Who Designed This Underworld Dungeon?
Chapter 464 - 322: Sain stood on the last layer

Chapter 464: Chapter 322: Sain stood on the last layer

Healing magic is very useful, that’s the consensus among magicians.

But occasionally, it can leave some aftereffects, like now with Leon.

"You guys... are laughing too brazenly..."

Leon’s head maintained a tilted angle at forty-five degrees, looking as if he had a stiff neck.

He had just broken his neck, and because Drew’s healing was done in haste, he ended up this way.

"Sorry, Boss," Maru quickly turned around, but her mouth almost reached the sky—even when turning her back, it was clearly visible.

Leon’s forehead popped out with a "井" mark, he almost hammered this guy’s head.

"Ah, exhausted."

Who would have thought those were completely harmless phantoms? When encountering them for the first time, surely no one wouldn’t feel nervous!

I might be the first, but certainly not the last one to make a fool of myself!

He raised his head somewhat wistfully; the sky was the Cold Valley’s distinctive cold night, the night sky seemed coated with frost, with the cold moon’s brilliance, bits of frost sparkling.

Under the moonlight were rows of pointed-top buildings, pointing straight at the sky, carrying an indescribable charm—beautiful, very beautiful, but watching too much always feels lacking, like human touch?

More specifically to the buildings below, was the street they were currently standing on, suddenly feeling personally insignificant.

A peculiar feeling of the world being vast while oneself being tiny echoed in Leon’s heart; he revealed a look of sentiment but suddenly heard Maru call "Boss" from behind.

"What’s wrong?" He was still immersed in sentiment, instinctively turning his head.

"Click!" A sound and a flash of light, Leon then saw Maru holding an Image Stone, giggling as she said:

"Boss, the way you were tilting your head while being sentimental was too funny, I have to capture it to show everyone, hehe."

"Maru!"

Leon yelled, the previous state of sentiment completely shattered, he opened his hands to rush forward to teach this girl a lesson, while Maru giggled and ran up the stairs.

The phantoms of Yilushier walked numbly like a parade, Leon and Maru, one large and one small shadow, shuttled through the phantoms, bringing rare vitality to this city of ice and snow.

Initially, Maru was a bit nervous; after all, it was the first time shuttling among so many enemies.

But after getting used to it, there was nothing to be afraid of; anyway, these phantoms wouldn’t hit people, shuttling through felt quite interesting.

"Boss, come catch me, if you can—"

"Boom!"

Maru’s "brazen" behavior didn’t last long; she was turning back and running to tease Leon, but suddenly bumped into something, causing her to fall backward.

"Huh?"

She let out an unexpected sound, suddenly feeling limbs like a human’s entangle her, fiercely choking her neck wanting to kill her.

The key was, although this thing wanting to kill her was right in front, Maru couldn’t see it.

This enemy is invisible!

Maru pulled out a dagger, fiercely stabbing the air, hitting only one or two out of ten stabs, giving her a rough sense of the enemy’s size.

Leon rushed over and kicked the monster pinning Maru, drew his sword to slash at the position where the monster was kicked towards, but hit the floor, sparks flying from the collision of weapon and floor, his heart couldn’t help but ache a little.

Did that transparent monster run away? No, it’s right behind Leon, staring at his kidneys, hand holding a short sword ready to stab.

Though Leon couldn’t see it, he could sense the killing intent, his Calia Straight Sword suddenly gathered Great Calia, but instead of releasing it, he suddenly turned, sweeping the expanded magic sword blade around him!

Great Calia can be used like this!?

The sword blade conveyed the feeling of slaying a monster, and his soul amount had increased, meaning the invisible monster was probably taken down by him?

But Maru over there was still fighting the air; the invisible monster wasn’t singular!

"Come to gather."

Leon grabbed Maru and regrouped with his comrades; he exchanged glances with Drew and Tal, and everyone immediately understood.

Among the streets full of phantoms, invisible monsters are hiding!

Those are monsters [Transparent Man] from the map "Phantom Forest" of Dark Souls II.

The original Yilushier also had visible monsters, but they had a flaw of not completely invisible, exposing a pair of eyes.

So Gong Qiying replaced the original invisible ones with soul II’s Transparent Man, both types having similar strength, but the transparency of invisible ones increased, with good agility, further increasing the spiritual pressure on people.

"I originally thought Sain Dungeon used these phantoms to scare us, but unexpectedly, they hid invisible monsters inside, always going deeper than we imagined."

Leon raised his shield, listening carefully to the sounds around him—whenever there was a sound of footsteps, he would strike.

But the raging sound of snow and wind greatly disrupted hearing; has Sain Dungeon even factored in environmental elements?

"[Dispel Invisibility]" Drew chanted and then released magic with a wave but to no effect.

Using the world’s magic against soul II’s monsters? The principles are different, how could it work?

"No good, then... Low-tier magic [Splashing Paint]!"

A large amount of red paint sprayed out from the magic wand, instantly revealing three human figure-like transparent men, all slain by Leon.

With the monsters dealt with, but their faces showed no joyful expression.

"Can’t possibly walk along splashing paint, right?"

No one knew how many Transparent Men there were, but Drew’s Magic Power was limited.

But without Splashing Paint, it meant they had to be constantly vigilant against possible sneak attacks, unable to relax their spiritual power even for a moment.

