Ringed City: Shoot Up the Streets Welcomes You

The next morning, the Strategy Team and the Sword Saint Gapar arrived at the portal to the Zane Dungeon.

After his treasured longsword was destroyed by the Rust Monster, Jia Paer simply grabbed one from the blacksmith's shop. In truth, for him, any weapon could become a peerless divine weapon.

A few minutes after he left, the blacksmith's shop hung up a banner that read "The Sword Saint bought it and everyone says it's great," and even hired a magician to amplify the advertisement.

The business acumen of the residents of Bede City is a bit too good.

I heard that Earl Ka Rong has been looking everywhere for Jia Paer to visit, but he has missed it every time. It seems that he will not be able to get close to this powerful figure.

At first, Leon and the others thought that Jia Paer would be determined to go to Farron Keep to avenge the sword wound he had suffered, but he seemed indifferent and said he was fine with going anywhere.

After all, the Rust Monster that damaged his longsword had already been killed. What other way could he retaliate? Demolish the Zane Dungeon? That was obviously unrealistic.

So we decided to go to the cemetery area.

"Boss, tell me what happened after you got home?" Malu asked curiously on the way.

Leon chuckled and shook his head, saying, "Just a bunch of boring trivialities, what's there to talk about?"

But unable to withstand Malu's repeated questioning, he had no choice but to say briefly:

"When I got home, my sister's birthday party was at its climax. Brilliant fireworks were blooming in the night sky, and my father was giving a speech to the guests."

"And then what?"

"Then I kicked him down, and after that we started fighting, and I won. It's that simple." Leon shrugged.

Malu protested, "The details? I want to hear the details!"

"What other details could there be?" Leon said helplessly. "My father was a renowned swordsman. He loved to use his swordsmanship to slowly destroy his enemies' confidence, just like a wildcat toying with its prey."

"So when I faced him, I used the Ring of Life," Leon said with a smile.

"My father was completely powerless to fight back. He was totally stunned by the great power of the ring. A dignified swordsman couldn't even fight back in front of me. Hehe, until I broke his sword, he knelt on the ground like a fool."

"Boss, your smile is a little scary."

"My sister is said to have joined a famous chivalrous organization and learned some very clever footwork and Weapon Skill. She can appear far away in the blink of an eye."

"So I used this," he patted the Backhand Sword hanging at his waist, "Swift Slash, it's truly my good partner."

Malu could already imagine the expression on Leon's sister's face when Leon Swift Slash at her while she was using her exquisite footwork to traverse the battlefield.

"Okay, boss, stop talking," she quickly waved her hand. It wasn't that she didn't want to listen anymore, but...

Leon's smile grew increasingly arrogant. His demeanor, tone, and actions all gave Malu a strong sense of déjà vu, as if she had seen a similar being before.

That's right, it's the Avatar of Soul Five!

He possessed Leon!

Malu thought to herself, "I must find a psychologist for my eldest son sometime."

Without anyone provoking him, Leon gradually returned to normal and looked like an upright knight again.

"Teacher, it's been a long time since you've been to the dungeon, hasn't it?" Leon asked.

After receiving a week of special training from Jia Paer, he began to address him as "teacher," and the latter did not object and continued to call him that.

"Hmm," Jia Paer nodded. How long had he lived in the mountains? So long that he himself couldn't remember, and naturally he had never entered the underground city.

In other words, his understanding of dungeons is still based on the old, traditional concept of dungeons.

The stronger a person is, the longer they live. He has lived for over a hundred years and still looks full of energy.

Hopefully, the Zane Dungeon won't wear down their spirit and morale.

Upon passing through the portal and seeing the legendary Firelink Shrine, Leon couldn't help but exclaim "Wow!"

Compared to the Swamp Area where there was a cesspool as soon as you entered, the Firelink Shrine was a paradise of birdsong and fragrant flowers, and he was moved for a moment.

"Where is the place you're talking about?" Jia Paer looked at Malu, who pointed in a direction, and he walked towards it.

Everyone was taken aback, and Leon immediately exclaimed, "Teacher, please wait a moment! You haven't touched the campfire yet!"

Jia Paer turned around, a strange look on his face. "Why should I touch the campfire?"

