Chapter 14: Swamp Giant and Ambush

Walking through the swamp waters, everyone couldn't help but be amazed and disgusted at how real the game felt.

The sensation was on point, it felt as if they were really surrounded by water.

Traveling through the water, they couldn't help but rejoice when they finally reached land. Although these players weren't like Snow Flower whose condition might be considered an illness at this point, it didn't mean that they enjoyed swimming through the water.

Not to mention, those annoying leeches.

They've been attacked by countless leeches along the way, but all of them were easily handled.

Some were able to deal some damage to players, inflicting poison, but it wasn't too bad.

This was because the group had priests. Priests were the support and healing class of the game. They could cure illnesses, heal HP, and grant buffs to other players. The downside was that they were extremely squishy, with little skills to help them against assassins.

So they usually relied on other players to protect them and attract aggro from them.

In this game, players have already learned the hard way. Healers were the enemies of most enemies, if they saw a priest healing another person, the enemies would usually change from the target they were fighting, to attack the priest.

So if players couldn't skillfully keep aggro, then it wasn't uncommon to see the enemies swapping targets and destroying the priests. 

Which usually led to a dungeon wipe.

So priests were the ones that kept a dungeon party alive and were one of the most important classes.

2MuchVodka instructed the party to stay vigilant while he viewed the player forms. Countless players have raided the dungeon, of course, none of them made it out alive, but that didn't mean there wasn't any progress.

With the blood, sweat, and tears of the players.

There was a map of the Dungeon of Noxious! It looked crudely made, but it still held a lot of information.

On the map, there were countless markings and locations of enemies. For example, the Swamp Hags were stationed in a triangle around the beginning area. While there were countless exclamation marks and a skull on the eastern region of the map.

The exclamation marks meant that it was the place for the Plague Classes while the skull meant that it was filled with danger.

The danger mainly came from the dark elves that were stationed there. They killed any of the players that tried to reach the statues. The only exception was the first group of players that Hale allowed to reach the statues.

Of course, the players couldn't pass the trials on their first attempt, so when they came out.

They were brutally slaughtered by the dark elves that swarmed them.

No one knew what abilities the Plage Classes gave, but that didn't stop the players from dreaming about it. There were already other players who had already obtained their unique classes, the most notorious being the guild master of Shadow Tomb, who was a female player in the northern part of the continent.

She held the unique class of necromancer.

It allowed her to summon undead who would relentlessly fight for her. While being able to cast vicious curses that weakened enemies.

2MuchVokda ignored the east while checking out the south and west. The southern and western regions of the map were filled with islands but lacked enemies or any notable features. While the map was fairly detailed, it's still incomplete. The northern section was entirely blank, with no information recorded.

'That has to be an area where the boss is. Once we kill the boss, it signifies the defeat of the dungeon. Not only that, we can head for the statues after killing the boss.'

Unfortunately, his daydreaming was interrupted by a heavy thump that kept reverberating across the island. The tremors weren't just felt by 2MuchVodka. The other players experienced the unsettling shakes as well.

"What's causing all the commotion?" 2MuchVodka questioned the scouts who were the rogues that he had sent out earlier.

"Boss it's better if you see it for yourself," one of the scouts replied, his expression grim. The game allowed players to take screenshots and even videos, making it easy for the scout to share a video of what he had encountered with the party.

The video showed a gigantic humanoid figure that was heading towards the direction of the party.

The giant was at least 10 meters tall and its body formed from gnarled dead branches. Its yellow eyes glowed with a menacing intensity, and its claw-like hands resembled twisted, branch-like tentacles. A faint greenish mist continuously seeped from its form, adding an eerie aura to its presence.

The players gasped, none of them had fought against such a gigantic creature yet.

"Damn, is that the boss of this dungeon?" 

This was the thought that had appeared on all of the players' heads. It kind of made sense. The Swamp Giant matched the theme of the swamp and its figure looked quite strong too, eclipsing the presence of the other enemies that the players had faced before.

Initially scared, now they were excited.

