Chapter 24: The Disgusting Dungeon

Big Dumb Duck, having heard the location of the secret realm, took off at a sprint. Along the way, he was already messaging Lonely as a Song — the latter was level 10, and between skill points and stat allocation alone, his attributes were already a cut above the rest, not to mention the bonus free attribute points. Lonely as a Song agreed without hesitation; after all, Big Dumb Duck had promised to gear him up. He formed the party in no time, and by the time Night's Gentle Chill thought to invite Lonely as a Song, it was already too late.

"It's fine — we already have five people anyway. If we'd brought Lonely as a Song, we'd have had to kick someone out." Night's Gentle Chill reassured the group as they hurried along, though Ye Weinuan's expression was sour, seemingly still sulking over Night's Gentle Chill failing to snag the Dawn equipment.

Heart and Soul and Eagle had already equipped their Skull Masks and Midnight Eagle Eyes — items Night's Gentle Chill had casually picked up just moments ago. After all, they were about to run a dungeon, and every bit of stacked stats meant a faster clear.

"Ah Tao, you're the fastest runner — I'll make you party leader. See if you can enter the dungeon first and pull us in." Night's Gentle Chill handed the party leader role to Heart and Soul, who nodded and broke into a full sprint. Big Dumb Duck had the same idea and passed the leader role to No. 7.

A few minutes later, the two arrived almost simultaneously.

"Found the dungeon — minimum level requirement is 7. You can't get in! Should we still go?" No. 7 messaged Big Dumb Duck, while Heart and Soul dove straight inside.

Big Dumb Duck was momentarily stunned — the level requirement was that high? He immediately left the party and swapped in a replacement.

Meanwhile, Night's Gentle Chill and the others had already received the dungeon teleportation prompt. They confirmed it, and in an instant they appeared inside — but the moment they entered, they sensed something was off about this dungeon.

"This place is kind of creepy," Ye Weinuan said, her face showing unease as she pressed closer behind Night's Gentle Chill.

Night's Gentle Chill chuckled. "It's just a game — none of it's real." Easy to say, but the scene before them was genuinely unsettling. They were standing at the dungeon entrance, facing a long corridor. Candles flickered on both sides, somehow making the atmosphere even more eerie, accentuated by several tattered red paper decorations hanging on the walls…

"Did someone get married in this cave?" Heart and Soul, the boldest of the group, stepped forward a few paces and glanced at the shredded "double happiness" characters on the wall before turning back. "Trying to spook us, are they? I'll take the lead."

With someone leading the way, the others quickly followed — but they hadn't gone more than a few steps when Ye Weinuan suddenly pointed upward and let out a shriek!

The four of them looked in the direction she was pointing and discovered a Venomous Spider hanging directly above their heads — they had no idea when it had appeared. They weren't unfamiliar with this type of monster; they'd killed plenty while scouting the Ten-Eyed Spider earlier. Still, having one suddenly appear right above them gave everyone a fright.

"Has that thing been there since we came in?" Ye Weinuan had calmed down a little, but the thought that the creature might have been silently hanging above them the entire time sent a chill down her spine.

"Probably," Night's Gentle Chill said, scanning the ceiling. The Venomous Spider hung there upside down. He took a few test steps and confirmed the spider moved along with them. "Eagle, shoot it down." Having the thing follow them around was grating on everyone's nerves. Eagle raised his bow and loosed an arrow at the spider — but the arrow was stopped midway by something invisible.

"There's something between us and it — we can't hit it at all. And it doesn't seem able to attack us either." The spider's green eyes blinked and flickered, clearly wanting to strike, yet it held back.

"Then ignore it for now and keep moving." It was just one Venomous Spider — even if it dropped down into the middle of their group, they could deal with it in no time. Easy to say, but with the thing trailing along above their heads, nobody could truly ignore it. So they walked on, all five of them craning their necks to stare at the spider as they moved.

They hadn't gone far when a sudden click rang out!

"What was that?"

Everyone quickly scanned their surroundings — nothing seemed to have happened.

"Wait — Ah Tao is dead?!"

Night's Gentle Chill was shocked to see Heart and Soul's name in the party list had turned gray. He tried to contact him, only to find that communication was blocked inside the dungeon.

Back at the Starter Village, Heart and Soul stood blankly at the respawn point, completely baffled as to how he had died. He opened his death log and checked.

"I died from a fall?!"

"Falling is perfectly normal~"

Huh? Who's talking to me? Heart and Soul turned around and spotted No. 7 standing dejectedly at the respawn point.

"You fell to your death too?" Despite being rivals, they were both tackling the same dungeon, so Heart and Soul figured he'd try to fish for some useful intel — but No. 7 wasn't biting. He put his shoes back on and walked away.

Lost equipment? Heart and Soul pulled up his equipment panel and found that his [Blood Fang] was gone!

"Oh wow, it dropped already?" Liu Kongkong, who had been watching the dungeon panel from the blacksmith shop, saw a strangely shaped dagger appear on the display. He immediately took it and tucked it into his bag. "Looks like they didn't even make it past the first section."

The first spider in the dungeon was designed to be unable to attack the players below — its purpose was obvious: to be an annoyance, drawing the players' attention upward so they'd fall into the traps below. As for why it couldn't be hit — the spider's position was outside the dungeon's active play space. It had taken Liu Kongkong quite a while of testing to get it placed just right. It cost 40 monster points, but he was confident the effect would be well worth it.

Back in the dungeon, Night's Gentle Chill hesitated after discovering Heart and Soul's death.

"Let's scout a bit further ahead. It'll take Ah Tao some time to respawn and catch up — if there's a boss ahead, we'll head back out and wait for him." After all, they were racing for the first clear; every second counted. "But we need to watch our footing — this dungeon might have a few more tricks up its sleeve."

They had just examined the area and spotted the floor trap — in hindsight it was fairly obvious, but they'd all had their heads tilted back and hadn't noticed it.

"Then I'll keep watch on the ceiling, and you all watch the floor." Ye Weinuan still wasn't at ease about the spider above and insisted on keeping an eye on it. The other three let her, and the four of them pressed on. By the time they reached the end of the corridor, no more floor traps had appeared, and the spider hadn't dropped down either.

Night's Gentle Chill let out a sigh of relief — that straight corridor had been absolutely nerve-wracking. He'd practically been crawling along the floor the whole way out of fear of more traps. "Alright, this section's clear. Let's keep going — Ah!"

Before Night's Gentle Chill could finish his sentence, he was suddenly launched into the air! His scream faded from near to far, and after a few seconds, his name turned gray.

The remaining three stood frozen in shock. When they snapped back to reality and looked down, they found a wild rabbit hiding around the corner. It was obvious — Night's Gentle Chill hadn't noticed it and had been kicked off the edge by it!

The three of them quickly teamed up to kill the rabbit, then peered cautiously around the corner — beyond the turn was a bottomless abyss!

"Who designed this dungeon?! Are they out of their mind?!" Eagle exploded in fury. If they'd been beaten in a fair fight, they could accept it — but getting killed by cheap tricks was another matter entirely!

Hmm, another one.

Liu Kongkong casually retrieved the dropped item — it was an ordinary cloth robe. He tossed it into storage without a second thought. Then he glanced over at the respawn point and saw Night's Gentle Chill standing there, shirtless and still trembling from the shock!

"Oh, so it was him. Too bad it wasn't a weapon that dropped."