As an NPC, having a lot of skills is quite reasonable, right?

When Moen pushed open the heavy iron door of Jack's repair shop, it was already completely dark outside.

Not long ago, after hearing about Skargard's current situation from Langdon, the amount of information was still a bit overwhelming, leaving Moen somewhat dazed.

Moen quickly settled Kate's family in the current Ember headquarters. The secret agents from the Anmi Society were also keeping an eye on things, so even if the city guards wanted to cause trouble, it wouldn't be so easy.

"The goal is clear now," Moen thought to himself.

"First, go farm the dungeon to get the brain fluid and solve Arya's soul lock problem, then go to that recruitment camp to find Kate's mother."

"You're back?" In the room on the second floor, Gray was sitting by Arya's bed, wiping his greatsword with a rag in his hand.

He had just finished checking on Arya's condition when he saw Moen enter. He put down his sword and asked, "Why did you take so long? Did you run into trouble?"

Moen had come to check on Arya's condition, but he hadn't expected Gray to be there too.

He nodded, pulled up a chair and sat down, then told Gray everything Langdon had said about the changes at the city lord's mansion and Vera's conspiracy.

"Balthazar..." After listening to Moen's story, Gray remained silent for a long time.

"When I was young, I met that city lord once. At that time, he was indeed a man of great talent and ambition, and a man of great compassion."

Gray sighed, "It's truly lamentable that such a powerful figure has fallen to this state."

As he spoke, Gray grew increasingly agitated, and suddenly stood up: "Since that recruitment camp is a cannibalistic den of monsters, what are we waiting for? I'm going to tear that place down right now."

"Please don't!" Moen quickly stopped Gray, who was about to get up. "Old man, I know you have a bad temper, but this time is different."

"Since Vera was able to imprison the city lord, it means that the power she wields is not to be underestimated. You don't have any stealth skills, so rushing in directly will only trigger the city's alarm."

"When hundreds or thousands of mechanical guards surround us, none of us will be able to escape."

Seeing that Moen's words made sense, Gray sat back down: "So what do you suggest we do? We can't just stand by and watch, can we?"

"Division of labor." A glint of light flashed in Moen's eyes: "I'll go rescue them; I'm good at this kind of infiltration and search."

"As for you, you'll cause some commotion in the city, the bigger the better, and ideally draw all the attention away from the city guards."

"A feint?" Gray grinned.

"That's a good idea. I'm good at making a commotion."

"Then it's settled." Moen stood up.

"Don't rush into action these next couple of days. Go and oversee things at Ember's location."

"Although Kate is clever, she's not very strong in combat. If anything goes wrong, you'll have to step in."

Gray patted his chest and assured him, "Don't worry, as long as I'm here, that steel mill will be the safest place in all of Skargard."

After seeing Gray off, Moen returned to his room and rubbed his temples, feeling a bit of a headache.

The plan is in place, but the most crucial intelligence is still missing.

Where exactly is Irina being held? What is the internal structure of that recruitment camp? We need accurate information about these things.

"That crazy woman, she disappeared at the crucial moment without even leaving a way to contact me," Moen muttered to himself, referring to Sylvie's name.

"Oh dear, Mr. Moen seems quite troubled~"

Just then, a clear and melodious voice suddenly rang out by the window.

A fragrant breeze wafted by, and Sylvie leaned gracefully against the windowsill, her heterochromatic eyes filled with a sly smile.

Moen's lips twitched.

Did this woman somehow steal the "mind-reading" ability from the template? Why does she always appear whenever I try to find her?

"Are you stunned?" Sylvie jumped down from the windowsill, walked up to Moen, and stared into his eyes.

"Are you secretly cursing me in your heart?"

"Cough, how could that be?" Moen said without changing his expression. "I just happened to have something to discuss with you."

Sylvie extended one hand, palm up, the meaning clear: "You wanted to talk to me, but now you're not even going to discuss benefits? Does the Ember Organization not pay our salaries anymore?"

Moen immediately adopted a righteous and awe-inspiring expression, and said with deep regret, "Comrade Sylvie, your ideological awareness is still not high enough! What we need to do is break the shackles of the old world and build a world where everyone is equal! What a noble cause this is, how can it be measured by vulgar material things?"

"Look, I've risked my life for the organization, have I ever asked for a single penny?"

"Tch." Sylvie rolled her eyes at him, annoyed.

"Alright, alright, stop making empty promises. They didn't actually take anything from you."

