Obsessed with Astel

"What's going on? Didn't I tell you to keep an eye on them and not let them look up?"

As Fingel was saying this, he subconsciously looked up at the Black Hole, then his eyes widened and he quickly looked down.

When he realized what he had just done, he fell silent.

Sometimes it's not a rebellious streak, but a conditioned reflex ingrained in the body. He remembered his strict teacher when he was a child, who required everyone to keep their heads down and not look up even when someone came. But that bastard liked to make noise to attract everyone's attention, and anyone who looked up would be scolded.

Isn't that just animalistic? Anyone would instinctively look up when they hear a noise at the door, right? So Fingel played a prank on the teacher and got a beating, and soon after, he became an adventurer.

However, the teacher's phantom image will now also appear in the Hell March.

That might seem a bit off-topic, but Fingel feels that the Black Hole hanging in the sky right now is positioned similarly to his teacher back then—it has a strong presence and is impossible to look directly at. Its danger is far greater than any ethereal evil god.

Moreover, five seconds is far too short; it passes in an instant.

"I did warn them, brother. As soon as they came in, they looked up at the sky, which scared me so much that I almost put blindfolds on them. I finally managed to block their view, and they were sucked in the moment I turned around!"

The members of the Guzha Squad also felt a bit aggrieved and guilty, blaming themselves for not being able to keep an eye on Tus and his sister.

But there's a strange feeling, as if these two are heading straight for the Black Hole.

That can't be right. Tus stayed at home all day. Where would he have gotten any information about Black Hole?

"Brother Fingel, are you going in with me?"

"Huh? Me? Don't joke around. I can tell at a glance that I have no chance of winning against the guy in the Black Hole. I don't need to fight a battle where I have no hope of victory."

Even when he encountered powerful bosses like the Farron Undead Legion, Overlord Wolnir, or the Death Rite Bird in the past, Fingel never felt a complete lack of desire to fight. But this time, Dark Meteor Astel gave off a completely different feeling.

Adventurers can sense that the strength of other bosses changes gradually, but Astel is completely different. This thing comes out with a clear-out Ultimate Skill, and even if you manage to survive, it will be followed by various large-scale instant-kill moves.

It's quite obvious that the designer was malicious; this thing was never intended for anyone to win from the start!

The Zane Dungeon has gone a bit too far this time!

Most adventurers thought so, but Gong Qiying had to cry foul at this point.

Because he was only responsible for providing the monster Astel, the terrifyingly high damage numbers and unavoidable attacks came from the ideas of other Dungeon Lord.

"Since all adventurers are challenging this monster together, we should make it stronger. Let's put into practice all the ideas that we can't do on ordinary days."

These are Akagi's original words.

Among the city lords were some Bloodlust individuals, which is why Astel ended up looking like the super dung monster she is today.

Judging from the results of the first day's challenge, it's estimated that no one will be able to beat it from now until the end of the event. Is this a long-awaited design flaw?

"Did they all bring resurrection crystals?"

"I brought them all."

"That's good," Fingel breathed a sigh of relief, sat down on the spot, and said, "Well, there's nothing we can do about it. Let's wait here for a while. They should be back soon."

After all, an ordinary person wouldn't survive more than a few seconds when facing Astel.

Meanwhile, inside the Black Hole.

This is the closest place to the "false sky" and "false Meteor Shower" of the underground city.

It may be called fake, but that's just human perception. In reality, everything in the dungeon is genuine. The sky and Meteor Shower are what the city lords perceived the sky and Meteor Shower to be like at their time. This involves some concepts of time and space, which is quite complicated to explain.

In short, the Meteor Shower in the underground city is fundamentally no different from that in the outside world.

As a Royal Palace maid, the elder sister was naturally infected by King Anzi III, and Tus, who took care of her, also suffered a terrible fate. As infected and beast-transformation trainees, they are attracted by the "stars" that represent the unknown existence. This is why they look up at Meteor Shower at night, in order to find the faint aura of the unknown existence and deepen their connection with it.

This is why Tus and his sister, who were in the outside world and had never been to the dungeon, were attracted to enter it.

It wasn't just the two of them; everyone who looked up at the sky last night was either already in the underground city or on the road, from eighty-year-old grandmothers to one-year-old babies, all of whom would be attracted during this time of day.

After all, meteors can't be seen during the day, so it's the "fakes" that start shining!

At this moment, after entering the Black Hole, looking at the vast and ethereal purple nebula before them, Tus and his sister displayed a completely different demeanor than when they were with people.

His body was ramrod straight, like a telephone pole; anyone who didn't know better would think he was possessed by Two Fingers.

Were their previous displays of normalcy just an act?

That's not quite right either, because before the unknown entity ignited the negative emotions, those who were infected were normal before they came into contact with anything related to meteors.

This is like the underlying logic: as long as you don't come into contact with a meteor, everything is normal.

"Ah"

Tus uttered muttering sounds, seemingly not in his right mind, and stared at the nebula with a Furious Rajang and impulsive gaze.

The next second, he suddenly ran and charged forward, like a fearless Warrior. His physique also underwent a subtle change, making him look like a wild beast.

His sister, on the other hand, stood even straighter, with her feet on tiptoe, like a rocket about to launch into the sky.

The nebula churned, the darkness was torn apart, and in a brief moment, the "Dark Meteor" Astel descended upon this space.

This time, it was no longer just a head; its enormous, insect-like alien body also appeared. The bizarre combination of insect and human, along with the beautiful and enchanting starry sky, wove together to form its body, beautiful yet twisted, just like the knowledge that is incomprehensible to people.

As a dark star that fell from the sky, Astel undoubtedly represents something like "stars".

