“Hmm isn’t that Bu Dong?” Xing Li asked Yue Han. They had taken their time previewing the redemption store and were now looking for the Ape cultivator.
His oldest friend had claimed it was best to let him sulk for a while after their loss. Surprisingly, instead of doing that, he seemingly had already joined another group to try again as he was currently featured on the big screen with Mr Patsu and Bear Cub One advertising it like crazy.
This had less to do with him, but it was more with his company. It was extremely rare for Western Magicians to visit the dungeon instance let alone a whole group (it did not hurt that all of them were pretty girls).
Yue Han took a closer look at the screen and discovered a familiar face near Bu Dong. It took a moment before he recognised her as Katerine.
Xing Li did not realise it was her until Yue Han blurted the name out. Meanwhile, the rest of the cultivators who had also finished browsing the redemption store joined them as well.
“I never expected her to come back so soon. Did Boss Jin perhaps succeed in making a connection portal to Germany?” Yue Han wondered, and Deng Long told him not to be silly.
“If Jin had developed such technology making it possible to do such stuff, he’d probably be on the front page of the People’s Daily.” Deng Long countered, and the rest chuckled at Yue Han’s naivety.
“Well, if Boss Jin was able to create this large Tree Mall so fast and such fantastic dungeons, I don’t see why he couldn’t do that other stuff. Ahhhh just imagine portalling to Europe without the need to travel.” Xing Li said in a dreamy state.
“Things would be so eassssyyy!! We can plan a trip without worrying too much about air ticket prices and- Oh erm hahaha!” Yue Han replied (though with a bit of a red face) making Jing Ru giggle even more.
“It might be nice, but that would literally kill the entire aerospace industry. And in turn, I won’t be surprised if people start attempting to assassinate him.” Jing Ru noted jokingly.
“Heh! You saw how Boss stopped a whole gang of triad members and personally finished off a Triad Boss? Whoever is crazy enough to try it should better consider it again. Also, if I’m not wrong, I bet that Jin has some powerful people behind him too.” Shi Hui commented as she could always feel a veil of secrecy around Jin and his employees.
“I agree. Still… I just think about how much pollution could be reduced if we abandoned aeroplanes entirely. Also wouldn’t it be great to just spend winter in a more exotic and warm place?” Jia Ying added as they watched Bu Dong and the Fire Shamans fight their way in from behind the house.
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“Everyone follow me! Jasmin, set a fire wall behind us so they will be hindered!” Bu Dong commanded as he led the way into the basement of the house where Deng Long had previously found the generator able to stop the alarms from blaring so loudly. (He and the group once again teleported into the centre of the house.)
At the same time, Bu Dong had to keep a mental note of how many spells they could use. He only knew that they were able to cast Level 0 spells, more commonly known as cantrips repeatedly without a strain on their magic capacity.
Other than that, all of them had very limited spell set. Level 2 Fire Shamas was not really cut out for such intensive fights yet.
If they wished to cast more spells, they had to use scrolls or use a longer ritual kind of procedure which would not strain their mana capacity. However, that was assuming they had the space, time and security to do it without any interruptions. In a dungeon run as spontaneous as Jin’s, this was pretty much impossible.
High level magicians would be able to do that by simultaneously fighting against the enemies and chanting at the same time. Unfortunately for the current group, Bu Dong did not wish to overestimate their abilities.
The fire wall cast by Jasmin surrounded the steps to the basement, giving the group some breather even though the Fire Shamans were carrying pistols as their primary weapon. Bu Dong was honestly surprised that their aim was so precise and accurate though he later found out that the half Shamanic mask with fire designs provided them with some aiming assistance.
Meanwhile, the pistol was imbued with a level 0 fire magic which caused the bullets to ignite on fire, doing fire elemental damage on whoever came too close.
“Standard issue or you girls just love pistols?” Bu Dong asked jokingly.
“A longish dagger and a pistol are the standard issue of our equipment. Weapons are more expensive in Europe, and the laws are a lot more stringent than here. Without a magic badge or having a special reason, it’s nearly impossible to get one legally.” Katerine replied.
“We thought we need to improvise by using dual daggers or something since we were not able to bring any weapons overseas. Thankfully, we were able to rent weapons at this place, and the quality seems better than the ones we had back home.” Nia said as they went down a spiralling stairway to find themselves in an underground garage with the reindeer stable at the side.
Upon seeing intruders in the garage, the reindeers stomped their feet and snorted loudly to inform their friends. The entire herd started to ram on their stable gates, trying to get out and personally subjugate the invaders themselves.
“Don’t worry about the reindeers! Quickly find the generator and pull the plug, wire or just destroy that thing.” Bu Dong said to the group of Fire Shamans as he personally went to the other side of the garage.
If Evil Santa’s sleigh was situated here, it meant there had to be a garage door further down. While the forum posts warned others not to stay outside Santa’s house for too long due to the debilitating cold, the Ape cultivator had something in mind.
Judging by his last experience, if their group just entered the house, there would be no way to kill the first form if they would be swarmed with elves of various strengths and sizes as well as spartan toy soldiers.
Without reaching the full group capacity, it was too much of a risk.
However, the forum posters did speculate that with a sufficient or reliable heat source, the group should be possible to withstand the cold for a longer period of time.
Since Bu Dong had a bunch of Fire Shamans in his group, he was planning to put this theory to the test. He remembered each one could cast a Level 0 Resist Cold spell on themselves, else he would get Katerine to perform her supporting role instead.
“Besides, I am the Angry Ape Cultivator, I believe with my rage mode and a few warm potions from the General Store, I should be able to stall the Evil Santa for a while to let them cast the spell.” Bu Dong thought to himself as he finally found the chains to manually open the garage shutters. He quickly drank a warm potion and started to jingle the chains before attempting to open it.
There was no guarantee that Bu Dong’s somewhat crazy plan would actually work, but it was supposedly their best shot at defeating the bearded old guy in a red jumper.
