The party fell silent, their eyes wandering between Cyclone, her hands, and Watchful Eye.
But the most shocked was actually Liam. He still found it difficult to get used to Cyclone's unimaginable luck.
Just like Silver Blade's dragonslayer set, this High Cloud Hall set was among the top of rare quality items. With the appearance of these sets the priority of the top players would subtly shift from gathering single powerful items to set equipment.
If a player managed to get their hands on a full set and had the assistance of a capable blacksmith, they could wear these kinds of sets for a good thirty levels without falling behind their peers.
Yet Watchful Eye appeared conflicted since he was already wearing a pair of rare gloves. Seeing him like this, Liam quickly convinced him to put on the set equipment.
Liam explained to his friends how set equipment would slowly become the mainstay of top guilds. But he also warned them not to take it for granted. That Cyclone could loot two related items in a single dungeon run was already incredibly lucky.
The friends took Liam's words to heart. Yet their eyes looked somewhat dreamy as they imagined what their own set might look like.
Only Silver Blade thought about something else. Curiosity was nagging her brain. Thus, she turned towards their encyclopaedia with a question:
"Mirage, what is this High Cloud Hall?"
Naturally Liam didn't hold back, roughly explaining the lore:
"They are a part of the Ancient Xia Dynasty which used to unite a large part of humanity. They existed a long time ago when humanity wasn't split in Aharner, Tarraner, and Aviarner yet, and was still confined to a few islands on the western ocean.
Back then the dynasty unified multiple islandss and they entered a period of rapid growth. The High Cloud Hall were taking care of all kinds of internal affairs. They had a rather peaceful inclination and liked to teach the common people."
When Liam stopped explaining, Silver Blade wasn't the only one listening curiously. Cyclone pestered him to continue:
"Don't stop there. Tell us what happened to the dynasty? How could something this powerful fall?"
"It naturally crumbled due to internal strife. The dynasty became too powerful and completely suppressed their few adversaries, especially the merfolk living in the ocean.
Thus, the factions of the dynasty began to fight each other.
After the death of the last emperor his descendants weren't powerful enough to suppress the other factions and the dynasty fell apart.
Today the western ocean is still ruled by several powerful factions."
"That's it? How did the emperor die? Why was there strive among the factions?"
"This is something you can figure out yourself.", answered Liam with a grin.
"50 credits on the involvement on devils!", shouted Radiant Shield.
"100 on the emperor dying because he experimented with the void.", said Bloody Edge.
"I bet the emperor isn't dead at all. 100 credits.", countered Cyclone.
The friends left the house they were in while coming up with all kinds of theories. They got stranger and stranger.
When Quickstep suggested that the emperor might have discovered his love for an adventurer's life and set off on a boat alone, everyone felt they had reached a peak.
Liam continued to nod along with his friends' suggestions, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. His expression didn't give away if someone came close to the real reason.
The friends had some fun guessing around but soon it was time to focus back on the dungeon. They fought a few soldiers and reached the gate forward.
Working together Silver Blade and Radiant Shield pushed the solid stone gate open. The ground beneath their feet trembled. When they opened a gap wide enough for two people they stopped.
The party looked at the familiar room. It was a chaotic scene. Three towering siege weapons were being assembled by a bunch of dwarves who appeared haggard and dull.
Those dwarves were obviously forced to work by the soldiers lining the walls, observing everything with sharp eyes.
Even the two metal golems protecting an even larger gate at the rear seemed to have switched sides and were oppressing the descendants of their creators.
The party adjusted their minds entering the room with drawn weapons.
Boom!
To no one's surprise the gate shut by itself behind the party's backs. Holes opened in the walls revealing murderous crossbows.
"Ok guys, you know the drill.", said Silver Blade as she directed the party to stand in formation.
Everyone agreed looking seriously at the soldiers. Suddenly the two closest soldiers began to move, attacking the party. Simultaneously the crossbows began to fire leaving a couple of seconds between each shot.
Yet the battle couldn't be considered difficult. The party coordinated well and dealt with the enemies stably. A few seconds of silence followed.
Next, four soldiers seemed to receive an order and rushed towards the party. The pressure on the party still wasn't too big. But before they could get rid of all the enemies, another four soldiers joined in the fight.
Slowly the party felt a mounting pressure. As the seconds ticked by Silver Blade and Radiant Shield gradually ran out of stance. But the party didn't panic and continued to prove their great coordination, fighting steadily.
Soon, two more soldiers died but four enemies came to join the fight. Silver Blade remained calm. Her and Radiant Shield positioned themselves in a way which forced the soldiers to stand close together. Suddenly she let out a fierce shout:
"NOW!"
On Silver Blade's signal the party abruptly went all out. Everyone's ultimate skills were used at the same time.
Lightning flashed and ripples of mana shook the soldiers. A red mark appeared above one enemy and a blinding light erupted behind another. An array made out of five elements attacked from all sides.
Only Quickstep held back. Her ultimate skill had the potential to blow all the soldiers away, which would cause them to leave the range of Cyclone's [Raining Thunder].
Instead, Quickstep would save her ultimate skill to use it if the party needed to relief some pressure.
But fortunately, their method worked. With the sudden outburst of power, the party managed to take down eight soldiers before the next wave arrived.
The friends sighed in relief as the strategy they used in normal mode still proved effective in hard mode. If they were just a bit weaker these soldiers might have overrun them. But now that there were no soldiers left the crossbows mounted on the walls also stopped for the moment.
Now they had a few seconds of respite during which the party was considered out of combat. Thus, their passive recovery sped up. Their HP, mana, and stance quickly filled up.
The party prayed inwardly for the next soldiers to delay for as long as possible. But sadly, the soldiers didn't heed the players' wishes.
When the next two soldiers began to move, Silver Blade and Radiant Shield had recovered their stance but not yet their HP. However, there was nothing they could do to delay more.
Perhaps it would be a good chance to make use of the black icicles. But the party only had five of those. One used was one less. If they used an icicle and then suffered a wipe they would regret it.
Thus, the party honestly continued the fight. The cycle repeated. Two soldiers fell and four more arrived. After a while the friends once again were confronted by eight soldiers.
An intense battle followed. Silver Blade and Radiant Shield's HP fluctuated dangerously, their lives hanging by a thread multiple times. Balm broke out in sweat as she did her best to keep everyone alive.
The party downed health potions and ate food prepared by Serena which aided recovery. The crossbows from both sides continued firing.
Eventually the inevitable happened. Someone slipped up. Be it due to exhaustion or something else, but Fortune had just finished unleashing all her arcane bolts when a crossbow took aim at her.
The mage was too slow to dodge. A wooden bolt crashed into her shoulder, the terrible damage taking the HP she had left.
Mourning for their fallen comrade the party took revenge against the soldiers. Toiling heavily, they eventually managed to kill them all.
As soon as all the soldiers died, the dwarves reacted. One of them ran to the wall pressing a few buttons and the crossbows got hidden again.
Balm showed him a thumbs up before wiping the sweat from her forehead. Looking around she noticed all her friends breathing deeply, their chests heaving. Everyone was physically and especially mentally exhausted after the fight.
"Let's take a short break, guys."
Everyone agreed with Silver Blade. The friends sat down for a few minutes getting rid of their fatigue. Suddenly Cyclone's eyes opened wide as a question came to her mind:
"Can Fortune even reach us? I don't think there is a cable car on platform 1!"
Silver Blade shook her head, calming her friend:
"We had this case in normal mode as well, remember? An additional car will appear which heads directly for platform 3."
"Wow... why couldn't this be there in the first place?"