51. The Three Level-10 Dungeons
"Ding! Congratulations on triggering the hidden quest [An Unfinished Equestrian Bond]. Do you accept?"
"Accept."
Since the triggered hidden quest was related to Tina, he might as well do it while he was at it.
"Ding! You have accepted the hidden quest [An Unfinished Equestrian Bond (Rare) 1/10]."
"Quest Description: Take the little red mare to Oran City, find the Warrior Guild Supervisor Quyne, and ask her why Tina abandoned her mount."
"Quest Reward: Experience points X200."
"Then, Village Chief, I'll be off." Su Yu mounted the little red mare and waved goodbye to the village chief.
The little red mare neighed gently and tamely, showing no resistance to Su Yu riding it at all. Perhaps it could smell Tina's scent on Su Yu.
"Wait a moment, adventurer!" The village chief waved his hand to stop Su Yu.
"Is there anything else?"
"Of course, official business." The village chief pulled out a small booklet, scribbled in it for a good while, then tore out those pages and handed them to Su Yu.
"Take these pages to the royal capital of Spindleflower City and look for the Princess's bodyguard, Kaldron. He will tell you how to gain an audience with the Princess."
"Ding! Your main quest has been updated! [The Glory of the Spindleflower Empire (2/100)]."
"Quest Requirements: Travel to Spindleflower City, find the Princess's bodyguard Kaldron, and obtain the method to gain an audience with the Princess."
"Quest Reward: Experience points X500."
Su Yu took the pages from the village chief's hand and glanced at them; they primarily described the crimes of the Star-Forging Dragon King.
"Alright, Village Chief. I will inform the Princess as soon as possible."
Su Yu bid farewell to the village chief once again and rode off on the horse with a rhythmic clip-clop.
......
Riding through the village, the little red mare complied with every instruction Su Yu gave it. When told to go left, it went left; when told to turn around, it turned around. It was extremely obedient.
The only real drawback was that it ran a bit too slowly; everything else was fine.
"Perhaps Tina abandoned it in order to become a 'Unicorn Knight.' I wonder what the reward for the final step of the quest will be..." Su Yu fell into deep thought.
However, Su Yu had forgotten that at the current stage of the game, regular players didn't have mounts yet.
As he rode along the village path, players on both sides cast curious and attentive gazes at him:
"Who is that? Why is he riding a horse?"
"I heard players can only ride mounts once they reach level 10."
"There's only one level-10 player on the leaderboard... Could that be the Nemesis大佬?!"
"Nemesis大佬, please carry me! Please take me under your wing!"
Players recognized Su Yu and enthusiastically swarmed toward him, blocking his path completely.
Su Yu realized he shouldn't be riding around aimlessly on a horse.
So, he quickly dismounted and cancelled the summons of the little red mare in his mount inventory.
The little red mare vanished on the spot, and a red horse badge appeared in Su Yu's backpack.
By using this badge in the future, Su Yu could summon the little red mare once again.
By then, the players had completely surrounded him, and some female players even reached out to touch him.
Frightened, Su Yu hastily cast [Invisibility] and used [Blink] for short-range dodging to escape the "clutches" of those female players.
After the 3-second duration of [Invisibility] took effect, Su Yu finally managed to escape this ordeal.
The players only saw Su Yu's figure gradually fade away until there was no shadow left of him.
"Where is he? Where did he go?"
"Did he log off?"
"Then we'll just guard this exact spot and wait for Nemesis大佬 to log back in!"
"Right, let's wait."
Players gathered around the spot where Su Yu had cast his invisibility spell and lingered for a long time without dispersing.
......
Meanwhile, however, Su Yu had already arrived next to Jenny, the dungeon merchant.
After spending 20 Psionic Coins to purchase a level-10 dungeon ticket, three portals opened up behind Jenny.
Each portal represented a dungeon.
These three dungeons were different from the level-5 dungeon.
The level-5 dungeon was constructed based on wild monsters, whereas the three level-10 dungeons were constructed based on Annie's true experiences.
Annie was the NPC loli who had once brought the Star-Forging Dragon King to hunt down Su Yu, and she was also one of the only two female leads in the新手村 (novice village).
The first dungeon was named [Annie and the Little Match Girl].
The story recounted Annie's experience of selling matches on the streets when she was 5 years old.
"Please buy a match!"
It was snowing heavily at the time, and Annie was cold, hungry, and didn't even have shoes, yet no one bought her matches.
With her lips turning cyan, she struck the first match and saw a warm fireplace;
She struck the second match and saw a fragrant roasted goose;
She struck the third match and saw a beautiful Christmas tree;
She struck the fourth match and saw her long-missed grandmother.
These were Annie's four dreams.
On the verge of freezing to death, she awakened her witch talent, and at the same time, a massive number of nightmare monsters spawned within her dreams, attempting to drag the entire city into eternal sleep.
What the players needed to do was enter the four dreams and eliminate the nightmare monsters within, preventing Annie from freezing to death and stopping the entire city from being eroded by the nightmare monsters.
The second dungeon was called [Little Annie and the Big Bad Wolf].
The story advanced to when Annie was 7 years old, at which point she had been adopted by a pair of wizard couples.
One day, Annie was delivering food to her grandmother in the forest, but her grandmother was eaten by the big bad wolf.
The little bear in the forest couldn't bear to watch, so with the players' help, it slashed open the big bad wolf's belly and rescued Annie's grandmother.
Annie was extremely grateful to the little bear.
However, Annie had already turned dark by then, so she cast a spell to enslave the little bear, turning it into her own personal plaything.
The third dungeon was named [The Tragedy of Amumu].
This dungeon was a love story involving Annie.
A little mummy named "Amumu" had a crush on Annie, but Annie rejected him, preferring a Yordle named "Teemo" instead.
Amumu suffered a severe blow; he began to give up on himself and became completely immersed in his own fantasy world.
What the players had to do was enter Amumu's fantasy world and eliminate the monsters inside to prevent them from breeding, spreading, and eventually consuming his brain.
......
Su Yu had run all three of these dungeons many times and was extremely familiar with their mechanics.
Yet here, he could only choose [The Tragedy of Amumu], because the first two dungeons simply could not be soloed.
The [Annie and the Little Match Girl] dungeon required players to simultaneously breach the third and fourth dreams and kill two bosses at the same time.
In the [Little Annie and the Big Bad Wolf] dungeon, the big bad wolf's signature skill, [Hungry Wolf's Gaze], was a targeted ability that required 5 players to stand together and share the damage in order to survive.
[Hungry Wolf's Gaze] dealt true damage, and even with his HP supplemented by [Ice Armor], Su Yu couldn't withstand it, leaving him with no choice but to select [The Tragedy of Amumu].
To be honest, though, the final boss of [The Tragedy of Amumu], "Captain Teemo," had a very unique mechanism that required the cooperation of five players to beat. It would indeed be quite a stretch for Su Yu to solo him.
However, among the three dungeons, this was the only one with any possibility of being cleared, so Su Yu had to bite the bullet and teleport inside.
......
PS: I've been very busy lately, and the update schedule has been somewhat unstable. Things will slowly stabilize after the Chinese New Year.