Chapter 148

Chapter 148: Problems and her story

[You have completed the dungeon quest #4]

[You can step onto the fifth floor.]

Alex and his party had been in the dungeon for five days now.

In the beginning, their speed was god-like. They quickly topped all former records, clearing the floors pretty fast. If players knew about their speed, they would’ve been shocked.

But of course, no one had time to look at others in the dungeon.

Alex’s party speed clearing slowed down after grasping the dual-wielding style. There was a clear drop in their speed, but no one complained as it didn’t seem like they would die to normal monsters anytime soon.

That was because they had two unique classes in their party, not just one!

Their new friend, Dancing Shadow, had a perfect tracking skill. That allowed her to see all players around her on her minimap.

[Assassin’s Map(A).]

That was the name of the skill. It was a pretty high-graded skill, so even other assassins in the vicinity had fallen prey to Dancing Shadow. They thought they would be able to surprise her party, to no avail!

Because of her, Alex could focus on himself wholeheartedly without feeling any guilt about slowing down his homies.

He knew that no one felt terrible or riled up because of that, yet he used to have some guilt in his heart. The new lady helped him erase it. In return, Alex helped Tomo Homie become closer with her.

No one pushed their relationship as both of them were awkward. And going straight to a girlfriend-boyfriend relationship wouldn’t be wise. With how shy Dancing Shadow was, there was a high chance she just wanted to be friends.

But as the time passed, everyone noticed that she liked to be around Tomo Homie.

That was because Alex’s homie liked to talk a lot. He always asked questions back, which helped the shy person like her reply and talk about her stuff.

A lot of shy people seemed anti-social. But in reality, they just needed help from someone to draw them into a lot of fun stuff.

Alex noticed that their new friend was exactly like that, so, as a homie and someone who wanted to repay Dancing Shadow for her help, he kept giving unique tips to Tomo Homie.

“Do we know what floor is the last?” Alex asked, looking at Tomo Homie, who had always been his source of information.

Tomo sighed, “We don’t.”

Alex nodded, “It doesn’t seem that impossible, though.”

He talked about how dungeon conquest didn’t seem impossible at all. With a proper setup and cooperation with the outside world, the players could probably overcome the dungeon with resilience.

A truly persistent group could hunt orcs one by one, slowly bringing themselves closer to the last floor.

Pedro narrowed his eyes, “Do you think consumables are cheap, Alex?”

Alex whistled, “Well… I guess not.”

He understood that he had a wrong sense of money in the game because of his castle and relationship with peculiar NPCs like the Deathwill sisters. Their unique ground had granted him so much that he was in a much better spot than others.

But as Alex thought about the castle, his heart grew sour. He couldn’t help but recall Elias Deathwill, his diary, and how he treated others. Alex even thought that he should build a different castle for a moment.

But that was naturally a wrong thought. He shook his head, not approving of his weird ideas made out of spite.

Pedro continued, “To say nothing of our equipment’s durability… I don’t think we might last until the last floor, Alex.”

That was the worst part that Alex didn’t have a cure to. Their equipment slowly lost against the time as they clashed with the orcs. In a guild, they would be able to repair their items by using other guild members.

Alex sighed, “Shouldn’t we use the weapons from others, then?”

As they hunted players for the consumable items, Alex and others received a few items they could use. In fact, Alex changed his Ice Breath for one of those swords.

Zhen had done the same.

“We might as well go with that path,” Tomo Homie nodded.

Different items could cause some problems. In virtual reality games, players didn’t just see stats. They wore those items on their bodies, meaning that they had to get used to them. It was hard to move with some items… Some swords had different hilts and so on.

“Haven’t you noticed it, Alex?” Pedro asked, his eyes narrowed, “We are getting fewer and fewer experience points as we climb up. That’s the price for getting closer to the main reward.

We can’t just use others… and if we were to slowly climb up, our efforts might end up in vain if we make just one mistake,” Pedro said.

Alex replied, “I haven’t noticed that…”

His proficiency in his swordsmanships had been going up, which was what Alex had been paying attention to. He also enjoyed fighting many monsters from the bottom of his heart.

It was the first time experience he had clashed with so many of them, so Alex didn’t look at anything other than his party’s victory.

But it was the truth.

They were getting closer to the main reward! You either get it or lose all your precious time here.

Some people couldn’t accept that bitter defeat at the end, not returning to the same dungeon. Some were stubborn and continued for a second or even a third try.

The dungeon rewarded players, but it also could crush their souls.

“How did you reach the top?” Tomo Homie asked his new friend after Alex and Pedro’s conversation.

At this point, he could no longer keep this question to himself. He felt like he asked too much at just the beginning of their relationship, though.

But in reality, Dancing Shadow had been watching over Tomo Homie for some time already. She felt pretty close to him despite him not being aware of her presence.

She replied, “I couldn’t team up with anyone, so I followed their steps, helping them from the shadows.

I was chosen by the item wielded by the last boss on the last floor. To get a class from it, I had to kill everyone…” Dancing Shadow said…

She didn’t want to kill people she had been leveraging on. She felt terrible because of it… In fact, Dancing Shadow had entered the dungeon to change herself. She wanted to team up with people here.

“Why didn’t you team up before the dungeon?” Tomo Homie asked softly.

“I couldn’t speak with them… I thought I would team up with them after helping them in the dungeon…” In reality, she wanted them to invite her to the party on their own…

But even that turned out to be a challenge for the shy lady.

And then, as Dancing Shadow didn’t want to kill the people she had been using, her presence became exposed. The party learned that a girl was following them all the time, using their hard work for her own gain!

They hated her. They cursed at her… And in the end, they attacked her.

“I killed them all…” Dancing Shadow concluded.