A pyrrhic victory.
Ivan was unconscious, his face covered with dark purple lines eroded by magic power, even his breathing was faint.
Nova sat on the ground, supporting the ground with arms like dry branches, occasionally coughing a few times.
On the other hand, Gall, the team's designated punching bag, was still lively and energetic.
But with only him left as battle strength, he didn't dare linger there.
After giving potions to his two teammates and quickly collecting the loot, he carried them off to meet up with the Night Owl.
After he left, Lin Jun emerged from his hiding spot and picked up a fist-sized fragment of the Heart of Lava from under a piece of shattered Rock Armor.
It was about a tenth of the original size; the rest of the fragments had been taken by the Half-dragon.
Strictly speaking, this thing was the real body of the Flame Demon, the only part of value.
As for its ten-meter-tall form, it was merely a combat form supported by its abilities.
Standing before the scattered pieces of Rock Armor, Lin Jun was quite reflective.
The final boss he imagined, dying so suddenly before he even had a chance to challenge it.
And the opponents were just three adventurers of lower level than it.
Just that one flaw, and it was instantly counter-killed.
Lin Jun, who had been observing the situation, didn't miss any details.
The rift on the Flame Demon's chest armor was probably caused during one of its outings.
In any case, his understanding of this world's dangers has deepened.
Level isn't everything; keeping one's true body always hidden is the safest bet.
Though saying this, he had to expose his body temporarily to move his residence.
————
The passage connecting the 10th floor is rather interesting.
The bottom half isn't different from other passages in the Deep Area, but the upper half features rudimentary stairs.
It's unknown who constructed the Underground City.
From Inanna's words, Lin Jun had acquired a fair bit of information about the Underground City.
That young lady, who had never personally ventured into the Underground City, had heard quite a lot of gossip.
Which obviously didn't include the origins of the Underground City.
However, some information about the 10th floor exists.
The 10th floor of the Purple Crystal Dungeon is also known as the Thousand Stone Forest.
It's filled with countless natural stone pillars dividing the entire level into difficult-to-connect upper and lower sections.
Perched atop the pillars is a race called Haka, the Winged Wind Serpent, while below is the werewolves' hunting ground.
Werewolves aren't actually demons but belong to the Demon Race, and used to be one of its strongest races.
But ever since the Demon King was slain by the Hero three hundred years ago, the Demon Race has been embroiled in infighting over leadership.
Humans took this opportunity to form alliances and barely developed; otherwise, even without the Demon King, the Demon Race could still overpower other races around them.
In the end, the Vampires achieved victory and established the Hermit Empire, while some Demon Race factions unwilling to submit to vampires moved to the barren Land of the Far West, and had no interactions with the Hermit Empire.
The Vampires carried out brutal purges against their arch-enemy the werewolves, some of whom fled into various Underground Cities around the world, becoming part of them.
According to Inanna, outside the Underground City, werewolves can only be found on the Western Islands now.
But being on the edge of extinction doesn't mean they are weak; on the contrary, being such a formidable enemy to vampires speaks to their corresponding strength.
Without training, a mature werewolf reaches at least Level 30, with a racial level cap equal to vampires, at Level 90, clearly an overlord-level race.
Lin Jun had once asked Inanna: Wouldn't humans and vampires fear these werewolves regaining strength in the Underground City and striking back?
Inanna said that the Underground City has "rules," and even on the tenth floor, they can grow only to Level 50 at most.
As for crossing levels, no werewolf has ever appeared outside their designated floors; even neighboring levels like the ninth have never seen werewolves.
As for the specifics, Inanna didn't know, only saying that "rules" are a common knowledge of the Underground City, the same for both the Purple Crystal Dungeon and other dungeons.
————
After ascending to the tenth floor, the Silver Thorn Squad didn't pause to rest.
Despite having two injured members, they headed straight for the entrance to the 9th floor.
Werewolves sometimes hunt in packs, a hassle for even the whole squad, let alone now.
They planned to rush to the safe house on the ninth floor.
Lin Jun followed the route taken by the adventurers, indeed facing no danger along the way.
But he witnessed an interesting scene.
While passing a passage hidden within the rock wall, through small holes in the passage, Lin Jun observed a Level 40 Wind Serpent hunting a rabbit demon.
Called Split-tooth Beast, although it looked like a rabbit demon, it was the size of a brown bear, equipped with sharp teeth, capable of jumping ten meters high.
Faced with the Wind Serpent's attack, it showed no fear, instead, continuously jumping up to bite it.
But the agile Wind Serpent dodged every attack, taking the chance to unleash electric shocks, leaving charred marks on the rabbit.
When the rabbit attempted to flee, it was too injured to run fast.
Interestingly, the Wind Serpent used some sort of air manipulation skill to drag the rabbit's massive body away, despite having no claws.
Lin Jun had thought it would eat on-site.
Both the Wind Serpent and Split-tooth Beast piqued Lin Jun's interest.
Such great skills!
But now isn't the right time.
The walking trip experience ends here.
Awooo—
Wolf howls came from the front, obviously indicating those adventurers collided with werewolves.
Emerging from the rock wall pathway, Lin Jun saw the Half-dragon and an Elf under siege, though the battle was nearly over.
Neither side was about to lose; despite their ragged state, the two adventurers steadily retreated amidst wolf attacks.
Lin Jun even saw Inanna taking part in the fight.
Due to her limited sight, she couldn't see the enemy's position, trusting the Elemental Spirit's auto-aim capability to attack with the Water Snake Technique.
Surprisingly, as the only ranged fighter left, she was quite effective.
Observing they could hold out for a while, it was clear the battle was ending as they successfully retreated to the entrance to the ninth floor.
Indeed, within the final short distance, the Half-dragon suddenly used a skill to push the surrounding werewolves back, quickly retreating into the passageway.
The werewolves surrounded the entrance, howling but none stepping into the passage.
Great, this avoided the moral dilemma of whether to expose himself to save his former employees.
Now, he just had to wait for the werewolves to give up and leave before heading over himself.
Lin Jun now understood what "rules" meant.
Curious what might happen if a werewolf was caught and forced onto the ninth floor?
Perhaps it would die instantly; otherwise, such an obvious loophole should have been discovered.
As Lin Jun pondered, the werewolves suddenly quieted down.
Sniffing the air, they turned one by one towards Lin Jun's hiding spot.
Uh oh…
They really do have dog noses…