The Art Style Starts Going Off the Rails!

With skeletons in front and iron balls behind her, Hainis felt like she was about to die.

Although Fili could slash apart Skeleton Monsters with sword aura, doing so would inevitably slow her down. The iron balls behind them were getting faster and faster, so—

She suddenly understood. The recesses on both sides of the tunnel had a purpose!

"Over here!"

She hurriedly pulled Hainis into a recess beside them. The next instant, an iron ball roared past, crushing the Skeleton Monsters into fragments with a tremendous clatter!

Sweat dripped from Fili's forehead as she gasped uncontrollably. She had been scared out of her wits.

The Young Lady in her arms was trembling all over. She suddenly looked up at Fili with tearful eyes and stammered:

"M-my pants are wet."

Fili was speechless.

After standing there blankly for quite a while, she finally calmed the panicked Hainis down, and the two walked out of the recess.

But after taking only a few steps forward, they heard the sound of another iron ball rolling from above!

"You've got to be kidding me. Again?"

After a very, very long time, the two finally appeared at the end of the tunnel. They both looked utterly bedraggled, especially Hainis, who seemed on the verge of shutting down completely.

"Finally... finally, we're out."

Tears welled up in Fili's eyes. God knew what she had just gone through.

Every few steps, another iron ball would roll toward them from ahead. They had to keep ducking into new Recess Caves without stopping. If they were even a moment too slow, they would be crushed into pulp.

Even more sadistic, some of the Recess Caves had Skeleton Monsters lying in wait to launch Sneak Attacks!

Which bastard had designed something so vicious?!

This was absolutely not a place beginners should be coming to! If Fili had not at least been an intermediate swordsman, she would probably have been killed by a Sneak Attack long ago.

She swore that once she got out of the dungeon, she would immediately go cut down the guy who had sold her false information.

After leaving the tunnel, the two arrived in an open area. There was only an iron door in front of them, but when they pushed it open, they found—

"A cliff?"

Fili's expression became incredibly colorful. There were upward steps three or four hundred meters away on the other side, but beneath her feet was a pitch-black abyss. How were they supposed to get across? They couldn't!

"Wait, Fili, there seems to be something here." Hainis suddenly slipped out from between her legs, picked up a stone, and threw it forward.

To their astonishment, the stone did not fall. Instead, it bounced a few times as if it had struck solid ground, then hovered in midair.

"An Invisible Bridge!"

Fili immediately understood. She kept testing the area with whatever she could pick up and finally confirmed that there was an Invisible Bridge about half a meter wide in front of them.

"The Young Lady is amazing!"

Holding Hainis's little hand, she led her forward across the bridge one cautious step at a time. Neither of them dared take a big stride. As it turned out, they had made the right choice, because the bridge twisted around several bends.

After inching along for ages, they finally reached the halfway point.

"I really hope we can get out soon." Hainis had completely lost any desire to explore the dungeon.

Fili gave a bitter smile and patted her little head reassuringly. "Young Lady, once we get out—"

Whoosh!

At the sharp sound of air being torn apart, Fili twisted aside. A Great Arrow howled past her waist. With that kind of force, if it struck her, it could send her straight off the Invisible Bridge!

Where had that arrow come from?

"F-Fili."

A weak call made her lower her head. Then her mouth fell open.

A Short Arrow had pierced through Hainis's heart, its twisted arrowhead dragging out strands of shredded flesh.

Hainis looked at Fili in confusion, stumbled beneath her feet, and fell straight off the Invisible Bridge.

"Ah—"

Fili's mind went blank. A Great Arrow followed close behind, violently piercing her abdomen and pinning her to the bridge.

Before darkness swallowed her vision, she finally saw where the hidden arrows had come from.

On the ceiling, two Goblins whose skin had been painted to blend into the rock wall cackled shrilly.

"The eighty-eighth and eighty-ninth."

Inside the Lord Room, a Crystal Ball as large as a millstone floated before Gong Qiying. Dozens of images flickered across its surface, all showing people who had entered the maze.

When he saw Fili's "corpse" suddenly turn into a streak of light and vanish, he could not help but smile.

"Everyone who enters the dungeon carries a Teleportation Crystal. Upon death, their corpse is immediately sent to the Revival House for resurrection. Great, now I can set traps without any guilt!"

But resurrection did not come without a price.

Being resurrected multiple times within a short period would cause the Humanity Loss condition. At best, it caused headaches and fever; at worst, it left one muddled and robbed them of memories. They would have to rest for a while before recovering.

