858 Sealed Mountain Thieves Hideou

December 3rd, at midnight 00:00:00, Glory timely released the new content. Tens of millions of players fought to log in at that exact moment. Even though it wasn’t a weekend, the loyal players wanted to start exploring as soon as possible.

Every account’s friend list was now lit up more than ever before. The quality of the Glory servers that they took pride in weren’t famous for nothing. Even with so much traffic, it was still running as usual. However, while the servers might be enough, the space in the maps in game weren’t. As soon as the new content was released, all the level 70 players, no matter if they had only gotten there or had long since hit the limit, flooded into the new areas.

So what if there were only six new areas? There still wasn’t enough space for the players. Especially the three areas that were first announced, even more players wanted to check them out. Ye Xiu and co had last logged out with their characters prepared to enter the new areas. Even so, all they could see were people when they logged in. It seemed that a lot of people had parked their characters before logging off!

Ye Xiu and others then realized that, at this special time, there was no need to worry about their characters’ safety. The players had never been so eager to talk with NPCs; Why would they bother with PKing? That was a waste of precious time!

This was a rare chance where everyone had been pulled back to the same starting point, so none of them wanted to lose before the race even began.

The crowd flooded into the new maps. Under these circumstances, doing quests and killing monsters was an extravagant luxury to have. So, many players realized that at a time like this, the only way to separate yourself from the crowd and get your own quiet space to practice was to run dungeons.

Unfortunately, the dungeons were all level 75. With a whole five levels of difference, normal players wouldn’t be able to handle it. However, no one cared about that now. If they went to experience the dungeon, then that was rather worthwhile, wasn’t it?

As for the big guilds, they immediately ran to beat the dungeons. New dungeons meant that there were chances to get First Kills, and dungeon First Kills, as well as records, gave out rewards that were as good as those obtained from wild Bosses. With the three year pause at level 70, all the records were broken to the point of being unbreakable. With the new dungeons, the long unseen race for First Kills and dungeon records was once again revived.

With Happy.Lord Grim, Windward Formation, Steamed Bun Invasion, One Inch Ash, Chasing Haze, Dawn Rifle, Little Cold Hands, Concealed Light, and the Battle Mage Forest Landscape, who had turned on Excellent Era for Happy with Chen Guo and became a core member of Guild Happy, made a perfect ten. Mo Fan had been hanging around Happy for three months now, but was still like a stranger, using free food and board but still didn’t greet anyone. However, with the new update released, he was pushed to be a part of their pioneering team. In the end, he didn’t reject Ye Xiu’s summons and quietly joined their party.

Ye Xiu was skilled and brave, with this ten person party, he headed directly for the officially announced ten-person dungeon in Barrier Mountains: Sealed Mountain Thieves Hideout.

In the background story of Barrier Mountains, the Sealed Mountain Thieves were a group of criminals that caused chaos across the Barrier Mountains. The rebellion happening in Thousand Peak City was partly thanks to the rebels allying themselves with the Sealed Mountain Thieves. So, in completing the storylines in Barrier Mountains, there would naturally be an event where players would have to destroy the Sealed Mountain Thieves.

Apart from running around the map and fighting as part of the plot, the harder quests would all be completed through dungeons.

But anyone who was at this part of the storyline was probably not far from level 75. Ye Xiu and the others weren’t heading for the dungeons to complete any quests, they were going for the experience points and hopefully a First Kill.

The location of the dungeons had long since been leaked. After the update, it could be easily seen on the map. Heading over, the entire place was already filled with players. There were no monsters whatsoever in the Barrier Mountains because it didn’t take more than a few seconds after they respawned for them to go extinct. Many of the players were just like headless flies, wanting to do something, but not being able to find anything to do. The quest NPCs were completely surrounded and it didn’t seem to be possible to speak to one without waiting for upwards of an hour. Among the mountains, there were more players than monsters, so many people started to explore in an attempt to find a place with less people.

As for those who headed directly for the dungeons, it wasn’t just the big guilds; there were plenty of normal players as well. They would find a few friends, make a party, and start exploring the dungeons.

But wanting to explore level 75 dungeons at level 70 was a courageous move to make, especially a ten person one. When Ye Xiu and the others arrived at the entrance to Sealed Mountain Thieves Hideout, they saw many people already outside. Clicking into their profiles, the stats were all red. Ye Xiu and co had rushed to the dungeon as soon as possible, but by then there had already been many teams who had been wiped out and respawned already; what sort of efficiency was this?

There were plenty of sightseeing parties at the entrance. In reality everyone knew that for new dungeons, even groups formed of friends, let alone random wild groups, had to struggle and research them for a while before they could even have a chance of getting through. So that’s why no one said they were here to run dungeons, but just to sightsee….

Ye Xiu and co didn’t dawdle, going inside as soon as they reached the entrance. After being transported inside, the scenery didn’t change much. They had only moved through the entrance. It looked like they were still in the Barrier Mountains map, but actually they were in an isolated space already.

