The space inside the Gloom City Ruins could be said to be extremely vast.
It was said that the first layer alone could accommodate more than ten thousand players entering at the same time.
One could imagine how arduous the excavation work must have been back then, not to mention that a massive city had been built underneath.
However, there was also a theory that this underground cavern was entirely naturally formed.
The Holaien people had merely constructed simple pathways leading downward.
Scholars studying Holaien history had long debated these two theories.
After all, hundreds of years had passed.
Even any artificial traces would have become blurred to some extent, making them hard to distinguish.
The reason for bringing this up was simply to explain in passing that the space within the ruins was not only large.
It also seemed to be due to its natural formation, or perhaps the original excavation had been intentionally designed this way.
This resulted in many fragmented spaces throughout the entire underground cavern.
Therefore, even though the ruins had just opened and the hype was at its peak with countless players flooding in, the dispersed passages ahead of the entrance divided the crowds into different streams.
Not only that, the further inside one went, the more numerous the passages became.
Some were narrow, some wide, some enclosed on both sides, and some had underground rivers flowing alongside.
Most of them intersected with each other.
Under the division of stalactites and rock formations, they created areas of varying sizes.
Additionally, the lighting inside the cavern was dim.
If one didn’t check the map carefully, it was very easy to get lost.
The monsters were even more hidden in the darkness, constantly waiting for the moment to ambush players.
When I entered the interior of the ruins, I didn’t immediately choose a route.
Instead, I stood in the relatively spacious open area just inside the entrance and surveyed the crowds coming and going around me.
By chance, when I spotted a team of about ten people, my eyes lit up.
As if sensing something, the male Holy Knight leading that team turned his head.
He noticed the three cute lolis not far away.
One of the cat-eared lolis was even flashing them a bright, charming smile.
Although unsure what was happening, the male knight friendly waved his hand in response.
He then led his somewhat cuteness-struck team members as they casually picked a passage and walked inside.
“We’ll follow them and let them help us clear the monsters ahead.”
I waved at the two little ones behind me.
Only then did Evin and Cecilia understand.
My earlier observation had simply been to find a suitable team to serve as tool people.
Well-equipped, with a reasonable class distribution and harmonious team communication, that team clearly had no idea they had already been designated as tool people by a certain black-bellied pink-haired girl.
Cecilia tilted her head. “What if they discover us?”
“It’s so dark. They probably won’t be able to see us, right?”
Evin looked at the pitch-black environment inside the passage. “Although they have lights, as long as we stay far enough away, their lights shouldn’t reach us.”
Although most of the glowstone lanterns in Naldun Town had been bought up by the Rhine Chamber, most player teams and guilds would still grit their teeth and buy some from the market at several times the price to handle the newly opened Gloom City Ruins.
Moreover, that team obviously wasn’t short on cash, so having a few lanterns was no big deal.
However, Evin and Cecilia soon simultaneously thought of a crucial issue.
They would also need to use glowstone lanterns for lighting on their end.
Even in the dim environment, if the other party noticed lights following them the whole time, they would definitely become suspicious.
I smiled slightly. “It’s simple. We just won’t use glowstone lanterns.”
Facing the gazes from the two lolis, I traded three sets of equipment with dark vision bonuses to them.
After all, the environment inside the Gloom City Ruins was merely insufficient in lighting and had no other negative effects.
The dark vision bonus attributes were more than enough to replace the role of glowstone lanterns.
As I spoke, I took the equipment out from my backpack.
“Huh, An An, where did you get these pieces of equipment? I heard equipment with dark vision bonuses is super expensive on the market right now, and it’s not even guaranteed you can buy any,” Evin asked curiously.
“Quest rewards.” I casually gave an excuse.
In truth, these pieces of equipment had all dropped when Satahia was clearing monsters around the Demon King’s Castle.
Although the drop rate was relatively low, it was still much higher than in the Bright Faction.
One set’s components had even dropped from the Fog Veil Forest.
…Fog Veil Forest…
I seemed to think of something and fell into a contemplative expression.
Until Cecilia beside me reminded me, “An, that group is walking quite far ahead now.”
“Ah, quick, quick! Hurry and follow them.”
Following from a distance, we went whichever way that team went.
With them acting as the vanguard, there was almost no obstruction along the way.
Monsters were either bombed by my magic, pierced by Evin’s arrows, or subjected to Cecilia’s various potions and bombs.
The cavern areas weren’t fully enclosed, so the sounds of other teams fighting monsters occasionally drifted over without arousing the front team’s suspicion.
Even if one or two monsters slipped through and made some noise, the echoes inside the cavern made it difficult for the team ahead to determine the source.
However, even so, the team’s advancing speed inevitably slowed in the middle section.
The reason was that the difficulty in the latter half was on a completely different level from the first half.
The surrounding monsters were almost all level 17 or 18.
“So weak. Can’t they go a little faster?”
Watching the team ahead struggling bitterly, Evin—who had been resting her chin in her hand watching the show for a while—couldn’t help complaining.
“Can’t you have some awareness as someone being carried to victory?”
I glared at her and said righteously, “Exactly.”
Cecilia seemed to be browsing the forum in her spare time.
She curiously asked me, “An, every layer here has a boss guarding the entrance to the next one. Even if we reach the entrance to the next layer, how are we supposed to get through?”
What Cecilia mentioned was also publicly known information about the Gloom City Ruins.
Except for the first layer, a commander-level boss was stationed in front of each layer’s entrance and refreshed once per day.
Additionally, quite a few monsters wandered nearby.
Only after the boss was killed for the first time would the stone door leading to the next layer open.
Otherwise, passage was impossible.
In my previous life, all players who tried to bypass the boss had failed this way.
Logically, there seemed to be no other method besides killing the boss.
Even players over level 100 back then had no other options.
However, it was different for me.
“Since I’ve brought you here, of course I have a way to take you down. Look at this.”
I took a deep blue scroll out from my backpack and showed it to Evin and Cecilia.
What I took out was the Arcane Tunnel magic scroll harvested from Lobranch’s mage tower.
It could create a bidirectional passage through walls.
Five scrolls were just enough for us to reach the sixth layer.
Long before deciding to come to the Gloom City Ruins, I had already thought of using this method.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been so confident.
However, after seeing the scroll’s description, Evin had a somewhat unusual take. “If that’s the case, why doesn’t An An just use it directly on the ground?”
“It’s specifically for walls.” I rolled my eyes and repeated myself.
Evin pouted. “How would we know without trying?”
“Hmph, watch this. It can’t be used at all.”
I sighed and applied a slight force with both hands holding the sides of the scroll.
In the next moment, the entire scroll was effortlessly torn apart by me.
After clearing all the monsters in front of them, the leading Holy Knight was just about to take a short break when he suddenly turned his head to look backward.
He asked his companions around him in confusion, “Huh, did any of you hear some kind of sound just now?”