Chapter 223 222. Early Collapse
Outside the entrance to the Amethyst Dungeon.
"Go away! You are not allowed to set up tents here!" the guard shouted rudely, poking impatiently at several ragged, pale-faced civilians with the end of his spear.
One of them hunched over and pleaded, "Sir, please be merciful... We rely on these mushrooms to survive."
"Who stopped you from picking mushrooms?" The guard frowned, pointing his spear into the distance. "There's a resettlement area on the edge of town. You can build a wooden house or pitch a tent. It's up to you! Why do you have to squeeze into this entrance? This is where adventurers come in and out!"
"But... if you live too far away, you won't be able to get the mushrooms outside the dungeon," another voice said timidly, "There are monsters in the dungeon..."
"Everyone is like this, why should I pity you guys? If you don't leave, I'll tear down your tent!" The guard turned the end of the spear, and the cold metal edge flashed in front of the eyes of several people, finally forcing them to hurriedly pack up their belongings and retreat tremblingly.
Vera and the other two caught a glimpse of this brief conflict from afar, but their gazes did not linger on it for long. They just frowned slightly and turned to the gate of the dungeon.
The news that the demons sent spies to destroy farmland has already spread.
Now that the autumn harvest has ended dismally, this silent war has come to a temporary end. The demons have sacrificed a large number of spies and destroyed nearly half of the kingdom's grain production.
The "free" mushrooms that grew wildly outside the Amethyst Underground City were like a ray of hope in the darkness, and word quickly spread among the hungry people.
Initially, there were only a few people wandering outside the underground city, but within just a month, it evolved into several groups of refugees coming in one after another every day.
There was nothing wrong with the guards' actions, and the guild agreed to let the refugees pick mushrooms to fill their stomachs, but it was not okay to let all the refugees crowd into the dungeon entrance.
In fact, even though a special resettlement area has been set up on the edge of the town, the sudden influx of a large population has made the management of this small town extremely difficult.
But these are matters that the big guys above are concerned about and have nothing to do with adventurers.
Vera and the other two were about to enter the underground city when they heard a heavy sound of footsteps mixed with the sound of armor plates colliding from far away. They subconsciously moved aside to avoid the main passage, but they bumped into a group of people staggering out.
"Old Bear!" Vera greeted first.
"Vera? Feiling? And Feiyin!" The sturdy old bear carrying a huge tower shield stopped and showed surprise on his face covered with stains, "What a coincidence, we bump into each other again!"
The old bear, who had just returned from a fight in the dungeon, had his leather armor splattered with half-dried dark red blood stains mixed with mud and suspicious mucus. The soles of his heavy boots were covered with local unique mycelium, and his whole body exuded a strong smell of sweat and the unique fishy smell of the underground.
Despite this, his eyes were shining brightly and there was a smile on the corners of his mouth unconsciously, and it was obvious that he had gained a lot.
He glanced at the three Vera guys who were ready to go, and his tone was filled with concern and confusion, "Wait... If I remember correctly, you guys got out before us the day before yesterday, right? You haven't even caught your breath yet, and you're going back down? Can you handle continuous exploration?"
"Old Bear, you're so lucky. Just this morning, the price of materials purchased by the Guild Hall jumped up by another 10%!" Fei Ling at the side couldn't help but speak up, her voice full of envy and regret. "We are so unlucky. We just sold all the materials we collected yesterday, and we heard this bad news just one day later!"
"Ah? It's increased so much?!" Old Bear was stunned at first, then he burst into loud laughter. His big hand like a palm leaf fan patted Vera's shoulder vigorously, "Hahaha, it's okay! It's a good thing! When you guys come up this time, Old Bear will treat you to a drink!"
The two teams passed each other. The old bear took a few steps forward, then suddenly turned back as if remembering something. The bright smile on his face faded a little: "By the way, Vera! Be careful! I don't know if there are too many people going down there recently, but the monsters are a lot more ferocious than usual. Be careful on the road."
"Thanks for the reminder, we will pay attention!"
After bidding farewell to the Old Bear Team who had returned with a full load and whose laughter was fading away, Vera and the other two did not delay any longer and entered the dungeon, planning to rent a Puji as usual.
When the three arrived at the familiar Puji rental point, they were stunned by the scene before them.
On the empty fungal carpet, a fat Puji who was in charge of collecting fees was sitting alone, and there was not a single lighting Puji left who should have gathered around.
"Is this... all rented out?" Fei Ling asked uncertainly.
