[Name] Desert Sword Attendant of the Well of Eternal Imprisonment
[Level] lv9
[Skills] Swordsmanship lv5, Hard Shell lv5, Sword Qi lv4, Power Burst lv4, Physical Strengthening lv4, Potent Poison lv3, Vigorous Vitality lv3, Fireball lv3, Great Strength lv3, Haste lv3, Dynamic Vision lv3, Growth lv3, Burst lv2, All-Attribute Resistance lv2, Regeneration lv2, Sharpness lv2, Shape-shifting lv2, Toughness lv2
[Description] A monster servant created by the unknown existence Dalun Li. It wanders and guards the desert of the Well of Eternal Imprisonment. Calm and powerful, it possesses terrifying swordsmanship and a formidable physical body, along with the power of fire.
The four-armed Desert Sword Attendant stood five meters tall with a slender build and a slightly hunched upper body.
Standing on the yellow sand with its four arms hanging down, it possessed a ghostly sense of lightness, and its silver armor gleamed with a sharp, cold light.
"My Lord, I am willing to sacrifice everything to offer you my loyalty."
The Desert Sword Attendant lowered its massive body, pressing two of its arms against its chest in an effort to demonstrate its loyalty.
"Guard the desert of the ninth floor well."
"Yes, my Lord."
The Desert Sword Attendant slowly rose, while also not forgetting to lower its arms and bow its head in respect toward Tongmu.
Loyalty was not just a matter of words.
For an existence that received more of the Lord's favor, its status was naturally higher; this was part of loyalty to the Lord.
It was merely a sword attendant created by the Lord to guard the desert, but Lord Tongmu was a special existence created by the Lord to remain by his side.
It could only show Lord Tongmu respect.
Although they were on the same floor, the Desert Sword Attendant did not dare to wander near Dalun Li.
It kept as much distance as possible.
But simply thinking about being on the same floor as its Lord made it tremble with a desire to offer up its life.
It wasn't that Dalun Li wanted to stay on this floor; it was because the next floor had been snatched away from him.
Creating the Desert Sword Attendant had exhausted Dalun Li's power.
At this moment, he continued to recover his strength on the pedestal, but his gaze did not rest, instead scanning the floors above.
Manfred Grey's group had re-entered the desert of the sixth floor.
The Red Rose team, led by Remel, was also advancing toward the sixth floor at a speed that was not slow.
Meanwhile, on the fifth floor, Serafina demonstrated a portion of her power while facing the wood soldiers.
Dalun Li also witnessed the power of a second-rank swordsman.
A first-rank swordsman could use Sword Qi and strengthen their entire body.
A second-rank swordsman could manipulate Sword Qi, and their physical strengthening was a level above that of a first-rank swordsman.
Under Serafina's manipulation, the Sword Qi was swift and versatile, capable of constantly switching forms.
If that Horned race priest had been a swordsman or a heavy warrior, he wouldn't have had any chance for a sneak attack.
Caspar, the priest in the Red Rose team who worshiped the Harvest Church, could provide team-wide buffs, healing, and perception.
It seemed that priests were mostly support classes; perhaps priests who worshiped the War God or similar deities would have combat capabilities?
There was no way to confirm what abilities that Horned race priest actually had now; he was already dead anyway.
...
The visibility on the sixth floor was extremely low due to the sandstorm, and Manfred Grey's group moved forward with difficulty, struggling even to confirm their direction in the yellow sand.
At the same time, Manfred Grey and his party encountered the monsters of this floor.
Skeletal lizards hidden beneath the yellow sand.
These lizards moved quickly under the sand, using sneak attacks as their primary method of assault.
The undead lizardmen wandering through the yellow sand were equally troublesome.
This was the first time Manfred Grey had encountered such a difficult dungeon.
Every floor's conquest was exceptionally difficult.
Even with equipment to resist the wind and sand, fine yellow sand still constantly pelted their faces.
"Stop!"
In the yellow sand, Manfred Grey suddenly raised his hand.
The advancing team stopped in an instant, and everyone quickly entered a combat stance, warily watching the surrounding yellow sand.
