Living Forest

The three of them arrived at the foot of the mountain.

Leroy couldn't explain why, but the Guardian Knight had a natural talent to enrage some creatures, even pasive monsters that wouldn't attack unless attacked, would try to kill him as soon as he was within a certain range... this should be a passive or item for Guardian Knights that attracted aggro, that was what he tought about the situation.

At the foot of the mountain, two people were waiting in front of what seemed like an entrance to an old mine.

They were the Priest and the Swordman. "Robin, Guardian Knight, you have finally arrived... oh" the Swordman looked at Leroy and recognized him from before, the equipment he was wearing right now was obviously some sort of set equipment, the engraved words on it made it seem extraordinary and his staff's design made it obvious that it was not ordinary neither.

"Hello there, Brother, you will come with us into clearing the dungeon, right?" the Swordman asked with a wide and satisfied smile, they have been waiting for another member for some time now...

The one to respond was the excited Robin "Yes, he will be coming along with us".

The Priest presented himself "Brother can call me Savior, I wonder how should I address you"

"I go by the name of Sensations, nice to meet you, Brother Savior" Leroy also introduced himself. He used the skill Observing Eyes and saw that Savior's nick was actually Saviorself and made his mouth twitch... looking around he did the same with Robin, her name was Robin Banks...

"Sensations? the alchemist!, the one who made it to Intermediate rank just a few hours ago" the party members inmediatly recognized him as the alchemist who currently sat at the top of the ranks, not only in Falling Moon Town but probably in all God's Domain.

Robin looked at him with pleading eyes that said 'Good brother, do you have any potion to spare', while Savior asked him for some crafting tips, Guardian Knight and the Swordman looked at him in surprise. The Guardian Knight who saw him almost instakill the first Chieftain Rank monster of the area, who would believe that the leading Alchemist would be so powerfull?

The Swordman didn't care for Lifestyle Classes but knew he was the one who killed the first Chieftain and also looked at him with some admiration.

"Alright, alright, this is the Dungeon hum? have you guys give it a try yet?" Leroy asked, he had to go alone in order to complete his quest but it wouldn't hurt to check what a Dungeon was like first.

"We only cleared the Normal mode so far, we barely failed in the Hard Mode and the fifth member left to work" Savior said, still annoyed at the Hunter that left.

"Alright enough talking let's go kill some stuff" said the Swordman as he send Leroy a party invitation. Leroy accepted it.

"We will distribute the items according to who can benefit the most from them" Guardian Knight informed Leroy as Robin seemd the deinflate like a balloon.

Nodding, the Swordman got close to the mine entrance, choose the difficulty mode and the entrance turned pitch black in color while a translucent skeleton seemed to open his mouth.

They all walked into the portal inside the illusionary skeleton mouth.

System: You have entered the Hell Mode of Living Forest Dungeon.

Death Penalty increased by 100%

Altough they couldn't finish the Hard Mode of the Dungeon before, with Leroy's equipment, clearing it would only be a matter of time, so the Swordman directly choose to try the Hell Mode Dungeon.

It was Hell that Leroy had to enter anyway so it didn't bother him much. As for the others they had excitement all over the face. Stronger monsters, intense battles, plentifull rewards, all of them awaited in the Hell Mode.

As soon as they appeared, Leroy checked his sorroundings to find 5 Young Trent monsters guarding the entrance of a road that led into the inner parts of a forest. The trents were living trees barely the size of a person, dark brown bark with bright green leaves, amongs them was one that had a lighter brown bark but darker leaves.

Young Trent (Common)

Level: 7

HP: 700/700

Old Trent (Elite)

Level 7

HP: 1000/1000

An Elite inside a Dungeon was somewhat comparable to a Chieftain monster outside.

No instructions given, the Guardian Knight and Swordsman charged into the Young Trents while Robin took the aggro from the Old Trent.

The Guardian Knight took into four monsters, he dodged, blocked and parried attacks, reducing the amount of attacks that landed on him at a minimun. The Swordman didn't have problem fighting 1v1 against a single monster. Robin ran around dodging the Old Treent vine's attack and high speed seeds that it launched, Savior lazily stood there checking their HP and movements casting some heals from time to time.

Seen the party that went fast into action, Leroy also joined in... "Dark Arrow" he chanted aiming at one of the trents attacking the Guardian Knight.

-320

He then looked at a second trent while black fire concentrated into a ball and lanched it

"Dark Fireball"

-1540

The treant became ash almost instantly.

Seeing this sceen made everyone suck in cold breath, just how could a Cursemancer's damage be so terrifying.

The first trent that got hit by the 'Dark Arrow' died, killed by the Guardian Knight while a third trent got hit by another 'Dark Arrow' instantly losing more than half of his hp. The Swordman finished his monster and went to finish the injured Trent. The last Trent was killed by Guardian Knight and the Swordman while Leroy casted a 'Dark Fireball' at the Old Trent that was persuing Robin who constantly attacked him, preventing its aggro from going to the Guardian Knight. The Old Trent was instakilled.

Like the most efficient cleaning robot, they didn't take a breath before Robin scanned, identified and piled up the loot.

The trents dropped Living Forest's leaves, an alchemy item unique of the Dungeon which Leroy and Savior shared in half, a bronze-rank pair of boots also dropped who the Swordsman equipped. The items bronze-rank items dropped inside the Hell Mode were peak quality regarding stats, those acquired in Normal and Hard mode were noticeable lower.

They had just distributed the loot when suddenly, something came at high speeds from within the forest and crashed into the Guardian Knight!.

-90

-90

It was a high amount of damage considering his defense.

"Damn, the trents are attacking with seeds" Guardian Knight cursed, the seeds hurt quite a bit. This was something that didn't happen previously in Hard mode.

