709. Finding Loopholes

The Mushroom Road underfoot glowed with a faint blue-green fluorescence, stretching all the way to the end of the darkness.

Norris softened his steps, yet tiny echoes still bounced back from the walls on both sides, drifting back and forth through the empty passage, drawn out for a long time.

Norris shrank his neck and instinctively tucked his hands into his sleeves.

Boss had suddenly called him over, saying only that there was "something good."

But after spending so long in the Mushroom Garden, how could Norris not know?

When Boss said "something good," sometimes it really was something good, but more often, it was something "fun" as far as Boss was concerned.

As for whether it was friendly to the person who ended up dealing with it, that depended on luck.

The passage under his feet led to those areas of the Dungeon that usually were not open.

The last time he had mistakenly barged into D-Rank Paradise and witnessed those—things inside, the memory was still painfully fresh.

Now, walking through the quiet passage, the bad feeling in Norris's heart rose faintly, just like the fluorescence beneath his feet.

Splash—

As he neared the end of the passage, the sound of water came from ahead.

It was not dripping water. It was someone stirring the surface, again and again, at a very slow rhythm.

Was it a cave with a small lake?

He took one step forward, and his field of vision opened up.

Norris stood at the cave entrance, his feet seeming nailed to the ground.

It really was a lake. A Blood Lake.

Thick red liquid filled the low-lying area of the entire cave, shimmering with rippling light under the glow of the Fluorescent Mushrooms.

The reek of blood rushed at him, so strong it was like