Chapter 268: The Labyrinth’s Metamorphosis
Watson’s decision to hire Clyde and the others was quite straightforward. On the one hand, they were strangers who would very certainly face scrutiny if they entered the City of Steel. If they followed the city’s residents, they would have a far lesser chance of being discovered. Plus, they could explore the underground city too.
He could enter the underground city by himself, but he was not familiar with the terrain, so he might fall into a trap. He would have to use his strength to get out, and that would attract too much attention. It was better to familiarize himself with Clyde and the others first. Once he was confident enough, he would go there again by himself.
“That—”
When confronted with Watson’s suggestion, the few adventurers there displayed apprehension. They had just recently emerged from the buried city. What would happen if they returned at that time and encountered that bunch of deadly magical animals once more?
The adventurers looked hesitant when they heard Watson’s request. They had just left the buried city. What would happen if they were to encounter that group of terrifying magical beasts again?
“Don’t worry. I’ll just go and take a look. I won’t go too deep underground. As a reward for bringing me down there, I’ll give you an additional gold coin as a reward. How about that?” Watson took out a gold coin.
The adventurers’ eyes were a little dazed when they saw the gold coin that was equivalent to half a month of their regular income.
“Okay, I can take you. However, we can only go to the 10th level. We won’t go anywhere beyond there! Furthermore, you have to listen to our instructions while we’re there,” said Clyde.
He had wanted to refuse the job, but Watson had given him too much. Furthermore, it would not be too dangerous to get to the 10th floor.
“Thank you. I’m Watson. May I know your name?”
“I’m Clyde.”
After they greeted each other, Watson ordered Denise to stay. He looked at the carriage and at Antonio, who had not gone down. He and Nightingale followed the adventurers to the underground city in the basin.
The basin was not a large area, but it was still several times bigger than they had imagined. The crisscrossed stone sculptures were like a maze, and there were many deep gaps under the stone sculptures. They did not know where those gaps would lead to.
“It’s a wise choice for you to choose the Blood Rose adventurer team to be your guide; we are the best bronze-tier team in the City of Steel. No one knows the buried city better than us! People said that its dungeon was a mysterious ruin from tens of thousands of years ago, but no one could investigate its history.”
The young girl, Annie, expressed with confidence as she walked next to Watson. Perhaps it was because she had received money, but her saliva was flying everywhere when she spoke.
“Is that so? That’s really impressive.”
Watson smiled politely and stared at the ancient buildings in front of him. A piece of information automatically entered his eyes.
[Diamond-tier special ruin: The Underground Maze]
[The building itself was a product of the Loen civilization from 10,000 years ago. However, after it was occupied by underground people thousands of years ago, it had been completely transformed.]
[Ability: There are 100 floors in the underground city. There are different monsters with varying strength levels on each floor. They get stronger the deeper you go. Furthermore, the monsters will resp.a.w.n every once in a while.]
[Additional abilities: Moving Labyrinth (the labyrinth moves all the time. The structure of the labyrinth will change from time to time, including the number of levels), Monster Territory (the monsters in the labyrinth can move freely between the levels and can leave the labyrinth, but they can’t go too far away, and they will not move easily), Random Treasure (there are treasure chests that appear from time to time in the buried city; each will have different types of treasure. One can obtain the most remarkable treasure after clearing 100 levels).]
As he read the information, Watson knew that the building was only related to the ancient ruins from tens of thousands of years ago. The dungeon’s mechanism caught his attention; there was a random treasure chest in it.
The people who built the structures in the ruin must not have wanted outsiders to enter the buildings. They must have set up many traps to kill the intruders. However, the dungeons were different. It seemed like those adventurers were lured down there by the promise of treasure chests.
While Watson was thinking, the two adventurers, Clyde and Leon, were exploring every ancient building while Arthur ran toward Nightingale to ingratiate himself with her. “Beautiful Lady, the dungeon is perilous. Look for me if you encounter any danger; I’ll protect you! I’m the strongest person in the entire team, well, apart from the captain. I’m a bronze-tier warrior,” Arthur said as he fiddled with his pose. He showed off his muscles, which made Nightingale speechless.
Nightingale was a platinum-tier elite. When a mere bronze-tier warrior flaunted his strength in front of her, she felt like she saw an ant boasting its power in front of an elephant. Unfortunately, Watson had told her to keep a low profile; she could only endure it.
“Arthur, don’t act so silly in front of our guests. If you frighten them and they stop doing business with us, will you compensate us for the loss?” Annie saw Nightingale’s displeasure; she pulled Arthur’s ear to take him away. “If you have time, why don’t you help the captain to study the entrances to find the best one for us to use?”
“I’ve found a suitable place.”
Clyde stopped in front of a building and observed it for more than ten minutes. As he crouched, he pointed at the empty s.p.a.ce under his feet and said, “Young Master Watson, don’t blame me for wasting time. The underground city’s structure changes every once in a while. Even if we enter from the same entrance, we might end up in different places. Furthermore, some labyrinth sections are particularly dangerous, so we must identify the direction of those caves.”
