Infinite Realm

In Black Grill\'s cave, each floor was separated from the other by an impressive depth. Apart from that, the rock strata was very firm and dense making it impossible for players to blast through it and descend to the higher floors. Hence, exit gates were the only entrances to and fro each floor. Exit points[1] were special spatial nodes located within Black Grill\'s Cave that connected each floor to the next floor. They weren\'t one way gates as players could still use them to ascend to the higher floors[2]. 

For an unknown reason, the Exit gates repelled monsters from approaching it. Rather than repel, it would be more accurate to say that monsters consciously avoided the gates by themselves. Hence, the exit gates in each floor were informally called Safe zones. However, the reason why monsters avoided these places were unknown to the players themselves as such, players couldn\'t capitalize on this knowledge. 

It is said that the fear of the unknown is one of the most dangerous fears. Without knowing why the monsters avoided here, players had to live in fear of the unknown. Though most people believed that the Exit gates would be perennially safe, few believed otherwise. However, at the 10th floor, fate could be said to have shined on the beliefs of these few.

"How come…?!" Fudo was surprised.

Sato stared at the gate while frowning at the sight before him.

There were 3 large rock type monsters that stood in front of the swirling blue portal, acting as its guardians. They looked like the usual Rock Golems[3] but were different. Unlike the usual Rock golem species, these ones was a lot taller than usual and more slimmer. They had an individual height of 3 metres and rather than the usual brilliant red \'eyes\', there was a pair of blue coloured gems inserted in their eye sockets. The rocks that composed of their bodies weren\'t the usual caramel coloured ones. It was a strange honey coloured rock with brown lines streaking through it in a mysterious fashion. The aura the monsters exuded was an overbearing one that made players to actively evade it and this was mostly due to its tall height that could dwarf a majority of players.

"Why the heck are there monsters here?" Yato grumbled in a low tone, fearing that the monsters may notice him.

"Their aura…they are strong." Sato said with a frown.

"This is bad, this bad. This is f**king bad!" Fudo began throwing tantrums. No one reprimanded him because all of them were also vexed at the discovery. 

The reason why everyone was frustrated wasn\'t because the monsters looked strong, on the contrary though, they actually liked strong monsters as the stronger the monsters the higher the reward should be. However, the same couldn\'t be said at this moment. The reason was because there was barely any time left. They were already in a race against time and had to hurry over here, avoiding tons of monsters and being cautious in their steps all because they wanted to reach the 10th floor and defeat the world class monster before anyone could do so. With the appearance of not 1 but 3 strong monsters would undoubtedly affect their progress. 

Every second counted. 

Though the team believed that they were one of the top strongest parties in Infinite Realm at this point in time, it was nothing but one of the strongest and not the strongest. None of them believed that they were collectively better than the expert parties nurtured by top guilds. If those parties rushed at their full strength, it was possible that they would reach the 10th floor very soon as the strongest monsters from the Middle region\'s 1st floor to the 9th floor were only level 8 kobolds. It was likely possible that a level 6 expert party of a top guild could easily defeat such a monster. If they ended up being held back, then their advantage would slowly cease to be, leading to them being caught up to by other top guilds. Xue Yan\'s mission required them to defeat the world class boss and as a world class boss, once it was killed, it would cease to exist permanently. Hence, they had to make sure that they were the very first ones to do so, else the mission would count as a failure and Sat, having signed a contract with her, would end up suffering some repercussions for not fulfilling the deal.

"Alright stop complaining and everyone should stop pulling on taut faces." Sato suddenly said. "It isn\'t over yet."

"What do you mean?" Seiichi asked. "Looking at those monsters they are way stronger than any level 8 monster we\'ve seen and unless it\'s a Special elite, I\'m guessing its a level 9 monsters or something. As for our level 9 combatants, there are two of you guys and 3 of them. The worst part is that monsters are far stronger than players. In other words, it would be hard for you guys to hold them on your own much less we lower levelled guys to defeat one." 

"Even though what he said isn\'t totally true, there\'s still some truth to it." Xue Yan sighed. Though she didn\'t want to, she had to admit that it was almost impossible to defeat those monsters in time before the other guild members could catch up. What makes things worse was that even if they defeated the monsters before those guild freaks could catch up, they would still have to spare a lot of time facing the world class boss at the 10th floor. To make things worse, once they have killed the monsters, they(the monsters) would take some time to resuscitate. During this time, players could freely pass through the Exit gate without any interference. Simply put, they(Sato\'s team) would just end up making things for the other approaching players.

"I know what you\'re worried about and there\'s a simple solution for that. We could just run pass them." Sato said as a matter-of-fact.

"Run past them?" Xue Yan asked back.

"Yes. Just run past them." Sato nodded.

Xue Yan stared at him in surprise. She was actually expecting a complicated plan that would help them defeat the monsters quickly while inhibiting the other players or something. Such a simple idea was something she would only expect from Fudo\'s lips. However, there was some truth to what he said. 

Why the hell should they bother about the monsters when the gate was their goal? Why they were all wondering how to defeat the monsters quickly, Sato had thought out of the box and presented them with a solution that everyone unconsciously ignored.

"To do that though, someone would still have to hold them down." Seiichi said as he realised the fault in the plan.

"Myself, Fudo, Lu Zhen and Xue Yan would be delegated those roles. You, Yato and Katsuo should focus on getting to the gate." Sato replied him. 

The setup was made so that the long range players would attract the monster\'s aggro while the rest would dash towards the gate. Once they got through, Sato and Lu Zhen would now draw the monsters\' aggro towards themselves, leading it away from the long range players. These guys would now head towards the gate and escape. Once everyone was gone, Sato and Lu Zhen would use their superior {Agility] and [Dexterity] to outrun the monsters before heading into the gate. Fro a simple overview, the plan looked like a fool-proof one.

"It indeed does sound viable." Fudo said after listening to Sato\'s explanation.

"Alright then. What are we waiting for? Let\'s go." Lu Zhen urged.

. . . . .

"On my mark, fire your strongest attacks and draw their attention towards yourselves." Sato said to Fudo and Xue Yan. Seiichi was with the first group that would escape, which included Yato and Katsuo. 

"Alright." The two nodded.

Sato then monitored the movements of the 3 rocky monsters. Ever since they had arrived, the 3 monsters only moved within a 15 metre radius of the Exit gate, in a to-and-fro motion.They never went past this distance, only scanning the further places with their eyes. Luckily for Sato\'s team, a majority of monsters in Black Grill\'s Cave have weak perception and eye sight, probably due to the fact that they live underground. As a result of this, most monsters couldn\'t see beyond the 30 metres mark. Sato and his teammates happened to be 50 metres away from the monsters when they first arrived and they had kept this distance all through, only sneaking a bit closer after their planning was done.

"On my mark…Now!"

"[Fire Ray]!"

"[Fire Ray]!"

With Sato\'s command, the two fire type mages with terrifying attack power, launched the exact same spell that happened to have the longest range in their arsenal. As such, two flaring beams burst out from their staffs and darted towards two of the monsters. Though it only aimed at the two, the third one happened to be in between those two. As such, once the attack lands on the two targeted monsters, the 3rd one would be implicated in the attack too. The worse part was that it would receive a majority of the strike as the rays would only shave past the two monsters but head to the 3rd one.

Such an attack required exquisite coordination and timing; something that Xue Yan and Fudo had honed throughout their seclusion period.