Inside the 'Darkhold' ruins, near the last boss, a group of players were tiredly lying on the ground like dead dogs.
This was the fifth time they had continuously run the dungeon. Everyone was aching all over the body. This speed was simply too much for them.
The only plus point was the experience points.
The system was dinging constantly with experience points notifications. A couple of them had even leveled up twice in just these few hours.
However, at this moment, no one cared about that. They just wanted to rest a little.
In the midst of this lifeless group, one guy alone was contently looking at the awesome haul in his lap. There were a total of 10 cracked demonic cores.
Not all runs gave the same amount of core shards, so after five complete dungeon rounds, he only had ten cores in total instead of fifteen.
"Alright. Shall we go for the next one?" Liam shoved everything back into his inventory slots and stood up, stretching his limbs.
He got one more good skill book in the last run and he couldn't wait to try it out.
Skill book drops were quite rare so even getting three of them for the five runs was still considered quite good luck.
Liam looked at the three new skills that he added to the repertoire.
[Ring of Fire]
[Sizzling Tornado]
[Dark Cutter]
The last few hours had indeed been very protective. "It's fine. As long as you guys are trying your best, we can go for it." Liam smiled at the tired looking bunch.
Unable to say no to the tyrant, everyone dragged their tired bodies onwards.
Thankfully, Liam was not lying. He alone carried the dps section of the party.
Alex and Mia, both were still fresh as new and the few divine affinity players they were personally grooming were also in a slightly better condition.
Only the other less experienced players were completely dead, but in this category, three players were doing a lot better than the rest.
These three were also the ones Liam had his eye on. Coincidentally all three of them were mages. So he gave them a few tips from time to time.
"Ok! Listen up, everyone! This run could be considered as a rest run for you guys! So make sure not to overdo anything."
"We will be doing the hard mode next and the nightmare mode the turn after, so everyone should rest properly and work out any kinks in this round itself."
Liam did not stop and shouted while still slaughtering the vulcans in front of him. Everyone silently nodded. Before they were at least somewhat trying but now they really did take a break.
Hard mode and nightmare modes of the dungeon runs were not a joke. They definitely cannot pull through in their current condition.
So everyone properly rested while continuing to walk alongside Liam and the other players. Of course, from time to time they tossed in a few attacks and they did the mechanics for the boss.
The run was soon completed and this time the haul was even worse than the previous run. It was as if the system itself was discouraging the players from repeatedly farming the same dungeon.
"Only about one and a half demonic core. Tch." Liam clicked his tongue.
"How much more do you need?" Mia asked.
"It's fine. Running hard mode and nightmare mode should give us some good drops."
"Liam, actually. I am not sure if it is a good idea to do that right now." Mia sighed.
"Huh? What happened?"
"What else? If we go up, there is always someone wanting to pull us back down." Alex sneered.
"She is talking about the other guilds in the Gresh Kingdom. They are getting restless." Mia added.
"Hmmm."
"I bet it's those idiots. They are fanning the flames behind our back."
"Oh? Are you both talking about the coalition guild something?"
"Ya. The coalition of righteous. It's those idiots." Alex spat angrily. "Some of the other top-tier guilds are also talking."
"Basically, they are now calling us a terrorist guild and an anti-national guild because we ran dungeons after the governments issued the ban."
"Some of our guild members quit because they are worried if they would land in trouble from being associated with us."
"Ya and someone is purposefully bringing up our names again and again. Since our identities are not like yours, we are easy targets."
"Hmmm. I see." Liam nodded.
It was indeed true that these things were a big issue for Mia and Alex. Their names were too famous. Unlike him who was hidden, these two were practically celebrities.
"Alright. Let's just run the hard mode and nightmare mode. After that, you both can log out and send out a message that you had only just noticed the news."
"You can even say that you won't be logging anymore. I mean don't worry about it."
"You can log in right after you post that message on social media but stick to maybe finishing your divine temple questline," Liam explained his thoughts.
"Wouldn't this affect your farming?" Alex asked.
"No. You saw how ineffective it was becoming. We could always run the hard mode and nightmare mode later tomorrow to get more cores, but it's not worth it."
Liam shook his head. "Focus on your quests."
"Besides, I also don't know just how effective these cracked cores are. If it is something useless, then we would have wasted the time for nothing." He bitterly smiled.
He knew better than anyone else that this system was always unpredictable.
If he assumed too much and sunk too much time on a 'loophole' then, in the end, he would be the one to get bitten on his ass.
"Alright. We will do that." Both Alex and Mia agreed. What Liam suggested seemed to be a good practical plan.
"Oh and Alex, before I forget. Can you use your two lackeys… ahem… I mean followers to find out what those coalition idiots are up to."
"It's been a while and it looked like they forgot. It is time I teach them a lesson. Maybe also complete my soul devourer quest." Liam grinned, not speaking that last part out loud.
Alex looked at him strangely and then agreed. How is he going to teach them a lesson? She then sighed and decided to ask him later.
She opened her interface and sent out the message. The group then hurriedly finished the rest of the run and walked back to the entrance to start the next run, the much dreaded hard mode.
