MMORPG: Ascension of the Strongest Spirit Master
Chapter 48: Field-type Dungeon

Chapter 48: Field-type Dungeon

At the top of Titan’s Crown mountain range, everything was covered by frost, and there, nestled at the summit, one was greeted by the sight of a vast wall of mist.

It rose like a barrier stretching over a hundred meters in height, vanishing into the white clouds, and from a distance, one might have easily mistaken it for a raging snowstorm.

However, it was not a storm, as it didn’t swirl or shift. The wall of fog was unnaturally calm, too calm, and it stood perfectly still, like a veil placed around something hidden from the world.

It stretched across the entire gap, reaching from one mountain peak to the next, disappearing into both the horizon and the sky above.

Beside that mist wall, scattered along the slopes and outer edge of the dungeon’s entrance, were a dozen camps. Canvas tents and insulated domes with campfires burning bright, surrounded by adventurers in cold-resistant armor.

There were players and NPC adventurers alike, using the camps to rest, prepare, and process the bounties they could gather from the vast dungeon.

The Frostveil Expanse wasn’t like other dungeons. It stretched across nearly ten kilometers of terrain, forming a complete micro-ecosystem of snow, ice, and frost-choked wilderness.

Unlike most traditional dungeons, where each challenger was pulled into a parallel instance tailored to their chosen difficulty, field-type dungeons followed a very different set of rules.

The difficulty was already set in the field dungeon, and at any given time, ten to a thousand or more adventurers and players could enter, all struggling to carve their own path through the chaos.

Unlike structured dungeons, where the same path is repeated with minor variance, field-type dungeons were volatile. A spawn point could be present at one place in one session and vanish in the next.

Still, for all its unpredictability, the Frostveil was a dungeon, and it had rules of one, offering Mini-Bosses and Main Bosses, and like all dungeons, clearing it meant killing the final boss and claiming the clearance reward.

But here, even the final bosses came in variety, and worse, the mini-bosses and main boos monsters appeared at random times and places.

The Frostveil Expanse had two known Main Bosses:

The Frost Wolf King was a hulking predator of ice and rage that commanded entire packs of frost wolves, making it one of the toughest challenges for even a strong group.

The other was a Frostspine Centipede, a massive, armored monstrosity that burrowed through the frozen earth and was equally hard to kill.

As for mini-bosses, they roamed freely in their special zones, and these included creatures like Snowlurkers, Snowveil Hares, Icehide Boars, Tundra Prowlers, and Snow Hounds.

But the Moon Wolf, the creature Vlad sought, was neither the main boss nor the mini-boss.

He was hidden boos monster, a beast that only appeared when certain criteria were met, criteria that had not yet been discovered by the general player base.

To summon the Moon Wolf, one had to hunt and kill both the Frost Wolf King and the Frostspine Centipede in the same dungeon cycle. A rare feat since the two bosses rarely spawn together.

After killing the two and securing their spirit cores, one had to throw them inside Moon Lake, a quiet glacial basin at the center of the dungeon.

The problems did not end there, as one had to kill the Moon Wolf before the dungeon began its reset cycle, which was twenty minutes after the second main Boss fell.

The rewards one got for killing the hidden Boss monster were also immense and rare, with the best reward being a shard of a spirit king’s name.

This method was still unknown and would normally stay unknown for another year or so, but starting today, that would change because Vlad had no intention of keeping it secret.

He could have easily sold the information to a powerful guild, as they would have paid handsomely to monopolize the Frostveil and farm the Moon Wolf, hoarding the rare materials and exclusive rewards for their elite.

While that would have earned Vlad a large sum of gold, it would have damaged the image he was trying to build of himself.

Vlad looked around and found the area where the groups of people were gathered in loose clusters, discussing, trading, and forming parties in preparation for entering the dungeon.

Some stood near magical billboards, offering to buy rare materials, and others made lucrative offers to temporarily join their teams.

