The fifth floor of the Well of Eternal Imprisonment.
Dalun Li watched with delight as his little treasury absorbed the Earth Vein Power.
At this rate, he would be able to create the sixth floor in just one more day.
Little Remel was still struggling on the third floor; he would likely make it to the fourth floor today.
Furthermore, adventurers were still streaming in, enriching his treasury and constantly serving as nourishment.
"Let's see which little cuties have arrived today."
Dalun Li looked toward the entrance of the first floor.
In an instant, a powerful force surged from the entrance, nearly blinding Dalun Li.
"What's going on? What happened!"
Dalun Li crashed onto his pedestal with a thud, looking toward the first floor in disbelief.
Where did they come from? Where did they come from!
This family crest... it was the same as Croton's.
They were the lord's men!
How could that border lord have such a powerful group of subordinates!
The situation was completely beyond Dalun Li's expectations.
After all, if the lord had such powerful subordinates, he should have sent them long ago; why send them only now?
For them to suddenly appear now...
Dalun Li gazed at the family crest.
"Could it be reinforcements the lord sought out who only just arrived?"
Dalun Li calmed down as he quickly considered this possibility.
If that was the case, the situation wasn't too bad yet.
At least it meant that it wasn't some powerful faction coming to speed-run his Well of Eternal Imprisonment.
All these causes and effects could be linked together.
Dalun Li quickly used Insight to check the strength of these individuals.
Every single one was level 9.
In other words, they had all been honed to the human limit.
The three leaders consisted of a level 19 first-rank knight, a level 17 first-rank mage, and a level 15 first-rank heavy warrior.
All were extraordinary.
Because they were the lord's men, they clearly did not continue to explore floor by floor like Remel.
Instead, they followed the map, quickly speed-running the first floor to reach the camp on the second floor.
In less than half a day, the group arrived at the second floor.
After a brief rest at the camp, these people followed their formation and quickly advanced toward the third floor according to the map.
The red-faced gargoyles in their path could not even slow them down before being destroyed with extreme efficiency.
The hard rock was demolished before these people as if it were made of paper.
They coordinated with each other with incredible efficiency.
Dalun Li noticed that all of these people's weapons and equipment contained mana.
Weapons containing mana were more powerful than ordinary weapons, even without extraordinary abilities.
They were usually crafted by alchemical craftsmen using materials from dungeons.
Naturally, their prices were much higher than ordinary equipment.
These people were actually all uniformly equipped.
Dalun Li withdrew his gaze and turned it toward the third floor.
After several days of exploration, Croton's group finally found the passage connecting to the fourth floor and entered it.
The moment they entered the fourth floor, a dreamlike forest appeared before their eyes.
Within the deep forest, the glowing moss shimmered with a pale blue light, making the underground forest look ethereal.
Croton and his group stared at the forest before them, their hearts filled with awe.
But the enchantment lasted only a second before Croton felt a headache coming on.
This wasn't just some forest; it was clearly another labyrinth.
Moreover, the environment was even more complex than the grottoes; who knew how many dangers were hidden in such a vast forest.
"Do not separate. Form pairs, cover each other, and explore inward in a serpentine pattern!"
Croton quickly gave the order and entered the forest.
Before long, they encountered monsters wandering through the forest.
Those monsters, composed of branches and vines, filled out sets of adventurer armor and held adventurer broadswords.
They swung their swords at them now.
The attendants quickly parried, the two of them working together.
However, the sword in the monster's hand was like a phantom, somehow finding a gap in their coordination and thrusting straight forward.
"What!"
"This thing... it knows Swordsmanship!"
One of the attendants, caught off guard, had his palm pierced in an instant.
The other attendant hastily swung his sword to break the monster's stance, and Croton caught up at that moment, swinging his sword with absolute mastery and leaving an afterimage in the air.
The wood soldier's head was sliced off with a single strike, and it collapsed to the ground.
Croton's gaze was dark as he bent down and searched through the armor.
He only found a pile of tangled wooden strips.
At the center of the wooden strips was a branch containing mana.
"Is this the monster material from the fourth floor? The mana is stronger than that of the red copper masks."
"However, this monster is far more dangerous than the gargoyles."
What felt eerie to Croton was that this monster wore human equipment and attacked just like a human.
It was almost as if it were mimicking humans.
Logically, plant-type monsters like this shouldn't possess that kind of intelligence.
He thought of his subordinates who had mysteriously vanished on the second floor...
As they went deeper, this dungeon was becoming increasingly bizarre.
Just what kind of dungeon was this, and why did it appear in such a remote border region?
According to the patterns of past dungeon appearances, a dungeon in such a remote border region should only be a small-scale dungeon.
How could such a bizarre dungeon exist here?
Looking at the deep forest before him, Croton felt as if the forest possessed intelligence and was waiting to toy with him.
Incidentally, his wallet had also mysteriously disappeared.
Nothing was weirder than that.
...
[Name] Dalun Li's Stone Grotto
[Level] lv3
[Skills] Gargoyle Generation lv2, Hardening lv1, Splitting Seed lv1, Growth lv1
[Description] A monster servant created by the unknown existence Dalun Li, capable of generating red-faced gargoyles and producing splitting seeds that spread along with the gargoyles to grow into new stone grottoes.
Dalun Li had already bestowed reproductive capabilities upon the stones.
He had created this grotto-shaped monster.
Now, he no longer had to constantly create the gargoyles himself.
As for the mimics, Dalun Li had bestowed upon them the ability for sexual reproduction.
He made the mimics male and female so they could breed with each other and produce little mimics.
After all, having all the monsters here reproduce via self-fertilization felt a bit too cultish.
He was a Chaotic Neutral dungeon.
All his actions were simply to ensure his own survival.
Croton continued exploring the fourth floor.
Meanwhile, Dalun Li had successfully saved up two hundred points of Earth Vein Power.
Under the pressure of the many intruders, Dalun Li did not hesitate for a moment; as soon as his Earth Vein Power was full, he began opening and creating the sixth floor.
"May the Goddess of Light bless me—hit the jackpot on the first try!"
After praying for treasures to appear in the new floor, Dalun Li activated his power, and a silver light filled the entire orb.
"Floor, Create!"
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