Chapter 255 – Cat Dad's Dungeon in Danger
After some rest, the brutal sparring sessions and the endless struggle continued. This time, Mir trapped both men's consciousnesses in their pocket dantian world.
For two years in the pocket dantian world, aka 12 hours in reality, Xiaomao was forced to fight without a minute of rest, food, or sleep. He couldn't use any game skill, his catopus tentacle, spell, or Qi in the fight. Moreover, he always fought without armor or weapon.
During fights, he could only steal weapons and armor from the dummies to use them. Then, in the next wave, the stolen weapons and armor disappeared, and Xiaomao had to redo it all over again.
The dummies got stronger with every wave. They started using strange abilities, such as Qi attacks, magic attacks, and buffs. Qi bullets were the most common.
Without realizing it, Xiaomao copied their movements and tactics. He started using clumps of dirt and grasses as starter weaponry. At first, he simply threw at them for a distraction. But after a while, the thrown dirt was faster than stronger, comparable to a bullet. Then, after two years, every dirt throw was so precise that they turned into shotgun shells.
Xiaomao finally defeated the elite dummy, aka the middle boss. After that wave, the middle bosses multiplied, and the fight got even harder. Xiaomao managed to push forward until the 65,536-man army wave, where half of the dummies were converted into elite dummies. He couldn't progress further after that.
When Xiaomao and Jungwoo's consciousness returned to reality, it was the morning of the next day.
Both men were depressed. They lost count of how many times they were brutally killed in a desperate one-vs-many fight unarmed.
"I wish I could use my tentacles, munya."
"Me, too. I wish I could use my tiger claws."
Despite the complaints, they were relieved that the Spartan training sessions were over. They instantly fell asleep, not noticing the ruined apartment room and the destroyed walls, broken doors, and holes in the ceiling.
Mir lightly snorted and sneakily patched the broken walls and ceiling with her illusion power and make-shift wooden walls. She also used her shadow to absorb dust and debris in the room, hiding the trash under a carpet.
.
At noon, both men regained their stamina and woke up. Unfortunately, Mir's cruel lecture and training sessions continued.
"So far, none of you could even pass the first stage, mew. I'm disappointed in you. Both of you are a failure, mew!"
Xiaomao's expression turned dark while Jungwoo sulked in a corner. He stopped replacing the furniture in his room, keeping it empty as he was tired of wasting money and seeing his new furniture destroyed again.
"What do I have to do to make you satisfied, munya?"
Mir jumped on Xiaomao's head and slapped his forehead several times, "One-VS-Million situation is so basic, dumb hooman! It's a 1v1 match a million times! Kill one at a time until the last one is dead, mew!"
Mir was so mad that she yelled in a high-pitched voice.
"Try again! We'll start with the one-VS-65k wave! Keep going until you defeat the final wave, mew!"
Hearing that he had to fight a million soldiers, Xiaomao's face was ashen, "There's more, munya?!"
"One versus one a million times! Ingrain that to your brain, mew! Don't blindly go gungho and get yourself surrounded. Kill one, retreat. Kill another one, and retreat, mew!"
"…"
"I'll restart again! GO!"
With a paw-slap to the face, Xiaomao passed out, but his consciousness returned to the pocket dantian.
.
.
While Xiaomao was training, fishing boats and vessels from Seaside Town approached the Northern Archipelago.
A thousand players, rallied from Yeet City, Siren City, and nearby towns launched their first wave of attack. The pioneer units consisted of scouts, ninjas, rogues, rangers, and explorers. They invaded all the small and big islands of the region.
A few unlucky ones encountered sentry mermen and mermaids around Gnoll Island. They got ambushed and were dragged to the abyss. Many bold adventurers got on Cernun Island and found 4-digit-level fairies, and they were scorched into dust.
Although the main islands were heavily protected, smaller ones were raided and occupied. Out of 15 small islands, only 2 remained untouched. As for the rest, they fell to the hands of players.
Explorers immediately set up their camps and marked their campsites as teleportation destinations. Then, they retreated with the marked runes, returning to their colleagues at Seaside Town.
When the mermen raided the occupied islands, the players had already retreated.
The island chain frontline was compromised. Soon, many players would teleport to the marked campsites here.
.
Mermen and mermaids rushed to their supervisors and reported the situation. In the morning, Nymph and Undine visited the Slave Dungeon and relayed the news to Cernun.
Hearing the reports, Cernun stood up.
"Wei Zhi, come with me."
"Eh?" Wei Zhi, who hadn't yet consumed a spirit stone, was surprised. She was still level 1, and she didn't think that she could contribute anything. "But I'm still level 1. I can't fight with my current stats!"
"I'm not sending you to fight. I'm sending you to the fairy swamp and train there under my supervision. Before Odin and others arrive, I should make you strong enough to fend off immorals by yourself."
Without waiting for Wei Zhi to react, Cernun grabbed her shoulder, and her body instantly shrank to palm size. The lizardman took her in his palm and vanished.
