Pure dark matter exploded inside Broodmother Rathax’s head. The red of its eyes glowed in a necromantic green, and a second later, its intestines burst open. A visceral slash followed, and the boss’s severed limbs fell lifelessly to the ground.

  [Critical Strike]

  [You have dealt 274,913 damage to Broodmother Rathax]

  [You slayed Broodmother Rathax]

  [You Leveled Up!]

  [You Leveled Up!]

  [You Leveled Up!]

  [You Leveled Up!]

  [You Leveled Up!]

  [You Leveled Up!]

  [You Leveled Up!]

  [Congratulations On Clearing The Sunken Crypts]

  [Items will be divided randomly to party members by contribution.]

  [You have received: Broodmother’s Fang x1 (Epic Crafting Material), Arachnid Queen’s Cutlass (Epic Unique Sword, Event Item), Soul Orb Of Rathax (???)]

  And that’s why you build for critical strikes, I thought with a grin on my face.

  All of the level-ups gave me a [Small Recovery]. All combined, they brought me to full health and stamina. I was now level 208. Still underleveled, but slowly approaching a level that could be considered appropriate for higher mid-game dungeons.

  As for the items, I could smell money just by glancing at the descriptions. Any epic unique event sword would sell for thousands of gold, and crafting materials weren’t bad either. And the soul orb…

  Well, if anything had “???” in their name, it probably meant I’d obtained something rare as fuck. The item itself was a fist-sized orb, the same shade of deep red as the boss’s eyes. Holding it, the surface felt surprisingly soft. I could have probably slid a dagger through. I opened its description.

  Soul Orb Of Rathax

  Item Type: ???

  Item Description: Rare unidentifiable artifact.

  Item Qualities: [Indestructible] [Mana Storage] [Weapon Enhancement]

  Abilities:

  Reset (Passive, Conditional): While holding this item in a weapon slot, killing a high target (player, boss monster, named NPC, greater summon, greater monster) lowers all ability cooldowns by 5 seconds.

  Ah, so it was one of these items. A mysterious figure me out item, probably for some sort of quest. Surprisingly, it wasn’t [Soulbound], meaning I could sell it at the auction. Its weapon enhancement effect seemed interesting, but I wasn’t sure if it would come through crafting or some other effect.

  I turned to Veyra. Her health bar had risen to 67%, and she was drinking a health potion. The soft heals from leveling up hadn’t healed her as much as me, meaning she was a higher level to begin with, requiring more experience for a single level-up.

  “Let’s focus on living,” she said as she pulled up a teleportation stone. She tried to activate it, but it didn’t work. We were still stuck in a hostile environment. A few lesser arachnids still wandered around, but the cocoons had stopped breaking open.

  The arachnids were the least of our problems. The rocky wall formed with earth magic at the exit rumbled. It slid down and disappeared back into the ground, revealing nametags.

  PinkBerry and Mochaman came in first, both with their eyes wide open. Pink spotted the dead boss’s remains. “The fuck?” he asked. “You defeated it?”

  My hand was ready to summon my daggers at any moment, and I kept my mental consciousness on [Shadow Dash] in case I needed to react to any surprises. Veyra shared the angst, keeping her staff clutched with both hands.

  Pink killed one of the lesser arachnids with an aura needle as he stepped forward. “Celestial Order will be mad. We weren’t supposed to kill the boss. They’ll at least want the rewards. Hand them over.”

  “Seriously?” Veyra asked.

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  “That’s what we agreed upon, is it not?” Pink said. “You got the experience, and a lot of it. We get the loot.”

  Veyra frowned as he kept approaching. Pink wasn’t smiling either. He said, “Offering us the drops is the least you can do after stealing a boss from a top guild. Or are you betraying us? For some items?”

  Veyra glanced at me. I nodded. We knew what to do.

  Pink took one more step toward us, when a dark spike of time magic suddenly burst up from the ground.

  Pink gritted his teeth and reacted with quick instincts. He held out his palm toward the attack, and his aura formed the shape of a shield.

  I threw my mithril dagger at his forehead. He dodged that, and the dagger landed on a ranger’s shoulder behind him.

  “Well, this works as well!” Pink growled. “We’re live streaming this, by the way. Everyone will know you two are betrayers!”

  [You have been kicked out of Cupcake Crew]

  Pink’s aura grew in size like a bonfire burning around him. A sharp slash of aura attacked me like an oversized tiger’s claw with long range.

  Identifying the attack from the mess of bright colors was difficult, and reacting to it was even more so. I could barely make out Pink’s figure within.

  So instead of trying to dodge or block, I used [Shadow Dash] straight forward. I swung prematurely, aiming for his nape.

  My attack landed with perfect precision, but I did not hear a satisfying slash. Rather, my dagger clinked against solid steel.

