Chapter XVI - Wolves’ Den 1

Marcus turned to the other two "I won't force you to join me in Insanity, but it really is the best option. The bigger the risk the higher the reward right?"

The twins turned as they looked at each other. Marcus began wondering how they could communicate with just their eyes but after a few moments, Mawu turned towards him and nodded "We'll follow your lead." Lisa turned as well and nodded.

Marcus nodded and the tree approached the black portal. Marcus extended his hand as the system chimed.

"Insanity" Marcus replied as the portal turned a deep crimson red.

"Including myself, three!" Marcus replied once more:

<…>

<Complete! Please enter the portal!>

Marcus approached the portal and stepped through casually as the twins followed. They all felt a tingling sensation followed by a flashing white light.

Time limit 30:00 minutes.

Objective: Slay the Alpha Pair of the pack.

Sub-Objective: Slay the Beta Pair of the pack.

Slay the Omega Pair of the pack.

In Easy it was only one of the omega pair, Normal was the omega pair and one of the beta pair, Hard was both omegas and both betas, and Insanity increased it by added the two strongest wolves.

Marcus began explaining "We will be using up almost the entire 30 minutes, the wolves will attack us in groups of 3, the first bosses will not have any adds (additional monsters) while the beta will have 1 set of 3 wolves, and the alphas will have 2 sets of 3 wolves with them.

Getting to the bosses will be really easy, we will each solo a single wolf and then join up with the next one and gang up on them until they die. Don't get too cocky however, this is Insanity difficulty so every wolf will be level 10 or higher. They're still based off the level 5 Grey Wolf however, so they don't have any special skills like the boars did."

The twins nodded wondering how Marcus knew everything. They came to the consensus that he must have partook in a secret beta or alpha test.

"The omega pair doesn't have any special skills either, they just have higher stats than what we are going to be facing. The beta pair and the alpha pair also have the ability to summon additional reinforcements when they do their Howl ability. We need to make sure to take out the small fry first, if there is even a single wolf alive besides the pair, instead of summoning more reinforcements, it's a very potent attack and speed buff.

Lastly, we must make sure to kill the pairs as closely to each other as we can. If their mate dies they go berserk and if they use the howl ability, it increases the number of wolves summoned to 4 AND it does the attack and speed buff."

The twins nodded and understood the assignment. "Mawu you take point and take it very slowly, if you see a wolf, shoot one in the eye and stay as far back as you can, their aggro range is more than you'd expect. I'll rush forward and engage mine and then you take care of the one you shot as Lisa grabs the last one. Take your time and don't take the shot unless you can hit it in the eye, we'll follow your pace." Marcus provided the last piece of advice before the trip began to slowly make their way through the tunnels.

Mawu stealthily crouched his way through the tunnels his bow already nocked and as soon as he saw the first group of mobs he drew the string back and began following the pacing of a particular wolf. As he began leading the wolves' trajectory, he took a deep breath before unleashing the projectile.

Shortly a loud yelp was heard followed by two howling wolves before they began charging at the group. Marcus and Lisa both charged forth weapon and shields in hand. Both blocking the wolves attacks and allowing Mawu to dash between the two and engage the last one.

The wolf was snarling with the arrow sticking out of its eye blood dying it's grey fur as it bared teeth at Mawu, had the absolute advantage in this situation as his Pike far outreached the wolf and with his accuracy reduced, it couldn't dream to land an attack on him. He would thrust and back-step and repeat this over until the wolf would go down before going to help his sister.

Lisa had an easier time than Marcus as she had greater reach and could jab at the wolf and block it's pounces with her shield or dodge backwards and thrust with her superior range. She knew Mawu would help her first so she would play the defensive and wait for him to clean up his maimed wolf.

Marcus while still in a good position due to his passive and having an active skill, was always in the most danger. Having the shortest reach out of the group, he had to get close and ugly with the wolf before he could launch a counterattack.

Block! Chip damage taken! [Rush] damage dealt! Block! Chip damage taken! Attack… repeat over and over until Rush's cooldown was up and use it to counter attack again. This was Marcus' mantra as he focused on the fight until his partners would be able to join in and the pack of wolves would die.

Grey Wolf slain!

300+30 EXP

Level Up!

Everyone received the same message. After the first group of wolves was defeated, everyone had gained a level!

"Status"

Name: Nobody

Faction: Order of Balance

Guild: <None>

Title: <None>

Class: Squire

Level: 7

EXP: 173/1168

Sub-Class: <None>

HP: 260+26

STA: 170+17

MP: 100+10

STR: 12+1

AGI: 12+1

DEX: 5

END: 12+1

VIT: 12+1

FCS: 5

INT: 8

LCK: 6

Piety: 0

Fame: 15

Infamy: 0

Skills: Rush Lv 1 {48%}

Profession: Basic Butchery Lv 2 {0%}

Spells: <None>

Abilities: Boost Lv1 {20%}

Pet: <None>

Mount: <None>

Companion: <None>

Partner: <None>

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