The Hidden Area

The stairs were longer than expected.

Chen Mian walked in the front, his footsteps echoing in the narrow corridor.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, the stairs finally came to an end.

What appeared before them was a wide corridor, spacious enough for four or five people to walk abreast. The walls on both sides were made of grayish-black stone, with magic lamps embedded in them every few paces, stretching out into the darkness of the subterranean space with no end in sight.

The air, however, was quite a bit warmer than outside.

“The first floor,” Loviki remarked, scanning the walls on either side, her gaze lingering on the various marks of different depths.

They looked very fresh, likely left behind by battles between adventurers and monsters.

“According to the map, we aren't too far from the hidden passage,” Chen Mian said, unfolding the parchment and pointing to an area marked in red. “Should we go take a look?”

Loviki nodded with some anticipation. “Yes.”

Flora nodded as well, her delicate face under her cloak's hood remaining quite calm.

The three of them walked forward along the main corridor.

The number of adventurers on the way gradually increased. Some had set up makeshift stalls against the walls, selling items they had brought out from the dungeon.

“Come take a look! Core fragments of an ice crystal golem! Forging them into weapons increases ice attribute affinity!”

“Frost-steel shards from the third floor, twenty silver coins each! Limited quantities!”

“Freshly drawn dungeon maps, updated to the third floor!”

Most of the obstacles on the first floor had already been cleared out, turning this place into a miniature rest area and marketplace.

The three did not linger long in the marketplace.

After walking along the corridor for about fifteen minutes, a fork appeared ahead.

The left fork was the main corridor, leading deeper into the dungeon. The right was a narrower passage, its entrance piled with rubble that looked as though it had only recently been cleared away.

“The hidden passage is the one on the right.”

Loviki had already walked up to the entrance and poked her head in to look.

The passage was much narrower than the main corridor, only wide enough for two people to walk side by side. Thick frost clung to the walls on both sides, and most of the magic lamps were broken, leaving the light very dim.

“I'll lead,” Chen Mian said, stepping past Loviki and entering the passage first.

After walking for a bit, he stopped.

At the end of the passage ahead lay an open space.

The space was circular, with a ceiling rising over ten meters high. The walls were embedded with ice-blue crystals, illuminating the entire chamber brightly.

Debris and shattered ice crystals lay scattered across the ground, along with several pools of dried, dark-red blood. A battle had clearly taken place here.

But what caught the eye most was the massive, ice-blue humanoid statue standing in the center of the chamber.

It was at least five meters tall, its limbs like four stone pillars. A fist-sized ice-blue core was embedded in its chest, pulsing rhythmically with a faint light, like a beating heart.

However, it seemed to be in a dormant state. Its head hung low, and its arms dangled at its sides, blending almost perfectly with the crystals on the walls. If they hadn't heard rumors about the dungeon, they might have truly mistaken it for nothing more than a peculiar statue.

“An ice crystal golem,” Flora murmured softly.

Loviki had already taken two steps forward, her gaze scanning from the golem's chest to its joints, and then back to the ice-blue core.

“This guy doesn't attack on its own?” she asked.

Chen Mian glanced down at the ground, then lightly tapped a certain spot with the toe of his boot. “Once you cross this line, it will activate.”

Following his gaze, Loviki saw that there was indeed an extremely faint line on the floor, nearly covered by rubble and dust. But upon closer inspection, it could be made out, looking like a boundary line.

“So if we want to keep going, we have to defeat it?”

“Pretty much.”

Loviki rested her hand on the hilt of her sword, the corners of her mouth curving up slightly. “Then let's fight.”

Chen Mian took two steps back and leaned against the wall, crossing his arms. “You take this one. I'll rest for a bit.”

Flora also retreated to the wall, her eyes under her hood watching Loviki intently.

Loviki drew her rapier and took a deep breath.

A silvery-white blazing light flared from the blade, exceptionally eye-catching in the dim chamber.

As she took two steps forward, the blue core in the ice crystal golem's chest flared. Ice-blue light instantly spread from the core throughout its body, and the runes etched onto the ice crystal surface lit up like blood vessels, emitting crisp cracking sounds.

The golem moved, much faster than expected.

Its massive right arm rose, a fist crashing down toward Loviki, whipping up a gust of fierce wind.

Loviki dodged to the side. The wind of the punch grazed past her cloak as the fist slammed into the ground.

“Boom!” Rubble splattered as a massive crater was smashed into the floor.

Tapping the toe of her boot against the golem's arm, she used the momentum to leap up. Two silvery-white sword glows emerged from the void, striking at the golem's head from both sides at extreme speed.

“Clang! Clang!”

The light swords struck the golem's head, kicking up two bursts of ice-blue light fragments, but only left two shallow scratches on the surface.

The golem's movements weren't affected at all. Its left arm swept across, forcing Loviki to contort her body in midair to dodge.

She landed three meters away, frowning slightly. “Physical attacks can't pierce it, and magic attacks are partially reflected.”

“Yes, its interior is inscribed with a large number of damage-reduction runes.” Chen Mian leaned against the wall, thinking for a moment. “But in the end, it's just a rigid magical creation.”

Loviki's lips curved up slightly as she looked at the golem, which had returned to a standstill.

It was indeed very rigid.

She took a step forward, and the golem's core began to light up again.

Its attacks would only trigger once she entered its targeting range.

Flora stood by Chen Mian's side, remaining silent.

But Chen Mian could easily feel the mana fluctuations at her fingertips; Flora was sensing the flow of the golem's mana.

“See anything?”

“The moment Loviki's light sword contacts the golem, the first thing to be weakened is the mana. The reduction is massive, but it only lasts a very short time. Once it pierces the golem's surface, the physical attack reduction is triggered. At that point, although the remaining mana is minimal, its intensity isn't weakened further.”

Flora paused, seemingly organizing her thoughts. “If it's not a coincidence, then an attack on the golem triggers the mana reduction first, then switches to the physical reduction. Since the two don't happen simultaneously, if she were to compress her mana inside the blade instead of coating the surface...”

Before she could finish her sentence,

Loviki moved in the center of the chamber.

This time, her sword was different.

The silvery-white blazing light no longer flared and flickered like wild flames. Instead, it condensed into a thin layer of light hugging the blade, looking as if the sword had been plated in silver.

She rushed toward the golem. Instead of clashing head-on, her blade slid up along the golem's arm, dragging across the ice crystal surface with a harsh, grating sound.

The thin, silvery-white light left a melted trail on the ice crystals.

“She noticed it too,” Flora said with a smile.

Loviki didn't rush her attacks. She observed while dodging the golem's strikes.

Attack intervals, range of movement, turning speed... her position also shifted slowly as the battle progressed.

“You're not very smart,” Loviki said, her lips curving up as she suddenly retreated past the boundary line.

The golem's raised arm paused.

Loviki suddenly lunged forward. The tip of her sword, carrying a silver glow, melted a small pit into the golem's surface, plunging precisely into the gap between the core and the chest plate. With a twist of her wrist—

The ice-blue core popped out of its socket, rolling a few times on the ground with a crisp clatter.

The golem's light quickly dimmed, its arm freezing in midair.

Loviki picked up the core, patted the dust off her cloak, and walked back.

“For you. Rent,” she said, handing the golem core to Chen Mian.