Grey Wolves Den

Jayden only took less than a minute to change his class, after which he hurried to join the others at the front gate of Beginner's Town. Since all of them had reached Level 10 and changed their class, they were now ready to go over to the next town.

But that was not what they were intending to do right now.

After hitting Level 10, they now met the requirements to enter their first dungeon – Grey Wolves Den.

Compared to doing quests and grinding monsters out in the open map, clearing dungeons was a far more efficient way to acquire experience and items. Thus, most people would just keep clearing dungeons and ignore the quests that followed the game storyline.

Of course, there were some quests that gave good rewards too. Most of them had already been listed down in guidebooks over the years, and players would definitely not skip those.

Jayden had rushed over to the entrance of the town, but after finally seeing his waiting party mates, he could not help but let out a helpless sigh.

When he hit Level 10 yesterday, the rest of them were still at Level 8. But while he was still at Level 10 now, all of them had already hit Level 14. It seemed that they had continued playing for quite a bit after he logged out yesterday.

It was not really a problem for now, but Grey Wolves Den was a dungeon that only allowed entry for characters from Level 10 – 15. This was to prevent over levelled characters from screwing with the dungeon records.

With their level gap, it seemed that he would only be able to join them for a short while before they were forced to play separately again.

What was the point of him playing this account again?

Oh well, he would just have to join wild parties and play at his own pace then. It was not like he was a stranger to that anyway.

"You are finally here! Let's go!" Alex greeted him quickly before adding him to the party.

As the lowest levelled dungeon, the entrance to Grey Wolves Den was not far away from Beginner's Town. Thus it only took them a short while to get to the entrance.

There were plenty of people standing outside the entrance, trying to form parties to challenge the dungeon together. Thankfully, as a group of 5, they had no need to do so and could enter immediately.

"Is everyone ready?" Ryan confirmed once again.

"Yes!" Michelle answered without hesitation.

They had already cleared this dungeon a couple of times the night before, so she was already quite comfortable with it by now.

Alex was about to agree as well, but he realised that Ryan had already activated the dungeon entry. It seemed that his 'everyone' was just referring to Michelle.

The next moment, all 5 of them found themselves transported to a cave that was unrealistically brightly lit. As the name suggested, parties that entered Grey Wolves Den had to deal with packs of Grey Wolves as their main opponents.

As a Weapon Master, SamuRyan was the only melee character in the party and was thus positioned in front. Apart from him, Mich was a Mage while Alex's Transcending All and Nicholas' Transcending None were both Archers, all of them ranged characters and comfortably firing away from the backline.

Being a Cleric, Master Stroke carefully stationed himself in the middle of the group just in case there were any sudden attacks from the back.

Of course, being the lowest levelled dungeon, Grey Wolves Den was mainly designed for players to get used to the game. Thus the game developers were not harsh enough to incorporate such traps into this dungeon.

Jayden was quite satisfied with the smooth progress of the party. Bit by bit, his previous worry that the party levelling speed might not be too efficient slowly faded away.

While his classmates' average skill level was not exceptional, it did not matter too much against these dungeon mobs. In fact, with their relatively higher levels, Jayden actually felt like he was leeching on them instead.

But honestly, it was not a bad feeling!

If they did not mind carrying him, then Jayden would gladly accept their help without complaints!

Too bad they were about to exceed the maximum level of Grey Wolves Den. It seemed like he would have to hurry and get to Level 16 so he could continue getting them to carry him after that…

But it was not though if he had no contributions to the team either!

Without his heals, there was no way that a Weapon Master like SamuRyan would be able to stay healthy despite taking all that damage.

So he kind of deserved his place in the party, right?

Jayden wisely kept his thoughts to himself as they safely advanced through the dungeon, and it did not take long before they stood before the final area of Grey Wolves Den.

At the end of every dungeon map would be the Dungeon Boss, a significantly stronger monster that would usually require the entire party to cooperate in order to stand any chance of bringing it down successfully. For Grey Wolves Den, the Dungeon Boss was the Grey Wolves King, which was essentially just a stronger and faster version of the Grey Wolf.

"Let's heal up before we face the boss," Ryan suggested.

"Ok!" Michelle's response was the same as always.

"Sounds good," Alex agreed as well before starting to use potions to recover Transcending All's lost HP and MP.

"Is this really necessary though? We are almost full and the Dungeon Boss is not too difficult, right?" Jayden was the only one who did not understand everyone's seemingly overly cautious behaviour.

While the Grey Wolves King was much stronger than a usual mob, it did not possess any special move that was exceptionally dangerous. As long as the tank played defensively and stayed alive, the backline would be able to finish off the job without any complications.

Thus, Jayden was confident that even without getting all their characters to full, they should still be able to clear it easily.

Moreover, Jayden only had one hour to play!

How could he stand wasting time here for no good reason?

But to Ryan who was the first to suggest that they heal up, Jayden's words were especially grating on the ears.

Was that nerd Jayden actually challenging his shot calling?

"You probably haven't played this dungeon for a while so I don't blame you for not knowing any better, but the Grey Wolves King's damage output is far higher than you think!" Ryan immediately retorted. "We don't have a Knight in the party, so even with your healing spells, it is impossible to get through this without having to take turns soaking damage. Of course we would have to heal up to full in preparation for that!"

"We have to take turns soaking damage?" Jayden was surprised by his words.

"Ryan's right, we even got team wiped a few times yesterday when we tried this haphazardly!" Alex sighed as he thought back to the horrors of the night before.

"You even got team wiped? Really?" Jayden's eyes grew wide in disbelief as he heard Alex's words.

"It's true…" Michelle confirmed it for him.