Vera frowned slightly, and said with a hint of helplessness: "Well, it seems so. Ever since the King of Puji was taken away by the Duke's daughter, the remaining Puji have not been very active, and their number has obviously decreased. Now that so many teams are pouring into the dungeon, there are not enough Puji to illuminate... It's not surprising."
There was no choice but for Feiyin to raise her staff, and a ball of orange-yellow light condensed at the tip of the staff.
The goal of this trip was still the sixth floor, however, despite the "monster frenzy" that Old Bear had warned them about, they were almost unaware of it along the way.
This was mainly because the dungeon was too "lively" and they encountered several teams of adventurers along the way.
The temptation of the purchase price increase is amazing. Nowadays, adventurers have almost scraped the first few floors clean, and there is not much chance to encounter monsters that have escaped the net...
…
After reaching the sixth floor, Vera finally experienced the so-called "monster rage".
The tree demons and Puji that usually roamed the sixth floor were nowhere to be seen, replaced by the rampaging stone-skinned wild boars, and the flower demons and magic vines that would attack them even after they had already entangled their prey.
Fortunately, several people were well prepared and were not injured. Instead, they took advantage of the monsters' impulses and easily harvested a lot of materials.
However, when they passed the seventh floor of stairs, they encountered a team that had encountered an accident.
The two adventurers were half dragging and half hugging a companion. The man's face was as pale as paper, beads of cold sweat rolled down his forehead, and his left arm from the shoulder blade below was empty!
A young man in a stained priest's robe was holding the injured man tightly, chanting prayers rapidly, and a white light enveloped the injured man's broken arm.
Vera's eyes flashed, and she stepped forward quickly: "Do you need help? We have tourniquets and emergency potions!"
A leading swordsman in the team looked at the newcomer warily, and only relaxed his brows after recognizing Vera.
"Thank you for your kindness! But we have a healer in our team, and the potions are... barely enough." He pointed to another team member who was taking out a small bottle from his waist bag and pouring potion into the injured person's mouth.
"What happened?" Fei Ling asked, looking at the terrible broken arm, "Did you run into some tough guy?"
The swordsman showed a trace of fear and regret on his face: "It's the seventh floor. Somehow the water level on the seventh floor dropped so much that we can't trap underwater monsters. This guy," he pointed at the wounded man with a broken arm, "relying on his good swimming ability, he held his breath and wanted to dive down to see if there was any opportunity..."
He took a deep breath, as if he could still see the horrifying scene: "Just after he dived a short distance, a huge black shadow suddenly jumped out from the bottom of the water! As fast as a flash of lightning, it bit off his arm in one bite! If the mage in our team hadn't reacted quickly and used a shock spell across the water to deflect the thing a little, he would have been swallowed up. He was able to escape, thanks to the blessing of the God of Light..."
"The water level is dropping?" Vera frowned, trying to find a reasonable explanation in her memory and experience.
In this brief silence, the taciturn mage in the opposite team suddenly raised his head, his eyes fixed on a seemingly empty space on the side, his face full of confusion: "What...what is this?"
The others, including Team Vera, immediately followed his gaze but found nothing.
Vera instinctively wanted to go forward to check, but Feiyin beside her grabbed her arm.
Feiyin's fingers were cold, but she used considerable force.
She herself was staring at the direction the wizard was pointing, her delicate brows filled with confusion and a hint of indescribable uneasiness. It was obvious that she had also noticed something unusual, but could not understand what it was.
The wizard walked quickly to the "empty" place, stretched out his right hand, and with a faint glow of probing magic on his fingertips, he traced and sensed in the void.
His expression became more and more solemn, even with a hint of academic fanaticism: "Strange... too strange! There is clearly no strange object here, why does the magic power present such a chaotic knot here..."
Swish!
A teeth-grinding sound suddenly rang out, as if the space itself was being torn apart!
A hideous, twisted crack with unstable edges suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
There was an extreme look of bewilderment and confusion on the wizard's face, without even a hint of horror showing. In front of the horrified gazes of Vera and the others, his body was split in two by the sudden crack.
The upper half of the body slid down with a frozen expression of astonishment, while the lower half stood upright for a while before being cut into several sections by the expanding and shrinking cracks!
Time seemed to have stood still.
Everyone's brain was blank during these two seconds of absolute silence.
Until a sharp explosion burst out from the throat of a female adventurer: "Ah——————!!!"
(End of this chapter)
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