—A few minutes before—
“Oh my god! Niu Lang was able to summon a Black Minotaur?!” The customers in the shop were once again completely astonished by the surprises Jin had in store for them. “If Niu Lang had been that strong in the old folktale, he probably would have openly defied the Heavenly Empress and there would never have been a Qixi Festival.” A male customer commented and the others around him started laughing.
“Does that means Zhi Nu will also have a certain set of battle skills?” A female customer queried and many other customers started to conjure possible theories. “She’s a weaver so she might have some string related attacks.” An elderly onlooker who heard the Qixi commotion decided to come and take a look at how a Dungeon Supplier would be able to weave a fresh story out of an old folktale.
“You are most probably right, Madam.” Yun magically took out a foldable chair from the bar counter and offered her a seat. The granny thanked Yun and sat down to watch the dungeon matches. Even the customers were kind enough to allow the granny to have a good view of the dungeons.
————
Bin Yong defended against another strike from the Black Stone Lion before it stepped back and blew a breath of blackish fire at Bin Yong. “Shit, they can breathe fire too?” Bin Yong briefly remembered the time when he fought against a Wyrm Ant in the Zither Mistress Dungeon with some random cultivators since his friends Luo Bo and Shi Zuo were not available to accompany him.
He remembered how demoralising it was to have to fight fire and ice at the same time. If Bin Yong was not mistaken, the White Stone Lion would be able to shoot ice projectiles at him too. As a test, he tried to harass the White Stone Lion. As predicted, it shot out shards of ice at him.
This was when Bin Yong grinned a little. “I guess this mantle was a good investment after all.” From his storage ring, he took out a mantle and wrapped himself with it. The mantle had a fire absorption talisman inscribed, which cost him about 80 bronze panda medal coins. After that, he also took out an accessory band from his storage ring and wore it immediately. The band was inscribed with an ice resistance incantation that cost 10 bronze panda.
Compared to cold, he was actually more afraid of fire since he remembered being burnt alive in the Zither Mistress instance and the freezing cold was merely damage he would try to avoid if he had sufficient resistance. The rest of the panda medal coins he had received from his multiple dungeon playthroughs were spent on upgrading his simple buckler into a bronze beetle shaped shield.
It looked way cooler on Bin Yong especially since he was a beetle style cultivator. Thankfully for him, the red panda in the weaponry store said that he was the 100th customer to use their services so they also slightly tempered his sword, which gave his sword a small power boost for free. The appearance did not change much but Bin Yong could feel that it was slightly lighter and swung better than before.
“Come at me, kitties.” Bin Yong finally dared to face the two stone lions face to face. Meanwhile, the Umbral Minotaur, as he was named by the customers, was having a blast… batting the palace guards with his warclub as they dashed towards him. The Palace guards’ armour was strong enough to absorb a partial amount of blunt damage so the guards were tenacious enough to continue fighting against the Umbral Minotaur.
He Bao had enough of being whacked around like a baseball so he summoned his qi into his sword as the other palace guards were distracting the Umbral Minotaur. “If I am not able to finish off this cow, I am not worthy of the title Senior Palace Guard!” The sword was blinding with a whitish blue flame radiating off of it before He Bao shouted out. “Exorcism Blade of Yin!”
He Bao swung his sword and three crescent waves burning bright with whitish blue flame began flying towards the Umbral Minotaur. The palace guards took the chance to rush in and hold back the minotaur to prevent it from running.
The first crescent wave of blue exorcism fire torched the Umbral Minotaur and it howled loudly in pain. Despite all the pain, it was going through, the Minotaur used all of its might to lift two guards that were holding his arms and smash them together with a powerful clap. The second crescent wave burned the palace guards but it also damaged the Umbral Minotaur’s arms badly.
With no strength left to defend against the third attack, the minotaur stood there in preparation to receive it and endure the pain. Yet, something flew towards the third wave and the bluish flame exploded right in front of the Umbral Minotaur. The flame had exploded when it hit the Black Stone Lion that Bin Yong had knocked back in the Minotaur’s direction with his Shield bash attack.
It happened when the Black Stone Lion was concentrating on spewing black flames and it thought that Bin Yong was being burned to a crisp by its flame since there was little to no movement from him. However, in truth, the fire absorption mantle was actually absorbing all the fire damage as Bin Yong redirected some of the flames with his shield too. During that time, the fire absorbed by the mantle was slowly converting into stored energy for Bin Yong to use.
The process was extremely delicate so Bin Yong could not move too much, or else the fire absorption mantle would just release the fire it absorbed and dissipate it as heat energy into the surroundings. Once Bin Yong thought there was sufficient energy, he used one of his Shield Arts, namely a Shield Bash, on the Black Stone Lion when it least expected it, causing it to fly and crash into the blue flame crescent wave.
The Umbral Minotaur did not waste the precious chance it had been given and grabbed the other two palace guards that were holding its legs and smashed them into the floor before throwing them towards He Bao like how a baseball pitcher would throw a ball.
The last palace guard who had been holding his tail suddenly backed off and ran away. He Bao managed to dodge the two gyro-ball throws from the Umbral Minotaur and dashed forward. The Umbral Minotaur snorted as he went down on all fours. With his horns aimed at He Bao, the bull clashed head on with He Bao.
Unfortunately for He Bao, he had underestimated the power of the bull’s charge. His sword broke into smithereens and one of the horns gored through his palace armour. That moment of recklessness was the greatest mistake He Bao had ever made, or would ever make. The Umbral Minotaur proceeded to drop him and stomp on him continuously with his hind legs. Within minutes, all that was left was a battered mess of metal and flesh.
——–
To Jin’s surprise, the customers actually cheered for the Umbral Minotaur even though it was just an ‘NPC’ in the dungeon. He did not expect it to receive an ovation. “Man, that Umbral Minotaur was wicked, just look at how it tore the Palace Guards apart!” A male customer shouted.
Meanwhile, in the same station where the same instance was being played by four other cultivators who were playing as a group, the situation was different. Those cultivators actually chose to help the Palace Guards, though Niu Lang still summoned the same Umbral Minotaur out to protect him.
However, one of the cultivators received the same fate as the senior palace guard in the dungeon Instance Bin Yong was in, before they brought down the Umbral Minotaur, but not before sustaining severe casualties “Serves those cultivators right for trying to go against Niu Lang!” One of the customers was filled with angst because the four cultivators decided to blindly follow the palace guards.
“So the system is also giving cultivators choices like how I did in the Bank Heist Instance. Interesting!” Jin thought to himself while telling the customers to simmer down a bit. They apologised to Jin before continued enjoying the show.
.
.
