Chapter 170: Chapter 170: A Public Humiliation
The transition through the portal dropped the squad of Dante directly into the first main hallway of Demon Spirit Land.
The environment was a stark claustrophobic nightmare.
The hallway was constructed entirely from polished obsidian and pale ancient bone.
Glowing green runes lined the ceiling and cast a sickly toxic light over the cracked stone floor.
The air was freezing, and the ambient silence was incredibly oppressive.
Dante didn’t immediately rush forward. He checked the buffs of his squad.
The [Ultimate Guardian Halo] of Aura was active. The invisible starlight dome provided them with a massive 60% damage reduction and passive healing.
"Alright," Dante said softly and his red eyes scanned the dark hallway. "Linear dungeon. That means traps and chokepoints. Keep a tight formation."
Before they could take three steps down the hall, the green portal behind them flared violently.
The system didn’t lock the instance to a single group. Demon Spirit Land was a massive multi-layered public dungeon.
A group of twelve heavily armored players stepped through the portal.
They moved with absolute rigid military precision, and their silver and blue tabards were completely clean.
It was the Legion of Blades.
And standing at the front of the formation, his face a mask of cold uncompromising fury, was Kaleus.
The Warlord hadn’t been deterred by his public humiliation at the resurrection plaza.
He was back, fully geared, and clearly determined to clear the dungeon and salvage the reputation of his guild.
Kaleus stopped when he saw the squad of Dante standing a few feet away.
The tension in the narrow obsidian hallway instantly spiked to lethal levels.
The twelve Legionnaires raised their weapons and dropped into flawless combat stances.
"Dan," Kaleus stated, his voice completely flat, echoing off the bone walls. "You are blocking the progression path."
"I was just admiring the architecture," Dante said calmly and did not draw his sword.
Kaleus didn’t smile. He pointed his glowing silver longsword directly at the chest of Dante.
"You think you are untouchable," Kaleus sneered. His military discipline cracked slightly under the weight of his wounded ego.
"You execute fools like Ryujin and slaughter disorganized mobs. But this is a twelve-man raid environment."
"The mechanics here require absolute coordination and superior numbers. You brought seven people. Half of them are squishy casters and a joke tank."
Garrick frowned and tapped his rusty helmet. "I have feelings, you know."
"You are going to fail," Kaleus promised, and his voice rose in volume.
"And when the system crushes you, the Legion will be right behind you to step over your corpses and claim the Celestial pet. Your arrogance is going to be your downfall, anomaly."
Dante didn’t answer. He just stared at the Warlord.
But Casanova wasn’t going to let the insult slide.
The flamboyant bard stepped out from behind Garrick and adjusted his bright pink feathered hat.
He didn’t draw a weapon. He just crossed his arms and looked Kaleus up and down with absolute unfiltered disdain.
"Are you done monologuing, tin can?" Casanova asked, his voice dripping with condescension.
Kaleus glared at the bard. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me," Casanova laughed.
"You stand there talking about coordination and numbers, but we all watched the stream yesterday. We watched your elite thousand-man army get completely eaten by dogs in a tunnel while you cried for help."
The eleven Legionnaires behind Kaleus stiffened, and their faces flushed with anger.
"You are a joke, Kaleus," Casanova continued and ruthlessly twisted the knife.
"You are a guy playing dress-up in shiny armor pretending to be a general. You could not even organize a bake sale, let alone clear a high-tier dungeon."
"I will cut your tongue out, bard!" Kaleus roared.
He took a furious step forward and completely lost his temper. He raised his silver sword and fully intended to strike Casanova down.
Dante didn’t use a Zenith-tier skill to protect his bard.
"Aura," Dante said softly and did not even look at the Warlord.
The Mystic Sovereign materialized instantly and floated gracefully above the head of Dante.
She didn’t look malicious. She looked completely serene.
She raised her pale glowing hand and let out a single sharp chime.
[Skill Activated: Light of Chaos]
A blinding concentrated pulse of pure starlight exploded outward from the Sprite. It washed completely over Kaleus and his twelve-man raid group.
The system interface violently flashed.
[Debuff Applied: Absolute Silence. Duration: 10 Seconds.]
The mouth of Kaleus kept moving, but absolutely no sound came out. The furious Warlord was completely and utterly muted.
But [Light of Chaos] wasn’t just a silence spell.
[Secondary Effect Triggered: Random Equipment Destruction.]
The combat engine of the Zenith Protocol rolled the dice.
The cosmic weight of Aura combined with the maxed-out Luck stat of Dante ensured the absolute worst possible outcome for the target.
A loud tearing sound echoed in the hallway.
The heavy highly customized Silver-grade armored leggings of Kaleus didn’t just break.
They completely unraveled. The metal shattered into digital dust to instantly delete the item from his equipped inventory.
The Warlord of the Legion of Blades, the stoic terrifying military commander of the Veridian Alliance, was suddenly standing in the middle of a high-tier dungeon without any pants.
He was wearing bright aggressively vibrant red underpants.
The absolute silence in the hallway stretched for exactly two seconds.
Then, the anomaly squad completely broke.
Casanova fell to his knees, clutched his stomach, and laughed so hard he couldn’t breathe.
