Gui Guzi looked over my shoulder. "Fuck, a magic scroll to teleport to the B2 floor already? We haven’t even seen the boss of the first floor yet."

Xu Yang also asked, "What do you think, Lu Chen? Should we stay here or teleport to the B2 floor?"

I thought for a moment before answering, "The competition on this floor is going to be very fierce, and it just doesn’t seem wise to fight against tens of thousands of players over a single boss. I suggest we farm three or more magic scrolls and teleport at least 300 players to the B2 floor. This way, we should have a chance even if we’re up against an Earth Rank boss."

Xu Yang asked again, "Does that mean we’re giving up on the boss of the B1 floor?"

"Of course not!" I answered with certainty. "What I mean is that we take what we can take, and give up on what we cannot. For example, remember that every boss in this map will drop a dragon scale quest item upon death? A player must carry it at all times because it can’t be stored in a warehouse, so my plan goes like this: while we’re at the B2 floor, we wait for the person carrying the dragon scale of the Wood Dragon Domain to show up, kill them and take it for ourselves!"

"Mn!"

He Yi nodded with a smile. "Alright, let’s try and farm as many magic scrolls as possible then. We won’t be able to defeat any boss without enough players, not to mention that we have enemy guilds like Candle Dragon and Warsky Alliance to worry about. Candle Dragon especially has never stopped plotting our demise…"

A knowing smile flitted across everyone’s face. Candle Dragon and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls were sworn enemies, and in any world there could only be one king.

……

More than an hour passed by in the blink of an eye. By now, we had cleared out almost the entire valley and found a total of four B2 floor teleportation scrolls.

We also received news that Warsky Alliance, Gods of Destruction, and Candle Dragon had discovered the location of the boss. However, it was also surrounded by hundreds of those abominable Wood Porcupines that could fire Spike Rains. This meant that any guild who wished to challenge the boss must clear out the troublesome guardians first. Currently, all three guilds were racing to think of a way to deal with the rodents, fight the boss and not be backstabbed by the other guilds.

Snowy Cathaya, The Monarch Descends, and Blazing Hot Lips were also making way toward the boss in hopes of getting a piece of the pie. So far, it looked like we were the only guilds who were planning to skip the boss and move on to the next floor right now.

He Yi, Gui Guzi, Li Chengfeng, and I had partied 100 players each including Beiming Xue, High Fighting Spirits, Chaos Moon and Xu Yang. The plan was to scout out the B2 floor with our 400 players, find the boss and kill it if possible.

I said while holding a teleportation scroll, "Come closer. The scroll might have a range limit we don’t know about…"

Beiming Xue, Chaos Moon, and Pure Love instantly huddled around me. I could feel my face turning green as I stared at Pure Love. "I said ‘come closer’, not ‘hug me’…"

Pure Love blushed. I could almost see the angel and the devil warring above her head as she tried to come to a decision.

Chaos Moon let out a helpless sigh. "Poor smitten Pure Love, she’s at the point where she’s literally expressing her feelings through her body…"

Beiming Xue: "Big bro…"

I crushed the teleportation scroll to free myself from this awkward situation as soon as possible. A huge magical formation appeared beneath everyone’s feet, and before anyone could react, its magical energy tore at our bodies and dragged us right into the B2 floor of the Nine Lost Dragon Domains!

Swhoosh~!

There was a flash of light, and we appeared in a dark and damp environment of the B2 floor. It was a huge, wet forest overflowing with the scent of death and decay. Occasionally, a cold wind would brush against our skins and elicit a shiver.

I opened the minimap and discovered that it was completely gray. I supposed that we were meant to explore the map ourselves.

I looked behind me to make sure that my party members were doing okay. There were players of all classes in my party such as warriors, mages, archers and so on. In general, Martial God was very useful on a high-level map like this.

Beep!

It was at this moment He Yi sent me a message: "Where are you guys, Lu Chen?"

I replied, "The minimap is obscured. All I can tell you is that I’m at (0288, 1093). What about you? Let’s meet up somewhere."

"In that case, let’s meet up at (1000, 1000). How does that sound?"

"No problem!"

In Nine Lost Dragon Domains, unity was more important than anything. Moving in separate groups would make us vulnerable to monsters or enemy guilds. That being said, we were still pretty safe because all the super guilds such as Candle Dragon, Snowy Cathaya, The Monarch Descends, Purple Lily, and so on were challenging the "Giant Dragon of Life", the boss of the first floor. They were also delayed by the sea of Wood Porcupines standing between them and the boss.

"Let’s go. Give me a buff, Pure Love!"

"Okay!"

A couple of flashes later, the fifth-promotion bard had unloaded all her buffs on me, buffing all my stats by 40% on average. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that having a fifth-promotion bard could transform any fighter into a monster, especially since they could learn Holy Light now. Although the heal amount was only half of a priest’s at the same level, it was still incredibly useful. A class that could heal and buff could never be useless.

Scrunch… scrunch…

Our boots made a disgusting sloshing sound as we trekked across the muddy ground. High Fighting Spirits, Chaos Moon, and I were the vanguard of the party because we were the strongest warriors in the party. Xu Yang was in He Yi’s party, and Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun was in Gui Guzi’s party. Since our peak experts had split up, we had to proceed with the utmost caution.

