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A series of creaking sounds echoed as the skeleton warrior regained its mobility, slowly advancing toward the two of them.

Icy Moon Slash was still on cooldown, and Zane didn’t dare to recklessly attack again. If he took another Heavy Slash, he’d be making a direct trip back to the city.

Starry’s delicate face turned cold. Fine, I’ll just kill you again!

She swiftly closed in on the skeleton warrior, raising Autumn Moon Sword and slashing downward in a diagonal arc. The enemy reacted quickly, raising its iron sword horizontally to intercept her attack. Just as its Parry was about to activate—

A sly smile flashed across Starry’s lips. With a subtle flick of her wrist, her sword carved a slight curve mid-air, bypassing the iron sword and leaving a shower of sparks on the skeleton warrior’s chest.

She had only been feinting, baiting out its Parry before delivering a follow-up strike. The skeleton warrior wouldn’t stand for such humiliation. It abandoned its blocking stance and lifted its sword high, channeling raw strength into its next attack.

Without hesitation, Starry activated Thousand Flash Steps, boosting her movement speed by 50% as she dashed to the right. Heavy Slash was devastating, but it had a clear weakness—a 0.5-second wind-up before execution.

In that brief moment, Starry had already moved out of its attack range, circling behind it.

A massive MISS sign popped up.

At the same time, taking advantage of the skeleton’s unsteady stance, Starry delivered a swift roundhouse kick to its back.

Though the damage wasn’t much, it sent the skeleton sprawling to the ground.

“Zane!”
Got it!

Strike while it’s down! Zane lunged, his Venomous Claws raking across the skeleton warrior’s back.

The purple armor-break debuff reappeared.

The skeleton, struggling to get up, was slammed back into the ground with the attack.

Starry didn’t hesitate. She drove her sword straight into its skull, where faint embers of flame flickered in its empty eye sockets.

A blue weak-point damage number appeared. The moment its skull was crushed, the eerie flames within were snuffed out. The skeleton warrior was completely dead this time, dropping three silver coins and a Bone Armor Piece.

“That should be the end of it,” Starry remarked, picking up the bone armor.

This armor was god-tier for the early game. A whopping 18 defense, 300 HP, and bonus Vitality, which, for a Knight’s 2x Vitality growth, translated to 560 extra HP! Unfortunately, the level requirement was 14, and Zane was only level 11—still a long way to go.

After tidying up, he retrieved the magic lantern, which had been knocked away during the battle. Luckily, it wasn’t broken—this thing cost a whole silver coin, after all. A quick wipe, and it was as good as new.

“The entrance is over there,” Starry suddenly pointed to the right.

Through her shared vision, Zane spotted an eerie-looking tomb, cleverly hidden behind a pile of stones and overgrown grass. Had Starry not noticed it, he might have spent an entire day searching in vain.

Pushing aside the obstructing weeds, a decayed stone tablet stood among them. The Gray Wolf Alpha had mentioned that it contained a powerful curse.

Just then, a rat happened to scurry by. Zane grabbed its tail, his fierce wolf jaws clamping down on it before—tossing it onto the stone tablet.

Sizzle—

An ominous sound echoed. The rat froze, unable to move, unable even to scream. Its face twisted in terror as foam frothed from its mouth, and then—it died.

“…” Zane wasn’t sure what had just happened, but the scene was unsettling, to say the least.

Maybe… we should head back to town for supplies first? A flicker of hesitation crossed his mind as he quietly took a step back.

Click.

It seemed he had triggered something.

Just as Starry was about to say something, the ground beneath Zane gave way—splitting open around him like a collapsing sinkhole. Without warning, he plummeted straight down.

“Zane!” There was no time to hesitate. Starry leaped after him.

…

So… dizzy…

That dizzying, out-of-control sensation—he had no idea what he had just experienced. Surprisingly, though, he hadn’t lost any HP.

Gradually, his vision came back into focus. Starry was right next to him, quietly observing their surroundings. It seemed they had fallen straight through a trap, landing directly on the first underground floor.

“Shh—” Starry noticed Zane had regained consciousness and immediately signaled for him to stay silent. “Someone’s coming—hold your breath and don’t move!”

Zane instinctively held his breath, playing dead.

Clack. Clack. Clack.

The sound of footsteps grew closer.

Two skeleton warriors appeared! But… they didn’t seem to notice the two of them. Instead, they just walked right past.

Just one skeleton warrior had been tough enough to handle before. If they had to fight two at once, it would practically be a death sentence.

Unexpectedly… they had stumbled into this place by sheer accident.

“…” Starry glanced at Zane. “Our communication is blocked.”

Zane checked—sure enough, all his friends’ online statuses had turned gray. But considering it was already 4 AM, it wouldn’t make much of a difference.

Clack. Clack.

S̲h̲i̲t̲—they’re coming back!
“I’ll take one. You keep the other occupied. Don’t stop running until I finish it off!”
Got it!

Zane nodded in understanding.

At the same moment, he lunged at the skeleton on the left, striking it with Venomous Claws.

As expected, it blocked the attack. But that didn’t matter—its aggro was already locked onto him. Without missing a beat, Zane activated Sprint and dashed away. If he got hit by another Heavy Slash, it wouldn’t end well!

The skeleton on the right started to give chase, but Starry immediately struck, her Autumn Moon Blade slicing cleanly across its chest!

A surge of frost energy erupted, seamlessly canceling the end lag of the previous attack.

Frost spread across the skeleton warrior, causing the temperature to plummet. In the freezing air, an ice sculpture took form—the freeze effect had landed!

Starry had already figured it out. That fire was the skeleton warrior’s core; as long as it remained burning, the creature could endlessly regenerate. Thus, she aimed straight at the flickering flame within the skull.

A brutally high damage number appeared, instantly wiping out the monster’s remaining HP. It didn’t even have time to activate a skill before being reduced to experience points and loot.

Meanwhile, the other skeleton warrior wasn’t particularly fast. With Zane’s movement speed in gray wolf form, he could easily kite it around. Once Icy Moon Slash was off cooldown, Starry repeated the same trick. Luck was on her side—the freeze effect triggered again and scored another instant kill!

Aside from a scattering of coins on the ground, nothing else dropped.

“Let’s check over there,” Starry said, pointing toward a corner.

Alright, I’ll scout ahead!

There were no ambushes. Zane navigated through the passage effortlessly. But as he rounded the bend, the sight before him left him speechless—an enormous underground plaza, easily the size of a soccer field!

At a glance, hundreds of skeletons aimlessly wandered the open space.

This… this is insane! And this is only the first floor. Who knows what kind of threats lay deeper within?

That said, with Starry’s ridiculous damage output, these monsters in Zane’s eyes had already transformed into walking treasure chests!

“…” Starry pressed a hand to her forehead.

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