Chapter 176 - 175- Passive Cultivation

It has been over 10 hours since the dungeon raid continued to floor 51.

Since there were too many players and the monsters, it took them approximately 1 hour to clear one floor.

The guild members had formed groups of 50 members each, and they attacked a specific horde of the monsters that spawned. Out of the 50 members, 5 were healers, 5 were witchers, 10 were hunters and rogues. Ten were archers and rangers. While the rest 20 were warriors and knights.

Upon looking at them, Zach thought of this raid as training rather than a dungeon expedition.

"..."

Zach, Aria, and Victoria were standing on the high ground and watching all the players from above. Victoria had also assigned the high-level players to watch over the groups and ensure no one died.

"What are we even doing here?" Zach let out a weary sigh and turned to Victoria before saying, "And you do this every day?"

Victoria nodded and said, "There are a lot more players in the guild. And I have a lot more responsibilities on my shoulders."

"Sounds though…" Zach hugged Victoria from behind and wrapped his arms around her stomach. He rubbed his chin on her shoulder and said, "You have to take responsibility for stealing my heart too."

Victoria leaned back on Zach and said, "Your heart has been stolen by many girls, though."

"That just shows how big my heart is," Zach scoffed softly and kissed Victoria on the cheek from behind.

"..."

Victoria didn't say anything after that and simply enjoyed Zach's embrace.

"So… are we more than friends now?" Zach asked in a gentle voice.

Victoria furrowed her brows and said, "Don't test your luck."

"Ouch." Zach let go of Victoria and gazed down at her thighs. 

Victoria was wearing half-body armor that covered her chest area and thigh area. But the hips area was a loose end so the player could move freely and comfortably.

Zach thought it would be funny to squeeze Victoria's butts to test his luck.

"...!" Victoria shot a glare at Zach and placed her hand on the hilt of her sword, as though she was warning Zach not to do that again.

Of course, Zach knew that Victoria wouldn't truly hurt him over that, but he didn't try to touch her again.

"They have gotten softer than I remember," Zach muttered in a slow voice.

"Shut up!"

Aria nudged Zach and said, "One floor is taking approximately 1 hour. And the boss floors would take longer. Not to mention, the number of monsters spawning and the difficulty level would increase as we proceed to the higher floors. I wouldn't be surprised if it took us a couple of days to clear the entire dungeon up to floor 100."

"Yeah. But we can't do anything else," Zach sighed. "I am still here because I haven't cleared these floors either, so it's my first time. I want to see the boss on the 100th floor and fight it. And this dungeon raid is one of the best options since all I have to do is walk alongside the guild members."

"Of course, I can go alone too if I want to. Or take Aria with me. But…" Zach smiled at Victoria and said, "I don't want to leave my lovely ex behind," Zach stated with a grin.

Victoria's face flushed a little after hearing that. She knitted her brows at Zach and muttered, "You have gotten a lot better at flirting."

"Practice makes one perfect," Zach uttered with a proud face.

"You have changed, you know? I don't know if I liked the old Zach better or the current one. But as long as you are being considerate of others and loving us girls without wanting anything in return…" Victoria kissed Zach on the cheek and continued, "I would gladly be your back-up girl."

"..." Zach smiled wryly and lowered his gaze before saying, "Don't expect too much from me. I don't want to disappoint or betray your expectations again."

Victoria rested her hand on Zach's shoulder and said, "Don't worry. We are not dating, so I can't dump you again."

Aria shook her head after watching Victoria and Zach flirting in front of her eyes. She was frustrated that her relationship with Zach was different from the relationship Zach had with other girls.

Zach was direct and blunt with other girls, while he was being indirect with Aria. However, there was a reason behind them.

Zach was aware of Aria's feelings towards him, and he knew that her feelings were growing day by day. Zach wanted Aria to realize her feelings and admit that she loved him.

If he made the first move, there were chances that Aria would simply go along and not realize her feelings. Or perhaps, she would think of it as yet another 'order' from her 'master' and mistook her feelings.

Of course, Zach also wanted to flirt with Aria. He wanted to touch her breasts, squeeze her butts, and do many more things to her. But he would do it once Aria realized her feelings.

Honestly, Zach felt excited by just imagining that. He felt a guilty pleasure since Aria wasn't only his party member and a servant, but she was also technically his aunt.

Right now, Aria was waiting for the perfect opportunity to revenge kiss Zach. But she wasn't getting any chance as Victoria was always around them.

"I am surprised you didn't partake on the 55th floor," Victoria uttered in a low voice.

"I am only interested in the single boss floors," Zach responded in a calm voice.

Floor 5th, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 100th, had a single boss. Other boss floors had multiple monsters, including high-level and evolved forms of the regular monsters from the other floors.

Zach wanted to use his DT, and the best way to use it was on the single bosses. The other reason why Zach wasn't partaking in the fight was that he was constantly cultivating.

Even now, when he was flirting with Victoria, he was cultivating. Sure, his MP regain was low because it wasn't full cultivation, but he was getting somewhat MP regardless.

In the last 10 hours, Zach had cultivated over 2000 MP while talking and flirting with Aria and Victoria.

While other players' MP was limited by their stats, Zach casually cultivated passively and prepared himself for the end game.

***

Total players in the game- 1,201,136

0 new players logged in.

333 players died.

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Author's Note-How is the new cover? Is it better compared to the last one? And any guesses who she is?

PS/ Disclaimer- I don't own the image. I simply edited it. If you want me to commission an original cover, then support me on Patreon and make it possible.

All the money from Patreon will go to the artist. 

https://www.patreon.com/NoWoRRyMaN

*

Thanks, @Andrew_Moose, and @Steven_Perry_Shell, for the gift!