“How was it?” Liu Feng asked when Zen finally returned to the starting entrance, where he remained waiting with the Shady Merchant.
Grinning, Zen retrieved the special reward he had received after finishing his solo quest. Although Urum was tougher than Zen expected, with Liu Feng’s suggestion, he cleared the mission in one try.===Item: Orc Token (special)Description: Summon the ghost of Urum, the orc general who will lead his fallen army and attack any other boss monsters in boss dungeons.Cool down: 12 hour===After Liu Feng heard what the special reward was capable of, he wondered why an army was required.“It doesn’t sound like the vanguard team is enough to deal with whatever is ahead of us if we need an army,” the long-haired man commented. “The other farming parties might eventually have to join us in raids.”Agreeing, Zen sighed. The other non-combatants in the farming parties woAnyone who had seen Party Godly Food battling Urum in the orc army camp would think they’d been working together for many years. Once socially awkward, Zen thought they were now brilliant communicators. If anything, he felt like the alien. They were speaking the same language, but Zen could not understand a single thing as everyone spoke over each other. Yet, their efficiency as they eliminated monsters, filled in unexpected gaps and swapped positions during battle proved how effective this strange communication method was.“Two loose!” Sasha yelled over the call as she dumped another fire spell over a tent further from the boss’ tent.“Cover!” Damian countered immediately after hearing how Sasha could not keep all the orc warriors at bay. Switching his focus from providing the main fighters with additional buff effects and binding the boss, the cyborg cast two missile spells targeted at the loose targets.Zen watched how Urum turne
As Oritha, Sasha, and Damian joined them back at the final boss dungeon for the reward reveal, Zen wondered what it would drop. Unlike the special stage, the rewards should not be as good as the orc token.“It became easier than the first time we cleared it,” Sasha grinned at Oritha. “Do you think we’ve become stronger?”Shrugging, the giantess stretched and eyed Damian strangely. Unlike them, who had a head start with the dungeon, Damian only became acquainted with the game recently. How was he matching their pace? She expected him to miss a few when he was covering the west. However, the engineer had completely gotten used to becoming a magician. His ability to adapt spells to the situation made him a more proficient mage than Sasha or Akiko.“Is the boss not dead yet?” Oritha finally asked after a while. It had been a while since the boss was defeated. However, the portal to the ninth stage was still not available.
“Do you remember how you cleared this stage?” Zen asked Oritha after walking for what felt like an hour. The sun was moving very quickly, and evening was approaching.Grimacing, Oritha admitted how she cleared this stage with Sasha using brute force.“The Seer and Death Princess already knew where the boss was. We simply followed their directions and defeated a huge wolf that stood on two legs. It was too time-consuming to explore this stage, so none of us know what the main quest is like.”Ah, of course, they brute-forced this stage. Why would they follow the main quest? Zen should have known better than to ask. However, he was curious how the forerunners of this stage knew what to do. Akiko and Liu Feng should be the first people to clear this stage. Did they have more information?“I see something,” Damian squinted and zoomed in on the structure in the distance. “Is that a village?”It was too far for Zen or
Throughout the short night, the three pig brothers did not sleep. If anything, they talked with the travellers and provided them with plenty of useful information about this stage.According to Porky, the three brothers initially left to find employment in the big city. However, they were met with a lot of discrimination. Many employers had the stigma that pigs were lazy creatures and did not give them any chance. Unemployed and low on their savings, the three builder brothers decided it was too expensive to continue paying rent in the city. Hence, they used the last of their money to move into the countryside, intending to prove they had the skills to pay the bills. They bought materials for houses and started building them. However, it was a difficult process when a wolf kept terrorising them every month on the full moon.“We didn’t want our mother to worry,” Porky admitted. “After building the houses, we wanted to rent them out to others. However
Relaying what they learned from the three builder brothers, Zen informed them they would head into town first, where the missing sheep would most likely be.“I’ll look for the red-hooded girl and hunter in the forest,” he informed. “You should proceed to the town without me. Someone else should also find the Shady Merchant in case there are more hints.”Akiko quickly volunteered to return to the Shady Merchant. Sasha was more than happy to reunite with Zen’s party at the small village.In no time at all, the group of four reunited, and Zen waved to Sasha when he spotted her in the sky.“That was fast,” he commented. Those leathery dragon wings looked so cool!Sasha grinned. “I took the shortcut,” she shrugged. Unlike Oritha and her friends, she did not need to follow the winding path on the hills.So far, Liu Feng had no luck locating any forest dwellers. Akiko was still only halfwa
