Chapter 8: City-Wide Alert! Taotie Mistaken for a Calamity-Tier BOSS

The collapse of a dungeon is absolutely a disaster! Especially for those dungeons embedded within the Water Globe Star, once a dungeon truly collapses, everything inside it, whether wild monsters or professionals, will all be devoured.

Leaving behind only a patch of wasteland.

Moreover, if a dungeon collapses, it means resources will no longer respawn, which is certainly not a good thing.

All the dungeons around the city are within monitoring range.

The abnormal situation in the Black Pine Forest immediately attracted the attention of the experts of Liyang City.

Without delay, City Lord Fan Qingli dispatched Patrol Envoy Sun Jiugong to investigate.

As a level-88 second-advancement expert, Sun Jiugong was well-traveled and knowledgeable. After arriving above the Black Pine Forest, he immediately spotted the culprit within that black storm.

Clearly, this was not a dungeon collapse, but something even more serious.

A dungeon wild monster had mutated—a terrifying dungeon BOSS had been born! Any dungeon can undergo unguided mutation, and the birth of such a super dungeon BOSS is unpredictable. The monster before him, only level 17 yet possessing such terrifying large-scale destructive power, clearly had enormous potential.

He made his assessment in an instant and fed the information back to the city.

Fan Qingli was startled when he saw the message: "This crisis is caused by a growth-type mutated dungeon BOSS. Preliminary comprehensive rating: Calamity-tier! Recommend immediate elimination!"

Apart from levels, wild monsters also have quality classifications.

From low to high, they are: Common-tier, Elite-tier, Lord-tier, Overlord-tier, King-tier, and Calamity-tier.

A Calamity-tier monster means that once it fully matures, it will bring destruction to the city. Even a Legendary-tier professional of the same level would have great difficulty defeating it in combat! A mutated dungeon BOSS is considered a kind of wealth. If the situation is controllable, they are usually allowed to grow freely, then killed after reaching a certain level to obtain high-quality materials, which are then given to smiths to craft high-quality equipment.

But a Calamity-tier monster means its growth is completely uncontrollable and could at any time exceed the upper limit of killable combat power. So, after a brief moment of hesitation, Fan Qingli made the wisest choice.

"Approved for immediate elimination!"

However, just as Sun Jiugong received the message, he saw that the Calamity-tier monster from moments ago had suddenly disappeared.

Lu Zheng had put it away.

Because he felt that if he did not intervene, Taotie would very likely eat the entire dungeon! As a top student who had attended school, he naturally knew how much value a dungeon represented. If it was truly eaten by Taotie and the authorities found out, even selling off all his family's assets probably would not be enough to repay the debt.

He admitted he had chickened out. Young as he was, he could not shoulder such an enormous debt.

Sun Jiugong looked at the spot where the Calamity-tier monster had suddenly vanished, revealing a puzzled expression. He did not let his guard down, thinking to himself: could this creature also have the ability to conceal its form?

Suddenly, his eyes swept across the area that had been ravaged by the black storm and reduced to wasteland, and he saw that there was actually a person standing there. He immediately rushed down, grabbed him in one swoop, and the wings of spiritual light behind him flapped. The next moment, the two of them were back in midair together.

"Kid, how dare you venture deep into this place? Do you have a death wish!?"

Lu Zheng looked at him with a dumbfounded expression. An expert at level 88 had made a move—the speed was simply too fast. He genuinely had not reacted in time.

Sun Jiugong saw Lu Zheng's state, thought of something, and frowned as he asked:

"Were you sucked over here? It's a good thing that creature suddenly disappeared, otherwise you would have been eaten by it! Why aren't you speaking? Did that suction force damage your brain?"

Lu Zheng snapped back to his senses, quickly gave a light cough, and replied, "Um, thank you for saving me, Senior!"

