16

Soon, Cheng Yang's group of five was ready to enter the instance dungeon. He would bring more but all instance dungeons had a limit to the number of people allowed to enter a single instance.

In order to be transported to the same instance everyone needed to hold hands. If they didn't they would each arrive alone in their own instance. When the village reaches High Grade the Adventurer's Guild will be unlocked. At that point people will be able to form adventuring groups. As long as the members are within ten meters of each other when one member enters an instance dungeon they would all enter the same instance.

Right now the safe zones didn't have an Adventurer's Guild either. The buildings in the safe zones would always be those for a village one level higher than the highest level village around it. This meant that Cloud City would get a Trial Hall and an Adventurer's Guild when Phoenix Village reached Standard Grade.

Cheng Yang's group of five stood in a circle around the portal holding hands. Cheng Yang then entered the portal. When he did the surroundings changed with a flash.

There were in a large western cathedral. Although it was a church it was filled with filth and monsters.

Cheng Yang's group was standing in front of the cathedral wall's large double doors where two strange monsters patrolled.

The monster had dark red skin, a pair of short pointed horns, its back was hunched and it carried a wooden spear.

Lesser Mephit, similar to the Graveseeker it belonged to the lowest level of monsters. Despite its name it wasn't any weaker than a Graveseeker. Rather they were weaker than normal Mephits. Monsters like this were easy to kill.

Yu Kai and the others didn't know what to expect from the instance dungeon but Cheng Yang knew the layout like the back of his hand. The instance covered an area of about a square kilometer and was divided into three main areas: the grounds, the cloisters and the cathedral. Lesser Mephits would patrol the grounds and could be found inside the eight cloisters along with Mephits. Finally inside the cathedral was a Greater Mephit, the Boss of the instance dungeon.

"Yoko, where are we?" Liu Hau asked startled, he knew that it was impossible to find a western building like this near Cloud City.

"This is actually an entirely different world. as for the specifics, I'm not sure." Cheng Yang said, "Just think of it as another part of the game, moreover if we are the first to beat the instance dungeon we will receive enormous rewards."

Liu Hau and the others didn't doubt Cheng Yang's words, after all the first person to eat a crab was surprised by the taste.

This time Cheng Yang didn't take the lead but instead allowed the Warriors Old Lee and Liu Hau take the lead. He stood behind them with Yu Kai the Ranger and Lau Hui the Summoner was all the way in the back. Although his summoned wolf was at the very front the personal combat abilities of Summoners were barely better than ordinary humans.

Lau Hui's wolf ran ahead of the group drawing the aggro of the Lesser Mephits. In the early stages Summoners acted as the tank more often than Warriors, especially without a store to buy Health Recovery potions. Mana recovered faster than Health so the amount of damage a Summoner could soak up was much more than a Warrior. Although Warriors can use their shield to block damage it's not so easy to do. Monsters attacked very quickly and often in groups making it hard for Warriors to keep up. In addition if the damage is too high the Warrior would be stunned, if not for that it would be possible to create an unbreakable wall of Warrior shields.

The Lesser Mephits instantly moved to attack the wolf when they saw it, God's rules dictated that monsters would be filled with rage at the sight of a summon and thus summons would almost always have a monsters aggro.

For now, since the fight involved Low Grade creatures, neither the monsters nor summons would be able to use powerful skills. Fights between them were vicious and bloody as they fought each other with just their bodies.

Naturally it was impossible for the lone wolf to beat two Lesser Mephits but it wasn't alone. Cheng Yang and the others didn't just sit by and let the monsters kill the wolf. They each attacked with all their might turning the Lesser Mephits into streams of light in seconds.

"Alright, lets head inside." Cheng Yang said, "Don't try and move to quickly, it's best to clear an instance dungeon at a steady pace."

The others nodded in acknowledgement and the group entered the gate in an orderly fashion.

They walked through a passage and found themselves in a courtyard with an area of seven or eight hundred meters. On each side there were four cloisters which contained almost a hundred combined rooms. On the far side from the gate the cathedral sat imposingly. Among the fountains and overgrown plants of the courtyard were ten scattered Lesser Mephits.

