"What's happening? Was it an illusion?"
Located in the forest north of the dungeon, the cloaked figure warily scanned his surroundings.
The sensation of being watched from just a moment ago had vanished in an instant.
He did not let down his guard.
This was human territory, and who knew if some magic item was at work.
Logically speaking, a frontier dungeon shouldn't have this kind of magic item monitoring.
But he would rather be paranoid than careless.
The Lord could never forgive a failure caused by a servant's negligence; that would be disloyalty to the Lord.
The cloaked figure gathered his things inside the cave, wiped clean the meticulously drawn magic circle, and quickly left the cavern.
At the cave entrance, he looked toward the dungeon from afar.
"I will make this place a sacrifice for the Lord."
"The Lord shall bear witness."
After muttering something unintelligible, the cloaked figure departed from the cave.
He didn't seem to have any intention of conquering the dungeon, but rather had other plans.
Meanwhile, on the eighth floor of the Well of Eternal Imprisonment.
The silver glow of the orb gradually receded, settling back onto its stone pedestal.
Before him, Tongmu shimmered with a precious light.
"To think it consumed so much of my power; creating a floor guardian wasn't even this exaggerated."
"But the result is worth it."
[Name] Tongmu (Dalun Li)
[Level] lv8
[Skills] Insight lv3↑, Dynamic Vision lv3↑, High-speed Capture lv3↑, Clairvoyance lv2↑, Stealth lv3 (new)!, Eye of Life lv1 (new)!
[Description] A monster servant of the unknown existence Dalun Li, possessing powerful ocular strength capable of seeing through mana, capturing movements, hiding its gaze, seeing into the distance, and even healing injuries through sight.
Not only did it gain the Stealth ability and a comprehensive upgrade to its ocular powers, but it also acquired a new eye ability: Eye of Life.
The Eye of Life likely came from the power of the substitution tree material.
Since Dalun Li possessed the skills of all his monsters, he could directly feel the enhancement of the ocular abilities.
Clairvoyance was now capable of covering the entire vicinity of the town.
He still hadn't given Tongmu any abilities related to attack or defense.
Simply put, creating a monster was like having an initial attribute pool.
Suppose this pool was 100 points.
Dalun Li could allocate 50 to strength, 30 to defense, and 20 to speed.
With a few adjustments, a common monster would be created.
But for Tongmu, it was as if 99 out of 100 points had been allocated to vision.
This kind of specialized monster was much harder to create and consumed more materials and power.
If Dalun Li had allocated attack and defense capabilities to Tongmu, it would be like taking those 100 points and giving 50 to attack and defense and only 50 to vision.
That would lose the effect of vision specialization, which would be putting the cart before the horse and deviating from his original design purpose.
Upgrading such a specialized monster was also very difficult.
It required precious materials to support its power.
If he wanted to upgrade Tongmu in the future, he would need to start with rare materials again.
On the other side.
In the town outside the dungeon.
The second-rank adventurer team that arrived in this town was, naturally, Serafina's group from Gray City.
Along with them were the second-rank priest, Caspar.
The second-rank heavy warrior, Isolde.
And the peak first-rank mage, Leoward.
Serafina walked at the head of the group; though she was a woman, the adventurer badge on her chest featuring two White Roland buds ensured that no one dared to underestimate her.
Along the way, adventurers they encountered respectfully nodded and stepped aside to clear the path.
"It looks like the town is already starting to take shape."
"I wonder if there's a place to fill our bellies and rest for the night."
Serafina observed the houses and streets being built around them.
They would be exploring the dungeon soon, and a newly appeared dungeon wouldn't exactly offer a comfortable environment.
One could say that their time on the surface now was their last bit of leisure.
"There's a scent of heavy mana gathering up ahead, and the smell of alcohol; it should be a tavern,"
the priest Caspar spoke.
Unlike priests who followed the Goddess of Light, Caspar believed in the Harvest God.
His healing abilities were almost identical to those of a light priest.
He couldn't use Holy Light spells, but he had gained powerful perception abilities; after reaching the second rank, he could command the power of soil and plants.
These abilities were extremely useful within a dungeon.
"There's actually a tavern? As expected of a place where adventurers gather,"
Serafina remarked before walking in the direction Caspar indicated.
The heavy warrior Isolde and the mage Leoward followed behind the two of them.