Vlad’s arrival was not missed, as even in a crowd filled with awakened players and adventurers, his presence cut through like a blade in still water.

The moment he stepped into view, many eyes turned, quickly noticing his high-quality armor, but most importantly, the little fairy seated atop his shoulder.

But before anyone else could move, a girl with jet-black hair and a beautiful face broke from the crowd and rushed toward him, practically skidding to a halt before him.

"Sir." she blurted with a breathless urgency. "You look to be alone and a damage dealer, too, just what we need to complete our already amazing party."

She took a breath, seeing if Vlad had anything to say, and then quickly bowed her head in formality. "Oh, sorry, where are my manners? I’m Elisha, the leader of The Phoenix Crew." She said, her voice picking up again with renewed fire.

"My party has three people, including myself. I am the healer and have an A-grade trait, Phoenix’s Grace, which gives all my healing spells a flame aspect."

"It purges curses and infections, and I even have an immortality skill that prevents a person from dying for ten full seconds after they hit zero health."

Her words came faster, almost tumbling out.

"My team members are Fritz and Jade, and while they both have B-minus traits, both are really good at their roles. Jade is our long-range archer, and Fritz is our main tank, solid, dependable."

"So you see," she said, nearly stumbling over her words, "We are just looking for a frontline damage dealer, and with your sharp aura and gear, you are more than qualified."

"And to make up for the work you would be doing, we offer you forty percent alone. Normally, we divide it evenly, but you are not the average Joe, so we figured out a special offer." She stopped, her chest rising and falling as she tried to control her now rugged breath.

As she awaited his answer, she noticed something.

No one else had approached the newcomer.

She glanced back, puzzled, knowing she was not respected enough for others not to compete with her over a new player and one with such decent armor.

All she saw were the stunned, frozen faces of the other players, halfway through their own steps, mouths half open. Even her own team, Fritz and Jade, were still staring behind her with widened eyes.

’The spirit?’ she thought, catching a whisper from the crowd.

She turned her head slightly, then froze. Seated atop the man’s shoulder was a fairy, no, not a fairy, not a cute forest wisp, she looked like a demoness.

She was beautiful, but not in a kind way. Her small, poised figure carried an unsettling stillness, and her pale green eyes were cold, sharp, and inhuman. She looked directly at Elisha, making her unconsciously step back.

’I messed up, didn’t I?’ Elisha murmured under her breath.

She stared at Vlad with a frozen smile, trying not to show the crack forming in her confidence. She had realized a second too late that this was not a player looking for a no-name party but someone with a powerful background.

And he might get mad at her for comparing him to other nobodies.

"Miss Elisha," Vlad said, his voice smooth and composed, "it would be my pleasure to work with your team."

Elisha blinked, lips parting in confusion, and then her head dropped low.

"I’m really sorry, sir," she blurted instinctively, bowing deeply.

She stopped mid-sentence, blinking again. "Wait... huh?"

"Work with... my team?"

Vlad nodded. "Yes," he said calmly. "It would be my pleasure."

Elisha stared at him in stunned silence, and then she snapped back into motion.

"Y-Yes! Yes, of course!" she said quickly, her voice almost breaking into a laugh. "It would be our pleasure to work with you."

Behind her, Fritz mouthed something silently, and Jade looked like she was trying not to smile smugly at the group standing next to them.

Elisha cleared her throat, trying to collect herself again, though the tips of her ears were now red.

"Right... please come. I will introduce you to my team members," she said, turning quickly, the words tumbling out in a whisper.

Fritz was an average-height man with curly brown hair. He wielded a door shield, a massive slab of reinforced metal nearly as tall and wide as himself.

Jade, on the other hand, was a beautiful woman of petite stature. Her light brown hair was tied back, and she carried a sleek, curved bow and a short sword.

The two quickly introduced themselves, openly sharing details about their traits. While nothing about them was particularly remarkable, the three were still a solid team, not that Vlad needed their strength.

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