Who designed this underworld dungeon?.

Chapter 693 Social Skills, The Dungeon Lord's Art of Judging People (Part 2)

"We arrived at the agreed time, not too late."

As always, Chi Ya was the first to speak. When there were many people around, he exuded the demeanor of a mature and reliable senior, giving the impression that he would serve you food when you were eating together.

Gong Qiying nodded to him, their familiarity so great that no special greeting was needed.

Just like the previous expedition against the sealed artifacts, the city lords floated in mid-air, below which was the place where the sealed artifacts gathered. This time it was a plain full of exposed rocks, a barren and lifeless expanse as far as the eye could see.

The deathly pale sealed artifacts, the "Unbelievers," roamed the plains in unexpected numbers, their meaningless murmurs filling the air. They looked more like fanatical believers driven mad by their devotion to God.

In the distance where the unbelievers gather, a dilapidated cross stands there, seemingly ordinary, yet it is worshipped by the unbelievers as a sacred object.

This is the target they are going to hunt down today. It doesn't look as cool as the Burning Demon, nor as twisted as the Blood Parasite, but it exudes an eerie feeling.

Gong Qiying glanced at the unbelievers a few times before looking away, because there were three city lords waiting for him to greet them.

He looked up at the three strangely shaped city lords in front of him and couldn't help but marvel at how human-like their appearances were.

The first one to come is a fire elemental creature whose shape is constantly changing but can be vaguely identified as an adult male. Its expression is unclear, and getting too close could result in burns.

This is the city lord of the Blazing Inferno Dungeon, and the name of this body is "Flame".

Beside the flames was another humanoid creature, its entire body shrouded in a glowing pure white robe, leaving only a pair of eyes emitting a warm yellow light. Looking at them for too long would make one's eyes hurt; you wouldn't need any electric lights if you just stood there.

This is the city lord of the Holy Light Dungeon, and the name of this body is "Follower".

There is one more.

Gong Qiying's gaze shifted again, looking at a figure that was far away from the two city lords. The dark figure noticed his gaze and a pale, delicate hand emerged from the shadows and waved.

The guy crouching in the corner, covering himself up with shadow magic like a slime, is the Lord of the White Blood Dungeon. His name is "Irines," though it's unclear whether it's his real name or his body's name.

In short, this guy looks like a reclusive otaku who crawls in the shadows. Because he is shrouded in shadow magic, Miyagi Ying can't even see his face.

These three city lords were the three people that Chi Ya had entrusted him to investigate.

Although it looks strange, it is generally in line with the public's aesthetic, at least much better than the anthropomorphic city lord that looks like a string of gourds that I have seen before.

In other words, one of the three might be a traitor who defected to the demon race, and most importantly...

These people all openly dislike Gong Qiying!

Gong Qiying's lips curled into a smile as he took the initiative to greet her:

"Hello everyone, it is an honor to work with you all today."

Come on, let me see just how much you hate me. Will this be the classic scene of someone spouting nonsense and then getting slapped in the face?

As he thought about it, he took a few steps closer to the three of them, and even extended his hand as if to shake hands warmly and friendly.

If it were some classic scene, maybe someone would even slap his outstretched hand away; just thinking about that scene is kind of exciting.

The three city lords remained silent, watching as Gong Qiying extended his hands in a gesture of sincerity.

This scene, if placed in a black and white comic, would be filled with an oppressive feeling of impending storm!
"Oh my, oh my, I've heard so much about you, Godwin! Meeting you today, I can say you're a true hero, no doubt about it! You're a man of great talent and a hero in every way!"

The flames on the Blazing Underground City Lord Yan Huo's body leaped merrily as he stretched out his hands, covered in flames, and warmly shook hands with Gong Qiying. Surprisingly, his hands didn't feel hot at all.

"?"

A question mark appeared above Gong Qiying's head.

"My name is Flamefire. Nice to meet you, Godwin. Let's work together to achieve a perfect victory today."

Yan Huo was very enthusiastic, just like he appeared. He even spoke with a strong Northeastern accent, which sounded friendly, like an old uncle from the countryside.

Wait a minute, isn't this wrong?
Gong Qiying blinked and looked at Chi Ya with a strange expression. What happened to Yan Huo's personality being as volatile as a fire? You call someone as enthusiastic as volatile?

Chiya watched the situation with a smile, without saying a word.