The marketplace was small. There were only five stalls in the area, and already, the shopkeepers were packing up. Splitting up with Oritha, Zen talked to the butcher to see if he had seen any lambs today.“Mary lost her kids? That’s unusual,” the butcher frowned. “It is usually Little Bo Peep who would lose them. Unlike Bo Peep’s well-trained lambs, who knew how to look for their forgetful owner, Mary’s lambs are considered pampered. They usually follow her everywhere she goes. How would they go missing?”Hearing more of the back story made Zen think this wasn’t a simple case of lost lambs. Unlike Bo Peep, Mary’s lambs seemed dependent on her. Something else must have happened. Unfortunately, that was all the butcher NPC knew. Zen thanked him and moved on to the next NPC, a cheesemonger.“Do you know what happened to Mary’s lambs?” he asked.The surly cheesemonger dressed in a white apron wit
“You found them!” Mary gushed as Oritha let Snowball down at last.Unlike earlier, the white lamb was very docile in front of its owner. Zen could hardly believe this was the violent kid from earlier. Sasha and Damian were already making themselves comfortable in Mary’s home, playing with the other lambs in her front yard.Nuzzling into Mary’s palms, Snowball gave Zen a stinky side glance that quickly disappeared as soon as Mary told them dinner was ready. Trotting inside with a waggling tail, Snowball took the lead, and the other lambs followed it inside. Zen and Oritha followed them just as the sun disappeared in the distance.Inside, Mary’s cottage was as cosy as her personality. The steaming hot tray of food was set on the table, and Zen instantly recognised it by its smell.“Is that shepherd’s pie?” he asked with drool almost trickling down the side of his mouth. The smell alone was already enough to convince Z
Ping!Checking the system notification after he had taken his first bite of the delicious lasagne shepherd’s pie, Zen noticed he had successfully learned Mary’s recipe. However, it was a unique item.===Unique Recipe: Mary’s Shepherd’s PieDescription: Warms the body, heart and soul from within. Full of Mary’s affection.*Special effects:Cold immunity for 6 hoursMental attack resistance for 2 hoursNostalgia effect (decreases fighting will by 50%)===Cold immunity for six hours? Even if it were measured in the in-game time, this was huge! The gamer remained motionless as he read on. The other effect was also decent against mental debuffs. However, the player who consumed this item must deal with a critical drawback. Zen was not someone keen on fighting enemies head-on. That 50% decrease in fighting will barely affected him. However, for the combatants, it could be a huge drawback. Logically spe
After listening to the story about John, Laura’s expression hardened. “That son of a bitch!” she spat. “How dare he prey on my granddaughter! Where is he now?!” Slightly terrified by the murderous aura, Zen reported that Sasha and Damian had the werewolf at Gabrielle’s hut. Mai had been ripping him a new one each time he regenerated. The girls had been doing a great job of making him miserable. Han was already there. “I can’t believe I’m last at the party. That wolf deserves to die. Even death is too cheap a price to pay after what he did to my husband and son.” For once, Zen agreed. Even if John was merely a character in the game, he deserved death. The fact that the game administrators did not grant John invulnerable stats meant that it was possible to kill the cousin of the floor boss. While waiting for Laura to pack her ‘tools’ and herbal surprises, Zen approached Liu Feng and thanked him for accompanying them. In real time, it was already past regular l
Studying advanced herbalism from Laura took more time than Zen expected. Thankfully, the game had a way of providing cheats for him. Instead of cramming all the knowledge into his head that would give him a splitting migraine, it provided a useful guidebook that would prompt him on what a particular herb does upon location and what combinations he could use it for with other known herbs. The problem was, to truly master this skill, he had to pass the final test. Laura’s pop quiz only had ten questions. However, there was a timer. While Zen could attempt it infinitely, there were thousands of herb combinations to remember. Not having any formal education in either of his past lives, the young chef faltered. “You may use anything in this cottage as a reference for your test,” Laura smirked. “All the best. I hope you won’t disappoint me.” Stressing over the best method to find what he needed, Zen tested a few things. Firstly, when Laura said that the new skill would inst
While the other party members gathered the family members for a reunion, Zen and Liu Feng finally found Laura’s cottage after taking a wrong turn. Funnily enough, it was the Seer who pointed out how they had been going in a circle before Zen realised he had misinterpreted the map. Knocking on the cottage door, Zen waited with his sworn brother. From inside, he could hear someone coughing badly. “Who is it?” the cranky old lady hacked as she cracked open the door. Instead of seeing her sloppy son or nosy granddaughter, Laura saw a cute priest and a handsome, long-haired warrior. The new adventurers surprised her. Were they lost in the forest? “What do you want?” she asked briefly before launching into a new coughing fit. It was a particularly nasty cold that had persisted for a week now without any signs of recovery. Despite all the herbal medicine she made, Laura did not see any signs of improvement. Perhaps she was getting on in age. Smiling, Zen show
