Who Designed This Underworld Dungeon?
Chapter 204 - 177: Dead and Alive Ulashiro

Chapter 204: Chapter 177: Dead and Alive Ulashiro

Shengliu: Dal died, resurrected, then died again.

After experiencing death twice, he now stands at the town’s gate, not daring to enter, hesitating like a skittish lizard.

The first death was entirely because he was overwhelmed by the monsters before he could figure out the situation. There were at least several dozens of them, and they were well-coordinated, with close-combat units rushing in and long-range ones casting spells in tandem.

The situation was roughly like this: Just as he thought of escaping, he was knocked down. By the time he managed to get up, he was completely surrounded. A second earlier, he rolled to dodge a monster’s claw attack, but the next second, a spell caught him during his recovery animation, causing him so much pain that his movements became stiff – commonly known as hit stun.

With hit stun under the monsters’ siege, what happened next was predictable.

Dal didn’t manage to activate his Wolf Blood and was clawed to death by the monsters without a chance to retaliate, gracefully returning to the starting point.

This different space’s settings are too benign. The distance between the starting point and the town is only a hundred meters, with no monsters in between.

Dying scared him terribly; he even thought that after death, he’d be kicked out of the Painting World.

As a child, he had heard of magic tools like paintings and books that could suck people in. Once kicked out, these magic tools had a chance of being damaged.

No way, he had just barely completed his collection of paintings!

Fortunately, the quality of the paintings produced by the Sain Dungeon was excellent. Not only were they undamaged, but after he died, he was simply returned to the starting point.

After the first resurrection, he planned to lure out all the monsters accumulated in the town, then find an opening and rush in.

The town was designed like a small fortress, and from his current position, he could see a fog gate not far off.

Without a doubt, that’s where the Boss Monster was located – unexpectedly, the fog gate was placed in such an obvious spot.

Unfortunately, there were countless monsters on patrol along the way, and it was clearly impossible to force through; he must outwit them.

Dal activated his Wolf Blood and, with a bit of wisdom, successfully attracted most of the monsters out. The remaining ones could be dealt with carefully—

Just as he thought this, running towards the fog gate with two-thirds of the distance to go, he heard the tense sound of bowstrings.

Dal’s body tensed, hairs standing on end, a feeling of danger rapidly approaching.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

In the blink of an eye, crossbow arrows, larger and heavier than a person, assaulted him like a fierce storm.

It was an ambush! Crossbows were hidden on the city walls!

And they had waited until he was halfway there, with no place to hide nearby, to fire!

Dal narrowly dodged the first volley, but as he avoided another set of arrows at the cost of grazing his arm, more came!

There were three sets of hidden crossbows firing in rotation. As the third set finished shooting, the first was reloaded and ready.

The assault was relentless and never-ending.

This is f*cking...

After the second resurrection, Dal was so angry he wanted to curse. It had been a long time since he’d felt such a strong emotion.

Obviously, it was absolutely impossible to break in through the main entrance. If he had brought an Invisibility Scroll and a Silence Scroll, maybe he would have had a chance to sneak in. It seems like Roger would thrive in this place.

"Is there a side entrance?"

While hesitating at the entrance, he suddenly saw a phantom blood stain on the ground. It was described as phantom because it wouldn’t stick even if touched.

However, touching it would lead to some unexpected events.

"Eh, this person..." Dal’s eyes widened in surprise. After touching the bloodstain, he saw a red spiritual body continually rolling and rolling until it was hit by the air, causing a pause in motion. Because of this pause, it was killed by invisible attacks.

Dal’s face suddenly darkened. He continued to touch the bloodstain, which kept replaying a scene like a recorded clip.

The death of the red spiritual body was funny, and the posture at the time of death was amusing enough to be used in a comedy.

But he couldn’t laugh because that spiritual body looked just like him.

"Such heart-wrenching murder," he muttered to himself, grinding his teeth.

The damn Sain Dungeon actually recorded and looped the scene of his death!

Was this to insult him? Damn it!

He looked towards the town again. There was a bloodstain halfway in, and without guessing, one would know – that was certainly when he was killed by the crossbow arrows.

Dal’s expression was nearly cracking, as nobody would want to see themselves die, especially not in a humorous way.

"Wait a minute," he suddenly thought of a terrifying possibility, and his eyelids twitched madly.

"Will the people who come in here later... be able to see my bloodstains too?"

The thought of this possibility caused his hands to tremble involuntarily. My hands shake with emotion, my heart aches, I, I...

I don’t want anyone to see me in my death throes!

It wasn’t like in the games where everyone only knew each other’s IDs and nicknames – adventurers knew each other face to face.

What if people started chatting in a tavern: "Hey, do you know XXX? I saw how he died last time, it was so funny, haha."

Dal automatically replaced "XXX" with his own name in his head and suddenly felt even grimmer about his future.

Forget about it, the most important thing right now is to find another way out.

He sauntered around the area dejectedly and did indeed find a small door. Through it, he could enter the building, and perhaps by walking along, he could reach the fog gate.

Perhaps because of the monsters, the building was filled with a cold and sinister aura, chilling to the bone.