"You will know later when we actually fight the Dungeon Boss!" Ryan could not be bothered to explain further.

"…"

Jayden was truly at a loss for words. He could understand that Michelle was new to the game, but the other three seemed to do just fine, so why would they struggle at the Dungeon Boss of the easiest dungeon?

Did he miss any game updates that buffed up the Grey Wolves King's difficulty level?

But that did not matter at this point, since Jayden had no choice but to listen to his party mates. With the help of the potions, it did not take long before the party was fully healed and entered the area of the Dungeon Boss.

A loud roar echoed through the cave as a warning to the party, and they immediately formed up with Master Stroke in the middle, keeping their eyes peeled as they waited patiently for the Grey Wolves King to appear.

Tremors spread through the cave and small rocks started falling from the ceiling. Dust clouds rising from the ground obscured the visibility level in all directions, serving to mask the approach of the Dungeon Boss.

This was the only tricky part of the fight, to identify where the opponent was coming from. Most people were unable to do so in time, but the worst that could happen was their backline receiving a sneak attack, so it was nothing too punishing as long as the party could quickly reorganise themselves after that.

"He's coming from the west," Jayden was the first to spot the faint silhouette of the wolf, immediately identifying it for his party mates.

"I know that!" Ryan snapped in irritation.

SamuRyan hurried over just in time to suffer the pounce attack of the Grey Wolves King, and was immediately knocked down to the ground.

"Bastard!" Ryan cursed as SamuRyan climbed back to his feet and charged right back at the Grey Wolves King. "Take this!"

Rapid Slash!

This was one of Weapon Masters' go-to skills, allowing for multiple attacks in quick succession.

With each swing, his sword sank deep into the flesh of the Grey Wolves King, dyeing its grey fur with stains of deep red. The rest of the party did not hesitate either, throwing out all their attacks simultaneously.

"Don't stop! We can bring him down in one go!" Ryan shouted and he continued trading blows with the Grey Wolves King.

Taking all these in his sight, Jayden sighed helplessly. No wonder they had to resort to rotating the tank, even bringing in the backlines to share damage. If the tank was playing this aggressively, then of course he would not be able to maintain a safe HP level!

Still, Jayden could not help but agree that this kind of aggressive style could be an extremely time-efficient way of doing things. If they really could just go all out and bring down the boss in a single offensive wave, then their levelling efficiency would go through the roof!

Unfortunately, when it came to the back liners' turns to tank the attacks from the Dungeon Boss, things would no longer remain as pretty. Classes like Mages and Archers need time to charge up some of their attacks, and by soaking damage in front, they risk being interrupted in the midst of attacking. This would in turn reduce the damage output of the party, affecting its efficiency.

This was also one of the reasons why these classes were known as specialised back liners.

As Jayden played out the situation in his mind, he could not help but let out a snicker. In his head, he immediately thought of a method to circumvent this problem!

"Switch!" Ryan shouted as he had SamuRyan retreat from the front.

Despite Master Stroke focusing all his healing spells on the Weapon Master, the Grey Wolves King's attack damage was no joke either. As enough time passed, SamuRyan's HP had still finally entered the red zone, which referred to when the character only had less than 10% of his maximum HP left.

"Got it!" Transcending All was about to rush forward, but someone else was faster.

"Let me." Master Stroke promptly stepped up to replace SamuRyan on the front line, attracting the attention of the Grey Wolves King so that the Weapon Master could heal up with potions.

"What?!" This time, Alex, Nicholas, and Ryan exclaimed out in shock at the exact same time.

Even Michelle's mouth gaped over in surprise.

"What are you doing? You are our healer! Get back!" Ryan furiously yelled into his mic.

This Jayden! Wasn't this a little too retarded?

"Let me tank instead! You can support me!" Alex broke out of his daze and controlled Transcending All to continue forward.

"Be careful!" Michelle called out as she saw the Grey Wolves King start up his attack animation.

"Don't worry and keep attacking," Jayden, unlike the rest of them, was completely calm at the moment.

As the Grey Wolves King swung its claws down towards the Cleric, Master Stroke similarly swung his weapon upwards to meet its attack.

Only that to everyone who was watching, the small and ordinary looking book in his hands seemed to be completely outclassed by his opponent's razor sharp claws.

But what seemed to be common sense in real life did not always apply to the game.

Parried!

Master Stroke actually managed to stop the Grey Wolves King's attack!

Seeing that, all of them let out a sigh of relief. Transcending All anxiously continued forward, but after a few more steps, he gradually came to a stop.

Alex was staring wide eyed at his party Cleric, too shocked to remember to move his hands.

It was not just him either.

Mich and Transcending None similarly stopped moving, and even SamuRyan stopped healing his HP with potions.

What was it that they were seeing right now?

Parry after parry, it was almost as though this character before them was a hidden class that specialised in countering opponents' attacks.

This Master Stroke, could it be that he was actually not a Cleric class?

All of them knew that this was impossible. Furthermore, a quick check by looking at the Party tab also confirmed that Master Stroke was indeed a Cleric!

Then how was Jayden able to do this?

Luck? Or could it be that he was just this skilled?

No, both explanations were impossible!

Then could he have found a repeating pattern in the Grey Wolves King's attacks, allowing him to abuse the AI programmed into the monster?

They shook their heads in denial. That was the most improbable of all three reasons.

If it was possible to solve the attack patterns of monsters in World of Kings, then after so many years of it being online, everyone would be bored of the game by now!

"What are you guys doing?" an impatient voice suddenly broke them out of their daze.

Seeing how unreliable his party mates were, Jayden was about to go crazy right now!