Chapter 34: New Map! Sewer Corridor and Shi Shi Laimu!

Accelerate.

Climb the wall.

Arach-Tulu flew over obstacles flexibly, like a hunter in the shadows, flying over walls while locking onto the target walking in the labyrinth corridor with its eyes.

Eject—

Surprise attack!

Arach-Tulu's one-hit-kill hunting technique was stable as always today! As always!

The swift forelimbs were about to press the fragrant skeleton to the ground.

However, for some reason, the hard touch was different from what it expected.

Only to see the skeleton suddenly turn around, backhanding its shield to block the pounce.

"Duang——!"

Arach-Tulu was taken aback, and just as it was about to jump back, it was already too late.

The skeleton seemed to shout something creakily—

"I caught it!!!"

Having long set its sights on the lurking spider behind, Watching Hu Wan, who had completed the block, roared.

Almost the moment his voice fell, Ye Zhiqiu, who had been waiting for a long time, slashed at the monster in front of him.

"Slash—!"

The sweeping sword energy instantly pierced through the cave spider's skull, and the red and yellow plasma splashed all over the ground.

Receiving a fatal blow, the cave spider's HP instantly returned to zero, and it curled its legs and fell to the ground.

Arach-Tulu's majestic life was achieved at this moment as the legend of some unknown skeleton soldier.

Things happened too suddenly.

Lurking in the shadows in the distance, the hunters of the Shadow-Weaving Nest were all stunned in place.

Especially Arachdo, who was so shocked that it almost fell off the labyrinth wall.

That was...

Adventurers' skills?!

When the Demon King was still alive, it had the good fortune to see it once, and at that time it was also almost killed under that person's sword.

"Damn—Arach-Tulu!"

"Boss! I want to avenge Arach-Tulu!"

"Slow down!"

Looking at his subordinates who were filled with righteous indignation, the cautious Arachdo stopped them.

Facing the sorrowful eyes of the hunters, it said in a low "chi chi chi" sound.

"These skeleton soldiers... have something strange, they have the skills of adventurers!"

A cave spider with long fur almost covering its eyes looked at it, its voice excited.

"What are you talking about?! Since that's the case, shouldn't we stifle them in the cradle even more?!"

Looking at this stupid guy, the cautious Arachdo scolded angrily.

"Fool! Those are skeleton soldiers! Necromancer's slaves! As long as the necromancer standing behind them wants, there are as many as you want, the human world is least short of bones! Pig bones, cow bones, sheep bones, dog bones can all summon this thing!"

"Are you trying to make me use your lives to trade for the lives of those rotten bones!"

Even, without bones, you can conjure bones out of thin air.

It's just that skeleton soldiers summoned in this way are like fire elements summoned by fire mages, needing to input mana to maintain.

Hearing Arachdo's words, the hunters calmed down.

Indeed.

Killing a few summons made no sense, they realized they had been blinded by anger.

They were all the backbone of the Shadow-Weaving Nest, monsters that had developed wisdom!

If they let the other side know that just a few skeleton soldiers caused the great Shadow-Weaving Nest to suffer heavy losses, I'm afraid the other side would laugh until they dreamed! "But... could it be that we just let it go?" The cave spider with fur dragging on the ground was indignant.

"Let it go? How is that possible!"

Squinting its scarlet pupils, the powerful and unusually cautious Arachdo stared at the backs of the two skeletons disappearing around the corner and walked forward slowly.

"I will make them pay the price, including the necromancer standing behind them... but not now."

"Follow me, go to our destroyed outpost."

"Don't forget the mission Arachnos lord gave us, we are here to scout."

On the other side.

Ye Zhiqiu and Watching Hu Wan continued to move forward along the labyrinth corridor, looking for a more suitable grinding spot.

This game has no mini-map, they can only make some marks along the way, and go offline every once in a while to draw the path they walked on paper.

