“Crack, crack, crack!”
The Skeleton Soldier’s bones rattled, its hands gripping a sharp Dachai Knife as it swung directly at Gibbs’s teammate beside him!
“Alice, behind you!”
At the same time, in the recess on the right side, where it was crowded due to the number of people, Anderson noticed a Skeleton Soldier standing right next to him, nearly two meters tall.
This Skeleton Soldier held a crossbow, aiming at Alice’s back.
Anderson rushed forward to grab the Skeleton Soldier’s arm to prevent it from aiming, but he hadn’t anticipated its terrifying strength. He was sent flying into the wall by a single elbow strike.
Immediately after, Eldon pounced on it. Unfortunately, the Skeleton Soldier had already pulled the trigger.
A black crossbow bolt shot straight into the chest of Alice, who had just turned around.
“Ugh!”
“Alice!” Eldon panicked, immediately grappling with the Skeleton Soldier.
“Boom, boom, boom…” Gradually, the first wave of flames subsided, and the entire narrow passageway was temporarily safe.
But after only a moment, the flames once again swept through the passageway, repeating the cycle.
The adventurers needed to run to the next recess during the gap when the flames ended, then deactivate the mechanism to proceed.
This was Truth’s initial plan. However, to keep the adventurers from getting too bored, she had also randomly placed various Second Rank Skeleton Soldiers in the recesses.
“Hiss… The stats for a Second Rank Skeleton Soldier are a bit high, and their combat tactics are strong too…” Truth murmured, watching the two Skeleton Soldiers fighting Eldon and the others across the way.
The Second Rank Skeleton Soldier with the knife across the way had severely wounded Gibbs’s teammate with one slash and was now locked in a fierce battle with Gibbs.
Meanwhile, right in front of Truth, the Second Rank Skeleton Soldier with the crossbow had managed to repel Anderson with an elbow strike and had taken the opportunity to fire a bolt, severely wounding Alice…
No, this has to be nerfed. Nerf them back to First Rank. Second Rank Skeleton Soldiers are just too difficult for these weaklings.
After several more minutes of struggle, Gibbs finally managed to defeat the knife-wielding Skeleton Soldier, but at the cost of worsening his own injuries.
His last remaining teammate was also about to die, having just taken two more slashes.
“It’s fine, Captain. I still have my Life Insurance. Keep my equipment safe. Brutus and I will come find you soon. It’d be a huge loss if the gear is gone…”
“I promise I’ll wait for you here!” Gibbs said earnestly, holding his dying teammate. This promise wasn’t about brotherhood; it was purely about profit.
Weirda from the beginning and Brutus just now had already dropped half their equipment.
Now, with another teammate dead, Gibbs would need to safeguard three people’s gear. And if he died here too…
“Ugh… It hurts!”
On Anderson’s side, after successfully dealing with the crossbow-wielding Skeleton Soldier, he and Eldon pulled the crossbow bolt from Alice’s chest. She trembled in pain, blood flowing freely. Truth also went all out with her Mist Healing Art, quickly stabilizing Alice’s condition.
“This is pure torture! This design is definitely intentional! Knowing full well we need to get to these recesses to avoid the flames, they still ambush us with monsters here. It’s disgusting!”
Eldon cursed loudly, his heart aching as he looked at Alice’s pale face in Truth’s arms.
Simultaneously, across the way, after another wave of flames, Gibbs’s teammate finally triggered his Life Insurance and left, leaving behind half his equipment.
However, in the next second, Gibbs suddenly realized his teammate’s trajectory wasn’t flying back the way they came, but was flying deep into the dungeon, just like Weirda had at the start.
“Wait, why isn’t Nair flying towards the bonfire? Priest, didn’t I send someone to touch the bonfire? So why isn’t Nair returning to the nearest bonfire?!” Gibbs immediately questioned Truth.
If Nair was ejected from the dungeon, he’d lose it. How was he supposed to play then?
“That’s correct. The teammate you sent to touch the bonfire has already returned to the bonfire at the entrance. The other two who didn’t touch it returned to the Safe Zone outside the dungeon.”
“So, that means if you all are near death, you’d return to the Mist Safe Zone, and only that Mage can return to the dungeon entrance?”
“Not exactly. We used a Party Card, so only one person needed to touch it.” Truth replied with a smile, amiable yet somehow giving off a mischievous vibe.
‘She really is a schemer…’ Anderson finally saw Miss Truth’s true colors.
“Oh, right, there’s one more thing I should tell you all.” Truth addressed everyone present again.
“According to the rules of the Mist, after that fellow named Brutus revived from the bonfire, all the monsters in the dungeon will respawn. You must remember this little tidbit.”
“Respawn? You mean they come back to life? If that’s true, then…”
Gibbs instinctively turned to look at the Skeleton Soldier’s corpse.
He saw the Skeleton Soldier’s previously scattered bones reassembling themselves.
After reattaching the skull, the skeleton’s original Dachai Knife transformed into a crossbow.
The moment Brutus revived upon touching the bonfire, a Second Rank Skeleton Soldier with a crossbow randomly spawned behind Gibbs.
