...
As the battle progressed, Shin and the others finally encountered the problem that they needed to deal with, killing the wolf generals.
After fighting for such a long time, the Health Bars of the three Overlord Bosses were already reaching less than a quarter of their total value. Aside from the one that Shin was fighting and the giant wolf that had the largest Health Pool, the other three wolf generals were already reaching their limit.
They were still giving the group a lot of trouble as their attack patterns and the power behind their attacks reached a whole other level the moment when their health bars reached the critical point.
The giant wolf possessed a health bar twice as large as the others, so it was natural for it to still had more HP despite suffering the combined attacks of the other members of the group.
But it didn't mean that it was in a better condition. It might look a little healthier compared to the others but it was still receiving the greatest number of attacks from the group.
The group was about to take down the three wolf generals but they still couldn't kill them because they were worried that Lupus and the armored wolf were going to get stronger if they killed them right now.
Arthur and Shin were already reaching their limit after fighting those two wolves for a long time. And even their two-fold berserk was already running out, especially for Shin who activate his buffs much earlier.
His 'Lycanthrope' already ended, so he was forced to change his equipment from the [Dawn and Dusk Set] to [Apocalypse Set] to activate the other berserk skill that it had. It was for him to delay the drawbacks of the two-fold berserk. Though, he would suffer a much more severe side-effect later.
Aside from the equipment set, Shin didn't change his weapons since he thought the [Dusk Blade] and [Dawn Blade] were better choices to fit his current style, at least in this current situation.
Earlier, when he discovered that he was actually fighting an NPC instead of a Monster Boss, Shin quickly informed the others about it. They were surprised at first before feeling a little suspicious just like him.
They suspected that this armored wolf, named Lycan, would help them at the latter stages of the battle. After all, that should how the system worked, especially when it came to this kind of high-difficulty quest.
They were experts in the game, so it was not strange for such a thing to happen. They even called such conditions 'Special System Support', it was an instance when a player encountered a quest that was almost impossible to be cleared with their strengths alone.
But what confused them was the fact that this particular wolf received the same level of buffs after Lupus transformed into a werewolf. This made them doubt if Lycan was a friendly NPC or a hostile one.
Just like the 'Special System Support', there were also other instances when the NPCs were involved in a certain quest. And instead of having a friendly NPC that would assist them, a hostile NPC would appear and increase the difficulty of the quest, though it would also lead to greater rewards in exchange.
This was why the group was caught in a difficult dilemma, they were not sure if they were going to gamble their luck with it or not.
It was too much of a risk. After all, they could tell that Lycan Steel was as strong as Lupus who just underwent a metamorphosis.
If they were to gamble and failed, then it was going to be a total disaster since there was a high chance that those two wolves were going to be promoted into Emperor Rank Bosses.
They might be stronger right now because they could use the Reality Manifestation, but they were still not confident that they could fight a healthy Emperor Rank Boss even with it, much less fight two of them at once.
But if they were successful, then they would be able to gain a powerful ally that would help them explore this frozen land with ease. They would not be afraid even if they were to fight another Emperor Rank Monster Boss along the way.
Shin was leaning more toward the latter outcome. His instincts were telling him that Lycan was a friendly NPC that would assist them in clearing this Empire Quest. After all, clearing the quest with such a harsh condition was going to be impossible clear with their current strength.
Right after they entered the map, they immediately encountered a wolf army with Lord Rank Monster as cannon fodder. It might be understandable at first given the overall strength of their group. But having a berserk quality was a little over the top.
No matter how strong their group was, it was still pretty impossible to wipe out such a powerful army, especially when the leader of the pack was a King Class Monster Boss with four Overlord Rank Monsters as underlings.
Then there was the risk of that King Class Monster Boss being promoted into an Emperor Class if they happened to clear out the whole army.
No matter how Shin looked at it, Lycan was definitely placed in this setting to be a friendly NPC to assist the expedition group. The other godlike players of their group were sharing the same thought.
But the problem was they were still fighting Lycan even if they reached this critical stage of the battle.
If they put the clues given to them through the information about Lycan into consideration, then the ones that stood out the most were the word 'Confused' on its status and the phrase 'Endured the cursed because of its bloodline' written on its quest clue at the very bottom of the information panel.
After taking a closer look at it, the group concluded that they needed to meet a certain condition to 'wake' Lycan from its confused state for them to turn it into an ally.
But how were they going to do that?
The group was completely troubled. Shin also knew that this was a critical stage that they needed to overcome to progress further in the quest.
'Relieving Lycan at his confused state before killing the other three wolves,' Shin was sure that this was the main problem. But he felt that they overlooked something, he just couldn't find what it was.
Having that kind of doubt, Shin started to reassess the entire situation. He reviewed the entire event, trying to find where everything took a massive turn. "Where is it?"
"Everything is going smoothly just earlier. All of it is going according to our plan, so why the difficulty of the quest spikes up this high?"
"Is it when were reached the inner circle of the wolf army? That time the four wolf generals make their moves. But at that time, they were just some ordinary Overlord Bosses, there is nothing special about them aside from their overwhelming Health Bars and powerful stats."
"Is it when we are fighting the Alpha Wolf? But everything is still pretty normal at that time. At least until before Cloe finished setting up the Holy Field."
Hmm?
Shin couldn't help but pause his thoughts when he reached this point. It was as if something struck his mind. "Wait! Until she set up the Holy Field? That is right! That is when Lupus starts showing some violent reactions!"
"Could it be the Holy Field is the cause?" asked Shin to himself as he swept his gaze over the surroundings while fighting Lycan.
Then information started to flow inside his head. "Based on the Historical Notes that we have gotten so far, it is already obvious that this wolf army is a part of the Great Army that is sent here to eradicate the corrupted people of this place, those so-called spawns of darkness, the vampires to be exact."
"Adding the clues given through Lycan's information panel, this army is used to be the great Blue Wolf Army."
"Then there is a certain incident that leads the whole army to be cursed. At first, we thought it is a curse cast on them by the first Vampire. After all, as a contractor of a powerful demon, and as a descendant of dragon worshippers, that person should be extremely powerful."
"But now that I have a second look into it, it looks like the other way around. That incident must be the betrayal of the whole army and started defying the orders of that Goddess. It is most likely the reason why they are cursed."
"But why did they betray the Goddess? There must be a heavy reason for them to commit such a sin," Shin tried to figure out the answer, but with such a limited amount of information, it was impossible for him to pinpoint the exact answer.
Instead, he focused on the current situation at hand. "If Lupus showed a great reaction after sensing the Holy Powers from Cloe, then it probably senses a certain familiarity from it."
"It must have felt a Divine Powers similar to the Goddess that cursed them from Cloe. Her Holy Powers much have reminded Lupus of what happened during that time!"
"That explains why this wolf is stubbornly going after her!"
"And when the Holy Field is finally established, we may have triggered something and made Lupus enter into a crazy state, leading us to our current situation!"
Finally understanding everything, Shin squinted his eyes and focused his gaze on Lycan. "Then we need to do something similar in order to wake this guy from his confused state."
...…
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