At that moment, the sand on both sides of Manfred Grey suddenly burst open.
Two skeletal lizards lunged like white phantoms of death, yellow sand flowing between their bones as they bared their fangs and aimed for Manfred Grey's neck!
Manfred Grey lowered his stance and drew his sword.
The sword light was like a phantom.
The two skeletal lizards were sliced apart without any resistance, the cuts perfectly neat and smooth as a mirror.
The broken bones fell onto the yellow sand.
"Is it the same trick again..."
Manfred Grey scanned the surroundings with his sword held high, but then a sudden change occurred in an instant.
The bones on the ground suddenly came back to life.
The severed skeletal heads ignited with blue Soul Fire once more, springing from the sand to bite at the blade Manfred Grey had just swung down.
With a crisp sound, Manfred Grey raised his sword, retreated, and threw out a whip kick.
The other flying lizard skull was instantly shattered by the kick.
However, the crisis was not over.
A hair-raising aura of death blew in along with the yellow sand.
Amidst the drifting yellow sand, flickers of blue Soul Fire wavered.
They were like the eyes of death within the yellow sand, staring intently at them.
Some of these lizardmen held shields, others held swords, and at the rear were lizardmen holding bone crossbows.
They had already raised their crossbows under the cover of the yellow sand.
Manfred Grey's pupils constricted as he saw this.
"Manfred!"
Rhine cried out in alarm.
Weiss raised his shield and was about to rush over.
"Maintain formation, ignore me!"
Manfred Grey shouted!
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!
At the moment his voice fell, the bone crossbows fired in unison!
Manfred Grey stepped back with one leg, holding his sword with both hands in front of his eyes, assuming a stance.
Sword Qi flickered unsteadily on the blade.
The first-rank application of Sword Qi...
His physically strengthened muscles were called into action, and the Sword Qi on the blade twisted and turned, as if gathering momentum.
The incoming arrows seemed to slow down in that instant.
Sword technique: Hundred Slashes!
In an instant, hundreds of streaks of Sword Qi were slashed out, and the arrows flying toward him were all shredded into pieces.
Looking at the undead lizardman crossbowmen in the back row gathering strength again, Manfred Grey did not recklessly charge forward.
Instead, he pulled back to open up some distance.
The rest of the team also surged forward, and with a thunderous roar, Weiss charged to the very front of the team, shielding Manfred Grey behind him.
The two advancing undead lizardman shield-bearers were instantly smashed into a flurry of bone fragments by the collision.
The second round of crossbow fire commenced!
However, by this time, the heavy warrior Weiss had already reached the front of the team.
He pressed his hands against the great shield in front of him and slammed it heavily onto the yellow sand.
The kicked-up sand announced his primal strength, blocking all the arrows from the second volley.
During the lull while the second round of arrows finished and they were reloading, Manfred Grey and his attendants charged into the yellow sand from both sides.
A pincer attack from both wings!
However, this group of undead lizardmen, who clearly possessed no intelligence, actually spread their shield-bearers to both sides simultaneously.
It was as if some existence was commanding them from behind.
All of this exceeded Manfred Grey's expectations.
The archers immediately turned their direction, their loaded crossbows aiming at the people charging from the sides.
"There is an intelligent monster commanding them from behind!!!"
Manfred Grey shouted!
The raging sandstorm could not swallow his voice.
Upon hearing this, Weiss led the remaining team in an undeterred charge forward.
At that moment, fire swirled and gathered above Weiss's head.
The yellow sand could not extinguish that fire, as if a current of wind was constraining its form.
Behind the fire, Rhine, who was hiding behind Weiss, was illuminated in a bright crimson glow.
Holding her staff high, her long hair swayed beneath her pointed hat, shedding a halo of magical power.
"First-rank composite magic: Wind-Bound Fire."
Swoosh!
The fire constrained by the wind tore through the yellow sand and flew out, crashing into the undead lizardmen and then exploding into a spray of flowing flames, incinerating bones and melting sand.
The high temperature was whipped up by the wind, blending with the sandstorm.
A group of skeletal lizardmen raised their crossbows but could not see clearly in any direction.
