Raine burned a point of Discipline to grab the dropped coins. There wasn’t a chance in hell he was going to let these moochers take more than they were already getting. Five gold for the secrets of clearing a nightmare difficulty was an absolute steal. The only reason he allowed them to roll for loot was because none of them could understand the value of said knowledge and would be unlikely to sign the contract.

He was annoyed at having to bring them in the first place. There was a slight chance his damage would be insufficient to clear the last boss alone, so he did what needed to be done.

The Devil's Defiance Dungeon was his only chance to reach the mystic lands in time. The space inside the mountain was warped by the dungeon, and on nightmare, that meant a short trip all the way to his first destination: the peak. Additionally, there was a very important skill that dropped here, which had always been a part of his plans.

What he hadn’t anticipated was meeting two of the most famous women in the entire Tri-Glades. Both were from prominent martial families with long lineages, though one significantly more so than the other. Raine had watched several vodcasts of them and could say with absolute certainty that they were much more beautiful in real life than the plain avatars they made for themselves.

Since they were attempting to remain incognito, he made sure not to react when meeting them. He recognized their names though: FierceFire, or Freyja Salamant of the Masters Clan, and SolemnRiver, or Talerra Tafell of the Phoenix Clan.

The latter was actually the direct descendant of an Old Monster. The Tafell name could be found running corporations all across the continent. In the past, Talerra Tafell eventually lost the competition against her cousin for a position in the clan succession. At that time, her personal guild was swallowed by one of the many guilds under the umbrella of the Phoenix Clan. Due to that, she went on to become a famous VRVod influencer both in and out of ZionLine. Seeing her now, it occurred to Raine that if she had won the competition against her cousin, she would have controlled the entire region, becoming their overlord instead of that monster.

He shook his head, banishing the thought. The last thing Raine wanted was to get mixed up with either girl. The attention of the Phoenix and Masters clans was a death sentence for his current self. Unfortunately, he was on a clock and messing around with the random people outside was a risk, while these two girls were guaranteed to at least be useful. He would have been confident bringing only them, but earning an extra ten gold was… well, earning another ten gold.

The pressure was on as he dodged a round of super-sonic attacks from the Bullet Slimes. The exhilarating evasion mingled with the high stakes of dying; which would ruin his chances of completing the witch's quest on time. A manic grin tugged at his cheeks, hidden by the bandit shroud covering the bottom half of his face.

While quick and deadly, the slimes had long cooldowns between their attacks. Once their eyes began to glow like flashlights, the direction of the attack was set in stone and all he had to do was not be where they were pointing. Alone, they weren’t difficult to evade so he purposefully drew several of them together to warm up for the first boss.

Between their volleys, he continued to target the absorption stones they regularly consumed, releasing Rupture each time it was off cooldown. He tried not to use Discipline for anything else, not only to further enjoy the challenging situation, but also to preserve the slow-to-regenerate resource.

Additionally, he made sure not to kill multiple of them simultaneously as that might allow one of the moochers to steal the coins they dropped. In the limited content low level players had access to, nightmare dungeons were the best place to farm coins. They were also notoriously difficult and restricted players’ attributes once they reached a certain threshold. The fact these four could now turn this place into a coin printer, far out-earning their debt to him, irked Raine more with every kill.

[Obtained 1,600 Group Superiority (100% bonus for defeating an elite monster of equal level to your highest member)]

[Obtained 4% Group Attunement (100% bonus for defeating an elite monster of equal level to your highest member)]

The same message appeared in his interface three more times over the next two minutes. Each kill was a reminder he was grouped with people above his level, which lowered all their gains. Still, it was decently quick now that they knew how to help. Only nine more groups this size and he would have enough to level Cassidy’s Comet to ten.

To keep his weapon, Raine purposefully left the last slime alive and with one of its absorption stones still intact. Dashing down the adjoining tunnel, he yelled back, “Leave this one alone for now. If you get its attention, I won’t save you.” The group tried to keep their distance from the slime and still follow but were quickly left behind by his superior attributes.

It was no surprise they hadn’t taken time to advance all the basic weapon affinities, as that strategy didn’t become a mainstay for nearly a month. It wasn’t that people were stupid, it was the conditioning from previous virtual experiences that consistently rewarded sticking with a single weapon type. Due to ZionLine attracting people of all kinds, many of whom had never previously had combat training, rewarding them for experimenting early on only made sense.

