Chapter 123 - Attacking Quingols (2/2)

The same was with other guilds, but a few guilds came just to make their presence known for the purpose of recruitment. It was the first mass quest and complete non-participation isn't very good for morale. They would also get to know if there would be anything different, they could expect from mass quests in this game as most wouldn't trust information not gained first-hand.

”So, this is the line of control setup by the guards,” said Shadow as he looked at it. There was another large group about half their size assembled at the palisade and led by a Shield Guardian who was looking warily towards them. Shadow was unsure who they were or why the Guardian was looking at them.

”Don't take any quests from the guards now. I have checked it out and the quests require us to go their camp and steal something or kill some special bandits there. We have the hell mode clear as our priority,” said Merlin to Shadow and his team from checking out the forums.

”You guys also better not take any quest,” he suggested to Brick and Mob as he knew that it wouldn't be possible to complete them while guarding the new recruits. ”Let us have a chat with them,” he said in the team chat as he went towards the Guardian glaring at him.

”Fancy meeting you here, Tristar. Didn't expect the presence of the best tank of Foedus Rex at a town like this just for the sake of this quest,” said Merlin putting on a weird mocking smile.

”Stop acting like you don't know. With your condition for the video and this kid defeating Boris, King had to send me to prevent Boris from make a fuss again,” said Tristar angrily. ”I know that you did all this just to make us split our resources.”

”You are overestimating me, bro. I just got irritated by the fact that Boris was messing around with us. You really thought I want you here. Nothing could be farther than that. I would rather have Boris than a cunning old coot like you in the same city,” replied Merlin as he continued to smile.

”You know how I know I am right. Your stupid smile,” said Tristar pointing at Merlin's face. ”Get out and don't disrupt us, if you know what is good for you,” he continued as he looked at the players assembled with Brick.

”Those guys?” said Merlin pointing behind him. ”Just a few guys whose company was entertaining to me while I reached here. I just wanted to have a look at the mass quest along with my pals, here,” he said pointing to Shadow and the other three.

”You know one of them quite well,” he said as Sultan also came to greet Tristar.

”Hi kid, couldn't you have found anyone else other than this idiot,” said Tristar as Sultan approached him.

”You know the problems I face with any others, Tristar. I was getting tired of waiting for a chance. I am just branching out,” said Sultan.

”Dude, you make it sound like you don't really want to join our gang,” joked Merlin.

”Aah! Forget it. No harm done. There were too many hot heads in the guild anyway. Just be careful of this idiot,” said Tristar pointing his hand to the Crimson Realm group.

”Your friends are leaving without you,” he said.

”Let them go. I don't care. These monsters were never my concern,” said Merlin in a carefree manner.

”So, is it the hell mode first clear?” asked Tristar immediately guessing their reason for being here. He had been in games long enough for him to guess their reason for coming here. ”It is extremely hard to get to level 12 at this place,” he said while shaking his head.

He had worked with about 50 players forming small teams to lure and kill monsters while having Boris jump teams continuously to land the last hit and gain experience quickly. But still apart from Boris, the rest were all at level 11.

They had to use such a trick as they had about 20 minutes for him to get 10% experience at level 11. Shadow would also be in the same situation, if they had not used guns to kill a large number of quingols near the lake.

”This is the difference between guilds and small teams, Merlin. It was stupid to start again from scratch. Boris and other have already been armed fully and are attempting the elite mode boss as we speak,” said Tristar. ”You have to scr.a.p.e a lot to find decent gear.”

”Speak for yourself, you old coot. Unlike you, I haven't come to a stage that I would nod by head to every stupid thing that I hear and cover for others,” said Merlin as he walked away from Tristar. Sultan, Shadow and the other two followed and got to the other side of the line of control and went to join the Crimson Realm guild team.

The quingols in the Canterbury plains also made small fortifications. They set up tents and trap around them. These were usually hidden in grass and the scouts have to be careful whenever they saw a tent. There were both small and large tents seen throughout the plains and the number of quingols depended on the size of the tents.

Merlin and team stayed near to Crimson Realm members and contacted Mob for quingols they could take care of, so that they would get experience quickly and leave for dungeon. As mob had a lot of assassins, scouting he could find isolated guingols faster than them.

Mob was already at level 12 as he had fought at the bandit camp. He needed more experience to level up. Even though, he was commanding the players because Merlin asked, he also wanted to gain more experience. So, he chose the groups of quingols that the scouts found and left the isolated ones to Merlin.

As they went through the plains, they were able to easily kill the smaller groups. Due to the bombardment from the long-range attacks, the quingols usually lost half their health and were injured before they came in contact with the physical attacker who were able to kill them easily. Though, it was safe, the increase in experience of the players was very slow in this manner.

So, Mob decided to change tactics. He started going to larger groups of quingols. Instead of a single set of two outer groups and an inner group attacking one small group of quingols, he had two or three sets flank larger groups of quingols to kill more numbers quickly. He had to use all the assassins for scouting and make a separate group only for information gathering to speed up this process.

His method was to direct the players according to the intel and it was quite effective in this situation. He made sure to not get too close to the bandit camp at the lake and maintained a distance from it. With the quingols being spawned quickly, he could move the players from one area to other, easily gathering experience.