Chapter 27 - Secret Mode  

Liam pensively stared at the distance as the next set of flapping sounds started to echo. This as well sounded louder than what he was expecting.

Were there again more birds?

Ebon Raven was a simple beginner's dungeon. It should have never been this difficult.

It didn't even have the usual modes, like easy, difficult, and hell mode. It was just a single straight shot run without any hidden twists and turns.

Originally, the dungeon should have had 10 birds in the previous mob and 10 more birds in the next mob, with some of the birds in this group having the ability to stun players.

This was also the last mob before the final boss, a monstrous raven bird.

The boss monster looked like the other ravens except that it was several times bigger and had a third eye.

The bird also had exceptional agility and was very skillful at stunning players, keeping everyone on their toes.

This was in short the summary of the beginner's dungeon.

But Liam had a nagging feeling that this was not how things were going to proceed.

Was it because of the items he had taken from the dragon's lair? It also could be because they were the first team to enter and run the dungeon.

He didn't know for sure, but that was his best guess as of now. Either way, there was a high possibility that he might not get this opportunity again.

Liam did not want to risk taking any chances so he decided to cast the other skill he had learned as well.

He closed his eyes and muttered [Demonic summon]. His mana instantly bottomed out and thick black fumes started materializing in front of him.

These were somewhat similar to the aura exerted by the five undead ravens flapping their rotten wings, but at the same time, there were also differences between the two.

Both Alex and Mia could feel their skin tingle from such thick demonic and nether energy swirling near them.

"What the hell? You have one more skill?" Alex cried out in exasperation and the other two as well couldn't remain silent.

"You have a lot of skills." Mia calmly muttered, though her eyes betrayed her puzzlement.

"Bro, is there some shop where we can buy skills?" Rey chuckled awkwardly.

He didn't want to intrude and make Liam feel uncomfortable, but this was too much and he couldn't refrain from asking.

While the three looked at him with bulged eyes, Liam's complete attention and focus were on the black blob swirling in front of him.

It typically took a couple of seconds for the demon to be fully summoned, so he watched it like a hawk.

Just as the last mob of birds started flying towards them, a small red ball slowly revealed itself and suddenly two holes materialized on it, one turning into an evil-looking eye and the other turning into a row of teeth.

Gahhhhh!!!!

It made a weird sound, snapping Liam into action. "An unevolved beholder. Not bad." He grinned.

These aberrations were one of the powerful lesser demons and were capable of dealing several types of damage depending on their type.

It can be as powerful as a one-shot death ray shooting out from the single devious eyeball to a harmless slowing ray. Liam would only know its capabilities once it started attacking.

And it was about time.

More than thirty birds were shooting towards them like black arrows with red eyes.

"Healer. Watch out for the stuns. If you keep moving around it will be difficult for the birds to stun you." Liam muttered and clutched the sword in his hands tightly.

The beholder demon and the undead ravens zoomed here and there in anticipation as if their only thought was to fight and kill and when the group of ravens descended, they instantly jumped into action.

Each undead managed to grab the attention of at least two ravens and the beholder demon single-handedly grabbed the attention of five ravens.

This in itself covered half of the mob and the rest became a lot easier for the team to handle.

Alex skillfully bashed her shield against the birds, while Rey now waved a dagger at the birds.

Liam couldn't activate his sword dance just yet, so he slashed at the weak points of the birds with precision.

Mia was the busiest out of all of them as all three were close-combat fighters and were taking quite a lot of damage.

But thankfully, because of Liam's warning, at least no one got stunned and managed to pull through.

The first bird dropped dead within seconds, boosting everyone's morale.

The demon paralyzed a bird, shooting out a black ray from its eyeball, which then dropped down lifelessly after getting caught in the volley of sword slashes Liam was sending out.

Following this, one by one, more birds started dropping dead, the group's coordination being much better this time around.

Both Alex and Rey even leveled up giving them instant health refills that additionally made the fight a lot easier.

Before long, the big flock of birds was completely demolished and corpses piled up on the mound.