Chapter One Hundred Seventeen: Violence

Inside the St. Ross Port Dungeon Association branch, the branch manager walked out of his office looking utterly exhausted.

The sudden raid by the Wind Demons had forced the entire branch into overtime, and he, as the manager, was no exception.

"Sigh, I was hoping for a good few days of rest, but I never expected something like this to happen. There must be someone behind these monsters—could this be linked to the previous Saint-Virle extortion case? This is going to be troublesome." Manager Li Qi thought to himself as he walked out of the Association’s main entrance. Just as he was about to head toward his private flying skiff, his communication crystal buzzed on his wrist before he had taken more than a few steps.

"Report: Abnormal bio-energy fluctuations detected in the northern part of the city. Pulse amplitude is continuously increasing."

This was a message from the Dungeon Energy Monitoring Center.

Li Qi frowned, his first thought being that the Wind Demons were up to something. He had already received reports that these monsters had somehow discovered the location coordinates of the dungeon and were beginning to occupy it aggressively.

These creatures from the Wind Demon Realm possessed strength and potential far exceeding ordinary dungeons. Once they gained enough energy to grow and began interacting with the Life Pulse, it could potentially trigger a large-scale dungeon upgrade phenomenon!

"Which dungeon is it? Send a B-rank squad... No, send three B-rank squads to test the waters," Li Qi replied after a moment of thought.

"Report: It is not a dungeon. The location of the abnormal bio-energy fluctuation is in an ordinary residential district."

"What?!" Li Qi froze. This was a phenomenon he had only ever read about in school textbooks.

It was the legendary birth of a dungeon!

The Dungeon System was not merely a magical array, but a massive, living, holistic formation that enveloped the entire land ruled by the Holy Council. When the system was first created, countless dungeons had appeared across the land over the following decades along with the birth of the first one. Since then, whenever the Holy Council occupied a new territory, they would perform a ritual to extend the Dungeon System, sealing off points of abnormal bio-energy and filtering them into usable, normal energy.

There were new dungeons born in the recently developed Northern Frontier, but as for anywhere else, it was essentially impossible.

"How is this possible?!" Li Qi shook his head, turned around, and headed straight back to the Association, making a beeline for the monitoring center.

In fact, the staff at the monitoring center had initially assumed there was a malfunction in the array. But under Li Qi’s supervision, they inspected it three times, and the final result was that the array was perfectly fine.

"What in the world is this?!" Li Qi stared at the bio-pulse energy index, which had already surged to the concentration of a B-rank dungeon, a wave of intense unease washing over him.

"Should we deploy the B-rank squads?" a staff member asked from the side.

"I have some recollection of this place..." Li Qi said, furrowing his brow. "The recent 'Hero in Distress' case—the one involving the S+ potential individual—the perpetrator lived here, right?"

The staff member quickly checked the records, confirming that Li Qi’s memory was correct.

"There must be a connection. This is fishy. We cannot let the heroes approach what is likely a trap aimed at them!" Li Qi said decisively. "Notify the mages at the Southern District Research Institute; I want to requisition them to bombard the area with spells! Also, dispatch four squads of B-rank heroes to protect the mages."

While the research-oriented mages were highly adept at various incantations and elemental control, reaching a level of profound precision that allowed them to cast spells beyond their rank without the risk of losing control, they also possessed the ability to link their mana and wills to execute top-tier grand spells that transcended their capability by three or four ranks.

However, they had a major drawback: their incantation times were incredibly long. Casting a spell two ranks higher than their own was conservatively estimated to take half an hour, making their practical combat capability essentially negative.

At this moment, thirteen research mages were linking their mana and wills to cast a ninth-rank spell: "Aggregate Elemental Guardian."

This was a grand magic used to create temporary elemental lifeforms. The Aggregate Elemental Guardian was of the Rainbow attribute, possessing no weaknesses and capable of changing into countless forms. Although its flexibility was limited by the need for caster control, its strength could reach the level of a Wind Lord like Wei Luan, and it was even superior in terms of raw destructive power.

"Such intense elemental gathering... do they think I'm a fool?" In the underground void, a tall, dark silhouette looked up and growled.

On the cavern's rocky floor, a thick layer of viscous black liquid had already spread, with countless tiny black maggots writhing within—a sight that would make anyone nauseated. This, however, proved one thing: the true monster was about to be born.

"Everything is going smoothly. The dungeon system will be generated here soon," the shorter silhouette said, observing the scene on the ground. "It’s a shame the preparations in the funeral home were wasted. We ran into a smart one."

As Li Qi had suspected, the funeral home had not been built for nothing; it had been meticulously rigged with various defensive arrays and death traps. Had they rashly sent a hero squad in, the entire force would likely have been wiped out. However, faced with Li Qi’s "nuke-it-from-orbit" high-end tactical approach, those traps were effectively rendered useless.

"The elemental concentration is still rising and changing. Is it those dullard research mages?" The tall silhouette chuckled and rolled his neck. "Leave them to me."

"Mm, I need to continue increasing the output here..." The other shadow nodded and pointed at the pitch-black circular rift; the diameter of the black circle immediately expanded by several dozen centimeters. "We need to at least create an A-rank one..."

The tall silhouette turned and flew out through the passage.

On the stairs of the passage, a large number of black cocoons had appeared, piled up in layers and swaying slightly, enough to make one's skin crawl.

