A pyrrhic victory.
Ivan lay unconscious, his face covered in dark purple veins left by magical erosion, his breathing reduced to barely a whisper.
Nova sat on the ground, her withered branch-like arms supporting herself against the floor, occasionally coughing.
Ironically, Gal, the team's designated tank, was the only one still full of vigor.
But with only one combat-capable member remaining, he didn't dare linger. After forcing healing potions down his two teammates' throats and hastily collecting the spoils of war, he grabbed one teammate under each arm and rushed off to rendezvous with Night Owl.
After they left, Lin Jun finally emerged from his hiding spot, retrieving a fist-sized fragment of Molten Heart from beneath a piece of rocky armor debris.
It was roughly one-tenth the size of the complete core—the half-dragon had collected all the other fragments.
Strictly speaking, this fragment was the Fire Demon's true body, and the only part with any real value. That ten-meter-tall form was merely a combat manifestation sustained by its abilities.
Standing before the scattered rocky armor, Lin Jun felt quite reflective.
This creature he'd imagined as his ultimate boss hadn't waited for his challenge—it had suddenly died just like that. And its opponents were merely three adventurers whose levels were inferior to its own.
All because of one small flaw, it had been instantly killed in a counterattack.
Lin Jun, who had observed the entire battle, hadn't missed a single detail. The crack in the Fire Demon's chest armor had most likely been caused during one of its excursions outside.
Regardless, this gave him a new understanding of this world's danger level. Level wasn't everything—only by never exposing one's true body could one remain truly safe.
Though he said this, for the sake of his current relocation, he had no choice but to temporarily expose his main body 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 section actually featured crude stone steps.
Who knew who had built this dungeon.
Lin Jun had gleaned quite a bit of information about dungeons from Inanna. This sheltered young lady who had never personally entered a dungeon had nonetheless heard plenty of insider gossip.
Though this obviously didn't include the dungeons' origins.
However, she did have information about the 10th floor.
The 10th floor of Amethyst Dungeon was also known as the Forest of Thousand Stones.
Countless natural stone pillars divided the entire floor into upper and lower sections with limited connectivity. Atop the pillars lived winged wind serpents called Harka, while below served as hunting grounds for werewolves.
Werewolves weren't actually monsters but demons—in fact, they had once been among the most powerful demon races.
However, ever since the Demon King was slain by the Hero three hundred years ago, the demon races had fallen into internal strife over succession. Humanity had taken advantage of this period to barely develop alongside other races—otherwise, even without the Demon King, the demons' strength would still easily overwhelm the surrounding races.
Eventually, the vampires achieved victory and established the Shadow Empire. Demon tribes that refused to submit to vampire rule migrated to the barren far west, with the Shadow Empire maintaining no contact with them.
The vampires reserved their cruelest purges for their ancestral enemies, the werewolves. Some werewolf tribes fled into dungeons around the world, becoming part of their ecosystems.
According to Inanna, aside from dungeons, werewolves could only be found in the western archipelagos.
But being on the brink of extinction didn't mean they were weak—quite the opposite. To be so thoroughly despised by vampires, they naturally possessed corresponding strength.
Without any training, werewolves reached at least level 30 upon maturity, with a racial level cap as high as level 90—the same as vampires. They were truly a hegemonic race.
Lin Jun had asked Inanna: "Don't humans and vampires fear these werewolves will grow strong in the dungeons and emerge to wreak havoc?"
But Inanna explained that dungeons had "rules"—even on the 10th floor, werewolves could only grow to level 50 at most.
As for crossing between floors, that simply never happened. Forget werewolves emerging from dungeons—there had never even been werewolf sightings on the adjacent 9th floor.
As for the specific reasons, Inanna didn't know, only saying the "rules" were common knowledge about dungeons, applying to Amethyst Dungeon and all others alike.
---
After reaching the 10th floor, the Silver Thorn squad didn't stop to rest and recover.
Despite having two wounded members, they headed straight for the 9th floor entrance.
Werewolves sometimes hunted in packs, which would be troublesome even for a complete team, let alone their current state.
They planned to rush directly to the safe house on the 9th floor.
Following the route taken by the adventurers, Lin Jun encountered no dangers along the way.
However, he did witness an interesting scene.
While passing through a hidden passage within the rock wall, through the tiny holes in the passage, Lin Jun observed a level 40 wind serpent hunting a rabbit-type monster.
Though called a rabbit monster, the status panel showed it was actually called a Fang Beast—a creature no smaller than a brown bear, sporting razor-sharp fangs and capable of leaping ten meters high.
Facing the wind serpent's attacks, it showed no fear, repeatedly jumping up to bite at the serpent.
But the wind serpent was agile, not only dodging several attacks but also seizing opportunities to unleash electric strikes that left charred patches across the rabbit's body.
By the time the rabbit tried to flee, it was too severely injured to run fast.
Interestingly, the clawless wind serpent eventually used some kind of air manipulation skill to drag away the rabbit's massive body.
Lin Jun had initially thought it would eat on the spot.
Both the wind serpent and the Fang Beast made Lin Jun quite envious—they both had excellent skills!
Unfortunately, now wasn't the time.
But this leisurely travel experience was about to end.
"Awoooo—"
Howls echoed from ahead. Without thinking, he knew the adventurers had encountered werewolves.
Emerging from the rocky passage, Lin Jun saw the half-dragon and elf under siege, though the battle was already nearing its end.
Not because either side was about to lose—despite their desperate situation, the two adventurers could still steadily retreat under the werewolves' encirclement.
Lin Jun even saw Inanna participating in the battle.
Limited by her vision, she couldn't clearly see enemy positions, so she continuously cast Water Serpent spells, relying on her elemental spirit's auto-targeting to attack enemies.
And indeed, as the only ranged attacker at the moment, she was actually making some difference.
Seeing that the group could hold out for quite some time, the reason he said the battle was nearing its end was because they had successfully retreated to right in front of the stairway to the 9th floor.
Sure enough, in the final stretch, the half-dragon suddenly used a skill to knock back the surrounding werewolves, then quickly retreated into the passage.
The werewolves surrounded the entrance, snarling, but not one stepped into the passage area.
Good—this way he wouldn't have to face the moral dilemma of whether to expose himself to save his former employee.
Now he just had to wait for the werewolves to give up and leave before proceeding himself.
Lin Jun had witnessed what the "rules" meant firsthand.
He was curious though—what would happen if someone captured a werewolf and forcibly brought it to the 9th floor?
It would probably die instantly—otherwise, such an obvious loophole would have been discovered long ago.
While Lin Jun was still letting his thoughts wander, the werewolves all fell silent.
They twitched their noses, one by one turning their heads toward Lin Jun's hiding spot.
Ah, well...
They really did have dog noses...
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