Chapter 176 - 170 : Escape

"What happened?" Chesces glanced at the frowning Azure Dragon.

"Tawaki said he had encountered a third party here. He only mentioned seeing one player but I don't know whether there are more players or not." Azure Dragon said with his frown still on.

"That's bad then." Chesces sighed. 'But there's nothing we can do about it. All we can hope for is that things still go according to plan."

Azure Dragon then said, "Though that's true, I feel like things won't be as easy as we originally planned. At the very least, we have to prepare a few contingency plans to work with."

"Yeah." Chesces nodded.

"Roar!!!"

Before Chesces could add another word, a loud roar sounded out, threatening to take down the entire 10th floor as the ground began vibrating as if an earthquake was occurring.

This phenomenon lasted only but 5 seconds; just 2 seconds longer than the roar.

"What was that?" Chesces asked incredulously.

Azure Dragon kept silent as he stared at the centre of the 10th floor, the exact location of the settlement, with a serious expression. The loud and intimidating roar had come from there and there could only be one monster capable of such prowess.

'What the hell is going on there?'

Let's rewind a few seconds back...

Having come to the decision that he wouldn't depart without thoroughly completing his mission, Lu Zhen decided to make some changes to his strategy.

In order to attract the boss' attention towards himself, Lu Zhen dashed over to its location.

Back during the Kobold ritual ceremony, Lu Zhen had spotted the building the kobold chief dwelled in, so locating it wasn't so difficult.

While moving towards the area, Lu Zhen withdrew a leather bag from his space bag and filled it with the remaining explosives.

"Here's a gift from Santa Lu."

When he was just 100 metres away from the boss' building, under the pursuit of the other kobolds, Lu Zhen tossed the bag at the building before turning tail and running as fast as his legs could carry him.

*Boom*

A loud explosion sounded out from the central area of the settlement. Though the explosion didn't have the ability to severely injure the kobolds, the rebound force was not a joke. At the very least, apart from the buildings being taken down, a few kobolds that were close-by at the time were forced back by a couple of metres.

As for the main target of the explosion...'He' was very angry.

"Roar!!!"

With a loud roar, the entire floor began to vibrate as if an earthquake had descended here. The tremors were even worse at the central area of the settlement, where the loud roar came from.

Lu Zhen didn't dare to turn his head back to take a look. He accelerated to the best he could, even using [Sprint] to increase his speed.

'I think that did it.' Lu Zhen smiled as he ran. He didn't let his guard down though as he knew that from here on out, things would get a whole lot more difficult. And in fact, he was right.

Though the explosion didn't injure it even one bit, the feeling of having your house fall on you wasn't something anyone would be pleased with.

Using its inherent superior senses to mana, the Kobold chief scanned the entire settlement in search of the perpetrator. This wasn't so difficult as the culprit in question was being pursued by a horde of kobolds.

The kobold chief was surprised when it discovered Lu Zhen; both because it wondered how Lu Zhen sneaked into its territory and also because Lu Zhen was a human. In this underground world of the kobolds, humans were very rare; akin to the comparisons one would make with rhinos or armur leopards. This was because until the existence of the world-class boss was known, no player had ever made it to the 10th floor. As for the NPCs, Black Grill's Cave didn't have any allure to them so they barely even explored it, with those doing so being only weak characters that couldn't even make it past the 7th floor. Added to the fact that the Kobold chief was an ascetic of sorts, it was quite understandable that it would be shocked at Lu Zhen's appearance.

Though surprised, the kobold chief didn't plan on letting Lu Zhen go. On the contrary, it wanted to capture him and study this 'wild' creature, in hopes that he could serve as a worthy sacrifice, on par to the rainbow rabbit it had used before.

"Roar!" With a loud roar akin to that of a tiger, the kobold chief chased after Lu Zhen. Just slightly behind it were the two 'bodyguards' who were also hot on Lu Zhen's tail.

