The warrior jar shattered across the ground.
As always, the manner of death was visually overwhelming. Shards of the jar's body flew in all directions, mixed with flesh and blood, and the spirit form even vividly recreated the splattering of its bloody contents.
Those fragments slowly turned into smoke and dust as they dissipated. For some reason, the process felt far slower than when ordinary helpers vanished.
"…"
Maru's eyes slowly widened. It was as if a magnitude-50 earthquake had erupted within her pupils.
At this moment, the mental shock she was radiating was no different from having died once herself!
[Helper "Warrior Jar Karl" has died]
That single line of text was painfully eye-catching. Worse still, it kept flashing before everyone's eyes, aggressively asserting its presence.
Everyone felt caught off guard. They had clearly won the battle, yet this completely unexpected ending still played out before them.
Couldn't it have ended with a happy finale—where everyone lived on together?
"Maru." Leon knew exactly how she was going to react next and tried to comfort her in advance.
"Boss, I'm fine."
Maru forced herself to steady her emotions, barely managing to put on the same smile she always wore.
"A helper dying doesn't mean they truly die, so the warrior jar must be fine."
…Is he really fine?
Leon glanced at her with concern. As she said, according to common adventurer knowledge, a helper's death wouldn't lead to true death.
But did that rule also apply to monsters?
After defeating the Death Knight, it dropped an item called the Life Ring.
[Life Ring]
[Causes life force to surge within the wearer]
[Gem rings blessed by the First Flame often carry different effects. If discovered, they are sure to be of help]
The description was simple and unadorned, yet the effect was incredibly powerful. When Leon placed it on Terl—who had lost half his life earlier—Terl immediately felt vitality return.
More precisely, his maximum HP had increased.
Still, no one had the mood to focus on loot.
After the Death Knight's defeat, a door leading deeper underground slowly opened within the burial chamber—there was clearly more that could be explored.
But there wasn't much time left for the day. Even if they pressed on, they likely wouldn't gain much more.
Leon turned to Maru, sighed softly, and said,
"I'll go check on the jars with Maru. You guys head back first."
And so, the group split up.
On the way back, Leon did his best to comfort her, and little by little, Maru began to calm down.
However, the moment they arrived at the entrance to the tomb where the warrior jars lived, she could no longer hold it in and rushed inside.
The interior was still peaceful and tranquil, just as before—but—
One large presence was missing.
Maru's knees went weak.
The little jars were gathered around something. This time, it wasn't flowers, but a fragment stained with flesh and blood.
The emotions they radiated were no longer joy and leisure—but sorrow.
[Warrior Jar Innards]
[Remnants left behind after a warrior jar shatters. Perhaps it can be thrown to attack enemies]
[For the sake of revenge, the warrior jar resolutely set out on his journey. Having already guessed his own fate, he left behind a part of his body—perhaps as a memento]
Maru swayed, then collapsed backward. Fortunately, Leon caught her in time.
"Boss…"
She turned her head, tears pooling in her eyes.
"This is all my fault!"
Alright. Now it was clear who wouldn't be sleeping tonight.
The warrior jar's storyline was actually very simple.
When you first encountered him, choosing to ignore him caused the side quest to disappear. Choosing to help him granted an ordinary reward, while helping him find jar-making materials yielded a higher-tier reward.
If you chose not to summon him during the Death Knight boss fight, he would continue living peacefully with the little jars.
If you summoned him—then regardless of whether the battle ended in victory or defeat—he would shatter.
That was the entirety of the warrior jar's storyline.
However, there was another branch.
If, upon first encountering the warrior jar, you chose to kill him along with the surrounding monsters—
The Sein Dungeon introduced a point of divergence regarding the death mechanics of helpers.
Taking the Lands Between game as an example, during the Starscourge Radahn battle, the warrior jar "Alexander," who appeared as a helper, still suffered injuries to his main body afterward.
From a narrative perspective, that battle involved his true body; appearing as a helper was merely a gameplay abstraction.
But when translated into Wade's Sein Dungeon, a different choice existed.
He could configure the helper system so that summoned entities wouldn't affect their main bodies—or he could synchronize the damage directly.
He had never used the latter before.
This was the first time he applied it—to the warrior jar—specifically to create a tragic narrative outcome.
Judging by Maru's reaction, the effect was extremely successful.
Not long after—
Even after leaving the Sein Dungeon, Maru still hadn't fully recovered.
Leon repeatedly emphasized that dungeon events would refresh and repeat each time one entered.
But Maru's empathy was simply too strong.
She was the kind of person who could pick up a green blossom at Firelink Shrine, read its item description, and mentally construct an entire tragic history about the Farron Undead Legion.
Let alone witnessing a friendly warrior jar die right in front of her.