It was said that too many resurrections could even lead to something terrifying.

On the first morning after the newly established Sain Underground City opened, the death toll had reached a shocking two hundred. This was already no less than the Mortality Rate of those popular dangerous dungeons.

Most people entering Sain Underground City had heard of its reputation as the easiest dungeon, unaware that it had already undergone a mutation. Thus, Gong Qiying had reaped a huge wave of Mental Power through first-time kills.

[Sain Underground City, Remaining Mental Power: 8436, Daily Operating Mental Power Required: 77]

An ordinary person who stayed in the maze for a full hour generated roughly one point of Mental Power. At death, they could yield at least fifty points. Adventurers generated even more, generally above seventy.

Fili had yielded around one hundred and thirty points when she died. Judging from that, she should have been quite strong. She clearly could have easily dodged the Great Arrow that Sneak Attacked her. What a pity.

Gong Qiying also noticed that most of the people who died in the dungeon were ordinary people carrying Pickaxes. They had probably come for the ore unique to Sain Underground City.

"There are still quite a few things that need improvement. No wonder games need internal testing before launch."

When designing the dungeon, he had overlooked a very important factor.

"People in this world can use magic, and there are all kinds of strange races too."

Birdmen with wings on their backs easily leaped over the Poison Swamp he had carefully prepared. A muscular giant five or six meters tall kicked open a door marked [Cannot be opened from this side] through brute force. A mage's Holy Light directly turned Skeleton Monsters into ashes.

A game was a game, and reality was reality. In a game, if you encountered a door that could not be opened, you had to obediently search for a key. In reality, you could simply kick the door down.

There were many, many things to improve, enough to make Gong Qiying's head spin. But fortunately—

[Spend 5000 Mental Power to upgrade Lord Authority?]

"Yes."

[You have obtained Level 2 Lord Authority.]

[Authority successfully unlocked: Teleportation. You may leave the Lord Room and appear in any area of the dungeon at any time.]

[Authority successfully unlocked: Mimicry. Spend Mental Power to alter your appearance. The amount of Mental Power spent determines the Mimicry's combat power.]

[Continue upgrading to unlock more authorities.]

[Available buildings and monsters can be refreshed.]

Gong Qiying let out a long breath. That felt good.

He could finally leave this gloomy Lord Room!

Because Godwyn's race had been a ghoul, his intelligence had worn away over time until he eventually developed Intellectual Disability.

This also caused him to often forget to maintain the dungeon, and even his Lord Authority had fallen to the lowest level.

[Usable Monsters (Refreshable): Skeleton Monster, Minotaur, Slime, Rotten Hound, Blood Mosquito, Wraith, Goblin Group, Low-level Snake Person, Raging Ghoul]

Gong Qiying rubbed his chin. Based on the previous owner's memories, the types of Usable Monsters in a dungeon depended on the City Lord's knowledge.

The more monsters a City Lord had seen, the more kinds of monsters they could use.

But merely seeing them was not enough. They also needed a very deep understanding of the monsters, which was why every dungeon lord was a monster expert.

As for why Godwyn could use so few? All that could be said was that the traits of the ghoul race had ruined him.

"Refresh."

Gong Qiying spoke impatiently. He was very curious about what monsters he could refresh.

Everything he knew about this world came from Godwyn's memories, so there should not have been many new things.

[Refresh complete.]

[New monsters added: Curse Frog, Giant Cursed Frog.]

"Hm?"

Gong Qiying looked surprised. There should not have been creatures like Curse Frogs in this world, so why—

[New monsters added: Black Knight, Silver Knight, Furnace Knight, Death Knight.]

[New monsters added: Wheel Skeleton, Giant Skeleton Ball, Exploding Skeleton.]

[New monsters added: Thunderwolf Dragon, Mizutsune, Arzuros, Yutyrant, Great Jagras.]

[New monsters added: Pikachu, Gengar, Haunter, Weezing.]

[New monsters added: Demon King Wucan, Upper Rank One Kokushibo, Upper Rank Two Doma, Upper Rank Three.]

[New monsters added: Peashooter, Potato Mine, Big Spray Mushroom.]

[New monsters added.]

Gong Qiying stared at the long chain of over a hundred update notifications and froze for a second or two.

After a moment, he muttered to himself:

"What the hell is all this stuff?"

"Hasn't the art style started going off the rails?"

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