The Perilous Den of Snakes

The moment Su Chen's voice subsided…

Zhou Pengtai, who rarely experienced low-level players talking back to him instantly blew a fuse.

This was especially frustrating since his original intention was to merely tease the level 13 newbie.

How dare this weakling act so impudently towards me!

Do you actually think that you stand a chance against me, a level 20 Swordsman, all because you have two pieces of green rank equipment!?

His gaze gradually turned cold as they swept past Su Chen's face.

"Alright, alright, back to business. We still need one more member."

Seeing this, Xue Feng immediately spoke up in an attempt to clear up the tense atmosphere in the air.

"Ha."

Zhou Pengtai suppressed his emotions and looked at the green rank equipment on Su Chen with a sinister smile.

Then, the anger and greed in his heart surfaced, and the beginnings of a plan began to form in his mind.

However, he chose not to shed all pretense of cordiality at this moment. Instead, he smiled and nodded at Xue Feng. Following that, he then pulled the Ice Mage behind him to the side and began discussing matters with him.

Noticing that Zhou Pengtai had now dragged the Ice Mage away, Xue Feng decided that there was no need to give further reasons to dissuade Zhou Pengtai. He was also not worried that there would be any bad blood during the expedition later, as friendly fire would be turned off in the party settings, which would in turn, prevent Su Chen from entering harm's way, at least from party members.

Meanwhile, Su Chen could not be bothered to deal with Zhou Pengtai's tantrum. Instead, he decided to focus his attention on the manpower shortage instead. Suddenly, he was reminded of Qiao Yi, the Heavy Shield Warrior who was on his team when he was doing the class quest. Thus, he decided to contact him.

Qiao Yi was ecstatic upon receiving Su Chen's message, so much so that he immediately agreed to Su Chen's request.

Su Chen then relayed the good news to Xue Feng.

"I have a friend who's almost level 12, and he's a Heavy Shield Warrior. Most of his stats are specced into Defense, and I've already asked for his availability. He'll be able to join at a moment's notice. Do you want to take him in?"

"Level 12? Hmm... Alright, are you sure that he's available?"

Xue Feng asked again to reconfirm.

"I'm certain. You can add him as a friend and send him the quest invite." Su Chen nodded.

"Alright, with that, we've settled the manpower requirements. Now, if anyone wishes to settle some things in real life, feel free to log out and handle them."

"We'll reassemble outside Fengwu Town at 7 a.m. tomorrow in Ark time."

Upon officially listing the quest within the system, Xue Feng then sent an invitation to Su Chen and the rest of the members, including Qiao Yi. Everyone accepted the invite.

Once the group dispersed, Su Chen then returned to the inn to continue failing at forging equipment.

In the end, he managed to raise the number of his failed forging attempts to 15, and the success rate of his enchantments had risen to 30%.

A night had passed in Ark time.

Upon daybreak, Su Chen, Qiao Yi, Xue Feng, and the rest of the party had gathered outside of Fengwu Town.

After explaining the details of the mission, everyone then vanished as they activated their teleportation talismans.

They were heading towards the [ Thousand Snakes Lair ] .

...

"This is a reliable piece of information that I bought at a hefty price. Within the Thousand Snakes Lair lies a level 25 Twin-headed Snake Boss. Not only does it have high HP and Defense, all of its attacks are also imbued with poison. It is a rather difficult foe to deal with."

"However, the four of you below level 16 need not worry about that. Your mission is to simply escort us to the middle section of the lair, and to help us deal with the level 20 Boss and any monsters before that."

"Your escort mission will come to an end once we defeat the level 20 Boss. Should the level 20 Boss drop any sort of equipment, I'll adjust your payment based on the price of the equipment dropped, no need to worry."

Xue Feng's voice echoed in the party's voice chat as he explained in greater detail.

"Also, please take extra caution once we enter the lair. Obey my instructions, and be wary of any players who we might possibly cross paths with. Although the probability of such an encounter should be small, it is not completely zero."

[ Thousand Snakes Lair ]

Upon using up all of their teleportation talisman charges, the party of eight had finally arrived at an obscure entrance in front of the Thousand Snakes Lair.

The party's composition was as listed below.

Standing at the forefront was the level 21 [ Heavy Swordsman ] Xue Feng, followed by the level 17 [ Assassin ] Mu Long, then the level 18 [ Crossbowman ] Mu Lin, followed by the level 20 [ Long Swordsman ] Zhou Pengtai.

As for the ones guarding the rear, there were the level 15 [ Double Shield Warrior ] Li Xing and the level 15 [ Bowman ] Zhang Ming who had been introduced by Zhou Pengtai.

Aside from the two, there was also the level 13 [ Fire Mage ] Su Chen, and the now level 12 [ Heavy Shield Warrior ] Qiao Yi, who had spent all nights grinding mobs to reach that level.

The difference in levels between the frontline and the rear was very obvious.

Moreover, from the way Xue Feng had given his instructions, it was also clear that Xue Feng and his merry band of four were the real crew of this undertaking. Su Chen personally believed that the four were taking a larger cut of the rewards as compared to the four of them in the rear.

The four of them pulling up the rear were likely nothing more than cannon fodder to be fed to the monsters and mini Bosses along the way.

However, Su Chen was unperturbed by this.

After all, he could not care less about the gold coins, and his aim had been the recommendation letter for the [ Demon Worshipping Court ] all along.

Based on the transmigration system's description, the recommendation letter would turn into a Map Fragment for the Guardians once the Guardian System had officially come online.