In the areas around the entrance, there would be a safe space where you couldn’t be attacked. As soon as the ten of them entered, they started looking at the situation of the dungeon and quickly found that at each side of the door to the hideout stood a tall watchtower. Each watchtower had a Sealed Mountain Thief, holding a rifle and watching from afar.

"Should we blast them down?" Chen Guo asked, already controlling Chasing Haze to heft her rocket launcher onto her shoulder.

"Be patient, let’s observe for a moment. We’re not here for speed, just to get through the dungeon safely," Ye Xiu said. In a completely unknown dungeon with a five level suppression, they couldn’t be too careless, even if they were fighting for a First Kill. Under these circumstances, getting through the dungeon was already a win.

"A patrol is coming," At that moment, Wei Chen spoke up. Everyone looked forwards and saw a five-man patrol coming their way under the lead of a small ringleader, holding steel knives.

"Can we avoid the patrol?" Wei Chen’s Windward Formation shifted back by two steps. He couldn’t move any further, or else he’d exit the dungeon.

"Who knows," Ye Xiu, of course, didn’t know either. Who knew how close the patrol would get to them? "Prepare for battle!"

"I just want to ask," An Wenyi hurriedly spoke up, "Who’s the MT?"

"Me." Just as Ye Xiu said this, he noticed Luo Ji’s Concealed Light already summoning creatures, clearly because of Ye Xiu’s order to "prepare for battle." Ye Xiu hastily gave him an order, "Concealed Light, limit your summons to four or less."

"Ah?" Luo Ji startled.

"Uh… If you don’t exert good control over them, you might accidentally pull more mobs," Ye Xiu said.

Luo Ji went red, but he knew it was the truth. With his skill, pulling out at all stops would just be too chaotic for him and a mistake could release a summon from his control. Four summons was the most he could exert flawless control over. Luo Ji knew it wasn’t time to be prideful, so he obediently summoned four.

The patrol came closer and closer, as if they really were going to walk straight to the entrance of the hideout.

"Let’s snatch the initiative!" Chen Guo couldn’t stay calm any longer.

"Don’t panic." Ye Xiu was still very calm. "If we enter their aggro range, Chasing Haze shoot the left thief down, and Dawn Rifle go for the right."

"Ok," the two replied together.

"Everyone, be careful!" Ye Xiu quickly said, seeing the patrol come closer and closer. Though these were new monsters from a level 75 dungeon, he could still estimate the aggro range from experience.

"Fuck, it’s just a wave of normal monsters; don’t make the atmosphere so nervous," Wei Chen said.

"You’re nervous just from a group of normal monsters? How strange," Ye Xiu mocked.

"I’m just worried you’ll make the other youngsters nervous," Wei Chen said.

"Heheh, the youngsters nowadays are stronger than you." Ye Xiu was, of course, hinting at his junior in Blue Rain, Lu Hanwen.

"Can you two shut up!?" Chen Guo yelled. She was the only one who was truly nervous.

In the end, just as her words fell, the patrol turned and left without entering aggro range.

"A false alarm," Ye Xiu said.

"Once they’re far enough, shoot those two down," Wei Chen said.

So everyone watched as the patrol gradually walked further away, eventually turning at a crossroads and leaving their sight.

It had already been over a minute since they started the dungeon, and all they had really done with pose and look around. This showed what caution was necessary for exploring a place levels above you.

"Ok, fire!" Finally, the battle began. At Ye Xiu’s orders, with Chasing Haze on the left, and Dawn Rifle on the right, the rocket launchers on their shoulders opened fire, missiles heading straight for the watchtowers.

The smoke from the explosions hadn’t even dispersed when they heard the two NPCs start to yell, "Intruders! Intruders!"

In an instant, the patrol that had disappeared around the corner flew right back.

"So it’s like that! Seems like we should’ve assassinated them first?" Ye Xiu wondered aloud.

As for Chen Guo, she had long since started panicking, asking Ye Xiu, "Where do I shoot? Where do I shoot?"

Tang Rou was far more ferocious. Seeing that the commotion had already begun, she had already charged forth to meet them.

"Slow down, Soft Mist!" Ye Xiu hurriedly shouted. "We’ll kill them here. If we charge forwards, we don’t know if we might pull other monsters or not." Ye Xiu was experienced, after all.

Hearing this, Tang Rou had Soft Mist stop her charge. The two Sealed Mountain thieves that had been shot at, were knocked down by the blast and were currently not a threat. The patrol of thieves running over had two gunner class members that raised their weapons and started shooting.

Bang bang! Two gunshots rang out, but the victims weren’t Chasing Haze and Dawn Rifle.

"Ai, this patrol’s aggro is quite unusual!" Saying this, Ye Xiu knew it was time for him to step up to do his job as the MT.