Child of Destiny

…

Shiella swept her gaze at the surroundings right after she arrived. She couldn’t help but frown her eyebrows when she saw S.Tigris and his group but she didn’t mention it.

She already got a rough understanding of the situation after hearing the details from Tinker earlier. Given that, she immediately started making plans inside her head while also trying to calculate how much benefit they would get in this raid.

After a few moments of thinking, she turned to Arthur and Leonard before gesturing at them. “You two, come with me for a second.”

The two were quite confused when they were called. But they didn’t voice out any complaint since they knew that Shiella seemed to already have a rough plan inside her head.

They followed Shiella in the deeper in the dungeon and stopped a few distances away from a group of guards.

“Go! Separate them into two groups and deal as much damage as you can but don’t kill anyone yet,” said Shiella, ordering the two.

Hearing that, Arthur and Leonard quickly lunged forward without any hint of hesitation. And during their change, the former threw his spear before accelerating forward.

Bang!

He managed to hit one of the guards and impaled it on the ground. Because it happened a little too fast, the guards first turned their heads towards the direction of the explosion to see what just happened.

NPCs were quite different from monsters as they were intelligent creatures. The first reaction that they were going to do when they got ambushed was to look at what happened to their colleague before anything else. And they were only going to react after confirming that they were being attacked.

“Ambush!”

“Intruders!”

Shouted a couple of the guards before simultaneously turning their heads in the direction where the attack came from.

But the moment they turned their heads, a golden light suddenly flashed in their eyes before flying past them and heading towards the spear that was impaling the other guard.

Arthur grabbed the spear and pulled it out from the ground, releasing a guard that was being impaled by it. Shiella instructed him not to kill any of the guards, so he left that particular guard on the ground before swiping his spear horizontally and releasing golden energy from it.

Boom!

Since he was standing right in the middle of those guards, all of them were blasted away by his attack, sending them flying in different directions.

They were a couple of guards that were fast to react and able to avoid the crisis. But before despite that being the case, they were still pushed back by the impact of Arthur’s attack.

Scattered, they didn’t have enough time to build an encirclement where they could entrap Arthur. But since they were being attacked, they had no choice but to respond to it and fire back.

The ones with melee weapons quickly charged at Arthur while releasing an enraged roar. And while they were doing that, the guards with crossbows in their hands started firing rapidly.

Despite being surrounded by the attacks that were coming from different directions, Arthur maintained his calm while sweeping his eyes at them.

His eyes released a golden glow as he read the trajectories of the incoming arrows. And before they could even reach him, he was already making his move to defend against them. 𝚋𝚎𝚍𝚗ｏ𝚟𝚎𝚕.ｏｒｇ

Cling! Cling! Cling!

Obviously, the arrows were the first to arrive. But none of them managed to hit him since Arthur skillfully moved his shield to block all of them. He even deflected a few of them and redirected their trajectory towards the incoming guards.

Then a melee battle immediately started the moment when the guards reached him. But despite being attacked from all directions, Arthur was able to fend off all of the attacks with ease while using his foot technique.

Successfully pulling the attention of the guards towards him, none of them was able to notice the predator lurking from behind.

Leonard quickly blocked a few of the guards and prevented them from assisting the others. And with how intimidating his aura was, he was able to push them away from the rest, dividing the guards into two separate groups.

When they were successful with their task, Shiella finally made her move!

She first lured a couple of guards from the backlines, also separating them from the others. She observed them for a couple of moments before sending a barrage of ice arrows at one of them, lowering its HP down to half. And right after that, she turned that guard into ice and locked its movements.

Then she switched her target and did the same. But this time, she lowered the health of the next guard down to a quarter of its total HP before also locking its movements. She continued doing this until she was done freezing all of the five guards that were chasing her.

Each of the guards that she froze had a different percentage of their respective Heath Bars. And after making sure that everything was done right, Shiella turned to Arthur and Leonard before giving her next instruction. “Finish them off!”

Hearing her order, Arthur and Leonard quickly adjusted their rhythm and started killing the guards one after another.

While they were doing that, Shiella also released the guards that she just sealed and let them chase after her.

