Chapter 787 Conviction
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In fact, Emilia's expectations of her team's performance hadn't been particularly high. After all, even if everyone except Crystal already had some 'experience' with full-dive games, they were nowhere near as realistic as Arcadia. Not to mention, most of their fights so far had been quite straightforward.
Even if Emilia were to train them to the best of her ability, she knew that it would be impossible for them to compare to the real seasoned veterans. But that was exactly the reason why she insisted on leveling up and making sure they all got their primary professions unlocked.
With a little bit of polish and the inherent advantage of the new skills, Emilia believed that it shouldn't be impossible for them to outperform the hero's team, regardless of the initial 'lead'.
"Don't panic! Make sure your attacks only hit the goblins!"
Emilia couldn't help but smile happily as she saw the agile little goblins around her drop like flies, with Crystal's arrows skewering right through them in a straight line.
Combined with Nico's healing, her already insignificant injuries were gone long before her team managed to finish them all off, though that didn't stop them from grumbling in discontent.
The plentiful loot from killing over a dozen goblins in a row didn't make them happy at all.
But they couldn't blame Emilia for taking all the 'aggro' using her skill. None of them could deny that they'd panicked, and it was only because of the crimson-haired elf's timely move that they managed to gather some of their wits in time.
Had she not done that, it was entirely possible for them to get 'team wiped' from that ambush.
"Emilia..." Danielle frowned, hesitated for a few moments, then finally made up her mind and gritted her teeth. "Sorry. This time, I failed to keep a cool head."
The drill-haired girl now realized just how difficult it must be for a 'vanguard' to handle such realistic danger. When she'd barely managed to block a goblin from chopping off her head with the wooden staff, her heart had almost popped out of her chest in fright.
In fact, she wasn't the only one feeling that way, and the whole team was full of varying degrees of guilt.
It was fine for them to bully and tease Emilia from time to time, and they were fine with her 'sparring' with monsters gallantly as she usually did, but watching her being harassed by the little beasts was another thing entirely, and none of them liked the helpless feeling they'd had at the time.
"I can't believe we got caught off guard like that." Sylvia sighed.
Feeling the team's low spirits, Crystal frowned, then tried to ease the atmosphere with a light-hearted chuckle. "Well, to be honest... that came out of nowhere."
Robin also nodded hurriedly. "Who could have expected that it would start raining goblins?"
Of course, Emilia's intention this time was only to make them more 'cautious', not depressed.
"Don't worry about it so much. Didn't we handle all those annoying little bugs perfectly?" She grinned. "Look, not a scratch!"
Although all the skin that she bared was indeed silky and clean, without a single blemish as she claimed, it didn't stop Danielle from rolling her eyes.
"I cannot believe you just wasted five mana points. We still have a dungeon to clear, you know?"
Emilia giggled. "Don't worry, I have plenty."
Despite her unrepentant attitude, Danielle's 'scolding' at least managed to set the team's mind back on track.
But as Emilia's team continued to move forward after a short round of bickering, they completely failed to discover the malicious eyes watching each and every movement of theirs with insatiable greed.
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Emilia knew that every dungeon in Arcadia was vast and nearly endless, with thousands of pathways and twists and turns that were almost impossible to memorize.
The initially linear pathway not only got wider and wider as they went deeper, but it also started diverging into multiple routes, from three, to five, to seven. And later on, they would even emerge into vast chambers filled with vicious goblins, with circular walls littered with dozens of pathways.
Even having gone through the previous timeline, she only knew the path that the hero's team took when they cleared the dungeon on their first try. And even then, there was no way to be sure that she wouldn't be mistaken when making a choice.
The only reason players didn't get completely lost in such an absurd maze was because the boss would carefully guide them along the way. Of course, its goal wasn't to give them free loot, but to toy with their minds and bodies alike.
Human morals and the restrictions of the society were of little significance in the eyes of the world will, and Emilia knew very well just what sort of damage the boss in this dungeon could do if given the chance.
'Although they need to be trained and sharpened, I won't let them go through too much.' She pursed her lips in determination while diving into another horde of goblins, with the explosion of her [Challenger's Charm] sending them into a complete frenzy as they swarmed her.
Fortunately, Robin's [Shadow Siphon] slowed them down a lot, and the rest of her team's attacks made quick work of the horde. Nico didn't even need to heal anyone this time.
After quite a few battles, their net mana loss was finally negative, and the few bottles of mana potion that dropped were evenly distributed to Nico and Danielle, then Sylvia and Crystal in a two-to-one ratio.
Obviously, this distribution was based on need, not contribution. And since Emilia's main skill barely used any mana, she refrained from taking any.
But no matter how fast or efficient they got, it was impossible to clear the 'Goblin's Den' on their first day. And once Emilia realized that the day was about to end, she decided it was time to talk about something her team had failed to realize till then.
"Alright, it looks like the day is about to end. What are we going to do with our anchor crystals?"
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This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