Chapter 15: 15 Werewolves

A pyrrhic victory.

Ivan lay unconscious, his face covered in dark purple veins from magical erosion, his breathing so faint it was like a gossamer thread.

Nova sat on the ground, her withered-branch-like arms supporting her, coughing every now and then.

Conversely, Gar, the one in the party responsible for taking the hits, was full of vigor.

However, as the only combatant left, he dared not linger.

After feeding his two teammates potions and hastily gathering the spoils, he tucked one under each arm and ran off to rendezvous with Night Owl.

After he left, Lin Jun emerged from his hiding spot and dug a fist-sized fragment of the Lava Heart out from under a piece of rock armor.

It was roughly one-tenth of the complete size; the rest had been taken by the half-dragon.

Strictly speaking, this thing was the Flame Demon’s true body and the only part of any value.

As for that ten-meter-tall appearance, it was merely a combat form sustained by its abilities.

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

This final boss he had imagined for himself had died so suddenly before he could even challenge it.

And the opponents were just three adventurers of lower level than it.

Just because of that tiny flaw, it was instantly killed in a counterattack.

Lin Jun, who had been observing the situation the whole time, hadn't missed a single detail.

The crack in the Flame Demon’s breastplate was likely caused when it went out.

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

Level isn't everything; only by never exposing one's true self is one truly safe.

Though he said that, in order to move house, he had to temporarily expose his true self to danger.

————

The passage connecting to the 10th floor was quite interesting.

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

One wondered who had built the dungeon.

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

This young lady, who had never personally descended into a dungeon before, had heard plenty of rumors.

Naturally, this did not include the origin of the dungeon.

However, there was information about the 10th floor.

The 10th floor of the Amethyst Dungeon was also known as the Thousand-Stone Forest.

Countless natural stone pillars divided the entire floor into upper and lower sections that were difficult to traverse between.

Winged wind snakes called Haka inhabited the stone pillars, while the area below was a hunting ground for werewolves.

Werewolves were not actually monsters but a demon race, and had once even been one of the most powerful demon races.

But ever since the Demon King was killed by the Hero three hundred years ago, the demon race had fallen into infighting over who should lead.

Humans had taken advantage of this time to unite various races and barely develop; otherwise, even without the Demon King, the demon race’s strength would still have crushed the surrounding races.

In the end, the vampires won the battle and established the Hermit Empire. The demon races that refused to submit to the vampires migrated to the barren Far West, and the Hermit Empire had no dealings with them.

The vampires only launched a cruel purge against their blood feud, the werewolves, and some werewolf tribes fled into dungeons all over the world, becoming a part of them.

According to Inanna, apart from in dungeons, one could only see werewolves on the Western Islands.

But being on the verge of extinction did not mean they were weak; on the contrary, being so hostilely viewed by vampires naturally meant they possessed corresponding strength.

Without training, they could reach at least level 30 just by reaching adulthood, and their racial level cap was as high as level 90, just like the vampires—a true overlord-level race.

Regarding this, Lin Jun had once asked Inanna: Wouldn't humans and vampires be afraid that these werewolves would recuperate in the dungeon, gain power, and then kill their way out?

Inanna, however, indicated that dungeons had "rules," and even on the 10th floor, they could at most grow to LV50.

As for crossing floors to come up, that had never happened; let alone werewolves running out of the dungeon, there had never even been a sign of werewolves on the adjacent 9th floor.

As for the specific reason, Inanna didn't know, only saying that "rules" were common knowledge in dungeons, whether it was the Amethyst Dungeon or others.

————

After ascending to the 10th floor, the Silver Thorn party did not stop to rest.

Although there were two wounded in the party, they headed straight for the entrance to the 9th floor.

Werewolves sometimes hunted in groups; it was troublesome even when the party was intact, let alone now.

They intended to rush directly to the safe house on the 9th floor.

Lin Jun followed the route the adventurers had taken, and sure enough, he didn't encounter any danger along the way.

However, he did see an interesting scene.

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

It was called a rabbit monster, but the panel showed it was a Rending-Tooth Beast, a monster no smaller than a brown bear, with sharp fangs and the ability to jump ten meters high.

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

However, the wind snake was agile; not only did it dodge the attacks several times, but it also took the opportunity to unleash electric shocks, scorching the rabbit black in places.

By the time the rabbit wanted to run, it was already too heavily injured to run fast.

Interestingly, the clawless wind snake actually used a skill like airflow manipulation to drag away the rabbit's massive body.

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

Whether it was the wind snake or the Rending-Tooth Beast, Lin Jun was quite envious.

They both had such good skills!

Unfortunately, now was not the time.

However, the hiking-like experience ended there.

Awoooo—

A wolf howl came from ahead; there was no need to guess that those adventurers had run into the werewolves.

Emerging from the rock wall path, Lin Jun saw the half-dragon and the elf being besieged, though the battle was already nearing its end.

It wasn't that one side was about to be defeated; although the two adventurers were in a sorry state, they were still able to retreat steadily under the werewolves' siege.

Lin Jun even saw Inanna participating in the battle.

Limited by her field of vision, she couldn't see the enemy's position clearly and could only keep using Water Snake Art, relying on the elemental spirit's auto-aim to attack the enemies.

Believe it or not, as the only ranged combatant at the moment, it really did have some effect.

Seeing that the few could still hold out for quite some time, the reason it was said to be nearing its end was that they had successfully retreated all the way to the 9th-floor staircase.

Sure enough, at the last short distance, the half-dragon suddenly used a skill to knock back the surrounding werewolves, then quickly retreated into the passage.

The werewolves roared at the entrance but none stepped into the passage's range.

Good, this way he didn't have to face the moral dilemma of whether to expose himself to save his former employees.

Next was to wait for the werewolves to give up and leave before he went over.

Lin Jun could be considered to have witnessed what "rules" were.

But he was very curious: what would happen if he caught a werewolf and forcibly brought it to the 9th floor?

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

Lin Jun was still letting his mind wander when the werewolves over there all quieted down.

They twitched their noses and turned their heads one by one toward Lin Jun's hiding spot.

Ah, this...

They really do have dog noses...

(End of chapter)