She didn’t attack any of them this time. Instead, she closely observed their strengths and compared them to the previous assessment that she had earlier.

Seeing what she was doing from a distance, Arthur couldn’t help but knit his brow before walking towards Leonard. “What do you think she is doing?”

“Beats me,” replied Leonard while shrugging his shoulders.

They already killed all of the guards around, so it was pretty natural for the guards chasing after Shiella to be slightly stronger than the ones that they had taken down.

But the moment that thought entered their minds, the two couldn’t help but turn their heads at each other before blurting out simultaneously. “Could it be-…!?”

Just like what they were expecting, Shiella finished off the guards chasing her before calling them over. And when they arrived, she immediately told them her discovery. “It looks like the Health Bar of the guards in this dungeon didn’t affect the boost that they were receiving.”

“It doesn’t matter if they are in full health or on the verge of death, all of them will receive the same amount of boost regardless of their health.”

“Do you understand what I mean?” asked Shiella while looking at the two.

Hearing that, both Arthur and Leonard quickly nodded their heads without any hint of hesitation. They were also experienced at the game, so the current plan that Shiella wanted them to do was clear as day for them.

“So, what are you waiting for? Go inform the others and tell them to do the necessary preparations!” said Shiella while waving her hand.

“Yes, Big Sis!” answered Arthur before heading towards the others alongside Leonard.

Shiella watched them leave for a couple of moments before opening a virtual screen to see what was the news that she missed when she was rushing towards this place.

After a few browsing for quite some time, her attention was caught by a particular topic about a certain player. She read the whole article for a few moments before her lips suddenly curved upwards. “So, he indeed came back, huh? I am looking forward to our next meeting in this world.”

…

In the meantime, Arthur and Leonard were currently discussing the plan that Shiella had prepared.

“We are going to divide into two groups. One is responsible for clearing all of the guards within the map while the other group is going to chuck down the Health Bar of the boss as much as they can while also waiting for the first group to clear the entire dungeon,” said Arthur while looking at the others.

The others quickly nodded their heads since they already heard from them earlier that the guards would get an equal boost in stats regardless of their health bar.

Arthur stared at them for a couple of seconds before continuing. “As for the group that is going to clear the guards within the dungeon, they need to act as fast as they can so that they can regroup with the first team if possible.”

Then he turned to Tinker and Black Hammer before suggesting. “Since the teams from the Hand of Midas have a larger number of members, I think they are more suitable at clearing the guards.”

The two chiefs of the firm didn’t say anything and just nodded their heads. From their perspective, such an arrangement was pretty reasonable.

Moreover, the team that was responsible for the Dungeon Boss needed to be composed of the strongest members of their group. With Arthur, Leonard, and Shiella on their side, that role was more suitable for their group.

“S.Tigris and his group will be coming with us then,” said Arthur while turning his head to the other group. And when the other side saw that, they quickly nodded their heads.

Then Arthur finalized the plan. “We are first going to advance together since the first floor of the dungeon is almost just a single path.”

“We are going to clear as many monsters as we can while moving forward, but we are not going to clear the other rooms. It is the Clearing Team’s job to clear those guards when we separate our paths in front of the boss room.”

“After all, we can’t afford to boost the strength of the boss to the degree that we can’t handle,” he added while the others nodded in agreement.

Then Shiella suddenly arrived and quickly added. “Tinker, Black Hammer, give me a constant update so that we can have a rough estimate of your progress.

“Understood, Young Miss,” responded the two in unison.

Shiella thought a couple of moments before adding a few more conditions. “And keep an eye on my message. If I tell you to stop, then immediately pause your operation until I give you the permission to continue.”

“We need to adjust our rhythm regularly to make sure that we can properly hold the Dungeon Boss on our side. We can’t afford to make any careless mistakes during that time, or else we are going to get wiped out if we can’t handle the sudden increase of its strength.”

Hearing that, the two chiefs immediately bowed their heads and quickly replied. “We will keep it in mind, Young Miss.”

“Good!” said Shiella with a nodding head before turning around and heading back to the dungeon. “If you are already done with everything, then let’s move out. My schedule has been pretty tight recently.”

……