“Captain Clyde is a professional, indeed. Let’s go down then.” Watson nodded as he entered the cave with Clyde and the others.
The cave extended downward diagonally, more than ten meters deep. One would feel damp and cold as one entered it.
Squeak!
It was dark, but they could vaguely hear the sound of something crawling. Of course, the darkness was nothing to Watson because he had mastered a diamond-tier spell called the Absolute Sight. It was enough for him to see things clearly in complete darkness. It also did not bother Nightingale, a platinum-tier angel.
On the other hand, the four adventurers could not see the environment in the pa.s.sage clearly. Annie opened her right hand with a click, and a ball of flame appeared in her hand. Arthur, who was big and strong, took a short bow from his trouser leg before loading it with a few poisoned crossbow arrows.
Clyde was a two-handed swordsman, Leon was a priest, and Arthur and Annie were an archer and a mage, respectively. They were well-equipped.
The monster creeping in front of them revealed its true form when illuminated by the flame in Annie’s palm. It was a centipede as big as an arm, encased in an iron sh.e.l.l. It had dozens of feet, and vast swarms of centipedes were huddled together. The black iron sh.e.l.l reflected the faint light under the illumination of the flame.
“It’s an iron-tier magical beast, the iron-armored centipede. Fortunately, it’s not a particularly difficult magical beast.” Clyde patted the armor on his chest and heaved a sigh of relief.
The dungeon’s terrain would change at any time, and the magical beasts they would encounter were also different. The magical beasts on the same floor would have different strengths and weaknesses. The giant flaming lizard they had encountered on the 11th floor was a particularly powerful one. Except for Arthur, everyone on the team was relieved because they knew that they would make a lot of money that day. Only Arthur was sad that he could not show off in front of Nightingale.
“Young Master Watson, the iron-armored centipede is pretty easy to kill. Its sh.e.l.l can be used to make iron-tier tools, and its venom glands can be used to make poison! In short, those magical beasts have many valuable parts.”
As he explained to Watson, Clyde went to the group of centipedes with his two-handed sword in his hand. He slashed most of the centipedes in half with a single swipe of his blade. With practiced movements, he removed the hard sh.e.l.l on the back of the centipedes and the poison glands as well.
The others followed suit and quickly collected more than a hundred iron-armored centipedes. The other centipedes had disappeared, and the entire pa.s.sage was clear.
“Young Master Watson, there’s nothing to see on this floor. Let’s go to the next floor! Oh, right, I almost forgot to mention that sometimes we’d find treasure chests and medicinal herbs on the walls. However, it doesn’t look like we’re lucky this round.”
Clyde was a little disappointed, but he continued to lead Watson downward. He was a frugal person, so he did not forget to collect the materials as he introduced them to Watson.
Soon, Clyde led Watson down to the dungeon’s tenth floor. Along the way, they pa.s.sed through many more iron-armored centipedes, bloodthirsty bats, two-headed pythons, and other monsters. However, they managed to kill all of them.
Every dungeon level had an obvious fault, which was similar to the holes on the outside. Each hole was more than ten meters deep. The tenth floor was already more than a hundred meters underground. At that moment, the dungeon had gotten darker, but its surroundings were not completely silent. Instead, they heard people.
A few sparks of fire appeared in the tunnel that was wider than the one above. A few adventurer teams in iron-tier armor and longswords were fighting a three-meter-tall minotaur with a giant axe in its hand. There were three minotaurs, and the three teams were dealing with one each.
“It’s a peak bronze-tier magical beast, a minotaur warrior. This is a rare magical beast! The minotaur warriors’ axes were polished by themselves. In terms of strength, they are not weaker than a peak bronze-tier weapon. The two horns on their heads are great materials for forging weapons, and their flesh and blood are high-quality medicinal ingredients. Their bodies are full of treasures.”
Clyde’s eyes lit up when he saw those beasts, but they dimmed as quickly as well. “What a pity! All the magical beasts on this floor have been taken. Young Master Watson, let’s go back.”
Watson looked around him and nodded. Along the way, he had a preliminary understanding of the underground maze. The monsters on each floor were different, and they were stronger the further down they went. The number of monsters might decrease, and each floor had a pa.s.sage that led to the next floor. It was very convenient to find them.
Watson resolved to explore the next floor on his own. Then, he returned with Nightingale and Clyde.
“Alas, the magical beasts we encountered were either very weak or had been stolen by someone else. Why aren’t there any more powerful magical beasts or a mutated labyrinth?” Arthur was carrying a large bag full of materials from the magical beasts they slew. He strolled back to the entrance as he glanced at the graceful Nightingale from time to time and muttered unwillingly.
Annie sneered at him. “Arthur, what are you saying, you coward? Wouldn’t you be the first to run away if we do encounter a powerful magical beast or a mutated labyrinth?”
As soon as she finished speaking, a loud boom echoed from the tunnel before the entire tunnel shook violently.