Five hundred meters outside the funeral home, the thirteen mages were casting their spell under the protection of four squads of over twenty B-rank heroes. They worked in an orderly fashion; at the same time, some were responsible for providing mana, some for correcting the structural formation, and some for gathering various elements, as if the entire group were a single person casting the spell.

"Whew, though they can't be used in real combat, they are truly impressive. I actually wanted to get a research mage certification back in the day, but unfortunately..." Not far away, a female mage sat nonchalantly in mid-air, chin in hand, legs crossed, watching the massive elemental structure gradually take shape.

"Still, heroes make more money! Hahaha!" the female mage joked, and her teammates laughed along with her.

There was always some friction between the research faction and the combat faction. The former promoted the development of magical technology and productivity, frequently producing great minds, while the latter, as the cleaners of dungeons, bore the burden of the world's most basic peace and stability.

One thing was well known: the pay and benefits for heroes were significantly higher than those of research mages. Even a researcher in the Royal Capital only earned the equivalent of a senior white-collar worker. Meanwhile, the B and C-rank combat mages—the backbone and most numerous among the heroes—belonged to the wealthy class, earning millions to tens of millions annually.

Ever since entering B-rank dungeons, Zhao Tianhe had never had to worry about the food, clothing, and supply expenses for Artoria and Eirene. Of course, the hero profession carried a certain degree of life risk, which could not be ignored.

"Careful." A man clutching a longbow suddenly stood up, instantly drawing his bow and aiming at the main entrance of the funeral home.

The funeral home's front door slowly swung open, and a tall figure, nearly three meters in height with bulging muscles beneath a tight black suit, slowly walked out. The man wore a black mask with only the number "16" on it.

"Heh, truly interesting." The burly man looked at the colorful cloud of elemental energy in the distance and smiled. "Using this move? Should I say you are too cautious, or too stupid?"

The burly man suddenly raised his right hand, and three arrows appeared between his fingers.

*Bang! Bang! Bang!*

The next moment, the arrowheads exploded violently, bursting with a mass of vines and pale blue magic chains that tightly bound the burly man.

In the distance, the figure of the man with the bow slowly faded; he had reappeared twenty meters to the left-rear of the illusion.

"Not bad." The burly man smiled, and without even bothering to break the restraints on his body, he walked forward casually, as if the chains and vines didn't exist at all!

"Strength is over forty," said a man holding a heavy sword and shield. "All together now! Use 'Steel Skin,' 'Stone Armor,' and 'Giant Growth' to prevent being knocked back!"

A professional support mage immediately cast these spells on the melee fighters. Instantly, the warriors' forms expanded, becoming taller and more robust than the masked man, while a layer of magical stone covered their skin.

Facing the six terrifying giants whose footsteps shook the ground, the masked man just laughed, suddenly accelerated, and punched the leading man in the abdomen!

*Thud!*

A muffled sound echoed. The stone armor on the warrior's abdomen was punched through, and the massive impact sent all the magical stone armor in front of him flying, while his entire body was sent hurtling away in a C-shape!

*Boom!*

The massive frame crashed through a house and finally came to a stop after rolling for several hundred meters...

"This..." Another warrior watched the scene, completely stunned. "Is this... over fifty points?"

He couldn't fathom how strong the opponent was. However, he hadn't given up! Several curses to weaken resistance and reduce strength and agility were cast upon the masked man.

"Success! The curses weren't resisted! Everyone, focus fire!" a mage shouted from afar.

In an instant, a barrage of spells and arrows rained down on the burly man. Seeing him pushed back by the team's concentrated fire, the warriors took advantage of the lull to charge, slashing their swords and blades without hesitation!

'What is this feeling? The blades won't cut through...' one warrior frowned. He felt as if his weapon had struck a mass of flexible rubber; his strength was applied, but it just couldn't break through.

The masked man's tight suit was slashed, revealing the dark skin beneath. Yet, this seemingly ordinary skin blocked the sharp strikes and stabs of the dungeon-grade equipment.

"Forget it, I've had enough fun. This is pointless," the masked man said coldly. "If it's not A-rank, it's just too boring."

With that, the burly man swatted one of the warriors into the sky with a single blow! That giant, who weighed over five hundred kilograms thanks to spell enhancements, was like a paper doll in his hand, possessing no sense of weight!

"You!" A warrior’s eyes glowed red, and his form expanded once more!

"A second-tier Berserker still lingering in B-rank? Just retire already." The masked man easily caught the giant axe of the berserk warrior with his right hand; his disdain made the veins on the warrior's forehead throb.

"What a waste of resources!" The masked man kicked the warrior away!

Just like that, in a few punches and kicks, the six melee fighters were easily dealt with. The others' spells and arrows couldn't harm him at all, only blowing his tight suit away.

Ten minutes later, the elemental clouds in the sky dissipated. The thirteen research mages lay on the ground, covering their heads, not daring to breathe too loudly. The long-range heroes and mages also lay on the ground, wailing in pain. The burly man hadn't killed them; instead, he had shattered their limbs—specifically, massive compound fractures. After all, the Hero System's recovery ability was too strong; he had to be ruthless.

"This time's opponents are clever, so..." The masked man dragged the crippled heroes toward the funeral home. "I'll have to trouble you to serve as hostages."