New Earth- The Dungeon of Madness 23 The battle of the 4th floor

Although it was just a Pseudo-Dungeon Core, it could project several small holograms. In front of Five, 4 holograms were being displayed: one at each location that his instructions were pointing at and the last one at the leader of the players.

"That guy is a really bad leader! He does not even look at the maps his players have already gathered!! Did I overestimate these guys' intelligence?"

"You don't need to be worried Five, look, you still have 1000DP that means that the changes are definitely beneficial," said Harriet to the side.

Even though she was happily playing Checkers with her sisters, she always kept an eye on Five. She could see that he was not as carefree as he was this morning and tried to cheer him up.

"Mmmm yeah, you are right," absentmindedly answered Five.

"Stop looking at these humans. Come and play with us! Or you can teach us other games right?" said Harriet, trying to distract Five from looking at the holograms.

But suddenly, Harriet noticed a change in Five's expression.

...

On the 4th floor, Shining Blade was leading a group of 30 players including himself through the corridors. The players were very disciplined and did not question his decision but inside, they were curious about why they would leave the 9th floor to come all the way down there.

The Giant Ants here were very weak due to the level difference, even if they could easily kill them, they did not obtain a lot of exp from doing so. The players simply did not see the point in coming here.

"7, 8, 9, it should be here," said Shining Blade as he entered one of the corridors.

A few minutes later, Shining Blade suddenly stopped and said, "somewhere around here! Everyone, clear the neighboring ants, it looks like there are a lot more here than in the other corridors!"

"Yes sir!" replied the players as they started to kill the Giant Ants.

As for Shining Blade, he took out his sword and started examining the surroundings. It was an empty corridor with no reference point, the only reference he had was the distance he needed to walk but there was a large margin of error.

The corridor looked totally normal. Shining Blade was full of doubt but started to examine the wall. Placing his left hand on the wall, he pressed difference spots on the wall. He walked about 10 meters and repeated the process several times at different locations of the wall but nothing happened.

"What is happening to the leader? Is he crazy?" said one of the players.

Following that, Shining Blade repeated the same process but this time on the opposite wall. The players did not understand what was happening and chose to silently observe.

When suddenly, Shining Blade stopped moving. He raised his sword and violently swung it towards the wall.

"Is this how he vents his frustration? That's such a waste, he's gonna damage his sword like that," quietly commented a player.

But the expected "Ting" of the sword hitting the wall did not happen, instead, the sword effortlessly pierced through the wall.

"What is happening?"

"Haha, as expected, a fake wall!" shouted Shining Blade as he quickly retrieved his sword and stabbed again this time, his sword seemed to push away something resulting in a small opening in the wall.

All the players looked at their leader in shock, "Is it a treasure room?"

"Hurry up! Let's go in, take everything you can!" shouted Shining Blade as he himself charged in.

Although they have heard that secret rooms containing treasures were present in the dungeon, it was their first time witnessing one. The probability of finding one was microscopic but yet, their leader just casually found one as if he already knew its approximate location.

They quickly ran behind Shining Blade, taking out their weapons to be ready to fight. While the secret rooms often contained rewards, they also often housed a powerful boss and so, they needed to be ready.

The inside of the room was no different from the rest of the dungeon. It still had the same dull color everywhere. The main differences were the size of the room and the presence of a small altar at the center of the room.

The players' eyes shone as soon as they came in. Several gold coins were littered all over the place and a small chest was present on the altar! Not only that, there were also some ores and a staff placed next to the chest.

"Collect everything! We'll share it among ourselves later!" shouted Shining Blade as he walked towards the chest but suddenly,

"krr krr krr"

Several Giant Ants suddenly came out from small gaps and entered the room. They not only came from the walls, some also crawled onto the walls towards the players while others came in from behind trying to trap the players inside the room.

There were a total of about 50 ants but the players were not afraid. They quickly spread out to protect their priests and mages while the rogues used their [Stealth].

The ants were converging towards the players from all directions. Fortunately, the Ant Queen was nowhere to be seen.

Shining Blade quickly drew his sword and courageously charged at the pack of Giant Ants, his long blade easily pierced through the ants' flesh. He was closely followed by 2 paladins who protected his sides while a priest was standing behind him, ready to heal when needed.

"Ahhh" shouted Shining Blade as his long sword exploded a Giant Ant's skull. The battle was definitely in their favor, they remained in this circular formation which significantly reduced the Giant Ant's numeric advantage.

"Kill them all!" shouted Shining Blade to stir up the morale of his teammates.

They were already certain of their victory but they were still cautious! Nobody wanted to die and so, every time someone's HP was getting dangerously low, they would retreat inside the encirclement and someone else would quickly take his spot.

The players were well coordinated in that aspect, it looked like they practiced this all their life. The 50 Giant Ants did not last long, especially when the mages blasted their skills at the pack, already taking out a dozen.

In the end, the players suffered no casualties while all the Giant Ants were lying dead on the floor.

"Good job guys! Really good job! Now it's time for the reward! Collect everything you can and don't forget the loot from the Giant Ants' bodies!" said Shining Blade as he stepped towards the chest on the altar.

Nobody tried to stop him, they knew that he was the leader and it was normal for him to check out the best reward. The players quickly got themselves busy, there was a lot to collect.

As for Shining Blade, he stopped in front of the altar and grabbed the chest. Fortunately, it was not locked and so, he could open it himself. "It looks like the instructions were not wrong! Then does that means that there are two other treasures waiting for me?" said Shining Blade to himself.

At the same time, his hand moved and opened the chest, revealing two small bottles of potion. His eyes shone with greed as he grabbed the bottles to inspect them.

...

"Oh someone already discovered a treasure room!" said Harriet who leaned forward to look at the hologram.

"Yes but it looks like they were too strong for the Giant Ants, in the end, it will cost quite a bit to rebuild this treasure room," answered Five.

"You don't have to worry! Treasure rooms are not a necessity, not every floor have them!" consoled Harriet.

"mmmm, say Harriet? Do you mind if we go to the exit on this floor a bit later? I would like to see the landscape that I saw yesterday again!"

Chapter end