Saving The Damsel In Distress
[Emergency Quest: Clear the B-Rank Dungeon and Rescue Yulie
Quest Difficulty: C-Rank
Clear Condition: Defeat all the Ghost Metal Knights as well as the Boss Dungeon (Ghost Metal Knight Commander) of the B-Rank Dungeon. Additional rewards will be issued if everyone was rescued. No rewards will be given if the B-Rank Dungeon was not cleared, or failure to rescue Yulie.
Time Remaining: 00:59:59]
Sasha Clifford led the way, hesitantly entering the dungeon because the Ghost Metal Knights might come flooding out of there any second now. She had only been gone for a couple of minutes, but she couldn't imagine the damage that the Ghost Metal Knights have inflicted.
"Let's go," Albrecht called out to the Grapevine Party who were inching their way backward.
Now that they had a moment to think about their life decisions, they realized that this was the first time they'd enter a B-Rank Dungeon. Asvi gulped, and the others anxiously stood there while Albrecht led the way.
At most, the group had experience venturing inside a D-Rank Dungeon. And even then, they were with another party. It was a joint raid, and they managed to clear the D-Rank Dungeon with little to no difficulty.
However, the dungeon in front of them is a B-Rank Dungeon. Asvi's mind screamed that he should turn back, and his feet wanted to.
Then again, it was his time to prove himself as a better man. It was high time he showed off in front of Yulie Rosethorn, his childhood crush and the only woman he admired.
Nevertheless, was it worth it? Was it worth risking his life just to show Yulie his capabilities?
Asvi clenched his fists and steeled his resolve. 'Of course, if Albrecht is going in, then I'm going too.' He said, fighting over his initial flight response.
Clearing his throat, Asvi turned around and faced the other members of the Grapevine Party.
"Look, if you don't want to come, then it's fine. It's not part of the agreement we have with Albrecht, so if you feel like waiting here, then go ahead. We won't stop you." Asvi calmly told his party members.
Honestly, Asvi took the words out of Albrecht's mouth. He was about to say the same thing. In response, Albrecht nodded his head as soon as Asvi finished speaking.
"You'd still get 15 Gold Coins each even if you didn't come with us," Albrecht repeated before he jumped into the Zecian Portal.
Fwooosh~!
Grunting, Asvi also dove into the Zecian Portal, muttering a silent prayer. He had no idea about the mortality rate of B-Rank Dungeons, but he knew it was high. It didn't matter though, since he was going to save Yulie no matter what.
"Shoot!" Lucius let out a breath as he stomped on the ground. "Of course, I'm going in! This is nuts, but I'm not going to let my allies die if I could do something about it!"
"Then... sigh~ we're going in!" Fioana said, also mustering her courage and enveloping herself with false bravado before he entered the Zecian Portal.
"How about— argh! I'm coming too!" Sickle complainingly exclaimed. Even though he was just a porter, he's also a Gold-Rank Adventurer. There might be some use of him inside— or so that's what he hoped.
—
—
The Ghost Metal Knights constantly pounded on the four other members of the Paladin's Hand Party, and they were slowly gaining ground. At the moment, there were three thousand Ghost Metal Knights in the dungeon, and the dungeon boss hasn't even spawned yet.
"Leader! What do we do?!" Craig Herculean exclaimed as he gave one last push to the Ghost Metal Knights in front of him.
Skill 'Sturdy Shield Of The Protector' activated.
Skill 'Immovable Mountain Of Old' activated.
Thanks to his two skills, Craig Herculean was able to hold his ground and keep the Ghost Metal Knights on his side at bay. They were C-Rank Monsters, but there were hundreds of them so Craig couldn't hold them forever.
"Just hold on as much as you can! Help is going to come soon!" Yulie Rosethorn said. "We're going to—"
"Aghk~!" Suddenly, Lance Jackalope let out a pained scream, interrupting what Yulie Rosethorn was about to say. One of the Ghost Metal Knights managed to sneak in an axe attack, hitting Lance on his back before he could protect himself.
It was a fatal blow, but thanks to Yulie's skill 'Blessing of the Divine Paladin', the damage was reduced, and Lance didn't die in an instant. However, it took a huge chunk of Yulie's Zecian Aura, which was bad since she was conserving as much Zecian Aura as she could.
[Blessing of the Divine Paladin (Unique, S-Rank) — active skill, negates status effects and boosts 30% of all the user's stats. Passive and active skills are also boosted by 30%. Grants a buff of 30% in party members' defense stat. If the user has less than 50% health points, boost 60% of the user's stats. If the user has less than 30%, boost the user's stats by 90%. Grants a shield at 1% hp that mitigates a fatal blow.]
Yulie's consciousness waned, but she kept using her unique skill. Even when she falls into unconsciousness, she would still survive one fatal hit from the Ghost Metal Knights.
She hoped that it would at least shave off a couple of seconds before the reinforcements arrived.
The inevitable doom of the Ghost Metal Knights leaking out of the dungeon was inevitable, but she was going to hold them off as much as she could.
—
"Albrecht... you're going to come, right?" She muttered under her breath before she fell into unconsciousness.
—
Fwooosh~!
The first thing that Albrecht did as soon as he entered was dash forward, accelerating toward the center of the dungeon to locate Yulie and her party members. In a split second, he overtook Sasha Clifford who was also rushing towards her group.
The sheer number of the Ghost Metal Knights took Albrecht by surprise. The System immediately gave him a counter, numbering the Ghost Metal Knights in an instant.
[Ghost Metal Knights killed 34/3000]
"YULIE!" Albrecht screamed at the top of his lungs. "YULIE!" He repeated.
—
Plop.
That's when he saw her, falling on the ground as she finally lost consciousness.