MMORPG: Divine Mech Hunter Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Dungeon Challenge

EndlessFantasy Translation

Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

After the reunion party, everyone gathered outside the hotel and waved each other goodbye. Fengyi walked to Li Yao’s side. “This is the money that you have won.” She scanned Li Yao’s communicator and transferred 100,000 CPs to his account.

Li Yao smiled. “It was difficult for everyone to gather at Mingzhu town, still everyone had fun. As for the bet money that I had won, I can’t take it all by myself. I will give the money to Xiaolei. This money may not be much of a help, but it is enough to pay for everyone’s stay in Mingzhu. All of the arrangements will be handled by the class president.”

Li Yao refused the money and used the same method to transfer the money to Xiaolei via her communicator. He waved goodbye to everyone. “Now that everyone has added each other through the new communicator device, we can contact each other if something’s up. My ride is here, I will excuse myself for now.”

A glimmer of light flashed in Fengyi’s eyes. She realized that Li Yao was really different from before. She felt that they had grown more distant than ever. She tried to supress her affection for him and was prepared to move on, but fate had its way of fooling around with people. When she thought of the match, Qin Fengyi realized something.

Putting aside the fact that they had the same weapon, the Arrow Towers and Explosive Sheep reaffirmed the fact that they were both the exact same person. She was pretty sure of that.

“Yao, see you in game.” Zhao Lei waved at him.

Li Yao nodded and boarded the hoverbus. Li Yao stood by the bus’s window and peeped outside. He saw Fengyi who was also staring into the bus, he then averted his gaze.

Back at home, Li Yao felt light-headed. Although he had drunk quite a lot, he was not drunk. Instead, it was because he had seen Fengyi, he did not know how to face her. Maybe he should move on and forget about her like how he did in his previous life. There was nothing wrong for him to move on.

It was already afternoon. Li Yao’s landlord was shocked when he paid him 7,500 CPs for one season’s rent. After he had resolved his eviction issue, he returned back to his room.

In the name of boredom, Li Yao entered the game once again.

The class reunion made Li Yao feel imminent. Money, money, it was always about lack of money.

“In these few days, most players may be opening up dungeons. I should rely on dungeons to earn some money.” In seconds, Li Yao had made his decision.

Li Yao received private messages moments after he had logged in. There were dozens of messages, and they were all from AdorkableTong. He was lazy to listen to them all so he messaged back instead. “Little girl, shouldn’t you be in school now, why are you still in game?” 

In mere seconds, AdorkableTong replied his message. “Hmm, I’m too smart for school. I’m so clever that I’ve finished every high school subject all by myself. Oh right, don’t try to change the topic. Explain to me what took you so long to reply my messages.”

“Little kiddo, I have got things to do. The first thing I did when I came back online was reply your messages.” Li Yao was at a loss, he did not know whether to cry or laugh.

“Fine, you pass, I will forgive you this time. Oh yeah, come to Strange Bird Forest now, it’s at Huaxia 565 subline channel. Let’s go and get that Hunter’s Medal.”

Li Yao was picking up unwanted items from stalls while chatting with AdorkableTong.

Till now, Li Yao had already learned a number of skills that were deemed useless by other players such as Roll, Forward Pounce, Climb, Side Shift and some basic close-combat skills.

Hunters were able to use most of the melee weapons. Naturally, they knew some close-combat skills, such as Power Slash and Fade Slash. These would be sold at high prices at later stages in the game, but Li Yao already had a collection of it.

Likewise, other classes that were able to use bow and arrows such as Warrior and Bandits would be able to learn the bow’s basic skills. Nobody was learning it now since they were tight on money.

“Hunter’s medal, that will be nice. A one-star medal will give us quite a lot of attributional upgrades.”

As the first dungeon challenge, there were different difficulty modes. One was Trial Mode, the other was Challenge Mode.

There was no requirement for entering a Trial Mode stage. A small amount of Exp would be obtained upon completion.

In Challenge Mode, there were limited attempts given to each player. Each player can complete the stage five times per day.

The first stage was called Strange Bird Forest. After entering the stage, they would have to face the Big Strange Bird boss.

There were two types of stages for players before Level 10. One was a Dungeon challenge for players between Level 3 to 5, and the other was a Level 10 ten-person Adventure stage, The Den of Evil.

Other than the main stages there were also side stages. These stages had the same level of difficulty, but they did not provide the same world-class prestige, such as game speedrun records and higher difficulty stage first kill.

Side stages were similar to hidden quests. From the game forum that Li Yao had seen, the Humans at the Light faction had discovered a five-person stage, The Deadmines.

Another thing was, the rewards from side stages were worse than the ones from main stages. Even so, other races envied the humans for their ability to discover new stages, seeing that the Green equipment from these stages were still really good.

The challenges from main stages focused on the individual’s skills, this was done so solo players would not feel like they were left too far behind compared to players in teams. The adventure stages were group stages, they required a group of five, ten, twenty five, forty, hundred or more depending on the rules. With the increase in the number of people, the stage difficulty would also increase.

Some people said that group stages were used to measure the awareness and teamwork of the group. A guild’s position and prestige would depend on the number of first stage kills and successful stage clearances. In that way, higher difficulty stages were used to measure the skills of more professional players. Many good players became famous through these dungeon challenges, making them a well-known star.

One of the most notable players was the Bandit God. He had never joined any guild and became famous through completing stage challenges. Then, he participated in various competitions and took part in the Olympic Games on behalf of China. He became the best bandit player in the world and succeeded in becoming an apotheosis in the Battle of the Apotheosis. He rose up from being a nobody in a poor area to a billionaire.

In front of Li Yao was a portal to the first stage challenge. The portal was created due to the different occupations available for each race and the division of people by different administrative districts in real life. In addition to people being scattered all around various continents, there were also the descendants of pioneers that had landed on other planets such as Mars.

