[Falling into a nightmare. The dungeon instance is being generated.]
[Detected that the current dungeon instance has unique properties: Spider Web, Fantasy]
[After dying in this dungeon instance, you will not be kicked out of it.]
[This dungeon instance will not be distorted.]
[This dungeon instance varies as different people enter it.]
[This dungeon instance will change differently upon every new entry.]
[The dungeon instance difficulty is set as distorted. You may enter up to 33 times.]
[Current purification progress is 0/1.]
[This dungeon instance has a total of 12 save points. Each death will bring about 1% erosion rate.]
[This dungeon instance does not provide a plot introduction but has decryption rewards.]
[Dungeon instance clearance reward: Granting level upgrades between 3 to 5 to any profession below Gold Rank; granting level upgrades between 1 to 3 to any profession above Gold Rank.]
[Dungeon instance decryption rewards: Raise element (Revenge) or element (Poison) or element (Strict) awakening depth for 10%.]
[Dungeon instance loading is completed.]
As Annan slowly opened his eyes, twisted and deformed trees resembling monsters appeared in his vision. The leafless trunks were covered with dark green moss, and the air was filled with the musty stench of spores.
Annan was somewhat worried about what Jiu Er would do to his body. However, considering that it was “Ghirlandaio” instead of “Annan” who slept outside, it probably would not be a problem.
For a handsome and cute boy like me, I have to protect myself when I leave the house.
“However, there are a couple of things that I have to be personally here to be able to see in this dungeon instance.” Annan narrowed his eyes slightly.
In other words, Annan had a different authority level than the players.
Otherwise, the players would have noticed the oddities when they were introduced to the dungeon instance long ago.
Forget about everything else.
Why is the maximum purification of this dungeon instance limited to [1]?
This means that once anyone clears this dungeon instance, it will be purified immediately.
In Annan’s knowledge, only priests with specialized nightmare skills could peep into others’ experiences in nightmares.
The point of reference was Priest Louis’s ritual before Annan embarked on the path of transcendence. If the rituals were established completely, Priest Louis could observe the process of overcoming the nightmare from the outside world, giving commands to the challengers in the nightmare, or forcibly terminating the nightmare to rescue people from it and prevent the erosion from becoming too high.
Annan knew the related divine arts to this.
However, these perks were not practical for him because players could use the forum to achieve the results.
Annan already enjoyed the perks of observing (referring to the live broadcast), commanding (referring to bullet text), and cleansing the player’s erosion, even without terminating the nightmares. Furthermore, he had the authority to kick players offline.
From this point of view, the players were like Annan’s priests.
For ordinary people, especially for underground cities without priests, a dungeon instance that “could only be cleared once” had become impossible to be decrypted.
The method of checking the durability of dungeon instances involved divine art too.
“In other words, Sporeggar Mill is a man-made nightmare,” Annan murmured, narrowing his eyes slightly.
—This might be the essence of the [Spider Web] unique property.
After entering the nightmare, the challenge could not break free. The victim would repeatedly die in the nightmare until it ran out of life. However, once it broke free, the spider web would be broken softly without leaving any evidence.
I did not expect to capture the nightmare’s secret immediately after entering the nightmare and before I set off.
That being the case, this nightmare can only be purified by unlocking its secrets.
“I hope I can resolve it once and for all.” The moment Annan moved his footsteps, the girl’s soft voice came to his ear:
“—Bystanders are no different from perpetrators, and they should be scorned.”
“I’m not like them.”
Seeing the side mission [Enter Sporeggar Mill] appearing before his eyes, Annan calmly replied, “I won’t just watch by the side.”
Although he knew that what he said would not be heard by anyone, this message was not a communication between the living.
It was the prayer of the living to the dead.
Without hesitation, he turned his head and walked back.
The Child had roughly guessed it right.
The secret of Sporeggar Mill lay in the “messenger”. Knowing how to use this reverse thinking was the key to victory.
It was a pity that Suuankou was sharp but not smart enough.
Suuankou noticed something was off here, but he could not figure out the critical point. Otherwise, he would not be stuck and should have identified the issue long ago.
The real answer was already in front of him.
“…Heh…ha…ha…” The sound of heavy breathing and the clatter of boots into the wet mud reached Annan’s ears.
Annan knew from the previous walkthroughs that the messenger would fall when he was out of sight. Then, he would reach out and ask the dungeon challenger to pull him up from the ground.
Suuankou subconsciously believed that the messenger must be killed. So he did not stop the messenger from falling. Or, he probably did not think of preventing the messenger from falling to the ground.
“—Grover,” Annan spoke suddenly, calling out the messenger’s name before seeing the messenger.
The moment his voice sounded, the messenger’s footsteps stopped immediately.
“Who is it?” Messenger Grover asked probingly.
“It’s me, Job.” Annan calmly answered with the “second” name.
These were all the names the “Little Bear” would ask. These names must be obtainable from other places and play a crucial piece somewhere.
—For example, at the current state.
Hearing the name of “Job” and confirming that it was his voice, Messenger Grover breathed a sigh of relief.
While panting, he walked over slowly.
A dark-skinned man in worn leather armor with gray sideburns walked out from the shadows into the light.
His skin was dark as marble, and his figure was frail and old. His pupils glowed with light gray shimmers.
However, the messenger’s expression froze right before he approached Annan.
That was because when he walked out from the darkness into the light, which was the moment he saw “Job”, “Job” held a flintlock in his right hand, pointing it vaguely at his head.
“Stop. Don’t move, Grover.” Annan said slowly, “I hope you’d better not move… my friend.”
The voice of “Job” was hoarse and rough, unpleasant to the ears. He should be a middle-aged man in his 50s who looked the same age as Grover. The hair by his temples had started graying.
With a gun pointed at his face, Grover’s lips moved slightly. Doubts, shock, and tension flashed across his face.
He realized something quickly.
“I didn’t run away, Job!” Mr. Messenger argued hard with an anxious expression.
However, Annan just looked at him blankly, with a vague smile at the corner of his mouth.
Soon, the messenger’s expression gradually calmed down.
“I’m curious, Job.” Mr. Grover frowned slightly, and the fear on his face dissipated, “How did you find out?”