A pathway went from the south gate into a forest, a canopy of trees shaded the pathway as they walked on. Up ahead from where they were was a clearing that was overflowing with players.

“Looking for a melee attacker. Last spot!” someone shouted.

 ”Looking for a level 6 Healer and a Tank for a quick XP run!” another person shouted.

Similar to our party, players chose to group up with a healer and damage dealers. Tanks were only needed for the content that they felt could not be handled by efficient damage per second (Dps).

The actual dungeon could not be seen, at the centre of the clearing, there was a large transfer portal on a raised platform and a big screen. The transfer portal was known as “Gate” by all the players. While, the screen displayed the rankings for the dungeon: Normal mode, Hard mode and Hell mode.

At the moment, only rankings for Normal mode were displayed. This could mean that players were still attempting to clear the Hade mode of the dungeon.

We made our way to the entrance of the dungeon. There were some premade groups wearing similar uniforms; they were either from the same faction or took the roleplaying thing a bit too seriously. 

'There are 3 achievements in this dungeon but can only be obtained in Hell mode,’ I thought as we walked up the stairs leading to the gate.

Mia: Is everyone ready?

“Yes!” they nodded.

Mia: Let’s go in.

[Choose your difficulty?]

Mia: Hell mode

[You may enter]

The gate turned red; this was a shock to the people standing around. It was already common knowledge that a white gate meant a normal difficulty, a blue gate meant a hard difficulty and now they were seeing red for the first time. It didn't take any time for people to conclude that the party going in was digging their own graves.

‘Who in their right minds will try Hell mode’ they thought

Similarly, my party was shocked. They didn't understand the implications of choosing Hell mode but from the atmosphere around the platform, they knew things would not be easy.

We made our way into the gate and were transferred to the dungeon.

[Dungeon Margaret’s Prison]

The dungeon was in a cave. It was dark and barely lit with some type of greenish-blue fluorescent pigment scattered all over the place. The stench in the air was a lot but that was the least of our worries. The wall black and rough, it showed signs of a rushed excavation.

[Quest: Free the prisoners.]

Mia: Everyone listen, please! You might have noticed from the reactions of other players outside the dungeon. We are in the hardest difficulty of the dungeon. Not only are the monsters stronger, but they also have a large health pool as well. The mechanics are more difficult and the number of monsters should be almost 5 times more than in the normal difficulty.

OOH

‘Was this not use courting our death’ they thought

Mia: Don't worry too much, my defence is still considered high for this dungeon. Moreover, we all got new skills. We will try using the same strategy we used against the grey wolves. Our aim is to kill monsters in groups of 10 - 15 as we rush towards the first boss.

Mia: You all must have learnt new AoE skills.

“<Ring of Fire>” Srebrna replied

“<Arrow Volley>” Maya also replied

“<Frontal Cleave>” Loody replied last

Mia: Silver, what buff did you learn this time.

“I learnt <Haste>," Silver replied.

Mia: This is good, you should only use <Haste> between monster groups, deactivate it during fights. Remember to recover your mana to 100% before the boss fight.

I checked that all my skills were activated, looking at my +1 DEF added to my attributes from my level 5 basic shield. My total Defence attribute was now at 25 which was more than enough to stroll through the monsters until the first boss.

Mia: To start every fight use your new AoE’s once, then switch to the tactics we used in killing the grey wolves. Srebrna will be the main attacker with splash damage, Maya will handle crowd control and Loody will be our finisher, try to pick out those with low health.

Mia: let's go!

Silver: <Haste> 

I had said everything that had to be said, there was no point in saying any more as this could only lead to confusion or suspicion. I moved to the front of the party as I ran, drawing the aggro of a couple of green-skinned goblins until 15 of them were surrounding me with their short swords hacking at my shield. I entered my defensive stance with my back against the wall of the cave.

Mia: Attack!

Silver: <Prayer of Mending>; This skill was used on me.

Srebrna: <Ring of Fire>

Maya: <Arrow Volley>

Loody: <Frontal Cleave>

After the AoE’s we used, what followed was a mixture of normal attacks and class skills <Fire Bullet> <Fireballs> from Srebrna, <Strike Arrow> <Concussion Arrows> from Maya, <Rush><Normal attack> and <Force Strike> from Loody.

I kept attacking those close to me with my very little damage output. If a goblin made their way towards the party, I immediately used <Anchor> to pull them back to myself. In less than a minute, 15 goblins were defeated, and slowly disappeared leaving a bunch of loot bags behind.

Crazibrains

Thanks for reading