Chapter 3 The Style Starts to Deviate!

Skeletons ahead, iron balls behind, Heiniss felt she was about to die.

Although Fili could disperse the skeleton monsters with her Sword Qi, this would inevitably slow her down. With the iron ball speeding up from behind, thus—

She suddenly realized, the recesses on both sides of the tunnel were useful!

"Over here!"

She quickly pulled Heiniss into a nearby depression, and the next moment, the iron ball whooshed past, grinding the skeleton monsters into pieces with a loud crash!

Sweat dripped down Fili's forehead as she gasped for breath, scared out of her wits.

The young lady in her arms trembled all over. Suddenly, she lifted her head with tearful eyes and stammered,

"My, my pants are wet..."

Fili was speechless.

After a long pause, she managed to calm the panicking Heiniss and the two stepped out of the recess.

But they had only taken a few steps forward when the sound of the rolling iron ball came again from above!

"You've got to be kidding, more?"

It took a very long time before the two of them finally appeared at the end of the tunnel. They both looked disheveled, especially Heiniss, who seemed utterly traumatized.

"Finally, finally out..."

Tears filled Fili's eyes, God knows what she had just been through.

Every few steps a new iron ball would roll from the front, they had to continuously hide in new depressions; a moment's delay meant being crushed into mincemeat.

Even more cruelly, some depressions hid skeleton monsters for ambush!

What bastard designed such a sinister trap!

This was definitely not a place for rookies! If it weren't for Fili, who could at least be considered a mid-tier swordsman, she might have been killed by the ambush by now.

She swore that once she left the dungeon, she would immediately take revenge on the guy who sold her the fake information.

After exiting the tunnel, the two arrived in an open area with only an iron door in front, which, upon opening, revealed...

"A cliff?"

Fili's face turned incredibly complex. There were stairs about three to four hundred meters away from her, but beneath her feet was a pitch-black cliff. How to get across? Impossible!

"Wait a minute, Fili, there seems to be something," Heiniss suddenly crawled out from under her, picked up a rock, and threw it forward.

Surprisingly, the stone didn't fall but bounced a few times as if hitting the ground and then hovered in mid-air.

"An Invisible Bridge!"

Fili instantly realized and began constantly testing with whatever she could find, finally confirming that there was an invisible bridge about half a meter wide in front of her.

"Miss is amazing!"

She took Heiniss's hand, and they cautiously moved step by step on the bridge, daring not to take large steps. This decision proved to be correct, as the bridge took several turns.

After a slow progress, they finally made it halfway.

"I really wish we could get out quickly," Heiniss completely lost interest in exploring the dungeon.

Fili chuckled bitterly and patted her little head, comforting her, "Miss, after we get out—"

"Whoosh!"

A brief sound of rushing air; Fili dodged sideways, and a big arrow whooshed past her waist. The formidable impact could have knocked her off the invisible bridge if hit!

Where did the arrow come from?

"Fili, Fili..."

A weak call made her lower her head, then her mouth fell open.

A short arrow had pierced Heiniss's chest, and the twisted arrowhead pulled out bits of flesh.

Confused, she glanced at Fili, then stumbled and fell straight off the invisible bridge.

"Ah..."

Fili's brain froze for a moment. Soon after, another big arrow followed, fiercely piercing her abdomen and pinning her to the bridge.

Before plunging into darkness, she finally saw where the hidden arrows came from.

On the ceiling, two goblins whose skin blended into the rock walls due to paint chuckled sinisterly.

"88th and 89th,"

In the City Lord's room, Gong Qiying looked at a large crystal ball floating in front of him, displaying dozens of scenes of people entering the maze.

He smiled when he saw Fili's "body" suddenly turn into a streak of light and disappear.

"Everyone who enters the dungeon carries a Teleportation Crystal, and upon death, their bodies are teleported to the Resurrection House for revival... Good, now I can set traps without any guilt!"

But revival wasn't without its costs.

If you are resurrected multiple times in a short period, it will lead to a "Drain of Humanity" state. At its lightest, this presents as headaches and fevers; at its worst, it causes confusion and memory loss, necessitating a period of recovery.

It is said that too many resurrections can lead to terrifying consequences...

On the first morning of the newly opened Sain Dungeon, the death toll reached an alarming figure close to two hundred, which is comparable to the mortality rates of popular dangerous dungeons.

