to have the others hunt them down.

Chen Xiaolian turned around and looked at the electronics specialist youngster. “You fellows came over to kill us due to this, right?”

The youngster shrunk his head back in fear and dared not say anything.

“No matter. We managed to survive this battle and killed them off instead. The points we obtained, mm, each kill gives 1,500 points.” Chen Xiaolian then shook his head. “However, I cannot be certain how strong the next batch of Awakened ones to come after us will be. Could they be even stronger… could they have an advantage in numbers… worse, could Thorned Flower Guild be with them?”

“Then we will give up on this instance dungeon.” Lun Tai nodded in support of Chen Xiaolian. “There is no need for us to risk our lives so recklessly. Our main objective is to train our team. Risking our lives for some demonic magic array is not beneficial to our guild.”

Meteor Rock Guild’s current potential was good enough.

Each of their skills was very outstanding and they have a base of their own. Moreover, they had received a large batch of supplies from Blade Mountain Flame Sea Guild.

At present, what Meteor Rock Guild needed was not to go risk their lives fighting against someone else, but to survive. They needed to slowly absorb these potential powers and transform them into real, tangible powers.

They carefully read the contents of the system prompt and determined something. Their teammates will only be forcibly exterminated if Will died.

There was nothing to indicate that their teammates will be exterminated if they gave up on the quest.

After determining that, everyone could finally feel truly at ease.

“We can find a place to hide, then… … wait for the second phase to end. Since we failed to complete the quest, we will be able to leave this instance dungeon.”

Roddy said.

Chen Xiaolian nodded his head and turned to face the electronics specialist youngster. “This prisoner. I intend to leave him alive. We need a… … source of information from the Light Faction.

“For example, the system will give out our coordinates to the Light Faction every 60 minutes. That state will last for 5 minutes. This is a very absurd situation. We need this fellow alive because his personal system is the only one here that can receive the system prompt. Through him, we can prepare ourselves.

“Also, it is possible that there will be some information that is disadvantageous to the Light Faction. We will need to be able to receive that information.”

…