Blackedge Town, under the cloak of night, the "Roaring Mug" tavern never lacked two things: cheap ale and boastful adventurers.
"Burp... I'm telling you, that place is filled with treasures everywhere!"
Finn, the Rogue of the Iron Thorn Squad, had one foot propped on a bench, holding an empty wooden mug high in his hand, his face flushed red as he spun tall tales to the surrounding patrons.
He described with flying spittle how that pristine-white Dungeon was filled with prank-like traps and how he had effortlessly obtained priceless treasures.
"With just your Bronze-ranked squad? Don't tell me you mistook goblin dung for gold nuggets! Hahaha!"
A rough laugh cut off Finn's boasting, coming from the table of the "Berserker" mercenary group in the corner.
The speaker was a bald, burly man, the deputy leader of the Berserkers, notorious for his fiery temper.
The surrounding adventurers erupted into a chorus of laughter, their gazes toward Finn filled with mockery. Everyone knew the Iron Thorn Squad was just a mediocre Bronze-ranked team; stories of striking it rich were nothing more than hearsay.
"You're full of crap!"
Publicly ridiculed, Finn's face turned a deep shade of purple. He fumbled in his pocket and slammed a fist-sized chunk of ore onto the table with a dull thud.
"Open your damn eyes and see what this is!"
It was an ore unlike any seen before, its entire body shimmering with a peculiar silvery-white hue. Its surface was smooth as a mirror, yet under the lamplight, it reflected the cold, hard luster unique to metal.
The clamor in the tavern quieted down as everyone's attention was drawn to the strange ore.
"This... is this Pure Iron Ore? No, I've never seen such high purity..."
A drunken old dwarf blacksmith was pushed forward by his companions. Rubbing his bleary eyes, he picked up the ore and examined it for a moment, the drunkenness on his face vanishing instantly.
"By my anvil! This... this Pure Iron Ore has almost no impurities! It could be forged directly into the finest weapons! This thing... this thing is worth at least ten gold coins!"
The old dwarf's voice trembled with excitement, and his final appraisal exploded like thunder in the tavern.
Ten gold coins!
The entire tavern fell dead silent. All the adventurers stared at the ore with greed-filled, feverish eyes, their breathing growing heavy.
The bald deputy leader, who had been mocking just moments before, froze his smile. He stared at the ore, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down, his eyes gleaming with undisguised desire.
A treasure-hunting frenzy that would sweep through all of Blackedge Town was ignited right then and there in this small tavern.
...
Meanwhile, on the sixth floor of the Dungeon, Labrynth lounged lazily on a soft sofa.
She could foresee that countless adventurers would soon swarm the sixth floor.
A fixed entrance is too easy to target. If they discover the pattern and bombard it continuously with Alchemy Bombs, even the Labyrinth's outer walls won't hold up.
Labrynth's fingers tapped on the armrest of the sofa as she made a decision.
With a thought, she consumed over a thousand Emotion Points. The rock wall at the entrance of the passage that the Iron Thorn Squad had just left instantly fused, sealing it off completely.
Right after, she directed her consciousness to the outer edges of the Labyrinth.
In another hidden spot beneath the ruins of the vast Silver Ruined City, she consumed Emotion Points to reconstruct several identical stairway passages.
This way, the entrance becomes mobile. I can change the respawn points anytime, rendering all their so-called maps and strategies utterly useless!
The thought of adventurers wandering aimlessly through the ruins with outdated maps, eventually succumbing to despair and breakdown, brought a mischievous, gleeful smile to Labrynth's face.
Just then, the figure of the maid Arianna appeared silently in the bedroom, kneeling on one knee.
"Master, I discovered a plain occupied by Skeletal Monsters at the eastern edge of the Silver Ruined City."
"Skeletal Monsters?"
Labrynth raised an eyebrow slightly, recalling the information she had previously obtained from Allen.
The Skeleton Lord, the original ruler of the sixth floor, had not been seen for a long time.
Was it killed? Or did it run away? Or perhaps…
Labrynth looked at Arianna, and a bold speculation surfaced in her mind.
A more powerful Undead-type Monster has appeared, replacing the original Skeleton Lord, and is now consolidating its former forces.
This possibility piqued Labrynth's interest.
…
Blackedge Town, the top-floor secret chamber of the Adventurers' Guild.
