Chapter 42: 42 Precursors to Collapse

【Level Up LV50→LV51】

After the battle lasted most of the day, Lin Jun leveled up.

It hadn't been long since his last level-up.

No wonder it's a Demon Tide; the experience is just so abundant.

Inside the staircase, one blast from a Puffeater could hit six or seven monsters; normally, where could one find such a good output environment?

However, as time passed, the monsters' strength gradually increased.

Besides some Dragon Beasts, Lin Jun also saw flesh monsters from the Ninth Layer.

These things were more troublesome than the Dragon Beasts—their vitality and regeneration were too strong.

Strong enough to make him feel nauseous.

Even if he blew them to pieces, as long as the core part was still alive, they could absorb the surrounding flesh chunks and reassemble a deformed body.

And now, the staircase was covered in flesh chunks again...

Fortunately, each flesh monster could only control a limited size of body; otherwise, if they assembled a giant behemoth, Lin Jun would truly have no way to deal with it.

The current situation was that although the flesh monsters were hard to kill, they were also suppressed and couldn't climb up.

The situation at the Rift was much more difficult.

There was no special terrain like the staircase, where thousands of troops had to cross a single-log bridge.

The firepower gradually couldn't keep up with the speed at which monsters poured out, turning the encirclement and slaughter into a chaotic melee.

The Poojis had no reinforcements; they probably wouldn't be able to hold out for long, but that was expected.

What was unexpected was the Dragon Man's side.

The giant rat that had been fighting the Dragon Man had already turned into flesh chunks on the ground.

Towards the end of the battle, the Dragon Man had also fought with fiery anger; not only did he crush the giant rat's throat, but after it fell, he tore it to shreds before stopping.

This battle obviously consumed a lot of the Dragon Man's energy, to the point that he no longer intended to guard all the Poojis.

Just now, as if he had figured something out, he directly bundled up six Poojis and flew towards the forest.

Without the Dragon Man, the monsters had an unobstructed path.

After entering the Fifth Layer, they started running around blindly like headless flies.

Vast patches of mycelium mats were trampled, and mushrooms were crushed.

The thing he worried about had come true.

Although the monsters received orders to rush out of the dungeon, this order obviously did not include navigation.

The mycelium mats that could be completely preserved in the Fifth Layer were probably just those hanging on the dome.

Fortunately, so far, enough monsters had been killed.

Since the mushroom garden couldn't be saved from destruction, he would try to minimize the time and cost required for reconstruction.

Nothing could accelerate reconstruction more than a large number of corpses.

Now, all the monsters were thinking only of rushing upward and wouldn't steal to eat the corpses on the ground.

Only the Dragon Man, this outlier, was wholeheartedly devoted to gnawing on Poojis.

The Rift could no longer be held; if they continued to guard the staircase, they would soon be surrounded.

Lin Jun commanded two squads of Poojis to start retreating towards the Swamp Area while fighting; the terrain there was most suitable for the Poojis to make their final counterattack.

To maintain maximum firepower even while retreating, Lin Jun even developed a backward-jump volley tactic.

After the front-line Poojis fired in unison, they jumped to the rear ranks during the gap of re-gathering mana.

Fighting while jumping like this caused the monsters to leave behind even more corpses.

By the time the Poojis entered the Swamp Area, the battle had entered its final stage.

Small monsters' mobility was greatly reduced after entering the swamp, posing no threat.

The truly threatening ones were those that could fly and those with huge sizes.

The remaining fewer than five hundred Poojis launched a final chaotic brawl against the monsters surging from all directions...

The plan was basically executed up to this point; monsters had already started wandering near the cave.

Lin Jun decisively detonated several self-destruct Poojis at the cave entrance, sealing the entry.

He also incidentally caused the fat Puffeater in the forest, which was being held and gnawed by the Dragon Man, to self-destruct.

Did he really think this was a buffet?

The fat Puffeater was hiding in a cave at the edge of the forest, yet the Dragon Man still found it.