Fortunately, the situation in this labyrinth is better than in the mine, most of the roads are straight, and the turns are basically right angles, only some small roads are crooked.

Watching Hu Wan: "Speaking of which, the spider just now seemed slightly stronger than other spiders."

Ye Zhiqiu: "Probably an elite monster."

Watching Hu Wan: "Elite monster is okay, no wonder the experience added is more than before... but speaking of which, are there no other monsters in this place besides spiders?"

Or is it because it's a closed beta version, and some finished models haven't been put in yet?

Ye Zhiqiu looked around, pondering for a moment before saying.

"Maybe... an 'event' happened."

Watching Hu Wan: "Event?"

Ye Zhiqiu nodded and continued.

"Although there aren't many plots in this game, if you dig with your heart, you can still see clues from many details."

Watching Hu Wan: "For example?"

Ye Zhiqiu: "For example... remember the mage dragging the crystal ball we saw in the opening animation?"

Watching Hu Wan: "Of course I remember... that guy is actually the Demon King, right?"

Ye Zhiqiu smiled and nodded.

"That's right, but he obviously wasn't the Demon King at the time, but was studying in a place similar to a school, and was suspected of attending a graduation ceremony attended by many high-level demons at the end."

Watching Hu Wan: "So?"

Ye Zhiqiu: "So, I can reasonably infer that it is likely a school similar to the demon world, mainly responsible for cultivating roles like Demon Kings. Then because the Demon King here died, or was transferred away, our BOSS was sent over to serve as the new Demon King of the necropolis."

Watching Hu Wan looked at him in surprise.

This...

Isn't this brain hole too big?!

And what does this have to do with the monsters in the labyrinth only being cave spiders?! "Then... what?" "Then, you can use your imagination."

Ye Zhiqiu looked around, looking at the spider webs hanging on the labyrinth wall.

"The previous Demon King died, but the monsters in the labyrinth are still there, so a vacuum of order appeared. Birds occupied the snake's nest, snakes drove away spiders, spiders drove away mice... before new order was formed, some strong monsters rose rapidly. Some are because of strong individual strength, some are because of amazing reproduction speed, or because of super strong ecological adaptability."

"The ratmen we encountered in the mine were obviously driven out by cave spiders. And when we threw them back into the labyrinth, they were almost instantly wiped out... then the question is, what does this explain?"

Watching Hu Wan, who was listening intently, was stunned, not expecting Brother Ye to suddenly sell a suspense to himself, hesitated for a while before saying.

"Explains... the combat power of ratmen is not as good as cave spiders?"

"Wrong," Ye Zhiqiu shook his head with a smile, and said straight to the point, "Organization."

"Organization?"

"That's right," Ye Zhiqiu nodded and continued, "The advantage of civilization over barbarism is nothing more than this; being able to destroy organized ratmen in a structured way, and replacing the latter's ecological niche in the labyrinth, only shows that cave spiders have also formed a strict organization."

"This works too?" Watching Hu Wan looked at the guy in front of him dumbfounded.

Although he felt that what this brother analyzed was really reasonable, he also instinctively felt that a game shouldn't be detailed to this extent...

It should just be a coincidence! Although he wanted to say this, he couldn't find a more rigorous reason to convince himself.

And just at this moment, he suddenly realized a serious problem!

If Brother Ye's speculation was correct, wouldn't they be walking on an extremely dangerous road? "Wait, in other words... if we continue to walk forward, we might run into a spider like the big mouse before?!"

Looking at Watching Hu Wan, who was facing a great enemy, Ye Zhiqiu said with a smile.

"Don't be nervous, I specifically chose a road with fewer spider webs, what's waiting for us ahead is probably not spiders, but other things."

The appearance of separatist forces in the labyrinth means that monsters will no longer live together, but have obvious regional divisions.

The labyrinth entrance where they were located had already been included in the cave spider's sphere of influence, so it was naturally impossible for other monsters to appear.

But relying solely on the power of cave spiders, it was obviously not enough to occupy the entire labyrinth.

