Hound's Step and Summoning Finger Medicine!

Gong Qiying sat on the spotlessly clean Altar, staring blankly at the ceiling.

A new day, and the Crystal Ball was playing new tricks from the Adventurers, but he had no interest in watching.

Because he suddenly realized something—wasn't his life too monotonous?

Every day, he had to find and fix flaws in the Underground City. While this was indeed interesting, a person couldn't just do one thing their whole life, right? He didn't want to become an Underground City immortal.

But if he wanted to do other things, he couldn't leave the Underground City. He could only eavesdrop on the Adventurers' conversations and imagine what the outside world was like from their words.

It sounded quite pathetic.

People said life was about building connections with different people. He had been in this world for quite some time, and he hadn't made a single friend yet.

"I'm a little lonely."

Gong Qiying's face was full of boredom. He continued to watch the Crystal Ball and saw many familiar faces.

Verde was here again. He seemed to have treated his encounter with Sakaki (Gong Qiying) as a fortuitous encounter, believing he could gain benefits from Sakaki, who appeared to know a lot of mysterious knowledge. Thus, intending to keep it to himself, he charged into the Underground City alone.

The result was that he died somewhere in a forgotten corner. He probably wouldn't give up just like that.

There were also Adventurers with Giant Race blood. They challenged the Underground City diligently every day, as if clocking in, but unfortunately, he hadn't even seen the Gargoyle guarding the gate.

This guy always thought about the thrill of combat. He knew the Curse Frog's spray could instantly kill, yet he still gathered Curse Frogs together before fighting. Truly...

Respect, blessings, and incomprehension.

He didn't know if it was his imagination, but he felt like the time it took for this guy to be cursed to death seemed to be getting longer. Could it be that dying more actually increased immunity?

Sithran was also here. This time, she wasn't with her companions and intended to face the monsters alone. Judging by her posture, she was determined to map out the area, even if it meant dying.

With the resolve to die, her exploration became calmer. Some insidious traps were no longer a threat to her.

To summarize, the traps in Sain Underground City had several common characteristics: high density, low damage, strong obstruction, hidden locations, and requiring cooperation with monsters to achieve a kill.

Sithran herself summarized a pattern: where there were a large number of monsters, there would definitely be traps, but where there were traps, there weren't necessarily monsters.

Her actual exploration was not much different from the pattern she summarized.

"This person has some talent."

Gong Qiying felt admiration for her. This Elf was the fastest improving among all the Adventurers. Her performance might not have been good at the beginning, but she could learn and apply what she learned.

Look, Sithran encountered a corner on a narrow path. What would she do?

The moment Sithran saw the corner, she stopped. She picked up a stone from the ground and tossed it forward to test.

"Clink, clink." The stone landed on the water, making sounds. Other than that, nothing happened. This could indicate that there were no monsters ambushing at the corner, right?

Absolutely not!

The best way to deal with a sixth-rate monster is—

She pulled out a bomb and threw it with speed, precision, and ruthlessness!

"BOOM—"

"Yaaah!"

The sound of the explosion rang out along with the monster's scream, and the smell of scorched flesh wafted over. Sithran took a deep, intoxicating breath.

"Whew, that felt good."

"That's the spirit!" Gong Qiying snapped his fingers. He was delighted to see the Adventurers improving!

"Time to give out some rewards. Let me see."

A short while later, Sithran saw a strange zombie staggering towards her. It was completely unguarded, as if deliberately inviting her to kill it.

This was actually a cannon fodder pawn sent by Gong Qiying to deliver the reward.

However.

Sithran frowned and dodged to the side, watching the zombie walk past her without attacking.

"Something's fishy. What if this monster self-destructs if I hit it?" Sithran muttered to herself. "Or maybe it turns into another powerful monster after death?"

She had been conditioned by the Sain Underground City to be suspicious.

"..."

Gong Qiying fell silent for a moment, thinking, Why are you overthinking this? Just attack already!

He controlled the zombie and walked back in front of Sithran, staring at her motionlessly, arms outstretched as if offering a hug.

Sithran gave him a disgusted look, bent down, and crawled past the zombie, walking away quickly.

"Hey, you can tolerate even this?"

With no other options, Gong Qiying ordered the zombie to charge and attack Sithran.

"So it was a trap!"

Sithran kicked the zombie's head off and instantly leaped backward, her eyes warily fixed on the corpse, afraid of any unexpected developments.

No developments were possible. As soon as the zombie died, it turned into dust and vanished without a trace, leaving two glowing orbs on the spot.

Huh? It wasn't a trick?

Sithran paused for a moment, unaccustomed to it, but still walked over and picked up the light orbs.

A weapon and an item. The weapon looked like a pair of claws, and she didn't know how to use this type of weapon at all.

"Maybe I should sell it for money."

As soon as she thought this, knowledge of a Battle Skill called [Hound's Step] appeared in her mind. This was a Battle Skill that came with the claws.

And after understanding the effect of Hound's Step, she smiled happily once more.

"It seems like a very strong Battle Skill. No, no, why would a weapon give me Battle Skill knowledge?"

She tried taking off the claws, and her mind forgot Hound's Step, as if the knowledge had never appeared.

"So magical."

Sithran was amazed. She felt an urge to send the claws to the elves to have an artisan study them.

Unfortunately, it was too far, and sending them would take too much time.

Besides the claws, which were a treasure, the other item was a bit confusing.

It was an ancient-looking small box. When opened, it contained something golden, and she couldn't tell what it was at all.

As if afraid she wouldn't understand, a message directly entered her mind.

[Summoning Finger Medicine x5]

[Upon use, you can see Summoning Marks drawn by helpers or fighters on the same dungeon floor. Summon a helper, and he will assist you in clearing the dungeon until the area boss is defeated. Summon a fighter, and he will engage you in combat.]

"What is this magical thing?"

Sithran had never known before that there were items that could summon others across regions!

"Can I really summon someone? Are the people I summon alive, or what? Do they have this kind of item too?"

A flood of questions arose in her mind. She hesitated, looking at the Summoning Finger Medicine. This item seemed to be consumable, but since there were five in total, she could use one to try it out, right?

Thinking this, she eagerly raised the Summoning Finger Medicine and sprinkled its contents into the sky.

"What will happen? What do Summoning Marks look like? I'm so excited."

Under her expectant gaze, not far away, a golden Summoning Symbol slowly appeared.