Chapter 13: Rematch
"Okay, let's recap. Kong Xian in the front, Bu Dong and Yue Wen at the centre and I cover the rear?" Yue Han drank another cup of spring water, he was sweating a little from the anxiety and probably a little from the curry as well.
"Yes, we cannot leave Yue Wen alone at the back in case of a rear assault, especially by that pesky goblin." Bu Dong was playing with his dog tag in his hands.
"But you do not mind if I get stabbed at the back?" Yue Han shook his head.
"Well, it makes sense to keep our best offensive player and the healer safe." Kong Xian retorted.
"At least we can identify the goblins after Bu Dong showed us the video. It is still terrifying to see Bu Dong drop like a fly." Yue Wen interjected as she stretched a little.
"Alright, let us gear up in case they attack the moment we teleport." All of them nodded and took out their weapons. Yue Han and Bu Dong assisted Kong Xian with his kendo armour and they stood at Station 1's TV. After which, the three of them wore knee pads and elbow guards.
"Eh before we go, how are we going to will handle our belongings in real life?" Yue Wen asked.
"There are a few panda miniatures at the mounted shelves on the wall next to the TV. Present one of your dog tags close to it and it will activate the storage system. Please be considerate and use one miniature for the whole party!" Jin instructed them as he started to put the dirty dishes into the dishwasher.
"That's quite an ingenious and cute idea for storage! Boss Jin seems to have a soft spot for pandas." Yue Wen took a look at the miniature but realised she was not able to take the panda out of the shelves even with some force.
"I did not have a choice in this! Though I have to admit they are really cute." Jin thought quietly.
The party of four placed their belongings into the panda miniature and the panda miniature glowed warmly to indicate that the storage place was taken. Will people be able to steal this? Bu Dong was curious but did not sound it out. He sort of trusted Boss Jin for all his quirkiness.
"Ready guys?" The four raised their dog tags near the TV and once it confirmed the party of four, they were all teleported simultaneously without a hitch.
While the commotion of the Bu Dong and others was going about, people that were loitering around the shop started to get interested. Some of the outside crowd were captured by the thick curry aroma.
Some were looking at the four taking out their weapons and instantly knew this no name store was a dungeon supplier. Others waited for the four to be teleported to confirm their suspicion that this store was by a dungeon supplier.
A few curious office workers started to walk in after their lunch to have a look at the interior of the well designed store. One of the office workers happened to look at the TV screen at Station 1 and saw that it was showing the live stream of the four youngsters who went into the dungeon instance. He beckoned the rest and they started to gather for interest sake.
"Ohoho, things start to get interesting." Jin started the dishwasher as he saw the crowd got a little bigger around Station 1. Although the System disinfected the entire area every five minutes through whatever creepy technology it employed, Jin pretended to wipe the bar counter to eavesdrop the crowd's conversations.
"If only my house had such a cleaning function." Jin sighed a little. He was actually relieved that he did not have to constantly clean the store.
"Jin, you lazy brat!" Yun gave an annoyed emoji text via his phone.
The party of four teleported successfully into the forest instance. "Oh my gosh, the air is so fresh in here!" Yue Wen was astonished the same way Bu Dong got affected when he came here for the first time...
"Even the environment looks lusher than real life." Kong Xian went to touch the greenery around him.
"As much as I would like to stroll around, we got goblins to hunt and kill." Bu Dong reminded the whole group. The others could not complain much since rich kid Bu paid for their expenses. They readied their weapons and Yue Han used his cultivation, the Blind Bat Style to start looking for the goblins. He climbed up a tree and started to whisper into midair.
"I got a signal east of our position. They are moving slowly to our position with much caution." Yue Han carefully climbed down from the tree.
"All three of them?" Kong Xian held his two handed giant sword the way he carried his bamboo sword.
"I cannot be sure, but that's the only signal I received and they are approaching towards us." Yue Han came down and unsheathed his sword.
"Let's move to the east, towards that clearing. At least, we might have some advantage in open space." Bu Dong commanded them and they move as a group. Their pacing matched with each other so they could cover each other's back.
"Is it the first time those kids are playing? Why are they so afraid of the monsters? The big guy is even wearing a Kendo armour." One of the crowd members laughed as he commented.
