Death Countdown

In the damp, sweltering cave, Vic, completely ruled by his inner desires, stepped forward bit by bit and reached out to touch the treasure chest. Without the slightest hesitation, he used both hands to force it open.

But there was no treasure inside—only a huge maw full of fangs. Before Vic could react, the Mimic Monster sprang up and swallowed him whole.

"Vic!"

What seemed like a long process had actually taken less than a few seconds. Hake and Sophia had no time to save him and could only watch helplessly as their companion was devoured by the monster.

It was not entirely their fault for letting their guard down. Never, throughout history, had anyone encountered danger while opening a treasure chest in a dungeon. This was not some noble's or powerful warrior's treasure vault filled with magical traps. Dungeon chests were famous throughout the world for their wealth and treasures.

"Damn monster, spit Vic out!"

Seeing the teammate he had spent every day with get eaten, Hake charged at the Mimic Monster like an enraged bull. Sophia, ghostlike, instantly overtook him, her dagger silently stabbing toward the Mimic Monster.

Vic had only just been swallowed. If they killed the monster quickly enough and cut him out of its belly, he might still be saved.

Clang!

A blinding burst of sparks exploded as the blade came down. The immense recoil split Sophia's palm. The Mimic Monster's hardness had far exceeded her expectations. For an instant, she had suspected she was striking not a monster, but a piece of magical metal.

"Sophia, move! Rage Slash!"

Hake, rushing in at high speed, shouted as the muscles all over his body bulged and his frame swelled by a full size. He stomped hard with both feet and launched himself into the air, gripping his sword in both hands as he poured all his battle aura into it and brought it down with all his strength.

Crack.

The longsword forged from refined steel exploded in the violent collision, shattering into dozens of fragments that flew in every direction.

"How is that possible?!"

Hake stared at the Mimic Monster in disbelief. His full-strength strike had only left a wound as deep as a thumb on its surface. Forget saving Vic, who had been swallowed—even seriously injuring it was impossible.

"Sophia, go get the captain back!" Hake abruptly turned toward Sophia, the fastest among them. The only hope of saving Vic now lay with their captain, who was just one step away from becoming an intermediate warrior.

"Alright!"

Sophia nodded. Just as she turned to find Lucas, the grass beneath her feet suddenly began to shake. Pairs of enormous eyes rose from below the ground, staring at the prey before them.

"W-What is this?"

Faced with such a bizarre situation, even experienced adventurers had no idea what to do for the moment. Who could have imagined that the ground beneath their feet was actually the bodies of monsters?

Boom!

Almost at the same moment, a tremendous explosion sounded in the distance. Lucas and the half-elf archer came rushing over in a disheveled state, carrying several pieces of equipment.

"Vic, get the Bone Ship ready! We have to retreat!" Lucas shouted anxiously. Only then did he notice Sophia and Hake standing motionless, while Vic, the mage, was nowhere to be seen.

A bad feeling rose from the depths of Lucas's heart.

"Captain, save Vic! That treasure chest ate him!"

Hake pointed at the Mimic Monster behind him and quickly explained everything that had just happened.

"A monster disguised as a treasure chest? How could that be possible?!"

Lucas instinctively denied it, but as he looked at the Mimic Monster in the distance, the truth was right before his eyes. He had no choice but to believe it.

"Captain, aren't you done yet?" At that moment, Sola, the half-elf archer observing the situation outside, urged them anxiously. The grass beneath their feet was turning into enormous Swamp Giant Crocodiles.

If they did not leave now, they would not have another chance to escape.

"Go help Sola. I'll save Vic."

Before the words had even faded, Lucas was already swinging his battle-axe at the Mimic Monster. Yet even Lucas could not break through its shell. Instead, the immense force of the impact left his palm numb.

"How is this possible? What kind of monster is this?"

Lucas fixed his gaze on the shallow wound on the treasure chest, his expression instantly turning grim.

"To break through the Mimic Monster's defense, that little attack power is nowhere near enough."

Luo Ao, observing the scene with his mental power, smiled. When creating the Mimic Monster, Luo Ao had forged its body from Demon Iron Ore mixed with Mithril. Its only fatal weakness was the flesh within the treasure chest.

In other words, as long as the Mimic Monster did not open its mouth on its own, killing it required forcibly cleaving through that thick shell of Demon Iron Ore mixed with Mithril. But ordinary low-level professionals could never accomplish such a thing.

And the only mage capable of threatening the Mimic Monster had been taken out from the start. This adventurer squad had no way of dealing with the Mimic Monster in the short term.

"You can't afford the slightest carelessness in a dungeon. What your eyes see may not be real."

"Even inside a treasure chest, there may not be treasure. It could be a monster that takes your life."

Luo Ao quietly watched the final desperate struggle of the strongest adventurer squad to enter the dungeon so far. That was right—in Luo Ao's eyes, they were all already dead. From the very second they stepped onto that grassland, their lives had entered a countdown.

Because that patch of grassland, where the treasure chest sat and a nest of Swamp Pythons lived, was not truly "grassland" at all. It was made up of dozens of Swamp Giant Crocodiles living in symbiosis with the Swamp Pythons.

Swamp Giant Crocodiles, naturally reluctant to move, used their bodies to provide places for other monsters to live and reproduce in the poisonous swamp, while the monsters living atop them provided them with food.

Now, the Black Iron Squad had to face a group of furious Swamp Giant Crocodiles whose rest had been disturbed. On land, the Black Iron Squad could have eliminated such creatures at a certain cost with their strength.

But in the poisonous swamp, without anywhere to stand and unable to fly as humans, they could only become prey for the Swamp Giant Crocodiles and be dragged into the depths of the swamp to die.

"Huff... huff... huff..."

Dark purple toxic miasma churned around her. After moving for so long, Sophia's lungs felt as though they were being scorched by blazing fire. Gasping for air, she no longer cared whether she would be poisoned. With only her left arm remaining, all she wanted was to escape this place as quickly as possible.

All her teammates and companions had died beneath this poisonous swamp. As an assassin, she had only managed to escape through her nimble movements and the magic attached to the pair of Wind Whisperer shoes on her feet.

With a light tap of her toes against the swamp's surface, Sophia lowered her head and charged forward. The thick fog had already robbed her of all sense of direction, so she could only gamble on a direction and sprint blindly ahead.

After an unknown amount of time, Sophia's face grew increasingly pale. Just as her stamina and battle aura were about to be completely exhausted, the rolling fog before her suddenly parted, revealing a lush green forest brimming with life.