Chapter 35: [Bonus - ]
Twenty to thirty men walked in a dark looking place which looked like a cave. They dressed in leather armor equipped with weapons, only two people dressed differently from the rest. Amongst the two, one was dressed in a complete silver shining amor from head to toe and was equiped with a long big sword. The other dressed in casual clothes with no protection to his body, he was very confident in his skills. Wearing a black trousers and a black shirt along with a long black knee length coat, he looked like the god of death who ascended to the surface.
"Brother Lin we finally made it! After getting stuck on 97th dungeon for almost two years! Hahahaha" the silver armoured man laughed heartily as he said to the black dressed cold looking man. The silver armoured man raised his sword up looking like he was ready to attack and just waiting for whatever it was he was going to attack to come closer to his range of attack. He was suddenly shoved back harshly by the black clothed man whom he addressed as brother Ling, two sharp looking daggers appeared out of the thin air in Xiao Ling’s hands, he leaped slightly above where he pulled the armored man from and slashed.
A black monster looking like a cat but sleek with tentacles and six legs fell beside him with it’s head severed from its body. The armored man who was pissed for being yanked back harshly and was ready to lash out at Xiao Ling suddenly went mute and gasped. The others gasped along with him. "A displacer beast. It’s ability is to displace light so that it appears to be several feet away from it’s actually location, it makes two attacks with its tentacles. It’s tentacles are melee weapons, attack range +6 to hit, reach 10 ft. One target hit:7 bludgeoning damage plus 3 piercing damage" Xiao Lin informed coldly as if reading from a book.
Everyone stared at him in awe and envious "guildmaster how do you know about this monster? Haven’t seen this monster type before" one of the members asked. Xiao Ling watched him quietly for a while "i happened to find out one or two things about the upper dungeons from some survivors" he lied. The upper dungeons were very hard to clear, all the guilds which tried to clear were all destroyed but it was true about the survivors. But that wasn’t how Xiao Ling got to know about the monster, it happened on the 90th dungeon when he finally got his second awakening.
In his first awakening his class was a Rogue class with his stealth as his main skill, he was sufficient in using the daggers. He thought his second awakening would upgrade his class and skills but who knew that he would awaken an entirely different class all together, and that class hasn’t been heard amongst players and rankers before. He awakened as the Shadow Monarch with necromancing skill, he only informed the vice master of his guild the armored man who was also his childhood friend Zhu Fan but for the guild members he just told them his second awakening was necromancing leaving out the Shadow Monarch part.
The skills he got from his second awakening, appraisal was part so he was able to appraise items and monster, only Zhu Fan knew about his skills and about his new abilities. Now that he was constantly being asked questions by the guild members Xiao Ling didn’t know how to answer, seeing him being cornered Zhu Fan clapped his hands as the armor made clanging sound. "Okay don’t ask the guild master too much questions now, let’s focus on clearing this dungeon first. Remember there are 100 levels in a dungeon, we can only move forward to the 99th dungeon after clearing all the levels in the 98th dungeon." Zhu Fan stated in a serious tone saving Xiao Ling from his troubled state.
"Brother Ling let’s talk over there for a minute" Zhu Fan requested and Xiao Ling nodded. "Okay take a few minutes rest, we’ll be back" Zhu Fan said to the guild members before walking away with Xiao Ling. "Xiao Fan what is the matter?" Xiao Ling asked Zhu Fan when they came to stop farther away from the other members. "Brother Ling actually i wanted to suggest something, don’t take out your shadow minions yet and don’t use too many shadow abilities in front of them. Let us do the scouting by ourselves for this dungeon and when we clear the dungeon and go to the next, we find something to tell them before you continue using your shadow abilities. You see they’ve started to have doubts and question you, if you keep on doing everything by yourself using your shadow minions and your other abilities... they’ll..... they’ll come to stop believing in your words, so listen to me and let us do the scouting." Zhu Fan scratched the back of the helmet anxiously seemingly to scratch the back of his head.
Xiao Ling was quiet for about a minute before he nodded "I’ll do what Xiao Fan suggests" he said to Zhu Fan who smiled brightly. "Thank you brother Ling" Zhu Fan said excitedly "No need to thank me, we’re all in the same guild. We founded the guild together so your suggestions matters. I may not know how to get along with them but you’re different. We’re childhood friends right?" Xiao Ling asked in anticipation as he tried smiling brightly like a child. Ever since the dungeons appeared on earth and the apocalypse started with monsters everywhere destroying everything in their paths, after loosing his whole family Xiao Ling became closed off, but with the help of his childhood friend he was able to open up. To Xiao Ling he owed Zhu Fan a lot and valued Zhu Fan more than himself, Zhu Fan was the only family member he had left he thought. "Of course brother Ling, we’re childhood friends"
Zhu Fan returned back his smile and said affirmatively, they both walked back to the other members. "So brother Ling and I have decided to scout in groups, we’ll be going in four groups. Brother Ling, JingLin, Liang and I would lead the group." Zhu Fan stated and the guild members nodded in understanding having no problem in scouting. "Okay this place seems like a good place to make camp, we first set camp and move out" they all agreed and set camp first, after they were done and have grouped under the scouting leaders Xiao Ling went on to say "All of you be careful out there, like you saw a while ago there are other types of monsters which we haven’t faced before. You make sure to retreat if you ran into an unknown monster, that’s all I have to say i wish you luck" all groups scattered and went on different routes after Xiao Ling’s try of a pep talk.
Xiao Ling sat on a pile of monsters as he waited for his scouting members to finish up on their side and come to meet him. They’ve been in the dungeon for two years now, most of the monsters in the dungeon were not sighted in the lower dungeons. In the last level of the 98th dungeon only a few monsters remained and the final dungeon boss to kill to be able to clear the 98th dungeon, it was hard for them to be able to make it this far and they’ve lost some of their guild members. Although Xiao Ling could tell what kind of monsters they are and about their attacks and skills thanks to his appraising skill, but it was still hard to fight them.
And not being able to use his shadow minions and other skills obtained as the Shadow Monarch, his strength was greatly reduced. But since he accepted Zhu Fan’s suggestions he plans to go through with it and not use his other abilities, Zhu Fan suggested that to him because he was looking out for him..so did he Xiao Ling think.