A distant howl suddenly came from somewhere. I immediately tensed up and said, "Keep your eyes open, everyone…"

"Mn!" Chaos Moon nodded strongly before asking, "Do you think that the mobs at the B2 floor will be stronger than the Wood Porcupines?"

"Probably, but I doubt that we’ll run into a bullshit mob like the Wood Porcupines with Spike Rain anymore."

"True. Those Wood Porcupines were designed purely as gatekeepers of the entire map, meant to annoy the shit out of the players. You literally can’t find a Level 150 shadow-rank mob like that anywhere else. It’s such a shameless design."

I nodded in agreement before checking the map again. Since the B2 floor was called "Golden Dragon Domain", it was probably where the boss named "One-horned Golden Dragon" resided. I might’ve given up on fighting the boss of the B1 floor, but there was no way in hell I was giving up the boss of this floor as well! What would be the point of coming here if I kept slipping these bosses?

I suddenly saw a flash of gold at the black plains when I looked up. Very soon, a huge and ferocious-looking beast leaped onto a small hill. It was a fearsome tiger with golden fur. It was about two meters tall, and it was incredibly muscular. It glared at us with cruel eyes, bared its fangs and bent its hind legs slightly, as if it was planning to deal a critical blow at any moment!

"WTF, what a huge and handsome-looking tiger…" Chaos Moon giggled.

I took a step forward and stared at the tiger. A second later, its stats appeared in the party channel—

Golden Arrow Tiger (Shadow)

Level: 155

Attack: 1800~2050

Defense: 2000

HP: 180000

Skills: Bite, Claw Swipe, Golden Arrow Explosion

Introduction: The guardians of the Golden Dragon Domain. The Golden Arrow Tigers possess incredible strength that terrorizes any foe at any range.

……

"This tiger is so strong…" Chaos Moon’s jaw nearly hit the floor.

I gripped my sword and activated Charge. If there was one thing I figured out about this map, it was that the Golden Arrow Tigers had to die if we wanted to teleport out of the B2 floor later on. Long story short, kill the mobs to leave, kill the boss for the win.

Swhoosh!

The Golden Arrow Tiger only managed a roar before it was stunned by my Thunderous Charge. It had less Defense than the Wood Porcupines, so it wasn’t as difficult to kill. A standard Universe Break + Burning Blade Slash combo later, its HP had dropped by 40%. Humiliated and angered, the tiger swiped at my Obsidian Dragonscale Armor in retaliation and dealt a sizable amount of damage—3872!

As I thought, 2050 Attack was a bit too much for me to handle right now. The Golden Arrow Tiger was a shadow-rank mob, and it also had a massive level advantage over me. In other words, its true attack power was at least three times its Attack stat. Could you imagine how ridiculous that was? If I didn’t have various damage reduction skills such as Ghost Deity Armor to protect me, I would be the one crying here.

I sliced and diced for a bit while waiting for the 6-second cooldown of Universe Break to finish. Then, I used it again. This skill was just so damn good!

However, several howls rang above the wind, and three Golden Arrow Tigers suddenly appeared around me. The first Golden Arrow Tiger looked up and unleashed Wild Roar, empowering its kin’s Attack instantly. Not only that, the effect was at least twice as powerful as my own Wild Roar. Motherfucker! I can’t believe these animals know how to buff their friends!

"Big bro, watch out!" Beiming Xue suddenly let out a shout.

My pupils narrowed into needles when I realized that the two Golden Arrow Tigers about 10 yards away from me had puffed up their hair. A small bump rose in between the bones and muscles behind their backs, condensed into a golden arrow and flew straight toward me. Is it the Golden Arrow Explosion?!

I didn’t Guard because the mobs would aggro onto my party members instead. I just stood there and bore the full brunt of the attack!

Bang! Bang!

6983!

7024!

Holy shit, I almost couldn’t believe how much HP I lost. Luckily, Pure Love had buffed me with a fifth-promotion skill called "Physique", boosting my max HP by 40%, so I could endure at least another round of attack before I was forced to heal myself!

"Careful, everyone! Charge!"

Chaos Moon and High Fighting Spirits charged a Golden Arrow Tiger each while Beiming Xue peppered them with Evil Spirit Volleys and Spiraling Arrow Blades. Moonlight Stone had also tossed out her Galaxy Storm. Thank goodness I had the foresight to drag our best archer, mage and bard into my party!

"Watch out for OT!" I shouted in warning.

But it was too late. Three Golden Arrow Tigers bristled in anger and started channeling their Golden Arrow Explosion again. Even worse, they were targeting our ranged players!

Whoosh!

I gathered red, circular energy around my left fist and punched the hell out of a Golden Arrow Tiger, but I couldn’t stop the other two mobs from unleashing their skill!

Pu!

The archer at the farthest edge of the party ate both hits and died!

No wait, I was wrong. One of them was still on the way!

I spun around just in time to see Beiming Xue getting hit by a Golden Arrow Explosion. She had raised the Blazing Shadow Bow in front and guarded, but she still took a long, deep gash to the shoulder and lost over 12k HP in one go! The only reason Beiming Xue was still alive was because she had over 15k HP. Moreover, the level and Strength gap between her and the Golden Arrow Tiger was so huge that her Guard was a lot less effective than it could’ve been. She was lucky that she managed to reduce the damage taken by about 25% or so!

……

"Damn, it’s a common mob on this map but is already so terrifying…" High Fighting Spirits uttered through gritted teeth.