Chapter 54: Raiding an E+ Rank Dungeon Part 1
Kayn and the rest of the Porters continued waiting for about half an hour before one of the members of the reserve team exited the dungeon gate and informed them that they can get inside now and start gathering all resources and materials.
"I'll go ahead first, while the rest of you follow behind me," Kayn announced to the Porters. Before finally entering though, Marlon handed him a Storage Ring where all the pieces of cloth are stored inside.
The moment he got inside the dungeon gate, he was immediately greeted by a strange yet familiar feeling. It was strange in a way that his body needs to adapt to it for a few seconds, yet at the same time familiar because he is finally back inside the 'Tower'.
Although the surrounding was still considerably far from what he was truly familiar with. After all, he was used to living on the high floors inside the 'Tower'. Still, the atmosphere he is sensing is very similar.
Unlike the outside world, the environment inside the dungeon is very unique and mystical in the sense that mana surrounds him everywhere. In addition to that, the plants are more vibrant, the trees significantly taller, the blades of grasses a lot denser, and the ground seems to be moist but once he steps on it, he could hardly leave any footprint behind, implying that it was strong enough to resist his weight, and lastly, the air is also pure and humid.
Simply put, everything seems to not possess any sort of impurities and the condition all around him is thriving.
"I'm back!" Kayn excitedly announced. There was no one around him right now, so he wasn't afraid to say it loudly.
Although it didn't take that long as the man who called out to them quickly followed after him. And the rest of the porters started entering one by one.
"I'll go ahead, just try your best to keep up!" Kayn informed everyone before starting to run in a certain direction.
"Wait…"
Kayn completely ignored the voice of the man who was supposedly in charge of guiding them inside.
He is already very familiar with how a dungeon works. The direction he is facing the moment he entered the dungeon gate is where he should head toward.
Even though it is still possible to walk in the other direction, doing so won't grant him any sort of reward. It would be nothing more than just a waste of his precious time.
Moreover, he has to be ahead of everyone else if he wants his plan to work and to achieve his goal of joining up with the main team.
He could already guess that at this point in time, Victor and the rest of the Black Panda team should already be halfway from the end of the dungeon. Otherwise, he won't call for the Porters to get inside the dungeon.
"As long as I keep my phase, I would eventually be able to catch up to them," Kayn thought positively.
Along the way, Kayn started leaving behind pieces of cloth in order to inform the Porters following after him about what they should be doing.
They already know what to do, so he isn't worried that they would mess up or something would go wrong. Having said that, even if something bad took place, he can still rest assured because anything that has the cloth tied on it simply means that they should gather them. The only purpose of having three different pieces of cloth is so that Porters won't have trouble separating the different resources from one another, thus saving them a lot of time once the dungeon raid is over.
As Kayn continued on moving forward, he started spotting a considerable number of monster carcasses lying motionless on the grass that has been tainted by their blood. Every now and then, he also caught in his sight a few members of the reserve team healing or applying first aid to some of their injured comrades.
So far though, he still didn't spot any member of the main team, making him sigh in relief as this implies that the dungeon isn't that difficult. Nevertheless, he didn't lower his guard down. After all, any dungeon with the label 'Special' isn't something to be taken lightly.
Also, he wasn't given any of the promised gear and equipment for the Porters yet despite the fact that they informed him beforehand that they would be the ones to provide the Porters with their equipment. Meaning to say, the time to use those items still hasn't come.
A few meters of moving later, Kayn started being greeted by a chilling blow of wind.
"It seems like we are going to be fighting in a cold environment,"
Over the distance, Kayn spotted a bunch of tents. He could recognize that those were the tents that the Black Panda team has prepared a while ago, so he didn't hesitate to approach.
Evidently, the place he is seeing right now is the base of operation of the Black Panda team. And further up ahead is the main hurdle of this dungeon raid.
"Kayn?" A woman's voice suddenly called out to him.