He started running toward the path that was blocked by the trents before, there were two things that they could to now, either stepping inside the forest and kill the attacking trents or rush in the path until the attacks ceased.

Although he was enraged at being spit by these trents, he choose not to step outside the path into the dark forest, and rushed the path while the rest of the party where behind him, Robin and Swordsman blocked some of the seeds that attacked the sides of Guardian Knight while he blocked ones coming from the front.

Some seeds came from the back that Savior and Leroy evaded without much difficulty, Savior seemed unperturbed dodging and healing Guardian Knight while Leroy just followed their plan.

They followed the path for about 10 minutes, constantly barraged with seeds, Leroy passed some potions to the rest of the team moments after they started running.

If anyone else would be to see them, they would definitely call them crazy, each seed dealt 90 damage to the player with the highest defense, Robin, Savior or Leroy where hit by these projectiles they would lose more than 1/4 their HP.

But they would be even more shocked to see how skillfully most of the seeds were dodged, blocked and even parried, to do this with such a high-speed projectile was something that was hardly ever seen, even among expert players.

They passed from the forest, arriving at a clearing outside, where a huge silhouette greeted them.

Titalos (Lord-Rank)

Level: 7

HP: 1850/1850

It was a golem-like monster three meters tall, he was picking and eating fruits from a little bush near him, each time he put one in his mouth, his aura seemed to grow.

Titalos (Lord-rank)

Level: 7

HP: 1890/1890

"Quick, that thing is increasing his power with each fruit he eats" Guardian Knight said and jumped into combat, striking the monster, at the same time the Swordsman moved and used Charge to attack from the side. Titalos attacked Guardian Knight with a fist, leaving his rib cage exposed to Swordman's Charge but sending Guardian Knight back by 5 meters.

"What a high strength" Robin was shocked seen Guardian Knight pushed back like that, it was a first since they entered God's Domain.

-30

"What the fuck is wrong with this Defense?" Swordman saw his damage and cursed, any other monster wouldn't receive less than 70 of damage from his Charge.

"Dark Arrow"

-150

"Dark Fireball"

-570

Still, in two hits Leroy took 38% of Titalos's HP.

The boss immediately got enraged and he started punching the ground creating cracks on it and sending rocks flying around.

-400

Guardian Knight got hit by a rock and was almost instakilled, the pupils of everyone in the team constricted and the Swordman who was planning to parry a stone immediately choose to dodge. Savior's heals were being casted the moment that he noticed Guardian Knight impossibility to dodge.

Everyone dodged the stones with difficulty but Swordsman who just dodged one had another one in his way, making it impossible to dodge this one.

"Protection Blessing", Guardian Knight casted a buff that reduced the damage that party members received by 50% for 6 seconds.

-300

+200

The instant that he took damage, he also took a heal from Savior who was dodging the stones.

-200

Guardian Knight got hit once again after 15 seconds has passed the attack finally came to a stop.

"Charge", "Chop", "Backstabb", "Triple Attack", "Double Slash", "Black Arrow".

A barrage of attacks landed on the boss and his HP was down to just 90 points in an instant. His right arm glowed with white light and attacked Guardian Knight. "Screech", Titalos punch just missed him by a hair's distance and a ray of light was sent deep into the forest. He couldn't help but look at Leroy who just saved him.

"Black Arrow"

With a shout of rage, Titalos fell to the floor.

System: Your party is the first to clear a Hell Mode Dungeon. Rewards increased by 100; loot increased by 100%

System: Cleared Hell Mode of Living Forest. Reward: 15000 Exp

System: An announcement will be made, please put your party's name.

"Sensations, you were the main dps in this Dungeon, name it as you like" Swordman said while passing party leader to Leroy.

"Alright" Leroy didn't bother with formalities and put "Plas Hotel" as the party name, giving his family chain of Hotels some free publicity.

System: Congratulations to party "Plas Hotel" for being the first party to clear a Hell Mode Dungeon in Falling Leaf Town.

Everyone choose to hide their names from the announcement and the party member's name wasn't revealed.

While the party took some potions to recover the loot was separated and organized by Robin who was standing at the side.

Titalos dropped 5 Skill Books, 7 Pieces of Bronze-Equipment, 4 Pieces of Iron-Equipment, a Silver-Rank Shield, a scroll and various ores.

The skillbooks where [Hell Flame] [Dark Vines] [Thunder Strike] [Resurrect] [Wind Blade], the first two went to Leroy as they were Cursemancer skills, Thunder Strike and Wind Blade were Swordman skills, finally Resurrect was given to Savior.

The 7 pieces of Bronze equipment went to Robin, Leroy took an Iron Rank Ring, the Iron Equipment was actually set parts which Robin took 3 and equipped them, Swordsman took the remaining one and the shield was Guardian Knight's who had a face full of smiles.

This silver-rank shield was as much better than his previous Iron Rank one. It possessed a skill that increased his hp, defense and healed him. Next was the scroll, it was a Potion Recipe, for which Savior and Leroy rolled, leaving Savior happy as he won a Basic Agi Potion Recipe which increased Agi by 6.

Even Basic Health and Mana potions were rare by now, much less other types of potions. Those who crafted were usually alchemists nurtured by Guilds and their potions would not meet the market.

Everyone was satisfied with the loot that they received, as was Leroy.

[Hell Flame]

Deals 150% Fire Damage to a 7x7 meters area.

Duration 5 seconds.

Cooldown: 36 seconds.

[Dark Vines]

Casts vines that can immobilize 3 targets for 4 seconds.

Cooldown: 40 seconds.

He learned both skills after reading their descriptions

With the Dungeon cleared, there was no point standing here so they left the Dungeon.