Even Lefiya and Anya could clearly feel it—there was something "big" behind that fog gate.
Gulp.
The elf girl swallowed nervously.
The other one gripped her spear tighter. Logically speaking, there shouldn't be anything on Floor 3 that could threaten her… but instinctively, the cat-girl felt a surge of excitement.
This Dungeon really had become completely different, meow!
"Let's go first," Evan said.
For now, he had no intention of going in.
Evan had always explored the Dungeon cautiously. His usual rule was: if he still had revives available, he could mess around; but once he'd burned through them, he'd return to the surface.
The skill description said revives could be restored by grinding monsters after they were consumed.
But Evan had tested it.
Killing one of those katana-wielding goblins only restored one-twentieth of a revive. The efficiency was way too low.
"Adventurers must not gamble."
That was what the Guild's advisor lady nagged into everyone's ears every day—and it was also a hard lesson countless adventurers had learned through blood.
Anyone who underestimated the Dungeon would die for all sorts of reasons.
And more importantly—
Evan wanted to first confirm what the Dungeon was like right now.
He'd reached Floor 3 from Floor 2 far too easily. Were Floors 2 and 3 being treated as one "combined area"?
Then what about Floor 4?
Back on Floor 1, special monsters had spawned wherever he went. But now… it seemed different.
…
Evan's guess was correct.
After marking the cavern with the fog gate on his map, the three of them took a detour and walked for a while—and sure enough, they discovered something bizarre.
The goblins had actually built a camp inside a cavern chamber!
A wooden fence packed with rusty iron spikes sealed the chamber tight. Behind it stood a watchtower nearly three meters tall, with goblin archers on top, scanning the surroundings vigilantly.
Inside were small huts made from thatch and woven fencing, and a bonfire ringed with stones.
By the orange firelight—
A goblin priest wearing a strange bone mask, decorated with bright paints and tooth-and-bone ornaments, was dancing wildly. Its shadow stretched huge in the firelight, projected onto the cavern wall like a mad giant—horrifying.
There were also plenty of goblin soldiers in the camp, wearing battered chainmail and iron helmets—nothing like the well-equipped goblin knights they'd just fought.
Their weapons were a mixed bag: spears, short swords, hammers—everything.
Evan also saw several dog-headed creatures chained up in one corner of the camp. They curled there like filthy, matted dung-balls, sleeping amid sticky grime, foul stench, and buzzing insects.
"Huh?!" Anya stared, dumbfounded.
She couldn't believe it—had she really only been away from the Dungeon for a few years? How had the goblins "developed" into this, meow?!
The camp was huge. From the goblin soldiers' positions and patrol routes, it looked like you could sneak in and slip out the side without being noticed.
A trap.
Evan—who had long since seen through the Dungeon's tricks—knew that the moment he tried to infiltrate, he'd be discovered inside, a horn would blare, and the entire camp would swarm them.
So, after glancing at Lefiya and Anya behind him—
Evan decided on a different strategy.
And before long…
…
"Kindle the flame, forest lanterns.
By my command, loose your arrows—elven firebolts.
Fall like rain—burn the savages!"
"[Volley: Fire Javelins]!!"
As the elf girl chanted—
Several crimson rays once again fell into the goblin camp like meteors: one blast collapsed the watchtower; another sent the hopping goblin priest flying; flames erupted inside the camp, and the shockwave flipped over many goblin soldiers.
But soon—
The goblins recovered, raised their weapons, and came pouring out in a shrieking tide.
Facing a monster stampede like that, Lefiya decisively hopped onto Anya's back—and the cat-girl was already far away in a blink, instantly widening the distance.
Only Evan remained in the cavern, greatsword in hand, fighting while retreating.
These ordinary goblin soldiers weren't that strong—at least, nowhere near the katana goblins he'd met before, and nowhere near the goblin knights they'd just fought.
So that was it: quantity over quality.
He held out for a long while, until he judged the timing was right.
Then Evan turned and ran, leading a huge mob of goblin soldiers around a corner—
And up ahead, Lefiya—still riding Anya—had her staff raised high. She'd just finished chanting again.
[Volley: Fire Javelins]!!
Evan and the cat-girl kept running forward, completely ignoring the violent explosions behind them.
The goblin soldiers who'd been chasing instantly "disappeared" by the dozens.
