Tristan learned about the resurrection point chaos from Drake.
Aside from a wry smile and thinking to himself, "Of course it's you, DarkSaber," Tristan didn't know what else to say.
He didn't take DarkSaber seriously at all.
After killing Jerobi, Tristan didn't rush to leave. Instead, he made his way to the edge of the cliff.
Jerobi's body had already collapsed, slowly merging back into the earth, leaving behind a gap.
Following the gap down, Tristan knew the entrance to the hidden dungeon was just ahead.
He expertly jumped down a few ledges and landed on a platform below.
There, he found a cave with a semi-transparent light screen covering its entrance. The area was overgrown with grass, making it hard to see the interior clearly.
But Tristan knew exactly where it was.
As soon as he touched the light screen, a system prompt appeared.
"Ding, you have discovered a hidden dungeon for the first time. This will be announced to the entire server. Do you wish to hide your nickname?"
"No."
[Player 'Blackshade' has discovered the hidden dungeon 'Crimson Tomb' below the cliff. All players are encouraged to explore it!]
[Please note, this dungeon is difficult. Choose an appropriate difficulty for your challenge!]
When the announcement appeared, all players were momentarily stunned.
Oh, it's Blackshade again.
Used to it.
But wait... what did the announcement say? A hidden dungeon?
At the mention of a dungeon, players immediately became excited.
Dungeon!
Loot!
Get rich!
Within moments, all players paused what they were doing and started discussing where the dungeon was.
Even Drake, who had been heading back to level in the Wild Boar Plains, stopped and hesitated for a moment. He then sent a message, "Blackshade, is that dungeon located in the Granite Hills?"
The announcement clearly mentioned the hidden dungeon below the cliff.
The only place in the new player village with such a terrain was to the north, in the Granite Hills.
Considering the announcement came so quickly, there was no way Blackshade could have traveled somewhere else in such a short time.
Drake speculated that Blackshade must have discovered the dungeon entrance while looting the gear after killing the BOSS.
He sent the message mainly out of concern that the dungeon might be a one-time event. He didn't want to compete with Blackshade if that was the case.
After all, no matter how great the dungeon was, the friendship with Blackshade was far more important.
But Drake quickly realized he was overthinking. Blackshade's reply was straightforward:
"The dungeon is right where Jerobi appeared. Just follow the slope down, but I suggest you be level 10 before entering."
Drake replied, "Naturally, my level is too low right now to make much of a difference in the dungeon."
With a level 10 Silver Grade gear already in sight and a hidden dungeon to explore, Drake's desire to level up grew stronger. He immediately directed his party toward the Wild Boar Plains.
On the way, Drake saw many players heading toward the dungeon as well.
No doubt, they were all aiming to explore the dungeon.
In the team chat, the assassin asked, "Aren't we going for the dungeon? What if someone else gets the first kill?"
The archer chimed in, "Yeah, we can't beat Blackshade in the wild, but dungeons are different. Each team has their own instance; we don't need to worry too much."
Drake shook his head and said, "Blackshade knows Iron Fist Alliance's dungeon capabilities. He's telling me to wait until I'm level 10, which means the difficulty is high."
"And with Blackshade in there, there's no way anyone else is getting the first kill."
"Even if Hua and the others are in the same village as us, they can't compete with Blackshade."
"So, why rush? Let's just focus on leveling up."
"Blackshade can solo a level 10 Silver Grade BOSS. If we don't level up, we'll just be drooling over his gear."
After a few exchanges, the assassin and the archer agreed with Drake's decision, though they felt a bit speechless.
Once upon a time, they were frequent first killers of BOSSes in major MMOs.
Now, a player like Blackshade appeared and effortlessly made them seem powerless.
Where was the fairness in that?
...
Unlike Drake's calm demeanor, most players didn't think as much.
A dungeon was a dungeon—of course they were going to try and clear it.
Worst case scenario, they'd run the corpse back. What was there to fear?
Brothers, let's go!
Players formed small teams and, under the fire from Granite Giants, started making their way toward the platform below the cliff. After a few fallen bodies, they finally reached the dungeon entrance.
"Please select the dungeon difficulty."
"Normal, Warrior, King, Nightmare."
After a brief discussion, the players decided to start with Normal, figuring it was better to be safe, farm some gear, and then consider the higher difficulties.
Then, they were all wiped out by the first wave of trash mobs.
At the resurrection point, the team stared at each other in confusion.
"What just happened?"
As more players appeared at the resurrection point, everyone realized the situation, and a wave of complaints spread.
"What kind of dungeon is this? Normal difficulty is this hard? Stupid developers, are you even human?"
...
Drake, who was still leveling up, received messages from his guild members.
Just as Blackshade had warned, the dungeon's difficulty was high.
So far, elite teams from the major guilds hadn't even gotten to see what the BOSS looked like—they all wiped out on the first wave of mobs.
While their equipment might have been a bit lacking and their stats a bit low, they still shouldn't have been this helpless on Normal difficulty.
Was this some kind of joke?
Drake chuckled to himself.
"See, you guys don't have patience. You can't rush things."
Blackshade was good to him, giving the heads-up to wait until level 10. Otherwise, they'd be joining the crowd complaining about the developer.
With this thought, Drake felt a surge of confidence.
"My bond with Blackshade is something you guys can't understand!"
But then, Drake wondered, Where is Blackshade now? How come the first kill hasn't been announced yet?
A hidden dungeon like this is easy for Blackshade.
...
What Drake didn't know was that Tristan, after discovering the hidden dungeon, hadn't rushed into it but had instead left, heading to the Wolf Slope.
To be honest, if it weren't for the hidden quest line, he would've started running the dungeon by now.
But for now, he wasn't in a hurry.
Tristan knew full well that with the current players' levels and equipment, even clearing Normal difficulty would be a challenge. The other three difficulty levels were progressively more difficult.
Of course, compared to the special mode activated after the Wolf King jumps into the dungeon, even Nightmare difficulty wasn't much of a challenge.
The special mode wasn't too different in overall difficulty from Nightmare, except for the final hidden BOSS, the revived Vampire Baron, who was extremely brutal and difficult to fight.