Infinite Realm

Chapter 371 - 365 : The ‘Forerunners’

*Stomp* *Stomp*

On the 9th floor of the Middle region, the last floor before one would reach the lair of the Kobold King, a large team of players were proceeding carefully as they made their way through the floor. A few of them had scratch marks on their armour and some of them appeared to be a bit drained from stressing their bodies. But their eyes look spirited and the morale of the team didn't seem to have suffered an excessive blow. On the contrary, the spirit of the team was high and everyone looked to be possessed by a strange vigor that was continuously increasing.

"Captain, we are close." A [Ranger] who led the group from in front said.

"Spotted the Exit gate. It's just a few metres away from you guys." A voice uttered in the team chat. It came from one of the [Assassin] scouts that had moved ahead of the party to scour the area in front.

"Copy." A young man replied with a solemn voice hint a glace at his face and one would spot a hint of expectation and elation in his eyes.

The young man with the seemingly bland tone but eyes filled with anticipation was Azure Dragon, the guild leader of Emperor's Might branch in Riverdale and a 'false king' expert. He was also the main leader of this team and under his command, the 20+ man team was able to make it to the 9th floor faster than any other team, despite having more men than normal. Yes, 20+ players.

Previously, the participating players of Emperor's Might had been divided into 3 teams. The first team was made up of 7 players and was put under Black Tempest's command where they served as the vanguard squad. The other two teams were the 8-man main force and the 10-man sub-main force, led by Azure Dragon and Chesces respectively. After the two main forces had united on the Outer region's 5th floor, they proceeded as one till the 1st floor of the Middle region where they met up with Black Tempest's crew. From there, the 3 teams combined to form one massive squad, a total of 25 players led by Azure Dragon, and went on to clear the path ahead of them and making their way to the 9th floor.

There are advantages as well as disadvantages to having such a large team. The major advantage was the fact that they would be able to proceed with ease and cope with almost any enemy they would encounter. A setup of 25 expert players would surely have the right ratio of healers, damage dealers as well as MTs. This meant that as long as the number of opponents didn't reach an absurd value, even if they were faced with twice their number of monsters, they would still come out victorious.

While the advantage sounded impressive and useful, the disadvantage was a seemingly perfect counter to it. Having such a large number of players gathered together was similar to having a bonfire lit up in a plain in the middle of the night. Monsters in IR have certain similar features to monsters in reality.

Since they reside in the wild for the majority of their lives, their skills and abilities were honed for hunting in the wild just like monsters in reality. Where wild animals can smell a drop of blood [1] from a mile out, monsters in IR are not only able to do the same but they, especially the stronger ones, could similarly sense a living organism by their mana just like [Druids]. While the mana concentration in players was usually small and concentrated within their body, leaking out only in minute amounts, when a large number of players are gathered together, these minute amounts of leaking mana add up to form a pond or even a lake.

To these bloodthirsty creatures, they were like a lit torchlight in the middle of the night. It was quite obvious to them and they could easily track down this group of players. As a result, Azure Dragon's unified team had suffered a lot of ambushes and assaults at the hands of not just the kobolds but the other lifeforms as well that dwelled on the floor.

Luckily, all the players in the team were experts so even with the unrelenting and constant assaults, they were able to stand firm and forge a path of blood till they came this far.

Some of them had their armours damaged and their weapons chipped, but they still had a proud expression on their faces because, at this very moment, they were the very first ones to make it this far during this period.

"What's the status on the other side?" Azure Dragon questioned.

"It remains as it was. The [Guardian Golems] are still here and there's no sign of any other monster apart from them." The lead [Assassin] for this raid as well as the one who spoke up earlier, Ore, replied.

"Alright then. Just remain still and keep a lookout for us. We're on our way."

After saying so, Azure Dragon then lead the team to the position of Ore on the map, which also corresponded to the location of the Exit gate for the 9th floor; the very gate that would take them to the Kobold King's lair. 

It wasn't long before Azure Dragon had led his team to arrive at the spot. Being the commander of a super guild level squad as well as the branch guild leader Azure Dragon didn't rush straight to battle with the 3 Guardian Golems but stood at the side as he analysed his options.

"From the information we have, the strength of the golems rises in correspondence to the number of challengers. At their base, they are level 9 Elites but considering that we have 25 men here, I'm guessing we would be facing level 9 Special Elites." Chesces sighed.

Before the conquest of the Kobold King, quite a few guilds had led their teams to the 10th floor of the Middle region and in the process, they all had to get through the 9th floor's 'guards'. with quite a few teams having passed through them with each team having a different number of players, differing opinions on the strength of the [Guardian Golems] had surged leading to a few players realising that the strength of the [Guardian Golems] differs with the number of players participating in the attack. However, if a team were to leave behind a majority of their players with only 3 attacking the [Guardian Golems], if the [Guardian Golems] were defeated, only those 3 would make it through the Exit gate. Hence, all players had to participate in the attack. but if the number of players was quite large, the strength of the 3 [Guardian Golems] would also increase in kind.

Emperor's Might had 25 players participating in this raid so the minimum expectation fr the strength of the [Guardian Golems] would be at the Special Elite but below a King, as according to the folklores from town, a King is always above level 10. 

Even though their side had 25 men, against three level 9 Special Elite [Guardian Golems], Azure Dragon couldn't be too certain of victory but a loss was still impossible.

"Get ready.. We will follow this plan."