[Party] Fearless: Are you going to carry me or not?
After his phone call, Xu Wei had considered not returning to the game tonight, but then he remembered that new players get a little bonus to their exp since the vast majority of players on the server were near or at the cap level. For the first five days, players would get a 15% bonus to quest and dungeon exp, while it wasn't large, it was large enough that he wasn't about to pass on it.
Besides, the sooner he got to levelling, the sooner he would reach his goal and be able to quit the game and live in peace again.
So, after he threw Shin Bao under the bus, he grabbed another drink and came to find Shin Bao, who was so shameless that he didn't even get off the game. He was doing dailies!
[Party] Bumble Bee: What did you say to her?
The response came quickly, and Xu Wei smiled like a young kid who got takeout on the way home from a day out.
[Party] Fearless: Well, she doesn't think I'm a gaming addict anymore.
There was a long pause. Xu Wei could practically hear the gears turning in Shin Bao's head from across the city.
[Party] Bumble Bee: … Did you tell her that I am?
Bingo! Xu Wei leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs underneath him with a small smirk - he figured it out so quickly this time!
He stretched his arms to let Shin Bao bask in his thoughts momentarily before he replied.
[Party] Fearless: Who will get slapped harder, me or you? Me. You can take the fall for this one.
[Party] Fearless: Wasn't it you who sent the message? Imagine what would happen to my face if she didn't believe me… She would really show up at class and drag me home!
On the other side, Shin Bao sat on his bed with his laptop on his lap, unable to retort. If he hadn't forgotten to delete the text message, how would his sausage fingers be able to send it? Even if he could retort, he finally got Xu Wei to get online…
[Party] Bumble Bee: You're right…
[Party] Fearless: (¬‿¬)
[Party] Bumble Bee: (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
[Bumble Bee wants to teleport to Crypt of a Thousand Soldiers]
Xu Wei accepted the system's message, and they appeared in a small forest in front of a light blue portal with an NPC standing next to it. The dungeon entrance.
Dungeons in this game had annoying pre-requisites to party and contest modes, such as having to complete the main quest up until the dungeon, doing a solo round, finding a specific item from the game, reaching a certain level, etc.
World boss raids were similar to dungeons, however, they happened at timed intervals throughout the continents. You could walk right past a raid happening in the middle of the map when doing your main quest, but unless you've unlocked the raid, you wouldn't be able to collect the rewards. Of course, the boss wouldn't be able to damage you either, so it was safe to continue your quest. This allowed high-level bosses to appear in a low-level continent and broaden the user experience while giving high-level players an incentive to revisit the starting areas and keep them from staying in the late-game continents or cities for too long.
Crypt of a Thousand Soldiers only had one prerequisite: Hit level 30.
Since Xu Wei had hit level 30, he was able to enter the dungeon without progressing in the main quest, which was absolutely the route he was going to take. Other than exp, there were quite a few things that Xu Wei needed from this dungeon.
The Floating Abyss armour set, which increased move speed, agility, and attack speed, was perfect for his build in the early game, and it would be able to last him until level 50 as well as give a slight bonus to dungeon exp until level 50. Along with that, he needed to get the recipes to upgrade the set from its orange form to gold, as well as to craft a weapon and accessories to go along with it.
He also needed a soldier's tear, a rare drop from this dungeon that wasn't useful now, but it could be used in a trade with an NPC in the later maps.
Bumble Bee entered the dungeon first, and Fearless entered after rechecking the drops from the monsters and bosses to make sure nothing had changed since he'd quit. Then, he walked into the portal and clicked [Crypt of a Thousand Soldiers: Party Mode - 0/5].
The Crypt of a Thousand Soldiers, being the first dungeon in the game, was one that often confused new players. Fearless and Bumble Bee stood in the middle of a field of wild flowers spreading as far as the eyes could see, and only parting briefly to allow for a dirt road that led from the depths of the forest straight to the entrance of a stronghold in front of them.
Despite being a stronghold, it didn't look intimidating. Instead, it looked like a wealthy family had moved here and created a secure courtyard, one would never guess that there were over a thousand soldiers either inside the wooden stronghold or hidden within the mountains behind.
This scene was usually quite jarring for new players who were expecting a bloody or gloomy scene because many dungeons in other games were… Well, ugly. Meant to paint the scene of an ultimate evil that must be defeated at all costs, generally filled with creatures that made people cringe in disgust.
Yet, this dungeon was ethereal. It was bright, the sun was hanging high in the sky, which only helped to illuminate the calming scene of the field they stood on. The soldiers that guarded the gate of the stronghold looked like any normal soldiers, with worn-down clothes and cheaply made swords and a slight drowsiness to their faces. They didn't look intimidating at all.
