The monsters on the third floor were the closest kin of the epic boss.
chapter-hosted-on-NovelFire
They didn't look like Cerberus but could move as fast on their two as on their four.
Depending on their form, their attack patterns varied. Their angles were so different in each form that fighting those monsters became quite problematic once they began shifting back and forth from their styles.
Speed and angles aside, their howls in each form also served different purposes.
None of it mattered to Prince.
He was a black tower that could keep any monster on him and make them suffer with his crowd-control skills, expensive equipment, and rich experience.
After all, Damien didn't only practice his acting on the tutorial island!
He made it much easier for Jake and Sin to defeat hurdles. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that Jake didn't even have to stress his eyes to keep tabs on the monsters' movements.
His only job was to inflict damage and avoid hurting Sin, who was getting close to monsters with her swordsmanship.
'Even if we're on the same team, my arrows can hurt them... how do mages cope with that?' Jake thought. Magic was known to be abundant and flashy, so he wondered how mages and tanks cooperated to take down their enemies without hurting the latter.
Jake drew his highest anchor as only the last humanoid adult wolf was left.
His arrow turned the monster headless, leaving the head rolling on the jagged ground.
'Who cares about that? This whistle is the best!' Jake discarded his thoughts! He didn't have flashy attacks, even with his summons syncing with his arrows anyway! He would come up with something later on! For now, he enjoyed the whistling of his arrows and them striking his enemies!
Nothing could boil his blood better!
"Let's search further!" Prince shouted, "We're getting close to the dungeon boss' room, so a high-level player should soon pop out from nowhere to stop us! Don't get startled!"
Jake chuckled, "Don't bump into him. You're getting too careless at times."
Sin nodded.
Prince's artistic senses and image of a dark knight could really take him away from the party. He was strong enough to hunt independently, but that didn't mean he could leave his teammates behind.
Sin was used to it, but Jake was not.
He took over her mantle to remind Damien to be careful.
It meant she could focus on their current task and guide the team in a proper direction.
Sin said, "I haven't spotted anything odd here. What about you?"
Prince and Jake shook their heads.
These two would have usually leaned down to check the monster's drop, but their current mission was to check the surroundings before any other player could spot them.
Their team of three wanted to steal the legendary boss for themselves, so measures like that were necessary.
Jake's goal had always been ores, so he also didn't feel the need to rummage through the carcasses.
A few minutes later, a high-level player from The Golden Lotus appeared before them.
"Stop right here, guys," he said with a faint smile.
His appearance matched his guild's theme. He wore a golden armor with a white lotus design. Jake and his team could spot golden seeds on the white petals, which had quite a significant meaning in the guild.
The more seeds, the better standing.
One of them was not to steal layers the other had worked on.
Prince sneered beneath his helmet and turned around.
Jake wore the same expression.
The party of three headed to the closest and free ore layer. The usual sounds of manly exercise were nowhere to be heard as Prince and Jake talked to each other through voice chat.
Sin kept tabs on their stats while maintaining their stamina.
Prince said, "Jackpot! Hah! I know this guild—The Ark. They're at odds with The Heavy Spree. I can see them plotting to snatch the legendary boss to piss them off. Since you've found it, you will decide our next move, my dark horse!"
Jake replied, "Cerberus stands still, intact. We don't know when the allied guilds will be able to kill him. It sounds like we must stay on a watch, right?"
Prince took a glance of Jake's face, and then loudly whistled.
This particular whistle twisted Sin's face.
He shouted, "We need information! How about you charm that golden knight and wring some stuff from him? You already have an edge, my dear sister! Show an interest, and he will gobble the bait like a fish!"
Sin gazed at him for a few heavy seconds, "Only if you promise me to genuinely speak with your manager."
"Fine, fine, fine!" Prince waved his hand as though shooing away his sister.
Sin smirked and turned around, heading toward the area where The Golden Lotus' high-level player should be.
This development hadn't even crossed Jake's mind.
He couldn't believe how fast these two came to an agreement, too.
Jake asked, "Is that okay?"
Prince sneered, "What have you imagined, my dark horse?"
Jake coughed, "Nothing, really. I don't even know what she will do. I lately realized that my imagination might be off or weak..."
Prince laughed aloud, "Haha! I see! I see! Look. She's going to talk with him. Just talk, you see?
My dear sister isn't a seductress nor knows how to talk with men. You could say she understands two principles—what's proper and improper, and that she's a beautiful woman. We share genes, after all! The God has painted us with the divine brush!"
Jake nodded.
Prince liked this subject, so he continued with a fervent passion, "Men are so simple! The beautiful gender can truly make us defenseless, and I find no shame in that! To be a man is to grow feeble before a beauty's smile..."
"Poet, my ass," Jake muttered.
A few minutes later, Sin Blackberry had returned to her team.
She had only conversed with the golden knight and asked him about the epic boss. She stressed that she hadn't fought any epic boss and that she really wanted to test the waters—all while wearing a beautiful smile.
'That's it?' Jake thought.
That was when Sin passed her team the information she had learned from the golden knight.
'Does it really take a smile to learn this much?' Jake thought.
When Sin opened her game system to check her teammates' status, Jake secretly approached Prince.
He asked, "You think I could do that to the opposite gender?"
Prince sneered, "Of course, my dark horse."