Serving the Dishes

When Zheng Chuan heard the words "Banquet Hall," his newly raised guard lowered again. He looked at the other two.

"What do you think? There might be something good hidden there."

Luo Qi licked his lips. "It really does seem like the main area of a dungeon."

Meng Yinyin frowned. "But I keep feeling like this NPC is strange..."

A mist immediately clouded Isolde's eyes, as though she were hurt by the suspicion but did not dare argue back.

"If you do not trust me... you may stay here."

The moment she finished speaking, the scattered bones in the storeroom suddenly moved. A severed hand crawled up from the floor, its finger bones slowly gripping the threshold.

Meng Yinyin's face turned pale. Isolde also seemed frightened and hurriedly stepped back.

"They... seem able to piece themselves back together."

Meng Yinyin immediately shouted, "We cannot stay here forever. Let's go to the Banquet Hall first."

Zheng Chuan gritted his teeth. "Lead the way."

Secretly delighted, Isolde walked at the front to guide them, even quickening her pace.

Whenever she passed a candlestick, her fingertips would lightly brush the wall without anyone noticing.

Several incredibly thin soul threads traveled through the cracks in the stone, silently slipping toward the Banquet Hall.

She truly was leading the way, and she truly had not lied to them.

After the night fog descended, the Banquet Hall truly was the "safest" place in the castle.

Because the monster there did not need to wander around. It only needed to sit still and wait for the dishes to be served.

At the end of the corridor, the black doors slowly opened.

A thick stench of blood rushed toward them.

Inside, a long table was covered in a crimson tablecloth, with silver cutlery neatly arranged beneath flickering candlelight.

Behind rows of empty chairs stood faceless attendants.

At the head of the table, an enormous mass of flesh slowly raised its head.

Valen's murky eyes settled on the three players. A bizarre smile spread across his twisted face.

"Welcome to my banquet. This time, the guests look quite fresh."

The three players froze in place.

System warnings flooded their screens.

[You have entered the BOSS Domain: Valen's Blood Feast.]

[Name: Valen Hilvienne]

[Main Affinity: Evil Affinity]

[Class: Corruptor]

[Secondary Affinity: None]

[HP: 500]

[MP: 90]

[Defense: 100]

[Agility: 20]

[Strength: 60]

[Intelligence: 90]

[Escape route sealed.]

[Blood Feast Mark activated.]

Zheng Chuan suddenly turned around, his face deathly pale. "Didn't you say this place was safe?!"

Isolde stood by the door, both hands still tightly clutching her skirt. Her face still wore that weak and innocent expression.

"I am sorry, brave warriors. I did not know the evil duke would be here..."

Zheng Chuan flew into a rage and glared at her. "Bullshit! You were playing us all along!"

Isolde gently shook her head, her voice still soft like a standard scripted line.

"I merely brought you here according to your request, brave warriors. Rather than condemning me here, you should hurry and fight."

The instant she finished speaking, her fingertips moved slightly. She silently used [Soul-Binding Thread] to bind Valen in the center of the Banquet Hall.

Now, she needed them to keep fighting. At the very least, before they died, they should make themselves useful.

The moment the soul threads tightened, Valen's huge body abruptly froze.

Immediately afterward, prompts appeared before all three of them.

[Duke Valen has been afflicted by an abnormal status.]

[Target's current status: Unstable Stitching, Corruption Rejection, restrained by Blood Feast Formation.]

[Black-Salt Soul Thread has triggered additional restraint.]

[Final action restriction: 1.5 seconds.]

Zheng Chuan had yet to react. "What is this? Who used crowd control?"

Frightened by the scene before him, Luo Qi began drawing his bow.

"Who cares who did it?! Attack!"

Meng Yinyin was the first to snap out of it and nearly screamed as she raised her staff.

"Purifying Light!"

White radiance struck Valen, and large clouds of black smoke immediately rose from the surface of his rotten flesh.

[Duke Valen has suffered holy light burning.]

[Additional effect triggered: Corruption protection weakened by 1%.]

Meng Yinyin nearly blacked out. This BOSS's defense was ridiculously high.

Zheng Chuan gritted his teeth and charged forward, swinging his iron axe high.

"Heavy Slash!"

The axe blade chopped into Valen's side, cutting through only a layer of rotten flesh before being tightly entangled by the sticky flesh buds inside.