Self-destruct definitely wouldn't kill it; even injuring it would be difficult.

Lin Jun currently had no way to deal with it.

The previous poisoning plan had also failed; he didn't know if it could distinguish differences, but it only chose to eat Cannon Mushrooms or self-destruct Poojis.

He could only hope it would leave the Fifth Layer quickly, along with the other Dragon Beasts.

But then again, after the Demon Tide, wouldn't all layers be left with a large number of high-level monsters?

He didn't know if they would automatically retreat to lower levels or if the dungeon itself would handle them.

He felt the dungeon's problems were increasing more and more, including that suspicious voice that caused the Demon Tide.

However, he was currently just a weak mushroom and shouldn't be thinking about so much.

Wait until he reached LV99 one day, then he would go investigate!

Putting thoughts of the dungeon aside, Lin Jun squatted in the cave and began watching the live broadcast outside.

Although the mycelium mats and mushrooms on the ground were all trampled into a mess, those on the dome were not greatly affected.

Thanks to them, Lin Jun could still observe the outside—though the underground signal was slightly poor.

The things surging up from the Lower District are becoming increasingly absurd.

A three-headed basilisk, leaving a trail of venom wherever it crawled; who knows if mushrooms can still be grown there later.

Beetles burning with flames around their bodies successfully set Dilan's little wooden house of love ablaze.

There were even oversized golems; with such a huge size, it's a wonder they could climb up at all.

These monsters emerged one after another; those who found the stairs continued charging upward, while those who didn't ran wildly in all directions.

Fortunately, no one was interested in the collapsed cavern... except for a certain dragonkin...

Lin Jun watched as that dragonkin emerged from the forest, heading straight for the cavern.

What is he planning to do?

Did he discover the pugi inside the cave?

The fifth floor was covered in dead pugi; could it be that he insists on eating fresh ones?

However, even if it sensed them, it shouldn't be able to dig in.

But... just in case, preparations must still be made...

————

"No... it's impossible to hold them back!"

At the dungeon entrance, from a certain moment on, the strength of the monsters suddenly jumped significantly.

Flesh monsters, high-level dragon beasts...

The adventurers, caught off guard, suffered heavy casualties.

Even two Gold-rank adventurers sacrificed their lives.

Moreover, it wasn't just this single batch that was strong; the further back, the more powerful monsters there were!

By now, the casualties had reached the critical point the adventurers could endure.

Many had already formed the intention to retreat, planning to find an opportunity to slip away.

"No retreat allowed!

If you retreat, do you want Silent Wind Town to suffer?

Whoever dares to flee will have their adventurer status revoked by the Guild!

Reinforcements are arriving soon; hold your ground!

After the crisis passes, everyone's bounty will be paid out at triple the rate!"

Oberon had actually come to the front lines himself at this moment.

In fact, he had no choice but to come.

He stood out now, putting on a posture of fighting to the death to resist.

After the position fell, he could still claim "fought to the end, broke through with severe injuries" to gain some sympathy points.

When the Guild investigates later, they might deal with him leniently.

As Oberon shouted loudly, the magnificent and exquisite wand in his hand erupted with dazzling light.

Seventh-rank Light Magic — Arrow of the Firmament.

Several arrows composed of light shot out swiftly, precisely hitting the few small dragon beasts flying in the air.

Under Oberon's encouragement, the adventurers' morale was finally boosted slightly.

However, he knew that collapse was only a matter of time.

After all, the so-called "reinforcements arriving soon" were actually still a full day's journey away.

And after a day passed, who knew how many of these adventurers would survive to escape with their lives.

As for himself?

Level 55; although he couldn't stop the monster tide, escaping amidst the chaos after morale collapsed would be very simple.

Slightly changed some terms:

Sub-dragon → Dragon beast

Calling them sub-dragons was a bit too flattering for them.

Third-rank Magic → Third-tier Magic

All spells have tiers.

Wind Magic LV6 means the highest usable tier of Wind Magic is six.

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(End of this chapter)