Bone Ship

Fourth Layer.

The Black Iron Squad, knowing nothing of what lay ahead, observed the environment before them. Their captain, Lucas, now dressed in leather armor and chainmail, walked at the front, while the other members stayed close beside him, vaguely shielding the mage Vic in the middle of the formation.

"The poisonous miasma is so thick. Exploring this layer of the Dungeon in these conditions is practically an epic-level challenge."

The half-elf archer Sola stared irritably at the rolling purple-black fog ahead. As an elven archer, he possessed eyesight comparable to an eagle's, and during past adventures, he had always served as the team's eyes.

But here, his eyes had become useless. The dense fog, with visibility of less than a meter, completely blocked his vision.

Smack!

Lucas, at the front of the group, suddenly slapped his thigh. Looking down at the splattered corpse of a Purple Poison Giant Mosquito in his palm, he frowned. This monster felt completely different from what he had expected. Monsters on the Fourth Layer should not have been this weak.

He had only used a little force, yet it had burst apart with one slap. It was even more useless than a Goblin or Slime.

"Wait, something's wrong!"

At that moment, Sophia, the team's assassin, suddenly spoke. She stopped and listened carefully to the sounds around them. As time passed, a buzzing sound drew closer from afar, its dense hum instinctively filling them with unease.

The next second, countless Purple Poison Giant Mosquitoes surged out of the rolling purple miasma like a tide, pouncing toward them. Their numbers were so terrifying that they blotted out the sky, filling their entire field of vision.

"Not good!"

Lucas reacted immediately. He pulled the Battle Axe from his back and swept it forward. The axe, wrapped in dark-red battle aura, erupted with blazing fire, blasting apart swathes of Purple Poison Giant Mosquitoes.

But before Lucas could celebrate, even more Purple Poison Giant Mosquitoes rushed at them.

"Damn it, what the hell are these things?!"

Sophia wielded her twin daggers in an impenetrable blur, but the endless stream of Purple Poison Giant Mosquitoes seemed impossible to kill completely.

"Vic, get the ship ready!"

"Right away. Undead Summoning."

Vic, standing in the center of the group, waved his staff and drew upon the mana within him. Dark-purple magic circles spread around them. Under the corruption of deathly energy from the Netherworld, masses of Purple Poison Giant Mosquitoes died, while a Bone Lizard nearly ten meters long crawled out of the magic circles.

Besides the largest Bone Lizard, numerous Skeleton Soldiers with gleaming white bones also emerged.

"Bone Reshaping."

As mana flowed, the undead creatures summoned by Vic did not attack the surrounding Purple Poison Giant Mosquitoes. Instead, the many Skeleton Soldiers climbed onto the Bone Lizard's body. Amid the crackling sounds of twisting bones, a ten-meter-long Bone Ship made entirely of bone appeared before them several dozen seconds later.

"Get on board!"

At Lucas's command, all five adventurers climbed inside the Bone Ship. Vic, who had boarded first, waited for the last person to enter before waving his staff. The bones at the cabin entrance began to writhe, sealing it shut completely.

Inside the cabin, the Purple Poison Giant Mosquitoes that had followed them in were quickly cleared out.

"Everyone, check yourselves for injuries."

A magic lamp was lit. Lucas looked over his companions inside the cabin. With the Bone Ship's protection, they temporarily did not need to worry about those disgusting things outside.

"Captain, I think I got bitten."

At that moment, Hake, the Iron Guard of the team, raised his hand. With bull horns on his head, he wore a simple, honest smile. As a beastman, he had not reacted as quickly as his teammates, and since he had also needed to protect Vic, the mage, there had inevitably been a lapse in his defense.

"Hake, come here. Let me examine you."

As Vic spoke, Hake removed his armor. More than a dozen swollen red welts could be seen on his body, blood continuously flowing from the wounds.

"Does it hurt?"

Vic pressed on Hake's wounds, a thoughtful look flashing through his eyes.

"It doesn't hurt. I don't feel a thing. It even feels a little good." Hake scratched his head and spoke somewhat sheepishly.

"Captain, it seems those monsters can secrete a paralytic toxin, leaving the bitten victim completely numb. It even has a certain hallucinogenic effect."

As a Necromancer, Vic had become a formal mage not merely through mana, but through knowledge far beyond that of ordinary people. Having dissected and analyzed the bodily structures of countless races, he had roughly deduced the abilities of those monsters outside in only a few seconds.

Then, under Hake's horrified gaze, Vic took out a small knife and cut open his swollen wounds. Dense, wriggling larvae as long as little fingers flowed out through the cuts.

"It seems these monsters live by sucking blood, and during that process, they lay eggs in the wounds, turning their prey into breeding grounds for the next generation."

As he spoke, Vic cleaned every wound on Hake's body. Only after checking repeatedly to ensure that none remained did he take out a healing potion and hand it to him. Fortunately, they had discovered it in time. Judging by how quickly the larvae had grown after entering Hake's body only minutes ago,

in at most an hour, Hake would have been completely drained by those larvae. Then countless newly matured monsters would have crawled out of his dead body.

"What kind of monsters are these? I've never even heard of them."

Sola looked in disgust at the larvae still wriggling on the ground and crushed them all beneath his foot. He had never heard of monsters like these. Even demons from hell were probably not this disgusting.

At the thought of countless monster larvae writhing inside his body, biting through his skin and crawling out, Sola could not help but shudder. He absolutely did not want to die that way.

"Interesting. There are actually monsters like this? With some proper research, I might be able to develop a very interesting new spell."

Unlike the disgusted half-elf archer Sola, Vic, a mage of Necromancy, was quite interested. Before leaving the Dungeon, he planned to capture a few live specimens and take them out for proper study. As for disgust,

Vic had never felt such a thing from beginning to end. A mage's most basic trait was curiosity toward all things unknown.

"Enough. You can study them slowly after we get back. Right now, we need to leave this place and explore this new Dungeon."

As captain, Lucas had long understood his teammate's personality. He forcibly stopped Vic from beginning his research immediately. This was not the safety of a town outside; in a Dungeon, even the slightest carelessness could bring danger.

"Got it, Captain."

Vic smiled and said nothing more. With a wave of his staff, the entire Bone Ship suddenly shook. Beneath the Bone Ship, which was under attack from countless Purple Poison Giant Mosquitoes outside, pairs of hands suddenly emerged. They pushed hard, propelling it deeper into the Fourth Layer.

After an unknown amount of time, the Bone Ship passed through the outskirts of the Fourth Layer. An eye embedded in the front of the Bone Ship observed the surroundings.

"Captain, there seems to be a treasure chest over there!"