Chapter 778 Monsters Around
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After being convinced, Danielle obviously wanted them to rush to the nearest 'pillar' which was located a little further than the deepest part of the forest they'd explored so far, and Emilia naturally agreed.
"We have to be careful on the way. Keep your ability up, Emilia! And Nico… Be ready to heal her at any time!"
Robin was naturally using her skill to scout around as much as possible, but the lower-level 'scouting' skill was really only useful when moving slowly and cautiously.
Fortunately, Emilia's 'vigilance' skill covered a fixed area around her regardless of the pace she was moving at, and she'd long since gotten used to the 'slight' mental strain it put on her.
To get to level fifteen would take their team at least another day under 'normal' circumstances, and while she could probably convince them to upgrade first, Emilia didn't want to go down that route.
At present, nobody knew of the fact that the players would unlock their first profession at level fifteen, and Emilia had no way to let her teammates 'discover' it in advance, either.
Instead of convincing them not to head to one of the safer 'pillars' or to ignore them altogether while focusing on leveling up, the crimson-haired girl realized that it would be much more efficient to just lead them to a place with plenty of 'experience' and hopefully level up before entering the dungeon.
Other than the expectedly dangerous monsters infesting that area, Emilia knew that there was another kind of danger around all the pillars.
As entrances to the dungeon, the pillars naturally served as a gateway for both monsters and players alike. And a portal that anyone can use to enter and leave naturally meant that some of the 'weaker' dungeon monsters would choose to escape.
If too many of them were to leave, however, not only would they disrupt the balance of the world, but they would also leave the dungeon itself significantly weakened.
To prevent this, every pillar was therefore assigned some 'guardians' by the elites of the dungeon.
These so-called guardians were naturally just cronies of the true elites in the dungeon, but they were more than enough to deal with most 'rabble' around the pillars.
But just because they were supposed to prevent monsters from leaving didn't mean that these 'guardians' wouldn't attack players as well.
After all, in the world of Arcadia, monsters could get stronger by consuming others. And anything that they could eat… they would.
'It's best to ignore the more annoying monsters in this area, and head directly for the danger zone.' The crimson-haired elf hummed thoughtfully. 'With the monsters already fighting each other, it should be possible to kill them much faster than we normally could.'
Fortunately, their luck was quite good, and she was able to lead her team all the way to the vicinity of the pillar before they had to stop.
When they finally witnessed the sight in the clearing, Danielle and the others couldn't help but be shocked.
"The monsters… are fighting each other?!"
"That giant monkey just ate that bear!"
The monsters they'd encountered so far were mostly 'solitary' creatures, and they'd always assumed that the monsters in Arcadia too just attacked the players while ignoring each other, as it was in most other games.
Of course, as they would soon realize, monsters had their own judgment as well, and could differentiate between monsters on 'their side' and others. When facing the threat of a stronger and hostile monster, they wouldn't chase after an 'insignificant' player together, only to end up as an easier bite of food for someone else.
Except for the fact that they would never surrender or flee, the 'wisdom' of these monsters in a fight wasn't much inferior to that of certain cunning animals, though it varied depending on their level and type.
Unlike Nico, Robin, and Danielle, Sylvia was able to recover from the surprise quite quickly. "It's a good thing they're focusing on each other, though. Otherwise, we'd never be able to handle these many beasts on our own."
Crystal and Emilia also agreed with her statement, and the rest of the team also realized the same.
Not including the six of them, there were at least a dozen 'fights' they could see from their vantage point, and at least one that could be faintly heard in the distance.
Even the weakest of these monsters appeared to be above level thirty, which was a full five levels higher than the 'strongest' wild monster they'd faced so far.
But instead of being scared, Emilia was smiling in delight. "That [Monstrous Monkey Elite] seems quite injured after fighting and eating that bear, let's go kill it quickly!"
Danielle frowned as she pondered over her words. "It still seems quite strong, being level thirty-four… and won't we attract everyone's aggro if we charge in right now?"
Emilia hummed. "It's possible, but given that they all seem so engrossed in their own battles, it shouldn't be impossible for us to pick off a few of the 'stragglers' on the side, and we can always flee if things get bad…"
Of course, what she didn't mention was that more than half these monsters didn't dare to leave the 'clearing', as the 'guardians' would undoubtedly gang up to slaughter them if they did.
Their 'goal' now was just to survive. Survive and consume others, until they could be strong enough to contend against the guardians all at once and win. Though that was easier said than done. 𝙗𝒆𝒅𝒏𝙤𝒗𝒆𝙡．𝙤𝒓𝙜
As far as Emilia knew, only a few monsters would succeed in doing such a thing. And even then, they would be labeled as a 'Roaming Boss Monster', the kind that could drop plenty of loot. Once the players were strong enough, there was no way for them to survive.
Of course, while Emilia found them quite 'pitiful', it wouldn't stop her from slaughtering them to level up herself and her teammates.
The crimson-haired elf grinned. "Don't worry, I'll cover our retreat properly if things go wrong."
Danielle thought about it for a while before quickly shaking her head in exasperation.
The drill-haired girl had always considered herself a 'daredevil', and she couldn't believe that she had to be convinced by her star player to be 'bolder' again and again.
Since when did she become such a 'coward'?
"Let's go kill that thing!"
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