"Hey! Hey! You big liar!"
Jiang Yuan's furious shouts echoed through the empty underground space.
The girl known as "Medical Staff Maker" ultimately couldn't bear the fear in her heart, leaving Jiang Yuan alone here as she exited the dungeon herself.
"Sigh! As expected, women are all unreliable!"
Jiang Yuan shouted for a while until his voice went hoarse, finally letting out a helpless sigh. In the end, he had to bear everything alone!
Looking at the rotting corpses slowly approaching him from all sides, Jiang Yuan suppressed his inner discomfort and raised his hand to summon two thousand Thunder Marsh Oxen and a thousand Sand River Turtles.
"Take these disgusting things out, now!"
Jiang Yuan immediately commanded his summoned beasts. Even he, a grown man, couldn't help but feel a surge of fear when seeing these revolting corpses—it was a human instinct.
"Roar~"
The Sand River Turtles and Thunder Marsh Oxen, receiving their master's orders, let out low growls and swarmed toward the surrounding thousand-year-old rotting corpses. Soon, a series of notification sounds echoed through the empty mountain chamber.
"Ding! Congratulations on defeating the elite monster Thousand-Year Rotting Corpse, gaining 1,000,000 experience points!"
After summoning two waves of beasts, Jiang Yuan had eliminated all the nearby thousand-year-old rotting corpses. The experience gained was quite substantial—a full 100 million!
In a way, the healer's departure was actually a good thing for Jiang Yuan, as at least no one was sharing the monster experience with him. His level directly shot up to 86.
Carefully stepping around the pools of green viscous liquid, Jiang Yuan, alone—well, accompanied by a cat—continued forward. Before long, a circular building engraved with a six-pointed star pattern appeared before him.
"Ding~ Congratulations on reaching the teleportation array. Unlocking the latest story quest: Defeat the BOSS: The Mute, and activate the teleportation array!"
The system notification sounded, and Jiang Yuan finally realized he had found the teleportation array mentioned in the story quest.
"Building the teleportation array underground—no wonder I couldn't find it searching above earlier!"
Jiang Yuan grumbled about whoever designed the array. Whoever thought to put it here must be a real schemer!
"Rumble!"
Just then, the entire mountain chamber shook violently. The ground in front of the teleportation array began to crack, the fissures growing larger. A mummy wrapped entirely in white bandages slowly crawled out from the earth.
【BOSS: The Mute】 Level: 85 HP: 50,000,000 Defense: 3000 Attack: 15,000 Dark Attribute Enhancement: 50 Passive Skill: Silence Aura—any enemy approaching The Mute will be cursed with silence, unable to use any skills for 15 seconds. Active Skill: Death Bandage—The Mute throws the bandages wrapped around it to bind an enemy and pull them closer. The bound enemy takes 3000 physical damage.
"Good heavens! The first BOSS is already this brutal—won't the later ones be even worse?"
Looking at The Mute's stats, Jiang Yuan muttered in shock. This BOSS not only had an incredibly thick HP bar and high attack power but could also silence him, preventing skill use!
"Ding! Unable to use skills!"
Jiang Yuan tried to summon a Thunder Marsh Ox and immediately heard a notification in his ear.
"Damn! The range is this wide?"
He was a good seven or eight meters away from the BOSS, yet he was still affected by the passive "Silence Aura," unable to cast summoning skills.
Seeing this, Jiang Yuan quickly retreated, trying to escape the aura's influence. If he could just summon his beasts, everything would become much easier!
"Snap!"
The moment Jiang Yuan moved his foot a few centimeters, The Mute immediately whipped out a yellowish-white bandage, aiming precisely for his neck.
The BOSS's movement was so fast that Jiang Yuan couldn't effectively dodge. The bandage was about to wrap around his neck!
"Meow!"
At this critical moment, the mysterious Persian cat on Jiang Yuan's shoulder swung its sharp claws, tearing the incoming bandage to shreds, saving him from disaster.
"Meow meow! Good job! Thank you!"
Jiang Yuan turned to thank the cat on his shoulder. Thanks to Meow Meow blocking the bandage attack, he was able to quickly retreat over ten meters away and raise his hand to summon five thousand Thunder Marsh Oxen.
"Soul Sacrifice!"
To be safe, Jiang Yuan sacrificed one Thunder Marsh Ox, gaining all its stats, then quickly cast "Arcane Mark" at the BOSS from a distance. A skull mark instantly appeared above The Mute's head.
"Roar!"
Seeing the unique mark of Arcane Mark above the BOSS's head, the five thousand Thunder Marsh Oxen, their horns crackling with electricity, charged at it with reddened eyes.
But when the Thunder Marsh Oxen got within seven or eight meters of the BOSS, they were affected by the "Silence Aura." The electricity on their horns fizzled out, unable to emit a single spark!
Jiang Yuan wasn't worried, though. The electricity was just an innate attack method for the Thunder Marsh Oxen. Even silenced, each one still had 15,000 attack power. Five thousand of them combined for a total of 75 million attack!
"Snap!"
The Mute threw a second bandage, wrapping around one Thunder Marsh Ox and pulling it close. Jiang Yuan clearly saw a -3000 damage number pop up above the bound ox's head.
