"How come there are half-tree people?!"
Having overcome this unprecedented opponent with great difficulty, the six once again fell into self-doubt.
Fortunately, most of the rooms on the second floor have been cleared, and the second phase of the Dungeon is about to end.
[ Do Some Farm Work ] kicked a pile of junk that yielded nothing:
"Still haven't found the other half of the World Tree statue?"
The others shook their heads, and [ the Do Some Farm Work ] said thoughtfully:
"I remember it was mentioned in the guidebook that the cathedral's two bell towers are four stories high, but we've only reached the second floor so far, and we're still a long way from the top."
"The door on the second floor cannot be opened from this side, and there is no passage on the first floor. This means that there must be a large door on the third or fourth floor that leads to the east building, and the icon or something else may be the key to opening that door."
The other players also expressed their agreement, and after a short rest, they continued to open doors for good luck.
Half an hour later, they stepped onto the stairs leading to the third floor.
As expected, they saw another large door near the stairs and rushed forward to try to find the slot or some other mechanism to put the World Tree statue into.
They did find the groove, but it wasn't quite what they had imagined.
Good news, the main door on the third floor can be opened from the west wing; bad news, it requires three different keys to open it.
The heavy wooden door is decorated with relief carvings of the items needed to open it.
A Thorn Rat, a tattered sash from a priest's robe, and a branch from a half-tree man.
Seeing this, everyone couldn't help but look at each other in bewilderment.
"This key isn't quite what I expected..."
"[ On Do Some Farm Work ]" he said, scratching his head a little awkwardly.
After all, he was the one who initially believed that half of the statue was the key, and other players also expressed their agreement.
But now it seems that collecting things along the way is clearly the right way to open this door.
Ultimately, this seems to be a design to prevent players from speedrunning, since you definitely won't get these three items if you don't play the "Open the Door to Good Fortune" game. Even if they've cleared all the rooms like they have, they still need to go back to the second and first floors to find the corresponding items.
The six people split into two groups and acted quickly, soon obtaining the corresponding items and arriving at the gate.
Should we open the door first or clean the third floor first?
[ The Good Times Don't Last ] He was eager to see what was inside the east building behind the main gate, but his previous experiences made him very cautious.
After a brief discussion, the group decided to clear out the monsters before opening the door.
The difficulty of the third floor is not much higher than that of the second floor; the only difference is the number of monsters.
An hour later, after a difficult journey, the group finally cleaned the third floor. They went to the wooden door and placed the Thorn Rat, the tattered ribbon, and the branches into the corresponding slots.
With a tremor like the breaking of a seal, the heavy door in front of them slowly opened, revealing the view of the East Tower of the Twin Towers.
The two patrolling priests suddenly turned their heads towards the direction of the connecting corridor, and arrows flew towards them as if they were free.
At that moment, the [ Clear Soup Master ] strategy team simultaneously realized something.
The core design of the West Tower is to put all the monsters into small rooms. Those who want to proceed steadily can clear them one by one, while those who want to speed things up can run away without opening the doors. However, the East Tower is completely the opposite. Just one glance was enough to attract the attention of at least two patrolling priests.
Now those priests are relentlessly pursuing them.
"How do we fight? We can't just combine right now, can we?"
" Zhongde, who is somewhat inexperienced in combat, asked."
"Don't use the oranges yet, let me think about it."
[ Howling Pothos ] stopped [ Clear Soup Master ] who wanted to peel an orange, and then he looked at [ Do Some Farm Work ]:
"The keys! The keys to the rooms on the first and second floors, did you have them with you?"
[ On the Do Some Farm Work ] shook his head repeatedly:
"No, all those keys look the same. I was afraid of getting them mixed up, so I put them all back in the locks."
"Okay, let's lure these patrol teams into the room, then close the door and beat them."
As he spoke, [ Howling Pothos ] handed over the supplies he was carrying to [ Good Times Don't Last ] beside him:
"You guys hide first, I'll go pull the monsters and lock the door while I'm at it. If that works, we'll do it this way for everything. I think the reason so many empty rooms were left in the west wing is for this purpose..."
The three patrolling priests crossed the boundary between the east and west buildings and began to slow their pace to survey the surrounding area.
They were originally fallen priests from the Fir City Cathedral, and now that Ed has made them into Dungeon, they can take full advantage of their familiarity with the map.
Not yet fully understanding what Dungeon is, they are currently in the first stage of the so-called " Wild Hunt Psychology," which means they think Ed's punishment is nothing and intend to continue doing things their own way.
Some players call this phase the "bold talk phase" because the Stained Ones in this phase haven't started to give up yet. Instead, they thoroughly enjoy the feeling of killing players or being killed by players. The endless lives give them the same confidence as the players, allowing them to perform at their best.
Then there's the "silent phase" where one starts to give up after discovering that life is monotonous, and the "incoherent phase" where one is tormented by the feeling of being on the verge of death.
But at this moment they didn't care about their own lives. Their leader had changed from Antiya Lisi to Howard, and Howard's orders were to thoroughly patrol the entire East Building and not let any enemy in.
But now the corridor door is open, and the enemy is fleeing in the west building. If we don't capture them, the boss might scold us for being inflexible later.
Just as the priests were struggling with their inner turmoil, a "click" sound suddenly came from the corridor not far away.
The three immediately gave chase, while the enemy who had inadvertently made a noise began to scatter.
Turning a corner, the priests saw the man slip into a room.
They were very familiar with the room. As priests who were originally on duty at the cathedral, they knew it was a storage room filled with shelves, and to prevent the goods inside from being stolen or spoiled, there was only one door to enter and exit the storage room.
The three men quickly approached the storeroom door. The first man went in first, looked around but saw no enemies. The second and third men followed him in. Just as the last priest was about to close the door, someone helped him complete the task.
Using the [ Howling Pothos ] vines hanging from the ceiling, she slammed down and pinned the priest to the ground, then rushed out of the room, slammed the door shut, and pulled the key out of the lock.
In this World of Disorder, metal mechanical locks are still in a very old stage, belonging to the type that requires a key to open from either side.
Realizing they were locked in the storage room, the three panicked and began to Directed Alienation to break down the door.
Just then, two spherical objects with flames were thrown in through the vent above the door.