On a side note, the last time Lilith had gone to Valorian City to help lift the siege, she'd been hunted down by "Valorian Divine General Zelas" afterward. Kalis found himself wondering if she'd managed to escape safely. A flicker of curiosity crossed his mind, but he kept walking steadily, heading deeper into the mine tunnels.
A few "Imp Overseers" wandered sporadically through the mines. Kalis tossed off a few small spells casually, picking them off one by one without making a single sound or stirring up any commotion. Lia followed silently behind him, occasionally raising her hand to refresh two of his buffs, barely needing to lift a finger the whole way.
The two soon reached the iron fence at the outer edge of the mine tunnels. Unlike Kalis's last visit, the fence stood wide open this time, no waiting or breaking required to pass through. Beyond the fence lay a dim dungeon area, patrolled by a handful of Imps wielding bone whips.
The imps spotted Kalis and Lia in no time. One of them, who looked like the leader, roared angrily: "Despicable human miners! How dare you flee the mines without permission!" With that, it cracked its bone whip and charged straight at them.
"Thunder Chain!" Kalis raised his hand and unleashed the spell in an instant, pale blue lightning arcing from the tip of his staff. In the narrow dungeon corridor, the Thunder Chain bounced perfectly nine times, hitting every last patrolling imp with pinpoint accuracy.
From the imps' angry shouts to their complete silence, the whole thing took less than two seconds.
"I only got as far as this spot last time," Kalis turned to explain to Lia. "I don't know anything about the areas beyond here."
"Let's keep going and check it out," Lia nodded in agreement.
The dungeon was split into multiple cells. Kalis made a point of checking each one carefully, half-expecting to find more imprisoned human NPCs like Tavren.
Instead, he found every cell completely empty, not a single soul in sight. The two pushed open the stone door at the far end of the dungeon and pressed on, venturing further outward.
As soon as they stepped through the door, the scenery around them changed completely. The narrow, rugged mine tunnels vanished, replaced by a flat, wide, hidden corridor.
Kalis cast Crystal Barricade on himself, taking the lead to scout ahead. He remembered clearly that Lord Zerakel had entered the dungeon through this very corridor last time. He had no intention of carelessly walking straight into a boss and getting one-shotted.
They walked dozens of steps down the corridor, and a flight of upward-sloping stone steps appeared ahead. No sooner had they set foot on the steps than they heard the squelching sound of tentacles sliding across the ground up ahead, mixed with the guttural chatter of Abyssal monsters.
"Captain G'zhul! You've arrived! What are your orders?"
"I'm acting on Lord Zerakel's command. I've come to capture ten humans to deliver to Princess Lilith's palace."
"Oh? Could it be that Her Highness is holding her coming-of-age ceremony? But why did she choose humans instead of—"
"Shut your mouth! Don't speak such nonsense!" G'zhul snapped angrily. "Her Highness is nothing like the depraved creature you're imagining! She suffered a severe wound recently and is in urgent need of absorbing human life essence to heal."
"What? Was her highness wounded? But she's the daughter of the great Night Archon! Who would dare to hurt her?"
"I don't know the full details myself. All I heard was that she was injured by a human Divine General. In the end, it took Lord Night Archon himself to step in and pull her back from the brink of death."
"Gasp—Lord Night Archon personally intervened! The last time His Lordship descended was three thousand years ago!"
"Enough chatter! Hurry up and get to work! I'm going to round up the humans, you lot come with me to handle the transport!"
Footsteps drew closer, heavy thuds from two-legged creatures, mixed with the squelching slide of tentacles on stone. Kalis listened to the conversation, a thoughtful look crossing his face. He'd just been wondering about Lilith's safety, and now he was hearing news about her out of the blue.
So, it seemed that after leaving Valorian City, Lilith still hadn't managed to escape Valorian Divine General Zelas's pursuit. She'd nearly lost her life.
Fortunately, the Night Archon had personally stepped in to save her, and with the Night Archon's power, strong enough to slay the War God, taking down a mere Divine General would've been child's play. Still, Kalis couldn't help but wonder just how badly injured Lilith was, if she needed to absorb human life essence to recover…
As these thoughts raced through his mind, the figures of several Abyssal creatures appeared at the far end of the corridor. "Oh no! Humans have escaped!" The lead tentacle monster, G'zhul, spotted Kalis and Lia instantly, letting out a sharp hiss. "Quick! Capture them!"