"Just to reiterate, the four of you will be rewarded with 400 Gold Coins, and you will also be compensated for any potions you've depleted during this expedition. Aside from that, the one among the four of you who makes the greatest contribution in battle will also be given a letter of recommendation for the [ Demon Worshipping Court ]."

Xue Feng stopped and turned around to look at the four guarding the rear. He wanted to give them a final reminder to avoid any monetary disputes halfway through the quest.

Su Chen, Qiao Yi, and the others nodded.

"Alright, the mission shall now commence!"

"The first part of the Thousand Snakes Lair is filled with a bunch of low level small snakes. Save up your stamina and skills while you're in this portion of the cave."

"Once we start encountering level 20 mobs, feel free to go ham. No need to worry about your potion usage, I'll reimburse the cost of any potions you've consumed while you're taking part in this mission!"

Xue Feng waved his hand and led everyone into the lair of snakes.

Not long after they had entered the lair. Mu Long then asked Xue Feng, "Brother Xue, what's that [ Demon Worshipping Court ] letter that you mentioned earlier?"

"Why are you handing it to them instead of keeping it to ourselves?"

Hearing this, Zhou Pengtai grinned and replied in Xue Feng's stead.

"Haha, Mu Long, that item's merely a gimmicky collectible. I used to have one too. I got mine from an easily triggerable [ Swordsman ] hidden quest."

"But it's actually not worth much. All it's good for is to unlock follow-up story quests. There's no harm in handing it to them. I'm sure Old Brother Xue here would never hand anything good away to others."

"Although your words ring true, insult me again, and I swear that I'll cut you in half."

Xue Feng did not refute Zhou Pengtai's claims as they were all true.

Once Su Chen and the others had caught up to the front liners, Xue Feng and the other three immediately went silent.

The snake den was extremely dark.

Xue Feng took out a white rank Illumination Pearl from his storage bracelet and instantly, their surroundings became as bright as day.

"We'll start encountering snake monsters once we make this turn here. We'll need to defeat those snake monsters as quickly as possible. The level 25 snake boss has a fixed weakened state schedule, and I've planned our timing around that weakened state in mind."

"Let me make this clear. If there's any delays in the first half of this expedition, I'll be deducting you four's rewards."

Xue Feng's words rang out loud and clear as he conveyed the layout of the snake den to his party members. He was not afraid of leaking the information out as the level 25 boss that dwelled in the den only spawned once a year in [ Ark ] time."

Everyone continued to advance.

Sure enough, they soon encountered several level 3-6 small snake monsters that could be easily defeated in a single hit.

After walking for dozens of meters, the party of eight soon reached an opening. What laid before their eyes intimidated them a little.

After all, there were dozens of level 12 pythons blocking their path.

Xue Feng stopped and turned around to look at his party members.

"Come here for a moment. What stands before us is the first obstacle of our expedition."

"These snakes that you see blocking our path are a minor obstacle compared to what's waiting for us at the end of the hall!"

Hearing that, Su Chen then brought Qiao Yi to stand beside Xue Feng, whereas the other two gathered around Zhou Pengtai instead.

"Once we take care of the snake monsters guarding the opening, we'll be able to spot a massive pit. There'll be a path on both sides of the pit that we can use to continue forward."

"While taking care to avoid falling into the pit, we'll also need to fend off any snake monsters that attack while we're at it. Remember, our priority in that situation is to avoid falling into the pit."

"There are quite a number of snake monsters below the pit. There are even two level 15 bosses. They are very difficult to deal with and their item drop rate is very low. Fighting them is not a good use of our time."

"Moreover, since I doubt that there are any Grandmaster [ Gourdmasters ] in our party, once you die, that's it. No one will resurrect you, and you can kiss your quest rewards goodbye! So, all of you had better be on your toes!"

Xue Feng warned everyone of the obstacles in their way to avoid any needless casualties.

However, while he was talking, Zhou Pengtai, who had now learned about the enemies lying in wait within the pit, immediately gave his underlings Zhang Ming and Li Xing a meaningful glance. The two instantly realized what he was going at.

"No Problem!"

At the same time, Qiao Yi nodded, indicating that he understood.

Without delaying any further, the party of eight then unleashed their skills onto the python monsters guarding the entrance.

Xue Feng took the lead and unleashed a Double Chop with his massive broadsword.

367!

398!

The level 12 snake monster was considered to be a fragile monster before his strength, and with that, he had managed to kill it in a single skill!

At the same time, Mu Long's figure suddenly rippled like the surface of a lake before seemingly vanishing into thin air.

652!

72!

Using one of his [ Assassin ] class skills, he suddenly appeared beside one of the snake monsters and unleashed a sneak attack, dealing extra damage because of it!

However, the damage from the sneak attack was not quite enough, and thus, Mu Long quickly followed it up with an extra attack, finally killing it!

Meanwhile, Su Chen felt that the snake monsters were not worth using mana against, and thus, he attacked normally instead.

Once all the snake monsters had been taken care of, the eight of them then exchanged glances and nodded at one another.

They returned to their previous two subgroups and entered the opening. With that, they They had officially entered the middle section of the Thousand Snakes Lair. They looked at the empty pit and the path further ahead and were surprised were surprised at the lack of snake monsters.

This struck them as odd.

"Don't just stand there. Hurry up and move!"

However, Zhou Pengtai snapped at them.

Everyone stuck close to the narrow path on both sides of the cave and carefully walked forward.

However, the moment they were halfway through, something unexpected occurred!

Countless snake monsters appeared from both below and above the lair!

Hundreds of snake monsters pounced on them in the narrow tunnel!