Everyone was taken aback again. After a moment, Leon's lips twitched, and he asked, "If I may ask, how much do you know about the Zane Dungeon?"

"Clearing the game will allow me to change my class to a mage."

"Anything else?"

"It's gone."

Leon slowly opened his mouth wide, and said in disbelief, "I clearly remember telling you about the situation here."

"But that was the situation before. Now things have changed," Jia Paer said. "Generally speaking, after a dungeon changes, it will be completely different from before."

This statement is indeed very true; it was proven by people's own experiences in the past.

But the Zane Dungeon is something else!

Other dungeons changed because a new city lord replaced the old one and wanted to implement new designs. But Gong Qiying remained unchanged; he was simply renovating, not idly overturning previous designs.

Malu suddenly grasped the key point and asked, "You didn't touch the campfire when you came in yesterday either?"

Jia Paer shook his head.

The case is solved! No wonder he was teleported away after dying once; it turns out he didn't touch the campfire.

Only those who touch the campfire and "save" their game can be resurrected here after death.

Watching Jia Paer walk over and touch the campfire, Leon suddenly had a bad feeling that this adventure was about to turn into something troublesome.

When Jia Paer touched the campfire, images suddenly appeared before his eyes, images that Leon and the others had seen before.

These images were preserved and combined, then placed on the bonfire at the Firelink Shrine, so that anyone touching the bonfire for the first time could see them.

This is a setting that Gong Qiying recently added. I was too busy before and accidentally forgot about it.

Soon after, Jia Paer finally came to his senses from the image; his facial muscles twitched slightly, as if he was trying to suppress his expression.

After a while, he exclaimed, "This footage is really cool."

Leon's eyes lit up. Yes, yes, he also thought that Gwyn, Nitto, or whatever else in the video were all very handsome!

The others exchanged bewildered glances. Why did these two seem to have a different focus than normal people? Shouldn't everyone be focusing on history and such after watching the video?

When everyone reached the edge of the Firelink Shrine, where they could jump down into the graveyard, Malu hesitated to go down because of the psychological trauma she had suffered earlier.

She didn't dare to go over until everyone had quickly wiped out all the Skeleton Warrior.

"Wait a minute, don't move!"

Standing at the entrance to the graveyard, Malu remembered the trigger-activated explosive traps and quickly stopped everyone. Delu used Light Spell to mark the traps, and everyone walked around them.

Such simple traps are not very effective anymore, and they only fool newbies.

This long, dark tunnel leads to the cemetery area. At Malu's insistence, Delu kept the lights on all the way, almost blinding everyone.

However, it did work; under the light, the hidden traps and monsters had nowhere to hide.

Malu was on high alert, examining even the smallest, slightly unusual-looking stone closely to make sure it wasn't a trap.

Jia Paer, holding his longsword, said to Leon, "This is no different from the process I went through when I was young exploring dungeons."

Leon thought to himself that this was just child's play; soon he would see the highlights of the Zane Dungeon.

The number of traps in the tunnel was outrageous; it took half an hour to get out of such a short distance.

The team that leaked the information about the cemetery area didn't mention a single word about the traps there!

As soon as they stepped out of the tunnel, everyone felt a sense of openness and expansiveness. No, it wasn't just openness, it was more like a sense of vastness and openness.

Because this is a plain made up of tombstones!

The sky was still filled with rock formations, and the artificial plain was eerily illuminated by the eerie glow of the Spirit Fire on the tombstones. It was overgrown with weeds as tall as a person, which swayed as if welcoming guests when the wind blew, making one afraid that the person behind them would get separated as soon as they stepped in.

"I can use Levitation Spell," Delu said.

The Levitation Spell allows everyone's heads to rise above the weeds, preventing them from losing sight, but from the outside, it just looks like a few flying heads moving horizontally.

That scene must have been quite bizarre.

Leon nodded and said, "I think it's a good idea."

But at that moment, Jia Paer drew his longsword, walked to the front of the bushes, and laughed, "No need for that, I'll clear the way."

Having not entered the dungeon for a long time, Jia Paer saw his younger self reflected in the Strategy Team of people he was looking at, and the passion that had been buried in his heart stirred up again.

I have to show off my skills to the kids!

He remembered that his initial reason for learning swordsmanship was because wielding a sword was cool. Later, he thought magic was even cooler than swordsmanship, so he wanted to become a magician.

