Shane came out of that vehicle with a complicated look on his face. He didn't know what to think. Someone actually spotted someone who looked like him. Was this just a coincidence?
He didn't continue to think about this. He quickly walked over to the side of the street with the hooded woman in front of him, leading the way. They walked all the way without speaking to one another. Soon, the two of them reached the venue.
It wasn't a cave that was considered an entrance portal for a dungeon like before. This time, the dungeon portal looked more like a virtual portal for the system job. Shane walked inside a building with the hooded woman. The lady led the entire time, even talking to the receptionist.
So Shane didn't have to do anything at all. All he did was follow after the woman, bored out of his mind.
Why was he even bothering to save Ed in the first place? His master was the one who gave the last blow to his sister. He should hate that person to death.
But Shane realized that he didn't have any strong emotions toward anyone in this world. It was almost as if he had elevated to a consciousness level above worldly attachments.
That was why he was able to help Ed despite knowing he should feel hatred. But he couldn't. Even with his current condition, Shane didn't feel as anxious.
Unless it was a life and death-situation, he was sure that he wouldn't feel anything for real.
Why was this happening to him? Shane didn't know. But he couldn't abandon his master like this. After all, despite doing what he did back in the institute, that bald man was still his master. He should show some respect to the man, at the very least.
Slowly, they reached the place, a room inside the building with a portal at the centre.
The woman paid the money to the gatekeeper and said, "Let's go. This is a medium-range portal. I hope you're ready."
Shane nodded as the two of them entered the portal smoothly. As soon as they entered, their bodies were thrown next to a river inside the portal. The entire area was surrounded by dense forest. Not even sunlight could be leaked inside,
After watching all of these things, Shane couldn't help but think of one of the previous worlds where a similar dense forest was there. He frowned and shook his head, starting to get up from the ground.
He brushed the dust off his body and asked, "What now? How will he kill the demon?"
"There's a reason why this dungeon still remains unsolvable." The woman pointed out as she bent and touched the flowing stream of water. "We won't know where the entrance to the next floor is, and we don't know how many steps we have to climb to reach the demon lord of this place.
"Most importantly, we don't have any information about the monsters and the demon lord. So, be careful."
Shane nodded and pursed his lips. "Where should we go then?"
"Let's find monsters and kill them." The corners of the woman's lips curved up. "There's a hope that we can find the door after getting rid of them all."
Shane didn't think so. He knew that if his woman could think, other people coming here before them could also come up with the same strategy. There must be something else other than killing monsters.
In fact, he could easily kill those people if he ended up leaking out his aura. There wasn't any need for him to especially climb to the top just to kill the demon lord. If he used his powers, perhaps that demon lord would come and fall to his feet.
He still remembered how that hooded demon from the institute back then had escaped just when Shane's powers burst out of his body. So he wasn't afraid at this moment.
He just couldn't understand why this dungeon was unsolvable. He glanced around and saw only trees as he bent to the ground.
His fingers touched the mud as he rubbed it between his fingers. His brows furrowed deeper.
When the hooded woman saw this kind of reaction, she paused and asked after a while, "What are you doing?"
"I believe there must be something else that can help us find the level above. Everyone must have decided to do the same thing as us. There's no point in killing monsters if none of them had succeeded."
"What makes you so sure that they had killed the monsters?" The hooded woman scoffed. "Perhaps none of them managed to kill them all?"
"So you're saying everyone was so weak that they couldn't kill these monsters? If I remember correctly," Shane walked over and stood directly in front of the woman as he said, "the monsters from the first level would always be easy to kill no matter what! But didn't you say none of the participants came back alive? So how do you explain this?"
"Then why can't others come up with the same thing as you?" the woman still didn't want to back out.
"They were probably all students and had just gotten out of the institute. None of the sane people would like to try these dungeons." Shane narrowed his eyes. "Why are you arguing with me like this? What's wrong with you?"
The woman in a hood coughed as she shook her head. She seemed to be thinking of something before she glanced back at the man.
"I don't have anything to say. Let's get out of here."
Shane had doubts about those words, but he gradually agreed. The two of them chose a random direction as they started walking forward. Neither of them found anything after waking for an hour.
After this, Shane frowned as he stared at the scene in front of him. He glanced at the river which seemed so calm that it gave him the creeps. Goosebumps crawled up to his skin, dancing on his bodily hair.
He took a deep breath as he walked closer to the river. He bent down and touched the stream of water.
It was colder than the normal water. "Has water ever felt so cold in normal temperature?"
The woman in a hood seemed to have realized something as she raised her head and looked around. "You're right. I seem to have forgotten this."
As she said that, she bent and touched the water's surface lightly. The corners of her lips curved up.
"We're going to have some fun."
As soon as she uttered those words, divine power emerged from her body and entered the river. The energy seemed to have irritated the river as the water started trembling. The waves of water rose higher as if it weren't a river but a sea with a high tide.
Soon enough, the river water collected, creating a huge monster standing in front of him.
Shane glanced at the radar screen to find out this monster was a mere five-level. This should be easy.
He quickly pulled out his freezing sword and thrust the sword into the ground as he muttered the freezing spell. After that, divine energy leaked out of the weapon and entered the ground, heading slowly toward the wave of water that had transformed into a monster.
Soon enough, the energy ended up freezing the entire monster's body before the thing could even raise his hand to attack the duo standing at the shore.
Only after that did Shane put his weapon back into his inventory. The woman in a hood didn't seem to be surprised as she looked at the scene in front of her eyes. She nodded in satisfaction as she glanced at the monster.
"This should do it."
"Let's go. We don't have much time." Shane walked along the riverbed in the opposite direction to the stream. "The ice will melt after a few seconds. We can only walk further."
"Why are we walking along the riverbed?"
"I don't know." This was Shane's natural reaction as he kept glancing at the ground. "I have a hunch that this must be the way."
The woman's mouth twitched. "A hunch. Hah."
After thinking for a while, she shook her head and said nothing. Soon enough, the ice melted as the monster came back to life. Even though Shane and the woman had walked further away from the monster, the latter jumped to decrease the distance.
As soon as it faced the duo, it grinned, revealing a row of teeth made of transparent and clean water.
Shane didn't think much as he thrust the sword to the ground again. The monster froze again, giving the duo an ample chance to escape. Slowly, as the two of them repeated this process a couple of times, they eventually found a small pound in front of them. Shane stopped and stared at that place.
"This should be the entrance, right?" asked Shane.
The woman nodded. "You're right. It looks like it. We don't have another choice than to enter this place."
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