Then—
Evan would stop again to block, buying time for the distant girl to recover her mind and chant the next spell… repeating the tactic again and again, until much later, the entire camp was wiped out.
…
"Ahh, that was so fun, meow!"
Sitting in the wreckage of the camp and eating fried potato balls, Anya seemed to have completely forgotten why she'd even come to the Dungeon.
To her, this "adventure with Evan" felt nothing like before.
It was genuinely fun!
It was just that the monsters were too low-level—totally not a match for her, meow. And to avoid affecting Evan and Lefiya's "growth," she should try not to intervene too much, meow.
Even so—it was still super fun, meow!!
Lefiya was excited too.
Because that "tactic" completely shattered her imagination.
You could do it like that?!
A mage's weakness was mobility. If they hadn't learned the high-difficulty skill Parallel Chanting, then during casting they had to stand still and concentrate completely.
But what if someone helped carry the mage while running?
That wasn't actually difficult—but for a by-the-book School District student like Lefiya, it was way too "creative."
Evan, however, said this was nothing. It didn't even count as a "wheelchair."
After a simple rest, they continued exploring. The three of them repeated the same method and destroyed several more goblin camps and outposts.
At the same time, Evan kept marking things on his map.
For the Guild, the upper levels were mostly already charted. Aside from a few extremely fringe "hidden rooms," it was all pretty standardized—and the maps were provided to all adventurers for free.
So, starting from the passage between Floors 2 and 3—
Evan realized something.
The three of them had been stuck in a border region of Floor 3 this whole time. The fog gate was at the center of this region, and the goblin camps they'd destroyed were guarding the routes leading out.
He recalled his skill description: [It will constantly change the surrounding terrain…]
Evan realized that because of his arrival, this small section of Floor 3 had changed—shaped by the Dungeon's malice.
And whenever he tried to leave this region—
Those rolling-boulder traps would block the way, driving him back here again.
No way.
A grim thought struck him.
If he went deeper later… would entire floors shift and twist specifically against him?
Interesting.
And soon, Evan discovered that the altered region they were in was actually not far from the route down to Floor 4.
After thinking it through, he called the two girls and headed that way to check.
Sure enough, there wasn't any special monster guarding the passage from Floor 3 to Floor 4 either—he entered Floor 4 with ease.
At least there were no rolling boulders here.
Like Floor 1, special monsters now appeared suddenly as he explored:
A massive two-headed dog-headed creature that spat frost and flame;
A goblin warrior riding a giant lizard, wielding a huge cleaver, with several dog-head skulls hanging from its waist;
A goblin assassin hidden in a black robe, silently appearing out of nowhere;
A colorful, poisonous giant lizard that could launch its tongue for ranged attacks—
And when Evan and the two girls reached the passage from Floor 4 to Floor 5…
They saw a cavern ahead piled with goblin knights, soldiers, shamans, and countless swords, spears, and weapons—like the ruins of an ancient battlefield—
And at the far end…
A fog gate.
Evan smiled in relief.
So there really was a gatekeeping boss after all?
…
Almost at the same time—
Many adventurers currently on Floor 3 discovered that in some chambers, "checkpoints" and "outposts" had appeared.
Fully armed goblin soldiers stood guard behind crude wooden palisades, watching anyone who tried to approach with terrifying eyes.
They didn't attack proactively.
But most adventurers on these floors were Level 1s who didn't dare go down to Floor 5, fearing danger. So when they saw this abnormality, they simply ran—no one dared get close.
Some wanted to go back and report to the Guild.
Others, who were simply passing through on their way to the deep floors, tried fighting—only to find these monsters were unbelievably strong, not ordinary goblins or dog-heads. Even Level 2 adventurers could get hurt if they weren't careful, so they also chose to avoid the risk.
As these higher-level adventurers went deeper, after more than half a day, the news finally reached Rivira—the adventurer town built on Floor 18, a safe floor where monsters didn't spawn.
And by coincidence, Ais Wallenstein—who had just returned from the deep floors and planned to rest here for the night before heading back to the city—heard adventurers at a nearby table talking about it while she ate at a tavern.
Then—
Within three seconds, she made her decision.
She remembered the interesting boy she'd met in the Dungeon that night a few days ago.
Ais quickly finished her curry chicken rice, packed her gear, and prepared to head straight to the upper floors to see what was going on!
-------
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