"This is bad! We can't fight that many monsters at once!" Liu Hau gasped, as the group backed into the passage. Although the monsters weren't in a group as soon as they saw Cheng Yang and the others they would all rush up together. Although the world had become a game monsters would attack you as long as they could see you and didn't have a traditional aggro range.

"Don't worry about their numbers." Cheng Yang said with a calm smile, "Although monsters like the Lesser Mephits are smarter than beasts they are still stupid. Do you see those buildings? As long as we fight at the entrance of one of the buildings they can only trickle in one by one to fight us."

Liu Hau beamed. "That's a great idea! Let me check that building." He then ducked behind some bushes peaked at the nearest building. "The building to the left doesn't have any monsters nearby but the door is closed, it might even be locked." Liu Hau sneaked back and reported.

"Even if it's locked so what?" Cheng Yang asked calmly, "The strength of you, Old Lee and Lau Hui should be more than enough to break it down."

"That's true," Liu Hau flexed and a smile appeared on his round face, "I'm basically at the same level as Superman now."

After Liu Hau told the group the distribution of the monsters Cheng Yang told them a strategy. It was a rather simple strategy. Lau Hui would summon his wolf and have it run to the other side of the courtyard attracting all of the monsters. While it did the group would rush to the door and break into the building.

The plan went off without a hitch and the group rushed towards the building under the cover of the summoned wolf.

Liu Hau knocked open the door with a single punch and the rest followed him into the building.

In the meantime the summoned wolf had been killed by the group of Lesser Mephits and turned to dust. This was the unique way that summons died.

After killing the wolf, the Lesser Mephits looked over towards Cheng Yang's group and charged over too them. The door was quickly surrounded by Lesser Mephits.

"Block them!" Cheng Yang commanded. Liu Hau and Old Lee didn't respond but immediately filled the doorway with their shields.

A fierce battle unfolded where the Warriors could only block the Lesser Mephits from advancing and not attack, relying on Cheng Yang and Yu Kai's powerful attacks to finish off the monsters.

Cheng Yang couldn't help but admire the advantage Warriors had over other Professionals in the early stages, their shields were just too overpowered. Although it didn't have any bonuses or skills the shield itself was indestructible. Although it couldn't compare to equipment that people would find later, any equipment that isn't starter gear had a durability value and would eventually break.

The indestructible quality wasn't very obvious on the other starting gear but when a shield had that property it was incredibly useful. Just imagine, as long as the shield is intact the people behind it will never be hurt. That wasn't the case with other shields. Under the force of a full frontal attack other shields would lose durability quickly and the Warriors would be forced to attack instead of just defending.

The door wasn't very wide and could only fit a single person but the Lesser Mephits were small enough that two of them could try and go through at once.

The battle lasted almost five minutes and by the end Liu Hau and Old Lee were exhausted and in pain. Although they wouldn't take damage since they blocked with their shields, the impact of the attack wasn't negated. They could take a few hits easily but after that their arms would go numb and by the end of the battle it felt like their arms might break every time they blocked an attack.

The group didn't dare to explore the cloister they had entered and instead closed the door and meditated to recover. Liu Hau and Old Lee needed to meditate longer than the others in order for the throbbing pain in their arms to subside.

Inside the cloister was another smaller circular courtyard with twelve rooms surrounding it. One by one they opened the doors and killed the few Lesser Mephits inside.

After a little more than ten minutes they had cleared two of the cloisters. When they arrived at the third cloister they found a monster standing in the courtyard.

A Mephit stared down the group as they opened the door. It was a powerful Standard Grade monster but luckily it was alone.

Cheng Yang didn't feel concerned about running into a Standard Grade monster since he would be able to kill it even if he was alone, not to mention is a strong team.

Cheng Yang entered the room and faced off against the monster. The only difference between a Lesser Mephit and a Mephit was that the Mephit was taller and had darker skin.

The Mephit immediately charged at Cheng Yang when he entered. Not missing a beat Cheng Yang fired the magic missile he had prepared and then rushed back out the door.