Turning his head around, Kayn quickly spotted Alice not too far away from him.
At this moment, Alice is conjuring a magic barrier using the fire element in hopes of heating up the surrounding area around the tent.
Considering that she is a Mage of the Black Panda team, it's not surprising to see her doing something like that.
The moment Kayn got close enough to the base of operation, he started sensing a bit of a warm feeling.
"Thank goodness," Kayn can't help but mutter in comfort.
One can only imagine what it feels like to experience warmth while being a cold environment. It's like being given coffee when you really needed it.
"How come you got here so fast?" If she could remember correctly, there were a lot of resources and materials along the way to this location. She roughly guessed that it would probably take the Porters more than an hour to finish gathering everything and reach this place.
"And I can't seem to see the rest of the Porters," She added shortly after noticing that no one was following behind Kayn.
"Oh, about that," Kayn started explaining to Alice his plan so that she would be rest assured that nothing bad has happened.
"Rys' opinion about you surely isn't an overstatement now that I've heard about your plan,"
"I am simply doing my best as the Head Porter. And also, I want to join the main team in raiding this dungeon, and this is the best way for me to achieve that,"
"Since I am more or less done here, let me take you to Victor and help you convey your intention. Rest assured, I will do my best to make sure that you can get the best result," It's only right to give Kayn this much benefit since he had helped make all the Porters' jobs significantly easier.
"By the way, did Marlon give you something already? Like a piece of paper," Alice can't help but ask.
"You mean a black card with only a number written on it?"
"Yes! Please consider calling that number once we get out of this place,"
"Alright!"
With Alice leading the way, Kayn soon reached the tent where Victor and the main members of the Black Panda team are gathered together.
Although he was still outside, he could already hear that Victor and the rest of the team is facing a great problem related to this cold environment.
"Let's wait for a bit," Alice decided to wait first since the topic inside the tent seems to be very serious and she doesn't want to cause any sort of disturbance.
Kayn simply nodded his head to express his understanding.
Even though it's not his place to listen to the conversation inside the tent, he still can't help himself from eavesdropping on what Victor is saying right now as it was very loud.
"The race that we are going to face henceforth is most likely going to be the Frost Undeads,"
"In that case, are we going to be facing an Ice Dread Lich?"
"Considering that this is an E+ rank dungeon, then it's either going to be an Ice Dread Lich or an Ice Dread Queen. Either way, it's going to be very difficult and disadvantageous for us,"
"Did we perhaps receive false information from the seller? It was clearly stated in the report that the environment inside the dungeon is going to be hot,"
"Indeed! This is really terrible because all the equipment we have prepared for the Porters won't be of any use! Also, we can't make use of the fire-resistance armors, and water and ice-enhancement items and weapons that we have prepared,"
"In this kind of situation, I believe that our best option is to go back and make another preparation. Otherwise, we might face a dire and grim situation,"
"I think you forgot to consider something really important. If we really go back now, then that would simply give an opportunity for our competitors to take this dungeon gate from us. A lot of different guilds, especially the big guilds, have already been causing plenty of trouble to our Guild Leader after they found out about the existence of this dungeon. We absolutely can't give them any more reason to try and take this opportunity from us,"
"As much as I hate to agree, Frank is actually correct. Before we entered the dungeon, I actually received a report from our Guild Leader informing me that another big guild had tried to steal this dungeon from us. This time, that big guild had decided to directly approach the owner of Sunny's Café and offered him five times his asking price just so that they can take get this dungeon,"
"In my opinion, this dungeon seems to hold some unique treasures inside, thus the reason why a lot of guilds are trying to steal it from us,"
"I can't tell you the exact information I have received. But more or less, Frank is once again correct,"
"Thank you, Captain Victor. I have a plan. I say, why don't we just risk it all and clear this dungeon? In that way, the big guilds would stop bothering the Ying Yang Dynasty, and more importantly, we will get whatever treasure is in this dungeon for ourselves!"