"I saw the two high school kids come here yesterday, it seems that this is their second try."
"Hey, I have seen that boy in the middle before! If I am not mistaken, he is Bu Dong!" The crowd quickly squinted their eyes after the office worker commented. Some immediately recognised him.
"Isn't Bu Dong the best in that ranking of the major dungeon supplier 'King's Monsters' in the commercial district?"
"Yea, I heard he was the local champion for two consecutive years!"
The chatter became more fervent and some even started to tweet in their group chats. It seems that Bu Dong was a local superstar in the field of dungeon supplier competitors that rarely made his appearance. Some said that his dad was a multi-millionaire but Bu Dong did not use much of his parent's resources to be the best dungeon cultivator in the local scenes.
"I saw movement in the bushes!" Bu Dong shouted as he made a vertical downward movement with his sword, producing a series of shockwaves towards the direction of the bushes. However, they did not know that this automatically created an opening for the goblins when the rest got distracted by the shockwave.
The dagger goblin threw a dagger towards the largest one among them, Kong Xian but the dagger got reflected by the wooden kendo armour. It was previously reinforced with Armour Projections created by Kong Xian's cultivation Towering Tortoise Style, making it very sturdy against sneak attacks.
The dagger goblin shouted to provoke the cultivators but Bu Dong told them to stay calm in the clearing of the forest. "We have the numbers, they do not have the range and I wonder who will have the most patience." Bu Dong jeered at the dagger goblin.
Within five minutes of waiting, the sword goblin surprisingly came out into the clearing first and signalled to Bu Dong as if he wants a one to one battle. "Remember Bu Dong, do not fall for their tricks!" Yue Han reminded as Bu Dong accepted the challenge. The other three slowly stepped away while keeping watch against the sneaking dagger goblin.
The sword goblin brandished its sword around Bu Dong and rushed towards him. "Haha, you lost the moment you moved first." With two ape silhouettes shouting angrily on top of Bu Dong's head, he parried the goblin's sword with his Angry Ape Style and managed to gain an attack opportunity and struck towards the goblin's heart.
However, instead of trying to dodge the attack, the sword goblin simply went forward and Bu Dong's attack went through! Bu Dong was able to kill a goblin this time round with ease.
Or so he thought.
The goblin dropped his sword and immediately held onto Bu Dong with whatever strength he had left. His trembling claws slowly sank into Bu Dong's skin and it tried to bite him. Bu Dong tried to shake the goblin away, but little did he not know that at the side of him, a spear came not to pierce him but to swipe his legs, causing him to fall down.
Bu Dong fell and his party members had their whole attention on him again. The perfect time for the dagger goblin to strike. Thankfully, Yue Han had the Blind Bat Style and he turned his back at the right moment to block the leap attack on Yue Wen. However, the dagger dug into Yue Han's shoulder and to worsen Yue Han's predicament, the daggers were poisoned.
Yue Wen turned back and used her sword cane to push the dagger goblin away, but the dagger goblin was fast! It tumbled to evade the sword cane and it leapt into the air again, hoping to catch Yue Wen off guard.
Suddenly, a large towering figure came swooping in and charged into the dagger goblin. The dagger goblin was knocked back a few meters. "Thank you Kong Xian!" Yue Wen caught her breath.
"Do not thank me yet, make sure it is dead first!" Kong Xian rushed towards the staggered dagger goblin.
When the party was handling the unexpected dagger goblin encounter, the spear goblin took the chance to stab into Bu Dong. Bu Dong, in the nick of time, used his left arm to block the spear thrust.
"Arrgh!" He endured the pain of the spear going into his left arm and used his right arm to decapitate the struggling sword goblin. The spear goblin withdrew his spear from Bu Dong and tried to strike again.
"Damn! The goblins are ruthless! Are they really Grade 1 goblins?!" The crowd started getting really wild. They had not seen such a heated battle against monsters for a long time!
"No wonder, they even wore knee pads and elbow guards! They were actually expecting such a fight!"
"If Bu Dong is struggling this much, would we have any chance against it?"
Jin folded his arms behind the bar counter and stepped in at this moment of the heated conversation. "You dare call yourselves cultivators?"
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