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, both of them covered in blood.

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Bang!

Almost the instant he entered the cave, Mark's towering body crashed to the ground. His face was frighteningly pale, and his body convulsed uncontrollably. This was the backlash from forcibly taking medicine and erupting with strength 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 dazed expression. When they had set out that morning, the Dungeon's inexhaustible riches and treasures had seemed to await them. But in the blink of an eye, it felt as if they were all about to die inside the Dungeon.

Where had it all gone wrong?

"How about we just run away?"

His fear of death and desire to live made Oliver instinctively want to flee. He glanced at Mark, who lay unconscious on the ground, his body still twitching from the backlash, then at Ireland, who showed no signs of waking.

Under such circumstances, the two of them were nothing but dead weight.

"I still have a third of my mana left, and the Clearwind Boat is intact. As long as I can get out of here, I can definitely escape the Dungeon safely."

Oliver gripped his wand tightly. His gaze at Mark and Ireland was full of conflict, but his desire to live ultimately overwhelmed his guilt and unease. Walking over to them, Oliver removed the Alchemy Expansion Packs from their bodies.

They were doomed to die here anyway. He might as well take their belongings. Once he became a powerful mage in the future, he could come back 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 picked a direction that might lead out and carefully departed.

A few minutes later, heavy footsteps woke Mark. When he opened his eyes, he saw a group of Puchi filling the entire cave. Before him, a three-meter-tall muscular giant was looking down at him.

Reaching toward his chest, Mark discovered that his Alchemy Expansion Pack was gone. A bitter smile appeared on his face. He knew that Oliver had abandoned him and Ireland and fled alone, taking their belongings before he left.

"Oliver, you bastard who abandoned his teammates! You idiot, 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 curse you!"

His severely injured body was lifted into the air. Mark felt the five fingers above his head tighten continuously, while his skull gave a cracking sound 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 teammates and fled alone.

[Devoured Flesh ×2, Primordial Power +10, Souls +2]

"Not bad value."

Lucifer looked at the newly gained Primordial Power on the panel. Every Formal Professional's flesh was worth 5 points of Primordial Power. As for Mark and Ireland's souls, Lucifer did not intend to absorb them directly.

The return would be too low that way. Lucifer planned to read all the extraordinary knowledge within their souls first, then keep their souls as materials for creating monsters.

[Devoured Flesh ×1, Primordial Power +5, Souls +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 had all belonged to Oliver, who had fled on his own.

After abandoning Mark and Ireland and escaping alone, Oliver had "happened to encounter" the treasure chest Vinnie had mentioned. Even while running for his life, Oliver had chosen to open it.

Then—he became nourishment for the Dungeon.

With that, Mark's Squad was completely wiped out on the fourth floor of the Dungeon, and the Mimic Monster disguised as a treasure chest was undoubtedly the MVP.

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

Lucifer shifted his consciousness to other regions of the Fourth Layer. After one or two days of exploration, seven or eight adventurer squads had successfully left the Venomous Swamp and entered the Mushroom Jungle from different directions.

The squad that drew Lucifer's attention most was the one that had enslaved a Swamp Giant Crocodile. Every member of that adventurer squad was a demihuman, and the adventurer who controlled the Swamp Giant Crocodile was a tiger-man.

After entering the Mushroom Jungle, this adventurer squad did not immediately venture deep inside like Mark's group had. Instead, they found a safe area along the jungle's outskirts and began setting up a temporary camp.

From the looks of it, they intended to build a secure rear base here to facilitate their continued exploration of the Dungeon.

"Interesting."

Lucifer silently watched the adventurer squad's actions. Judging from their practiced movements and seamless cooperation, they already had a complete set of well-established principles for exploring Dungeons.

Unlike the other adventurers who had also entered the Mushroom Jungle and recklessly pushed deeper in, 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 nearby asked the tiger-man captain, his hands never slowing.

"About ten days."

After thinking for a moment, the tiger-man captain spoke. Unlike those adventurers frantically rushing to explore the Dungeon, their squad had explored several Dungeons before and understood that the area of each floor expanded continuously as they went deeper.

The first three floors had been manageable. Their areas were not particularly large, and even the most complicated maze terrain could be fully mapped out in one or two days at most, so long as one was willing to invest the time and effort.

But beginning with the Fourth Layer, the Dungeon floors were entirely different in scale from the first three. Exploring them in a short time was impossible unless one had an Advanced Professional squad.

Danger could arise within the Dungeon at any moment. If they wanted to explore for an extended period, a safe temporary camp was indispensable.

That way, adventurers could fully recover their strength, tend to their injuries, and replenish their consumed supplies during exploration.

If they plunged straight into deeper exploration without preparing anything, it would practically mark the beginning of their deaths.

In other Dungeons, they had seen many squads like that who 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 laying traps nearby. These traps were not meant to kill monsters, but to give them advance warning if monsters intruded while everyone was resting.