I am the Demon King of the Dungeon!

Groom plopped down on the ground, tossing his shield aside, panting heavily. His arms were still trembling. The Death Knight's sword strikes had been increasingly powerful, leaving a deep crack on the shield. He figured he'd have to get it reforged by a blacksmith when he got back.

"That Death Knight is even stronger than it was a few years ago, which made me a little careless..."

"That's your bad habit again." Liz said seriously, "As the tank, can't you be a little more careful? Apart from Captain Kahn, no one in our team knows how to use healing spells."

"Hehe." Groom scratched his head, "Well, I don't need the captain to heal me yet..."

Milo still had red marks left by the shadow tentacles on his wrists, but compared to the despair he felt while being dragged along, these minor injuries were nothing.

Kahn sat cross-legged on the ground, unusually refraining from urging the group to continue.

Liz looked at Arthas curiously, raised an eyebrow, and asked, "Dick, you don't seem tired at all?"

Arthas sheathed his holy silver longsword and replied calmly, "Just saving my energy for fighting the boss."

Kahn stood up and walked to the treasure chest.

The contents inside were more abundant than any of the previous levels: two sets of armor, a shadow resistance ring, and a thumb-sized, eerie green crystal core—a fragment of the Death Knight's Shadow Core.

"Take a five-minute break. The next level, the sixteenth, is the Shadow Labyrinth. As long as you're careful of the Shadow Demons, the labyrinth itself isn't a threat. We have the route map, so we can get through quickly."

"The Sea Witch on the seventeenth level, the Phantom Sea Cave, hasn't changed much. As for the Crowned Griffin on the eighteenth level, Gale Canyon, I'll handle that."

"The orc tribes on the nineteenth floor, I'll be in charge of two tribes. Dick and Liz will be in one group on the west side, and Milo and Groom will be in one group on the east side. We'll try to clear it quickly." Kahn paused, his gaze sweeping across everyone's faces. "The real tough battles will begin on the twentieth floor and beyond."

……

In the sixteenth level of the Shadow Labyrinth, Shadow Fiend was nowhere to be found. Arthas inquired through a message and learned that Shadow Fiend had been traumatized after being instantly killed last time and was currently receiving counseling from the psychological department.

Kahn walked at the front with the route map, adding extra markings with charcoal at several key intersections. The location of the stone walls at a few corners was different from that on the map.

However, the logic of the maze itself remained unchanged. The five people followed the marked route and circled around several times before successfully finding the exit.

The Phantom Sea Cave on the seventeenth floor and the Gale Canyon on the eighteenth floor were both completely outclassed by the Vast Expanse Squad.

This led Arthas to assess the feasibility of the improvements, but in the end he chose to compromise. After all, the difficulty of the dungeon had to be increased step by step according to the floor, and according to Dracula's report and data, the performance of these floors was not bad, and there were quite a few adventurers.

The reason is that the Cangmang Squad is too strong.

On the nineteenth level, the orc tribes split up as planned. Karn took down two tribes on his own, Arthas and Liz cleared the west side, and Groom and Milo advanced on the east side. In less than half an hour, all seven tribal chiefs fell. When the orc hero appeared from the central tent, he was met by the five-person formation that had regrouped.

At this point, all nineteen levels have been breached.

The five people passed through the teleportation array at the end of the grassland, and a vast golden desert unfolded before them.

The sun was high in the sky.

The sand grains twisted slightly in the heat, and no trace of biological activity could be seen on the surface of the desert, but a muffled rustling sound could be faintly heard from deep within the sand beneath one's feet.

Kahn stood at the edge of the desert, his sleeves fluttering slightly in the hot wind. He didn't rush into the desert, but closed his eyes, his senses spreading out in all directions like ripples.

"Sandworm Pilian, a unique-class monster, level 400 or above, wields the divine-class treasure 'Crimson War God'. The intelligence report includes the line, 'Don't trust her appearance.'"

"What do you mean?" Milo gripped his staff tightly.

"It means..." Groom pulled his battle axe from behind his back, the blade gleaming coldly in the blazing sun, "the cuter something is, the more dangerous it is."

The five people stepped into the desert.

The sand grains made a soft, rustling sound underfoot, and the heatwave distorted the distant horizon. There were no obstacles along the way; no sand scorpion kings broke out of the ground, no sand worms opened their huge mouths, and even the wind was still.

