New Map! Sewer Corridor and Slimes! Accelerate.
Up the wall.
Alat Lulu nimbly leaped over the obstacle, like a hunter in the shadows. As she ran along the walls and rooftops, her eyes stayed locked on the target walking through the maze corridor.
Launch—
Ambush!
Alat Lulu's one-hit kill hunting technique was as reliable today as ever!
Her Swift as Wind forelegs were just about to pin the fragrant Skeleton Soldier to the ground.
Yet for some reason, the hard sensation was quite different from what she had expected.
The skeleton suddenly spun around and raised its shield to block her pounce.
"Duang—!"
Alat Lulu was shocked. She was about to use the rebound to leap backward, but it was already too late.
The skeleton seemed to let out a creaking shout—
"I caught you!!!"
Having long noticed the stealthy spider behind him, Hu Wan roared as soon as he completed the block.
Almost the instant his words fell, One Leaf Knows Autumn, who had been waiting with a charged attack, slashed at the monster before him.
"Execute—!"
The sweeping Sword Qi instantly pierced through the Cave Spider's skull, spraying red and yellow pulp all over the ground.
Having suffered a fatal blow, the Cave Spider's HP instantly dropped to zero. Its legs curled up as it toppled onto the ground.
Alat Lulu's mighty life had, at this very moment, made a certain unknown Skeleton Soldier legendary.
It all happened too suddenly.
Lurking in the distant shadows, the hunters of the Weave Shadow Nest were all frozen in place.
Arakdo in particular was so shocked that he nearly fell from the maze wall.
That was...
An adventurer's skill?!
When the Demon King had still been alive, he had been fortunate enough to witness one once. At the time, he had nearly died beneath that person's sword.
"Damn it—Alat Lulu!"
"Boss! I'm going to avenge Alat Lulu!"
"Hold it!"
Watching his subordinates boil with outrage, Arakdo raised one of his legs to stop them.
Facing the hunters' grief-stricken eyes, he spoke in a low chittering voice.
"These Skeleton Soldiers... are strange. They know adventurer techniques!"
A Cave Spider whose fur had grown so long it nearly covered its eyes looked at him and said excitedly.
"What are you saying?! If that's true, shouldn't we snuff them out before they can grow?!"
Looking at this foolish fellow, the cautious Arakdo snapped.
"Idiot! They're Skeleton Soldiers! A necromancer's servants! As long as the necromancer behind them wants to, he can make as many of these things as he likes. The human world has no shortage of bones! Pig bones, cow bones, sheep bones, dog bones—they can all be used to summon these things!"
"Do you want me to trade your lives for the lives of some rotten bones?!"
In fact, bones could even be created out of thin air when there were none.
It was just that Skeleton Soldiers summoned that way were like the fire elementals summoned by fire mages—they required a steady input of magic power to maintain.
Upon hearing Arakdo's words, the hunters immediately calmed down.
Indeed.
Killing a few summons was completely meaningless. Only then did they realize that anger had clouded their judgment.
They were the backbone of the Weave Shadow Nest, intelligent monsters!
If the other side learned that just a few Skeleton Soldiers had caused the great Weave Shadow Nest such losses, they would probably laugh in their sleep! "But... are we really just letting this go?" The Cave Spider whose fur dragged along the ground asked indignantly.
"Let it go? How could we!"
Squinting his many scarlet eyes, the powerful and exceptionally cautious Arakdo watched the two skeletons disappear around the corner and slowly moved forward.
"I'll make them pay, including the necromancer behind them... but not now."
"Come with me. We're going to our destroyed outpost."
"Don't forget the mission Lord Arachinos gave us. We're here to scout."
Meanwhile.
One Leaf Knows Autumn and Hu Wan continued down the maze corridors, searching for a more suitable grinding spot.
The game had no minimap, so they could only leave marks along the way. Every so often, they also logged out and drew the paths they had traveled on paper.
