-You have entered The Green Alpha Egress named A-G-22097-
-New party quest detected.-
– Instance Quest, First Alpha Dive-
-You have entered the Green Alpha Egress “A-G-22097”, and the exit has been sealed. The only way to leave is to complete this quest. You will have 24 hours to do so. The quest requirements will not be shared between the party members, and you must meet them to achieve the Clear Status. The only exception is the task involving the Dungeon Boss.
-Kill 25 Tier-1 Packhounds- (0/25)
-Kill 25 Tier-1 Fanged Rats- (0/25)
-Defeat the Dungeon Boss- Kobold Shaman.- (0/1)
-Once you complete the above tasks, you will be allowed to either Exit the Instance or continue to the next level of the dungeon.-
“Welp, I guess that’s a thing. Alright, everyone, listen up.” Cynrik walked toward the center of the rocky cavern, which was the entrance to the dungeon, before turning and facing the members of his party and clapping his hands loudly, causing the sound to echo down the dark tunnel behind him.
“We each need a specific number of kills on rats and wolves; since this is an Instance dungeon, that means it’s just us in here. The goal is to trek the caverns ahead and make our way towards the boss room where we will find the Kobold Shaman, remember if there’s one Kobold, there will be dozens. The plan doesn’t change; Brance will take the lead, with Benny close behind as we walk. From the intel I gathered back in the Compound, this Egress is a chain of different caves and caverns. First, all of the monsters spawn within the open caverns, so we shouldn’t be facing anything on the way. Next, since this is only a Green Alpha, we shouldn’t encounter any traps in the tunnels. HOWEVER, there have been cases of a creature called Mimics disguising themselves as treasure chests. So if you find a box lying around, let me handle it.”
“It should be a relatively straight shot to the Boss room, Gabby; Benny, how many kills do you guys need?”
“I need ten wolves and 15 rats,” Benny spoke up first, to which Cynrik just nodded.
“Me too.” Gabby chirped, pulling her hand away from Brance and raising it like she was talking to a teacher.
“Alright, Brance and I need 25 of each, so we will let you guys get the final hit to clear your tasks first before going after our own. The intel I read gave me a rough estimate on the amount of XP we can expect, along with the rough power scale of the monsters. REMEMBER, and yes, I’m talking to you, GABBY, for the love of all that is mighty, don’t run up and check if they’re dead once we down them. Leave that to me.”
“I WOULDN’T DOOO THAT!” Gabby started whining immediately but was cut off by Cynrik, who raised his hand.
“Ah, ah, I see you’ve already forgotten the incident that occurred in your Virtual Training Facility.”
Snapping her head at Benny, Gabby glared daggers at him, causing a shiver to go down his spine.
“Don’t blame him,” with raised eyebrows, Cynrik made a pointing motion with his thumb in Brances direction. A smirk crept up his lips as he watched realization set in on Gabby’s face, and he had to stop from laughing when he saw the look of utter betrayal she was aiming at Brance.
“Can we please just get on with the dungeon Cynrik?”
[Why are you sewing discord with the party so soon?] Brance spoke both out loud and in the mind link, causing Cynrik to twitch his head slightly.
“We’ve only got 24 hours to get the quest done, so let’s hurry up.”
[What seems to be the problem, Big Brother? You don’t like when I think and talk at the same time?] Once again, Brance spoke using two channels, this time forcing Cynrik to quiver and make his left eye twitch.
Cynrik flipped Brance the middle finger with flared nostrils and stormed off out of the cavern down the left side of a fork that appears on the opposite end of the area.
[Aw, did I make Cynnie Winnie upset. HAHA, it’s about time I found something that annoyed the shit out of you. Why didn’t I figure this out sooner?]
In actuality, what Brance was doing right now, was something even Cynrik wasn’t able to. Essentially, he split his thoughts in half and sent one part out of his mouth and the other into the mind link. This parallel brain process was complicated, and he had randomly thought of doing it without expecting any kind of return. To put it in simpler terms, Brance was using the left side of his brain to speak and the right side of his brain to use mind link.
Even with Cynrik’s insane level of multitasking, this wasn’t something he could do without practice. It was mainly rooted in the fact he was considered a left-brain person. While Brance, who was the more creative of the two, was a right brain.
“Um, Brancie, I’m allowed to call you Brancie instead of Jörnie since we are in an Instance, and it’s only us, right?” As they raced to catch up with the foul mood version of Cynrik, Gabby posed one of her innocent questions to Brance.