Gong Qiying's lips twitched, forcing a smile as he was about to say some polite words. Just then, the Lord of the Holy Light Underground City followed him over, gracefully bowing and warmly shaking his hand, saying:
"Seeing is believing, Your Excellency Godwin. I am confident that our cooperation today will be very pleasant."

Even Irene, who had been huddled in the corner like a cowardly recluse, slowly moved over, stretched out a pale arm from the shadows, bumped fists with Miyazaki, left with the words "Irene," and then hurriedly returned to her original position.

Yan Huo and his followers began to shower him with concern, and Gong Qiying responded somewhat passively to their enthusiasm, momentarily confused about what was going on.

Didn't they say these people clearly dislike me? What's going on here? No matter how you look at it, they seem to have a high level of affection for me, right?
"Alright, let's end the greetings here. Those sealed artifacts have sensed our arrival and are starting to stir."

As soon as Chi Ya said that, Yan Huo and his followers immediately and "reluctantly" released Gong Qiying.

"I think I've already explained the characteristics of the unbelievers to you all once, but just in case, I'll repeat them again. Don't think I'm being long-winded."

Chiya began to describe the characteristics of the faithless again, and Gong Qiying listened, but his gaze was fixed on Yanhuo and his followers in front of him.

Then he squinted.

He had felt uneasy from the moment he was treated so warmly by Yan Huo, and the unease intensified when his followers came running over. After careful consideration, he finally figured out why.

Because although those two people seemed enthusiastic, they were actually cold inside, and could be said to have no emotional fluctuations.

Like those office workers who have to be polite even to people they dislike just because a senior colleague is present.

So that's how it is; it was a forced smile.

Gong Qiying's confusion was resolved.

Sure enough, no matter how much the city lords disliked him outside, they couldn't openly turn against him at this time. That would be too ugly and would lose face for them.

He glanced back at Irene. Well, it was impossible to discern any emotion from that shadow, so let's assume she was as outwardly warm but inwardly cold as Flame and her followers.

He didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed that none of the classic blood pressure-raising scenes had occurred, but at least the current situation showed that everyone was a thinking adult, and if they didn't consider their true feelings, today's attack should be a pleasant collaboration.

However, there is one more thing.

"What would their reaction be if I told them I would be taking over this underground city?"

"Only after killing the enemy can the cross use the absorbed faith to give birth to new unbelievers. Okay, that concludes the explanation. Is there anything else?

Red Fang looked around, nodded, and said:
"Then let's get started."

As soon as he finished speaking, it was as if some kind of restriction was lifted. The unbelievers on the ground instantly sensed the presence of the enemy and all of them went berserk, with sharp roars filling the air.

Several bone dragons burning with spiritual fire roared as they flew across the sky, spitting out cold flames onto the ground. The unbelievers who were touched by the flames screamed in pain and died in droves. At this moment, Red Fang made the first move.

It seems like these few bone dragons could easily solo the Faithless Ones?

But the next moment, the ordinary cross suddenly emitted an invisible wave that quickly enveloped the bone dragons.

The blazing fire in their eye sockets instantly shrank to a mere flame, and their heavy bodies, stripped of their strength, crashed to the ground. The unbelievers beside them rushed over and smashed the bone dragon's hard skull with a few swift punches, displaying truly formidable power.

Having absorbed the power of the bone dragons, a large number of unbelievers suddenly emerged from the land surrounding the cross, quickly making up for the previous losses.

"The bone dragons are the closest monsters to being mindless that I have, but they are also unable to escape the influence of the cross, so I can't help in this battle. It's all up to you."

"Don't worry, I can definitely take down these ugly monsters."

Yan Huo spoke confidently, and with a wave of his hand, dozens of fire elemental creatures that looked similar to him gathered on the ground, burning the faithless with raging flames.

Fire is the destroyer of carbon-based life forms. Even in fantasy worlds, fire has a remarkable effect, setting large numbers of disbelievers ablaze.

But the cross exerted its power once again at this moment, and the fire elemental creature's size suddenly shrank the instant it was covered by that invisible wave!

The unbelievers charged forward, annihilating it with a single punch! The fire elemental creature exploded into embers scattered across the ground.

After they die, the cross uses their "faith" to regenerate unbelievers, and their numbers seem to be even greater than before. Isn't this completely ineffective?

But at that moment, the embers left by the fire elementals suddenly exploded violently, engulfing the surrounding unbelievers completely. When the smoke cleared, no one survived.

And no new unbelievers are produced at the cross.

Although new disbelievers were born when the fire elementals died, their explosions took away slightly more disbelievers than the newly born ones, so overall it was a small victory.

