Infinite Realm

"That's the 7th one." Yato smirked as he pulled out his sword from the corpse on the floor.

"Only 7? I got 9." Fudo grinned.

"Obviously cause you were stealing kills while I had to work for them." Yato barked. He and Fudo had made a bet on who would get the most kills but Yato never expected Fudo to use a loophole and win.

"Yato is right, you know. You were stealing a lot of kills." Sato said as placed his sword back into his sheath.

The team of 7 comprising of Sato and his teammates had been walking for over 2 hours so far. While they were still in the same corridor as before, the width of the path had expanded much larger than before. If it could be said to be able to fit 15 people standing side by side with their arms outstretched before, now it could hold 25 people; almost double the original width. With so much space available, the team was able to perform better in battles and flexibly change their battle formations without a hitch. However, one change that came with this adjustment was the increased difficulty in battles.

The dark priests the team had encountered along the way were much stronger than the previous ones. From the warning just before they had entered the dungeon, the average level of the dungeon was placed at level 12 so it was reasonable to call the bunch of level 11 monsters they met 'the welcoming committee'. As they had walked deeper in, level 12 and 13 monsters became quite common and what was worse was that the monsters weren't just Common ranked; Elites filled the place and the occasional Special Elites were also present, but that wasn't all. 

About 30 minutes ago, new breeds of monsters had appeared on the path, forcing the team to constantly change their formation to adapt to the various situations and strengths of the monsters. If not for Xue Yan, they would have suffered a team wipe long ago as such encounters they had faced had already numbered past 3. Even the top teams of super guilds and peak 1st tier guilds would find it difficult to last this long under such intense battles. It finally got to a point where Sato couldn't just stand back and watch, but he still minimized his participation only to the point where it was needed. 

Thanks to Sato, the team was able to get some breathing space and proceeded forward. This was the advantage the group had over all the other raid teams currently in the game despite taking on a much tougher dungeon. While the top guilds had experts to clear the way, Seven Star Glory had the OP Sato assisting them from behind so it was only natural for them to be progressing through danger zones that would hold others back.

'But this dungeon is a lot tougher than I thought. Level 12 entrance but level 13 and possibly above monsters everywhere.' Sato sighed internally.

The mainstream level was between 12-13, with the pros approaching level 14 while the ones at the peak were aiming for level 15 and 16, yet, the [Temple of Vasiliás] had monsters at level 12 and 13 flooding the entire place. What was worse was that these monsters weren't in small numbers as each wave numbered anywhere between 14-25 of them, and this was because Sato's team consisted of 7 players. Just from this alone, it was indeed right of the system to classify the dungeon as one harder than the others.

"How many fragments do we have now?" Sato asked Seiichi, who was now charged with collecting the loot.

Because Seiichi had the [Merchant] subclass, which granted a small boost to a player's rewards and luck due to the line of work of the class, the team, excluding Fudo, had collectively agreed for Seiichi to loot the corpses.

"Just 2 more, but I think we will be able to get those from here." Seiichi said.

The fragments they were referring to weren't the darkness crystal shards but fragments that made up the map of the dungeon. Sato and the others had originally presumed that the dungeon was simplistic, being a straight path that led to the end, but upon discovering a map fragment, Sato presumed that their previous beliefs might be wrong. If the dungeon was simply a straight path, then there would be no need for a map. The existence of the map fragment pointed towards this fact, challenging the previous idea of the team. However, as they could not get a glimpse of the actual map or even a part of it, till enough fragments were gathered to form one set, there was no way to confirm this. 

Therefore, not only was the goal of the team to explore the corridor but it was also to complete a fragment of the map and uncover the secrets of the dungeon. 

Sato never had any plans of completing the dungeon on his first try because that was simply impossible. He wasn't some reincarnated MC that knew the dungeon like the back of his hand, neither did he have any inside information from the developers. His only option was to slowly explore the dungeon step by step till he felt that they had understood its mechanics. Only then would then now aim to complete it. Hence, Sato and the rest were prepared for a team wipe, even though a part of them never wished for it. But that was just a mere wish and an impossibility, but who knows.