The 1.5-second restraint quickly ended. Valen slowly turned his head, and the smile gradually vanished from his bloated face.

"You think the likes of you are worthy of touching my body?"

Valen suddenly broke free of the soul threads, and his enormous corpse-like tail swept out.

Zheng Chuan did not even have time to pull out his axe before the tail sent him flying. His whole body crashed into the long table, scattering silver plates, wineglasses, and chunks of rotten meat everywhere.

[Player Zheng Chuan's HP decreased by 10%.]

[Contamination increased to: 5%.]

Pain darkened Zheng Chuan's vision, and he opened his mouth to curse. "Is this some damn beginner dungeon? The designers must be brain-dead!"

Isolde stood in the shadows by the door, watching the path of every skill they cast.

Zheng Chuan was a Guardian. Combined with his equipment bonuses, he could withstand most of the damage.

Meng Yinyin's Purifying Light was effective against corruption, but it drained mana quickly.

Luo Qi's Weakness Mark could briefly reveal the Silver Core, but its duration was too short.

In her past life, they had treated her as a tool.

This time, it was her turn to see whether these tools were durable enough.

Do not die too quickly, or how will I land the final blow? How will I tear this trash apart with my own hands?

Luo Qi raised his bow and fired three arrows in succession. "Weakness Mark!"

Grayish-white motes landed on Valen and swiftly swept across his head, chest, and abdomen before finally stopping near the third vertebra of his spine.

The silver-white glow flashed for only an instant before being suppressed by the surging black mist inside Valen's body.

Luo Qi shouted, "His back! His weakness is on his back!"

Valen's head jerked toward him. "Peering into my perfection?"

The air suddenly became incredibly murky, and dozens of cracks split open across Valen's back.

Countless corpse hands stretched out from within, their nails like black hooks as they clawed down at Luo Qi from all directions.

Luo Qi was so terrified that he scrambled away on all fours. "Save me! Save me! Hurry, save me!"

At the critical moment, Meng Yinyin used [Class Skill: Holy Shield (Beginner)] to block the attack for Luo Qi.

But the pale golden barrier had barely formed before the corpse hands clawed cracks into it. She immediately cast a skill to restore Luo Qi's condition.

A light screen flickered before Isolde's eyes.

[You have observed the skill: Holy Shield.]

[Analysis failed.]

[You have observed the skill: Blessing.]

[Analysis failed.]

[Reason: The target skills are class-bound skills, not universal spells.]

Class-bound skills were different from universal spells.

For a low-threshold spell like Purifying Light, as long as one could clearly see the flow of light elements and the structure of the incantation, there was a chance to analyze it.

But Holy Shield belonged to the holy Guardian branch. What truly supported it was not the incantation, but the class identity itself.

Without that identity branch, no amount of intelligence would allow one to replicate it.

Isolde clicked her tongue.

This world might be chaotic, but its underlying rules were quite rigorous.

Her gaze returned to the Purifying Light spell in Meng Yinyin's hand as she began focusing her attention.

[You have observed the skill: Purifying Light.]

[Analysis progress: 67%]

[Purifying Light proficiency increased.]

[Purifying Light: Beginner → Intermediate]

Meng Yinyin had no idea she was serving as free teaching material. While healing and supporting the others, she shouted in despair.

"How are we supposed to fight this?!"

The moment she finished speaking, one of Valen's long arms of rotten flesh smashed toward Meng Yinyin.

Meng Yinyin's face went pale. She had no time to dodge.

Isolde frowned slightly in irritation.

Though she hated Meng Yinyin, she could not let her die yet.

They had to work together and wear Valen down until she could make her move.

Her fingertips curled beneath her sleeve, and the silver threads under the carpet silently tightened, skimming past the weakest seam in Valen's limbs.

Valen's movement shifted by an inch.

That one inch was enough. Meng Yinyin, who should have been pierced through, rolled away in a miserable scramble. The arm of rotten flesh grazed her thigh before smashing heavily into the floor, sending shattered stones flying.

Valen finally sensed that something was wrong.

His huge body slowly coiled up. His bloated face looked past the three of them toward the entrance of the Banquet Hall.

For the first time, scrutiny surfaced in those murky eyes.

"My daughter, are you helping them?"