As long as they killed the Swamp Giant, they cleared the dungeon. It seemed as if luck was shining on them. So with great enthusiasm, the players all hurriedly got into formation. With the three guardians in front.

While the rest lined up behind the guardians, except for the rogues.

Their position was always weird, as they always had to look for any opportunities to do damage. So staying behind the guardians, wasn't the best idea if they wanted to deal damage.

With great anticipation, they watched as a kaiju-like figure appeared on the horizon.

They couldn't help but exclaim in awe. Watching it on a screen couldn't compare to experiencing it yourself. The giant's presence was far more imposing and overwhelming in person.

Seeing the agitated state of the players, 2MuchVodka roared to interrupt their unnecessary thoughts.

As he bravely charged towards the Swamp Giant, holding the gigantic shield in front of him.

"Shield Bash!"

Shield Bash, allowed him to lock onto a target within 10 meters of him, and charge towards them. As long as the skill connected, not only would it attract the aggro of the target, but it would also stun them for 3 seconds.

A great skill for offense and defense, as you could lock onto targets that weren't enemies too.

Yet, 2MuchVodka couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss, as though he was overlooking a critical detail. When he glanced over his shoulder, his eyes widened in shock. A shadowy figure was taking form behind one of the priests, its presence growing more distinct by the moment.

Without wasting time, he canceled Shield Bash, as he activated another skill.

"Shield Throw!"

With inhuman strength, he changed position from charging to hurling the shield, sending it slicing through the air directly toward the shadowy figure looming behind one of the priests

Caught off guard, the shadowy figure was struck by the shield. However, instead of a direct hit, the impact caused the figure to explode into countless rodents, their red eyes glowing ominously in the darkness.

The rodents scattered as they reformed themselves into a handsome male dark elf.

The dark elf stared at 2MuchVodka, with a murderous gaze. To it, the idea of being discovered by a mere human was laughable. Dark elves were masters of stealth, how could this human have suspected anything was amiss?

But, with no answers, he could only helplessly watch as the shield flew back to its master.

"Hmph, you may have stopped me from killing that pitiful ant, but your situation hasn't changed. All of you will die! This is the fate for all that trespass on Lord Noxious's land."

Although it sounded like the last hateful words that a villain would usually spit out when being defeated. It wasn't wrong for the dark elf to say that, as the Swamp Giant was charging toward the group, while countless other dark elves were already making their presence known.

The situation was looking quite grim for the players.

But, as if spitting in the player's face, the situation turned even worse.

A group of dark elves stood together, whispering and chanting in unison. Just from the long chant, you could already tell that whatever they were about to cast was about to cause a lot of damage.

When the dark elves finished casting their spells, countless greenish skulls materialized above the players. Each skull bore a grotesque, pain-distorted face, and from their hollow sockets, green, corrosive acid began to pour, creating a nightmarish and ghastly sight.

[Inflicted with Nauseousness]

[Nauseosnuess: Distorted senses and 2-second skill delay.]

[Inflicted with Corrosive Skin]

[Corrosive Skin: Damage taken is doubled.]

[Inflicted with Weakness]

[Weakness: You will only deal 70% of your original damage.]

[Broken Armor caused by Corrosive Green Skulls]

[Broken Armor: Your armor's durability has been weakened, reducing its ability to absorb and deflect damage]

[Breathing the air has caused you to be heavily poisoned and your organs are being melted]

[You will lose 150 HP every 10 seconds. This effect will last until you escape the range of the spell: Corrosive Green Skulls.]

Seeing the countless negative debuffs that they had just inflicted, the players started to doubt their lives.

'Wtf! Is this a skill or some fake skill that you just magically printed out?!'

The players seriously felt like vomiting blood.

Of course, this spell was a real one, and it was learned by those who passed the test for Practitioner of Pestilence.

Although most of the dark elves chose Verminscourges, that didn't mean that there weren't others who wanted to be in a different class.

Left with no option 2MuchVodka decided to singlehandedly distract the charging Swamp Giant while having two priests heal him. Leaving the dark elves to the other players was simply the best that they could do in this situation.

The fight would soon start!