Most people would merely sigh at such a scene. Very few would react as deeply as she did.
If Wade could see this, his face would surely be filled with a smile.
"Let's go eat something," Leon suggested, doing his best to change the subject.
"How about lemon cupcakes?"
He practically dragged Maru to the dessert shop they usually visited.
The lemon cupcakes she loved most were placed before her—but she had no appetite at all. Small "pearls" of tears kept falling onto the plate.
Left with no choice, Leon picked up a spoon and fed her bit by bit. Only then did she slowly begin to eat.
As he fed her, Leon mentally reviewed the gains from today.
First, he had grasped the operating logic of the roguelike stages and learned how to exploit the mechanics efficiently.
Good blessings—press on. Bad blessings—restart. A flawless strategy.
The Proof of Battle and its reward exchange system were the biggest surprise. Once adventurers could trade for more rewards in the future, overall quality would rise dramatically.
Bonfires and soul leveling. Larval Tears. Covenants and co-op systems. Magic and weaponry never before seen.
Any one of these could serve as the core mechanic of another dungeon—yet the Sein Dungeon had them all.
It truly was a treasure trove.
Additionally, methods for bypassing the giant guardians and archers in the Tombstone Plains were taking shape. With more refinement, a full guide could be published.
Of the legendary three paths, two had already been explored. The last one remained—tentatively set as tomorrow's goal.
The warrior jar's event flow and rewards could now be roughly outlined, though it remained unclear whether other branches existed.
Leon's "radar" had reacted to both the Death Knight's twin axes and the demi-human swordsman's weapon. He'd need to figure out how to obtain them.
Dungeon monsters had two kinds of deaths.
One left behind a corpse that could be butchered freely.
The other reduced both body and equipment to ash.
The latter typically applied to elite monsters or higher—whose gear was too powerful to drop easily.
"That about sums it up."
After organizing his thoughts, Leon unconsciously muttered it aloud.
Across from him, Maru let out a soft "mmm." When he looked again, the lemon cupcake was long gone—he had been poking her mouth with an empty spoon the whole time.
"Ah!"
Leon immediately apologized. He'd been so lost in thought that he hadn't noticed.
A faint blush spread across Maru's cheeks. While it made Leon a bit embarrassed, it was far better than seeing her drowned in sorrow.
The atmosphere grew subtly ambiguous. Even the chatter from nearby customers seemed to quiet at some point.
"Another plate?" Leon asked.
"Mm." Maru nodded. After hesitating briefly, she added,
"And… I want you to feed me again."
"Yo, isn't this 'Lion' Leon? Long time no see. Getting all lovey-dovey with your teammate, huh?"
A familiar, overly friendly voice shattered the carefully built mood.
Leon frowned and turned toward the speaker—only to realize—
"Who are you?" He genuinely didn't recognize him.
"Boss," Maru tugged his sleeve.
"His name's Belto. He's—"
"That's right!" Belto interrupted proudly.
"I'm Belto, ace member of the new Giants raid team!"
He struck a dramatic pose, pointing at himself with his thumb—eerily reminiscent of a certain speed-posing Saiyan prince.
Leon stared at the tall, skinny Belto and couldn't, for the life of him, associate him with the word "giant."
But he caught something else.
"New raid team."
"What's going on?" Leon asked, ignoring Belto entirely and turning to Maru.
"I never told you," she scratched her head.
"During the month you disappeared, boss, several teams popped up wanting to replace us. His team is the strongest among them. The Catacombs intel I mentioned earlier came from them."
Leon immediately understood. His gaze toward Belto turned cold.
"So it was you who deliberately withheld the trap information."
"'Deliberately withheld'?" Belto scoffed.
"You make us sound like villains. It's already generous of us to share hard-earned intel at all. We didn't lie—leaving out a bit isn't a big deal, right?"
Technically, he wasn't wrong.
Sharing any information at all was already commendable.
Still, Leon disliked his tone. Maybe it was how punchable he sounded. Maybe it was the phrase "new raid team."
Or maybe it was simply because he had ruined the pleasant moment between him and Maru—without even realizing it.
The situation was clear.
Belto was here to provoke him.
Leon had seen plenty of people like this and had no interest in engaging. He grabbed Maru's hand and prepared to leave—
But Belto shamelessly stepped in their way.
"Move." Leon's temper was already thin. He might actually hit him.
Belto raised his hands, putting on what he clearly thought was a friendly smile—only making himself look even more punchable.
"Relax, relax. I'm just here to pass along a message from our captain. No need to get so tense."
He cleared his throat.
"Let's have a match, Leon. We'll compete to see who can clear the Sein Dungeon the fastest. The loser gives up the honor of being a raid team—"