Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 269 Black Widow

The Hidden Chamber was not very well hidden at all. It was located at the back of the boss’s study, beside the fireplace. One could immediately find its entrance as it existed in the form of a large elegant door with a lock. Players who wished to enter the room would be prompted with “Please insert the key” by the system. And that was the reason why the room was known as the Red Monastery Hidden Room by players.

It was the most obvious Hidden Room in the history of Hidden Rooms in Fate.

Ye Ci was standing at the entrance of the Hidden Room, while Ol’ Four stood beside her. It took a sniff of the lock, and ‘this is not food’ was clearly written on its face. It nudged the door with its snout, and decided to divert its attention somewhere else when the door would not budge.

Ol’ Four began to “investigate” the books within the study, which involved how to turn them into smaller pieces.

Ye Ci inserted the rusted key into the keyhole, and was able to unlock the door with great effort. She pushed open the door after directing Ol’ Four to be ready for combat. Cold air gushed out of the room. There were no monsters, but there was an eerie air in the atmosphere.

The Hidden Room itself was nothing special. It was just a passageway that was built with bricks with torches that had been long extinguished lining the wall. The holder of each torch was eloquently built. It was obvious that the passageway was leading to somewhere important.

Ye Ci investigated the passage with Hawkeye, and slowly advanced forward after making sure that there were no monsters ahead.

But as Ye Ci began progressing through the process, lower level monsters began to appear. Despite being Elites, the monsters levels were relatively low. Ye Ci did not even have to engage the lvl40 monsters as they were all dispatched easily by Ol’ Four.

This meant that Ye Ci was free to observe her surroundings as she proceeded forward. There was nothing on the walls, but she noticed two pillars on each side of the corridors decorated with sinister carvings every few yards. It was something that Ye Ci was very familiar with. The markings could be found on totems in the later stages of the game. They were used to worship the demons.

It was apparent that some sort of shrine for some demon was at the end of the passageway.

The number of monsters grew as Ye Ci continued moving forward. Even their levels have begun to increase, but they are still weak compared to Ol’ Four. But for the sake of saving time, Ye Ci was forced to enter combat as well.

A long flight of stairs awaited Ye Ci at the end of the passageway. She led Ol’ Four up the stairs, and pushed past the doors at its end. There was nothing but ruins in front of her.

She had arrived in a ruined courtyard with tall grasses that was half the height of a normal human. Even the decorative plants and trees in the courtyard had wilted away. There was a small mansion at the middle of the courtyard, and it was Ye Ci’s destination.

As Ye Ci made her way to the mansion, she was attacked by many monsters, but they were all defeated easily. The doors of the mansion had long rotten away as they barely hung on their frame. A light kick from Ye Ci was able to easily splitter the doors.

She could hear the low growl of monsters as she stepped into the mansion. “You’re entering unexplored territory. Unknown danger lurks ahead. As the first player to explore the map, you will receive a very bountiful reward, but you might die here. Do you wish to proceed?” a system notification appeared in Ye Ci’s view.

Ye Ci selected “accept” without much of a thought. After all, this was what she was here for. She was not afraid of dying in the game. The little experience lost upon death was nothing compared to the exploration rewards.

A female voice full of anger immediately entered her ears, “I sense an unfamiliar scent in the air. You do not belong in my domain! Guards! Expel the stranger from my realm!”

A swarm of lvl55 Dark Sentries immediately appeared. Whilte Ye Ci was already at lvl72, the sheer weight of the monster’s number still proved to be a challenge to her. A normal lvl55 party would be in big trouble in a fight against the Dark Sentries.

It did not take very long for Ye Ci to defeat the Dark Sentries. She proceeded to explore each room of the mansion. The female voice did not appear again even after she defeated the many monsters in the mansion.

As she continued exploring the mansion, Ye Ci arrived at what seemed to be the entrance to an underground prison. It was way brighter compared to the dimly lit mansion.

The prison was three storey tall, and Ye Ci could hear the voice of the female summoning monsters against her as she explored each level of the prison. The levels of these monsters had been increased to lvl65, and Ye Ci was starting to feel hard-pressed in the fight against the monsters.

Despite its high defense, Ol’ Four was still nearly overwhelmed on multiple occasions by the large numbers of enemies, and its mood soured rapidly.

Ye Ci quickly healed her pet up after defeating the latest wave of enemy and fed it with its favourite food. She then decided to dismiss Ol’ Four and summon Ol’ Six instead.

It was impossible for Ol’ Six to fly in the underground prison due to its sheer size, but the system was still rather generous. An aerial steed that was summoned as a combat pet would often have their size reduced slightly. While Ol’ Six was still large, it was at least able to follow Ye Ci around in the underground prison.

Ol’ Six might not have a level as high as Ol’ Four, but its damage output was at an entirely different level. This greatly reduced the burden that was placed on Ye Ci. Ol’ Six’s level was increased by one when the level was finally cleared.

The final level was a large hall where players would face off against the finally BOSS. The size of the hall was scaled directly to the influence a BOSS held. Judging from the size of the hall, the woman was not at all influential.

A throne was set in the middle of the hall, where a lady in black robes sat. She was not beautiful, but Ye Ci could feel an intimidating aura from the lady. She looked at Ye Ci, but did not rise from her throne, “It seems that you’re a capable fighter. Even my guards were not able to defeat you.”

And the lady went silent. The battle would begin when Ye Ci launched her first attack. She studied her surroundings, and found some fallen rocks and bricks at a corner of the hall that were as tall as her.

Ye Ci attempted to move between the bricks and rocks. It was a good choke point. With the lack of a tank, and with Ol’ Six’s level not sufficient enough to pull the aggro of the BOSS, Ye Ci knew that she would be courting death by attempting to kite the high level BOSS. The only way to defeat the BOSS was to lure the BOSS to a choke point and take her out.

With the spot already identified, Ye Ci fired off an arrow at the BOSS and gulped down a bottle of Potion of Haste and sprinted towards the choke point. The BOSS charged at her with a roar, “Foolish Elf! You will pay for your treachery!”

Ye Ci placed Ol’ Six at the entrance of the choke point as she attacked the BOSS. She smiled as she saw the name of the BOSS.

The Black Widow.

Yeah, she sure looks like one. With Ol’ Six standing in the way between her and Ye Ci, the BOSS’s attack landed on the Dragon instead. With Ye Ci’s command to hold its position, Ol’ Six did not attack the BOSS despite its anger. It glared at The Black Widow as Ye Ci fired off arrows at the BOSS while healing Ol’ Six. And before long, the BOSS’s HP was reduced to only 40%.

And the BOSS was enraged as her attacks were not able to reach Ye Ci at all, “I shall turn your corpse into fertilizer, Elf!” she roared.