The tunnel Raine sprinted down was long and angled higher up into the mountain. The two slimes he dashed by had plenty of time to condense, aim, and fire. He twisted his torso and crooked an elbow, allowing all four shots to whizz by and crash into the wall. Having a good grasp of their timing, he ran backward to watch remaining slime from the first group fire two seconds later. Raine easily avoided it as well before resuming his mad dash to the next open room.

Three more slimes awaited him inside. They turned to him in unison, their eyes shifting about before settling on his chest, left arm, and right leg. He lifted the arm above his head while extending his foot and rotating his torso. Six deadly lances of slime shot past him. He laughed when one punched through a slime chasing him, knocking out an absorption stone for him.

He didn’t dare attempt to replicate the fortunate mishap by letting himself get surrounded. He was no virtuoso—those rare experts capable of avoiding attacks even from their blind spots. Raine hugged the wall, keeping all five of them in his sight and angling toward the one with only a single stone left. He reached it before they attacked again, knocking out its last stone. He immediately burned ten Discipline to unleash a Rupture that lowered its defense further before blasting off large chunks of its form.

By the time the group caught up, a surly SolemnRiver in the lead, the creature gurgled its last and fell into a slippery puddle. He snatched up the few coins it dropped, flashing them a smile they couldn’t see. Her eyes narrowed in annoyance and she leaped into the fray, smacking two stones out of the nearest slime with a well-placed Slash.

The beast turned on her, its eyes glowing with hatred. She held her ground but Raine’s focus was stolen as the other slimes took aim at him. All six eyes zeroed in on his chest and he had to jump at an angle, turning sideways to narrow his profile. One still grazed his armor, the force of the blow tossing him into the wall. He bounced and then smacked his hand against the stones to throw himself back onto his feet.

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SolemnRiver was unscathed after perfectly dodging her slime. She shot him a victorious smirk, then jabbed her large axe into the creature to dislodge another stone. Raine shook his head. He had no intention of drawing her attention by competing, and if she wanted to actually be useful, he wasn’t going to complain. The slimes died quickly, and once more he left one alive. Changing weapons was something that normally wasn’t possible in combat; doing it with a flash of light would be quite memorable.

They cleared two more rooms in rapid succession, each a little higher up the inside of the mountain’s bowels. By the time they reached the first boss, SolemnRiver was right on his heels. By burning Discipline in conjunction with immaculate footwork, bouncing off the walls, and even the ceiling once, she barely kept up with him.

She saw me use Discipline to dodge twice, and she’s already figured it out to this extent? Monster.

“I’ll fight the next one alone. Stay back unless you want to die,” Raine put the aggressive girl from his mind, fully dedicating himself to the first boss that loomed tall before him.

[Elite Shotgun Slime - Boss - level 14 - HP ?????/?????]

The creature had eight eyes, and all of them glowed the moment he stepped into its chamber. Only one was facing him, which made Raine want to curse at his sour luck. He angled so it would miss, then focused with all his will. Utilizing a martial technique, he blocked sound and touch, disabling the two senses to free his brain’s processing power. The cavern felt emptier as gurgling slime, footfalls, and his heavy breaths turned to static-laced silence. The weight of his armor again sweat-slicked skin faded to nothing.

Raine’s sense of sight blossomed, the cave and boss blooming with new color and fidelity. In the next instant, sonic booms shook the walls as it blasted rays of slime just like its lesser brethren. Except the shots that weren’t aimed at him rebounded off the walls in brand new, unpredictable trajectories. Forced to adjust on the fly, Raine threw himself to the side. He managed to avoid all but one that cracked into his left ankle. [-191]

Unable to shunt his senses for longer than a quick burst, sound returned in a rushing wave. He grunted off the pain of his injury as he landed. Injecting a burst of Discipline into his good leg, he leaped at the boss.

[Negative affliction received: Hamstrung (Duration 5.79 seconds)]

A few more hops closed the distance and his spear snaked into its body twice in rapid succession. Both hits targeted the same large and heavy absorption stone that stubbornly refused to be dislodged. Not taking him seriously, the shotgun slime remained stationary, its four meter frame towering above him as its eyes glowed again.

The typical strategy for the Shotgun Slime was to rotate in a circle around it, forcing its eyes to be in random locations before it fired. That often left several facing away from the tank. Since the attacks couldn’t penetrate all the way through its body, it was possible to use the boss itself to soak one or more of its own attacks.

This time, three eyes were pointed directly at Raine while the other five faced the sides and rear. He ignored the two at the rear, knowing they wouldn’t be able to reach him through the boss after deflecting from the walls. The three aimed at him he avoided by positioning in advance.