This unusual silence only made everyone more vigilant; there was only one reason why the monsters weren't stopping the adventurers.

The leader must personally receive them.

The top of the sand dune.

A small figure appeared.

"You're here again! Pirian has been waiting for you for so long." Pirian smiled innocently. "Shall we get started?"

"Yes," Kahn said calmly.

Pirion blinked, then tilted his head to look at Arthas, who was standing at the end of the line. The corners of his mouth deepened imperceptibly. "That's great."

She raised her right hand, and grains of sand gathered from all directions, coalescing in her palm into a crimson spear. The surface of the spear was covered with scale-like patterns, and each turn of it reflected different lusters in the sunlight.

Crimson armor emerged from beneath her skin, clinging tightly to her slender figure. The shoulder guards were shaped like sandworm mouthparts, and the dark red gem in the center of the breastplate began to glow red, as if something was about to awaken.

The spear was slammed into the sand.

boom--

Centered on the gun's butt, the surrounding sand grains were shaken into the air, hovered for a moment, and then fell like a rainstorm.

Pirian's amber eyes lit up, not just with a fervor for battle, but with a primal predator's instinct. A bell rang softly on his ankle, so light and crisp, yet it sent shivers down the spine of the entire desert.

"Let's begin!"

Before he finished speaking, the spear swept across.

The sand exploded like a fountain, and twelve sand scorpion kings burst out of the ground, each the size of a calf.

Next came three sandworms with mouthparts made of petal-shaped carapaces. When they opened, they could swallow an entire carriage. Their densely packed serrated teeth gleamed a pale white in the sunlight.

Kahn took a step forward.

"Listen up, everyone! I'll handle the boss; you guys are responsible for clearing out the mobs!!"

"Understood!" the four said in unison.

Groom's battle axe swept across, and his shield slammed into the ground, knocking the three Sand Scorpion Kings at the front back several feet.

Liz's arrow followed closely, precisely piercing the stinger of a sand scorpion king's tail. The stinger swung wildly, instead piercing the head of its companion beside it.

Milo raised his staff, and an earthen wall rose from the ground, splitting the Sand Scorpion Kings on the left flank into two groups. Then, fireballs rained down from the sky, killing the trapped Sand Scorpion Kings one by one.

Arthas roamed the edge of the battlefield, constantly switching enchantments: frost to slow, fire to finish off targets weakened by Liz.

Behind them, the battlefield between Kahn and Pirian had already shattered the entire desert.

Pirian's spear was as fast as lightning, each strike accompanied by the roar of a sandstorm, the spear tip simultaneously piercing Kahn's throat, chest and abdomen from three different angles.

Kahn slapped his right palm diagonally, deflecting the first spear tip; his left arm blocked the second; as the third spear tip struck his waist and abdomen, he slightly turned his body, narrowly missing it, while simultaneously aiming his right fist straight for Pierion's face.

Pirian sheathed his gun and returned to defense, using the gun barrel to block the punch. The loud clang of metal striking metal made the sand dunes tremble.

"Hey! Uncle, you're faster than that paladin from the Oracle, not bad, not bad." A hint of excitement flashed in Pirien's eyes. "But what about your strength?"

It changed tactics very quickly, the chain at the end of the gun wrapping around Kahn's wrist, attempting to pull him into its arms and fire another shot.

Kahn did not struggle; his left hand rested on the center of Pirian's breastplate, and his right hand overlapped the back of his left hand.

Bengquan (Crushing Fist) - Double Push Hands!

Holy light exploded from her palm, sending Pilian flying with a sudden burst of force. Her feet plowed deep furrows in the sand for over ten steps before she regained her footing. She looked down at her breastplate, where a fine crack had appeared on the dark red armor.

"It's not over yet." Pirian pointed his spear to the sky, and countless grains of sand rose into the air, condensing into a giant sand sphere over ten meters in diameter. "Sand Meteor!"

The sand ball fell.

Kahn made a circular motion with his hands, and holy light condensed between his arms into a rotating sphere of light.

"The Judgment of Holy Light (Chapter 1)".

The ball of light shot out and collided head-on with the sand ball in mid-air. The golden light and yellow sand tore at each other, and the shockwave flattened the surrounding sand dunes. A visible ripple exploded in the sky above the desert. The ball of light pierced through the sand ball and smashed into Pirian's breastplate. The cracks expanded from an inch to the entire surface of the breastplate.

It was thrown back and crashed heavily onto the sand!