“Continue, the test was a great success. These three newbies have consumed a total of 17 Mist energy so far, with most of it spent on generating Slimes. In return, they’ve contributed nearly 40 energy points to the Mist. The profit margin is just frightening…”
Looking at the four people sitting around the Bonfire, feeling down, Truth was extremely satisfied with this result.
Alright, there was no need to test the rest of the routes now.
The next step was designing the strength of the BOSS.
Since this Dungeon was intended as a beginner tutorial stage, Truth was worried—afraid that the BOSS she designed would be too difficult, but also concerned that the newbies would clear the Dungeon too easily.
But with the current state of this group’s equipment, they could no longer challenge the BOSS, and she had originally set the BOSS’s difficulty to match the strength of the four-person team.
So she had Reg try it instead. He should be around level 25 now, so letting him evaluate the difficulty would be best.
With that plan, Truth had Reg tell the three others to stay at the Bonfire, while he took the Key and headed alone toward the room on the right.
After passing through a lift, Reg arrived in front of a Grey Mist Gate.
The Mist Gate exuded an intangible sense of oppression, as if something terrifying was lurking behind it. Reg couldn’t help but ask:
“What’s behind this?”
“Just an 18th-level Stage One BOSS. Go and take it down.”
A Stage One BOSS? Wouldn’t that be a piece of cake for me? Reg relaxed a little and carefully stepped through the Mist Gate.
The next second, a deep, majestic symphony sounded!
“Why is there music?!”
Reg was startled by the sudden music. Then, right in front of him, a slender monster slowly stood up, nearly three meters tall, towering over Reg.
At the same time, a red health bar appeared before Reg, with five small characters written above it:
[King of Soundseekers]
Reg instantly felt immense pressure. Even though he already knew this was just a Stage One BOSS, the aura it gave off seemed to surpass Stage One entirely…
Wait, why does the music keep getting more intense?
“Roar!”
Hearing Reg’s voice, the King of Soundseekers lunged first, its immense strength making Reg’s hands go numb from the impact:
“This is Stage One?!”
This level of strength was basically Stage Two already!
The fierce battle began immediately. Truth watched carefully and soon noticed something odd—how could they be so evenly matched? Wasn’t Reg supposed to crush it single-handedly?
Did I make its stats too high?
The King of Soundseekers, as a true BOSS monster that cost 10 points of energy to summon, needed to be formidable enough that it couldn’t be defeated too easily.
To that end, Truth had spent an extra 2 points of energy to further enhance this guy.
Although labeled as level eighteen, after enhancing both its strength and speed attributes, the King of Soundseekers was likely approaching level 19.99 in actual combat power.
To balance the difficulty, Truth had weakened the King of Soundseekers’ “Soundseeking” trait.
Originally, it could locate enemies by their heartbeat, but now, it could only seek targets after hearing someone speak.
So Truth was being merciful already!
But this is only Stage One. Stage Two would be a different story…
Five minutes later, when Reg had managed to reduce the King of Soundseekers’ health by half, the BOSS let out a furious roar, its entire body bursting with a blue glow as the music grew even more intense.
“Stage Two already?” Reg, lightly injured, gripped his sword with both hands.
During the earlier battle, he had noticed a pattern: as long as he didn’t actively make any noise, he would always have the initiative!
But just as Reg was about to try sneaking behind the King of Soundseekers for a backstab, the BOSS suddenly spun and slammed at Reg with both hands!
“The BOSS’s attack pattern changed?!” Reg realized instantly as he was knocked flying.
That’s right, upon entering Stage Two, the King of Soundseekers’ “Soundseeking” trait was fully unleashed.
Its enemy detection logic changed from just listening for speech to sensing all sounds.
Now, whoever made the loudest noise in the arena would become the first target of the King of Soundseekers!
But right now, the only enemy in the room was Reg…
So, in Reg’s eyes, this BOSS was now berserk, furiously attacking him with speed and strength beyond Stage One.
Reg started to feel the pressure:
“Fine, looks like I’ll have to show my true skills!”
In the next second, Reg’s Direct Sword started “canceling,” his attack frequency gradually overwhelming the King of Soundseekers…
Unfortunately, Truth had already anticipated this.
After all, some elite family Stage One adventurers would definitely have a few overpowered skills to deal with BOSSes easily.
To prevent that, Truth had thoughtfully added three little minions for the King of Soundseekers.
“Bang!”
Just as Reg was going all out against the King of Soundseekers, three ordinary Stage One Soundseekers suddenly emerged from elsewhere, scaring Reg into backing off quickly:
“Summoning minions? You can do that?!”
Without giving Reg a moment to catch his breath, the King of Soundseekers immediately led its three minions to attack him in unison!
……
“It’s been nearly twenty minutes already. Why isn’t that instructor out yet?”
“So what’s in that iron door on the right that’s taking so long—a Trap Room? Or a Reward Room?”
“I bet it’s a Reward Room. That guy’s probably sneaking the treasure out so we don’t see it!”
Around the Bonfire, the three rookie Demon Hunters were waiting as instructed by Reg.
“What do you think? Should we go look for him?”
“No way. What if we catch him right as he’s collecting treasure? Then he’ll definitely fail all our tests!”
“But surely he wouldn’t keep everything to himself, right? He should at least share a bit…”
“Bang!”
As soon as the three finished speaking, the right-hand door was pushed open again.
Reg, battered and exhausted, staggered out.
His gear was all damaged, and his Direct Sword was snapped in half.
He looked like he’d just survived a brutal battle—never mind collecting treasure; it seemed like he’d barely escaped with his life.
“Was this really just Stage One difficulty…” Reg murmured as he sat by the Bonfire.
The three around him were confused, but dared not ask too much.
After another ten minutes’ rest, Reg finally led them out of the Mist.
But as soon as they got back on the Carriage, Truth appeared in Reg’s mind holding a survey:
“Hey, hey, how was the difficulty—too low or too high?”
“Definitely too high! Wasn’t it supposed to be just a Stage One BOSS? But fighting it felt like dealing with a Stage Two elite monster!”
“Too high… Alright, was there any part you found unreasonable?”
“Could you get rid of those three annoying little minions…”
The main reason the fight had gone so badly just now was that the three minions of the King of Soundseekers would deliberately interrupt adventurers while they were casting or using skills—in other words, they’d cancel commands.
And since Reg was the only one there this time, all three minions kept a close eye on him.
Every time Reg tried to “cancel,” the three of them would attack in turn, canceling Reg’s “cancel”!
With no other choice, Reg had to rely on his own physique and brute force his way through.
“I’ll think about that. Maybe I’ll reduce their number from three to two.”
“And one more thing, could you not hide those Dungeon monsters in such devious ways? That’s just too much of a mental blow.”
After this Dungeon run, even though Reg still didn’t know why Truth could modify the Mist’s Dungeons, all he needed to know was that Truth was the Saintess.
If asked, he’d just say the Goddess or Truth’s Black Magic Mark made it possible.
“Absolutely not!” Truth refused indignantly.
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