Chapter 15: Werewolves
A bitter victory.
Ivan lay unconscious, his face covered in dark purple patterns from magical corruption, his breath barely a whisper.
Nova sat on the ground, her withered arms propping her up, occasionally coughing.
Ironically, Gal, the one tasked with taking the hits, was the most lively.
However, with only him left as a combatant, he dared not linger in the area.
He administered potions to his two teammates, quickly gathered the loot, and then, with one on each side, carried his two teammates to meet up with the Night Owls.
After he left, Lin Jun emerged from her hiding spot and retrieved a fist-sized fragment of a lava heart from beneath a piece of rock armor.
It was roughly one-tenth the size of the original, with the remaining fragments having been taken by the half-dragons.
Technically speaking, this was the true body of the flame demon and the only valuable part.
As for the ten-meter-tall form, it was merely a battle form sustained by its abilities.
Standing before the scattered rock armor, Lin Jun couldn't help but feel a sense of regret.
This final boss he had imagined in his mind had suddenly died before he even had a chance to challenge it.
And the opponents were merely three adventurers of a lower level than it.
Because of that one flaw, it was instantly countered and killed.
Lin Jun, who had been observing the situation, didn't miss a single detail.
The cracks on the flame demon's chest armor were likely caused during its travels.
Regardless, he gained a new understanding of the dangers of this world.
Level doesn't mean everything; the safest thing is to never expose your true form.
That said, he had no choice but to temporarily expose his true form to danger in order to move.
————
The passage connecting the 10th floor was quite interesting.
The lower half was no different from the other passages in the deep zone, but the upper half had crude stairs.
He didn't know who had built the dungeon.
Lin Jun learned a lot about the dungeon from Inanna.
This young lady, who had never personally ventured into the dungeon before, had heard plenty of rumors.
Among them, however, was no mention of the dungeon's origins.
Nevertheless, there was information about the 10th floor.
The 10th floor of the Purple Crystal Dungeon is also known as the Thousand Stone Forest.
Within it, countless natural stone pillars divide the entire layer into upper and lower sections that are difficult to traverse.
On the stone pillars dwells a winged wind serpent known as Haka, while below lies the hunting ground of the werewolves.
Werewolves are not monsters but members of the demon race, and were once one of the most powerful races among the demons.
However, since the Demon King was slain by a hero three hundred years ago, the demon race has been engulfed in internal strife over leadership.
Humans took advantage of this period to unite with other races and develop their own strength. Otherwise, even without the Demon King, the demon race's power would still overwhelm other surrounding races.
In the end, the vampires emerged victorious and established the Hermit Empire. The demonic tribes that refused to submit to the vampires migrated to the barren western lands, and the Hermit Empire severed all ties with them.
The vampires launched a brutal purge against their sworn enemies, the werewolves, causing some werewolf tribes to flee into the dungeons scattered across the world, becoming part of them.
According to Inanna, aside from the dungeons, the only other place where werewolves could be found was on the Western Islands.
However, being on the brink of extinction did not mean they were weak. On the contrary, the fact that they were so hated by the vampires meant they had corresponding strength.
Without training, they can reach at least level 30 upon reaching adulthood, and their racial level cap is as high as 90, the same as vampires, making them a dominant race.
Lin Jun once asked Inanna: Don't humans and vampires fear that these werewolves will grow strong in the dungeons and emerge to attack?
Inanna replied that the dungeon has "rules," and even on the tenth layer, they can only grow to LV50 at most.
As for crossing layers, that has never happened. Not only have werewolves never emerged from the dungeon, but there have never been any werewolves on the adjacent ninth layer either.
As for the specific reasons, Inanna did not know, only stating that the "rules" were common knowledge in the dungeon, whether it was the Purple Crystal Dungeon or any other dungeon.
—
After reaching the tenth layer, the Silver Jing Squad did not linger to rest.
Although there were two injured members in the team, they still headed straight for the entrance to the 9th floor.
Werewolves sometimes hunt in groups, and even when the team was intact, encountering them was troublesome, let alone now.
They planned to rush directly to the safe house on the 9th floor.
Lin Jun followed the path taken by several adventurers and indeed encountered no danger along the way.
However, he did witness an interesting scene.
As they passed through a hidden passage within the rock wall, through the tiny holes in the passage, Lin Jun witnessed a Level 40 Wind Snake hunting a rabbit-like monster.
Though called a rabbit monster, the interface displayed its name as "Split-Tooth Beast," a creature as large as a brown bear, with sharp teeth and the ability to leap ten meters high.
It showed no fear of the wind snake's attacks, instead continuously jumping up to bite the snake.
However, the wind snake was agile, not only dodging the attacks several times but also taking the opportunity to release electric shocks, leaving the rabbit's body charred in places.
By the time the rabbit tried to run away, it was already too severely injured to move quickly.
Interestingly, the wind snake, which had no claws, eventually used its airflow manipulation skill to drag away the rabbit's large body.
Lin Jun initially thought it would eat it on the spot.
Whether it was the wind snake or the split-toothed beast, Lin Jun was quite eager to try them.
They both had such impressive skills!
Unfortunately, it wasn't the right time yet.
However, the hiking-like experience ended there.
Awoo—
The sound of wolf howls came from ahead. It was obvious that the adventurers had encountered the werewolves.
When Lin Jun emerged from the rocky path, he saw the half-dragon and the elf being surrounded and attacked, but the battle was already nearing its end.
Neither side was about to be defeated. The two adventurers, though battered, were still able to retreat steadily under the werewolves' assault.
Lin Jun even saw Inanna participating in the battle.
Due to limited visibility, she couldn't see the enemies' positions, so she kept using Water Snake Technique and relied on the elemental spirit's auto-aim to attack the enemies.
Surprisingly, as the only ranged attacker at the moment, it did serve some purpose.
Seeing that the group could still hold out for some time, the reason it was said to be nearing its end was that they had successfully retreated all the way to the entrance of the ninth-floor staircase.
Sure enough, as they approached the final stretch, the half-dragon suddenly used a skill to repel the surrounding werewolves, then quickly retreated into the passageway.
The werewolves gathered at the entrance, howling, but none dared to step into the passageway's range.
That was good; it meant she wouldn't have to face the moral dilemma of whether to expose herself to save her former employee.
All that was left was to wait for the werewolves to give up and leave before going in himself.
Lin Jun had finally seen what "rules" meant.
He was just curious—what would happen if he captured a werewolf and forcibly brought it to the ninth floor?
It would probably die violently. Otherwise, someone would have discovered such an obvious loophole long ago.
Lin Jun was still thinking about it, but the werewolves had all fallen silent.
They sniffed the air, one after another turning their heads toward Lin Jun's hiding spot.
Ah…
They really do have a dog's nose…
(End of chapter)