The beautiful scenery of Yilushier suddenly became dangerous in their eyes, like a rose with thorns, and the thorns had Crimson Corruption.

"I have an idea." Drew suddenly said, "Let’s return to the Fire Transmission Ceremony, remember the Fire Injection Secret Ceremony?"

That’s right, the Fire Injection Secret Ceremony that enhances spiritual power can improve their perception of the surrounding environment so that they have a greater chance of detecting if any Transparent Men attempt a sneak attack.

The Fire Injection Secret Ceremony must be actively chosen at the bonfire and can only be used once a day; if you die, you have to wait until the next day, and each time it also requires investing Humanity. When they entered earlier, they were so focused on entering Yilushier that they forgot about this.

The group immediately returned to the Fire Transmission Ceremony, and after receiving the enhancement from the Fire Injection Secret Ceremony, they returned, each with an Elemental Bottle hanging from their waist.

By the way, why is the Alligator Ember King on the bridge missing?

Whatever, let’s hope not to encounter it again.

When they returned to Yilushier, Monsters reappeared due to teleportation, in short, refreshed.

With the enhancement of spiritual power, the Strategy Group could truly hear the footsteps of Transparent Men amidst the snowstorm, reducing the difficulty of exploration.

It’s the same old saying, use the Dungeon to deal with the Dungeon.

Climbing the stairs, a cold and lonely avenue unfolded before them, with winding alleys on either side, looking like there were plenty of places to explore.

Leon took a deep breath, a flame of challenge burning in his eyes, and said:

"Take it slowly, even if we spend the whole day here."

As soon as they stepped onto the avenue, Phantoms appeared one after another, suddenly seeing these entities was indeed a bit frightening.

Alongside them appeared Transparent Men and a new type of Monster, [Ice Resentful Spirit].

This is a specialty brought from Skyrim Province, a snake-like Monster made of frost, whose body can perfectly blend with the heavy snow of Yilushier, with an attack method of spraying frost, leaving traces on the ground, resembling a bootleg version of Frozen Frost Step.

Placing such a Monster in Yilushier brings not a trace of discordance.

"Luckily, I specifically learned Flame Magic for today’s sake."

Drew first released a Flame Shield for the people, followed by Flame Enchantment for weapons, but Leon refused. He took out Fire Grease to wipe on his Reverse Sword—since the Calia Straight Sword can’t use various attribute greases.

The combination of Transparent Men and Ice Resentful Spirits was enough to trouble most teams, with high levels of inconvenience.

However, Leon felt that with such a long avenue, it couldn’t be just these two types of Monsters; this did not match his stereotyped impression of Sain.

Sure enough, when they reached about a third of the avenue, the danger alert in their minds was buzzing crazily.

Suddenly, fire surged beneath their feet, and in the next moment, fire columns as thick as water barrels shot up into the sky!

Tal, perhaps due to failing to dodge or because of his large size, got half of his body scorched black, fortunately not fatally.

The fire columns tracked Leon and his companions like living creatures, where they stepped, fire would rise there!

Only after the fire columns erupted four times did they have a brief respite, finally able to catch their breath, and discovered where the fire was coming from.

Right ahead of them, on the avenue, stood three exceptionally tall enemies on a high bridge connecting buildings on both sides.

Their Armor was extremely similar to non-attacking Phantoms, holding long wands that were their casting mediators; the fire was released from that!

They were named [Pope Knights•Fire Execution Witches], loyal knights under Pope Shalivan, regarded as Upper Tier among enemy knights.

Every Ash likely has experience being chased and burned by them.

In designing Yilushier, Gong Qiying partially referenced the design from Tower Town Berrit, and the three Fire Execution Witches casting spells on the bridge were modeled after Tower Town.

Summing up Fire Execution Witches’ Magic: fast release speed, strong lethality, strong tracking, extremely annoying.

The three Fire Execution Witches combined could continuously release Magic, enough to prevent adventurers from advancing.

Charging bravely is certainly a solution, but when adventurers try to marathon their way through, they’ll encounter a random number of melee-form Pope Knights halfway.

Trust Gong Qiying’s judgment, melee-form Pope Knights are stronger than when they use Magic, albeit physically more fragile and less tenacious, yet their attack frequency far exceeds that of Casas Warriors.

Leon narrowed his eyes, observing ahead; this distance made it hard to kill Pope Knights with ranged attacks, and if charging directly didn’t know what kind of Monsters they’d encounter on both sides of the road.

Thus...

"Take the side alleys!"

He dragged the burnt Tal and quickly hid with his companions into a nearby alley.

Sure enough, once adventurers disappeared from sight, the Fire Execution Witches halted their attacks.

"I guessed correctly, looks like, next we’ll be traversing through the alleys."

It’s the classic Soulslike maneuver of avoiding the main road and taking small paths.

Dark alleys often signify danger, but this time an unexpected sound arose.

"Shalivan Lord, I will definitely, definitely become your knight, I plead you watch over me..."

A white Spiritual Body knelt on the ground, Leon walked over quietly, discovering it was a youth.

Staying beside the Spiritual Body, the words constantly included "Shalivan," filled with admiration or rather fanaticism towards the Pope.

Such words gave people goosebumps because religious zealots often convey an eerie feeling.

"How did this Pope Shalivan... brainwash people to such extent?"

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