Nyxfall 7: The Veilbreakers-Chapter 64: A Deal For Dungeon

Three horses rode together through the green forest, approaching the slightly crowded Grimhorn Den.

Few teams had actually succeeded in completing the Hollow Beast dungeon, after equipping their whole team with full sets of gear that they had collected after dying hundreds of times in the same dungeon.

There were also posts and videos flying around on forums and social media about weaknesses and guides for handling the mini-bosses and the Hollow King more efficiently, along with tricks and tips to make those fights easier. With over millions of people playing this game, that was bound to happen.

After exhausting their three dungeon tries attempting to clear it—sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing—most people wanted to try their hands at the low-level 10-player dungeon and came to Grimhorn Den. It wasn’t just casual players, though.. They were always behind. The first ones were the guilds—all kinds of small and big guilds from both outside and inside the game always wanted to make a name for themselves, and the town dungeon scoreboards were the biggest tool at their disposal.

In here, there might not be any way to form a guild yet—the city had mercenary groups, but that came after they left this beginner town. Until then, only the names of players and the symbols they could keep beside their name tags were the only indications of being in a guild. These guilds still constantly looked for good players and invited them to join their outside guilds.

On the seventeen massive VR landing planets, land could be bought and structures could be built quite easily, actually, and there these guilds established their organizations and buildings near their favorite game’s general portals. An invitation to a guild right now meant just that. If one was part of their guild, they could stay in these luxurious buildings—which cost quite a lot—and set up their game portals there.

The guilds held meetings inside these buildings, shared information, and conducted in-guild trading. Some higher and more experienced guilds had a system that awarded their members contribution points in exchange for doing things in the guild’s interest, and players could use those points to exchange for better materials, gold, weapons—whatever they wanted. Some guilds had exclusive items in his last timeline that their forgers made—they only shared them with their own members for additional benefits of joining the guild.

Kai, Mimi, and Prince stood off to one side, already having given their horses to the NPC for safekeeping. The others weren’t there yet—most likely getting caught up after seeing what the real feature of the online shop was. They were coming, though. Still, they were short three players.

Kai thought he would recruit three people outside the dungeon.. But they only had one shot at doing this. If they failed, they would have to wait for a whole in-game day to try again—and that meant five hours in real life. So these new players had to be good; they couldn’t afford to be held back.

Seeing their names, many players had already approached them—trying to get them to join their teams, or asking to join theirs. Kai had his name hidden, but Mimi and Prince had their names revealed. Still, all of them were below level 18 or 19. He needed players who were at least level 20, so they could have that extra damage and health. At this point, though, those players were rare and always already in teams.

They could have one, but that guy always brought two or three of his or her own players, making them carry two below-level-19 players—which ultimately was the same as having three.

While they were busy talking to those players, a voice broke through the crowd.

"Waiting for your team? Founder of the Earthstrider skill? Kai, was it?"

The crowd split open as a group of players—each with a little red wolf icon beside their names and clad in fancy armor—walked toward Kai. At the very front was Xterminate07, the leader of the Red Wolf Legion.

"Red Wolf.." Kai greeted, not showing any emotion.

Even a child could guess that Kai had something to do with their group wipeout, alongside Obsidian Knights, but without any proof it was just their word against his. Guilds cared about their image, and targeting a top player for no reason wasn’t good publicity—especially when this was just the starting phase of the game.

Even large guilds had yet to gather significant in-game resources. Their reach was still limited, and if the majority of players turned against them, their guild’s debut would soon turn into an early funeral.

"What a weird coincidence that I saw some of my team’s rare equipment being sold together in a bundle? You sure did take full advantage of the online shop, huh?" Xterminate07 said, not showing any emotion, just like Kai.

"What are you talking about? There’s an online shop in this game?" Kai asked most innocently.

Even Mimi and Prince eyed him from the side.

"Bah!" the leader of the Red Wolf Legion disdained. "You’re a real shameless one. Well.. Are you interested in sharing some info about the Hollow Beast? Of course, we’ll pay for any tips that prove beneficial.."

That was quite wise of the guy. Instead of holding a grudge, he had come for business. No wonder this guild had survived for so long. They even had quite a few players above level 20.

"I’ll think about the offer," Kai replied with a fake smile.

Xterminate07 sent him a friend request, and Kai accepted it. The guy was about to turn back when Kai asked,

"Do you want to clear this one?"

The leader stopped and turned around. "How?"

"I have a plan," Kai said. "I have three empty spots I can loan you.."

"Loan?" Xterminate07 raised his eyebrows.

"It’s simple, really. I’ll clear this dungeon—200 gold, and one of you can join me. Of course, you don’t have to pay right away—only if we go beyond the second boss," Kai said, smiling slightly, exerting full confidence.

The leader narrowed his eyes. "You want me to pay you for taking my people and clearing the dungeon?"

"Not for the dungeon entry. It’s for the method I’ll be using to clear it. Don’t you want to clear it? Become the first record holder? I hear there’s a bonus given for that.. I wonder if it’s true.."

Xterminate07’s eyes widened. It was true. And only guilds who cleared it first knew about it—and had kept it hidden as a rumor. It was also one of the reasons guilds wanted to be the first to clear a dungeon.

Kai could see the guy’s eyes calculating every aspect of the deal. Well, he just needed three people. His method was nothing unique—if they could have cleared it, they would have done it already. They just weren’t skilled or prepared enough for it.