Just as Ethan was pondering on how to strengthen his Divine Dragon Warrior, a system alert perked him up.
[Ding! Detected Heroes passing through the vicinity of the Abandoned Temple.]
Ethan immediately activated the Divine Dragon Form and returned to the camp.
At this point, everyone in the dungeon was hustling about, and all the Divine Dragon Warriors had cancelled their exploration tasks and returned to the camp.
Seeing Ethan return to the camp, a Divine Dragon Warrior promptly approached and reported, “Master! There’s a team of Heroes outside, and they don’t seem to be humans but Treants instead.”
Ethan’s eyes brightened.
He had been worrying about how to acquire Hero’s Souls, and these folks had just conveniently shown up on his doorstep.
He told his Divine Dragon Warrior, “Okay, I understand. It doesn’t matter who they are. Everyone, get ready for battle. Today, they won’t be leaving here alive!”
Outside the Abandoned Temple,
Treant Hero Zachary was giving another Treant Hero Matthew an unpleasant stare, his face full of disgust.
“What’s the point of you tagging along? Your power just barely reaches D+. Even building a camp is a struggle for you. After grueling training, I have advanced to C+ power level yesterday. I could wipe the floor with you using just one finger! Serve me well, and maybe, just maybe, if I’m in a good mood, I’ll take you under my wing. You should be counting your blessings!”
Matthew wanted to retort after being belittled by Zachary, but another Treant Hero, Nicholas, stopped him.
Nicholas turned to Zachary, “Big brother, why exactly did you call us out from the Treant Village?”
Zachary sneered, then pointed at the Abandoned Temple, “I presume you all received the alert about the nearby Dark Lord? It’s not long since the game started. We should take advantage of the Dark Lords being relatively weak to defeat them early. On one hand, we can accumulate points towards winning the game. On the other hand… we can also reduce the number of people in the village.”
Zachary’s words left the other two Heroes gobsmacked.
He glanced at them before asking, “How many Heroes do you think our village has?”
Matthew paused for a bit, then responded, “Except for the village head and a few NPCs selling stuff, everyone is a Hero.”
Zachary nodded, continuing, “Right, there are just too many Heroes in our village! We have over 200 at the very least! Have you noticed that our village’s quest rewards are often lower than other villages? It’s because there are simply too many Heroes! There aren’t enough quests to go around, everyone is trying to save money, resulting in everyone taking up any quest, whether it’s simple or difficult. It’s seriously affecting market prices.”
As he spoke, he looked deeply distressed.
He continued, “I was wrong earlier, Matthew. I guess you’re one of those people too. I apologize. But that said, you’d best heed my advice… after all, the gap in our strength is more than just a little.”
Matthew nodded hastily, “I understand, it was my mistake earlier. I’ll listen to you from now on!”
Zachary nodded in satisfaction.
Seeing Matthew’s excited face, he thought to himself: What a moron! I used a bit of psychology, and he’s now wrapped around my finger. How is he any different from those waste-of-space Heroes in the village? If it weren’t for the fact we are of the same race, I wouldn’t bother speaking to you, let alone recruit you.
“How about you, Nicholas? What are your thoughts? I think you’re pretty smart and we get along well. That’s why I chose to invite you to my team. I wouldn’t let just anyone join.”
At this point, Nicholas was deep in thought.
He was jolted out of his contemplation by Zachary’s voice.
Seeing the hesitation on his face, Zachary quickly seized the moment, “Don’t stress yourself. Those worthless Heroes should die! Can’t accomplish a thing, yet they dream of being the game’s winners? They’re really shooting for the moon. Nicholas, I know you’re ambitious, I too, have dreams. But to realize our dreams, we need practical support. Tell me, how’s the quality of the quests you’ve recently taken on?”
Nicholas slowly responded, “They’re poor, and the rewards are low!”
“Exactly!” Zachary exclaimed. “The root cause of this is?”
“Too many Heroes?” Nicholas ventured hesitantly.
“Right! You see, you understand this principle. If you want to achieve your dreams, naturally there is a price to pay.”
