Skeletons blocked the path ahead. Behind them, an iron ball thundered down the tunnel.
Hainis was certain they were about to die.
Phyllis's sword could slice skeletons apart with arcs of sword Qi, but that would slow them down—and the iron ball behind them was closing in fast.
Then Phyllis noticed something: the shallow recesses along both sides of the tunnel weren't just for decoration.
"Over here!"
She yanked Hainis into one of the alcoves just as the iron ball roared past. It plowed through the skeletons, shattering them into rattling heaps of bone.
Sweat dripped from Phyllis's brow as she caught her breath. She didn't scare easily, but that had been far too close.
The girl in her arms trembled like a leaf. Then she looked up, eyes glistening with tears, and whispered,
"M-my pants… they're wet."
Phyllis froze, utterly speechless.
It took several long minutes to calm Hainis down. They stepped out of the alcove, but hadn't gone more than a dozen paces when the rumble of another iron ball echoed from above.
"You've got to be kidding me—another one?!"
By the time they finally stumbled out of the tunnel, both looked like they'd been dragged through a battlefield. Hainis, in particular, seemed on the verge of breaking down entirely.
"We… made it," Phyllis breathed.
No one would ever guess what they'd endured.
Every few steps, a new iron ball had come rolling toward them. They'd been forced to dash from alcove to alcove, hearts pounding, knowing that a moment's hesitation meant being reduced to pulp.
Some alcoves even hid skeletons lying in wait for ambush.
Who designed this nightmare? This wasn't a beginner's dungeon—more like an execution ground. If Phyllis hadn't been at least a mid-tier swordsman, she would have been killed by one of the first traps.
She silently vowed to cut down the bastard who had given her that fake intel the moment she escaped.
Past the tunnel lay a wide chamber with nothing but a single iron door ahead. Phyllis pushed it open—
—and stopped short.
"A cliff?"
Across the abyss, three to four hundred meters away, a stone staircase climbed toward the next area. But between them yawned a pitch-black void. Crossing seemed impossible.
"Wait, Phyllis. Look at this."
Hainis crouched, picked up a stone, and tossed it forward.
To their shock, it didn't fall. Instead, it bounced several times—as though hitting something solid—and hung in midair.
"An invisible bridge!"
Phyllis instantly understood. Using scraps of debris, she probed the path ahead until she'd mapped out a narrow, twisting walkway, barely half a meter wide.
"You're amazing, My Lady."
She took Hainis's hand, and they began inching forward, careful not to make any sudden moves. It was the right call—the bridge wound unpredictably in sharp turns and curves.
By the halfway point, Hainis's patience had worn thin.
"I just want to get out of here already," she muttered.
Phyllis gave a weary smile and patted her head. "Once we're out—"
Whoosh!
A sharp whistle cut her off. Instinct made her twist aside—an arrow grazed her waist and vanished into the darkness below. One hit from that would have knocked her clean off the bridge.
Where—?
"Ph… Phyllis…"
Her gaze dropped—and her stomach lurched.
A short arrow jutted from Hainis's chest, the twisted arrowhead tearing ragged flesh.
Hainis's eyes were wide with confusion. Her foot slipped.
She plunged into the abyss.
"Hainis!"
Phyllis's mind went blank. A second arrow struck her abdomen, the force driving her to her knees and pinning her to the invisible bridge.
Her vision dimmed. Just before blackness took her, she saw them—
Two goblins clinging to the ceiling, their mottled skin blending into the stone. They giggled, baring yellow teeth.
(***)
"The eighty-eighth… and eighty-ninth."
In the Lord's chamber, a crystal sphere the size of a millstone floated before Wade, displaying dozens of live feeds from around the dungeon.
When Phyllis's "corpse" dissolved into a beam of light, he smiled.
"Everyone who enters carries a teleportation crystal. When they die, it sends them straight to the resurrection room. Makes setting traps guilt free."
Not without consequences, of course.
Frequent resurrections led to "Loss of Humanity"—from headaches and fevers to memory loss and cognitive decline. Only long rest could reverse it.
Rumor said too many deaths could cause something… far worse.
By the first morning after Sein Dungeon opened, the death toll was already near two hundred—on par with high-level deathtraps. Most had come thinking it was the easiest dungeon, unaware it had mutated. Wade's Lord energy surged from the influx of "first-kill" deaths.
[Sein Dungeon – Remaining Energy: 8,436]
[Daily Maintenance Cost: 77]
A typical person gave off 1 energy per hour in the dungeon, and at least 50 upon death—adventurers even more.
Phyllis had released over 130. Strong… shame she didn't dodge.
Most deaths, Wade noticed, were miners with pickaxes—probably chasing the dungeon's ore.
"Still needs work. No wonder games always run beta tests."
He'd overlooked one critical fact:
"In this world, people can use magic. And there are all kinds of races."
Winged folk flew over his poison swamps. Giant brutes kicked down "one-way" doors. Priests smite his skeletons into ash.
In a game, you found the key. In reality, you kicked the damn door open.
Plenty to fix—enough to give him a headache. But then—
[Spend 5,000 Energy to Upgrade Lord Authority?]
"Yes."
[Lord Authority: Level 2]
[Unlocked: Teleportation – appear anywhere in the dungeon at will]
[Unlocked: Mimicry – spend energy to change appearance and abilities]
[More permissions available with further upgrades.]
[Available monsters and buildings can now be updated.]
Finally, Wade thought, he could leave this suffocating Lord's chamber.
His predecessor, Aldwin, had been undead—until his mind deteriorated and he forgot to maintain the dungeon, losing access to most Authority.
[Available Monsters (updatable): Skeletons, Minotaurs, Slimes, Rotten Wild Dogs, Blood Mosquitoes, Ghosts, Goblins, Lesser Snakemen, Berserk Undead]
A dungeon's monster list depended on the Lord's knowledge. To summon them, you needed not just to see a creature, but to understand it.
Aldwin, being undead, had known few.
"Update."
Wade's eyes gleamed. He didn't expect much—his knowledge came solely from Aldwin's memories.
[Update complete.]
[New Monsters: Basilisk, Giant Basilisk]
"…Huh?"
This world didn't even have basilisks. So why—
[New Monsters: Black Knight, Silver Knight, Crucible Knight, Death Knight]
[New Monsters: Skeleton Wheel, Skeleton Ball, Exploding Skeleton]
[New Monsters: Zinogre, Mizutsune, Arzuros, Aknosom, Great Jagras]
[New Monsters: Pikachu, Gengar, Haunter, Weezing]
[New Monsters: Muzan Kibutsuji, Kokushibo, Doma, Akaza]
[New Monsters: Peashooter, Potato Mine, Fume-shroom]
…and the list kept going.
Over a hundred new entries flooded the interface.
"…What the hell is all this?" he muttered.
The genre, had officially gone off the rails.
(*****)
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