Chapter 19: The Real Yadana

“Wait… we can actually bypass this goblin!”

“Quick! Let’s seize the chance!”

“Charge into the stairs!”

Stepping onto the descending stairs, the sounds of battle and adventurers’ roars echoed from outside. 

Li Si protected Lili Ya as they quickly went downstairs.

The second floor was a spacious hall. 

Once here, the conquest of the City of Temptation was nearing its end.

Li Si pulled a bag of buttered popcorn from her doll costume.

This was the key item for conquering the City of Temptation. 

Originally, only those who had been completely charmed in the first wave would know this critical information, but as a veteran player, Li Si herself was a complete walkthrough guide.

[Story Quest Updated]

[Quest Progress]: 50%

A quest prompt popped up. 

Countless black miasma threads sank into the ground like fine strands of silk.

The end of these black threads was the source of the miasma.

Li Si suddenly turned around to look behind her. 

Several dangerous warnings in her perception began to pulse wildly.

[Strict Father]: You possess the strongest protective instinct.

Eight miasma threads drifted down from the top of the stairs. 

Then, those warnings vanished in an instant.

Li Si frowned. 

Logically speaking, an Elite Goblin shouldn’t pose a threat to the Chosen. 

Could a mistake in combat have caused them a momentary crisis?

She sensed again, but the feeling of danger didn’t return. 

She decided not to worry about it. 

For now, she just had to protect Lili Ya.

Some adventurers at the stairwell had already followed suit and rushed in. 

The battle outside quickly ended as well.

“This is…?”

An adventurer spoke in confusion. 

The surroundings emitted a dim, cold light, revealing an empty, arched hall. 

Nothing else—empty, not even a single monster.

As the battle outside concluded, more adventurers flooded in. 

Everyone instinctively gathered at the stairwell, staring at the environment in bewilderment.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

Yi Li Sha Bai’s gaze was sharp. 

She noticed Li Si in the corner, scattering something. 

That something seemed to be the lowly food brought by the traitors outside—buttered popcorn.

Li Si continued tossing it carelessly, scanning the adventurers in the hall.

She had deliberately waited so that everyone would come down.

Now that they were all in this hall, she could begin her summoning.

Every time a grain of buttered popcorn hit the ground, the floor would start to squirm, and then a droplet of water would seep out, wrapping the popcorn, melting it, and making it disappear.

After scattering a full bag around the hall, the water droplets on the floor grew increasingly numerous. 

By the time Li Si returned to her starting point, the ground had become a puddle.

Everyone noticed this anomaly, but no one stopped her. 

They could tell she was performing some kind of ritual to open a barrier.

“Wait… the way back is gone!”

An adventurer suddenly noticed that the staircase they had come down from had vanished.

“Don’t panic. We’re all high-level adventurers; let’s stick together! What she’s doing should be the key to unlocking the third floor!”

Atar analyzed instantly. 

As the branch master of Minos, he had considerable experience.

But it seemed he had judged wrong.

Li Si held her longsword, retreated to a corner, and called out loudly: “Everyone, spread out!”

Everyone was stunned. 

The master said to gather, but the one who had set everything in motion said to scatter.

One figure scattered first.

A black tail shot out from the crowd. 

He Zi instantly grabbed the ceiling rock, hanging upside down, waiting quietly.

She had acted without a moment’s hesitation as soon as she heard Li Si say to spread out.

“The boss moved! Thief Team, orders—scatter!”

The Border Town Thief King team, composed of five thieves, scattered. 

One of them, a scar-faced man, forced a smile as he ran past Li Si.

Li Si looked around. 

After arriving on the second floor, Strict Father’s danger perception had completely disappeared. 

So that earlier sense of crisis was just because of the Elite Goblin?

Seeing that all the adventurers kept their distance, Li Si didn’t wait any longer. 

She poured out the entire remaining bag of buttered popcorn all at once.

In an instant, the puddle on the floor surged up, rising past her calves. 

At the same time, a pillar of water shot up from beneath the adventurers’ feet.

The more people gathered together, the greater the power of this water pillar.

Atar was a bit embarrassed. 

Because of his orders, his guild team was still clustered together. 

Everyone else could dodge easily, while they were scrambling.

But soon he realized something: that level 10 adventurer seemed to know this dungeon extremely well.

Atar turned, intending to find that adventurer, but was puzzled when he couldn’t spot her.

Even the level 3 adventurer had vanished.

Li Si held her breath, dived into the water, and pulled Lili Ya along with her other hand, groping toward an underwater current.

This hidden passage would normally appear only after conquering the floor’s lord. 

But with prior experience, one could know about it in advance—theoretically similar to the logic of avoiding the Elite Goblin, it was an important method for speedrunning.

However, not too many people could follow. 

Otherwise, the Yadana clones attracted by the buttered popcorn would chase them to the next floor and become Yadana’s guardians. 

That would be a headache.

Li Si dived in one breath, endured a few seconds of dizziness in the current, and then the view opened up before her.

Ahead was an empty corridor. 

Countless blue torches lined both sides, and the end of the torches connected to a space as black as a hole.

***

“Lady Yadana, something’s not right… I feel like someone among the adventurers is cheating… This conquest speed is way too fast.”

In the dark space, a fishman strategist anxiously reported to the throne hidden in the shadows. 

In front of him, a crystal ball displayed the scene from the floor above.

In the image, Lady Yadana’s clone was lashing the adventurers. 

At first it seemed normal, but then it quickly went wrong. 

Those adventurers gradually got used to the attack patterns and began to fight back. 

Eight of them were especially terrifying—they nearly beat Lady Yadana’s eight tentacles into sixteen.

The fishman strategist remembered that those eight were the Chosen of this era, so-called heroes or something.

“Hami, don’t be nervous. The great dragon demon from afar has already sent me a message. On the three continents, in the twelve Beginner Villages set by the Goddesses, there is no trace of that person. Only here we have her. It can now be confirmed that it’s her. As long as I get her, I can give up this entire dungeon, let alone a clone.”

“G-Great Lady… That person should be called Lili Ya, right? Only level 3… Does the King’s Minister really want her? I feel like any of these Chosen would be liked by the King’s Minister…”

“Heh~”

A contemptuous cold laugh came from the throne in the shadows. 

The deep, unfathomable female voice carried the foresight of a superior: “Hami, even after sleeping for ten thousand years, your brain hasn’t changed. Just watch closely. There’s a reason I became the Demon of Temptation.”

The being on the throne waited a moment but didn’t hear the strategist’s flattery. 

Annoyed, she said, “Hami?”

“Hmm?”

“Hami, why aren’t you speaking? Are you awed by my wisdom?”

“Heh~ you’re only this much…”

The being on the throne slowly turned around, then suddenly froze.

The entire Royal Hall was deep and dark, especially around the throne. 

She had added a little clever design, making the throne rotatable, so she could speak to her subjects with her back turned—it made her feel super cool.

Cool as it was, when she turned around, why had the strategist turned into a puddle of water? 

And in the water was a body cut in two halves.

Oh, the strategist hadn’t become water—he had been cut in half!

The master of this dungeon blinked blankly. 

In an instant, she tumbled and scrambled off the throne, prostrating herself fully on the ground, holding up a half-eaten bucket of buttered popcorn, exuding dominance and offering her sincere loyalty!

“Your servant Yadana has come to report!”

[Familiar Yadana requests master binding]

Li Si held her sword, looking at the prostrate violet-haired loli with an extremely calm expression.

This was why the City of Temptation was the easiest dungeon in the Kingdom of Minos.