After he had entered the channel that AdorkableTong told him, he saw huge masses of crowds in the channel’s mirrored space. There were nearly one hundred thousand players on board the island-like aircraft.

He saw players of every race from the Dark faction, such as High Elves, Orcs, Trolls, the Undead and Goblins. If it were not for the trading ban on the aircraft, the place would become a huge marketplace.

The regional channel was used by teams to look for players. In this stage challenge, it only required a minimum of one player per group, and a maximum of four players per group.

“We’ve just finished Trial Mode and practiced our attacking tactics. We have gathered up after we have lost and we need a Level 3 player who has Healing skills.”

“We are starting Challenge Mode. We have close-combat players and we need another skilled player that can hit the bird’s head.”

“Level 3 powerful Warrior here looking for a team. I have learned three skills. Looking for a challenge team.”

It took Li Yao some effort to finally find AdorkableTong among the crowd. “There are too many people here. I have already contacted Big Sis, let’s go find her.” She frowned.

Li Yao took a hold on her arm. “You have been at it for half a day, what happened? Have you gotten the medal?”

“Hmph, I’m pissed just talking about this. After I returned to my district with the hearthstone, it wasn’t dark yet, so I tried to level up with the same method we used together. It almost got me killed, it was utterly impossible.”

Li Yao’s jaw dropped. She had attempted to find other players to grind mobs, which was no different from a suicide mission. “Cough, almost got yourself killed? I think it was you who almost got others killed.”

“The main thing is they are too useless. They tried to lure mobs but got killed after being chased, we started grinding and they too got killed by mobs. They too, were professional players, but they are far worse than you.”

AdorkableTong was grumpy and she was greatly displeased. “I had no choice but to follow them to clear the challenge stage. In the end, we were exhausted and all we got was a Broken Bronze Medal. I was so, so mad. Next time I will never group up with these fools again, a complete waste of my precious time.”

Li Yao was speechless. he did not know which group professionals were devastated by this little girl. All he could do was silently mourn for them. Grinding was never that easy. It would also be suicidal for Li Yao to grind mobs if he did not have his Explosive Sheep to blast off a big portion of the mobs’ health.

AdorkableTong held Li Yao’s arm as she contacted HundredFaceWitch. Within seconds, they have found HundredFaceWitch and three other players by her side.

“Witch Sis, who are they?” asked AdorkableTong.

HundredFaceWitch let out a slight cough. “It’s like this. This is the first group of Qionghua Club. They have gotten a one-star (Bronze) medal just an hour ago. From what I know about the game, there were less than a hundred players that have gotten this Bronze medal. Since both of you want the medal too, they can help us get it one at a time.”

After hearing HundredFaceWitch’s explanation, the medal on their chests shone in a silvery-green light. It was a star. The surrounding players looked at them in admiration, making them feel very proud.

As long as the players had cleared the Strange Bird Forest under Challenge Mode, they would receive a one-star hunter title. There were five different grades of one-star medals, namely Black-iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. 

To obtain the Black-iron medal, players had to clear out the stage under Challenge Mode. The grade of the medal would increase each time the players reached the following criteria: obtaining an S for stage evaluation, suffered no damage throughout the stage and getting successful critical hits. To obtain a one-star (Platinum) medal, players had to go solo in the same stage and achieve all of the criteria.

Medals had their own attributes. A one-star Black-iron medal would provide a 2% damage increase and 2% Exp increase. On the contrary, a Platinum medal would provide a 10% increase in both, which was quite overpowered.

“Let them bring Big Bro and I? Witch Sis, you must be mistaken.” AdorkableTong gave the three players a disdained look. “What’s so amazing about Bronze medal? Witch Sis, your expectations are too low. If I knew earlier, I would have gone with Big Bro myself.”

The mage from Qionghua Club frowned at Tong’s remark. “Little girl, watch what you’re saying. Of course, Bronze medal is amazing. Now that there are more than 500 million players in this game, only a few hundred of them and no more than five guilds in China have acquired Bronze medal. Qionghua Club is currently ranked third in China and thirty-fifth worldwide.”

The mage was proud, he pointed at the stage clearance record in the giant airship. Behind him, other players tried to get a good view of what he was showing.

He said it in a loud voice, the surrounding players looked at him with eyes full of envy and respect.

“What’s so great about that. I’ve led China’s top second group but we’re not such show-offs like you lot.”

After listening to Tong’s whisper in the team chat, Li Yao patted her head. AdorkableTong glared at the players, but she said nothing.

“On behalf of HundredFaceWitch, we will carry the both of you, although we are reluctant.” LawTyrant said in a commanding tone. “Witch, you are going in first, the both of you will wait here.”

“No, your time is too precious, there is no need to feel embarrassed for us. We are just average players who do not deserve your help, we will play on our own. If that’s all, we are going to leave now.”

Li Yao felt his heart burning with anger. He knew that it was normal for professional players from major guilds to look down on average players, but he would never accept this kind of treatment. The game had been running for a few days, it was easy to differentiate between noobs and good players.

“Wait,” shouted HundredFaceWitch. “Sorry guys, I think I will play with my friends. Sorry for the trouble.”

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After saying so, she caught up with Li Yao and AdorkableTong.

LawTyrant swore after HundredFaceWitch took off. “Damn it, the witch was boss’s friend. We were asked to help her out and was warned to treat her nicely, now…”

The other two players were also stunned, they still could not comprehend what had just happened.

“Forget about it, we will wait here. I don’t think they would be able to get the medal and will end up looking for our help. If we go back like this, and let that witch complain to the boss…”

The three of them sullenly waited at the same spot, they no longer had the same proud look.