Chapter 15: Werewolves

A pyrrhic victory.

Ivan lay unconscious, his face covered in dark purple patterns eroded by magic, his breath barely a thread.

Nova sat on the ground, propping himself up with arms like withered branches, coughing occasionally.

In contrast, Gar, the team's designated tank, was as lively as a dragon.

But with only him left as combat power, he dared not linger.

After forcing potions down his two teammates, he quickly gathered the loot, then carried one under each arm and ran to rendezvous with the Night Owl.

Only after they left did Lin Jun emerge from his hiding spot, retrieving a fist-sized fragment of the Magma Heart from beneath a shard of rock armor.

It was roughly one-tenth the size of the complete one; the other fragments had been taken by the half-dragons.

Strictly speaking, this thing was the true body of the Balrog, and the only part with value.

As for that ten-meter form, it was merely a combat shape sustained by ability.

Standing before the scattered rock armor, Lin Jun felt quite emotional.

This self-imagined final BOSS hadn't even waited for him to challenge it before suddenly dropping dead.

The opponents were merely three adventurers with lower levels than it.

Because of that one tiny flaw, it was instantly counter-killed.

Lin Jun, who had been observing the situation, had missed not a single detail.

The crack on the Balrog's chest armor was likely caused when it went out.

Regardless, he had gained a new understanding of the danger level of this world.

Level does not represent everything; only by never exposing one's true form is one truly safe.

Although he said that, to move house, he now had no choice but to temporarily expose his true form to danger.

————

The passage connecting the tenth floor was quite interesting.

The lower half was no different from other passages in the deep zones, but the upper section featured crude stairs.

Who built this dungeon, no one knew.

Lin Jun had obtained quite a bit of information about the dungeon from Inanna.

This Young Lady, who had never personally entered a dungeon before, had heard plenty of rumors.

Obviously, the dungeon's origins were not among them.

However, information about the tenth floor was available.

The Amethyst Dungeon's tenth floor was also known as the Thousand Stone Forest.

Countless natural Shi Zhu within divided the entire layer into upper and lower sections that were difficult to traverse between.

Winged wind snakes named Haka inhabited the tops of the Shi Zhu, while below lay the werewolves' hunting ground.

Werewolves were actually not monsters but demons, and had once been one of the most powerful races among the demons.

However, since the Demon King was beheaded by the Hero three hundred years ago, the demons had fallen into internal strife over who would lead.

Humans took advantage of this period to unite various races and barely develop; otherwise, even without the Demon King, the demons' strength would still have utterly crushed surrounding races.

In the end, the vampires won the chicken dinner and established the Hermit Empire; the demons who refused to submit to the vampires migrated to the impoverished far west, and the Hermit Empire maintained no contact with them.

The vampires launched a cruel purge against their ancestral enemies, the werewolves, and some werewolf tribes fled into dungeons across the world, becoming part of them.

According to Inanna, besides the dungeons, werewolves could only be seen on the Western Archipelago.

But being on the brink of extinction did not mean they were weak; on the contrary, being so hated by vampires naturally implied corresponding strength.

Without training, they could reach at least level 30 upon adulthood, and their racial level cap was as high as 90, just like the vampires, making them a true hegemon race.

Regarding this, Lin Jun had once asked Inanna: Would humans and vampires not fear these werewolves growing strong within the dungeons and then bursting out?

Inanna replied that the dungeons had "rules"; even on the tenth floor, they could grow to at most LV50.

As for crossing layers to come up, that had never happened; not only did werewolves never run out of the dungeons, but there had never been a werewolf sighted even on the adjacent ninth floor.

As for the specific reason, Inanna did not know, stating only that "rules" were common knowledge in dungeons, whether the Amethyst Dungeon or others.

————

After the Silver Thorn team reached the tenth floor, they did not stop to rest.

Although there were two injured members in the team, they headed straight for the entrance to the ninth floor.

Werewolves sometimes hunt in groups; even if the team were intact, encountering them would be troublesome, let alone now.

They planned to rush directly to the safe house on the ninth floor.

Following the route taken by several adventurers, Lin Jun indeed encountered no danger along the way.

However, he saw an interesting scene.

While passing a passage hidden within the rock wall, through a small hole inside the passage, Lin Jun witnessed a level 40 wind snake hunting a rabbit monster.

Called a rabbit monster, its panel displayed the name Fanged Beast, a creature no smaller than a brown bear, with sharp fangs and teeth, capable of leaping ten meters high.

Facing the wind snake's attacks, it showed no fear, instead constantly jumping up to bite the wind snake.

However, the wind snake was agile; not only did it dodge the attacks several times, but it also seized the opportunity to unleash electric shocks, burning patches of the rabbit's body black.

By the time the rabbit tried to flee, its injuries were too severe to run fast.

Interestingly, the clawless wind snake ultimately used the skill Airflow Manipulation to drag away the rabbit-sized body.

Lin Jun initially thought it would eat it on the spot.

Whether the wind snake or the Fanged Beast, Lin Jun found both quite tempting.

Both possessed excellent skills!

Unfortunately, now was not the time.

However, the experience of traveling on foot ended here.

Awooo—

Howls of wolves echoed from ahead; no need to think to know those adventurers had run into the werewolves.

Lin Jun, emerging from the cliffside path, saw the half-dragon and the elf under siege, though the battle was already nearing its end.

It wasn't that one side was about to be defeated; the two adventurers, though battered, still held their ground and retreated steadily amid the werewolves' assault.

Lin Jun even saw Inanna joining the fight.

Blinded by limited vision, she couldn't spot the enemies' positions and could only keep casting Water Snake Technique, relying on the Elemental Spirit's auto-aim to strike them.

To be honest, as the sole ranged fighter at that moment, she actually made a difference.

Seeing the group could still hold out for quite some time, the reason the battle was called nearly over was that they had successfully retreated all the way to the entrance of the ninth-floor staircase.

Sure enough, during the final short stretch, the half-dragon suddenly used a skill to repel the surrounding werewolves, then swiftly withdrew into the passage.

The werewolves gathered at the entrance, howling, yet none dared step into the passage.

Good; this way, he wouldn't face the moral dilemma of whether to expose himself to save his former employee.

Next, he would simply wait for the werewolves to give up and leave before crossing over himself.

Lin Jun had now witnessed what "rules" truly meant.

Still, he wondered: what would happen if someone captured a werewolf and forcibly dragged it to the ninth floor?

It would probably die instantly; otherwise, such an obvious loophole would have been discovered long ago.

While Lin Jun was still letting his thoughts wander, the werewolves over there suddenly fell silent.

They twitched their noses, then one by one turned their heads toward Lin Jun's hidden position.

Oh no...

They really do have dog noses...

(End of this chapter)