It was a shame Zen was not with them. Sasha would have gone for a few more rounds, using the cowardly werewolf as a punching bag after Zen healed him. The more they dug information out from the pervert, the worse Sasha’s temper was. Damian did not stop her. The draconian needed somewhere to vent her anger, and it was best for it not to come his way. In truth, the cyborg felt a little sorry for Gabrielle, even if she were just a fictional character created for this virtual dungeon game. The cowardly cousin of the floor boss was no different from lowly thugs borrowing the influence of their powerful relatives to cause mayhem. Whimpering in fear and pain with his tail tucked in between his legs, the werewolf defect who could not transform into a human no matter the moon cycle kept a close eye on Sasha. Under the watch of the merciless draconian female, there was nowhere for him to run. He told them what they wanted to know and was alive for now. Given how tightly they w
Using hand gestures, Sasha signalled the countdown and Damian prepared his stunning spells silently. They only had one chance to catch the secret admirer off guard. Whatever he was doing was disgusting enough. Han wasn’t lying about the obsession. The stalker werewolf was plucking flower petals and chanting Gabrielle’s name to see if she would love him back. Each time the flower petals ended on a no, he would crush the flower, stomp on it and pick a new one, confessing his disturbing love to her before plucking off the petals of a new flower.“Oh, Gabrielle! What sweet rosy cheeks you have, all the better for me to bite into them when they are ripe! They were pink when you were a babe. They were red when you had a fever. I wonder if they’d bleed if I bit them… would you cry in pain and fear? It makes me so excited to think about it! Just wait a little more, my angel. You’d soon be an adult, and we could finally be together!”Disgu
As soon as Zen and Liu Feng departed, the remaining assassins pulled themselves together and got to work. Oritha opted to remain in the same room as the sleeping mother and daughter. However, Akiko went outside to share the information she learned last night about the stalker while patrolling the perimeter.“More brown hair?” Damian asked. “I could examine the cuticle to determine its genetic composition.”Handing the tuft of brown fur or hair over, Akiko also told Sasha the stalker’s route. Liu Feng only sensed the area where the unknown man was hiding last night. His lack of vision made him miss out on the obvious tracks. The stalker was not an expert. It must be how Han knew the foot size of Gabrielle’s secret admirer.Showing Sasha the tracks she found in the night, the Death Princess explained her hypothesis. The night hounds and wolves did not approach the house due to an invisible barrier.“It was as if they were t
After listening to Gabrielle’s story about her encounter with the stalker, Zen realised how Mai was growling. Her wolf instincts were boiling with uncontrollable rage, even in her human hybrid form, when she recalled her daughter’s distress.Holding onto her mother’s hand, Gabrielle did her best to calm her mother down while the adventurers thought about her story. Zen found it strange that the silver walker did not attack this stalker who had been bothering them in their territory. He was not the only one who found the situation odd. Although many things in Gabrielle’s story match what Han informed them, they wonder why the mother and daughter did not seek any help from Han or live with Laura instead.According to the teenager, she saw a glimpse of a very hairy creature with thick fur-like hair covering the entirety of its arm, chest and even face. However, it was very late, and the curtain was in the way when she saw the stalker. Gabrielle could o
Knocking on the door politely, Sasha waited for Zen to catch up to them. Apparently, the Seer had also sensed something off about the “safe zone”. The constant feeling of being watched made her unable to relax. There was nothing safe about this place.After a while, a beautiful teenager with curly matt gold locks opened the door. She bore no resemblance to Han. However, seeing a lady with wolf ears appear from behind her was more shocking. The lady with wolf ears shared the same forest-green eyes as the teenage girl. Zen knew at once they were mother and daughter.“Hello, who are you?” asked the timid girl.Smiling, Zen applied his priestly etiquette so as not to alarm the peaceful duo.“I’m Zen, a priest in an adventuring party. We were attacked by a large pack of wolves after sundown and managed to shake them off when we ran in this direction. By any chance, would you be kind enough to let us wait the night out?”N
Mentally exhausted and depressed, Damian fell silent after the first hour. His knowledge of jokes was severely lacking. No matter what he did, the cyborg could not meet his party members’ standards. It was too difficult to be a clown.“It’s in the delivery,” Zen chuckled, patting Damian on the back. “Sometimes people find others funny when they aren’t intentionally trying to be. Just be yourself.”The solid advice lifted Damian’s mood a little, and the two nerds chatted, exchanging what they knew to update the gamer guide while travelling to Red Hood’s house.Before they knew it, it was dark. The forest was full of shadows, and everyone remained on their guard as the sound of howling wolves came from every direction. Zen stood in the middle of the party formation, as Akiko suggested, while Sasha took to the skies to scout. However, the dense canopy of leaves made it difficult to spot any wolves until they wer