'They will catch up to me in 10 seconds.' Lu Zhen thought. Though he didn't turn his back, from the aura the kobold chief released, he could easily gauge the distance between them both.

'I just need to make it out of here first.'

While Lu Zhen was escaping the pursuit of a kobold army and the kobold chief, Tawaki had finally managed to get to a high yet close enough spot to be able to see what was going on in the settlement. He watched as Lu Zhen maneuvered through the settlement, using the buildings and few objects on the road as a blockade to slow down the kobolds. However, within the kobold wave were three strange characters that ran at a faster pace than the others.

These were the kobold chief and his two guards. Their unyielding momentum and drive were quite intimidating to anyone that watched from a distance, much less up close. Even more so was the fact that when he stared long at the kobold chief, he had a feeling that he was slowly losing himself. If not for the training he had gotten from the guild, Tawaki doubted that he would be able to easily resist the illusions.

'Then, how come...?' Tawaki stared at Lu Zhen with surprise. Though it looked like Lu Zhen was having a difficult time as he even got few injuries, he was still able to hold on.

"Is he a 'King'?' Tawaki thought incredulously but eventually shook his head. It was already quite impressive for Lu Zhen to have come this far but a 'King' would have.

While Tawaki was wondering about the ability of Lu Zhen, the person in question had managed to escape from the settlement within 15 seconds. It sounded long but one should remember that the settlement was home to a lot of kobolds. It was understandable that there were a lot of houses and the distance was quite far. During this time, Lu Zhen had suffered a few minor injuries and one close shave from the boss. Lucky for him, he was an [Assassin] and so had a few escape skills.

'Finally.' Lu Zhen sighed internally. 'Now the 4th path.'

Having the location of both guilds known, Lu Zhen decided to increase his speed to his best. With the effects of [Silent Steps] still on, Lu Zhen barely managed to keep the guard between himself and the kobolds at an average

"That's...?!" Tawaki exclaimed as he watched Lu Zhen heading in one direction. That particular route Lu Zhen had chosen to follow, would lead exactly to where Emperor's Might's team was.

'No, I need to let them know.' Tawaki thought. Without wasting any time, he sent a message to warn Azure Dragon and the others about the incoming danger.

'Now, do I keep following him...???!!!!'

While Tawaki was still yet to make a decision, he suddenly felt a cold deadly aura lock onto him, freezing him to a stop.

With great difficulty, Tawaki tried to turn his head backward as he felt that that was where the source of this aura was. Upon doing so, however, he was shocked to stupor.

'Damn it!'

Right in front of him stood a kobold warrior. This kobold warrior was different from the others. It wasn't the kobold chief, instead, it was one of the Chief's personal bodyguards. It might not be on par with the chief but for it to stand so close to the kobold chief, Tawaki had suspected it to be of level 9 rating at the very least. Without a doubt, such a monster was beyond his abilities.

The kobold chief had actually sensed Tawaki a few moments ago. Because it was in a hot pursuit with Lu Zhen, it was unwilling to stop its chase and head elsewhere. At this same time though, the kobold chief didn't want to miss another 'specimen'. As a result, it had to send one of its most trusted confidants after the job.

Kobolds originally have an advantage in going around unnoticed underground; even Sato and Lu Zhen almost fell to one because of this. Tawaki had let his guard down and with the kobold's abilities, it easily closed the gap before he realised this.

Facing the level 9 or more monster, Tawaki tried to take the initiative in the battle by making the first move, but even that first move of his looked too sloppy in the eyes of the kobold.

It easily dodged Tawaki's dagger thrust before punching out a scale-coated fist, landing the strike right on Tawaki's abdomen.

"Arghhh."

It might have been an illusion but at that moment, Tawaki had the feeling that the punch had broken 3 of his ribs.

Before he could even take a deep breath to process things, another punch landed right on his face. And so, just like a punching bag, Tawaki couldn't retaliate against the kobold.

With such a situation occurring, the battle became an uneventful one as within 6 seconds, Tawaki's life ended at the hands of the kobold.