Mark's Squad Wiped Out

Half an hour later.

In an inconspicuous cave within the basin, Mark staggered inside with Ireland slung over his shoulder, his body covered in blood.

Bang!

Almost the moment he entered the cave, Mark's towering body crashed to the ground. His face was terrifyingly pale, and his body convulsed uncontrollably. This was the backlash from forcibly taking medicine and erupting with power despite his severe injuries.

At that moment, even an underage Goblin could have easily killed Mark.

"Why did it turn out like this?"

Oliver, who had followed them into the cave, wore a bewildered expression. When they had set out that morning, an inexhaustible wealth of treasures within the dungeon had seemed to await them. Yet in the blink of an eye, it seemed as though they were all about to die inside the dungeon.

Exactly where had things gone wrong?

"Should I just run away?"

Fear of death and longing for life made Oliver instinctively want to flee. He looked at Mark, who lay unconscious on the ground with his body still twitching from the backlash, then at Ireland, who showed no signs of waking.

In their current state, the two of them were simply deadweight.

"I still have a third of my mana left, and the Clearwind Boat is undamaged. As long as I can leave this place, I can definitely escape the dungeon safely."

Oliver tightly gripped his wand, his gaze upon Mark and Ireland filled with struggle. But his desire to live ultimately overwhelmed the guilt and unease in his heart. Stepping over to them, Oliver removed the Alchemy Expansion Packs from their bodies.

They were doomed to die if they stayed here anyway. He might as well take their things with him. Once he became a powerful mage in the future, he could return and avenge them.

After putting the items away, Oliver turned without hesitation and headed out of the cave. Recalling the crude map Mark had drawn that morning, he chose a direction that would lead him out and carefully departed.

A few minutes later, heavy footsteps woke Mark. When he opened his eyes, he saw a group of Puchi crammed throughout the cave. Before him, a three-meter-tall hulking brute covered in muscle was looking down at him.

Reaching for his chest, Mark discovered that his Alchemy Expansion Pack was gone. A bitter smile appeared on his face. He knew that bastard Oliver had abandoned him and Ireland to flee alone, and had even taken their belongings before leaving.

"Oliver, you bastard who abandoned his companions! You're a fool worse than a little demon's asshole! I curse you!"

"Even if I go to hell, even if my soul sinks eternally into the Abyss, I will still curse you!"

His severely injured body was lifted into the air. Mark felt the five fingers around his head tightening continuously, his skull cracking under the unbearable pressure. Yet Mark, bleeding from all seven orifices, did not resist. Instead, he laughed wildly as he cursed the man who had abandoned his companions and fled alone.

[Devoured flesh and blood ×2, Primordial Power +10, souls +2]

"Not bad value."

Luo Ao looked at the newly gained Primordial Power on the panel. The flesh and blood of every Formal Professional was worth 5 points of Primordial Power. As for Mark and Ireland's souls, Luo Ao had no intention of absorbing them directly.

The cost-effectiveness was simply too low. Luo Ao planned to first read all the extraordinary knowledge contained within their souls, then preserve their souls as materials for creating monsters.

[Devoured flesh and blood ×1, Primordial Power +5, soul +1]

Before long, another notification appeared on the panel. Three Alchemy Expansion Packs, a wand, a mage robe, and a paper boat appeared in the deepest room on the sixth floor of the dungeon. They were all belongings Oliver had carried when he fled alone.

After abandoning Mark and Ireland and escaping by himself, Oliver "happened to encounter" the treasure chest Vinnie had mentioned along the way. Even while running for his life, Oliver still chose to open it.

Then—he became nourishment for the dungeon.

Thus, Mark's Squad was completely wiped out on the dungeon's fourth floor, while the Mimic Monster disguised as a treasure chest was unquestionably the MVP.

"No time to mourn Mark's Squad. Next up are numerous elite adventurer squads."

Luo Ao shifted his spiritual power to other areas of the Fourth Layer. After one or two days of exploration, seven or eight adventurer squads had successfully passed through the Venomous Swamp and entered the Mushroom Jungle from different directions.

The squad Luo Ao paid the most attention to was the one that had enslaved a Swamp Giant Crocodile. Every member of this adventurer squad was a demi-human, and the adventurer who controlled the Swamp Giant Crocodile was a tiger-man.

After entering the Mushroom Jungle, this adventurer squad did not immediately delve deeper to explore as Mark's group had. Instead, they found a safe area on the jungle's outskirts and began setting up a temporary camp.

From the looks of it, they intended to establish a secure rear base here to make later dungeon exploration more convenient.

"Interesting."

Luo Ao silently watched what this adventurer squad was doing. From their practiced movements and seamless coordination, it was clear that they had a complete set of well-established rules for exploring dungeons.

Unlike the other adventurers who had also entered the Mushroom Jungle and rashly ventured deeper, they intended to advance steadily, step by step.

"Boss, how long do you think it'll take us to find the entrance to the next floor?" the cat-man assassin setting traps asked the tiger-man captain in the distance, without slowing his hands in the slightest.

"About ten days."

After thinking for a moment, the tiger-man captain answered. Unlike those adventurers desperately rushing to explore the dungeon, their squad had explored several dungeons before and understood that as one went deeper, the area of every dungeon layer continuously expanded.

The first three floors were fine. Their areas were not too large, and even the most complicated labyrinth terrain could be fully mapped and understood in a day or two, provided one was willing to invest the time and effort.

But beginning with the Fourth Layer, the area of each dungeon floor was entirely different from the first three. Exploring them in a short period was impossible unless one was an Advanced Professional squad.

Danger could be encountered anywhere in a dungeon. For long-term exploration, a safe temporary camp was indispensable.

Only then could adventurers fully recover their energy, tend to their injuries, and replenish consumed supplies during exploration.

If they ventured deep without preparing anything, it almost meant the beginning of death.

They had seen many squads like that in other dungeons—squads that risked their lives recklessly. In the end, most of them had died silently within the dungeons.

"Ten days, huh? Got it, meow."

The cat-man assassin nodded and continued setting traps nearby. These traps were not meant to kill monsters, but to provide an early warning if monsters intruded while the group was resting.