Those who entered the Sain Dungeon had somewhat heard of the simplest dungeon's reputation but were unaware of its recent mutations. Consequently, Gong Qiying relied on "First-time Kill" to massively burst his spiritual power.

[Sain Dungeon, Remaining Spiritual Power: 8436, Daily Spiritual Power Required for Operation: 77]

An ordinary person emits about one unit of spiritual power within the labyrinth for a full hour, and at least fifty upon death. Adventurers even more so, generally above seventy.

Fili exploded with about a hundred and thirty spiritual power units upon death, suggesting she was strong. It's a pity she could easily have dodged the big arrow that sneaked up on her.

Gong Qiying also noticed that most of those who died in the dungeon were commoners carrying pickaxes, probably coming for the unique ores of the Sain Dungeon.

"So many areas need improvement, no wonder games require a beta test before going live,"

He had overlooked a crucial factor in designing the dungeon.

"People in this world can use magic and there are all kinds of exotic races."

Birdmen with wings on their backs easily jumped over his carefully prepared poison swamp, five- or six-meter-tall muscle men kicked open the door that was [impossible to open from this side], and the magician's Holy Light turned the skeleton monsters into ash...

A game is a game, reality is reality. In a game, one must find a key if a door can't be opened, but in reality, one can just kick it down.

There are many areas that need improvement, all contributing to Gong Qiying's overwhelming stress, but thankfully—

[Would you like to spend 5000 spiritual power to upgrade to Level 2 City Lord Authority?]

"Yes,"

[You have obtained Level 2 City Lord Authority]

[Successfully unlocked the permissions: Teleportation, allowing you to leave the City Lord's room and appear anywhere in the dungeon at any time.]

[Successfully unlocked the permissions: Mimicry, spend spiritual power to change your own appearance, the combat power of the mimicry is determined by the amount of spiritual power spent]

[Continue upgrading to unlock more permissions]

[Available buildings and monsters can be updated]

Gong Qiying took a deep breath of relief, feeling exhilarated.

At last, he could leave this eerie City Lord room!

Gedwin, because his own race was that of an Animated Corpse, his intelligence deteriorated over time, eventually leading to cognitive impairment.

This also caused him to often forget to maintain the dungeon, and even his City Lord's authority was reduced to the lowest.

[Available Monsters (can be updated): skeleton monster, Minotaur, Slime, rotten wild dog, Blood Mosquito, ghost, Goblin Group, Low-level Snake-man, Mad Living Corpse]

Gong Qiying stroked his chin, knowing from the memory of his predecessor that the variety of available monsters in the dungeon depended on the City Lord's knowledge.

The more monsters the City Lord had seen, the more types he could use.

But merely seeing them isn't enough; one needs to have a deep understanding of the monsters, so each Dungeon City Lord is an expert on monsters.

As for why Gedwin could use so few... it could only be said that the characteristics of the Animated Corpse race had disadvantaged him.

"Update,"

Gong Qiying said eagerly, curious as to what monsters he could update.

Since his understanding of this world was solely from Gedwin's memories, it should not bring up too many new entries.

[Update complete]

[New Monsters Added: Curse Frog, Giant Curse Frog]

"Hmm?"

Gong Qiying showed a look of surprise, as the existence of Curse Frogs should not be in this world, why—

[New Monsters Added: Black Knight, Silver Knight, Molten Furnace Knight, Death Knight....]

[New Monsters Added: Wheel Skeleton, Giant Skull Ball, Self-destructing Skeleton....]

[New Monsters Added: Thunder Wolf Dragon, Bubble Fox Dragon, Green Bear Beast, umbrella bird, Big Thief Dragon...]

[New Monsters Added: Pikachu, Geng Ghost, Haunter, Double Bullet Gas...]

[New Monsters Added: Ghost King Muzan, Winding no. 1 Kokushibo, Winding no. 2 Douma, Winding no. 3...]

[New Monsters Added: Pea Shooter, Potato Mine, Big Enoki Mushroom...]

[New Monsters Added...]

Gong Qiying stared at the hundreds of update prompts, stunned for a second or two.

After a moment, he muttered to himself:

"What are all these things?"

"The style is starting to deviate, isn't it?"