Chapter 41: 42 Precursors to Collapse

[Level Up LV50 -> LV51]

After fighting for most of the day, Lin Jun leveled up.

It hadn't been long since the last level up.

As expected of a magic tide, the experience was really high.

In the stairs, one Puji shot could affect six or seven monsters; where else would there be such a good output environment?

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

Besides some dragon beasts, Lin Jun also saw flesh monsters from the ninth floor.

These things were even more troublesome than dragon beasts—their vitality and recovery power were too strong.

So strong that it made him feel sick.

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

And now, the stairs were covered in flesh chunks...

Fortunately, the size of the body each flesh monster could control was limited, otherwise, if they assembled a giant, Lin Jun really wouldn't have a way.

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

The situation on the rift side was much more difficult.

There was no special terrain like the stairs where thousands of troops crossed a single-plank bridge.

The firepower gradually couldn't keep up with the speed at which monsters poured out, turning from a siege into a chaotic battle.

The Puji had no reinforcements, and it probably wouldn't be long before they couldn't hold on, but that was also within expectations.

What was unexpected was the dragon-man side.

That giant rat that was fighting the dragon-man had turned into flesh chunks on the ground.

Fighting to the end, the dragon-man also got angry, not only crushing the giant rat's throat but also tearing it to shreds after it fell before stopping.

This battle clearly consumed a lot of the dragon-man's energy, to the point that she didn't intend to guard all the Puji anymore.

Just now, she seemed to have figured it out and directly packed up six Puji and flew to the forest.

Without the dragon-man, the monsters were unimpeded.

After entering the fifth floor, they started running around like headless flies.

Large swaths of fungal mat were trampled, and mushrooms were crushed.

The thing he was worried about came true.

Although the monsters received instructions to rush out of the dungeon, this instruction clearly didn't include navigation.

The fungal mat that could finally be preserved intact on the fifth floor was probably only those hanging on the dome.

Fortunately, up to now, enough monsters had been killed.

If he couldn't stop the mushroom garden from being destroyed, he would try to reduce the time and cost required for reconstruction.

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

Now all the monsters were thinking about rushing up, and wouldn't steal the corpses on the ground.

Except for the dragon-man, that freak, who was single-mindedly focused on gnawing on Puji.

The rift couldn't be blocked anymore; if he continued to guard the stairs, he would soon be surrounded.

Lin Jun commanded the two Puji teams to start retreating toward the swamp area while fighting; that terrain was most suitable for the Puji to make a final counterattack.

In order to maintain maximum firepower during the retreat, Lin Jun even developed a jump-and-shoot tactic.

The front-row Puji fired in unison, then took advantage of the gap to re-gather magic power and jumped to the back row.

This way, while jumping and fighting, the monsters left behind many more corpses.

By the time the Puji entered the swamp area, the battle had entered the final stage.

Small monsters' mobility was greatly weakened after entering the swamp, so they were not to be feared.

What was truly threatening were those that could fly and those with huge bodies.

The remaining less than five hundred Puji launched a final chaotic battle with the monsters rushing in from all directions...

The plan was executed about this much, and monsters were already wandering near the cave.

Lin Jun decisively detonated several self-detonating Puji at the cave entrance, sealing it off.

By the way, he also let that fat Puji in the forest, which was being held and gnawed on by the dragon-man, self-detonate.

Really treating it like a buffet?

The fat Puji was hiding in a cave at the edge of the forest, and she found it.

Self-detonation certainly couldn't kill her, and it was hard to even hurt her.

Lin Jun had no way to deal with her now.

The previous poisoning plan also went bankrupt; he didn't know if she could distinguish between different ones, but she only chose to eat cannon mushrooms or self-detonating Puji.

He only hoped she would leave the fifth floor quickly along with the other dragon beasts.

But come to think of it, after the magic tide, wouldn't each floor be left with a large number of high-level monsters?

He didn't know if they would automatically retreat to the lower floors, or if the dungeon itself would come to deal with them.

He always felt that the problems in this dungeon were increasing, as was that suspicious voice that caused the magic tide.

However, he was just a weak mushroom now and shouldn't consider so much.

When he reaches LV99 one day, he'll go and find out!

No longer thinking about the dungeon, Lin Jun squatted in the cave and watched the live broadcast outside.

Although the fungal mat and mushrooms on the ground were trampled into a mess, those on the dome weren't affected much.

Thanks to them, Lin Jun could still observe the outside—it's just that the underground signal was a bit poor.

The things rushing up from the lower floors were getting more and more outrageous.

A snake monster with three heads left a trail of venom wherever it crawled; he didn't know if he could grow mushrooms on it in the future.

A beetle burning with flames successfully set fire to Dilan's loving little wooden house.

There was even a super-sized golem; with such a huge body, it was a wonder it could climb up.

These monsters came out one after another, found the stairs and continued to rush up, or wandered around if they didn't find them.

Fortunately, no one was interested in the collapsed cave... except for a certain dragon-man...

Lin Jun saw the dragon-man leave the forest, heading straight for the cave.

What is she doing?

Did she discover these Puji in the cave?

There were Puji corpses all over the fifth floor; does she have to eat fresh ones?

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

But... just in case, preparations still had to be made...

————

"No... it can't be blocked anymore!"

At the dungeon gate, from a certain moment, the strength of the monsters suddenly jumped by a big margin.

Flesh monsters, high-level dragon beasts...

The adventurers suffered heavy casualties when caught off guard.

Even two Gold-rank adventurers sacrificed themselves.

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

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

Many people had already thought of retreating and intended to find an opportunity to slip away.

"Don't retreat!

If you retreat, are you going to let Ya-Feng Town suffer?

Whoever dares to flee, the guild will definitely revoke their adventurer status!

Reinforcements will arrive soon, hold on for me!

After the crisis, everyone's bounty will be tripled!"

Oberon actually came to the front line himself at this time.

In fact, he couldn't help but come.

He stood out now, making a gesture of fighting to the death.

After the loss, he could also win some sympathy points on the grounds of "fighting to the end and breaking out with serious injuries."

When the time comes for the guild to hold him accountable, maybe they will deal with him at their discretion.

As Oberon called out loudly, the gorgeous and exquisite magic staff in his hand burst into dazzling light.

Seventh-tier light magic—Arrow of the Firmament.

Several arrows composed of light shot out, accurately hitting several small dragon beasts flying in the air.

Under Oberon's encouragement, the morale of the adventurers 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 a full day's journey away.

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

As for himself?

Level 55, although he couldn't block the magic tide, it would be very simple to escape in the chaos after morale collapsed.

Slightly changed some titles:

Sub-dragon -> Dragon Beast

Calling them sub-dragons is a bit of an elevation for them

Third-level magic -> Third-tier magic

All spells have tiers.

Wind magic LV6, representing the ability to use up to sixth-tier wind spells.





(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 43 =====