"This was it. The Sandstone Dungeon."
Lu Yuan was no longer in Graystone Forest.
He was now in a stretch of cracked wilderness.
Before him was a hollow opening leading underground.
The opening was only four or five meters wide. Flights of stairs extended downward, and torches hung along the corridor walls at intervals, burning steadily.
Below lay the largest underground labyrinth in the Sandstone City region: the Sandstone Dungeon.
The ferocious beasts inside ranged from weak to strong, and there were quite a few of them.
What was more, if one was lucky, one might come across ruins within the dungeon, where precious treasures could be found.
Of course, the main reason Lu Yuan had come here was because the Sandstone Dungeon's paths were incredibly complex.
After all, he had offended the corporation. His strength was not yet sufficient, so in an area this complicated, he would have more avenues of retreat.
There were dozens of underground passages leading into the Sandstone Dungeon. This was one of them.
The entrance outside the dungeon was bustling, with quite a few Gene Warriors lingering around.
"Heading to the dungeon's North District to hunt Rabid Lizards! Need one crowd-control fighter! Loot will be split evenly!"
"Antidote Potions! Antidote Potions for sale! Anyone who knows Black Scorpion Poison knows how nasty it is! With an Antidote Potion, you won't panic! Limited stock, first come, first served!"
"Ordinary quality short sword! Get it while it lasts! 180 spirit crystals, non-negotiable!"
All kinds of cries filled the air. The area outside the entrance had practically become a small marketplace.
Still, Lu Yuan could understand why.
The Sandstone Dungeon was one of the areas with the greatest number of Gene Warriors in Sandstone City.
Where there were people, there would always be business opportunities.
Lu Yuan swept his gaze across the area and found that most Gene Warriors planning to enter the dungeon had formed teams of several people.
As for lone travelers like Lu Yuan, he spotted only three or four.
Every one of those solitary adventurers wore leather armor or plate armor, carried weapons, and was fully equipped with an imposing presence.
The Sandstone Dungeon was nothing like Graystone Forest. Its danger level far exceeded that of Graystone Forest.
Those capable of traveling alone here usually had some real skill.
Otherwise, entering would just mean throwing away their lives.
Lu Yuan, being alone, naturally drew some attention as well.
A few Gene Warriors looked him over before quickly shifting their gazes away.
Lu Yuan did not care. He stepped into the passage and headed down the stairs.
Besides Lu Yuan, there was a team of four catfolk, as well as another team made up of two elves and two catfolk.
The two teams and Lu Yuan, who was alone, remained quiet the entire way.
Lu Yuan's gaze occasionally swept over the two teams, and he noticed that they also glanced at one another from time to time.
Everyone was wary.
After descending for some distance, the cries of merchants outside could no longer be heard.
Only the sound of armored boots striking the ground echoed through the passage.
The atmosphere was silent.
After a while, they reached the bottom of the stairs.
It was a small open area roughly fifty meters across.
On one side of the clearing were four passages.
Lu Yuan swept his gaze over them. Ignoring what the members of the other two teams might think, he headed straight for the passage on the far right.
Only after Lu Yuan left did the members of the other two teams exchange looks and enter two of the other passages.
Not long after Lu Yuan entered the passage on the far right, he came across several more forks. Not knowing the way, he simply picked a direction and continued onward.
The deeper he went into the dungeon, the wider its passages became.
After walking for some time, the passages had widened from a few meters to over twenty meters across.
Yet despite walking for so long, Lu Yuan had not encountered a single ferocious beast.
He was not surprised by this.
After all, this was still close to the entrance. Even though the labyrinth had many routes, people had likely traveled through this area already.
There was still a long road ahead, so Lu Yuan was in no rush.
After passing several more forks, the passage where Lu Yuan stood was now around thirty meters wide.
He looked around, but still found no signs of ferocious beasts.
Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow and continued forward.
Just as he passed a pile of rubble, a head-sized stone suddenly flew up from above it and shot toward the back of Lu Yuan's head at tremendous speed.
Feeling the gust of wind behind his head, Lu Yuan was startled. He stomped hard against the ground and shifted sideways.
A stone immediately flashed past Lu Yuan's head.
Lu Yuan's pupils contracted.
"Where did that stone attack come from?!"
He had clearly checked the surroundings just now. There had been no sign of any ferocious beasts.
He turned to look in the direction from which the stone had flown.
Then his eyes widened.
From a pile of rubble in a corner by the wall, chunks of broken stone began to rise into the air.
Then all the rubble gathered together, forming a stone man nearly 1.8 meters tall.
