Chapter 409: A Dilemma

Although it was difficult for Rhode to choose two missions, he was fortunate that he was no longer facing this alone. Shortly after, Rhode gathered Canary, Mini Bubble Gum, and Gillian to resolve this problem together. Two heads were better than one, and in this case, four heads were definitely much better.

However, all three ladies had different opinions.

"Based on Leader's current manpower, you would fail 10 out of 10 times if you attempt this standard of a mission."

Mini Bubble Gum was the first who responded.

"Whatever the choice is, I will be there anyway. If Master wants to do it, then we should take up two missions instantly and solve all the problems, right?"

Rhode's concerns didn't seem to be of any concerns to Gillian. On the other side, Canary was quietly scanning through the missions. She puckered her brows slightly and pondered for a few moments before shifting her gaze to Rhode.

"Leader, what do you think?"

"Although it's both fast and convenient to settle two Five Star missions at once just as Gillian said, it's a pity that there's no such good thing. You should also know that 5 Star missions are spread across the entire continent and it's never easy completing each mission, one after another. Also, most importantly, the seal on Gillian can only be released once... I think that we should pick a simpler mission for team practice and a harder mission for Gillian and myself. While the both of us are dealing with that mission, the others will continue to practice against the simulated BOSS of the first 5 Star mission. No matter how many times, make sure that they can remember and familiarize the skills and patterns of the BOSS. The upcoming battle will be much easier for them if they can do that."

The three ladies nodded at Rhode's answer. If Mini Bubble Gum and Canary could leave their territory, Rhode wouldn't even need to worry about this problem. Although Gillian could follow alongside Rhode, her level unlocking could only be done once due to the system penalty.

Just like how good steel should be used on blades, this could be considered a hopeless choice for Rhode. To be frank, he actually wished he wouldn't need to complete these two guild missions because the Country of Darkness would be attacking next year. During this period, Rhode hoped he could focus on training his men and familiarizing against the battle style of undead creatures in order to grasp an opportunity in the future war. However, Rhode's guild would be demoted if he didn't complete the guild missions. As a result, his fortress, also known as his final refuge would be revoked. At this moment, Rhode's mood was as though he could predict the end of the world next year and yet, he still needed to pass the college entrance examination.

"If you're looking for a team battle, I think this mission will be easier."

Canary pushed across the mission on Cranmore Lake and started explaining to everyone.

"The Ice Devil is a level 65 Legendary elemental creature and it can be weakened by its opposing element. Furthermore, the Frozen Lake covers only a small area with lesser critters. It will be our best choice if we want to complete this mission in the shortest time."

"On the other hand, the Dark Elf... I remember that it's a level 62 BOSS, right..."

However, Mini Bubble Gum seemed to have a different opinion, and Canary nodded to her doubts.

"Although the Dark spirits aren't powerful, they do specialize in poison attacks... Bubble, did you forget how many times we were destroyed when we tried to reclaim the land?"

"It's such a hassle to not have equipment with poison immunity."

Mini Bubble Gum pouted after hearing Canary's answer. Without a doubt, she could still remember how annoying those debuffs were when they tried to reclaim the Dark spirits dungeon. As a result, they managed to succeed after relying on equipment with poison immunity. Although at that point in time, Starlight wasn't the best player guild yet, they were still reputable. Since Starlight in the game had a hard time clearing that dungeon, there's no need to mention how this bunch of mercenaries would handle it.

"So it's decided then; we will choose the Frozen Lake mission for the team battle."

Rhode knocked on the table and declared his decision before shifting his attention towards Canary and Mini Bubble Gum.

"I will give both of you two months. Be sure to bring these guys to above level 30 and it will be best if they can reach the critical point of level 40. If not, even if they train their attacking style inside out, they would still need at least one or two days to defeat the BOSS with their current strength.

"Two months?"

Mini Bubble Gum frowned as she questioned.

"Leader, it would be plausible if this is the game and players would be deemed idiots if they couldn't reach level 40 in two months' time. But, these are NPCs... Although with the help of the Sphere of Mystery, these guys shouldn't have a problem hitting level 30, it will still be too difficult for them to reach the Master stage."

