Hard mode. Everyone stared at the gate of the dungeon which became red and then entered the dungeon.
Almost immediately a horde of vulcans assaulted the party which was quickly dealt with. However, no one relaxed just yet.
With higher difficulty in the dungeon, the main issue was the different bosses. That was where the real challenge would start.
And soon the group arrived at the first boss, the three-headed vulcan demon that dealt both fire and dark element damage.
"In this mode, the demon can start spewing its main attack at any random time and not just at every 10% of its health reduction," Liam warned.
He then created a bigger stone-walled safe area this time around near the corner of the ruins.
Everyone, even the melee players stood near the stone place for the entire fight except for the tanks.
Only Liam and Luna moved freely and one out of the three tanks stood next to the fight and handled the aggro.
After the 'sea of flames' attack, the tank then switched out with the next tank in line. In this manner, the fight was smoothly resolved within a couple of minutes.
When the experience notifications rang loudly, no one could believe that they were actually running a dungeon on hard mode. It seemed no different than the normal mode.
These same events repeated for the second boss as well when the serpentine vulcan started commanding the several eggs it had laid under the surface of the ruins.
These eggs hatched during the boss fight and started attacking the individual players while the vulcan also slithered in and out of the ground as it pleased.
The difficulty of the fight had definitely increased but still… every time a small serpentine vulcan attacked a player, Liam appeared next to them in the span of a second and took care of the extra.
The entire process seemed utterly effortless and the second boss was also quickly defeated.
And once again, their party leader had carried them through another boss in the hard mode of a dungeon. In front of Liam, everything everyone seemed to do only amounted to nothing.
Just how much was the difference between a Level 50 player and others? Do they really get such a huge boost in strength?
Counting all the experience points they received, the group was once again energetic as everyone wanted to reach Level 50 as soon as possible. Perhaps the real game started only then.
The group then arrived at the ten-horned third boss who previously had used his horns to summon bolts of lightning that were served next to a tornado.
And this time, all of his horns were combined together to form a unicorn-esque huge horn that shot out bolts of lightning all throughout the fight.
This horn was also tougher, probably meant to be very difficult for the players to deal with. However, with just a few attacks, it was cleanly shaven off the demon's head.
The fight after that was just like before and the boss was quickly put down, the group also arriving at the last boss at record speed.
At first, everyone expected at least this fight to be more difficult than the normal mode because it was the last boss but once again just like all of the previous runs, this guy was again fumbling and cursing at the stone deity.
"Boss, you are bullying the poor guy!"
"Am I?" Liam smiled and used the nether that the poor corrupted priest had saved up to pummel him and slaughter him.
The next instant the series of notifications rang loudly.
[Ding. Congratulations. You have successfully defeated the Corrupted Vulcan Priest]
[Ding. Congratulations. You have completed the dungeon run]
[Ding. Congratulations. You are the first to clear dungeon 'Darkhold' on hard difficulty. Your grand achievement will be etched in history]
[DING. Kingdom Announcement: Congratulations to the 'Crimson Abyss' guild party for the first clear of the dungeon 'Darkhold' on hard difficulty.]
[DING. Realm Announcement: Congratulations to the 'Crimson Abyss' guild party for the first clear of the dungeon 'Darkhold' on hard difficulty.]
"Eh? We didn't trigger the hidden boss this time too?" Alex scrolled through the various announcements and wondered out loud.
Typically, the speed at which the dungeon was cleared played a huge factor in triggering the hidden boss.
This was especially the case in hard mode dungeons and nightmare mode dungeons. So technically in this run, they should have faced the hidden boss.
However, no such thing appeared?
"No. We did not get the hidden boss." Liam mumbled in deep thought. He then fiddled with the couple of drops from the boss as he gazed at the stone deity in the temple hall.
"I think I know how to trigger it. Let's do it in the next run." He then distributed the first bracelet drop and kept the second one to himself.
His hand was now stacked with four bracelets, giving him an additional buff of 10 stat points in agility, intelligence, and strength. They clanged together as Liam pushed them all down.
"Let's move! Time for the last run!"
Everyone gulped and quickly obeyed. Other than Liam, only Alex and Mia had already experienced dungeon runs on this difficulty level before.
Even for the divine affinity players, this was the first nightmare mode run. So everyone was nervous. The tiredness as well was not making it easy.
"Boss, shall we run after a small break?" One person suggested but Liam simply smiled at him. "It should be fine."
"Ah." The person couldn't say anything after that and nervously nodded.
5 minutes later…
The dungeon portal once again glowed brightly and this time it was pitch black in color. "Let's go." Liam energetically shouted as if he had drunk three pots of coffee and walked in.
Everyone else as well gulped and followed him. The moment they did, two packs of vulcan demons arrived from both sides and ambushed them.
Unlike the ones before, all these demons had special carvings on their body and also looked more ferocious.
