Chapter 41 – Despair

System Notification: Please select activation difficulty.

System Notification: Easy, Normal, Hard, Hell.

Yone chose Hell without hesitation. Suddenly, the gate in front of the Death Stone started changing at a rapid rate. It transformed from a whitish-snowy color to pitch-black. At the same time, a flickering skull that had its mouth wide open could vaguely be seen.

Meanwhile, the party members of Yone’s party all received a notification.

System: You have chosen Hell Mode of Death Stone. The death penalty has increased by 100%. Warning, the system advises you to choose another mode as your levels and equipment aren’t on the threshold of clearing Hell Mode.

Suddenly, the faces of the party members turned ugly as they stared at Requime’s back with fear,” Brother Requiem, it seems like you’ve chosen the wrong mode hehe, why not switch it up to normal real quick?”

Silent Wall said jokingly, brushing it off as a mistake, while the other also nodded in agreement, heaving a sigh of relief that Requiem’s friend spoke instead of them.

“I didn’t make a mistake, I chose the right mode. Just ignore the system message, the developers don’t know what they’re talking about,” Yone brushed it off, his tone a bit cold as he looked at Silent Wall.

Silent Wall’s mouth opened and closed several times, but no words came out; he truly didn’t know what to say as he looked at Life for help, supposedly Requiem’s friend.

Life inwardly rolled her eyes as if saying,’ If even you get such a reaction from him, then imagine me.’

Yone knew where the concerns lay, but he had no choice in this matter. The drop rate of anything below hell mode isn’t to his interest, and especially not when Legends is found out to have their fourth legion around him.

“Cool, so cool! Is this the top-ranked in the game? Truly cool!” Swift Slash didn’t seem bothered at all as he just kept praising Requiem with every chance he got, making Yone feel uncomfortable.

‘Were you always such a die-hard fan in your first year?’ Recalling the stern face of Switf Slash when clearing a hell mode dungeon in his past life, he couldn’t help but find the connection hard to link.

“Ehm, brother Requiem. You see, as the system instructed, despite your level at 6 we are only at level 2, it’s impossible to get out of this dungeon alive for us, much less clear it. Why not change it to hard mode at least?” Calm Sea spoke respectfully, her tone gentle as she tried to convince Requiem.

“Trust me in this, you think I’ll be looking to risk losing 20% of my experience on every death without confidence? Relax and follow me, I guarantee you we can clear this dungeon easily.” Yone’s lips curled into a warm smile.

“Then…then I’ll trust brother Requiem,” Calm Sea said nervously, her hands bit shaky, but still accepted anyway, she somehow felt she could trust him.

As for Yone he couldn’t help but laugh,’ Truly a nice side of Amy, alas it’s but a fake front,’ He was somewhat pleased for the fact that the system protected the identity of the gamers as even people in real life could not know that their best friend is next to them unless the other party chose to reveal it.

The technology was so advanced that it would alter Requiem’s appearance upon noticing the connection in real life based on several data points the AI uses to identify which person knows another.

Yone led the party by being the first to enter, followed by Silent Wall, Swift Slash, and the berserker named Rage. Calm Sea and life, despite their worry, hesitated for only a moment before they stepped in as well.

Meanwhile, the area outside of Death Stone that started getting louder and crowdier given Legends’ 6-man party that was about to close in on the dungeon and enter suddenly turned quiet. It was so silent that one would hear a mosquito flying next to them.

They, the seventh-ranked party in the entire world, didn’t even harbor the thought of tackling the dungeon on hell mode. Yet, a random party consisting of random players decided to step into it? Did they lose their minds, or did they not want to keep playing?

“Hell, my eyes aren’t deceiving me, right? Those people chose hell mode undoubtedly,y no?” A hunter named Clean Shot spoke in the party chat, asking the berserker leading their group called Hell.

“No, they indeed chose hell mode,” Hell replied, also confused by this. He was about to brush it off as noobs who don’t know what they doing when someone in their party got a whsiper and his face turned ugly for a moment.

“Hell, someone just gave me the identity of the group that went inside the hell mode dungeon. It’s…” The guy hesitated, cutting off at the end.

Hell was surprised by his reaction as he told him to continue.

“One of them is Requiem, the assassin at level 6 right now, and the other is…” He paused for a moment before continuing,” The other is your fiancée, Hell, Life, people saw her entering the dungeon with him.”

“You sure about that? She didn’t mention anything to me.” Hell was suspicious as he raised an eyebrow to his words,’ Her father and I clearly told her that she will become the new guild leader of Iron Fang with her father joining Legends. What is she up to?’

‘Is it him?’ The image of Requiem popped up inside of his mind as anger rose from the depths of his body, his eyelashes twitching fiercely as he held his anger and said,” Call out our members to encircle the region around Death Stone, If I don’t bring Requiem back to level 1 then I’ll step down as a leader from now on.”

His friends didn’t even dare to persuade him against his order. They were clearly used to his temper, so they just ordered their forces inside the town to encircle everything as they stepped inside the dungeon to complete their mission and get the rank 1 clear inside of this kingdom.

***

Within the Dungeon of the Death Stone, there was a dark and gloomy barren land with a bunch of big stones scattered around. Occasiaonly, a chilling wind would blow, causing a shiver to run down everyone’s spine.

Aside from Yone himself, every member of his party grouped together at the Dungeon’s entrance. They did not even dare to move an inch, fearing that a random invisible monster would be attracted to the sound of their footsteps.

Suddenly, a deafening yell echoed throughout the dungeon as a rock the size of a building was thrown in their way. The sheer scale of its size made running a wishful dream for them. The gate behind them slammed shut as they tried fleeing, sealing their fate even further.

We are done for…we will get wiped after just three seconds of entering the dungeon!

Everyone despaired at seeing this scene, ready to lose 20% EXP already. Still, they all looked at Requiem in hopes that he had something up his sleeve, but seeing as even Yone raised a brow at this attack with his face turning ugly made their party lose all their remaining hope, which they lingered on.

We are doomed!

Even Yone grip on his dagger tightened,’ The size of the rock is much larger than I’m used to. The level of the dungeon seems to be much higher. Did I make a mistake by choosing Hell Mode?’

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep