Chapter 025: The Equipment Was Destroyed

The entrance to the cave, still called the Fragrant Stone Tomb, presented a completely different landscape. A long, winding corridor stretched deep into the darkness. As soon as Lin Jia’s little mage poked his head inside, his health plummeted to the bottom in a rush, startling him so much that he reflexively clicked to return to the first floor of the Fragrant Stone Tomb. After gulping down two medium healing potions and confirming that there were no zombies nearby, only then did he turn to look at his companions, the boss and the fourth brother, who had already charged inside.

Because of their professions, the two of them were far less cautious than Lin Jia; they dashed straight into the cave and instantly found themselves surrounded by a swarm of monsters. Before they could even warn their brother to be careful, they met their heroic ends with two valiant cries.

Potions spilled from their bulging packs, but none of the three felt much regret, as they stared dumbfounded at the black-and-white screens of the boss and the fourth brother, watching the monster horde pile up on the display. There were so many monsters, it was as if they were stacking themselves atop each other, and several new creatures they’d never seen before suddenly appeared: “Black Maggot,” “Horned Fly,” “Bat,” “Wedge Moth,” “Scorpion Snake,” “Black Boar,” “Red Boar.” Together with the zombies from the previous layer, the place was like a monstrous hotpot, a chaotic stew of horrors!

There was a bat that looked like a mosquito, a black maggot resembling a rubber tire, a horned fly that looked like a lump of filth, and even an earthworm with two pincers. All of them were grotesque and their attack power was astonishingly high. Even Fourth Brother, a level 20 warrior, collapsed after just two blows from the black boar, without even giving the surrounding bats a chance to take a bite.

"Damn! We’ve stumbled into a monster den!" Lin Jia exclaimed in shock.

"This is bad! I dropped my sword!" Fourth Brother suddenly shouted, leaping up. Startled, Lin Jia and the boss frantically searched among the glittering items within the monster pack for the Zhanma Blade. The Zhanma Blade was currently one of the top-tier weapons a warrior could own, unmatched by anything else found so far. Even an ordinary one could be sold for 200,000 gold coins, let alone Fourth Brother’s rare version with an attack power of 5–16—a highly coveted piece.

"I’ll go fetch it for you!" Lin Jia zapped the nearby respawning zombies with two bolts of electricity, turning toward the entrance, ready to charge back in.

"Don’t!" Fourth Brother stopped him, slapping the boss on the shoulder and rapidly clicking the revive button. "You’ll only get yourself killed! With your fragile mage body, you’d be monster food in no time! Boss, hurry and revive, buy more big healing potions on your way back, and we’ll try again! Second Brother, stay here and clear out the zombies!"

Lin Jia realized he was right—if even Fourth Brother’s warrior lasted only two seconds inside, he wouldn’t even have time to see the monsters before dying. So he could only stay at the entrance, clearing out the respawning zombies, and wait for the boss and Fourth Brother to return.

About a minute later, they both charged back like a gust of wind. The trio quickly cleaned up the trailing zombie horde. Fourth Brother, holding a temporary substitute weapon called “Gale,” said, "I’ll go in first! Boss, once you’re in, stand still and heal me! Second Brother, wait for our call before you enter!" Lin Jia nodded and watched Fourth Brother plunge into the darkness.

The boss’s female Taoist followed immediately. When it came to dungeon entrances like this, if you entered and didn’t move, you would stand at the spot right by the entrance on the other side of the map. Usually, only two or three monsters could reach you there. The second person to enter would overlap with the first, and as long as they didn’t attack, monsters would ignore the second person. So Fourth Brother’s plan was to tank the monsters at the entrance, have the boss follow and heal him, and finally call Lin Jia in to handle the attacks.

"All right! Second Brother, come in!" Once the boss and Fourth Brother had stacked their characters, they called for Lin Jia. He knew that if he went in too quickly, he’d end up running past the others and straight into the monster pack, so he carefully clicked the entrance and released the mouse, avoiding any accidental keystrokes.

The screen shifted—monsters filled the display. Lin Jia’s little mage, "Mad Lingjia," successfully overlapped at the same coordinates as the boss and Fourth Brother. Healing orbs from the boss’s spells circled above their heads, and Fourth Brother popped potions as needed. Because their characters were stacked, it was hard for healing spells to target Fourth Brother, so he mostly had to rely on potions to keep himself alive. Standing together didn’t mean healing would affect all three at once.

Currently, three monsters surrounded them: two zombies and a big mosquito-like bat. The zombies posed little threat to Fourth Brother in his medium armor, but the bat, though small, delivered significant damage—most of Fourth Brother’s health loss was from its bites.

This time, the second level of the Fragrant Stone Tomb was even more densely packed than before. The horned fly in the corner, looking like a lump of filth, endlessly spat out bats at the rate of one per second, filling every corner. In addition, there were three red boars, two black boars, four zombies, two scorpion snakes, two wedge moths, one black maggot, and countless bats—monsters everywhere.

Lin Jia quickly scanned the battlefield and selected his first target: the yellow-robed laser zombie. Its laser beam was the only attack that could threaten all three of them at once. Luckily, it was currently stuck in a corner, surrounded by bats, so its straight-line attack couldn’t reach them—at least for now, unless they cleared other monsters and gave it a chance.

Lin Jia’s attack power was formidable; two lightning spells took out the laser zombie, which generously dropped some loot. But with so many monsters on the ground, it was impossible to see what had dropped, and Lin Jia was too focused on clearing enemies to care.

The two zombies and one bat clustered around them couldn’t be killed yet—their attacks were much weaker compared to the red and black boars, scorpion snakes, or the black maggot, and Fourth Brother could just barely withstand them. If there were two boars instead, he’d have no choice but to flee.

The next priority was the horned fly in the corner, spewing bats out like smoke at a rate of one per second. Lin Jia found it odd—he’d never heard of bats being spawned by horned flies. If they didn’t eliminate it first, even after clearing all other monsters, the place would still be overrun with bats.

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(Trouble: I’m exhausted! The last two days have been a drunken blur—I haven’t really sobered up at all! Ah, the pain of New Year! To make up for it, I’ll post another chapter tonight! Please vote and support me—there’s a button below!)