“Yeah, that’s fine; why do you think Cyn called you Gabby earlier instead of your full name like he did outside?”
“Hmmm,” tapping her chin in a manner reminiscent of how Cynrik always did, Brance could practically see the hamster wheel in her head turning as she tried to come up with an answer for his question.
Seeing a vein bulge on her temple, Brance opted just to answer his own question and save her the brainpower. “It’s because when we are in public, he wants everyone to have a professional view of all of us. So he doesn’t necessarily care if he needs to play the role of the bad guy, but he is trying to be sure people don’t look down on us as a party.”
“AH, so that’s how it is. I thought he was just teasing me, like when I puked earlier.”
“Nope, hehe,” noticing the party catching up to him, Cynrik chimed in and even ruffled Gabbys head with a slight bit of affection, making Brance look at him curiously.
[What, she’s gunna end up as my sister-in-law someday, I might as well be sure she doesn’t hate me entirely.]
“Tut,” Brance rolled his eyes and clanged his shields together, making a loud noise before walking past Cynrik, who was crouched down on one knee.
Even though they hadn’t gone far, the party had arrived at the first spawn point, and 50 meters ahead, Brance could see over a dozen hulking brown rats, and he used [Inspect].
-Level 12 Tier-1 Brown Fanged Rat..-
-Height: 2′ 7″.-
-Weight: 60 lbs.-
-Category: Mutated Rodent.-
-Threat Level = Just keep an eye on them.-
-Description: Omnivorous in nature. This creature has been affected by a large source of Mana, forcing it to Evolve into the First Tier. Unlike its origin species, the Fanged Rat is not skittish and is known to be highly aggressive. They are one of the few creatures who can move just as swiftly on land as in water, thanks to their webbed back feet, which act as flippers.-
[Tobs…this description…why do you sound like a specific little red tablet?] Like Brance, Cynrik had used [Inspect] on one of the Fanged Rats but was caught off guard by its data.
-As usual, I have used an information collection method constructed from the Host’s memories. I have determined this to be the most effective way to display said information.-
[Hehe, Tobs, you’re making me wanna call you Dexter.]
[Leave Tobs alone; I think it’s perfect.]
Gabby crept up beside Cynrik and pulled her bow off her back. Then, looking to Cynrik for confirmation, which she received instantly, she nocked one of her arrows onto the string and pulled it back towards her ear.
“Remember, Gabby, when shooting at a distance, you need to aim a little higher than their body so the arrow can…”
Twang
Cynrik stopped mid-sentence as Gabby released her shot. The arrow seemed to flicker out of sight before slamming directly into the target she had picked’s eye.
Completely blindsided by the sudden attack, the now one-eyed rat screamed in agony, whipping its head back and forth and clawing at the shaft of the arrow.
“Well fuck me then, [FIREBALL],” peeved by Gabby, choosing to ignore his advice, Cynrik mumbled and snapped his fingers, forming a baseball-sized ball of flames in his left hand, then sent it at the same Fanged Rat Gabby had hit.
Just as Cynrik launched the [Fireball], Brance moved into action with both shields drawn and charged into the mischief (groups of rats are called this) of Fanged Rats, with Benny not far behind.
Arriving close enough to the mischief, and although already receiving the glares of their beady eyes, Brance still activated his [Taunt], forcing all of them to only pay attention to him.
“Oi, you ugly bastards, get over here,” Brance shouted at the rodents; his voice seemed to be a little deeper than usual when he did so.
-Tier-1 Warrior Skill: Taunt-
-By shouting at a particular frequency, the User will draw the Aggro of all low intelligence creatures within a 5-meter radius.-
-The higher a creature’s INT stat, the less effective this skill will be.-
-Taunt can be broken if an outside being deals a certain amount of damage, and the Aggro will be transferred to that being.-
Instantly, seven Fanged Rats peeled off from the rest and charged at Brance with bared fangs dripping in saliva.
Although they were considered quick monsters, in Brance’s keen eyesight, the Fanged Rats weren’t moving any faster than a tame dog. When the first one came into range, Brance planted his feet and swung his left CS-Tear with enough force to send the attacker into the air while using his other shield to hack off the rat’s front paws.
But before the creature could even emit a bloodcurdling scream, Gabby turned it into a pincushion, leaving a twitching corpse hurtling through the air.