The sheer, ethereal silence emanating from it was enough to captivate Tus and his sister, as if they had found and were encountering an unknown being.

But amidst his excitement, Tus sensed that something was amiss.

The "taste" of Astel in front of me seems quite different from that of the unknown being.

However, this momentary unease was quickly overshadowed by the rich starlight aura emanating from Astel. In the minds of those infected with the Beastification Syndrome, the first thing they recognize is the starlight aura, followed by the unique aura of the unknown entity. There is a reason for this order of recognition.

Regardless of the reason, when Astel, a massive entity that is practically a star itself, descends upon them, every Beastification Syndrome Infected person falls into Furious Rajang, regarding it as an unknown being itself!

This is probably what they call exploiting a bug; Astel brought over the infected from an unknown source.

Have the Minotaur elements in the Zane Dungeon been a bit excessive lately?

"Aba aba!"

Looking at Tus rushing towards him, Astel was puzzled as to how this weak guy dared to do it.

Then the skeleton slapped its hand, and Tus was reduced to ashes. Its tail lashed forward, and Tus's sister gloriously returned to the campfire.

Faced with two harmless weaklings, Astel doesn't even bother to unleash a beam of light; once all the enemies are dead, its figure slowly disappears.

But as it waited for the marks to dissipate, a scar suddenly appeared on its finger bone for no apparent reason. Before it disappeared, a faint mark also appeared on its forehead, as if it had been attacked by Transparent Man.

These injuries were inflicted by adventurers from other dungeons, indicating that there are still people trying to attack Astel.

As a world-class boss, Astel will endure attacks from all adventurers in the same body, with countless others fighting alongside each adventurer at the same time.

Outside the Black Hole Firelink Shrine.

When Fingel saw Tus return, he was about to go over and tease him when he saw the other man's body convulsing as if he were having a severe withdrawal reaction, his eyes fixed on the Black Hole.

He longed to enter the Black Hole again to experience Astel, but to outsiders, it looked like he was having an O addiction attack.

Something's not right!

He quickly covered the guy's eyes, and then his sister, who had been resurrected at the campfire, also showed similar symptoms. Matilda separated two small clumps of liquid armor from the Hell March and locked their eyes tightly, preventing them from looking at the Black Hole again.

"What's wrong with them? It's like they've been mentally attacked?"

Psychological attack?

Having caught the key words, Fingel suddenly realized and said, "That's right, the monsters in the Black Hole do indeed have the ability to launch mental attacks. I didn't expect it to be so effective against Tus and the others!"

He suddenly remembered that when he first saw Astel, his mind was momentarily stunned as if it had been struck by an attack. The others' reactions were even more pronounced. Now, it seemed that Astel's mental attacks were extremely effective against Tus others.

What a perfectly timed and perfectly timed misunderstanding!

"What should we do now, brother?"

"Don't rush, let Aleya do it," Fingel reassured everyone, saying, "I tried it yesterday, the Kindling Secret Ritual can alleviate mental damage. Where did Tus infuse the fire?"

"Right here at the Firelink Shrine."

"Very good, Aleya, you help control Tus to perform the ritual in front of the campfire. Matilda, let's go to the Catacombs of Carthus and find Three-Person Corpse Magician to get a Kindling Secret Ritual for Tus as well."

The Guzha Squad's mage tried to temporarily heal the two with magic that could alleviate mental attacks, but with little effect, perhaps due to the skill level of the spellcaster.

Aleya manipulated Tus and performed a ritual in front of the campfire. He immediately stopped struggling and drifted off to sleep as if he had fallen asleep.

Seeing this, people didn't linger any longer. They left Aleya there to take care of Tus's sister, while the rest of them headed to the Catacombs of Carthus to cause trouble for the Three-Person Corpse Magician.

In less than an hour, they successfully located and eliminated the Three-Person Corpse Magician. However, on the way back, the observant Matilda said, "Wait a minute, igniting requires humanity, right? Do you have any left?"

People looked at each other in bewilderment. Fingel shook his head and said, "I just used my last one on Tus."

A moment of silence followed. How can you start a fire if you have no humanity?

Someone suddenly said, "By the way, I saw some experts saying that there's a chance of gaining humanity if you succeed in an invasion. If it's the first invasion of the day and you succeed, the probability of gaining humanity will be much higher!"

"Of course we know this news."

Fingel took out the Blue Eye Orb, then thought for a moment and switched to the Cracked Blood-Red Eyeball Orb, because the latter was an indiscriminate invader and more efficient.

Others cannot use the Dark Moon Blade's exclusive Blue Eye Orb, but the Dark Moon Blade can use the Blood-Red Eyeball Orb, which seems a bit unfair.

"I'll be right back, you guys go ahead."

Fingel waved his hand, and the next moment, the message that the intrusion had been successful entered his mind.

The Boulder Dungeon.

"Excellent! The adventurers we hired today are of very high quality. We've gained a lot. I'm sure I can surpass that rebellious son!"

Te Pi sat on the cargo wagon, looking at the load of Poké Ball, a slight smile playing on his lips.

They were almost at the portal plaza. Luckily, they hadn't encountered Elite Monsters falling from the sky along the way; it seemed Goddess of Luck was still on their side.

"It feels good when nothing else is causing trouble."

[The Dark Moon Blade "Li Ge Fen" has invaded our territory!!!]

Te Pi jumped up with a "whoosh".

"What is that!?"

As he watched the Dark Blue Spirit slowly taking shape before him, a bad premonition arose in his heart.

Meanwhile, the intruder was also dumbfounded.

Looking at the completely unfamiliar scene before him, Fingel murmured to himself:

"Where did this teleport me to?"

"Is this still Sion?"