"I see, it's using deathrattle." Gong Qiying saw through Yan Huo's strategy. It was indeed feasible, but the efficiency was a bit too slow.

Irene then dispatched her own monsters, a group of headless gargoyles.

These are truly mindless monsters, knowing only how to kill, so the cross has no effect on them. It seems Irene is planning to fight the Believers head-on. But the only problem is that the Believers' strength is too overwhelming; a few punches can smash a gargoyle to pieces. The battle scene is quite brutal, and even if she wins, the loss of her mental strength will probably be considerable.

The followers summoned mages and paladins who had turned into skeletons, and they actually cast holy light magic in their skeletal forms, which looked extremely incongruous.

The Holy Light seems to have a special effect on the unbelievers, causing considerable damage. However, the only problem is that these mages and paladins are intelligent, and the cross works on them.

The wave of energy slowed the mages and paladins for a moment, but when the unbelievers surrounded them, they suddenly regrouped and began to kill!

"Just as I predicted, unwavering faith can withstand the cross." The followers exclaimed proudly, "This is the power of our steadfast faith in the Holy Light!"

As if to prove their faith in the Holy Light, these skeletons fought with unparalleled ferocity.

Sometimes, having a belief in your heart can be really helpful in certain situations.

However, when the third wave of the cross arrived, these steadfast mages and paladins ultimately could not hold on any longer.

Each fluctuation strips away their "faith," and weakened by each wave, they eventually die at the hands of the unbelievers.

Moreover, because their faith was so powerful, the cross that absorbed this power produced a large number of unbelievers in one fell swoop. The situation on the battlefield is now somewhat chaotic, and it is impossible to see the number of unbelievers, or whether the number of unbelievers killed by the skeletons or the number of unbelievers born because of them is greater. It is impossible to count.

"Hey, don't get in the way!" Yan Huo let out a teasing laugh, but there was a hint of suppressed anger in the laughter.

No wonder, when you're fighting a fierce battle on your side, but your teammates are sending more troops to the enemy, anyone would be annoyed.

"It was just a momentary mistake."

The follower offered a nonchalant rebuttal.

“That was just a test. Now I know that unwavering faith in the Holy Light can resist the nihilism of the unbelievers, so victory is already an absolute outcome. The blessing of the God of the Holy Light will always be with me.”

He started picking and choosing from his available monster resources, gesturing in the air as if he were doing arithmetic.

"I will assemble a legion of holy light. They will help each other like family and bring devastating blows to heretics. No one will die here, and in this way, no new unbelievers will be born!"

The followers were very confident in their plan.

Holy rays of light descended upon the battlefield of the unbelievers. There were paladins wielding heavy armor and greatswords, spearmen galloping on horseback, angels draped in wings, and, most notably, priests surrounded by white holy light.

These priests were covered in a thick holy light, and anyone who got close to them felt healed. This meant that they had a plentiful supply of healing energy and could continuously provide treatment to the frontline combat personnel.

However, there is a fatal problem: the weakening effect of the cross affects everyone present, including the priests.

Therefore, the characteristics of skeletons become apparent at this time.

However, once these priests and soldiers are weakened to a certain extent, they will automatically disintegrate and merge into the newly appearing soldiers. At this point, they are not considered to have been killed by the cross, so even if the power of faith is absorbed, the cross cannot be used for the time being.

By relying on this method of warfare, we can continuously fight against the faithless!
Gong Qiying nodded as he watched his followers give instructions.

The monsters outside of the Sien Dungeon are also quite unique, so the other dungeons should not be underestimated.

“But I have a question,” he said at this point, “won’t the faith absorbed by the cross just snowball out of control?”

Although the faith absorbed by the cross is temporarily useless with this tactic, over time, as long as you can kill any Holy Light Monster, you can also gain the faith of the previous generations of monsters on that Holy Light Monster.

If even one monster dies, the number of faithless people will surge.

“Yes, that’s a problem,” the follower nodded. “So we need to finish this quickly, or things will get bad.”

Gong Qiying & Yanhuo & Ilines:
"Why didn't you tell me beforehand, you bastard?!"

With a furious roar, Yan Huo unleashed a large number of fire elemental creatures, instantly filling the battlefield with terrifyingly high temperatures.

Irene shuddered slightly, guessing that the expression on the face beneath the shadows wouldn't be too pleasant, because the fighting style of the gargoyles under her command had clearly become more ferocious, and the number of similar gargoyle-type monsters was also constantly increasing.