Taotie, Mimir, and Ifrit also stood up. Even Nymph and Undine, who returned here after they had heard the news, got ready to join the battle.
'You all stay there. There's no need to move yet, munya!'
The voice of Meowmeow echoed in the room. Mimir and Taotie looked at the treasure room and grumbled.
"Can't we go out and play? No one is going to invade the dungeon any time soon, right?" Complained Taotie.
'Immortals can bypass the mermen outside the cave. Once they appear, the dolls on the lobby floor won't be their opponent. I'll need you to help them, munya.'
"What about Fu De and Torrent? Can't they fight?"
Fu De and Torrent had long joined the dungeon as residents. Currently, they lived at the floor boss room on the B1 floor.
'Those guys are responsible for filtering strong immortals from the weak. The strong ones will slip through their grasp, but they will take care of the weak, munya.'
Mimir walked outside the boss room and calmly sat on a stone throne, where Gnoll General used to sit here. He brought out a coffee table and put it on the side of the chair. Then, he arranged a set of teaware.
"Do you mind if I stay here and guard the boss room's entrance, senior?"
'Suit yourself, munya.'
Getting Meowmeow's permission, Mimir laughed. He gazed at the two obelisk towers that Andrew and Peter had built before he stroked his long beard.
"I should prepare. What kind of traps should I put here?"
.
The movements of the senior immortals alarmed the working mermaids in the dungeon. They rushed to the mermaid lake and the sanctuary, fleeing from the potential frontline combat.
Fire Ant Dungeon, on the other hand, dispatched their evolved warrior ants and gathered on the B2 floor. All of them were level 50, which seemed fragile.
Changes occurred when Meowmeow tampered with the B2 floor. It turned into a clone of the B1 floor, but it was a lot smaller. The cat later ordered all warrior ants to drink sacred water.
After they drank the suspicious water, they grew wings, become adults, and were ready to migrate to build a new colony. Male ants immediately copulated with female ants and died after the deed.
The female ants grew larger. Instead of flying out of the dungeon to build a new colony, they gathered in a wide section of the maze and set up their new colony there, coexisting with other ant queens.
These giant ant queens started laying eggs without any worker or nurse to assist them.
A few minutes later, more worker ants from Fire Ant Nest were transferred to the B2 floor. They rushed to the queens, vomiting and feeding them juices to replenish their energy. The nurses tranported and nurtured the eggs at the new nursery section in one of the deadend hallways while some workers escorted them to a new place with a hidden teleportation platform.
Because of the new residents, patrolling mannequins were alerted, but they didn't attack the ants. Instead, they started walking toward the queens and assisted them as if they were nurse ants.
Many ants raised their antennae and poked their head. The mannequins with creepy faces also emitted strange pheromones in return. Just like that, all ants accepted their existence as one of their allies.
Fu De, the new employee and a dungeon resident came to visit the queens as well. As Fu De had the same scent as the mannequins, they didn't trouble HER.
Standing in front of the ant queens was a 155cm-tall girl with a blond twin-tail hairstyle. She wore a black dress like a refined lady. But because of her flat chest and her jailbait appearance, she looked like a cheeky bratty middle-school girl.
After Fu De had found Cernun, the latter freed the vampire from Pangu's curse and forced Fu De to work under Xiaomao, becoming a resident of the cat's dungeon. As a result, the old coot turned into a legal-loli vampire.
At first, Fu De wanted to rebel and ask Xiaomao to undo the gender-change effect. But because of Cernun's threats, she went through five stages of grief and accepted her fate. At the present, Fu De realized that it wasn't a bad thing to serve Xiaomao in this dungeon.
RUMBLE
A fountain of sacred water appeared in the queen ant's new room. Fu De looked at the newly created decoration and heard Meowmeow's voice.
'Fudging vampire, feed the water to the eggs and the queens. You can also drink it.'
"Can I?"
Fu De stared at the sacred water. She leaned over and looked at the description.
"Won't I die drinking this? I'm an undead, you know?"
'You won't. As the matter of fact, you will get stronger because you're a part of this dungeon now.'
"… If you say so, sir."
Fu De scooped a handful of sacred water and drank it.
DING
<Your health and mana have been restored.>
<Your stamina is double for 12 hours>
<Your Max HP and MP have increased by 100.>
<Your INT has increased by 10.>
<Your Blood Spiritual Root has increased by 10.>
Fu De happily nodded in approval. Even though the stat gain was abysmal, she liked the supply.
DING
<You have been inflicted with an abnormal status – Estrus.>
"…"
Fu De's face turned red. She looked left and right before she rushed to the empty floor boss room of the B2 floor. Five hours later, she returned to Ant Queen's room, looking refreshed. The heart icon was no longer with her.
Without saying anything, Fu De waved her fingers and drained sacred water from the fountain, creating bubbles of water mass. She directed them toward the ant queens and the ant eggs as if she was watering plants.