In other words, as long as they walk two more steps forward, they can see other monsters.

Just as they were talking, the scenery ahead suddenly opened up.

Although it was still in the labyrinth, both of them clearly felt that the atmosphere and layout here were significantly different from the previous areas.

If it was the spider demon's spider cave just now, then this is the sewer of a human city-state.

Rusty pipes filled the walls, and a large number of scrapped wooden boxes and household garbage were abandoned here.

It's a pity that skeletons have no sense of smell.

Otherwise, they should be able to smell the pungent ammonia.

"It seems to be the same as I guessed," looking around at the scene, Ye Zhiqiu continued, "This place should be outside the sphere of influence of cave spiders."

Logically speaking, spiders should like humid environments, but those cave spiders would rather drill into the mine than expand here.

I don't know what monster dominates this area.

Snakes?

Or lizards and centipedes? Or other fantasy-type species—

Just as Ye Zhiqiu was thinking this, he soon made a new discovery.

Only to see in the room at the end of the labyrinth corridor, green balls were moving on the oily and shiny floor.

"This is..."

"Shi Shi Laimu?!"

In the pupils of the two skeleton soldiers, the soul fire of surprise swayed in unison.

Just as they noticed those green creatures, the latter also noticed them.

Unlike cave spiders.

As scavengers in the labyrinth, slimes showed far more interest in skeleton soldiers than cave spiders, moving their sticky bodies one after another, wriggling toward the players' direction.

"It seems this area is the slime's territory." Watching Hu Wan took half a step back with his scalp numb.

Compared to rats and spiders, he felt more physiologically uncomfortable with this kind of nasal mucus-like thing.

Ye Zhiqiu didn't retreat, just observed those gelatinous monsters with interest.

"Interesting... the movement speed is not fast, the aggressiveness is unknown, logically speaking, it shouldn't be enough to make cave spiders so afraid."

While speaking, he drew his one-handed sword and made a charging posture. When one of the slimes approached the attack range, he slashed out like lightning.

"Slash!"

The sweeping sword energy pierced through the slime without suspense, and the latter exploded with a puddle of mucus like a punctured balloon.

"Experience is only one-third of cave spiders, only slightly higher than ratmen."

This strength was obviously not enough to make cave spiders feel afraid, just from the strength comparison, he found it hard to understand why cave spiders didn't expand here.

Is it because it's not on the menu?

Or is it... not just slimes here, but other more dangerous things are entrenched, and slimes are in a symbiotic relationship with the latter, or just livestock raised by the latter?

Watching Hu Wan also showed a strange expression on his face.

"I also feel these monsters are much weaker than cave spiders... speaking of which, this is the place for novices to grind monsters, right?"

Even life-profession players should be able to easily solve these monsters.

Ye Zhiqiu nodded.

"It's possible... in short, let's mark this area down first."

The name of this area should be... 【Sewer Corridor】. The monsters that appear are mainly slimes, recommended leveling level LV0~5.

The official didn't name this area, he could only do it for them.

Taking advantage of the slimes not surrounding them, Ye Zhiqiu planned to leave from here.

However, just at this moment, Watching Hu Wan discovered an abnormality from the corpse of that slime.

"What is this?"

Enduring the mental discomfort, he reached his skeleton hand into that puddle of green mucus and picked up a crystal the size of a grain of rice.

"Let me see..."

Ye Zhiqiu reached out and took it, looked at it in his hand for a while, and was also confused at first.

However, just at this moment, he suddenly remembered a comment he saw on the forum before—

That was a post from a netizen whose ID made people lose their appetite.

As expected, that talent was still muted.

"So that's it... this thing is a magic crystal?"

Watching Hu Wan was stunned.

"Magic crystal? What's the use??"

"I don't know either, but I have a bad premonition," Ye Zhiqiu's face had a subtle expression, "When we were grinding monsters, we might have missed a lot of things..."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 35 =====