Magic Stone Mine

This was a dungeon whose terrain was completely unlike the Barbarian Bull Grassland.

It was like a tropical rainforest sealed beneath the earth.

Beneath their feet lay a black swamp emitting a rotting stench, with occasional bubbles rising and bursting to release pungent marsh gas.

Towering, strangely shaped trees thrust upward, their branches and leaves layered thickly, almost completely blocking out the "sky."

If the energy dome that gave off a constant, dim white light—like an inverted bowl—could be called a sky.

The few patches of solid ground exposed from the swamp were soft and slippery, squelching underfoot.

"Form a defensive formation. Stay alert. Watch your feet and the canopy!"

The leading captain, Jin Chang'en, had a booming voice.

The seven team members around him moved at his command, quickly shifting their positions.

With Jin Chang'en at the center, they formed a stable seven-sided defensive circle.

The spacing between them was just right—close enough to support each other, yet far enough not to hinder individual performance.

Although Jin Chang'en's own Hunter rank was only D-class high, his ability, "Life Chain," made him the inevitable tactical core of the team.

He could establish energy links with his teammates, distributing the impact and damage suffered by a single member among all linked allies.

The specific distribution effect depended on his magic level, as well as the number and magic levels of the linked individuals.

With close cooperation from his teammates, this team's overall damage resistance was astonishing, even daring to directly engage some ordinary C-class magical beasts.

"Captain, something's off."

The team's Scout was a lean young man with sharp eyes.

A faint blue magical glow now coated his eyes as he sensed the surrounding aura.

His tone carried a hint of confusion:

"The area... is very clean. I can barely detect any obvious magical beast mana fluctuations."

"No beast fluctuations?"

Jin Chang'en frowned slightly.

By common sense, when a raid team entered a dungeon—especially one that hadn't been pre-cleared—they would immediately become targets for all native magical beasts.

But here, it was eerily quiet.

"Could that illegal Hunter who broke in first have cleared the surroundings?"

Jin Chang'en speculated, but quickly shook his head.

"Even if he's that strong, there's no way he left no traces of battle, let alone disposed of all the corpses so cleanly, right?"

The Scout was equally puzzled, his mana vision continuously scanning the dark jungle and swamp.

However, when he inadvertently turned his gaze farther away, toward an area about ten kilometers off, The faint blue glow in his eyes suddenly rippled violently, and his face instantly lit up with disbelief and ecstasy!

"Ca—Captain!!!"

His voice trembled slightly with excitement as he pointed into the distance, "Th—there! I'm detecting an extremely rich, high-concentration, stable mana source! This dungeon... has a Magic Stone Mine!!!"

"Magic Stone Mine?!!"

Those two words were like a boulder dropped into a calm lake, instantly stirring up a massive wave within the team!

Except for Jin Chang'en, who had seen one once before, The other members had only heard of this extremely rare resource in rumors and records.

"A D-class dungeon actually gave birth to a Magic Stone Mine?"

Jin Chang'en's heart also shook violently. Amid the ecstasy, the caution of a veteran Hunter left him with a shred of doubt.

The only time he had encountered a Magic Stone Mine was years ago, when he served as support for an elite team with a B-class Hunter, discovered in some B-class dungeon.

From that experience, his share of the wealth had been a full ten million!

That money had laid the foundation for him to form his own raid team.

"Captain, are we going?"

The burly man carrying a huge battle axe breathed heavily, his eyes fixed on the distance, a mix of excitement, longing, and even a hint of pleading in his gaze.

His daughter's surgery fee gap weighed on him like a mountain.

And the mine before them might be the only chance to move that mountain.

The other team members' gazes also locked onto Jin Chang'en, their unspoken eagerness and hope clear.

Jin Chang'en's eyes swept across each familiar face, pausing briefly on the burly axe-wielder.

He weighed the options rapidly in his mind.

The risks were unknown, but the rewards were staggering.

That illegal hunter might be an unexpected variable, but his side was a well-coordinated eight-man raid team, and he had his own "Life Chain."

After a moment of silence, Jin Chang'en raised his head, his gaze turning sharp and resolute as he looked toward the direction of the Magic Stone Mine's fluctuations.

"Go! How could we miss an opportunity like this?" His voice was decisive. "We came to raid this dungeon in the first place. Any resources we discover naturally belong to us."

As for that illegal hunter who had entered first...

A faint, barely perceptible cold glint flickered in Jin Chang'en's eyes.

His earlier talk of rescue was merely maintaining his captain image in front of his team.

Before immense interests capable of changing everyone's fate, any potential competitor was an obstacle.

If the other party knew their place and left on their own, he could pretend not to have seen them.

But if they were ungrateful enough to even covet the Magic Stone Mine...

Heh.

This deep, silent rainforest swamp wasn't a bad place to end up.

"Target: the Magic Stone Mine! Maintain formation, full speed ahead!"

Jin Chang'en gave the order.

The entire raid team immediately took Jin Chang'en as their core, keeping a tight defensive formation as they rapidly advanced toward the tempting source of mana in the distance.

However, they failed to notice that in the dark swamp depths beside them, countless shadows were stirring.

Swaths of carnivorous Swamp Monster Fish, their teeth bristling, were frantically tearing at the broken corpses sinking into the mire.

Most of those corpses bore Lizardman features, but without exception, their heads had burst open like watermelons smashed by a heavy hammer, their deaths gruesome.

The murky swamp water was stained with dark red blood, slowly covered again by the churning sludge.

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