"Finally. It's complete." Seiichi announced a few seconds after he had looted the last corpse.

Seiichi then sent an image of the map to the team chat for all to analyse at the same time.

The map was a dull yellow rectangular piece of paper that had the outlines of a building shaped like a bident[1]; a trident with two prongs. At one point on one of the prongs of the bident, a red dot was shown, marking the current location of the map's holder in real-time. At the tip of the two prongs were grey dots while at the end of the stem of the bident, there was a black dot that served as the endpoint. Also, at the points where the prongs of the bident bend horizontally to join the stem, there were two brown dots with one being on each prong

From a rough but simple scrutiny, the team realised that the two grey dots symbolised the entrance points into the dungeon while the black dot was the exit as well as the lair of the dungeon's BOSS. As for the brown dot, both Sato and Seiichi guessed that they were major checkpoints and possible nests of mini-BOSSES.

"So by that logic, there are two entrances to the dungeon?" Xue Yan asked.

Since the team were done with the last batch of monsters, they decided to take a break and analyse the map as well as try to 

"Looks that way. Nonetheless, the other entrance has nothing to do with us. We just have to keep going and explore the dungeon as much as we can." Sato replied.

"Till we get team wiped?" Lu Zhen commented.

"If that's how you want to put. We've already gained a lot so far. The experience rewards each of you have gained are enough to cover the loss from a single death and still enable you to profit from this journey, but the same isn't for me. So you should be the least worried about dying." Sato glanced at Lu Zhen.

"Who said I am?" Lu Zhen smiled.

"Hmm. If we go by the deduction from you and Seiichi, then that means that we would potentially have to face 2 BOSS." Fudo faced Sato.

Sato nodded. 

"It's a dungeon so it's understandable for there to be a mini BOSS. It would have been more strange if there wasn't one, considering that this dungeon is supposed to be harder than the others."

"The only problem here is the strength of the mini BOSS as well as the main BOSS." Seiichi nudged his glasses. They were different from the usual ones he wore in town and were more suited to battle, and since they were forged by Sato, these glasses were labelled as battle equipment and not a luxury good; offering increased vision, awareness as well as accuracy with an arrow.

"If I'm correct, the mini BOSS would be level 15; its rank should be either Special Elite or possibly a King. As for the main BOSS, I can't be too sure about it. Maybe level 17 or 20. It could also be level 15 but with a much higher rank or something. There are quite a few possibilities."

"Let's leave all this for later. This is an exploration raid, not the actual stuff.2 Sato said in a bid to clear away the despondent atmosphere from Seiichi's conjecture.

"For the meantime, we move ahead and work with the presumption that the mini BOSS is a level Special Elite."

Before anyone could ask why, Sato continued,

"The Kobold King is a special existence; a world-class BOSS. So, it's reasonable as to why it was a King rank. As for this dungeon, it's among the first batch in the game and while it's stated to be more difficult than the others, it shouldn't be to the point where a mini BOSS is a King rank. And seeing as we aren't far from the checkpoint as well as the fact that we've only encountered level 13 monsters as the strongest, the mini BOSS should most likely be a level 15 monster. Let's not forget the fact that the general level of players is between level 12 and 13. 

"All these factors added together are enough reasons for us not to worry too much. Even if our worst nightmares come to be, don't forget, you have me." 

"That's true." Fudo laughed.

The team had mostly been proceeding while forgetting Sato's true strength. While it was true that he had provided aid to them, it was only timely assistance that was granted when one of them was close to dying or was being overwhelmed by the monsters. Throughout most of the time, Sato left them to their own devices to see how they could cope with the pressure. The team needed improvements and they wouldn't get that if he always assisted them. So with Sato barely interfering in the fights, unless when necessary, they had managed to forget about him and didn't put him into most of their calculations.

"Alright. Enough contemplating.. Let's go."