"The new quests require items exclusively from the portal bosses," Liam announced.
"So the quality of quests really did change…" Alex gasped a little. Rey and Shin Soo also looked at Liam with determination filling their eyes.
For Liam, this wasn't all that difficult of a quest, but for normal beginners like them, this quest was indeed a challenge. They could hone their fighting skills and combat abilities a lot by continuously fighting with these elites.
It could push their current skills and help them achieve a breakthrough. All three of them were immediately itching to get started.
Seeing the three almost staring at him with puppy dog eyes, Liam helplessly chuckled. "Do you guys also want to come with me for this grind or what?"
All three instantly nodded their heads in response very vigorously that it almost looked comical. Liam did not plan for this, but he also did not mind it. There were always other things he could accomplish while waiting for the team to take care of the boss.
"Alright. Let's go then." Liam waved at them. The group first returned to the base, and picked up Shen Yue and Mei Mei as well before leaving.
Because of their initial lead, the new group ended up becoming the guild's main raid team. Everyone else looked at the departing five enviously, especially at Rey and Shin Soo who had climbed up from the bottom rungs. This just showed that hard work paid off.
However, they also had work to do. The other members of the group soon snapped out of it and started preparing for their dungeon runs.
Though the two dungeons they had discovered so far could only be run once a day, it was in itself a monumental task. The dungeons were quite big and took a lot of time to complete thoroughly.
The rewards were not that good, and the progress was slow and steady, but everyone was gradually improving with every run.
Meanwhile, high up in the sky, Luna snarled in annoyance as she once again made a flying ride for the guild members. This time all five plus Liam sat on top of her without summoning another undead flying mount because this way, they could save a lot of time.
With Luna blurring in and out at top speed, they were outside of the territory they had cleared earlier in a couple of minutes. Soon the next gate also glittered brightly in front of them.
"The elite shouldn't be too far from the gate. Look around, and let's get this over with fast." Liam commanded.
Luna growled in agreement, and the fox flew around here and there for a couple of seconds. Not long after, a huge figure came into their view. A big hippopotamus was settled well in a local community pool and was chilling calmly without any care in the world.
"What the hell?" Alex facepalmed at this sight.
Mei Mei burst out laughing, and Rey awkwardly scratched his head, "Poor thing. He looks so peaceful. Should we disturb him?"
However, just as they were laughing at the elite, the beast's eyes flashed open, and its gaze locked onto the human beings who were floating above it and staring it down.
Immediately, the beast roared in anger, and along with the loud noise, a jet of water also came right at Luna, aiming to crash her to the ground.
But how could a Level 17 elite's attack harm a celestial beast? Luna simply snorted in annoyance and lightly moved her body, dodging the attack like it was nothing.
This further enraged the hippopotamus as it jumped out of the pool and started shooting out several other jets of water.
Luna, on the other hand, calmly evaded every single one of the attacks like it was nothing. In the end, the elite even became tired after sending out so many different types of attacks one after the other.
Finally, Liam intervened. "That's enough, Luna. Just land on the ground. The others need the training."
Kyuuuu! The fox sulked as Liam did not praise her, but she landed on the ground nevertheless. Immediately Alex, Shen Yue, Mei Mei and the two boys rushed forward to start the fight.
However, this was easier said than done. While Luna had made it look so easy to dodge the attacks from the boss, the rest of the group had to struggle a lot.
In the meantime, Liam walked out of the fight and started doing his own thing. He once again summoned his scouting soul minion squad, which essentially contained Crawford, the wyverns and Dimitri, the dark elf.
The previous searches did not yield much, but he was not prepared to give up on the idea just yet. "Should I also send the rabbit out?" Liam wondered.
The rabbit definitely had an eye for treasure, but the thing was, the little creature seemed to be operating on her own will, which was why Liam had hesitated.
"Well, I can always try."
"Violet!" He called out for her, but the rabbit was a no-show. He tried a few times and then gave up. "I need to find out more about both Luna and Violet somehow."
Out of the three pets he was bound to back in the game, he had managed to bring out two of them, only leaving behind Talon, but their growth was still very stagnant, especially the rabbit.
He had no idea how to nourish them and bring out their potential.
"Let's think about that later." Liam summoned some of his other minions and let them freely run around the place, hunting whatever beasts they ran into.
Unlike their city, this place was a complete mess, with lots of damage and destruction all over. The death count was also probably high, with people still dying to the beasts every minute.
Liam did not intend to protect or save anyone from the burning buildings, but at the same time, he was here, so he simply allowed his minions to level up a bit.
If he simply went around the world saving everyone, he would ultimately fail in the bigger picture. He was clear about this and did his best to keep a balance.
After he set everything in motion, he noticed that the fight with the elite was coming to an end, so he walked back over to the group.
Shen Yue landed the last hit, and the big guy fell back with a thud, blood squirting out all over from the lethal cut on his throat.
Liam then casually lifted his hand to extract the beast's soul. By the time he reached the corpse, he was already done forging it.
Roar! Just like that, the hippopotamus was born again.
"No matter how many times I see this, I can never get used to it." Alex sighed and sat down tiredly on the ground. She and the rest of the group watched as Liam placed the corpse in the spatial artifact.
While they were engrossed in the fight, a few more of the stray beasts in this city had also come forward, and Liam swiped everything into the spatial artifact without wasting even a single beast.
He might have completed the basic quests from the shop, but the meat from these beasts was still needed to feed all the families.
As the cleanup was well underway, the portal gate a few feet away from the group also crackled and started disappearing.
"Now what? Shall we leave for the next one?" Alex asked. She let out a big loud heave and got to her feet, ready for the next round of fighting.
Liam closed his eyes and tried to sense some of his soul minions, but it looked like they were still occupied. So he gave them a few more minutes.
"Take some rest. We will leave in a bit."
Alex shrugged, and the others also did not mind. Everyone was winded after the fight. So they did not mind the break.
Soon the horde of minions returned after their respective missions, and the group looked at the army dumbfoundedly. They gulped as they watched Liam dismiss everyone and casually wave at them.
"Let's go."
The group reassembled on Luna in silence, and they started their grind right away. In the beginning, each gate took approximately an hour, but as the day went on, this time became a lot lesser.
Soon, they had taken down about twenty more gates.
"Let's return to the base." To everyone's surprise, Liam unexpectedly cut the trip short. Just as they were beginning to wonder why he'd done it, the reason became immediately clear.
When Luna landed back at the base, the scene had completely changed. There were now lines of people lined up outside the hotel, all anxiously looking for some sort of answer.
"Wow!" Mei Mei shouted and covered her mouth with her hands. Shen Yue, Rey, and Shin Soo also looked shocked. Only Alex licked her lips as she smirked slightly. "This is sooner than I expected."