Fortunately, this maze was in better condition than the mine. Most paths were straight, and the turns were generally right angles. Only a few side paths twisted and turned.
Hu Wan: "Come to think of it, that spider from earlier seemed a little stronger than the others."
One Leaf Knows Autumn: "Probably an elite monster."
Hu Wan: "An elite monster? No wonder it gave more experience than before... But then again, are there no other monsters here besides spiders?"
Or was it because this was a closed beta version, and some completed models had not been added yet?
One Leaf Knows Autumn looked around, pondered for a moment, and said.
"Maybe... some kind of 'event' happened."
Hu Wan: "An event?"
One Leaf Knows Autumn nodded and continued.
"Although this game doesn't seem to have much plot, if you dig deep enough, you can still find clues in plenty of details."
Hu Wan: "For example?"
One Leaf Knows Autumn: "For example... remember the mage dragging a Crystal Ball that we saw in the opening cutscene?"
Hu Wan: "Of course I remember... That guy was actually the Demon King, right?"
One Leaf Knows Autumn smiled and nodded.
"That's right. But at the time, he clearly wasn't the Demon King yet. He was studying in a place resembling a school, and he apparently attended a graduation ceremony at the end, with many high-ranking demons present."
Hu Wan: "So?"
One Leaf Knows Autumn: "So, I can reasonably infer that it was probably a school in something like the demon realm, mainly responsible for cultivating figures like Demon Kings. Then, because the Demon King here died or was transferred away, our boss was sent over to become the new Demon King of the Great Cemetery."
Hu Wan stared at him in astonishment.
This...
Wasn't that imagination a little too wild?!
And what did that have to do with Cave Spiders being the only monsters in the maze?! "Then... what?"
"Then, you can use your imagination."
One Leaf Knows Autumn glanced around at the spiderwebs hanging from the maze walls.
"The previous Demon King died, but the monsters in the maze remained, creating a vacuum of order. Birds occupied snakes' nests, snakes drove away spiders, spiders drove away rats... Before a new order could form, certain powerful monsters rose rapidly. Some did so because of their individual strength, some because of their astonishing breeding speed, and others because of their incredible environmental adaptability."
"The ratmen we encountered in the mine were obviously driven out by the Cave Spiders. When we threw them back into the maze, they were almost immediately wiped out... So here's the question: what does that tell us?"
Hu Wan, who had been listening intently, froze. He had not expected Brother One Leaf to suddenly leave him hanging. After hesitating for a moment, he said.
"It means... the ratmen are weaker in combat than the Cave Spiders?"
"Not quite." One Leaf Knows Autumn smiled and shook his head. "Organization."
"Organization?"
"That's right." One Leaf Knows Autumn nodded and continued. "That is civilization's advantage over barbarism. Being able to systematically wipe out the already organized ratmen and replace them in the maze's ecological niche can only mean that the Cave Spiders have likewise formed a tightly organized structure."
"That works too?" Hu Wan stared wide-eyed at the guy before him.
Although he felt that this brother's analysis made damn good sense, he instinctively felt that a game should not be detailed to such an extent...
It had to be a coincidence! He wanted to say that, but he could not find a more rigorous argument to convince himself.
And at that very moment, he suddenly realized a serious problem!
If Brother One Leaf's guess was correct, then weren't they walking down an extremely dangerous path? "Wait, so... if we keep going, we might run into a spider like that big rat from before?!"
Seeing Hu Wan act as if he were facing a formidable enemy, One Leaf Knows Autumn smiled and said.
"Don't worry. I deliberately chose the routes with fewer webs. What awaits us ahead is probably not spiders, but something else."
The emergence of rival factions within the maze meant that monsters would no longer live mixed together, but would have clearly divided territories.
The maze entrance area they were in had already fallen within the Cave Spiders' territory, so naturally no other monsters would appear there.
But the Cave Spiders alone were clearly not enough to occupy the entire maze.