Gong Qiying also wanted to complain, but had nowhere to do so.

Originally, everyone was still in the testing phase, figuring out which battle method was the most suitable, and it was worth taking some time.

As a result, that bastard follower turned the situation into a timed match right from the start!
If the problem of the unbelievers isn't resolved before the snowball effect of the Holy Light monsters starts rolling, the number of unbelievers underground is likely to explode!

"Quickly, take back all your monsters now, there's still a chance to salvage the situation!" Yan Huo roared angrily, seemingly unable to contain his temper.

"Believe in me, believe in the Holy Light."

The followers did not do that, but instead continued to throw in more monsters, causing the flames above Yanhuo's head to shoot straight into the sky.

He did this with good reason.

Because the unbeliever has not yet reached the point of breaking the seal, even if his plan fails, the increased number of unbelievers is unlikely to cause the seal to be broken.

A more direct reason is that he believed in the strength of the monsters under his command.

Indeed, with the blessing of the Holy Light, coupled with the seamless teamwork and strict discipline among his various monster classes, he was like a god when facing the unbelievers, and quickly broke through the stalemate on the battlefield.

Judging from the current situation, his plan has a high chance of success.

"Tsk." Yan Huo cursed under his breath for being a religious madman, and poured more of his monsters into the attack. The fire elemental creatures began to hurl explosive fireballs at the swarm of unbelievers, but the unbelievers erected a solid human shield near the cross.

Ireneth threw in more gargoyles, nothing new, and it seemed that the variety of monsters she could use in this campaign was very limited.

The three city lords are currently fighting on three fronts, but their target is the cross, which is surrounded by a dense crowd of unbelievers.

Once they can destroy a cross, they can take advantage of the moment when the unbelievers are in a slumber and destroy them all with lightning speed. All that is left is to destroy the crosses repeatedly until they run out of energy and fall into a slumber. In this way, the sealed artifact will be pacified.

As for why they didn't choose to place the monsters directly near the cross?
That's because the closer one gets to the cross, the greater the weakening effect, and the unbelievers surrounding the cross appear to be significantly stronger.

Sending monsters directly over would be like giving the enemy energy, which would be a losing proposition. It would be better to advance gradually from the outside, reducing the number of monsters before breaking through the cross in one fell swoop.

Gong Qiying also agreed with their plan.

The three city lords surrounded the faithless one from the east, west, and south, while he focused his attack on the north.

Compared to the three city lords, the monsters he sent out were of a much wider variety and in smaller numbers. It was clear at a glance that this was a test, a test of the strength of the faithless.

First are the puppet soldiers of Lake Lienia. Although they are unaffected by the cross, they are too fragile and can easily be surrounded and torn apart by multiple unbelievers.

Then there's the little stone demon that looks like a stone statue, but it turns out that this thing can be affected by the cross, and the same goes for the Tree of Life watchdog; they are all affected.

"I've pretty much figured out the rules."

Gong Qiying stroked his chin, a look of understanding in his eyes, and then poured a large amount of mental energy into it all at once.

The next moment, a giant-like figure stood on the earth.

The shadow cast down instantly covered the cross.

"Huh?" "What?" "?"

Yan Huo and the others exclaimed in surprise and looked at Gong Qiying. What shocked them was that they could feel the giant's strength, which was full of the smell of money (spiritual power). With such a high cost, its strength must be quite strong!
"Goldwin, are you sure that doesn't have intelligence?!" Flamefire shouted.

So far, the strongest monsters dispatched from the three dungeons of Blazing Flame, Holy Light, and White Blood appear to be only barely elite level, with no boss-level monsters appearing.

Is it that they don't have it? That's impossible. Is it that they don't want to? It's because they can't send it out.

Because the more powerful a monster is, the more intelligent it generally is, which is common knowledge in dungeons!

Irene and her group have no shortage of boss-level monsters, but it's inconvenient to send them out here. The only place they can make use of stronger monsters is in the Holy Light Dungeon, which is snowballing.

To avoid their plans failing, the followers actually dared not use any powerful monsters.

Faced with the city lords' questions, Gong Qiying calmly nodded.

"Don't worry, it is absolutely devoid of intelligence."

Moreover, he was very confident in the giant's strength.

[Giant Halberd Golem Guardian - Gelid Limited Edition]

Because this golem guard's nickname is the number one expert in Galid.

simply put.

It's an overpowered tank with insane stats.

(End of this chapter)