Hell Mode

To challenge the Hell mode of a dungeon, the players need good equipment and skills, and the higher their stats, the more chances they will have to complete it. That's why, after Ye Yan thought about the matter, he took a deep breath and equipped his headgear. The one point in strength and the six in defense that it gives aren't much but can make a difference in the dungeon.

"What the hell is that?" Spell Bound widened his eyes so much that it looked his eyes were going to pop out from the eye socket.

"Pfft." When the others looked at him, they tried to hold their laughter but couldn't. Conan looked at him shocked, Qian Zhong started to laugh widely, Snow White covered her mouth to hide her smile but the mirth in her eyes was obvious, and the others just laughed.

Ye Yan is using many parts of the Goblin armor set and before he put on the headgear, he looked like a powerful warrior. He is wearing a leather corselet, pants, and boots with wooden protection, appearing very cool. But when he put on the pink leather headband, his glorious image took a 180-degree turn. The feeling that he passes is indescribable. You can't know if he is a warrior that a little girl played makeup with before he left for war, or if he was making some kind of cosplay to sing "I want to break free" from Queen.

"Why are you wearing pink of all colors?" This is the color for sissies![1]" Demon Fox couldn't understand why someone manly like Ye Yan would use a little girl's color. Sadly for him, when he spoke these words, he didn't saw the look the Snow White was giving him. Poor Demon Fox, he spoke badly of the favorite color of the girl he likes and now he will pay for it.

"It's Salmon! The color is salmon, not pink." Ye Yan said these words even when the item description is written pink.

"If you say so." Spell Bound said smirking.

"Don't worry, you are still manly," Dovakin said slapping Ye Yan's shoulder, trying to cheer his idol but almost got misunderstood again. Unbeknownst to them, one of the party members was looking at them meaningfully while imagining many potential BL stories that she could write with the two as main characters. Mage of the Cold Nights is secretly a fushoji and can't see two male friends that her dirty mind started to work, even when the males in question are totally straight. If Ye Yan and Dovakin knew what is on her mind, they probably would order an exorcism.

After so much mockery, Ye Yan almost took off the headgear but it would really be helpful in the dungeon so he swallowed his pride and with the tip of his ears red, he led everyone through the Dungeon Gate.

System: You have entered White Birch Mountain Forest on Hell mode.

As soon as they entered, an ominous feeling took over them. The map was the same but a thin mist was covering everything, decreasing the visibility only a little but giving a ghostly air to the environment.

When they got to the clearing with the three goblins, they noticed the first difference between monsters on Hell mode and the other difficulty modes. The three goblins turned from normal monsters into elites, which means that, probably, the bosses should have upgraded one rank as well, from Chieftan into Lords.

"What are we gonna do if those honeybees turned into elites?" Demon Fox asked worriedly. Fight hundreds of normal bees is hard enough already, but if they are elite monsters now, it will be impossible.

"We will be fucked, that's what will happen."Spell Bound answered him. An upgrade in rank is not the same as a simple increase in attack, defense, and intelligence. It is like a Chihuahua turning into a Mastiff, and with more spells or skills.

"If those bees are elite monsters now, it would be too overpowering. I don't think they had an upgrade in rank as well and if they do, their numbers should be less." Ye Yan gave his opinion.

"You may be right. Let's hope you are right." Conan said almost praying for things to be like Ye Yan said.

They defeat the goblins and when the honeybees appeared, it really turns as Ye Yan said. They are elites now but the number lessened, only twenty of them attacked the party. The battle was very difficult and the mages almost died, luckily, Ye Yan has the skills [Provoke] and [Roar], so he steals the aggro of the monsters. Conan got the skill [Provoke] in the last dungeon run and helped Ye Yan when his skills were on cooldown.

When they killed the last one of the twenty honeybees and started to relax, another wave with twenty bees arrived in front of them and started to attack. The bee's number, in truth, wasn't less as they thought but divided in waves. They had to defeat 15 waves of bees before they could finally relax a bit.

They took a break of 10 minutes and move on in the direction of the encampments. The items dropped were of excellent quality and the drop rate increased, at least, by 100% compared with the Torment mode. Every member of the party arrived in the last encampment with better equipment, skills, and spells.

