Game’s Dogma

Drako Yau’s face was twitching beneath his mask. He was slowly losing it thanks to how dumb Dumbgirl was.

Even so, Hades had yet to give up on recruiting Dumbgirl right before Drako Yau. Everyone could see her potential despite not knowing her strength stemmed from Kiu Fung’s inheritance skills; her DPS and dragon auras all showed she was no ordinary girl. Dumbgirl was very wary of Hades though, and she hid behind Drako Yau without answering Hades at all.

After a bit of walking, they arrived at a double door which was also golden. Why was everything made in gold? Anyways, a strange totem was engraved onto the door. It was slim and long, topped with something circular.

Drako Yau frowned. This totem… It looks familiar.

‘Off we go!’ Zephyrwolf said as he pushed open the door excitedly.

Drako Yau couldn’t stop him in time. Zephyrwolf was the only one rash enough to open the door without suspecting that it might be trapped. It wasn’t as if they had any other choice though; after venturing so deep into the palace, the door was their only way forwards.

Zephyrwolf easily opened the seemingly heavy door without much effort. Opening the golden door revealed even more sparkling gold, almost as if a golden beam shot out from the door’s gaps.

Everyone was stunned as they looked at what lay beyond the door. Gold and jewellery! The room was stuffed with precious metals and gems. When seen from above, you’d notice that the library-esque room, which was as large as two football fields combined, was in fact a treasury.

All sorts of valuable items sat on what seemed like bookshelves in piles and were categorised by such shelves roughly. The shelves reached all the way up to the ceiling and were all over the room, turning the treasury into a maze.

Just when they wanted to walk towards the shelves, a golden barrier blockaded them within it. Looking around, there were five of such barriers that spawned whenever someone opened the golden double doors.

They were trapped in it for ten or so minutes before the system made an announcement.

‘Commencing countdown. Ten, nine, eight… three, two, one. Countdown over, commencing part two.’

‘Part two: Treasure Hunt. Each player can take and leave with five items of their choice.

‘The treasure vault is divided into three sections. The outer section is a gold vault which contains trade-in items that can be sold to any NPC in cities for gold. The middle section is an armoury where players can receive Level 30 equipment. The inner section is the secret arts vault where five skill books lay hidden.

‘Death penalty does not apply within the treasure vault. Players are teleported down the mountain upon death, and all their treasure will drop to the ground.

‘Players can leave by returning to the barrier. Once within the barrier, players cannot re-enter the treasure vault and can only wait until the quest is over.

‘Treasure Hunt commences in one minute.’

A timer appeared above each barrier.

‘We’ll skip the gold vault.’

Drako Yau and Hades’ squad quickly agreed on it. What they lacked wasn’t gold, but equipment and skills. So far no one had cleared John’s Laboratory (Hell), thus Level 30 epic equipment was still little in supply.

It was the same for skill books. Every one of them were precious treasures sold for unimaginable prices, not to mention that various skills could make surprisingly good combinations for different players. For Hades, just learning the simple passive skill Sword Mastery had completely changed his character.

‘We’ll grab some equipment,’ said Hades, to which Drako Yau nodded.

‘We’ll go for the skill books and distribute our loot afterwards. Remember, get back to the barrier immediately once you get what you’re gunning for. Don’t be greedy,’ Drako Yau said.

‘Ha, of course.’

The minute went by in the blink of an eye.

‘Get ready to charge. Dumbgirl, follow closely behind me. Greenstone, just do what you can, there’s no death penalty this time.’

Drako Yau specifically reminded Dumbgirl and Greenstone. It was natural for him to be worried about Dumbgirl, but what he said to Greenstone was intriguing.

As if he had used up today’s quota of words, Greenstone locked eyes with Drako Yau and simply nodded.

‘Five, four, three, two, one. Good luck, treasure hunters.’

‘Good luck my ass!’ Zephyrwolf swore as he leapt onto Nene and sat on the darkish golden Holy Wolfrider Saddle in gallant style. ‘I’m off!’ he said, rushing off under everyone’s startled stares.

This guy… he could use his wolf as a mount!

‘Go!’

Underworld broke off from Drako Yau’s squad and spread out in different directions. Zephyrwolf, obviously, was the fastest among them all. Riding Nene, he was twice as fast as a charging warrior. He’d most likely be the first to reach the inner section.

But the shelves… or rather, walls that housed treasure were troublesome. Even though the gold vault was large, the walls were blocking their way, forcing them to turn left and right through tricky paths. Valuable gems and piles of gold were mere obstacles right now. In short, it was a maze!

Drako Yau and the rest turned left towards the depths of the treasure vault, but they were met with other players instead. Both parties immediately halted and readied their weapons.

The players belonged to an unfamiliar guild: Red Flower Society. It wasn’t a first-rate guild.

A player from Red Flower Society immediately waved his arms and said, ‘Don’t attack us, we’re not heading into the armoury, just the gold vault.’

Drako Yau shot him a look and nodded before continuing onwards, not sparing them another look; as the saying went, the skilled could afford to be bold. He wasn’t afraid at all that Red Flower Society might strike him from behind, even when they numbered around a dozen while he only had four.

Chan Ka Lok, the player who led the Red Flower Society squad, finally let out a long sigh after Drako Yau and his squad was out of sight. Who didn’t know of the fiery red mask, the symbol of the demonic Mask?

‘There’s no time to waste. On with our plan,’ he urged his members. They continued forwards, though they truly had no plans of entering the armoury…

After a bit of running, Drako Yau’s squad finally arrived at the middle section. It was similarly full of shelves, this time filled with equipment instead. Most were uncommon or rare items, while epic items were sparsely scattered among the piles. Drako Yau ordered them to pick up epic items whenever they saw one on the way for there were only five skill books in the inner section anyways.

While they were still travelling through the armoury, the system’s voice rang in everyone’s heads.

‘Player ??? has discovered and is currently receiving a hidden inheritance. Inheritance is succeeded if there is no interruption for five minutes. Class-specific inheritance: Assassin.’

The moment the system finished its announcement, Drako Yau and his members were just turning around a corner. They encountered seven players who all stood before a bookshelf. Surrounded by six, the player in the centre was shrouded in a hazy glow.

Seeing Drako Yau’s four-man-squad, the six players were all startled briefly before they entered battle stances. The fiery red mask had already revealed who the intruders were. They simply found it unfortunate that they’d encounter others the moment their member began succeeding the inheritance.

‘Mask, do us, Assassination Coalition, a favour. We’ll definitely repay it later on!’ shouted the glowing player. Although his ID was hidden, he still looked at Drako Yau with sincerity.

They were from Assassination Coalition. As Judge Chui had said, Assassination Coalition was the guild that triggered the Mount Soughslit encounter quest. It appeared that their goal was this particular inheritance. Equipment and skill books paled so much in comparison that they weren’t even worth mentioning.

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