Chapter 38: 39 Isn't this a bit different from what was said?

"They're here! Monsters have appeared!"

The voice, mixed with fear and excitement, made the mercenaries leaning in the shadows of the stone wall tense their backs simultaneously, their metal armor plates making crisp, scattered sounds as they turned urgently.

Everyone's attention was focused behind the gate.

Vera also gripped the weapon in his hand—a very ordinary scimitar.

His fine steel scimitar was lost in that raider incident, and now he could only use this ordinary iron one.

Because the Adventurer's Guild offered generous rewards and was recruiting assistants, he could get a considerable hiring fee every day even if he hadn't started fighting yet.

So he, Feiyin, and Feiling all came.

Although some adventurers described the magic tide as terrifying, with so many adventurers, it was impossible to fail, right?

What they needed to pay attention to was trying not to get injured in the battle.

Just didn't expect that after guarding for only one day, the magic tide was coming!

Vera and the surrounding adventurers held their breath, adjusting their states to the best.

Several adventurers holding bows and crossbows gathered at the slit of the gate, aiming inside, ready for the first wave of shooting at any time.

This wait lasted for ten minutes.

The adventurers looked at each other and finally looked at the guy who first shouted "Monsters have appeared."

"No... that's not right; monsters have indeed appeared..."

The man wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and leaned over to the slit to take a look.

There was still only the corpse of that Puji; as for other monsters, not even a shadow was seen.

Finally, Marshall stepped forward to confirm the situation and pacified everyone:

"There was indeed a walking mushroom that ran to the gate, which shows that the dungeon's 'rules' have weakened.

But the main force of the monsters shouldn't have arrived yet; it was just that the walking mushrooms on the first floor happened to wander over.

Let's lift the alert first; I'll keep an eye on it here."

Marshall also breathed a sigh of relief; the guild had predicted that the magic tide would break out in about three to four days.

Support from surrounding cities would also take a few days to arrive.

Recruiting adventurers to guard the gate now was just a precaution.

He had just thought this "precaution" had arrived.

After hearing Marshall's words, everyone put away their weapons, and complaints rose one after another.

Beside Vera, Feiling and Feiyin also breathed a sigh of relief.

After all, it was the legendary magic tide; it would be a lie to say they weren't nervous.

However, from just now, Vera had been looking at an adventurer he didn't know.

That scimitar at that person's waist... why did it look so familiar...

——

Magic power tremors were transmitted to the mushroom garden from below again.

They had been getting more frequent lately, as if announcing the approach of the magic tide.

Lin Jun, who knew the situation, had already begun to actively arrange defenses.

Although the magic tide looked very dangerous, he also had multiple preparations.

The best situation, of course, was that he was also considered a member of the magic tide, and then mixed into the magic tide team to rush up.

Other monsters and humans would fight, and he would be responsible for providing free corpse collection services for both sides.

However, this situation was too idealized and couldn't really be relied upon.

Another was that the magic tide would attack him as well, then he would have to fight back for his mushroom garden.

Fortunately, there were only two stairs between the fifth and sixth floors, so the defensive pressure wasn't too great.

To put it bluntly, it was a tower defense game, and his own Puji's most proficient mushroom cannon was suitable for this scene.

At that time, he would cooperate with some Puji that could spray mucus, spray poisonous mist, and self-detonate.

Even if the werewolves of the tenth floor charged up collectively, he was confident he could wipe them all out in the stairs.

As for the connection point between the fourth and fifth floors, sending a small number of Puji to block it would be enough.

For one, monsters shouldn't rush down in reverse, and for another, even if those low-level monsters wanted to come, a dozen or so Puji would be enough to handle them.

What Lin Jun was really afraid of were those super-model individuals from the deep zone.

If a monster at the level of a Balrog came, or even stronger!

Then Lin Jun wasn't sure he could block it.

Fortunately, Lin Jun had a backup plan!

The main body would drive the Knight and hide in the depths of the cave in advance; if the situation was bad, he would blow up the entrance.

He didn't believe those monsters would dig in just to take a bite of him!

It was just that digging out later would be a bit troublesome.

For this reason, Lin Jun specially prepared several Puji with [Rock Eating LV3].

The former old bat's cave served as a retreat and was piled with most of Lin Jun's assets.

Including equipment and items left by adventurers, parasitic tree seeds, valuable materials taken from monsters, and a small pile of gold coins.

At a glance, it looked like a small dragon's treasure.

In addition, 20 Puji filled with magic power were prepared, purely to be used as batteries.

Even if the entire cave collapsed unexpectedly, he could hold on until he dug out!

Sigh—

Whenever he had to prepare a retreat for himself, Lin Jun would always think of that figure who pulled open a scroll in front of him and disappeared without a trace.

Unfortunately, he had asked Dilan, and there was no such thing as a teleportation scroll in this world.

The only way to teleport was through complex ritual arrays; a single scroll couldn't support teleportation magic.

And the scroll that person used wasn't a teleportation scroll, but an escape scroll produced from a dungeon treasure chest.

The principle was to use the dungeon's own rule power to eject the user directly.

This kind of scroll had low production and the price wasn't too expensive.

The reason was that this ejection only guaranteed the user left the dungeon range; as for where they were ejected to, it was completely random.

Safe ejection was a low-probability event; appearing underground or in the sky was the normal phenomenon.

Without some special survival skills, using this scroll was no different from looking for death.

Even so, if he could get one, it wouldn't be bad to take a gamble when he was at his wit's end.

Relying on the abilities on the Knight, the possibility of surviving really wasn't small.

——

With Lin Jun's mobilization, the Puji were almost ready.

No less than four hundred Puji of various types were arranged on the two stairs leading to the sixth floor.

As for the stairs connecting to the upper floors, 30 were sent to each.

The main body and the Knight, with about 50 Puji, were in the cave as the final insurance.

Now all that was left was to recover the more than one hundred Puji that had explored downward before; these Puji had just walked into the stairs leading to the fifth floor.

Another magic power tremor came, and Lin Jun was almost used to it.

But this tremor seemed different from before; it lasted for quite a long time?

Not over yet...

Is it a bit too long?

Not only that, as time progressed, the tremor didn't weaken but became stronger and stronger!

Finally, it formed a magic power wave like a tsunami, making Lin Jun dizzy.

What the hell?

The magic tide has started just like that?

When the wave finally subsided, Lin Jun discovered something wrong.

Those more than one hundred Puji that were just climbing the stairs were all out of contact?

The original stairs no longer existed, and in their place... was a pitch-black rift that was constantly expanding!

From within it, bursts of beast roars could be vaguely heard.

This is the magic tide?

It seems a bit different from what he thought?

More importantly, it wasn't just this one stair that mutated; the other stair leading to the fourth floor, which only had 30 Puji guarding it, also turned into that kind of rift!

You can't play dirty like this!

Before Lin Jun could go crazy, a head with hexagonal scales on its face, resembling a giant lizard, poked out from the rift.

The monster's vertical, narrow, fiery golden pupils moved slightly, sweeping over all the Puji present...

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 40 =====