What Mini Bubble Gum said was the truth. The leveling system of aborigines wasn't as integrated as the players, which was why their leveling was really slow. Moreover, the levels of these aborigines were coupled by their skill levels and mastery, where they would reach their peak after a certain stage. Unlike gifted talents like Marlene and Anne, the potentials of most aborigines were limited throughout their lives. Even if they were pushed to their peaks, they would only achieve the skills and strengths of the Master stage. There would definitely be a difference in results if Rhode were to train aborigines with the style he used on players.

"All in all, that's all we can do now. Since we can't implement talent trees on them, all you need to do is to increase their skill levels and maximize their damage output by at least two times."

Rhode paused for a moment, before turning towards Mini Bubble Gum and Canary.

"Bubble and Canary. Put more attention on Lize and Marlene because both of them hold rare bloodlines and perhaps they may be able to break through their limits. Whereas for Anne... She broke through once, so it will be enough to get her to familiarize with her current battle style. If she ever tries to breakthrough again without permission, stop her by all means and leave the other matters when I'm back."

"Okay."

Both of them nodded to Rhode's orders. And at this moment, Gillian, who was bored stiff and laying by the side, finally spoke.

"So then, Master, which unlucky bastard are we going to finish off? To tell you the truth, all of these BOSSes wouldn't stand a chance against me after my seal is unlocked, okay~"

What Gillian said was also the truth. As a formidable being above the Legendary stage, these BOSSes were nothing to her. They might be Elites or Lords, but that was about all. As a Fire Elemental Lord and a master of this Plane of Existence, Gillian's status and strength were unattainable by others.

Since it had been decided that the Frozen Lake would be for team training, the next mission would be chosen from one of the four other missions. However, there wasn't any result from their discussions. The Dark Elve was overly scheming, and it would definitely choose to avoid frontal confrontation. There was also a time limit for Gillian's unsealing and if she couldn't defeat the Dark Elf within the limited time, they would be the unlucky ones instead. It would be almost impossible to force a cunning race like the Dark Elves to hasten its attacks.

As for the mission on the Storm Mountain Range, it was equally thorny. Rhode had attempted this mission and the final BOSSes were two creatures from other Planes of Existence at around level 62.

However, as creatures from other Planes of Existence, these two BOSSes could tear space, create illusions, and trap their targets into their own semi-Plane of Existence, wrapping their prey with spiderwebs and leeching their powers. Due to this reason, although this mission provided rich rewards, the chances of success were only 50 percent. Even though Rhode was interested in the rewards of two legendary equipments, he had to consider the risks since the chances of success were low. It would be great if he could succeed; however, if he allowed those two creatures to escape, he would have nowhere to cry even if he wanted to.

The Land of Ashes was also full of troubles. However, these troubles didn't come from the Devils. Instead, being an unregulated place, the most worrisome portion fell on meeting the people from the Country of Light and the Country of Darkness. Even so, the whole deck of Devil cards was still extremely attractive for Rhode. But considering that the Country of Light was currently provoking the Country of Darkness, it would bring huge problems if Rhode got involved in the conflicts between them. If Rhode were to categorize the first two locations, they would be under the category with difficult BOSSes and complicated environments. As for the Land of Ashes, the most dangerous aspect fell on the complex political situations.

Castel Plateau Ruins was equally difficult. Even though the BOSS was weaker, the critters that lived in the mountains were the biggest threats to Rhode. As an ancient ruin, not only did the Castel Plateau Ruins have undead creatures, there were also Golem Guards that defended its underground secrets. Just a distraction would be enough for the enemies to overwhelm Rhode and he would be defeated even before he faced the BOSS.

It could be said that each mission had its pros and cons and once any of the missions failed, Rhode would be in great trouble.

All four of them scrutinized the mission bulletins and pondered for a while. Then, Gillian rubbed her forehead.

"Ahh, it's such a headache. If it wasn't for that damn limitation, we wouldn't even need to worry about such problems at all!"

"I'm not worried about Leader's battle capabilities and experience. But..." Canary paused and shook her head. She frowned and carefully read every word on the bulletin.

And at this moment, suddenly Mini Bubble Gum let out an 'Hmm' before standing up and pointing towards one of the missions.

"If I recall correctly, the degree of completion for this mission was 90% right?"

"Hmm?"

Rhode and Canary widened their eyes in surprise as they turned towards the direction of Mini Bubble Gum's pointing finger. They had a sudden realization.

"That's true. I remember that we skipped that step for this mission..."

"Although our popularity rose due to this, now it seems that it has become a good thing for us, right?"