She dropped her joking expression, pulled a letter from her pocket, and tossed it to Moen: "Let's get down to business. To prove that I, as a comrade, am also doing practical work, this is the information you wanted about Irina."

Moen caught the scroll, his eyes narrowing. "Where is she? Still in the recruitment camp?"

"They should have been here." Sylvie shook her head.

"But Vera underestimated the power of the Azure Thunder Clan's bloodline; Irina was not captured."

"According to information obtained from within the Anmi Society, Irina suddenly rebelled while being escorted into the core laboratory. Although she was poisoned, she managed to break through three layers of blockade with the terrifying burst speed of her Azure Thunder bloodline."

"They escaped?" Moen was overjoyed.

"Yes, they escaped, but the situation is not optimistic." Sylvie pointed to a red area deep in the upper and lower layers of the map.

"To escape the mechanical hounds, she jumped into the sewage outlet of the underground pipe network and eventually disappeared near the third basement level."

"That place is a forbidden zone for life, full of mutated lava creatures, and she is seriously injured. Nobody knows if she can survive."

At this point, Sylvie suddenly raised her chin smugly: "But don't worry, I've already sent people to scout that area."

"I must say, your Ember idea is really effective. I've managed to influence a few peripheral members of the Anmi Society these past few days. I've already done a preliminary test on them; they're quite capable and have long been dissatisfied with the Anmi Society. They're just waiting for you to review them."

Moen looked at Sylvie with some surprise.

This woman seems even more enthusiastic about building the organization than I am? Is this what they call loving what you do?

"The third underground level?" Skargard's lower city is very large, and the third underground level is also a huge area. It will probably take some effort to find Irina.

"Thanks. I'll find time to check on those people you mentioned. Keep in touch, but don't contact me unless necessary."

After saying that, Moen pushed open the door and went back to his room, leaving Sylvie, who couldn't retort, stomping her feet in place.

The next day, Moen, accompanied by Kate in full armor, stood before the cave entrance that radiated a scorching heat.

"Young master, this is the place."

Kate carried a pickaxe on her back and had the dagger Moen had given her at her waist. Although her palms were sweating with nervousness, her eyes were unusually determined.

"That treasure-hunting group went down from here yesterday, but I don't think they've come out yet."

"It's normal that they haven't come out." Moen glanced at the bottomless cave.

Moen hadn't run this dungeon in his previous life, but he still remembered the relevant information very clearly.

【Lava Cave】 is a level 25 area dungeon.

The monsters here are generally not very strong individually, but due to the earth's vein energy, the number of monsters in each dungeon is huge. If you don't have area-of-effect attacks, it's easy to wipe out, not to mention that the dungeon boss is a summoner boss.

"Are you ready?" Moen patted Kate on the shoulder.

"No problem! I'm ready!" Kate raised her head.

Moen and Kate leaped into the red abyss.

You have entered the area dungeon "Lava Cavern"

Difficulty: Purgatory (dynamically adjustable)

The moment I landed, a wave of heat hit me.

The surrounding area is rock walls flowing with dark red lava, and the ground is covered with black volcanic rock and huge insect nest structures.

"Hiss—"

A dense rustling sound arose, and dozens of giant ants, the size of hunting dogs and dark red in color, swarmed out from all directions.

"Kate, stay close to me! These monsters are slow, just focus on dodging their attacks." Without saying a word, Moen charged straight into the center of the ant swarm.

With both Red Thorns and Glass Enchantment activated simultaneously, Moen aims to stack all his buffs to the maximum in the first phase.

A terrifying aura of true damage instantly covered the battlefield. The giant mandible ants that had just pounced forward had their exoskeletons begin to melt before they even had a chance to open their mouths, emitting a squeaking scream.

The sword in Moen's hand was like the scythe of death, each swing taking away a life.

Kate, who was following behind, was dumbfounded, but he did not forget Moen's instructions. While observing the monster's route, he swung his pickaxe and rushed towards the mine next to him.

Kate collected the unique copper ore and obsidian ore from those dungeons into her backpack.

Moreover, as Morne killed more and more monsters, Kate could feel a warm current flowing into her body.

He felt his body, which had been depleted by long-term malnutrition, being rapidly replenished. His limbs, which had been heavy, became light, his blurred vision became clear, and even his heartbeat became stronger.

Not bad, he leveled up to level 10 in just one wave of monsters. He estimates he'll reach around level 16 after finishing this dungeon. Moen is very satisfied with his current monster-killing speed.

In less than 10 minutes, Moen had cleared the way to the depths of the dungeon like a bulldozer.

