When Steelshot heard that he was being labeled as a docile vase and useless, the first thing he wanted to do was rage up.
Alas, Xu Feng's next statement drenched his rage dry. "If you continue to stall for time and ask such unnecessary questions, then I suppose you must be a spy, right? Otherwise, what is your intention in interrupting me?"
"I'm not a spy!" Steelshot quickly retorted, afraid that others might really believe in his nonsense.
"Then stay in the center group and shut your mouth!" Xu Feng wanted to roll his eyes at this person. The duration of the potion was already dwindling yet he still dared to ask such a dumb question.
Was he trying to mess with him?
Seeing the situation was somewhat festering, Gentle Wind glared at Steelshot, clearly warning him to just listen and not delay them.
Although she wasn't quite pleased with the tone usage from Xu Feng, she understood there must have been a reason for his arrangement.
After all, it seemed like he knew the dungeon quite well. She even began to wonder if his level was so low was due to him entering the dungeon repeatedly to investigate and receiving a harsh penalty in the process.
Meanwhile, Steelshot grudgingly walked toward the center group and did his role as a "docile vase".
As humiliating as it was, he didn't dare to argue further, especially with Gentle Wind's stare. He was truly afraid of being kicked out of the guild under the suspicion of a spy when he was not.
'Where's the justice for Gunner? How can I be useless when I can deal tons of DPS?' Steelshot cried inwardly.
DPS which stood for damage per second was critical when fighting bosses or monsters because the more damage output you dealt, the faster they would die.
Thus, he can't comprehend the reason Xu Feng chose not to utilize him when he could output damage just as much as the Sorcerers.
Alas, Xu Feng had no intention of explaining every little detail to them, especially with how much time was wasted with that small banter.
"Everyone follows me closely behind," Xu Feng took the front position, astonishing the others.
After all, he was a Cleric, meaning he was an easy target, extremely vulnerable to monsters' attacks.
Nevertheless, nobody dared to utter a voice of complaint when they noticed Gentle Wind keeping silent.
"Be cautious not to step 5 meters away from my circumference position. Otherwise, you might trigger a trap and alert most of the monsters here." Xu Feng warned, treading each step carefully.
'Ugh, feeling this intense heat and the structure really reminds me of the terrible days.' He cursed silently, feeling nauseous at this dungeon which he had been forced to attempt over and over again to finish the detailed report.
Though he can't say it didn't help him now since he knew where the traps' layouts were based on the dungeon structure.
What Gentle Wind said previously regarding the traps being random was actually incorrect.
It wasn't that the traps were random, but the fact that each dungeon structure offered different trap placement.
Most won't realize this in the early stages because their minds are too occupied with killing monsters and attempting to clear the dungeon.
Therefore, they would miss out on trivial details regarding the structure of the dungeon.
The differences in them were quite minimalistic to say, and only if one scrutinized and studied them properly would they recognize the changes.
Advancing for a few more steps, Xu Feng raised his hand, signaling the rest behind him to halt their movements.
"Is there something wrong?" Gentle Wind spoke up and asked in concern.
They had barely advanced much and yet they were signaled to stop. Hence, she became concerned and wondered if something had gone wrong.
"It's not that there's something wrong, but those monsters are Searing Specters." Xu Feng responded, pointing at the creatures ahead.
Following his pointing, Gentle Wind noticed a few flickering flames, their forms wavering and shifting like the heat haze rising from molten lava.
"Those are monsters?" She gasped in shock, clearly not imagining those flickering flames that had blended in with the environment to be monsters.
There wasn't even an indication of a red HP bar above their head. Normally, monsters would have a glaring red HP bar on top of their head to indicate to players that they are monsters.
"Just because there's no HP bar on them doesn't mean they aren't monsters. You have to remember this is Hell Mode difficulty and not your walk-in-the-park dungeon." Xu Feng softly warned.
In future updates, monsters will no longer be easily indicated for the players and they need to rely on their intuition to determine which are the monsters.
After all, some monsters are friendly and could possibly give out mission quests as well.
To make things even more complicated, some of these monsters could have good diplomatic relationships with NPCs, and you would be in deep water for assaulting one.
"Anyway, they are extremely troublesome because they can easily alert our presence to every other monster with their unique ability, Infernal Vigilance." He explained.
With this ability, they act as vigilant sentinels of the Scorched Caverns, their spectral essence attuned to the slightest disturbances in the environment.
When intruders approach, the Searing Specters emit an eerie wail that reverberates throughout the caverns, alerting nearby monsters to the presence of enemies.
To simplify things, they are the so-called watchdogs.
"What's with all this pointless talking? We can just kill them all no matter how many arrive. We're just wasting time here while the duration of the potion is decreasing still." Autumn Breeze suddenly interrupted, feeling that Xu Feng was being overly cautious and extra.
From the start, it had been him leading and there were zero fights. In fact, they couldn't even move a bit further away from him, lest he would scold them.
"Autumn Breeze, I know your mind isn't that bright, and you have a grudge against me. But can you read the system mission again for the dungeon?" Xu Feng asked sarcastically.
"The mission is to defeat the boss, Inferno Tyrant, and not some other monsters."