Chapter 60: Annoying Instance Dungeon

“Shared quest? Let me try.” Little Warrior was stunned for a moment. She had always done quests alone and completed many, but had never shared a quest with anyone before.

Chen Mo invited Little Warrior to the party. Little Warrior opened her quest panel and saw that the quest indeed had a share option.

System Notification: Do you accept the shared quest “Uncompletable (Assist)” provided by party member “Little Warrior”?

Accept.

System Notification: You accepted the quest “Uncompletable (Assist)”!

Quest: Uncompletable (Assist)

Quest Difficulty: S-rank

Quest Content: Assist teammate “Little Warrior” to survive the Hell-level Talent Trial. This quest will disappear if “Little Warrior” leaves the party.

Quest Reward: Unknown

Darn! An S-rank assist-type quest!

Chen Mo took a sharp breath.

In the game, some quests could be shared with party members for joint completion. These shared quests were divided into two types: one was a cooperative quest exactly the same as the sharer’s, and the other was the assist-type quest Chen Mo just received.

For cooperative quests, as long as the quest requirements were met, everyone received the same reward, and it didn’t matter which party member completed it.

For assist-type quests, only when the sharer completed the quest would the teammates be considered finished. Also, the teammates’ quest rewards were often less generous than the sharer’s.

After browsing the forum for three days, Chen Mo rarely saw assist-type shared quests. Those he did see were all below C-rank with low difficulty and meager rewards. He saw very few B-rank ones, none at A-rank, and S-rank was unheard of.

Chen Mo didn’t mind that assist quest rewards weren’t as good as the main quest’s. Running into Little Warrior here was like picking up an S-rank quest. Even the worst S-rank quest reward couldn’t be that bad!

“Brother, your equipment isn’t great either. Should we invite others to the party?” Little Warrior looked at Chen Mo’s gear and felt that with his current setup, it seemed unlikely they could pass the Hell-level Talent Trial. After all, she had participated in the Hell-level Talent Trial over ten times herself.

“No need. Brother hasn’t put on his good equipment yet. I’ll show you how awesome I am later!”

Everyone here was an expert. Even if equipment glow was hidden, they could still tell if gear was extraordinary. So Chen Mo only wore a set of inconspicuous Blue and Green Equipment.

“Really?” Little Warrior’s eyes lit up.

“Of course.” Chen Mo nodded without saying more.

His equipment was basically the best in the Starter Village, and he even had a boss follower. If even this couldn’t get them through the Hell-level Talent Trial, then probably no one could pass it anytime soon.

“Oh, that’s good then.” Little Warrior was very happy and seemed to believe Chen Mo’s words.

Seeing her like this, Chen Mo couldn’t help but worry deeply that she might get tricked and kidnapped by some creepy stranger if she went out on the street.

There were already sixty-one people in the snow-white room. Chen Mo and Little Warrior sat in a corner. One wasn’t wearing equipment, and the other had gear that was decent among ordinary players but only average here. Since they didn’t know each other and no one invited Chen Mo, they kept to themselves.

“Finally, sixty-four people!”

Another hour passed, and three more figures appeared in the room one after another, bringing the total to sixty-four.

“The Hell-level Talent Trial is about to begin. Please form parties of at least two members within five minutes. Once the trial starts, party composition cannot be changed!”

A deep voice echoed through the room.

“Parties of at least two!”

“It’s probably a competitive-type instance dungeon!”

The various experts all understood in their hearts.

The system asked them to form parties, but everyone had already formed their parties before the voice even spoke. Now, everyone just waited quietly for the instance dungeon to open.

“Time’s up! There are sixty-four participants forming fifteen parties! You are about to enter the Hell-level Talent Trial instance dungeon ‘Forest Hunter’. After entering, you will have three minutes of safe time to familiarize yourselves with the dungeon rules and clear conditions!”

The deep voice sounded again, and then everyone was enveloped in a white light and vanished from the snow-white room.

The scenery changed. Chen Mo and Little Warrior appeared in a silent gray forest filled with withered branches and leaves on the ground.

System Notification: Hell-level Talent Trial activated! Trial instance dungeon “Forest Hunter”!

Instance Dungeon: Forest Hunter

Rules:

1. Players can attack each other inside the instance dungeon.

2. There are 300 Forest Crystals in the dungeon. Elite Monsters are guaranteed to drop 1 Forest Crystal.

3. Forest Crystals cannot be traded. They are guaranteed to drop upon death. If a player dies, their teammate can spend 10 Forest Crystals to resurrect them.

4. There are specific NPCs in the dungeon. Using Forest Crystals, players can exchange for items that are restricted to use within the instance dungeon.

Clear Conditions:

1. Kill the Dungeon Guardian.

— Dungeon Guardian appearance condition: When the number of living players in the dungeon is less than or equal to 10, or by spending 100 Forest Crystals, the Dungeon Guardian can be summoned directly.

2. After the Dungeon Guardian dies, players must possess at least 10 Forest Crystals.

“Truly a Hell-level Talent Trial. These rules and clear conditions are ruthless!”

With just one glance, Chen Mo knew this trial would be tough.

The rules weren’t many. Looking just at the four rules, this seemed like an ordinary competitive-type instance dungeon. But combined with the clear conditions, one could deduce a lot!

The primary clear condition was to kill the Dungeon Guardian, but the Dungeon Guardian would only appear either when players were reduced to 10 or fewer, or by spending 100 Forest Crystals.

In a Hell-level Talent Trial, the Dungeon Guardian’s strength was undoubtedly immense, so having more people in the fight was better.

Thus, ideally, a twenty-person party would kill the other forty-four players in the dungeon, take all three hundred Forest Crystals, distribute ten to each person, and use the remaining hundred to summon the Dungeon Guardian. After killing it, all twenty would clear the trial together.

But if they really did that, Chen Mo feared the twenty would likely wipe.

Even in Nightmare-level difficulty trials, the trial instance dungeons never had extra rules. That meant the NPCs mentioned in rule four definitely had certain items that players must use during the fight with the Dungeon Guardian; otherwise, it would be impossible to kill it!

How many Forest Crystals were needed to exchange for those items was unknown, but it probably wouldn’t be a small amount.

It seemed reducing the number of party members to exchange for items was the correct way to clear the dungeon.

But the Hell-level Talent Trial definitely wouldn’t be that simple. Chen Mo was sure that the more items exchanged to deal with the Dungeon Guardian, the better. So even if someone managed to form a party of over ten people, they’d face a dilemma: reduce the party to ten to save 100 Forest Crystals, or keep the larger party and exchange fewer items to deal with the Dungeon Guardian.

This was a difficult choice. Fewer people meant more items, which might be enough, but then the final damage output might be insufficient, leading to failure at the last moment.

More people meant fewer items, which could result in not having enough items, leading to complete defeat.

“Let’s find the NPC and check the item attributes first.”

Most players in the dungeon were experts. Not just Chen Mo, but others like Xiaolou Fengyu also quickly thought of the same problem.

But this problem didn’t seem hard to decide after seeing the item attributes.

However, Chen Mo thought of a deeper issue: before exchanging items, players didn’t know the Dungeon Guardian’s attributes. What if the NPC had multiple different items to exchange? Which one should they choose?

Chen Mo felt a chill. If that were really the case, this instance dungeon was simply designed to screw people over without any compensation!