“Thud!”
Because Truth had allocated more Intelligence points to the Second Rank Skeleton Soldiers, this crossbow-wielding one acted without hesitation, firing an arrow straight into Gibbs’s forehead.
Gibbs went limp instantly, triggering his Life Insurance…
Things weren’t much better on Anderson’s side. Truth and the currently wounded Alice had no combat capability.
Only he and Eldon could fight the knife-wielding Skeleton Soldier that had just revived behind them.
Fortunately, two against one still gave them decent odds.
The problem now was that there was also a crossbow-wielding Skeleton Soldier across from them…
During every gap when the flames receded, the crossbow-wielding Skeleton Soldier would take potshots at them, one by one!
“Thud!” Soon, a black crossbow bolt pierced straight through Eldon’s knee, robbing him of most of his balance and his ability to restrain the knife-wielding Skeleton Soldier.
The latter immediately slashed him, adding insult to injury.
Then it was Anderson’s turn. In this narrow space, his abilities as a Second Rank Ranger were utterly useless.
He couldn’t create distance or dodge; he could only fight in close combat.
On top of that, he only had a crossbow and a small knife, no match for the Skeleton Soldier’s large Dachai Knife, let alone the other Skeleton Soldier with the crossbow…
“Ha, I always wondered why I kept hearing everyone cursing the Mist these days. So this is why…”
Anderson was out of options, revealing an ugly smile. All his skills as a Second Rank Ranger were completely useless in this dungeon. It was utterly humiliating. Combined with the trap-filled design, only one thought remained in his mind:
‘Mist, I’ll f—’
“Thud!”
After three consecutive shots, the crossbow-wielding Skeleton Soldier finally hit Anderson’s heart, causing him to trigger his Life Insurance along with Eldon.
“Huh?” Alice was utterly confused. How had everyone died, leaving only herself and Miss Truth?
“Sigh… So weak. Eight people only made it one-third of the way.” Truth shook her head helplessly.
This dungeon run didn’t even reach the Boss Room. Was the new dungeon’s difficulty really that high?
She had been planning to use Eldon and Anderson to test her upgraded buff skills during the Boss fight, but these two weaklings couldn’t even last until the Boss fight!
Fine, I’ll adjust the difficulty later… Then, Truth signaled the crossbow-wielding Skeleton Soldier to shoot her, while Alice had the knife-wielding one finish her off.
Just like that, the two of them simply triggered their Life Insurance, dropped half their equipment, and returned to the bonfire at the dungeon entrance…
—
An unknown amount of time later, when Alice opened her eyes from a hazy sleep, the first sight she saw was Truth’s flawless face, exactly as she had seen it before triggering her Life Insurance.
The only two differences were that this Truth didn’t have a black crossbow bolt in her chest, and her face was tinged with an orange-yellow glow, likely the reflection of the bonfire.
“Ugh… My head is so dizzy…”
Alice sat up shakily from Truth’s embrace and quickly checked her body. ‘Hmm, thank goodness for Life Insurance. Otherwise, in the Mist, I wouldn’t have enough lives…’
“Though I do have a question. Isn’t it said that when Life Insurance triggers, equipment drops randomly? Then why do I feel like… my underwear is a hundred percent guaranteed to drop…”
Alice felt a distinct chill below her waist. Fortunately, her Mage’s robe was quite thick, otherwise, she wouldn’t dare move, afraid of accidentally exposing herself.
Come to think of it, is Miss Truth in the same state as me? Alice looked at Truth curiously, who tilted her head in response.
“What’s wrong?”
Alice didn’t answer. Instead, she directly placed her hand on Truth’s shoulder and gently felt around.
‘Hmm… No shoulder straps. Indeed, Miss Truth is currently in the same… unclothed state as me!’
“Hey, Alice, you’re finally awake.”
By the bonfire, Anderson, dressed in light clothing, greeted Alice while warming himself. Eldon lay beside him, sleeping soundly, his armor nowhere to be seen.
Seeing this, Alice quickly inventoried her own equipment. She found only her wallet and the long Mage’s robe she was wearing remained. Still, it was acceptable. At least her life was spared.
“Is it just the four of us? What about Gibbs’s people? Didn’t one of them touch the bonfire?”
“You mean Brutus?” Anderson replied.
“He excitedly ran off alone deeper into the Mist after hearing Gibbs got ejected from the dungeon.
He was shouting something like ‘The gear is all mine!’ as he ran. Seems he wants to take all his teammates’ dropped equipment for himself.”
A set of armor is very expensive. In Deya City, customizing even the cheapest medium armor costs at least five Gold Coins.
So, if Brutus could recover all his teammates’ armor, he could make at least eight Gold Coins. Very tempting.
“Huh? But how is he supposed to deal with the respawned monsters all by himself?” Alice asked, puzzled.
“He doesn’t seem to know the monsters can respawn. I tried to warn him just now, but he ran off too fast and didn’t want to listen to me at all…”
“AAAAAH!!”
Suddenly, before Anderson could finish, a wail echoed from deep within the dungeon… It was Brutus.