NPC into Player: Let's Wreck This Game

Bloom glanced all around while not knowing what to say. He was exactly feeling much doubt towards this place and the first thing he thought of was one thing… Who caused all this? Was he or it alive so far or not?

"Boss, are we going in there?" another player asked while his face told Bloom how much afraid he was.

"C'mon, it's just a game," Bloom laughed trying to lessen the pressure, "in the worst case scenario we will lose a level or two."

"At this stage losing a level wastes a lot of time," Antoan muttered what others had in mind right now.

"And that would only keep increasing with time," Bloom said, "it's an endless pit, and we need to adapt to this bitter fact."

He turned around before muttering, "but first we need to find ourselves a nice path to walk in."

"I'll send some boys to scout," Antoan suggested and after Bloom gave him the nod he selected five weapon holder players to go to the front and search the area.

Bloom kept his place trying to find a way in. "This is… just like a gigantic maze," he sighed as no path he selected extended more than a couple of miles up front.

"Do you think this is the trick here?" Antoan said with bright eyes, "you know I love puzzles and mazes… let me try to solve it then."

"We don't have an overall view over it," Bloom sighed. He didn't recall Antoan loved such a thing before from Terry's memories, but as long as Antoan volunteered to solve this then he wouldn't disagree.

"We can go that way," a player said, "that hill can provide us a better view."

"Sounds good," Bloom led the others towards the hill while Antoan sent messages to those five, telling them about their new location.

"There are monsters on the hill," one player shouted from the front and Bloom couldn't help but move fast to the forefront.

"These monsters… they are those dark ones I fought before."

They weren't like the monsters spreading now in the entire game, but like the monsters he fought before inside the lost mines. "Their levels are quite higher than before," he noticed their aura and felt intimidated by them.

"We have our leveler," Antoan said in confidence, "I don't think they can be that troublesome."

"Their dashes are," Bloom recalled the hard fight he had with such monsters before, "we need to spread out our pets as shields to negate their dash skills."

"Works for us," Antoan said, "boys, bring up the pets and let's clear this hill."

The team moved fast and in no time they sent their pets to attack the large group of a hundred and fifty monsters up front.

"Roar!"

Just as one pet stepped over the hill ground, the entire herd of monsters roared and the next instant they started to move fast towards the incoming pets.

"Boss… it's bad," a shield bearer player at the front shouted in warning, "the leveler isn't working!"

Bloom noticed this at the same time. Just as the first monsters clashed with their pets, he realized their levels didn't show any signs of decrease.

Their damage was astronomically high, exceeding twenty thousand at least. As for their attacks, they didn't cause higher than five thousand damage.

Compared to these monsters two hundred thousand Hp it was less than a needle prick to them. "Damn!" Bloom couldn't help but wave his hand and his four swords took place, hovering over his hands, "let's see how strong you are… sword tornado."

The swords howled in the air before landing over the monsters. First no monster was sent to the air, and this was quite expected.

Then the damage that appeared on top of these monsters startled Bloom.

"Only eight, nine, and maximum ten thousands?" he muttered in disappointment. He was the highest damage dealer here but against this large group of thick blooded monsters he couldn't make any difference.

"Retreat," there was no other option here, "leave some pets and retrieve the rest."

He didn't hurry to leave while waiting for his team to disengage and run. As all ran successfully, he started to follow them.

"Persistent monsters," he cursed when he noticed the large group of monsters left the hill and started to chase them, "or is it the level difference?"

The monsters ran fast, even faster than them. "Like this we will be surrounded no matter what," he gritted his teeth, "sword tornado," he hurriedly used his skill before shouting, "use any long range skill, try to delay them as possible."

His shout made many players use their skills. Just as all the attacks landed over these monsters, something strange happened.

"The damage… it tripled!" Bloom instantly stopped running while watching tens of thousands of damage appearing on top of these monsters. "What is going on?"

He didn't know the reason, yet that didn't prevent him from cherishing it. "Turn around, let's kill them all… take all the pets, let's kill them."

The players were already fixated over these monsters and so they all noticed the obvious change in their skill effect over these monsters.

So once he shouted at them, they all stopped and took out their pets.

"Boss… the leveler is working," one player laughed, "it's working, their levels are now twenty-five."

Bloom nodded as he started his rampage over these monsters. This time each sword he waved sent a monster flying in the air, while the pets everyone summoned worked as meat shields, taking all the charges these monsters used against them.

"It's strange," Antoan said while fighting beside Bloom, "but I like it."

"Me too," Bloom laughed. The fight didn't take more than ten minutes and then they started to clear the loot. Most were materials and dark sand, with few gears that were all at level twenty-five and silver grade at most.

"Distribute the loot over the boys," Bloom casually said as he wasn't interested in those low leveled gears. As for the dark sand, he already amassed a large number of dark points from his passive quests and didn't need any extra.

After giving them another ten minutes of rest, Bloom led them again to the hill.

"Those monsters…" yet just when he walked on the hill for a couple of minutes, he faced another group of similar monsters. The first clashes with the pets and his swords proved that their levels were at least thirty-five, much higher than his and his team's abilities.

"Retreat," he couldn't help but signal the retreat once more. The players were skeptical about this but they followed his orders.

After all, staying here meant death for them.

As they ran, the monsters followed. Just after a couple of minutes the two groups got close to each other. "Even after leaving the hill… these monsters are really stubborn," Bloom complained before waving his sword tornado against the nearby monsters.

"Turn around," yet as the swords hit the monsters, all touched by them were sent flying in the air, "the leveler effect is active again."

Players turned around and summoned their pets, while he stood his place motionless for a few seconds. "So this is all about this," he suddenly muttered.

"What?" Antoan asked.

"That hill… it negated the effect of our leveler."

"But…" Antoan was about to object but he stopped as he realized what his master was implying, "we need to draw them down the hill, not fight them on it."

"Indeed," Bloom nodded before laughing, "yet it's still a nice trick… I like this game more," he laughed before turning around and started his killing spree over these monsters.

As he cracked the mechanism behind this place, he didn't need to go up and down with the entire team. "Select the fastest players," he said to Antoan, and he didn't need to explain more.

"I'll send them off now," Antoan selected ten players before explaining to everyone their next strategy. The tactic was simple, they would send those decoys to lure out the monsters off the hill and the main group would welcome them a certain distance off the hill.

Like this they started to regain their upper hand over these monsters, and in less than three hours the entire hill was effectively cleaned.

"Let's go up," Bloom ordered before leading the entire team to the highest point of the hill.

"This is a perfect spot for you," Bloom said to Antoan as most of this gigantic maze was now clear to them. The maze ran for tens of miles, centered around large trees that were placed together forming small forest.

"It's indeed a maze," Antoan nodded after observing the layout for a few minutes, "but it will need more time to crack."

"We won't move until you finish," Bloom said as he patted on his shoulders, "going there without a proper path is suicidal. Take your time and make sure you decipher everything."

"Leave it to me," Antoan nodded before he stood there motionless for hours. The scouts they sent before returned and they didn't find anything useful except the presence of some monsters they spotted inside some of the paths.

According to their description these monsters were the same like those Bloom and others fought on the hill.

"Don't tell me we need to leave the maze each time we face one group of monsters," Bloom muttered when he heard about these monsters.