After being pulled to the BOSS, the ox rammed its horn into The Mute, dealing 15,000 damage in return.
As the five thousand Thunder Marsh Oxen kept charging at The Mute, Jiang Yuan saw a series of damage numbers continuously appear on the BOSS.
-12,000 -12,000 -994 -12,000
The BOSS's 3000 defense reduced some of the damage, preventing the oxen from dealing full damage. But with five thousand attacking simultaneously, The Mute lost nearly half its HP in a very short time!
After a minute, the five thousand Thunder Marsh Oxen vanished. Jiang Yuan checked the BOSS's HP—it still had 6.4 million left.
"This guy's damage reduction is pretty high!"
Jiang Yuan muttered. This BOSS was tougher than any he'd faced before, with both massive HP and built-in damage reduction. No wonder even the "One Slash Breaks All Techniques" guild from the Proud World couldn't handle it.
But unlike One Slash Breaks All Techniques, while the BOSS had decent damage reduction, for Jiang Yuan it just meant summoning more beasts.
"Roar!"
Jiang Yuan stepped back, keeping over fifteen meters away from the BOSS. This time, he summoned a full seven thousand Thunder Marsh Oxen.
Casting "Arcane Mark" on the BOSS, Jiang Yuan hid in a corner, quietly waiting for the battle to end.
6 million, 5.7 million, 5.4 million...
The Mute's HP dropped rapidly by 300,000 per second. In less than half a minute, Jiang Yuan's summoned oxen had depleted the BOSS's health bar. The dim mountain chamber was instantly lit up by multicolored beams of light!
"Ding! Congratulations on defeating the BOSS: The Mute, gaining 120 million experience points!"
A notification startled Jiang Yuan—he hadn't expected such high experience from a dungeon BOSS!
"Ding! Congratulations on obtaining Gold Bars*20!"
"Ding! Congratulations on obtaining item: Advanced Life Potion!"
"Ding! Congratulations on obtaining item: Divine Protection!"
"Ding! Congratulations on obtaining item: Mental Stimulant!"
"Ding! Congratulations on obtaining item: Special Intelligence Potion!"
Jiang Yuan walked to where the BOSS had fallen, first stashing the consumables into his backpack, then began picking up the various equipment it had dropped.
Unfortunately, his luck was poor this time. The first BOSS didn't drop any Mythic or Epic gear—just blue and purple items.
But among the loot, Jiang Yuan spotted a round, crystal-yellow object. He checked its info.
【Special Item: The Mute's Soul Crystal】 Description: A special crystal formed from the condensed soul power of The Mute.
Staring at the item description, Jiang Yuan was confused. What was this thing for? The system wasn't clear enough!
"Ding! Congratulations on defeating the BOSS: The Mute. Please activate the teleportation array quickly and unlock the next stage's story quest!"
Just as Jiang Yuan was puzzled, a new system notification came through. A countdown progress bar appeared in his quest log.
180, 179, 178...
The bar counted down by seconds, requiring Jiang Yuan to activate the teleportation array within three minutes, or the quest would be considered failed!
"Damn it! How do I activate this thing?"
Jiang Yuan stepped into the teleportation array, looking at the dim six-pointed star pattern beneath his feet. Scanning around, he found no activation mechanism nearby and stomped his foot in frustration.
"Meow meow, do you know how to activate the teleportation array?"
Jiang Yuan looked at the Persian cat perched on his shoulder and asked instinctively.
"Meow~~"
The cat shot him a disdainful look, as if to say: Meow! I'm just a cat!
Realizing he'd been looked down upon by a cat, Jiang Yuan laughed at himself. "Damn, I actually asked a cat!"
The countdown on the progress bar was rapidly decreasing, with less than a minute left. If Jiang Yuan couldn't activate the array in time, the quest would fail!
"I wonder what happens if the quest fails—do I start over, or get kicked out?"
Watching the countdown tick away, Jiang Yuan began to panic.
Standing inside the array, he spun around frantically like a headless fly. Suddenly, his right hand touched a stone platform on the array's right side, feeling an oval-shaped groove!
"Huh? What's this?"
Jiang Yuan turned immediately, looking at the spot under his right hand. There was an inconspicuous groove, shaped somewhat like an egg but slightly smaller.
"This shape... seems familiar?"
Staring at the groove on the stone platform, Jiang Yuan felt a sense of déjà vu!
"Holy crap! I remember now!"
Jiang Yuan slapped his thigh as a flash of insight hit him. He quickly pulled the 【The Mute's Soul Crystal】 from his backpack and held it over the groove. It fit perfectly!
With only about twenty seconds left on the countdown, time was running out!
"Nothing to lose but to try!"
Gritting his teeth, Jiang Yuan quickly placed the crystal into the groove!
"Rumble!"
The mountain chamber shook violently. The long-dormant six-pointed star pattern beneath the teleportation array began to glow, lines lighting up one by one to form a brilliant, shining star that emitted a blinding white light.
With just ten seconds left on the countdown, the teleportation array was finally activated!
(Thanks to the big shot Mocheng Yibei Liangren Gui for the support! Confetti~~~)