Mini Bubble Gum pointed at one of the four missions — The historical remains of Castel Plateau.

This was one of the rare dungeons which Rhode didn't manage to complete fully. However, precisely because of this, this dungeon became the beginning of their fame.

The reason was fairly simple. Initially, it was purely coincidental that Starlight reclaimed the historical remains of Castel Plateau. They discovered the entrance to the historical remains accidentally and went to take over the area since they didn't have anything better to accomplish at that time. With Rhode as the lead of a formidable group of players, they successfully cleared the entire dungeon after five to six attempts. They routinely posted a photo to the forums for memories sake and as a record of Starlight's successful reclamation of a new dungeon. As guilds could only complete this dungeon once, Rhode and his group shared and revealed some costly equipment which they had looted from the dungeon casually.

And what made them popular was the incident that happened two weeks later. Ever since Starlight revealed their land reclamation records and equipment map, many other guilds began to follow in their footsteps in hope of clearing this dungeon. However, none of them succeeded. Almost all of them retreated as they were incapable of defeating the ten waves of attacking creatures. This became a hot topic because the other guilds had viewed Starlight's reclamation video. According to logic, since a guild was able to clear a dungeon easily, other guilds wouldn't have too many issues either. However, the truth was that the results were at the other extreme end, which many players couldn't figure the reason for.

Many talented players came forth after a few days and their group that had gone through deep research on this dungeon finally exposed a secret. There was a prefix mission before the dungeon of the historical remains in Castel Plateau. As long as the player group completed this mission, they could restrain the creatures' endless aggressions and claim their victory from there.

This conclusion caused a sudden uproar within the community. In other words, according to the game's explanations, the never-ending creatures that the players faced weren't normal critters that were supposed to appear in the dungeons at all. Instead, they were supposed to be a 'warning event'. Indeed, it was impossible for player guilds to resist such attacks. In the end, they could only retreat and search for their weaknesses and histories. This was the mechanism for many other dungeon missions.

However, also due to this discovery, many players felt a feeling of worship towards Starlight immediately. Not only did Starlight not back down from the continuous attacks, they forced their way to the end. What was this mighty domination?

Just like in an RPG game where the princess swore to defeat the Demon God, they would need to defeat its troops and understand the Demon God's weaknesses. After completing a few missions which included passing an equipment on behalf of A to B and visiting C to collect ores that could be manufactured into a powerful weapon in order to defeat the Demon God, they would need to bypass the heavily guarded castle and clear the complicated maze in order to ambush the Demon God. However, Starlight opened the gates to the palace instantly and took down the Demon God as though it was just a normal dungeon BOSS...

Without a doubt, such straightforward actions undermined the fun and complexity of the game. However, their powerful display of strength raised everyone's eyebrows. Moreover, Starlight took a couple of attempts at this dungeon only, unlike the other player groups that failed over a hundred times. It was as though in their eyes, those 'warnings' preventing players from advancing weren't even worth considering!

After this matter, Starlight's reputation rose from a former player guild with regional recognition, to the top five guilds in the entire server. Plenty of players began to study Starlight's raid video and although there wasn't any god-like damage inflicted to the Demon God, the combinations of attack and healing were incomparably on point. Their strong defenses and Rhode's amazing commanding skills were unforgettable in their eyes. There were some players who suspected that the whole of Starlight cheated during the raid and reported to the officials. Without a doubt, the gaming company investigated and confirmed that no cheats were involved. This result caused many players to seek after Starlight even more. Furthermore, during that period of time, many honorable labels were pinned on Starlight. Due to this dungeon, Starlight became famous in the entire game and everyone came to know about them. Moreover, after this incident, many unconvinced player guilds even attempted to break Starlight's record to prove that they could achieve the same. However, they were unsuccessful as they couldn't pass the 'warning events', even with better equipment and weapons.

Due to this, in the Dragon Soul Continent's official voting, this seemingly meaningless dungeon raid video had been ranked as one of the 'Top ten most influential event in the Dragon Soul Continent.'

Of course, this was just something which Rhode and the others laughed over. And right now, Rhode's biggest headache on this mission was also the 'warning events' because he had almost forgotten that it wasn't necessary for them to face so many critters in this mission.

I remember this mission was...

Rhode extended his arm and lifted the mission bulletin labeled 'Castel Plateau Ruins' on the table.

"Alright, let's go with this," Rhode confirmed.