Nicholas was silent for a moment, then said, “Nevermind, I can’t get over this hurdle. I’ll head back to the village first.”
The cheerful expression on Zachary’s face froze.
He glared at Nicholas, scoffing, “Such kindness is misplaced in the game. It’s kill or be killed, don’t you understand that?”
He had wanted to recruit Nicholas into the team for two reasons.
Firstly, Nicholas was more clever than Matthew and would certainly help lure more Heroes into the team.
Secondly, his strength had reached a C rank, which was more suitable than Matthew.
But now it seems he had no choice but to reluctantly stick with Matthew.
Zachary took a deep breath, changing his expression once again.
He turned to Matthew with a grin, “No worries. Nicholas leaving won’t affect our plan much. Let’s head back to the village now.”
Matthew nodded quickly.
Once they returned to their village, Zachary immediately launched into a performance.
With a vivid description, he painted their mission as a tantalizing opportunity, creating an image of a feeble Dark Lord.
He even concocted a story about encountering a battle between Dark Lords during his exploration, where the aforementioned Dark Lord emerged victoriously but was heavily wounded.
If they were willing to follow him, they’d certainly get a piece of the pie.
Zachary’s speech left all the Heroes eager to join in.
Not only from their Treant village, but Heroes from other villages also came to join his team.
Seeing the Heroes vying to be part of his team, a cold smile crept onto his face…
By the afternoon, Zachary looked at the bustling crowd and said, “Alright, we’ve got enough people in our squad! Any more, and the rewards for you guys will decrease. Let me count the numbers, and then we can depart.”
The Heroes who couldn’t join were banging their chests and stamping their feet in regret, saying, “Zachary, next time there’s a quest like this, make sure you let me know in advance!”
“Exactly, I rushed over from 5 kilometers away just to find that you’ve already filled up the team. What rotten luck!”
Zachary, his face full of smiles, said, “Alright, alright. That Hero who came all the way from five kilometers, step right into the team.”
He suddenly felt a little scared in his heart, having almost blurted out his real thoughts.
Thankfully, the surrounding environment was noisy enough that no one heard.
After Zachary’s count, the team now consisted of 134 Heroes.
The strength of most of the team members ranged from D-class to C-class.
He nodded satisfactorily, beckoned to Matthew, who quickly stepped forward and shouted, “Everyone, quiet down! It’s time to move out!”𝑜𝗏𝓛xt.𝗰𝒐𝑚
Their impressive troupe eventually arrived at the Abandoned Temple.
Ethan, who had sent out the Divine Dragon Warriors to check out the incoming Heroes as soon as they stepped into the vicinity of the Abandoned Temple, couldn’t help but grin.
Well, well, so many Hero’s Souls ripe for harvesting, what a great yield!
He immediately set the dungeon to be discovered by any intruders as soon as they approached the Abandoned Temple.
You could say, Ethan was just short of hanging a “Welcome” sign at the entrance of the dungeon.
Zachary, looking at the vast team, couldn’t be bothered to speak anymore.
He pointed in the direction of the dungeon and said to the people at the front of the line, “This is the Dark Lord’s territory. When we get in, don’t scatter. We move as a group, fight as a team. Pass the message along.”
And so, Zachary led the team to the entrance of the dungeon and then directed the team to enter.
Ethan, watching the long line of Heroes, couldn’t help but marvel.
How many Heroes were there?
He instructed Baymax to keep a low profile and let these Heroes fully enter the dungeon first.
As the front of the team began their search on the first floor of the dungeon, it quickly became bustling, with countless Heroes grumbling.
“It’s so dark down here, I can’t see anything… Hey! Stop shoving me from behind!”
“You think I want to shove you? There are too many people and the passage is too narrow! I can’t help it if people keep pushing me from behind!”
“Hey! Who stepped on my foot?!”
“Where’s Zachary? Where’s the Dark Lord? Why does this place feel just like a barren dungeon?!”
“I know, I know! Zachary told me himself. Once everyone is inside, he’ll cover our rear. He said we have too many people and some monsters have their eyes on us.”