  Pink grinned. His skin wasn’t human anymore, but a reflective metallic steel. The skill was [Iron Skin], and it turned him into a tank for one minute. His attacks received a debuff, but he was much more tankier.

  Even without Pink’s aura, the Cupcake Crew wasn’t short on firepower. Eve’s summons reinforced Pink, and a fireball shot at the both of us.

  Eve really betrayed me then, I thought.

  A portal appeared below me, and I slipped in. Pink attempted to jump, but his feet were frozen by [Absolute Zero]. The fireballs landed on him, and his health bar dropped to 91%.

  “Thanks,” I said as I appeared beside Veyra, whose outfit looked a bit different now. I blinked, noticing a red and black bycocket on her head. The type of shit Robin Hood wore, except it was devilish.

  “Shut up,” Veyra said. “I just got it. It has a cool spell. And it’s an epic unique. Distract them and watch.”

  She ran to the side and shot a few icicles at Pink. The aura master was approaching with Mochaman, now a bit slower thanks to his transformation. I had an unfavorable matchup to fight him right now, and I couldn’t fight Mochaman one-to-one with him next to Pink, so I ran to the side, slashing a few cocoons on the way to fill Lichfang’s passive.

  Arrows, fireballs, necromantic bolts, all sorts of ranged attacks barraged in my direction. I was forced to [Shadow Dash] back. Fighting anything one to one would be impossible.

  I glanced at Veyra, and spotted her dipping into a portal. I scanned my surroundings, until I spotted her high up in the air, near the ceiling directly above the exit. Directly above Cupcake Crew’s backline.

  She held her staff with one hand from the middle, as if it was a bow, then activated the bycocket’s skill.

  The staff’s shape shifted into a great bow, colored the same devilish black and red as the hat. An arrow spawned in her other hand, and she took aim, shooting the arrow directly down.

  The arrow didn’t explode or kill anyone. Instead, it formed a ritualistic pentagram underneath everyone. A status effect appeared on everyone inside.

  [Demon’s Grasp: Players inside are slowed by 50% and take 100% increased damage.]

  Veyra then switched the hat back to her usual witch’s hat, and her staff turned back to normal. Still falling mid-air, she began casting [Time Eruption]. Her hair fluttered as she masterfully charged mana into her ultimate spell.

  All of Cupcake Crew’s backline was stuck in the pentagram below her, completely unaware that Veyra was above.

  No way, Veyra, that’s not allowed! I thought in utter awe.

  The fully charged [Time Eruption] went off, nuking the entire backline.

  A wave of slashes resounded as all lesser members were one-shotted. Only Evelyn and Tristamn survived, both knocked into the air, their health bars at 12% and 21%. I instinctively threw my dagger at the fallen support mage, landing my mithril dagger cleanly in his head. Slash.

  [You Slayed Tristamn with assistance from Veyra. Experience divided.]

  I then gaped at Veyra, who stood in the middle of destruction. That had to have been a montage play. All of that had happened in the span of five seconds while falling from the air. Shooting the demonic bow, switching out her equipment mid-air, and then channeling [Time Eruption] with quick-casting for a perfect assassination.

  Just swapping items mid-air was considered a difficult tech by itself. Being that good at the game wasn’t allowed. Just how good was she?

  Pink didn’t seem to be as impressed as I was. His frown had turned hateful as he attacked me. His iron skin had worn off, and he was back in his aggressive mode. He wasn’t playing around anymore as he rushed me with everything his class had.

  The ranged aura swipes came first. I dodged the first two, before I was quickly forced to retreat with [Shadow Dash]. Dodging that many consecutive attacks was impossible, and I wasn’t high enough level to reliably block.

  I need to recharge Lichfang, I thought. It was currently at a measly 2183/20,000 damage stored.

  My first thought was to kill more cocoons, but I quickly dismissed that. Pink was fast now, and he was supported by skeletal summons casting constant [Medium Defence] on him. If I tried to kill the cocoons now, he’d catch up and one shot me alongside the cocoons I’d try to fight.

  I glanced at Eve to see if I could kill her first, but she was supported by Sullivan and Mochaman, who both took a defensive stance against Veyra. They were occupied, but Eve was free to support Pink.

  I kept thinking of ideas.

  “Keep running, pussy!” Pink shouted after me. He was catching up to me, but [Shadow Dash] was coming off of cooldown. He was so stacked with [Medium Defence] that his aura received a grey tint. I could do damage, but only if I landed a crit with a fully charged Lichfang release.

  Suddenly, I had an idea.

  The orb, I thought, recalling one of its effects. The orb had said it was [Indestructible].

  I equipped Soul Orb Of Rathax on my left hand instead of my mithril dagger. Then I pierced my legendary dagger into the eye of the orb. The blade slid in without resistance. The orb reacted, glowing brighter, and the dagger inside felt stronger.

  [Combination detected: Cursed Lichfang and Soul Orb Of Rathax]

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