According to the walkthrough, there should be an elite monster, the [Furnace Giant Rhinoceros Beetle], guarding the final lava lake.

But this time, the elite monster didn't patrol the area near the entrance as usual.

Perhaps due to the change in difficulty, he lurked behind the rocks, and Moen did not notice him at first. As a result, he suddenly darted out and tried to ambush Kate, who was collecting the rare ore [Flame Tongue Crystal Cluster].

"Be careful!"

Just as Moen was about to make a move, he saw Kate, upon hearing the sound of the wind, suddenly unleash purple blood energy from her body, swiftly dodging the fatal impact.

"So fast!" Moen's eyes lit up. It seemed that Langdon hadn't been exaggerating; this kid's mother really did have the bloodline of Azure Thunder.

Since Kate was alright, Moen charged forward with a massive shield of over 5000.

This elite monster is quite interesting because it has a skill that involves gambling on luck, with a chance to deal 200% critical damage that ignores defense.

Many teams that come to run this dungeon will die if their tank is unlucky and gets hit by two passive effects in a row. Therefore, this monster is jokingly called the "tank quality inspection machine" by players.

However, even the tank inspector could only sigh in despair at Moen's thick shield, as the fierce impact when the passive was triggered was completely blocked by the ash shield.

In just a few moves, it was pierced through its shell by Moen's sword and turned into experience points.

Further ahead is the Lava Lake, which is the final boss's arena.

In the center of the lake, the Lava Queen Herag, which is over ten meters long, is writhing wildly.

Once Moen entered its attack range, it continuously spewed out [Pulsating Insect Eggs], attempting to hatch small monsters and overwhelm the intruder.

But Moen completely ignored the insect eggs. With the [Purgatory] aura fully activated, the insect eggs were roasted as soon as they landed.

Despite the mother insect's shrieks and magma spews, Moen charged straight at it and began his stationary attack.

Five minutes later, with a resentful hiss, the enormous queen insect collapsed to the ground.

[System notification: Congratulations on clearing the area dungeon "Lava Cave"!]

[Clearance Rating: SSS (Perfect)]

Congratulations on becoming the first player to clear the game with a time of 15 minutes and 22 seconds! Would you like to reveal your team members?

Moen extended his hand and chose no.

[System prompt: Announce to all servers?]

Moen continued to choose no, fearing that something unexpected might happen.

Then, Moen turned around, picked up a dagger, dissected the mother worm's corpse, and collected its brain fluid in a container.

The realism of "Blood and Wine" is also reflected here: the rewards obtained by defeating dungeon bosses must be earned through your own efforts.

At the same time, a massive surge of primal energy rose from the mother insect's corpse and entered Kate's body.

Kate shuddered, her bones cracking as she underwent a complete transformation. Her once frail body became well-proportioned and strong, and lightning flickered in her eyes.

"Young Master! I feel like I can beat ten of my former self now!" Kate exclaimed excitedly, her face flushed.

"Don't be so happy yet." Moen put away his spoils and turned his gaze to the area behind the mother insect's corpse.

As the mother insect collapsed, a hole that had been hidden was revealed.

In his previous life's game guides, Moen had never heard of any other path in the boss room.

"Let's go in and take a look."

The two crawled into the hole, and the further they went in, the colder it became, instead of rising.

Some obvious signs of artificial excavation began to appear on the rock face, as well as some metal pipes that should not have been there.

Finally, at the deepest part of the cave, they witnessed a scene that sent chills down their spines.

It was a huge natural cavity.

In the center of the cave, more than a dozen corpses lay scattered on the ground. Judging from their attire, they were the missing treasure-hunting team.

In the middle of the pile of corpses stood a transparent glass jar that was three meters tall.

The tank was filled with a pale green nutrient solution, and countless tubes were connected to the earth's veins, making gurgling sounds.

A person is immersed in the nutrient solution.

Further down, on the base of the glass jar, there was a nameplate that read: "[Bio-Modification Prototype No. 07]"

"This..." Kate covered her mouth, pointing in horror at the woman in the jar, her voice trembling, "Young...Young Master, that...that looks like my mother."

"Click—"

Just then, a crisp sound suddenly came from the silent cave.

Suddenly, a crack appeared in the glass jar, and a hand slammed onto the glass. The woman inside the jar opened her eyes!

[System Warning: High-energy reaction detected]

Irina (Bio-Modified Berserker) Awakens

Moen gripped his sword tightly, took a deep breath, and stood in front of Kate.

"That is indeed your mother, Kate."

"However, the situation is much worse than I imagined."