"?"
"There's actually a creature like this?!"
Lu Yuan was a little dumbfounded.
At that moment, another whistling sound came from behind his head.
He quickly dodged again.
A head-sized stone flew past him before finally landing by the stone man's right hand.
The stone man raised its two stone fists, each as large as sandbags, and let out a mournful howl.
Although Lu Yuan could not understand how this stone man was even making sounds.
He had no time to think further. The stone man was already charging at him, swinging its fists.
The stone man's heavy footsteps struck the ground with booming thuds.
Lu Yuan frowned. A longsword appeared in his hand as he watched the stone man with some caution.
The stone man quickly reached Lu Yuan and swung its right fist at him.
The punch carried a howling gale and tremendous force.
It was not slow, but compared to Lu Yuan, it was still slightly lacking.
Lu Yuan sidestepped the stone man's fist, then slashed his longsword toward the point where its head connected to its body.
Clang!!
The longsword collided with stone, producing a sharp metallic ring.
A deep crack was left in the stone, and the tremendous force sent the stone man stumbling back several steps.
Seeing this, Lu Yuan gained an understanding of the stone man's strength.
It was much stronger than a Graystone Beetle, but weaker than a Black-Striped Graystone Beetle.
Judging by Gene Warrior standards, it was roughly equivalent to an apprentice-level warrior with no Extraordinary Gene recorded and a Tempering Level of around forty percent.
Strength like that posed no threat to the current Lu Yuan.
The only troublesome thing was that the stone man was rather devious. It could actually disguise itself as a pile of rubble to ambush him!
There was absolutely no way to tell from its appearance.
Even stones could not be judged by appearance.
Having confirmed its strength, Lu Yuan launched a fierce assault with his sword.
Before long, he shattered the stone man's head.
Once its head was destroyed, its body seemed to lose its former cohesion as well.
It directly collapsed into rubble and scattered across the ground.
White light flickered, and three spirit crystals condensed amid the rubble.
That was quite a bit more than a Graystone Beetle dropped.
Lu Yuan smiled faintly and picked them up.
Besides the spirit crystals, Lu Yuan also saw a round white stone resembling a pebble.
Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow and picked it up.
Information entered Lu Yuan's mind.
Little Stone Man's Heart: An ordinary quality material that can be used to refine Gene Armaments and Gene Potions.
Little Stone Man's Heart...
So this was what a Little Stone Man was?
Lu Yuan glanced at the rubble on the ground, a look of realization appearing on his face.
When reading introductions to the Sandstone Dungeon, he had also seen the types of ferocious beasts found inside and knew about Little Stone Men.
However, the posts had not provided detailed descriptions of the beasts' habits.
Lu Yuan had never expected Little Stone Men to be this devious.
Fortunately, he was fairly strong. Otherwise, he might really have fallen for it.
Having learned his lesson, Lu Yuan decided that during the rest of his exploration, he would keep Black Iron Body activated at all times to ensure his defenses remained strong.
That way, he would not get caught off guard by some ferocious beast that sprang out from nowhere.
If that happened, he would not even have a place to cry.
For other people, keeping a combat skill active at all times was simply unrealistic.
After all, this sort of sustained defensive combat skill continuously consumed spiritual power. Keeping it active indefinitely would drain one's spiritual power dry.
But Lu Yuan was different.
He absorbed spirit crystals quickly and could replenish his spiritual power at all times, so maintaining Black Iron Body constantly placed no pressure on him whatsoever.
With Black Iron Body activated, Lu Yuan continued deeper into the dungeon.
This time, he began paying close attention to the piles of rubble by the roadside.
Before he had walked far, he spotted two piles of rubble ahead.
Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow and slowly approached them.
Sure enough, as he drew close, two stones from atop the rubble piles flew toward him.
"Hmph! You still want to ambush me now?"
Lu Yuan easily dodged the Little Stone Men's ambush, then killed both of them.
Each Little Stone Man dropped three spirit crystals.
However, only one of the Little Stone Men dropped a Little Stone Man's Heart.
Clearly, this material did not drop from every Little Stone Man.
Lu Yuan continued onward.
He had not walked far when he suddenly heard the sounds of battle coming from the passage ahead.
Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow and frowned slightly as he looked down the passage.
If possible, Lu Yuan did not want to meddle in other people's business. If he ran into some powerful figure he could not afford to provoke, it would be troublesome.
But there were no other passages here to take as a detour. There was only this one route.
He had nowhere to avoid them.
Left with no choice, Lu Yuan could only continue deeper, intending to see what was happening.
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