Forced Retrieval

It never intended to give its opponent time to react. It stood still, simply waiting for the opponent to enter its attack range.

The dark blue figure disappeared.

The short sword was drawn.

The Many-Faced Man reacts extremely quickly; his level 23 combat instincts are no joke.

Its form instantly transformed into grayish-white smoke, attempting to use the Faceless Veil to enter a state of invisibility and avoid the attack.

But the Little Drill Wind is faster.

It had already anticipated the direction of the opponent's dodge. The short sword drew an arc and precisely cut into the smoke.

A flash of cold light.

A cloud of grayish-white smoke exploded, and the Many-Faced Man figure reformed, a deep, bone-revealing wound appearing on its chest, from which dark gray blood gushed out. Its health had dropped by 30%.

"You..."

The Many-Faced Man let out a shrill scream, and grayish-white mist surged wildly from its wounds, attempting to repair the damage. Its form began to blur, a sign that Puppet Replacement was imminent. Once its health dropped below 30%, it could swap positions with other faceless creatures on the field, restoring 30% of its health.

But the Little Drill Wind didn't give it a chance.

The short knife flipped, and a second strike followed immediately.

The blade slashed upwards, precisely striking the grayish-white seam at the Many-Faced Man's neck. That seam was the core node that maintained its human form; once destroyed, the entire form would collapse.

The blade sliced in, and demonic energy poured in.

The Many-Faced Man's body stiffened abruptly, and grayish-white mist gushed from all parts of his body like a deflated air sac. Finally, his mouth appeared on the blank face, opened, and let out a sharp, agonizing scream.

"No...!"

The third cut.

The dagger pierced its skull.

The grayish-white mist exploded completely, and the Many-Faced Man's figure vanished into thin air like a wisp of ashes scattered by the wind.

In its final moments before dissipating, Su Mu, through the Soul Link, saw a palm-sized, grayish-white fragment shattering deep within the grayish-white membrane behind it.

Core card.

The moment that fragment shattered, the Many-Faced Man's aura vanished completely.

Su Mu remained silent outside the instance.

He originally thought the opponent would lure the Little Drill Wind in and slowly wear it down, using their numerical advantage to whittle it down and employing unpredictable mechanics to whittle down its health. But the opponent didn't.

The opponent immediately revealed their core card.

Upon closer examination, it actually makes sense.

A level 23 A-rank core card facing a level 10 A-rank card is a crushing defeat in anyone's eyes.

The first reaction of a normal dungeon raider is to use their strongest cards to finish the battle quickly, to avoid any unforeseen complications.

Moreover, the other side was most likely thinking that there were accomplices outside chasing the escapee, and they needed to deal with the situation quickly and not delay.

So he immediately deployed his core cards.

Then he was instantly killed by Little Drill Wind's three strikes.

Su Mu silently lit a candle for the other person in his heart.

However, Su Mu didn't think too much about it; he needed to get Little Drill Wind away from here as soon as possible.

Inside the instance, Little Drill Wind sheathed his sword and stood in the gray-white space, looking down at the things left behind by the Many-Faced Man after he disappeared: a few cards, a small pile of gray-white fragments, and a skill book that gleamed with a dark gray light.

Little Drill Wind crouched down, picked up the items, and stored them in his demonic energy space. Then, at Su Mu's command, he ran away from Su Mu's location.

This is in case the other party has any other detection methods.

Su Mu didn't want to get himself into trouble.

Outside, Su Mu had already turned and run towards the Land of Buried Bones.

Choose to move towards the dungeon entrance. This way, even if the enemy has accomplices chasing after him, he can use the crowd at the dungeon entrance as cover.

At the same time, Su Mu used the Soul Link to judge the distance as he ran.

The distance between the two

"Stop."

The Little Drill Wind stopped about two kilometers away from Su Mu. Without hesitation, Su Mu initiated Forced Recall.

The summoning channel between the summoned entity and the dungeon master was forcibly torn open, and Little Drill Wind's figure was suddenly pulled into the void by a force.

Successfully retrieved.

Su Mu immediately glanced at Little Drill Wind's condition.

[Name: Little Drill Wind]

[Status: Forced Recall - Weak (All Attributes -30%, Duration 30 minutes)]

A 30% reduction in attributes lasts for half an hour.

The cost is significant, but it's insurance.

Su Mu took a deep breath and continued running towards the Land of Buried Bones.

He needed to get into a public area as soon as possible to prevent the other side's accomplices from tracking him down based on the scent of the dungeon.

After running for about ten minutes, he saw the path between the gray and white hills ahead.

Dozens of scattered tents were pitched along the roadside, and several small teams were sitting around a campfire preparing their equipment. Further away, a huge, constantly rotating grayish-white vortex was embedded in the ground, surrounded by an iron fence with only one entrance.

This is the entrance to the Land of Buried Bones lair.

There were quite a few people standing outside the entrance.

Su Mu glanced at them briefly and counted about thirty or forty.

Most of them were dungeon raiders between levels 15 and 20, gathered in groups of three or five.

Some were dressed in neat uniforms, probably a team from a guild or local university; others were wearing mismatched gear and covered in dust, likely solo players who spent most of their time in the wilderness; and a few seemed to be guiding newbies, with one guide player explaining the dungeon mechanics to four or five low-level players.

At the same time, a bustling chorus of shouts filled the air.

"We're missing two for a three-man team! Our main damage dealer is a magic and sword-themed character, with a B-rank core card, Flame Magister. We need a support or controller! Western fantasy themes preferred!"

"We're one short! Modern technology theme preferred, DPS role, ideally with guns or mechs! We have healers, tanks, and crowd control, we just need a carry!"

"We're missing two! Just two tanks and DPS guys, anyone? The dungeon's normal difficulty, let's speedrun!"

Su Mu listened to these shouts but did not stop walking.

He had seen this kind of scene far too many times in games in his past life.

Team up, class combinations, speed-farming teams, and exploration teams.

The only difference is that every wave of monsters in this "game" is real, and if you die, you might really die.

He ignored the shouts and continued walking.

Wild nests are different from trial dungeons.

To control difficulty and for educational purposes, trial dungeons only allow a maximum of two players per team. However, wilderness nests are the real battlefields, where teams can have up to five players.

However, the more people there are, the more monsters there are.

The monster spawn mechanism in the dungeon will automatically adjust the number and strength of monsters based on the number of players in the party.

The total number of monsters in a five-person team is about three times that of a single-person team, and each monster's health and attack will also be slightly increased.

The experience is shared equally among the team, which increases the kill efficiency but reduces the individual's gains.

Therefore, truly skilled players tend to prefer soloing or speedrunning with a partner.

Five-person teams are more suitable for theme combinations that require cooperation to pass levels, such as a support theme with insufficient output paired with a control theme plus three pure damage dealers, using theme synergy to unleash burst damage.