Game of the World Tree
chapter-410

A new dungeon has appeared!

Moreover, there’s a chance that a jobclass advancement slot would drop as a reward!

When this news spread amongst the playerbase, almost everyone as expected, became excited.

This was especially true for those who had already reached level 40 but still hadn’t yet obtained a promotion slot.

If fact, ever since the emergence of Silver-rankers in Elven Kingdom, a player’s level has essentially become the primary measure for identifying top-rank elite players, rather than the old criteria like donning legendary golden equipment.

Henceforth, once a player got promoted to Silver-rank, he or she will be at the top of the playerbase and without it, even wearing a full set of golden legendary gear of Iron-rank would still feel insufficient without it.

As a result, most of the large and some mid-sized guilds with level 40 members began mobilizing immediately in preparation of raiding this new dungeon.

And these groups have become the pioneering explorers of the Labyrinth of the Demon Lord.

Each of them stocked up on resurrection tokens and brought the best gear and health potions before eagerly entering the labyrinth through the designated teleportation array.

The race to be the first group to conquer this labyrinth became so intense that in less than half a day, the number of players entering the new dungeon exceeded four digits.

Nevertheless, due to the recent server-wide Underground War questline and several continuous days of grinding to earn promotion slots, out of the 60,000 players, just over a thousand had reached the level cap of 40.

In other words, nearly all max-level Iron-rank players had joined the dungeon raid.

This clearly showed the allure of Silver-rank promotion slots.

Additionally, players who have already been promoted to silver-rank have also decided to participate in the raid.

On one hand, this was mainly because the demons inside the labyrinth gave out a lot of experience, and according to players who had already ventured inside, killing a single Iron-rank demon could yield up to two or three thousand experience points.

Even more so, if you managed to defeat a Silver-rank demon, as it would likely give you even more experience.

Thus, for newly promoted Silver-rank players, the demons in this labyrinth are highly appealing targets.

After advancing to Silver-rank, the experience required to level up further had increased rather exponentially.

For instance, going from level 41 to 42 alone required over a million EXP points.

And if it is structured in the same way as the EXP requirements for Iron-rank, then the experience points needed for future levels will likely continue to increase exponentially with each level.

In most cases, reaching the level cap (lvl 50) for low Silver-rank would likely require an astronomical amount of EXP.

Although it was possible to find monsters that gave more experience in the deeper parts of the Northern Elven Forest or the lower levels of the Underground, why go so far when there was a dungeon with a teleportation array right nearby?

On the other hand, although Silver-rank players no longer needed these promotion slots themselves, it did not mean that their guilds did not.

By now, the number of Silver-rank members a guild had also became a major indicator of the guild’s strength.

If the promotion slot that drops upon defeating the dungeon boss could be traded, it would be worth a substantial fortune!

Naturally, the appearance of this new labyrinth dungeon sparked a frenzy among the players once more.

However, this excitement was limited to only max-level Iron-rank players and Silver-rank players.

Regular Iron-rank players could only look on enviously as the top players teamed up to enter the dungeon, while they continued grinding quests and farming monsters, hoping to reach level 40 and qualify for entry into this new labyrinth.

With the influx of players scurrying about in every corner of the new dungeon, the intricate details of the Demon Lord Labyrinth gradually became much clearer.

As expected, it was an enormous and complex map.

Even players with a strong sense of direction had easily got lost once they ventured deep inside.

The eerie, sinister background music, the grotesque and wicked demon reliefs, the faint torchlight flickering in the shadows, and the maze’s winding paths, along with the occasional monster roars, unexpected traps, and ambushes by demons, and of course, the glowing, rainbow-hued treasure chests tucked away in the maze’s corners after defeating demons or dismantling traps…

Without a doubt, this labyrinth seemed to fulfill and embody every fantasy players had about dungeons in typical MMORPGs!

Naturally, they had no idea that this was all designed by Evé, who had drawn inspiration from countless dungeons in various games from Earth and incorporated their best aspects and fused them all together.

She even went so far as to distort the space within the labyrinth.

In her divine kingdom, Evé could practically do anything she wished for, so creating such a labyrinth was no challenge for her at all.

The only downside was that physically materializing it into Seigües consumed a significant amount of her divine power.

However, it was all worth it.

In the end, it was a necessary initial investment that could potentially reap her great returns in the future!

Moreover, it was largely due to the Seventh Demon Lord, Azazel, who eagerly provided the monster NPCs and even took on the role of being the dungeon boss himself…

As players ventured more into the labyrinth, the types of monsters and various rewards gradually became more clearer for everyone.

Based on their findings, there were only demons inside the labyrinth.

Yet, the variety of such demons differed greatly with most of them being low-rank demons with Iron-rank strength.

But despite their strength not being particularly high, they fought with reckless abandon, were highly cunning, and had a penchant for setting up traps.

Amongst these low-ranked demons, the low and intermediate Iron-rank demons didn’t pose much of a threat to players.

However, they often acted in groups, and if a party was too small or lacked a Silver-rank player to support them, it was relatively easy for such small teams to be wiped out.

As for the peak Iron-rank demons, they were significantly more formidable.

Even level 40 players needed to approach them with caution.

Of course, the rewards for defeating such a foe are also quite substantial.

For ordinary creatures that were corrupted by the Abyss and eventually mutated into demons, the scales they grew became excellent materials for forging weapons.

As long as the corruption was purified, these materials could then be used for crafting high-quality items—or simply used as-is.

And even if players chose not to purify these materials, by simply offering them to the Goddess can still grant them considerable amount of contribution points.

Additionally, the areas where demons frequently appeared were coincidentally also the places where lucky treasure chests could be found.

However, the contents of these treasure chests were really unpredictable.

Sometimes, they might yield epic purple-class equipment, or it could be, gold coins or rare magical materials.

But of course, if a player was unlucky, chances are, they might only get a lowly white-grade item…

The low-rank demons were perfect for farming EXP, and the lucky treasure chests were highly sought after by the players.

However… if players encountered a Silver-rank greater demon, their only options were to either flee or call upon the Goddess to teleport them out of the dungeon.

Within this labyrinth, these silver-rank demons were considered mid-bosses, and unless a party had at least three silver-rank players, they stood no chance against fighting such foes.

To make matters worse, these greater demons had a penchant for launching sneak attacks, making them extremely hard to defend against.

Not only that, but these silver-rank demons were also highly cunning. They would immediately escape if they sensed they were losing.

As a result, every raid team that has entered the labyrinth so far has suffered losses to these silver-rank demons, and none has managed to defeat one yet.

Fortunately, it’s quite rare to encounter these silver-rank demons within the labyrinth and players typically wouldn’t come across them often unless they were especially unlucky.

As players delved even deeper into the labyrinth, numerous guides and videos about the it began flooding the official forums and other numerous video-sharing platforms.

This was one of the best features of Elven Kingdom.

Players could directly access the internet in-game, and even run certain softwares without ever needing to log out of the game.

Thus, while exploring a new dungeon, players could multitask and share their new discoveries amongst each other in real time.

Unfortunately, on the first day after the new dungeon’s discovery, despite more than a thousand players and hundreds of raid teams exploring the labyrinth, none had yet managed to locate the legendary Demon Lord’s Palace.

— 410 —

【 EXPLORING THE NEW DUNGEON 】

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