"Yes, Captain!" The other imps chorused in unison, raising their bone whips and short blades and charging straight at the two.
Kalis spared a split second to glance at G'zhul's status panel:
[Abyssal Dungeon Guard Captain - G'zhul]
Level: 120
HP: 178400/178400
(Target level is too high to obtain additional attribute data)
"Pathetically weak," Kalis scoffed, raising his hand again to unleash Thunder Chain. In the narrow corridor, the spell's three-meter bounce radius was more than enough to let it reach its full destructive potential.
The lightning arced and bounced several times in quick succession, and the charging Abyssal creatures collapsed to the ground on the spot—several of them were even reduced to ash instantly.
"Captain!"
"Disaster! Human powerhouses have breached the dungeon!"
"Hurry and report this to Lord Zerakel!"
At the back of the corridor, a few Abyssal creatures who hadn't charged forward watched their captain and comrades get one-shotted in an instant. Panic-stricken, they screamed and turned to flee—obviously rushing off to deliver a report.
"Oh no! Some of the mobs are going to get help! We're going to get swarmed soon!" Lia's face fell, panic creeping into her voice.
But Kalis looked completely unbothered. "It's fine. As long as they're not Mythic-tier bosses, I can take down as many as they send."
They walked a bit further down the corridor, and a massive, heavy stone door appeared ahead. Carved from a single block of black stone and etched with eerie Abyssal runes, the door looked incredibly sturdy. Kalis gave it a try, pushing with all his strength, but the door didn't budge an inch, not even a hint of movement.
Lia hurried over to help, pushing alongside him. But both of them were mages, with inherently low Strength stats. Even working together, they couldn't get the door to move even a fraction of a centimeter.
"What do we do now?" Lia frowned, clearly worried.
"Let's try blowing it up with a spell," Kalis stepped back a few paces, gripping his staff tightly with both hands. He muttered an incantation under his breath, then unleashed a colossal Fireball—a full meter in diameter.
BOOM——!!
The Fireball slammed into the stone door, triggering a violent explosion that filled the entire corridor with flames and thick smoke. When the dust cleared, the once-impenetrable stone door had been reduced to a pile of rubble, completely clearing their path.
Kalis peeked his head out the door—and found himself staring at a wide street, where dozens of Abyssal creatures stood at the ready, weapons in hand, their eyes fixed firmly on the stone door.
"Whoa. That's a lot of EXP just waiting to be claimed," he grinned to himself, casting another Crystal Barricade on himself. He gestured for Lia to step back a few paces, then strode confidently toward the doorway.
Outside the door, the sky was pitch-black, lit only by a single, eerie blood-red moon hanging overhead. It bathed the ground in a scarlet glow, its light so harsh that every detail on the street was crystal clear.
Beneath the blood moon, an Abyssal city built entirely of black stone stood perched on the mountainside. It wasn't nearly as grand as Valorian City; in fact, it was even smaller than Galewind City, a Level 4 city—but the entire place exuded an aura of bone-chilling dread.
The city's streets crisscrossed in all directions. The widest main street was nearly ten meters across, stretching from the city's entrance all the way to the foot of the mountain it was built against. And it was from a cave at the foot of that very mountain that Kalis and Lia emerged, stepping out onto that main street.
"Bold humans! How dare you intrude into the Abyssal Realm!"
"In the name of the Night Archon and Lord Zerakel, you are under arrest!"
"Drop your weapons and surrender at once! Or we'll tear you to shreds!"
The Abyssal creatures on the street roared in unison, their voices guttural and grating on the ears.
More and more Abyssal soldiers converged on their position, their numbers growing by the second. But Kalis didn't attack immediately; instead, he stood his ground and waited calmly. He planned to let the monsters gather in even larger numbers before using Star Wind to clear them all out in one massive area-of-effect strike. It would be far more efficient that way.
But the Abyssal creatures clearly had no intention of giving them time to wait. Seeing that Kalis and Lia's levels weren't particularly high, they dropped all pretense of caution and charged forward first.
"Capture that male human! His life essence looks so strong—Princess will definitely love it!"
"No! We can't give him to the Princess! Humans like this are the most despicable—kill him on the spot!"
"That's right! Kill him! How dare he intrude into our domain and even try to seduce Her Highness! He deserves to die a thousand deaths!"
A horde of grotesque monsters howled in unison, waving their weapons as they pounced straight at Kalis and Lia.