Looking out from a higher vantage point, he could see a magnificent city in the distance; perhaps that was the real Ulashiro? But the town, or rather fortress he was currently in, squarely blocked the path between the forest and the city, standing in the way and not allowing passage without killing the monster in the fog gate.

Dal cautiously explored the fortress, which showed clear signs of militarization. Broken weapons and magic wands lay everywhere, covered in dust. The passage of time was particularly visible within the buildings.

As if long abandoned?

He suddenly remembered the memories of Artorias he had seen – Ulashiro in those memories wasn’t as ruined as it was now.

This meant that a long time had already passed since Artorias’s arrival.

Dal couldn’t help but fantasize: could he encounter Artorias on this journey, what kind of person would he be, and could he be taken as a mentor to learn a few moves from him? Oh right, he also had to tell him about the Fran Undead Team.

The future was promising, but right now, he needed to concentrate on the Monsters in front of him.

The small room in front of him had a ladder leading upward, and it was prowled by a few scattered Monsters. By the time he had dealt with them, he had already started panting.

Artorias would have killed these Monsters as easily as chopping vegetables, yet when it came to his turn, each one required careful handling.

In that moment, he profoundly realized the vast chasm in strength that existed between himself and the Wolf Knight, as if they were universes apart.

"Could there be Monsters ambushing from above?" Dal stared at the ladder for a while, then suddenly heard chaotic footsteps behind him, and...

"Woof woof!"

He spun around to see several abyss-corrupted wild dogs lunging at his face.

His third resurrection.

Dal’s eyes were filled with one word — bewildered.

"What just happened?"

Was he just killed by a couple of wild dogs cornered in a small room?

The room was too cramped, even rolling was difficult, he had lured Monsters out one by one and killed them.

While replaying the battle in his mind, Dal visibly grew angry.

"If wild dogs were planned, why didn’t they ambush me while I was fighting the Monsters?"

Why did it have to happen just when everything seemed fine, just short of climbing the ladder? This must be deliberately messing with one’s mindset!

Entering the fortress again through the small door, this time he quickly disposed of the Monsters and climbed the ladder before the wild dogs had a chance to ambush.

Seeing the wild dogs barking powerlessly below, he wore a smug smile.

Then as soon as he climbed up, his face was plastered with a blast from a Flame Pot and he lost his grip and fell down.

The fourth time, he learned from his lesson, and stayed on the ladder for a while until the Flame Pots were thrown out before showing his head, and then threw the daring Monster that attacked him down to feed the wild dogs.

A single ladder, but it took him dying two full times to get past it, Dal felt completely drained, physically and emotionally.

How in the world did Artorias make it through here back then...

The good news was, once he climbed up, the view on this level was wide open, and the probability of being ambushed decreased.

The bad news was, the Monsters here turned into ’fatty brothers’, who didn’t so much as flinch when slashed with a sword.

"Bang!"

The corpulent Monster’s blade came crashing down, immediately shattering the wooden floor. Its belly was torn open by a huge wound, but it still charged at Dal without a care.

Dal had grown accustomed to relying on the Fran Greatsword’s impetus to stagger an enemy with a preemptive strike and then follow up with further attacks, if lucky, keeping the enemy suppressed until death.

’Fatty brothers’ were a nightmare for him.

He narrowly defeated one, then turned to look at the road ahead, only to see three or four ’fatty brothers’ roaming about.

And that was just what was visible, god knows if there were any Cunning Monsters lurking around corners.

Dal’s gaze died for a moment.

He activated Wolf Blood — which could reset the interval timing after each resurrection — and began a Marathon in his superman state.

There was a lever nearby, and next to it an elevator. If only he could reach that place!

Chased by five ’fatty brothers’, Dal finally made it to the lever. Just pulling down the lever and getting on the elevator would allow him to escape!

The lever was his hope for survival!

He fiercely pulled at the lever—

[The mechanism didn’t budge an inch]

"Damn it!"

His fifth resurrection.

Dal crouched on the ground, questioning his life.

"Why haven’t I died my way out yet..."

He drew circles in the dust for half an hour, even considering quitting but couldn’t find the exit button.

Regaining his motivation, he continued his exploration.

To sum up the exploration of the fortress: it was a constant cycle of dying and reviving. He gained experience from repeated failures and endeavored to better overcome the next obstacle.

Dal always felt that this fortress was a "concentrated form" of Sain Dungeon’s malice.

Various traps that used to be scattered across several areas were now condensed into this tiny fortress, making it feel like the difficulty had suddenly increased. Even he had yet to adapt.

Not to mention the others who would come after him.

But apart from the difficulty, the design of the fortress always managed to impress, with mechanisms, shortcuts, and Hidden Doors all coming into play.

Dying over and over, reviving again and again, Dal had lost count of how many times he had actually revived. He was just numbly absorbing experience and then continuing to tackle the challenges.

"How many times have I died?"

Snapping out of his numbness, a look of panic flashed in Dal’s eyes.

Not only was the number of resurrections quite alarming, but by the time, it must be close to the closing hours of Sain Dungeon, right?

Why haven’t I gotten out yet?

In that instant, the entire world seemed eerily strange in his eyes.

"Am I... unable to leave?"