Chapter 62: Difficult Beginnings

Windhowl Valley.

Members of the Peak Strategy Group’s First and Second Squads had already gathered inside Windhowl Valley. After the main storyline was unlocked yesterday, they’d completed it right away, and now they were just waiting for today’s dungeon to open.

Just like Blood Dawn, you could find traces of the Peak Strategy Group in nearly every popular game, but the Peak Strategy Group had already become fully professional, no longer just competing for glory among players—they had their boss’s missions to complete.

Both teams had made all their preparations. The moment the dungeon opened, they’d rush in to clear it and seize the first dungeon clear title in the game.

This wasn’t just about honor. Teams on the rankings would also receive a massive one-time experience reward! That would be a huge advantage for grabbing higher spots on the leaderboard later!

There were plenty of other guilds nearby with the same idea.

At 12 noon, the dungeon opened right on time. Almost all the nearby players entered the dungeon simultaneously, and soon only a handful of scattered figures remained in the valley.

Zhang Cheng stood in the valley with his teammates, helplessly watching as their squad leader, Panda, scolded a team member.

“Why didn’t you say your gear score wasn’t high enough earlier!” Panda was furious, berating the squad’s priest.

The priest looked aggrieved. “I didn’t know the dungeon’s gear score requirement was so high either…”

“Don’t give me that crap! I said days ago in the group that the minimum gear score needed to be 100! Why didn’t you listen?!”

Panda exploded in anger. Because of this idiot, now nine people were waiting on him, and their dungeon progress was delayed.

According to official announcements, this dungeon was quite difficult—barely qualifying as the first hard-mode dungeon in “Eternal.”

Panda hadn’t originally planned to compete for the rankings. Their team was strong among ordinary players, but compared to top guild teams, there was still a gap.

But just five days ago, a top-tier technical player Zhang Cheng, who’d worked with Panda in other games, contacted him, wanting to join his team—giving Panda hope to go for the rankings.

At first, Panda refused, since his squad was already full, and he wasn’t sure about Zhang Cheng’s skill level in “Eternal.”

But when he learned Zhang Cheng had a Level 62 Wyvern, his attitude changed immediately.

LV62 Wyvern! That was basically equal to the output of two or three top-level LV50 DPS players!

The news thrilled the whole team. Even if they couldn’t match the best professional players, they were still on the lower end of the pro spectrum. With the output of two extra DPS, surely they could at least keep up?

The whole team was fired up. They kicked out the old off-tank and a DPS, brought in Zhang Cheng and another priest, then leveled and practiced together. They found Zhang Cheng’s skills were actually quite good—not any worse than the previous off-tank—and he blended into the team quickly. Now, their teamwork was already very smooth.

Thanks to the addition of the Wyvern, Zhang Cheng had already reached Level 53, ranking 988th on the level leaderboard—just making it into the top 1000.

Because of the team’s experience-sharing mechanism, the other members were all around Level 52, with the whole squad in the top 10,000.

But now, just because the newly recruited priest’s gear score was short by one point, everyone was stuck outside the dungeon.

“Which piece of equipment is holding you back? Let me see if I can help.” Panda knew there was no point in blaming him now, so he suppressed his anger and tried to sound calm.

“Necklace…” The priest lowered his head and replied softly. The necklace slot was the hardest accessory to get, and with the auction house system not yet open, the price for player-sold gear was sky-high. He simply couldn’t afford it.

Zhang Cheng sighed, took out a blue-quality necklace from his bag, and traded it to the priest.

“Here, borrow this. I just got it a few days ago. It doesn’t match your class perfectly, but it’s enough to get your gear score up.”

Seeing Zhang Cheng generously step in to help the team out, the priest and Panda thanked him profusely. Zhang Cheng waved it off, indicating he didn’t mind, and the squad was finally able to enter the dungeon.

[You have entered the dungeon: Windhowl Valley – Dragon Tomb, First Floor.]

According to the official description, small-team dungeons were different from previous multi-player dungeons—each dungeon was independent, and player progress was not shared between teams.

The Dragon Tomb dungeon was divided into three levels: the first floor had only regular mobs, and the second and third each had a single boss.

If a player team failed, their current progress would be saved, and they could continue from that floor next time.

But if the team’s composition changed, it would be considered a new team, and they’d have to start from the beginning.

The party walked through the gloomy first floor of the tomb. Even the air here seemed to have a strange stench, the torches along the corridor weren’t bright enough, and with coffins standing upright on either side, it really felt like a horror movie.

Zhang Cheng, as the main tank, led the way. As he stepped on a certain spot, all the coffin lids in the corridor flipped open at once, and Death Servants, reeking of decay, emerged to attack the party.

LV60 Death Servant [Undead]

HP: 30,000/30,000

Even with the system reducing negative sensations by 90%, the overwhelming stench still made everyone uncomfortable.

They suppressed their nausea and started fighting.

There wasn’t much to say about the regular mobs on the first floor—they were just a group of Level 60 Death Servants. Even with an 8-level suppression, the mobs’ attack wasn’t high, and progress was smooth. Especially after Zhang Cheng summoned his Level 62 Wyvern to join the fight, the Death Servants’ 30,000 HP began to drop rapidly.

Only the final elite mob was a bit troublesome. When the elite mob, bearing the title “Emperor Sama,” finally fell, the second floor of the Dragon Tomb opened to them.

*****

Meanwhile, inside the Peak Strategy Group’s First Squad dungeon.

“Damn it, what the hell is this first boss!” The First Squad’s commander lay on the ground, complaining about the boss in front of him.

LV60 Soul Abomination [Soul]

HP: 600,000/600,000

As a boss, its HP was only 20 times that of the first floor mobs. Based on the team’s DPS, it should only take about two minutes to bring it down—a real glass cannon.

But in the past ten minutes, their team had already wiped twice. That was because this boss was unlike any other monster in Eternal so far.

As the game’s first ever soul-type monster, players were unfamiliar with its behavior patterns.

For the first half of its HP, the boss was no different from a training dummy, standing still and letting players attack. Only its attacks applied a confusion debuff, which was a bit of a threat, but priests could dispel it.

But once its HP dropped below half, the boss would go berserk, turning from a docile baby into a headless fly, darting wildly through the air.

Not only did this make DPS lose out on damage, even the tank’s aggro would be reset.

Fortunately, it wouldn’t over-aggro at this point, since the boss would just fly around aimlessly—only a forced taunt from a tank class could alter its path.

But to think the boss wasn’t dangerous because of this would be a huge mistake.

In berserk mode, the Soul Abomination’s movement speed was extremely fast. When it passed through a player’s body, it counted as an attack and also inflicted a debuff that reduced attack power by 25% until the end of the fight.

Losing HP wasn’t the real issue—the healing pressure for this boss wasn’t too high, and the healers could make up for the lost HP. But a 25% reduction in attack power was a real killer for the players.

The Peak Strategy Group’s First Squad wiped twice: the first time because the healer lost all their attack power and couldn’t keep up with heals, and the second time, after pushing the boss to 10% HP, the entire team had lost all their attack power.

They discovered that when the boss reached 20% and 10% HP, it would unleash a full-map AOE, forcibly damaging all players and stealing 25% of their attack power each time.

In other words, to clear the boss, each player could only afford one mistake at most.

But the boss’s movement speed in berserk mode was just too fast. Dodging its charges required everyone’s utmost concentration, and doing so seriously affected their DPS speed.

Now was the crucial moment to compete for the leaderboard. Unless there was absolutely no other way, they wouldn’t even consider a drawn-out battle strategy.