Sun Jiugong saw that his attitude was reasonably respectful, nodded, and continued asking: "You must be a third-year high school student, right? You've only awakened for a dozen or so days, yet you've already reached level 14. Your talent is excellent! No wonder you dared to come to the Black Pine Forest for your trial. But you should hurry back. That mutated dungeon BOSS is very likely Calamity-tier. I don't know what method it used to hide itself, but this place is still unsafe. You need to leave as soon as possible, otherwise if you get sucked away next time, you might not be so lucky!"

There was a lot of information in those words. Lu Zheng quickly gave a perfunctory reply, and after Sun Jiugong set him down, he pushed off hard with both legs and sprinted away from the area, as if worried about being chased for debts.

Sun Jiugong watched his running speed and could not help but nod: "Seems like an assassin-type profession. That speed is outstanding. Our Liyang City has produced an abundance of talent in this year's cohort!"

Saying so, he took another glance at the ravaged crater from before and sent a message back to Fan Qingli.

"Calamity-tier mutated dungeon BOSS vanished instantly. Suspected to possess danger perception and void concealment abilities. Recommend city-wide level-two alert, to guard against the possibility of it descending upon the city!"

Upon receiving this message, Fan Qingli was startled once again.

When he had first learned that the newly appeared Calamity-tier dungeon monster was only in its teens in level, he had not been particularly worried. After all, with Sun Jiugong, who was past level 88 second advancement, taking action, he should be able to eliminate it no matter what.

But if this monster also had void concealment and advance danger perception, then that was far too dangerous.

Just as Sun Jiugong had said, it could descend upon the city at any time!

Better safe than sorry. So after only a brief moment of thought, Fan Qingli immediately sounded the level-two alert. All professionals above first advancement were summoned to gather atop the city walls to guard against the crisis.

Over on this side, Lu Zheng had just returned to the city when he learned that the entire city was now on alert. Everyone was forbidden from going out, and the city gates were closed.

After selling the harvested materials at the Lifestyle Professional Commercial Street, Lu Zheng first went to the Space-Time Temple and spent twenty gold coins to expand his professional's personal storage space by four slots.

After awakening a profession, everyone starts with twenty storage slots, and each slot can store one hundred of the same type of item. As Lu Zheng's high-tier summoned beasts increased, the materials dropped from killing monsters also became plentiful. The original twenty slots had long been insufficient. To prevent having nowhere to put top-tier materials in the future, he gritted his teeth and spent a fortune to complete one expansion.

Five gold coins to expand one slot—that was a full fifty thousand copper coins, fifty thousand steamed buns, enough to eat for a very long time.

Lu Zheng's family could only save four or five gold coins in a year, but Lu Zheng, having become a combat professional, had earned over twenty gold coins in just a dozen or so days.

After expanding his slots and taking inventory of his materials, Lu Zheng returned home.

Seeing Lu Zheng return, his mother Fang Ya stepped forward and grabbed him in an embrace, murmuring:

"Thank goodness you're all right! Thank the gods!"

She then pulled Lu Zheng into the room and scolded angrily, "You brat! Why didn't you come back when you heard the alarm!? I heard a Calamity-tier monster appeared outside and nearly destroyed the entire Black Pine Forest. That's not far from the Green Green Grassland where you were leveling. How could you be so oblivious to danger!? Don't you know your mother would worry about you?!"

Looking at his furious mother, Lu Zheng stepped forward directly and gave her another hug.

"Mom! I know I was wrong!"

As soon as those words came out, the anger on Fang Ya's face vanished, replaced by a relaxed and gratified smile.

That is just how parents are.

The entire next day, the city remained on alert. Entry was permitted, but exit was forbidden. It was not until the third day that the alert was lifted and free passage was allowed.

Although his mother was very worried, Lu Zheng promised that he would leave the city in a different direction and would not go toward the Black Pine Forest, so there would be no danger. Only then was he allowed to leave the city.

Lu Zheng indeed did not go to the Black Pine Forest. Monsters below level 20 could no longer satisfy his appetite. He was going to the Red Demon Forest, which was filled with monsters from level 20 to 30, and was considered the most dangerous leveling ground for professionals below first advancement! Thank you for your support! (End of this chapter)