In the dimly lit room, several high-ranking members from Blackedge Town's top guilds sat around a circular table, the atmosphere heavy with tension.
At the center of the table lay a small fragment of Mithril, a sample scraped from Finn's piece of Pure Iron Ore.
"The item is genuine," an elderly man with graying hair said gravely. "Its purity is astonishingly high, likely a product of the Ancient Alchemy Civilization."
"A Bronze-tier party surviving a treasure trove? That sounds like a joke riddled with traps," snorted a middle-aged man wearing a lion emblem.
"Don't forget the strange creatures on the fourth floor. Something may have affected the Blackedge Dungeon," the elderly man tapped the table. "That place is now an enigma. Any one of us venturing in alone could lose everything."
After a brief silence, they reached a consensus.
"Issue a high-value bounty through the guild," the man with the lion emblem finally decided. "Recruit those reckless fools willing to act as cannon fodder to scout whether this so-called Silver Maze is heaven or hell. Once they've cleared the path, we can move in."
The figures in the shadows nodded one by one, their eyes gleaming with shrewd and ruthless light.
…
Labrynth had no idea that she had already been marked as a Boss Monster by the "big shots" on the surface, one to be tested with cannon fodder.
At the moment, she was facing a delightful dilemma–with the expansion of the Labyrinth's scale, logistical work was struggling to keep up.
"Loot needs to be transported, and most importantly, more Dolls are required to set traps, place stage rewards, and guide those greedy adventurers…"
As for rewards, initially, she could use the Silver Castle's alchemy to remake resources from the Thunderfire Furnace; Once more, adventurers arrived, and she could recycle items from the fallen ones.
Labrynth opened the shop, her gaze settling on a cheap exchange option.
⌜Pure White Mini Doll⌟
╰ Price: 10 Emotion Points
╰ No combat ability and can only execute simple commands such as carrying and placing objects.
"This is the one!"
She exchanged for a full three hundred Pure White Mini Dolls in one go.
Instantly, the entire core hall was filled with these adorable little creatures, each only half a meter tall and round in shape.
"Go forth, my little worker ants. Turn this Labyrinth into a gold rush paradise for all adventurers, and an immersive horror RPG! Determination!
Labrynth waved her hand, and the hundreds of little dolls marched in perfect unison, dispersing into every corner of the Labyrinth.
...
Early the next morning, the hall of the Adventurers' Guild in Blackedge Town erupted into chaos.
A highest-level bounty notice, personally signed by the guild's higher-ups, was posted in the most prominent spot on the quest board.
[B-Rank Investigation Quest:
Venture deep into the sixth floor of the Dungeon, investigate the truth of the "Silver Maze," map the area, and bring back any valuable information or items.
[Base reward: one hundred gold coins, additional compensation for discoveries.]
One hundred gold coins… this number drove every adventurer in the hall into a frenzy.
In a corner of the crowd, a man carrying a longbow looked at the bounty notice, a flicker of eager anticipation in his eyes.
Without the slightest hesitation, Thales pushed through the crowd and tore off a quest voucher.
"Hey, Thales, are you crazy? This is clearly sending us in as cannon fodder."
A familiar hunter leaned in and said, "Let the first group go in and scout the way. We can decide after that."
The hunter patted his shoulder and teased, "You know, sometimes you don't seem like someone who makes a living from adventuring. More like a pure adventurer at heart."
An adventurer?
Thales was momentarily taken aback by the words, falling briefly into thought as he recalled the day he first set foot in the Dungeon with this bow on his back.
Perhaps what he had always sought deep down was never gold coins, but the thrill brought by the unknown itself.
He smiled at the hunter, said nothing more, and turned to walk toward the gathering point at the guild's entrance.
There, the first group of adventurers, blinded by the enormous reward and eager to seize the initiative, had already gathered impatiently and were marching in a grand procession toward the entrance of the Dungeon.
At the same time, deep within the unknown sixth floor, at the center of the skeletal plains.
Upon a throne piled high with countless pale bones sat the former ruler of the sixth floor, the Skeleton Lord.
It was clutching its head in agony.
Its soul fire flickered wildly, and uncontrollable waves of ominous red energy radiated from its body, staining the nearby bones crimson.
The red energy emitted nothing but "malice"... such intense malice that it could no longer control its own body.
...
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