Mei doubled over, leaned on her frying pan for support, and howled with laughter.
Even Lila covered her mouth, and her shoulders shook uncontrollably.
"Nice shorts, General!" Casanova wheezed and pointed at the red underpants.
Kaleus looked down at his exposed legs.
His face turned a shade of red that completely rivaled his undergarments.
He didn’t try to attack. He didn’t try to type a message in the chat.
The sheer unfiltered humiliation broke him instantly.
He dropped his silver longsword.
He grabbed the hem of his tabard and desperately tried to pull it down to cover his legs. He sprinted backward into the green portal to flee the dungeon entirely.
His eleven elite Legionnaires stared at the spot where their Guild Master had just vanished.
They didn’t say a word. They slowly and unanimously turned around and walked back through the portal completely abandoning the raid.
Dante shook his head, and a small genuine smile was on his face.
"Okay," Dante said and turned away from the portal. "That was actually pretty funny."
"I am posting that on the forums!" Casanova cried. He wiped tears from his eyes as he pulled up his interface. "I memorized the visual data!"
Dante let the squad laugh for another minute before restoring order.
"Focus up," Dante commanded, and his voice returned to a serious register.
"The comedy show is over. We are moving deeper into the tomb. Let us see what the system actually wants us to fight."
He drew the [Dawn-Breaker Blade] and led the seven-man squad down the dark obsidian hallway.
***
Back in Aethelgardia, the central plaza was in an absolute uproar.
Cipher, the premier info-broker, had successfully tapped the localized data streams coming from the entrance of Demon Spirit Land.
He wasn’t broadcasting a fight. He was broadcasting a screenshot.
The image of Kaleus standing in the dungeon hallway in his bright red underpants was plastered across every single major display board in the commercial district.
[Regional Chat - ApexHunter: THE WARLORD HAS NO PANTS! I REPEAT, THE WARLORD HAS NO PANTS!]
[Regional Chat - VanguardGrunt44: Dan did not even draw his sword! His pet just stripped him! This is the greatest cycle ever!]
[Regional Chat - ShadowStrike: Buying screenshots! 100 silver per copy!]
Kaleus was currently standing in a dark secluded alleyway near the edge of the merchant district and frantically typing into his system interface.
He was desperately messaging low-level players and trying to offer them hundreds of gold coins to delete the screenshots from the public API.
"Remove the post!" Kaleus typed furiously to a random rogue. "I will pay you double whatever the info-brokers are offering! Delete it!"
[Rogue: Sorry, Warlord. The memes are already out. It is too late. Nice boxers, though.]
Kaleus stared at his interface, completely broken.
The Legion of Blades was a military organization built entirely on respect and discipline.
A commander couldn’t lead an army if his troops were secretly laughing at his underwear.
He slumped back against the brick wall of the alley and closed his eyes.
"I hate this game," Kaleus whispered into the dark.
***
Deep inside Demon Spirit Land, Dante and his party were entirely oblivious to the frantic attempts of the Warlord at damage control.
They reached the end of the long obsidian hallway. The path opened up into a massive sprawling subterranean cavern.
The ceiling was completely obscured by thick swirling green mist.
The floor wasn’t paved with stone or bone. It was an endless undulating sea of heavy iron-bound coffins.
There were thousands of them stacked haphazardly across the cavern to stretch as far as the eye could see.
"The Sea of Coffins," Sera murmured and read her digital map. "This is the first major mob check. The system spawns waves of undead guardians to overwhelm undersized raid groups."
"Well, good thing we are not a standard group," Dante said.
"Boss," Casanova pointed a trembling finger toward the center of the room. "Look at the coffins."
The heavy iron lids on dozens of the closest coffins were slowly and agonizingly sliding open.
Green ghost-fire flickered from the dark interiors. Skeletal hands wrapped in tarnished silver gauntlets gripped the edges of the iron boxes.
[Monster Spawn: Undead Spear Guard Soul]
[Tier: Silver Boss]
[Level: 30]
[HP: 35,000 / 35,000]
"Silver Bosses," Nyx analyzed rapidly. "They are not standard trash mobs."
"The system is treating every single one of them as an elite unit. Their physical mitigation is incredibly high, and they possess localized lifesteal passives."
The Undead Spear Guards didn’t stumble or shamble out of their coffins.
They moved with terrifying sudden agility to leap out of the iron boxes and land gracefully on top of the closed coffins surrounding them.
They wielded long jagged silver spears that hummed with dark magic.
"There are at least fifty of them awake right now," Lila panicked slightly, her grip tightening on her staff. "If they all throw those spears at once, the shield of Aura will eventually break!"
"They are not going to break the shield," Dante said calmly.
He turned to the middle-aged man standing nervously at the back of the group in his rusty helmet and mismatched silver armor.
"Garrick," Dante called out. "It is your time to shine."
Garrick perked up instantly and slammed his rusty sword against his kite shield.
"You got it, buddy!" Garrick beamed, practically vibrating with enthusiasm. "Just tell me where to stand!"
Dante pointed directly into the center of the Sea of Coffins right in the middle of the awakening mob.
"Walk out there," Dante instructed. "And think about the bicycle."
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