The air filled with heavy cracks an instant later. Raine refused to flinch as spears of slime blasted past him, ruffling his hair and sending reverberations through his armor. Two shots raced to the left, and one to the right. They deflected, zipping toward him in a stretched blur. He jumped with both feet, his debuff having worn off a second before. He couldn’t look both directions at once and chose to focus on the two, hoping for the best.

Midair, he lashed out with his spear. The Physique behind the blow sent him twirling like a sideways top. The lances grazed by both sides of his extended arm, and the last from behind missed by a good margin, tearing through where he was before jumping. He landed, knowing from his debuff that he had just over six seconds to counter before its slime was condensed enough to fire again.

With two point one Attack Speed, Raine had just enough time for twelve attacks. Half of them were loaded with Discipline in the form of Pierce as his regular attacks were having a hard time dislodging the stubborn stones. Before it attacked again, he managed to remove the first one, and the second quickly followed.

The boss’s eyes glowed, five pointing to the left. Raine grinned, diving to the right and placing the boss’s mass between him and the majority of the attacks. The last three were easily avoided when he jammed his spearhead into the ground, lifting his body at the last second. He was already Piercing again before landing, but now, he wasn’t alone.

SolemnRiver dashed into the room, roaring as her axe heavily blasted into the creature's thick body. In one solid Slash, she dislodged a stone. There was no competitive smirk this time. Her focus was supreme as she spun, reducing her Attack Speed below its written value by bodily forcing her axe around in a full spin.

If she’s so eager to die, I’m not going to stop her.

With the loss of half its stones, the boss finally started taking the fight seriously. It thinned its form, stretching until it reached the ceiling. Its ‘head’ stuck there, spreading out in a puddle until its whole body was pulled into the air. Raine was already hard at work, smacking the stones they’d dislodged and sending them skittering to the edges of the room. Then, he ran with his full speed, burning Discipline like he would never need it again.

SolemnRiver tried to copy him, dashing in another direction but even with Discipline, she was only as fast as he was without it. As the boss fully spread across the ceiling, the distance between its eyes widened. They lit up again and it released eight blasts of slime that ricocheted between the floor and ceiling multiple times. Almost the entire room was filled with deadly slivers of explosively-powered slime.

Raine, pressed flat against the wall, was spared. SolemnRiver jumped, diving to get out from under the hail of fire but was too slow and one of the lances took her right in the gut. She screamed as her momentum was arrested. The tough rope of slime held her fast and she bounced her right back into the thick of it. Miraculously, the attacks came to an end without her taking another hit or she certainly would have died.

Unfortunately for her, the boss wasn’t done. It dropped just as it was, landing flat across a large portion of the floor. SolemnRiver was caught beneath its mass and slammed into the ground. The creature then pulled itself together right around her, trapping her inside. Raine knew that the next time it fired slime, any of its attacks that went into its own body would likely pierce her as well, and that would be it for the foolish girl.

There was absolutely nothing he could do about the situation. She was too large to dislodge, and doing so would hurt her more than help. Consigned to watching her die, he rushed back to the boss and went to work on the next stone. She held her breath and watched him, a calm expression on her face despite the pain she must be in.

“H-help her!” FierceFire screamed from the hallway, “Please!”

Raine paid her no mind, his third hit dislodging the next stone. His brows shot up when the soft glow of Mend surrounded SolemnRiver. He didn't expect her to have the healing ability, and with it, she just might survive.

Cheeks extended to hold the last of her oxygen, she met Raine’s eyes. There was no pleading in her expression, only a firm desire to conquer their enemy no matter what it took. Barely able to move, powerful muscles in her torso contracted, bringing her boots up to brace against a stone beside her. Her hands found another. Veins bulged in her neck, and her face turned red from the effort, but she ever so slowly pushed against both stones, working them toward the surface with single-minded determination.

Not falling for her, not falling for her.

Raine chanted his new mantra as another soft glow surrounded her, returning her to full health. With how expensive the skill was, he doubted she could use it even four more times. He also doubted her maximum health was as high as his, which meant he couldn’t let more than one attack hit her at a time.

Grumbling under his breath, Raine jumped away a second before its eyes were due to light up. Its slime finished condensing right on time. Since he was a stationary target, its eight eyes swiveled to point directly at him. The next round of attacks would all be coming right for him from several directions at once. Their bouncing trajectories would be impossible to read in advance, and worse, the only thing between them and him, was thin air.