Death Countdown

In the damp, sweltering cave, Vic, completely consumed by his desires, stepped forward bit by bit. Reaching out to touch the treasure chest, he did not hesitate in the slightest before using both hands to force it open.

But there was no treasure inside the chest—only a giant maw packed with fangs. Before Vic could react, the Mimic Monster sprang up and swallowed him whole.

"Vic!"

What seemed like an agonizingly long process had actually taken only 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 being careless. Since ancient times, no one had ever encountered danger from opening a treasure chest in a Dungeon. This was not some treasure vault belonging to nobles or powerful people, filled with magical traps. Dungeon treasure chests were famous throughout the world for their wealth and treasures.

"Damn monster, spit Vic out!"

Watching a teammate he had spent day and night with get eaten, Hake charged at the Mimic Monster like an enraged bull. Sophia instantly overtook Hake like a Ghost, silently driving her dagger toward the Mimic Monster.

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

Clang!

Blinding sparks burst from the descending blade. The immense recoil split Sophia's palm open. The Mimic Monster was far tougher than she had expected. For an instant, she suspected that she had not struck a magical beast at all, but a block of enchanted metal.

"Sophia, move aside! Rage Slash!"

Hake, charging in at high speed, let out a roar. The muscles across his body bulged, making him seem to swell in size. He stomped off the ground and launched himself into the air, gripping his blade in both hands as he poured all his battle aura into it and brought it down with all his strength.

Crack.

The fine steel sword exploded under the violent collision, shattering into dozens of fragments that scattered in every direction.

"How could this be?!"

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—it had not even seriously injured the creature.

"Sophia, hurry and get the captain back!" Hake suddenly turned toward Sophia, the fastest among them. Their only hope of saving Vic now rested on their captain, who was just one step away from becoming an intermediate warrior.

"Okay!"

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

"W-What is this?"

Faced with such a bizarre situation, even experienced adventurers did not know what to do for the moment. Who could have imagined that the ground beneath their feet was actually the bodies of magical beasts?

Boom!

Almost at the same time, a massive explosion rang out in the distance. Lucas and the half-elf archer rushed over in disheveled condition, carrying several pieces of equipment in their arms.

"Vic, get the Bone Ship ready. We have to retreat!" Lucas shouted anxiously, only then noticing that Sophia and Hake were standing motionless while Vic, the mage, was nowhere to be seen.

A bad feeling rose in Lucas's heart.

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

Hake pointed at the Mimic Monster behind him and quickly explained what had happened.

"A monster that looks like a treasure chest? How is that possible?!"

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

"Captain, aren't you ready yet?" At that moment, Sola, the half-elf archer watching the situation outside, urged him anxiously. The grass beneath their feet was turning into enormous Swamp Giant Crocodiles one after another.

If they did not leave now, they would soon lose even the 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 blow left his palm numb.

"How can this be? What kind of magical beast is this?!"

Lucas stared fixedly at the shallow wound on the treasure chest, his expression instantly turning grim.

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

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

In other words, unless the Mimic Monster opened its mouth on its own, killing it required forcibly cleaving through that heavy Demon Iron Ore shell mixed with Mithril. Ordinary low-level professionals simply could not 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 anytime soon.

"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. There may be monsters capable of taking your life."

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

Because the grassland with the treasure chest, where a nest of Swamp Pythons lived, was not truly "grassland." It was made up of dozens of Swamp Giant Crocodiles that had formed a symbiotic relationship with the Swamp Pythons.

Swamp Giant Crocodiles, naturally disinclined to move, used their bodies to provide other magical beasts with a place to live and reproduce in the Venomous Swamp. In return, the magical beasts living atop them provided them with food.

Now the Black Iron Squad had to face a group of Swamp Giant Crocodiles enraged by the disturbance. On land, with the Black Iron Squad's strength, they could have wiped out such crocodiles at a certain cost.

But in the Venomous Swamp, with no foothold 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 poisonous miasma churned around her. After moving for so long, Sophia's lungs felt as if they were being scorched by blazing fire. Gasping for air, she no longer cared whether she would be poisoned. She only wanted to escape this place as quickly as possible.

All her teammates and companions had died beneath this Venomous Swamp. As an assassin, she had only managed to escape by relying on her nimble body 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 rushed forward. The thick fog had already robbed her of all sense of direction, so she could only rely on luck, pick a direction, and charge ahead blindly.

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