In other words, as long as they walked a little farther ahead, they would see other monsters.
As they spoke, the scenery ahead suddenly opened up.
Though they were still inside the maze, both of them could clearly feel that this place differed greatly from the previous area, both in atmosphere and in layout.
If the place before had been a spider demon's web-filled lair, then this place was the sewer system of a human city-state.
Rusty pipes filled the walls, while heaps of discarded wooden crates and household garbage had been abandoned here.
It was a pity skeletons had no sense of smell.
Otherwise, they would have smelled the pungent ammonia.
"Looks like I was right." One Leaf Knows Autumn surveyed the surroundings and continued. "This should be beyond the Cave Spiders' territory."
Logically, spiders should prefer humid environments, yet those Cave Spiders would rather burrow into the mine than expand into this place.
He wondered what kind of monsters ruled this area.
Snakes?
Or lizards and centipedes? Or perhaps some other fantasy species—
Just as One Leaf Knows Autumn was thinking this, he quickly made another discovery.
At the far end of the maze corridor, inside a room, green blobs were wriggling across the glossy floor.
"This is..."
"Slimes?!"
Soul Fire flickered with surprise in the eye sockets of both Skeleton Soldiers at the same time.
Just as they noticed the green creatures, the latter noticed them as well.
Unlike the Cave Spiders.
As scavengers of the maze, the slimes showed far more interest in the Skeleton Soldiers than the Cave Spiders had. They all wriggled their sticky bodies toward the players.
"Looks like this area is slime territory." Hu Wan took half a step back, his scalp tingling.
Compared to rats and spiders, these snot-like things made him even more physically uncomfortable.
One Leaf Knows Autumn did not retreat. Instead, he observed the gelatinous monsters with great interest.
"Interesting... Their movement speed is low, and their aggression is unknown. Logically speaking, they shouldn't be enough to make the Cave Spiders so wary."
As he spoke, he drew his one-handed sword and assumed a charging stance. The moment one slime entered his attack range, he swung like lightning.
"Execute!"
The sweeping Sword Qi pierced the slime without suspense. Like a punctured balloon, it burst and splattered slime everywhere.
"It only gives one-third of the experience of a Cave Spider, just slightly more than a ratman."
Strength like this clearly was not enough to make the Cave Spiders fearful. Judging by combat power alone, he had difficulty understanding why the Cave Spiders had not expanded here.
Was it because they were not on the menu?
Or perhaps... this place was not inhabited by slimes alone. Maybe something more dangerous lurked here, and the slimes had a symbiotic relationship with it, or were simply livestock raised by it?
A strange expression appeared on Hu Wan's face as well.
"I also feel like these monsters are much weaker than Cave Spiders... Say, isn't this supposed to be the beginner grinding area?"
Even players with life professions should be able to deal with these monsters easily.
One Leaf Knows Autumn nodded.
"Possibly... In any case, let's mark down this area first."
This area could be called... the Sewer Corridor. Its main monsters were slimes, and the recommended leveling range was LV0–5.
The official game had not named this area, so he could only do it for them.
Before the slimes could surround them, One Leaf Knows Autumn was about to leave.
However, just then, Hu Wan discovered something unusual in the corpse of that slime.
"What is this?"
Suppressing his mental discomfort, he reached his skeletal hand into the pool of green slime and picked up a grain-sized crystal from within.
"Let me see..."
One Leaf Knows Autumn took it and examined it in his hand for a moment. At first, he was equally confused.
But then, he suddenly remembered a comment he had seen on the forum before—
It had been posted by a netizen with an appetite-killing ID.
Without question, that talented fellow was probably still muted.
"So that's it... This is a magic crystal?"
Hu Wan froze.
"A magic crystal? What's it for??"
"I don't know either, but I have a bad feeling." One Leaf Knows Autumn wore a subtle expression. "When we were grinding monsters, we may have missed quite a few things..."