Though called a tavern, what stood before them was actually a semi-open-air plaza.
After all, the town was still under construction.
Adventurers were inside, either boasting loudly or showing off their gains from this dive.
A few rare female adventurers were mixed in, being the targets of crude jokes.
However, there were also some rough female adventurers who told even cruder jokes.
A wandering bard was in the center of the open-air tavern, his face red with drink, singing some stale dungeon stories while clumsily strumming a lyre.
Looking closely, it wasn't even a real bard, but seemed to be an adventurer filling in temporarily to liven up the atmosphere and score some free drinks.
But as Serafina's group stepped inside, the crowd of idling adventurers was startled and straightened up.
"By the Goddess of Light, why did a second-rank adventurer show up? And a whole team at that..."
someone whispered in awe.
Among them, the middle-aged men looked bitter as they sipped their drinks.
The younger ones had glowing eyes and faces full of longing, as if seeing their future selves.
"Serafina of Gray City, the Serafina with no family name."
"A round of drinks for everyone, on me."
Serafina knew the ways of adventurers well and took out a Lanxi gold coin.
Instantly, the atmosphere became lively.
The owner hurriedly ordered the staff to go forward and serve them.
Serafina then began asking the adventurers for information about the dungeon.
By now, the name of the dungeon had been discovered through exploration.
The Well of Eternal Imprisonment.
On her way here, Serafina had already gathered some intelligence about the Well of Eternal Imprisonment, but that information couldn't compare to these adventurers who had explored it personally.
Only these adventurers could clearly describe the parts of the dungeon that weren't covered in the official reports.
As she listened to the adventurers talk one after another about the various floors of the dungeon's upper strata.
Serafina and her teammates listened quietly.
Meanwhile, the adventurers at the surrounding tables leaned in, trying to figure out the information and purpose of this adventurer team.
"So the ones exploring at the very front are indeed the Grey family's adventurer team."
Serafina wasn't surprised by this piece of information from the adventurers.
After all, this was the Grey family's territory.
"That's right. I also heard that adventurer team has already cleared the floor overlord of the fifth floor."
"They've retreated to the fourth floor to recuperate now; something must have changed on the sixth floor that forced them to pull back and prepare."
The adventurer who spoke up had a decent amount of mana, looking like someone who had returned from the deeper floors.
"The fifth floor overlord..."
Several adventurers let out long gasps of amazement.
The materials dropped by such a floor overlord had to be worth over a thousand gold coins.
Even if not a thousand, it would be seven or eight hundred, which was enough to buy a house with a small flower garden in Gray City.
Buying a house with a small flower garden in Gray City meant one could save up money and decently enjoy afternoon tea while sunbathing in that garden.
This was the ultimate dream life for these adventurers.
Everyone couldn't help but project themselves into the story, imagining that they were the ones who had cleared the floor overlord.
Serafina didn't continue her questioning, while the adventurer who had spoken continued his lament.
"I heard that not only that, but the materials were even crafted into magic gear."
"That Lord Fete is on the fourth floor; he's the one who made it."
This matter wasn't much of a secret on the fourth floor.
After all, the station on the fourth floor of the Well of Eternal Imprisonment was much like the outside, all open-air.
Whoa!!
This time, there was nothing left but a chorus of exclamations.
If they could still fantasize about buying a small house, then something legendary like magic gear was already beyond their capacity for imagination.
They had no mental reference for it.
What kind of miraculous abilities must magic gear have!
How much must it be worth?
No one bought or sold magic gear; even if there were transactions, it wasn't something they could ever come into contact with.
Speaking of which...
Everyone secretly glanced at the equipment on Serafina's body.
A second-rank adventurer was a truly high-status figure, someone they usually wouldn't even have contact with.
A figure like this should have at least one magic item or piece of gear on them, right?
"Has the fifth floor overlord already been claimed?"
Serafina didn't care about the crowd's stares; she wasn't some shy little girl.
Among female adventurers, who was still a shy little girl?
She slapped the table and stood up.
"In that case, the tenth floor overlord is reserved by our Red Rose team. The Goddess of Light shall bear witness."
She, Serafina, a girl who had risen from commoner status to where she was now, struggling through dungeons alone to form the Red Rose, those whom the nobles called despicable thieves stealing their treasures from the dungeons.
She wouldn't be afraid of some noble's adventurer team.
Rate on N.U.