The last encampment had ten elite goblins holding different types of weapons and a chieftan goblin that uses two-hand weapons. The problem is that they will have to fight all eleven monsters at the same time. The monsters this time can't be shared among the players because their attacks are too high and can instakill everyone but Ye Yan and Conan. The latter wouldn't fare much better than the others because he focuses on damage and has little defense compared to Ye Yan.

Ye Yan didn't know where to find the goblin chieftan that he needed to kill so he could progress in the quest [A Eunuch's Regreat] because he didn't appear in the previous modes and all the bosses in the Hell mode should be Lords. But now, he finally found out, he is an extra boss that only appears in Hell Mode. Now he needs to kill it and get his drops.

The strategy they decided to use consists in use control skills to lessen the pressure on Ye Yan while he tanks the monster. Spell Bound learned the skill [Flash] that can inflict blind in an area 2 meters wide for 3 seconds and he will use it when the situation becomes critical.

Ye Yan started the battle using [Provoke] that lower the monsters defense for 10 seconds and activate [Iron Skin] to withstand the monsters attack at the beginning of the battle because even if his dodge abilities are superb, fight against eleven monsters and one of them being a boss is not something that players at this stage of the game can attain.

Ye Yan started overexerting himself to deflect as many strikes as possible while his friends focus on one goblin at a time to kill it fast and decrease the pressure on him.

The battle is hard. He is mostly deflecting and defending while using [Dizzy Punch] on the boss every time it is off cooldown. The skill deal damage and can stun the target for four seconds, three because the boss is a chieftan. He is using his new area skill [Cleave] that is helping him build aggro and can attack multiple monsters with a lateral swing, alternating with [Provoke] and [Roar] to keep the aggro stable and deal some damage. And when it is almost impossible for him to continue, he signaled at Spell Bound for him to use [Flash] so he can breathe a little.

Every time he defends using his fan, it leaves his arms painful because his strength is lower than the boss and it is more difficult to deflect his attacks compared with the mob. He is fighting using the fan in his right hand and his weaponless left hand together with his legs to deflect the monster's strikes. He is making the most of his movement speed, attack speed, and skills to deflect the monster attacks while controlling them and prevent an OT(off-tank) from happening.

Conan and the others are hitting the monster from behind while they focus on Ye Yan. Conan is using his area skill [Clive] and the one-target skill [Impale] to deal a huge amount of damage. I Love Skooma and Mad Dog were attacking the goblins with synchrony so perfect that it looked like they were performing a dance or a strange ritual because their bodies were covered in blood. The mages were the ones that deal the most damage with the combination of their skills that they learned after many hours of studying about the elements in their job change quest.

When the Goblin Chieftan was the only monster remaining, he entered the berserk state increasing his attack power and speed. He started to use [Whirlwind] to attack all the players around him. If it was not a timely [Dizzy Punch] that succeed in interrupting the attack, the other physical classes would have died without a doubt. Conan, that failed to evade on time, was hit by the boss and left with only 10 health points.

With only Ye Yan tanking and the mages and himself attacking, the boss HP was reducing slower than before but steadily. After 3 minutes, he finally fell and the drops scattered on the ground. Ye Yan fell together with the boss but not because his health points reached zero, he just was too tired from the battle that he couldn't keep standing anymore. Even it being only a game, he could feel the tiredness for overexerted himself in his body and need some rest before they go to fight the last boss in the altar some hundred meters away from the encampment.

The others collected the loot for them to distribute according to the classes and needs before resting a little too.

"Oh my! I just find out a dirty secret of the boss!" I Love Sooma was left with wide eyes and an open mouth after seeing one of the items the boss dropped. He would never imagine that he would find such a thing in the game.

.......

[1] Pink became a girly color only after World War II. Before, boys wearing pinks and girls, blue were very common. The Nazis arrested thousands of LGBT individuals, mostly gay men and, as Jews were forced to identify themselves with yellow stars, the gay men in concentration camps had to wear a large pink triangle and the lesbian and prostitutes had to wear a black triangle. Pink is thought to have calming effects and many prisons are dye pink to try to pacify the prisoner a little. For this same reason, a University of Iowa football team painted the visitors' locker room at Kinnick Stadium pink in 1980, and in 2005, they added pink lockers and urinals!