Manfred Grey took the opportunity to charge forward, using his sword technique: Hundred Slashes!
The silver sword light displayed the peak power of a first-rank swordsman.
"Weiss!"
Boom, boom, boom!
The advancing Weiss broke straight through the skeletal formation, his entire set of armor glowing with magical light like a knight charging into an enemy army.
Every attack that landed on him was deflected as if hitting a bronze wall.
Weiss didn't care about the attacks at all, drawing fire to his heart's content to create opportunities for his teammates.
Rhine took the chance to complete her second incantation.
"First-rank magic: Summer Night Fireflies!"
Countless fireflies drifted with the gale of yellow sand into the scattered skeletons.
The moment they touched the bones, they burned intensely, consuming and melting the skeletons.
The lizardmen who had been lying in ambush in the yellow sand were now completely defeated.
Weiss raised his great shield and did not pursue, instead guarding by Rhine's side to defend against any possible hidden arrows.
The attendants dispersed to hunt down the remaining troops.
Manfred Grey charged to the very front again, his eyes piercing through the yellow sand as if searching for something.
It wasn't until the battle ended and the team gathered again that they found they had lost four members, with three others injured.
Manfred Grey's expression was grim as he spoke in a heavy voice.
"There is an intelligent monster on this floor capable of commanding these skeletal lizards."
"Furthermore, we still don't know the opponent's specific form, and we failed to keep them here this time."
An intelligent monster.
It actually knew how to use the yellow sand to hide its form and ambush them.
The two skeletal lizards hidden under the sand earlier were likely meant to draw his attention.
To take the opportunity to line up the crossbows.
He had been careless.
But for an intelligent monster to appear on only the sixth floor, the difficulty of this Well of Eternal Imprisonment was more exaggerated than any dungeon he had ever known.
The drop from the skeletal lizards on this floor was a type of white bone shard.
And what the undead lizardmen dropped were bone joints the size of a finger.
Despite the exaggerated difficulty, the value of the drops from this dungeon had always been high.
After collecting the drops, Manfred Grey led the team further into the yellow sand.
In dungeon exploration, losses were unavoidable.
Because dungeons were synonymous with death and treasure.
Even he had already prepared himself for death; this was the price of coveting a dungeon's treasures.
...
The fourth-floor forest.
Because this floor was entirely forest, the construction of the station could directly use felled trees.
As more and more adventurers entered the fourth floor, the houses at the station were constantly being built.
By now, it had reached a certain scale.
Adventurers who ventured deep into the fourth floor gathered here to trade and sell materials.
Merchants quickly purchased the materials and transported them to the surface through the supply chain.
The alchemical craftsman—now more accurately called an alchemist of the Alchemist Association—Mr. Fete, was currently waiting anxiously for the precious materials he had ordered from Gray City to be delivered from the surface.
That material was none other than the famous water of life.
The water of life possessed powerful vitality, capable of reviving things that had lost their life force and healing severe injuries.
At the same time, it was an extremely precious alchemical material.
Previously, even though he was an alchemical craftsman who could create mana items and was addressed as "Mister" or "Lord" wherever he went, he had no qualification or channel to purchase the water of life.
The water of life was only owned by the Alchemist Association, and only true alchemists could purchase a fixed quota each year.
As soon as he became an alchemist, he had impatiently written a letter to the Alchemist Association to apply and spent a large sum of money to buy a small bottle.
However, even though he had already received a reply, by all accounts, the water of life should have arrived by now.
Yet, he hadn't received the goods all day today.
He also had a bad premonition in his heart.
Finally, the door to his house was burst open by a disheveled adventurer.
At this moment, he didn't care about the adventurer's offense; his heart cried out, could it be...
Could it be!
"Lord Fete, the team escorting the supplies was attacked by a large group of gargoyles on the third floor!"
"Your items are also missing!"
Fete's face turned ashen, and he couldn't speak for a long time, his teeth chattering with rage.
Meanwhile, on the ninth floor of the Well of Eternal Imprisonment.
"Let's see what I've collected for today's entry fees."
"Whoa! What on earth is this? Such intense mana!"
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