After plenty of sleep, Zen woke up feeling hungry again. His party members were already awake, and Zen received a flurry of messages from the famished folks. Rushing to get washed and heading to the kitchen, Zen decided to check the new message sent by the Godfather. Apparently, they had yet to claim their rewards from the treasure hunt event.
“Good morning!” Zen greeted hurriedly as he arrived at the kitchen. Everyone, including Damian, was already gathered. Zen also spied two familiar invigilators and greeted them before getting on with breakfast orders, starting with Liu Feng’s.Once everyone was nursing a beverage, Zen worked his magic in the kitchen. In just ten minutes, every available pot and wok were bubbling away. The heat from the stoves carried delicious scents to envelope the entire kitchen, tempting those who passed by. However, with Guild Survivor members lurking outside and acting as security, nobody else dared trespass. In just two weeks oAfter confirming to be moved, the old Party Godly Food was transferred to a different dungeon in the virtual world. Unlike other reward instances, Zen did not meet the old granny at the bar. The reward dungeon was closer to a mythical historical museum instead.“Welcome to the special reward dungeon,” a robotic voice announced. “In return for giving up foolish freedom, you have chosen more power to forge the treacherous path of your own making.”Revealing an array of species with genetic traits that the winners of the treasure hunt could assume in the dungeon, the system administrator explained that the reward would give the winners of the previous event a special dungeon-limited buff that can be applied for all floors, including special and boss dungeons.“Think of it as a permanent mutation. However, choose wisely. There is a price to pay for great power. Once you have confirmed your purchase, you may not change your decision, and
"Do you remember what monsters were on floor 4?” Zen asked Sasha.Shaking her head, the Draconian sniper turned to ask if anyone else in their party remembered. Unsurprisingly, nobody did. After all, they were powerful assassins. Why would they remember details about their enemies, especially those who were weak?Ring!Looking at the call notification, Zen realised that Damian was trying to connect to them. Quickly, they accepted and joined his group call.“Ahem! Can you hear me now? I sent the pedometer program to you in the mailbox. It required a little tweaking to send a program over because I doubt the academy thought there would be a programmer attending. Please let me know if you have trouble installing the software.”One by one, Damian guided everyone step by step in downloading and installing his customised software. According to the cyborg, the system administrator kept blocking his access for unauthorised codes detected in the emb
The location that Liu Feng, Oritha and Zen arrived at turned out to be a dud. Akiko and Sasha were still confirming the hideout’s location so Zen took the opportunity to harvest a new variety of herbs from the forest area. In that time, Damian idly looked through all his new player settings after accepting the party invitation.“Did any of you turn on inventory and skill sharing as well?” he asked.???“What’s that?” Zen asked, realising that Damian had been unmuted for a while now.Sending Zen a screenshot of what he was looking at, Damian explained how he found them under advanced party settings. Zen blinked. When did the system administrator add this feature? It wasn’t there previously!“When did you find this?” Zen asked urgently, checking is personal settings. True enough, it was there too.Shrugging, Damian explained how it had always been there. However, Zen swore he did not see it previously.
Ping!On the way back, Zen received a notification from the game. Oritha received one at the same moment, and they exchanged questioning looks.“Oh? It appears as if I can claim the smokescreen grenades too,” Damian announced through the group call. “I can also see the new main quest. That’s very convenient!”Jaw falling open, Zen quickly checked his notification. Sure enough, the updated party quest-sharing system marked the chain quest as completed for everyone in Godly Food. They claimed the rewards happily and stared at the new quest requirement that Liu Feng accepted on everyone’s behalf.===Quest: Shady Business Part 2Objective: Infiltrate the Kobold’s Mine and obtain a map layout for the Shady MerchantQuest item: Self-updating magical mapReward: 5 flash grenades===Whatever purpose the Shady Merchant had in mind for recruiting them for his scouting mission, Zen didn’t
Thanks to the stealth training Zen received from Liu Feng before the Treasure Hunt event, he was barely able to avoid detection by Karina. Sasha had no issues either, and the archer elf admitted defeat. These weren’t rookie adventurers. They had some skills.“I don’t know how useful this skill is, but please take it. You’ve passed the first trial.”Ping!===17. Shadow StepsEffects: When activated, helps player avoid getting detected for 30 seconds while moving.===Checking the new skill, Zen rejoiced. Unlike Sasha, who was a natural at activating stealth, he struggled to maintain his cool in stealth mode. Moving while remaining stealthy was something he never learned. The new skill would definitely come in handy.“Sweet! How do I use the skill?” Sasha asked.Zen could understand her enthusiasm. Gaining new skills in a game was always exciting for gamers. This had to be Sasha’s first activ
Chuckling to himself, Liu Feng refused to comment on the two children’s excitement about the new skills. For professionals like Akiko and himself, dismantling a trap or two was basic. They didn’t have to worry about carefully removing parts without triggering the detection mechanism. With enough brute force and finesse, physical traps like the ones the Kobolds made using primitive resources could be destroyed five times quicker than a scout could disarm it.“That’s nice,” he congratulated Zen over the group voice call when the gamer and sniper informed everyone they successfully cleared the third training in a single try with Damian’s live coaching. “You can dismantle basic traps now with basic accessory crafting and armour crafting skills. Two Shots might have to finish the other side quests to use that skill if she’s interested. However, there’s no need to assist us. Oritha should be turning in the next quest soon. The Dea
“I’ll wait here,” Zen smiled. “You should go check it out. Many secret quests come with special skills and rewards only chosen players can get.”Hearing how the secret quest granted only specific players unusual rewards, Sasha’s curiosity got the better of her. Even Damian, who was observing them, became interested. However, Oritha shrugged.“It must be another ranged skill,” she sighed. “If it were a strength-related skill, I might be interested.”“We wouldn’t know yet,” Damian hummed, studying Sasha’s perspective from over the group call. “I’ll tell you what she got after she finishes the quest.”Leisurely, everyone else resumed what they were doing. Akiko and Liu Feng only had one more quest for the main chain quest. They were to find the Mega Furnace schematic by defeating the Kobold Mad Scientist. The boss monster wasn’t difficult to defeat. However, l
“Take a left turn after two forked paths, and you’ll be at the boss room,” Zen urged.After failing once to get both Liu Feng and Akiko to the boss room, Zen devised a new strategy. Honestly, this was a fourth-floor boss. With how strong Liu Feng and Akiko were before they integrated with their bloodline, it was unnecessary for both powerhouses to be there. Hence, the objective was to get at least one of them to the destination.Sending Liu Feng and Akiko to different areas on standby, Zen predetermined where the new boss room would appear. After seeing so many failed attempts, Zen narrowed down the possible locations of the boss’ room that he would include in the gamer guide. True to his hunch, the new boss’s room appeared near Akiko.Flying over at top speed, Akiko smashed through any traps from walls and ceilings. Ground traps were easy to avoid with her newly gained aerial skills. Although the Death Princess was still unfamiliar with