For men, pursuing good looks is always a matter of course!

You wouldn't be planning to...

Delu took two steps back.

Judging from Jia Paer's posture, it seems he's going to clear all the weeds in this area.

He could definitely do it if he were in charge, but there are many hard tombstones in the grass, and it's inevitable that he'll cut them while cutting the grass.

Jia Paer shouted, and a strong wind suddenly swept across the field. His beard, hair, and robes fluttered wildly in the wind, making him look incredibly imposing.

With a single swing of his sword, the crowd seemed to see a sky full of sword light.

But just as the Sword Saint was mowing down enemies with unparalleled skill, Leon felt that something was amiss.

"No, we can't damage the tombstone!"

By the time he realized what was happening, it was too late; weeds and fragments of tombstones were flying everywhere.

Why can't we damage the tombstones? Has no one mentioned this before?

This was Leon's intuition; too many unusual things had appeared in the Zane Dungeon, and he had to think things through carefully.

When the Holy Light Knight Albuquerque kicked the campfire, it summoned three nascent avatars.

The campfire undoubtedly holds special significance in the Zane Dungeon, but what about the tombstones? Each tombstone commemorates the deceased, so wouldn't destroying them also...?

But when hundreds of meters of weeds and tombstones were cleared away, nothing happened.

Jia Paer sheathed his sword, quite pleased with his masterpiece.

In his time, the popular practice was to clear all obstacles from the dungeon, because monsters always liked to attack from blind spots.

There were also fragments of monster bones on the ground, proving that his actions were correct and that there were indeed monsters hiding inside.

The tombstones here are arranged in groups of several, which looks rather strange, as if crouching behind the tombstones would allow you to use them as a city wall to block enemy attacks.

Jia Paer patted Leon on the shoulder and said, "Young man, don't make a fuss. The dungeon isn't necessarily as complicated as you think."

Yeah

Leon still felt something was off, but since nothing happened, he decided to go along with it.

As they reached the very center of the cemetery plain, they suddenly heard a muffled roar coming from afar.

Delu used his telescope to see a section of ruined city wall in the distance, with a giant sitting atop it.

The giant raised his hands high, as if shouting something.

Immediately afterwards, one after another, illusory red spirits reappeared, all holding bows and arrows, pointing them at the crowd.

At first glance, the number of these spirits has exceeded three digits!

"Gods above!" Malu was stunned. Hundreds of archers, their firepower was enough to besiege a city!

"[Mid Rank Barrier Art]!"

Delu reacted quickly and released a magical barrier. At the same time, a dense Arrow Rain flew over and shattered the barrier in an instant!

"Good timing!"

Amidst the shimmering light, Jia Paer displayed exquisite skill, single-handedly battling the Arrow Rain!

"Haha, this dungeon is really interesting, it actually has so many archery monsters!"

The swordsman's fighting spirit soared. He now understood that the test left for them here was to charge through Arrow Rain and slay the giant.

This is something only top-tier experts can do, no wonder everyone says the Zane Dungeon is incredibly difficult.

The more difficult it was, the stronger Jia Paer's desire to conquer became, and he shouted:

"Listen up, you lot! I'll keep you safe here. Let's charge through the Arrow Rain and take down the summoner!"

This is indeed a feasible method, but they are hundreds of meters away from the summoner, and the Arrow Rain is endless. How long will it take to fight?

Something's not right. Why would the Zane Dungeon have such a sinister trap? Without the strength of a Blademaster, it would be impossible to get past this level.

The fact that it's so discouraging right from the start is inconsistent with Sion's usual style of gradually increasing difficulty.

Could it be that I've overlooked something?

Leon looked around and noticed a broken tombstone lying on the ground. Upon closer inspection, he realized that such tombstones were everywhere on the plain.

Wait, could it be that...?

He almost couldn't catch his breath.

Could it be that these tombstones and weeds were actually used for them to hide? The former to hide from arrows, and the latter to avoid the giants' sight.

But what did they do?

They destroyed their own safe zone!

At this moment, Leon once again felt the sense of being dominated by the Zane Dungeon.

But upon closer reflection, no normal person would choose to clear away all the weeds and tombstones.

It's all because Jia Paer's stats were too high.