36 Honing Tower (1)

Chapter 36 - Honing Tower (1)

This was an extremely vast and open world.

As far as the eye could see, the ground was colored an earthy yellow and dotted with buildings reminiscent of Mayan architecture.

There were palaces, bungalows, city walls, and bridge piers irregularly connected by strange-looking staircases. Combined, these structures formed an intricate labyrinth.

Time had taken its toll on these constructions, and now, only their ruined husks remained in this dark environment. From afar, these dilapidated structures looked like a crocodile waiting for its next prey, and they gave off an extremely depressing feeling.

Suddenly, a faint light came from a building that resembled a warehouse. A moment later, a man clad in an apprentice magician's cloak walked out of it with a torch in hand.

Zwei wiped off the sweat on his forehead and breathed out a sigh of relief. This ruined world was naturally the Honing Tower's First Floor.

However, one mustn't be fooled by its seemingly empty appearance.

In reality, there were many traps and lurking monsters in the dark alleys of this dungeon.

There were even some places that were horribly infested with monsters, such as the tunnel Zwei had just passed through.

The wolf spider was the size of an ordinary domestic cat, and it had a pair of fangs that could inject venom into its prey. As a Level 6 jumping spider monster, the wolf spider couldn't produce silk like ordinary spiders. However, wolf spiders had excellent night vision and could jump out from all sorts of unexpected corners to ambush their targets. Since wolf spiders could jump a distance 30 times longer than their own bodies, they had successfully ambushed Zwei numerous times.

It was also during these moments that the Mana Barrier Zwei recently learned had come into great effect.

Similar to when he cast Mage Hand and Magic Bullet, he couldn't move while casting Mana Barrier. However, once he completed the spell, it would adhere to his body like a buff and continued functioning even if he started walking.

Although Mana Barrier and Mage Hand were both categorized as emission-type magic, many magicians insisted that Mana Barrier should be classified as buff-type magic. This was because, similar to buff-type spells, the Mana Barrier wasn't subject to any penalty even when the user moved their body.

In short, although the Mana Barrier could only defend against attacks from one direction, throughout the time he spent in the dungeon, he only really needed to defend his front.

Meanwhile, since he entered the dungeon until now, the number of wolf spiders that had attacked him had long gone into the double digits. These spiders would usually pounce at him like bullets from a distance and then crash into the invisible wall. And accompanied by a cracking sound, their bodies would then slide to the ground while oozing green liquid. Despite looking disgusting, this kind of scene also had a subtle comedic effect.

In addition to the wolf spiders, corpse maggots and clay puppets also infested the dungeon.

The former was only a Level 4 monster. However, if not dealt with quickly, corpse maggots would explode like a pus-filled bomb and release green corpse flies. Compared to the corpse maggots, the corpse flies were much more agile. Their attacks even carried toxic effects.

As for the latter, it couldn't be considered a living creature. The clay puppets, which only reached up to Zwei's calf, looked like shoddy little natives wearing indigenous Indian masks. They were actually a product of ancient alchemy and didn't have a hunting level. However, they could rival the combined strength of ten adult humans. Moreover, their bodies were as tough as iron. Overall, their combat power far exceeded that of the wolf spiders and corpse maggots—or at least it would have, if not for their weakness against water.

In short, although Zwei had managed to pass through the underground tunnel safely, these numerous monsters had still given him plenty of trouble. Finally getting out of the tunnel came as a very welcome respite.

Another thing worth mentioning was that despite the monsters' troublesome nature, they granted Zwei plenty of good loot.

For example, there were the Wolf Spider's Venom Glands, the Corpse Maggot's Embryo, and the Clay Puppet's Mask. Zwei figured these items would be worth quite a few points of resources.

Meanwhile, unlike the wilderness dungeons he entered before, this entire dungeon was like a maze. Fortunately, traversing it was much easier than going through an actual maze due to the road signs he would occasionally come across.

It was just that the obvious shortcuts here were often infested with an unexpectedly large number of monsters—like the recent tunnel, for example.

However, compared to the alternatives, which required him to travel three times the distance to reach the same point, these shortcuts were well worth the trouble.

Despite having taken shortcuts most of the time, Zwei still hadn't reached the end of the dungeon. Yet, he had already consumed two of his rations—and not because he lacked mana. He had consumed them merely to satiate his hunger and maintain his stamina to continue advancing.

If even the shortcuts were so long, he might starve to death halfway through while taking the long way in the dungeon.

If Zwei raised his torch using Mage Hand right now, he would see that the stone ceiling was roughly 60 meters high.

Incidentally, the camp of this dungeon was located at the base of the towering city wall in the distance.

Meanwhile, in addition to the standard potions, crystals, and rations, the supply chest in this dungeon had also contained a compass, a torch, and a hand-operated barbeque rack.

Whenever Zwei looked at the barbeque rack, he would always subconsciously complain: System, what are you asking me to grill? Is it the spiders, maggots, or ceramic fragments?

"Based on the map, I should have arrived at the center by now. In terms of time…I've already spent roughly half a day here, so it should be morning outside by now…"

Enduring the fatigue from his long journey and lack of sleep, Zwei looked to the northeast and encouraged himself, "Good! Only half to go!"

During his trek across this dungeon, he had come across a mural that might be a map of the city. Although the buildings depicted in those murals looked a bit different, their general shape matched the buildings he had seen thus far. Meanwhile, among the objects depicted in the mural, the most eye-catching ones were a tent-like object drawn in the bottom-left corner and a huge pillar-like object drawn in the top-right corner.

Logically, the tent should represent the starting camp. As for the pillar, Zwei naturally wouldn't assume it to be a Neo Armstrong Cyclone Jet Armstrong Cannon. However, although he didn't know what the pillar was, the pillar's location was obviously where he needed to go.

After a short break, Zwei used the compass to get his bearings and continued on his journey.