Since Bumble Bee hadn't made a move to go forward, Fearless gracefully accepted his task and leisurely approached the gate of the stronghold that was guarded by two soldiers who both leaned against the wall with their swords positioned next to them - a sight that would make any commanding officer freak out. The soldiers watched him as he approached, but they only straightened their backs when he made a move to enter the gate.
One of the soldiers stepped forward to stop him in his tracks, and Fearless stopped in place while Xu Wei's hand was still on 'W' to walk forward. He hummed, leaned back, and let the game take over.
[Stop, what is your business here?]
Since he couldn't type to respond, Xu Wei only thought, 'To kill you,' while his character responded: [We have an urgent message for the commander!]
As if to prove his point, a scroll appeared in Fearless's hand, which he then handed over to the soldier. The soldier stepped forward and, with a small hum, took the scroll from Fearless. He glanced at the seal and gave it back to him before motioning for the Night Elf to follow him into the stronghold.
Most players would be on edge at this point, wondering why they haven't been able to attack anything yet or whether this dungeon was some special dungeon that only showed remnants of the past.
They passed soldiers training casually in the courtyard, fighting against one another with wooden swords that looked a bit silly in the hands of a soldier in full silver armour. However, one had to commend them for not wanting to cause serious injury to their comrades.
If you looked carefully, you could see the inkling of a small smile on the face of one of the men who glanced toward them, but it swiftly changed into a look of nonchalance.
The commander's office was not inside the compound, but located on the lowest floor, built into the walls that served as the last defence if a war began. The soldier stopped in front of the wooden door, and suddenly, the scene disappeared. The soldier was no longer in his position, the commander's door was thrown open, and there was a handprint of blood on the doorknob.
Xu Wei straightened his back and took over control of his character again. He turned around, only to be shoved back as a soldier was thrown directly into his arms, as a talisman blew up in the courtyard.
He clicked his tongue and thrust the sword into the back of the soldier. "That was a bit rude, wasn't it?"
As the soldier fell to the ground, Fearless stepped over his body and walked into the courtyard.
Bumble Bee was already in the middle of the courtyard, throwing talismans out as if he were handing out candy to a crowd of small children on Halloween, instead, in this case… He was throwing expensive, explosive candy around while his character chanted and drew in the air with his other hand.
The talisman class was the ultimate class for multitaskers.
Fearless swiftly avoided the soldiers that aggro'd onto him, his body moving with the wind as he danced over the bodies that were already accumulating on the floor as he made his way behind Bumble Bee. Once he'd secured his position, he only moved to deliver the final blow to the soldiers that didn't die under Bumble Bee's barrage of talismans.
He wasn't joking about being carried - he didn't have the power to make it through this dungeon without being carried yet, as the Night Elf was an inherently weak class in the early game. He needed the armour from this dungeon in order to survive in this dungeon without a healer or a tank.
This dungeon could have become an hour-long cut scene, and it had for many players before they figured out the mechanics. They would have been stuck in that cutscene, assuming that it was a story mode dungeon like other games had done in the past, met the commander, and handed over the letter, which was actually a refusal of any aid from the imperial palace in the mortal realm due to a lack of military funding. Then, feeling empathetic, the player would have stayed in the camp for a while to help out free of charge, become friends with some of the soldiers, close buddies to the commander… And by the time the cutscene had ended, their character would be hanging dead off the front of the compound overlooking the field of flowers, and the player would be teleported out of the dungeon.
There was a lot of trial and error on how to complete this dungeon, with some players directly progressing without doing it at all. Some players had even quit since every single time they entered the compound, they would die.
It took a full week for players to realize that if they stole the flame torch on the eastern side of the compound and lit the field of flowers on fire, they would deactivate the illusion and find themselves in the real dungeon.
However, in party mode, the same mechanics didn't work. Instead, one player would need to get trapped in the illusion while the other players stealthily destroyed all of the plotted flowers in the compound without being found out.
The men here had long since betrayed the empire and conspired with a late-game continent's empire to take over this one.
None of that was relevant early game, but late game, admitting that you defeated this liege of soldiers in a conversation with a wandering NPC could get you banned from the cities of the fourth continent and lead you into another main quest route.
Within five minutes, Bumble Bee had cleared out all of the soldiers in the compound, and the two players went to find the hidden loot boxes after grabbing the boss loot.
[Party] Bumble Bee: How many times do you want to do this?
Xu Wei looked at his experience point bar.
[Party] Fearless: About… 11. More if the gear doesn't drop. Why, are you tired?
Shin Bao wanted to say yes, but he could only shake his head and continue carrying Xu Wei through the dungeon until he was happy.
It was 17 times.
He used up half of his [Reset Tokens] that reset dungeons before the two-hour reset mark was, just to help Xu Wei level.
By the time they got off the game, it was past four in the morning, and Xu Wei had just hit level 40.