Justin’s death left a high-quality nightmare for Annan.
According to Bread Daryl’s information, the name of this dungeon instance was “Nightmare: Witch Hunt,” which was a relatively rare co-op type nightmare.
Dungeon’s entry requirements: Bronze Rank wizard of any school and four mortal swordsmen. Satisfying any of the conditions would grant entry by replacing one member of the lineup.
For example, Bread Daryl took the swordsman role. Unfortunately, his experience and insight in clearing the dungeon in a mortal swordsman’s shoes were meaningless to Annan. After all, he was a notable priest beyond commoners.
But he could provide Annan information about the dungeon instance’s sequence.
—These five people would fight against Justin, who was in his heyday.
Justin held a Mysterious Ritual, which was called a “hunt notice.”
If Justin were to send an official hunting statement letter to the opponent three days in advance, and his opponent opened and read the hunting letter, then he could lock on the opponent’s trace and soul within these three days.
After three days, if his opponent had not fled the city, the opponent would be labeled as the hunter’s target until the sun sets on the seventh day.
Before the hunter(Justin) launched an attack on the hunting target, he would appear invisible (psychologically) to the locked on hunting target.
In a sense, the target would be completely unaware of the hunter. No matter the scouting and detection mean the target could muster, he would ignore the hunter’s existence. Only the people around the target could see the hunter normally.
At the same time, the specific location of the target would manifest in the hunter’s mind. Even if the target turns invisible or hides, the hunter would know the location.
At this time, Justin had successfully hunted down the two Transcended, having his combat sequence just established.
With that, Justin’s ego inflated.
After studying a young Destruction Wizard, he issued a “hunting notice” to the wizard. He had the goal to snatch the wizard’s curse.
If the wizard left, then Justin would let him go. But if he didn’t take Justin to heart, Justin would attempt to hunt him down.
The Destruction Wizard was the same as his classmates—having an ego and a bad temper.
Although the wizard was only Bronze Rank, he did not choose to escape.
After the wizard received the hunting letter from Justin, he immediately hired four elite swordsmen. When the three-day time limit was approaching, the wizard found a relatively open area (because he was a Destruction Wizard), prepared emergency medicine, food, water, and traps. Then, he got his team into a formation, acting as his eyes. It was a firm declaration that he would fight Justin to death.
The wizard portrayed his big-headed characteristic.
In the end, Justin didn’t stand up to this wizard because there was no share of this wizard in his curse vessel collections.
Justin might even be punished violently and escape in a sorry state.
It might be because of this happening that Justin branded the event clearly in his heart.
“Justin” himself was strengthened in this nightmare.
Not only had Justin’s body become sturdier with his Strength attribute enhanced, but his resistance to burning and explosion was raised. Since Justin had the unique trait [Curse Sensitive Skin], a tingling sensation would arise if a Transcended power targeted him. In that way, Justin was considered immune to sneak attacks.
At the same time, Justin bore the curse before his death in this nightmare: [Overload Hunger], [Pain Loss], [Break Free], and [Death Is A Dream].
This dungeon instance required only five people to work together. The wizard was responsible for outputting damage and protecting the mortals. On the other hand, the mortals took charge as his points. With that, the wizard had a chance to kill Justin.
Hearing Annan’s explanation to “Nightmare: Witch Hunt,” the four players became excited.
This dungeon instance seems fun!
Yiyi and Jiu Er were the most excited among the four.
These two female players happened to be the types whose brains couldn’t keep up with the reaction. In the previous nightmare dungeon instance, they were either stuck or suffered a sanity drop (rise in erosion rate).
It was a rare opportunity for them to encounter a dungeon instance which they could charge head-on. Of course, they immediately became excited.
Immediately, Annan first sent a batch of affection ratings to the players according to their dungeon progress. After having the four players’ consent, Annan withdrew a large amount of affection ratings from them in the cost of delivering them info on the three prerequisites for “profession transfer.”
After listening to these three requirements, the four players reached enlightenment.
“So that’s how it goes.”
“Indeed, the gallery dungeon instance is inconvenient to complete the advancement.”
“I think it’s mainly because you can’t find a weapon.”
“Nope, it’s mainly because no enemy can be found.”
After a quiet discussion, the four suddenly realized something.
Delicious Wind Goose asked Annan, “How many times has “Nightmare: Witch Hunt” been purified?”
“There are about eight times left for purification. That’s enough for us to clear the nightmare for one round only.”
Annan knew very well what the players were thinking. He appreciated that the four players thought of sharing this opportunity with the rest.
Annan happily assigned them some affection rating, which almost recovered their affection ratings to how it previously was before the charges.
“In these three days, the four of you can first discuss what professions you plan to advance to. My personal opinion is to try to have all three professions distributed among your group.”
Annan continued, “In the morning three days later, you should clear Nightmare: Gallery as quickly as possible. Then we will get in the carriage and head to Roseburg.
“I will personally host the advancement ritual for you.”
Annan’s inner thoughts: I will carry you in this process. [1] You can even just be away from the keyboard and wait for me to do the job.
Annan was confident.
However, the four players didn’t trust Annan’s combat effectiveness a lot.
“—Why does it feel like Dead by Daylight?”
“—Obviously not. Dead by Daylight is having one person hunting for four people. This is the case where four of us are looking for the killer.”
“—Worse still, we have to protect Young Master Don Juan.”
“—Yes, at least two people must stay with Young Master Don Juan. Otherwise, the opponent may set up an ambush on our losing condition.”
“—Nor should we be too scattered. With the game mechanic typically goes, we will definitely not be able to beat that killer.”
“—But even if you can’t beat the enemy, you have to grind our parry count on enemy attacks.”
“—But, we will fail in achieving not getting hit while protecting Don Juan, right?”
“—Don Juan will be slow us down. It is unrealistic to sustain no injuries in this dungeon. We have to be extra prepared. On the one hand, we should still make preparations to overcome the challenge to sustain no injuries. At the same time, we must also use the dungeon to grind our parry count.”
The four players published an encrypted post, discussing silently and intensely among themselves.
They didn’t trust Annan’s combat experience.
After all, Annan looked too young. He wasn’t so much the captain but like Athena.
Indeed, it was the Athena who needed protection in typical game storylines.
But the four of them obviously didn’t know.
Their Lord “Athena” was now peeking at their post.
Annan was like a class teacher who hid near the back window and peered silently into the classroom like a phantom.
…Fuck. Since you think I’m Athena, if the boss is too simple, then I will give you trouble myself.
Annan squinted his eyes, thinking silently in his heart.
No, no, this wasn’t vindictive.
This was selfless love.
In fact, the players’ performance in this dungeon instance would dictate their curse.
So Annan had to give chances for the players to perform~
In this way, the players would get a more rare and powerful curse!
There would be no way to find a teammate like Annan who had excellent acting skills, could carry the game and wasn’t afraid of being beaten up.
Soon, the three-day-long waiting time was over.
After the four of them went online, it took an hour and a half to clear “Nightmare: Gallery” and hurried to the carriage.
Annan was looking at the four players with a smile, “Well, your efficiency is pretty high. It’s pretty early now. After we get to Roseburg, we can go to Bishop Daryl for lunch. If your progress goes well…
“How about we have a special barbecue in Roseburg tonight?”
[1] “Carrying” is a term used in team games where one person wins the match for everyone else.