NPC into Player: Let's Wreck This Game

"We need to go fast or else those monsters will just spawn again," the NPC advised.

"Alright, everyone let's head forward," Bloom shrugged as despite all this great number of kills he got; he didn't level up yet!

He was so near to gain a new level, but it seemed he had to wait for the seventh forest layer to be cleared.

Just as he walked with the NPC while the girls kept collecting the dark sand non-stop, he received different notifications about his pets being killed.

"Wow, that next layer sounds like trouble already," he muttered while checking his dark point reserve. "Not enough," he shook his head as he had less than thirty five thousand of points so far.

"What about the missions?" he opened the quest bar in the dark auction to be met with many ongoing missions he had; yet none were completed yet.

"Sigh, it seems I will have to wait for a couple more hours," he closed the interface while glancing over the silent atmosphere of this forest.

His one thousand girls were already dispersed all over the layer to collect his dark sand, but for him what they gained wasn't even enough to use the bow and create a large army of pets.

He knew those monsters died because of the overwhelming numbers of their adversary. "I bet starting from the next layer, the monsters will be more aggressive even to other monsters," he muttered as this was the only explanation he had regarding such an outcome.

"At least you have three layers to clear," the NPC said before adding, "this is much faster than what I had in mind."

"But not that enough," Bloom shook his head. He had this vague feeling that Dockrey will push his henchmen with all his might to make him advance more. "That Panty will surely start his quest soon," he believed that.

"I need to finish here soon and be ready for him," he decided before thinking about what happened in the ceremony.

"That girl… she seems more amused by these games," he shook his head while recalling the tricky talk with Peri at the ceremony. "Should I play further with her then?" he smirked while considering hiding his ID and letting her know about another ID of him.

"Hahaha, yeah, I like this idea," he was amused when he finally crossed the layer finally and entered the safe zone. "Sunny was supposed to be the dark ID for me, yet as long as she wants to play this way then she should meet him," he was immersed in his own thoughts when a big bang suddenly erupted at the eighth layer up front, startling him.

"What's going on there?" he muttered while the rest of his pets were killed instantly by this big bang.

"I think…" the NPC paused for a moment there before his eyes got widened, "it's the Grator!"

"The… what?" Bloom asked in confusion.

"A special kind of monster living here in the lost mines," the NPC shook his head before adding, "it was supposed to be the last boss, why is it here in this layer?"

Bloom understood the meaning of his words. "Do the mines have only one of these?" he asked.

"yes, only one for your current level of the challenge."

Bloom understood his meaning. "Is the challenge difficulty the same? Can it level up?"

"Never," the NPC shook his head before adding, "it's the only Grator here, and it seemed we need to be ready."

"For what?"

"This one… it didn't follow the rules of this place," the NPC bitterly said.

"The levels?" Bloom asked, "is its level higher than normal?"

"Not the levels," the NPC shook his head, "it doesn't recognize any safe zones!"

The words of the NPC made Bloom nervous instantly, and the rising ruckus coming from the eighth layer, getting closer to them added more to this feeling. "What should we do now?" Bloom hurriedly asked.

"Don't know," the NPC paused, "run?" he suggested in a weird tone.

"Sigh, give me more data," Bloom demanded as he had to face this one sooner or later.

"It's a giant monster with a panther agile body and long broad head with many horns. It can stand on two legs, or on four, can fight standing, or suddenly jump to attack you. Its skin has such a natural defensive layer that blocks many attacks and reduces any damage by half at least."

The words of the NPC made Bloom realize how much difficult it was to face such monsters. And the most shocking thing was, this wasn't everything about it.

"What's more?" Bloom demanded, "his skills, tell me about them."

"Sigh, this is tricky," the NPC showed a struggling expression before adding, "it has a myriad of skills that it will randomly pick three of them each hour to use."

Bloom glanced in a strange way towards him. "What do you even mean by that?"

"If the fight is prolonged for more than one hour, or we run away and return later to hit it; the skill set will be different."

These words made Bloom realize how hard it was to kill such a monster. "So it's either we hit to kill or totally avoid it, right?"

"Sure, but it has such a wide detection range, so running away is hard if we don't move out now!"

The panic in his voice made Bloom sigh. "I wanted to test it first," he said before adding, "what if I tricked him? Using my clones for that?"

"It won't work," the NPC shook his head, "if this is the last layer then I would strongly suggest this tactic for you. But this… even if your clones made it run a layer apart from us, we still have three layers to clear. It's not going to work."

"It's a retreat then," Bloom was unwilling to retreat now, but he knew what the NPC said was the only solution he had right now. "Alright, retreat," he said before adding, "but the previous layers will have their monsters appear anytime soon, right?"

"That's a risk we have to take," the NPC answered while he ran alongside Bloom and the army of girls.