All living creatures instinctively seek comfort—and the more intelligent they are, the more they crave it.
A prime example was Stella.
"Yahaha! You can't hurt me, you can't hurt me!"
Two hulking zombie hammered at her, but Stella stood her ground without fear, her massive shield braced before her. As long as she poked, poked, poked—victory was inevitable.
If she used a bow, she would need to carefully analyze enemy weak points, select the proper arrows with elemental attributes, and stay constantly alert—never letting enemies close the distance. Once the bowstring was drawn, she had almost no means of defense.
If she used her mace, she'd be forced into close quarters. And in Blighttown, where every monster was nastier than those in the Swamp, that meant fighting on a razor's edge—one misstep, and she'd lose everything.
But shield-poking? That solved everything.
A giant shield. A long spear. Could there be a more perfect pairing?
No complicated thinking. No constant pressure. Just manage stamina, keep wary of grappling strikes, and dodge the occasional spell that pierced shields. Shield-poking was the ultimate playstyle for any adventurer too tired—or too lazy—to overthink.
Even for Stella, who already had a decent grasp of combat, a single trial was enough to make her fall in love with it.
The sense of security brought by the shield was irreplaceable.
She had found her comfort zone, and she had no intention of leaving it. Today's dungeon run had already given her more than she'd hoped: not only had she mastered shield-poking under Maldron's guidance, but she'd also learned the layouts of both the Swamp and Blighttown from a dungeon veteran.
It felt like winning at a casino slot machine—again and again, jackpot after jackpot.
Behind her, Wade observed her progress. With her experience, Stella had picked up the rhythm of shield-poking frighteningly fast. She was already applying it in real combat as if she'd been doing it for years.
He felt genuinely gratified. Yes—this was exactly what it meant to play a Souls-like. You didn't look for the strongest class—you found the wheelchair class.
Of course, Wade wasn't training Stella purely out of kindness. She was simply… entertaining. Pleasant to look at, easy to talk to, and far less exhausting than the other options. Among the adventurers here, she was the obvious choice.
Consider the alternatives:
Option A: a berserk maniac swinging twin axes, interested in nothing but the next blood rush.
Option B: Vilde, endlessly dying and reviving like a cockroach in the dungeon.
Option C: overly cautious veterans, creeping forward in locked parties, unwilling to take risks.
Option D: a lonely, gullible elf girl—naïve, wide-eyed, and very easy to lead by the nose.
Naturally, he'd chosen D.
But there was a deeper reason too: so far, no one had cleared Sein Dungeon.
Its anomalies hadn't drawn much attention from the outside yet. Those who came here couldn't finish it, and those powerful enough to clear it had no reason to come unless the rewards were irresistible.
Wade had ensured they would be. He had prepared treasures of such allure that once word spread, top players would come running. But the problem was—no one had claimed those rewards yet. No word had leaked.
He needed more adventurers. More mana. Only then could he construct even greater dungeons, spinning the cycle of Mana higher and higher.
"Um… Mr. Maldron…"
Stella's tone slipped into respect without her even noticing. The honorific was instinctual proof of just how deeply she admired him.
"What is it?" Wade followed her gaze and then burst out laughing.
"Can shield-poking handle… that?"
She was pointing to the widest street in Blighttown. Both sides were lined with rotting, crumbling houses, their broken windows like empty sockets. The street was the only way forward into the middle levels.
And every single house was filled with enemies.[Infested Barbarian]
[Mana Cost per unit: 80]
[HP: D | Strength: D+ | Intelligence: F | Endurance: D | Speed: D-]
[Overall Combat Power: D]
Grotesquely bloated undead, their flesh sagging over crude armor, their blank eyes glowing faintly in the gloom. These weren't the flimsy zombies from the Swamp. They were tougher, heavier, harder to stagger—exactly what Blighttown demanded.
"If you don't want to fight, you could always just run through," Wade suggested casually. "Look at them—they're huge. There's no way they could keep up. Just parkour your way across!"
"I… have a bad feeling about that…"
Stella wasn't convinced. What if they only looked slow, but were deceptively fast? If she was caught, nearly ten of them would tear her apart in an instant.
And worse—
She pulled out her telescope, scanning the rooftops.
Sure enough, she spotted them.
Small, goblin-like figures crouched on the roofs, their ragged cloth hoods blending into the shadows. Unless you looked carefully, you'd never notice them at all.
If she ran straight through, they'd leap down to block her escape, while the Infested Barbarian closed in from behind.
"Oh-ho! You noticed?" Wade clapped delightedly. "Good eye!"
"Hmph. Just experience," Stella muttered.
She didn't want to admit it, but the truth was that being ambushed so many times in the Swamp had rewired her brain. Every shadow, every alley, every corner that could hide an enemy—she checked.
She was already turning into a proper Souls player.
"Think about what tools you've picked up in the dungeon," Wade hinted. "Weapons, equipment… anything useful."
"Useful things…"
Stella thought hard, then pulled out a strange claw-shaped weapon.
It came with hound Step.
She tested it, firing an arrow to lure one Hollow Soldier closer.
The bloated corpse lifted its massive club and swung down—
—but before it could connect, Stella triggered hound Step. In the blink of an eye, she vanished, reappearing several paces away. The club smashed only empty air.
She blinked, stunned. This skill… was absurdly powerful.
Her eyes lit with excitement. She immediately began toying with her enemy, flickering in and out of reach, mastering the movement within minutes. Then she dispatched the soldier cleanly.
"With this, I can definitely parkour across," she said confidently, turning to Maldron. "What about you?"
Wade casually produced the exact same claw.
"I've got one too."
Stella's jaw tightened. "Don't tell me you've already collected all the dungeon's rewards…" At this point, she wouldn't even be surprised if he admitted to clearing the entire dungeon already.
"Nah, not yet. Still plenty left."
He equipped the claw with practiced ease, then added,
"Once we cross this street, we'll start encountering elite monsters. Be ready."
"Of course."
Stella caressed her giant shield, running her hand along its scarred surface like it was an old friend—an unshakable partner who would see her through whatever came next.