Even so, to prevent any accidental exposure, I deliberately grabbed Hill’s arm. “Um, Big Sis Hill likes being alone. She wouldn’t have come if I hadn’t begged her, so please don’t make things hard for her, everyone.”
A loner who chose priest as her class.
Everyone couldn’t help picturing her holding a staff and healing monsters, but considering the strategy team probably did a lot of technical work, having a dedicated internal squad wasn’t out of the question.
Seeing the topic shift away from Hill, I secretly breathed a sigh of relief and started observing the team.
The lineup was identical to last time. The only thing that made me let out a soft huh was seeing Shuiyan still in the group.
Doran and Red Coral were fine—just a slight drop in overall DPS, no big deal. But a main tank’s importance to a guild’s first-clear team went without saying. With every major guild currently racing for Hard-and-above first clears, it was hard to imagine Roseheart lending Shuiyan out twice in a row.
“Who made Shuiyan like you so much? She specially turned down first-clear duties. Touching, right? Why not join our guild as thanks?” Doran saw right through me and sent a private whisper.
I wasn’t falling for it. “Nice try. If you and the others hadn’t agreed, there’s no way Shuiyan would voluntarily skip out with her personality.”
“Then guess why we agreed?”
“No need to guess—you’re stuck on Nightmare, right?” I smiled faintly and hit the nail on the head. “So President Rose sent you sisters to observe, yeah?”
This time Doran could only reply with a string of dots to express her feelings.
She wasn’t surprised the little one figured it out. Anyone paying attention knew that in the past two days, not just Roseheart—every major guild—was bottlenecked by Black Prison Forest’s post-Hard difficulties.
They’d thought that with the little one’s Hard-mode ideas, even if it took effort, they could at least clear Nightmare below Abyss. Yet reality delivered not just failure, but a crushing defeat.
So, as I said, the moment Crimson Rose learned about the dungeon run, she didn’t hesitate. She released even Shuiyan—who was supposed to join the first-clear team’s next Nightmare push—and told them to pull anyone from the first-clear roster if needed.
But that order turned out unnecessary. The original team only had two open slots, and one new teammate was a famous member of the forum’s “Irresponsible” strategy team.
The big guilds were obsessed with this so-called “Irresponsible” group.
Not just online—they were actively sending people offline to dig up info.
Yet even then, no one had any solid data on the group, let alone member composition. High-priced recruitment posts vanished like stones in the sea, unanswered.
Roseheart had tried too—same result.
Who’d have thought the little one actually dragged a member over?
Doran had zero doubts about her authenticity. In her eyes, the girl had no reason to lie.
But then something clicked, and she quickly followed up. “Has your strategy team already figured out a way past Hard-and-above Black Prison Forest? Too short on manpower, so they sent the priest to test the waters with you?”
“Guess~”
My infuriating reply made Doran raise a brow and narrow her eyes. “Brat, teasing your big sis? One day I’ll love you real good.”
Of course, the “love” leaned heavily toward the latter meaning—the former was purely descriptive with zero real intent (definitely).
The team comp was unchanged. The only potential issue was slightly lacking heals, but knights could cover a lot, and I trusted Hill, so I didn’t sweat it.
On the flip side, I noticed everyone’s gear had improved noticeably. They’d clearly been grinding hard. Still a gap compared to guild elite teams, but for my plan, Nightmare was more than doable.
“Another tier up and we could probably try Abyss,” I muttered to myself. “Wanna give it a shot?”
Seaside Yoyo and the others looked shocked but also a little proud.
“Huh? We’re that strong now?”
“Ehehe, can I apply to a big guild’s elite team?”
“Sure, I wanna try Abyss too!”
Most treated it as a joke—they knew how insane Abyss difficulty was.
But Doran, Nightwish, and the others nearly stumbled. They didn’t think I was kidding.
Even with another gear tier, this team couldn’t touch big-guild first-clear squads. Those guilds couldn’t clear Nightmare Black Prison Forest, yet this little one (Teacher) claimed she could lead us through Abyss.
It only made them more curious—what gave her such confidence? Or rather, what method had this priest Hill’s strategy team cooked up? This Nightmare run wasn’t comparable to last time’s Hard.
“So Ao Tong really is as amazing as Yoyo-jie said,” Evin said, hugging my arm with curious eyes.
“What’d you expect?” I wasn’t letting a chance to show off slide and proudly puffed out my tiny chest.
“Then I’ll show Ao Tong my real skills too!”
Then my chest was attacked.
Then Evin got hit.
“So your real skill is this?!”
The team just saw it as kids messing around and didn’t think much of it. One genius child was shocking enough—another would be unimaginable. Though in reality, it was true.
Amid the heated rush around us, we slipped into the dungeon unnoticed.
What shocked everyone was the system prompt: Entering Abyss Difficulty.
Wasn’t this different from what we agreed on?
“Ao Tong, did you pick the wrong difficulty?” Evin blinked and asked first.
“Yeah, isn’t Abyss a bit too hard? Look at our gear.”
“Feels like skipping from elementary to middle school…”
Faced with the doubts, I shook my head. “I think we can do it. Abyss rewards are way better. Trust me—I don’t do things I’m not sure about. Use these scrolls and potions.”
I handed out temporary defense and spell damage buffs. Seeing me go this far, plus my confident look, everyone hesitated but ultimately trusted me.
“Does the little one really think we can clear it?” Doran frowned at the defense potion in her hand. Her guild could use these too—but only with absolute certainty of success.
The cost per person, multiplied by runs, was a huge expense.
Yet even for Nightmare, they lacked that confidence—let alone the terrifying Abyss. What kind of assurance did she have?
Though… with this little one’s wealth… maybe she really could treat the cost as pocket change.
Thinking this, Doran pouted. This super-rich loli made even her want to hug a thigh.
No time for Doran to daydream—the team pushed forward. Abyss’s early section mirrored lower difficulties, differing only in monster stats.
Even then, the opening mobs were appetizers. We smoothly reached the Corrosive Vines phase, signaling the dungeon’s true start.
With two thieves already, I played shadow word mage. I’d explained the “hidden class” beforehand, so no one was shocked.
Trap detection naturally fell to Evin and Nightwish.
To everyone’s surprise, even Nightwish—who’d trained hard on awareness since last time—couldn’t match Evin’s scouting.
Slightly slower than what I’d shown before, but that was under my advantage as dungeon creator plus past-life experience.
I knew anyone who nearly stole the boss under major guilds’ noses wouldn’t be weak, but seeing Evin in action still stunned me. This had to be pure talent.
Suddenly curious why I’d never heard of Evin in my past life. But Epoch’s world was vast, and plenty of players hid their fame, so it made sense.
The only one besides me who stayed unfazed was probably Nightwish. After the initial shock, she returned to calm—likely having accepted the unscientific truth that lolis are a high-combat species.