Ning Xingxue’s expression lit up with delight.
She hadn’t expected that after Bai Qiu was exposed, he would still be willing to take them into a dungeon.
That meant the D+-rank medium-sized dungeon blueprint she had been keeping could finally be put to use!
Bai Qiu didn’t hesitate either.
He immediately teleported to Zone 2243 and asked for their location via private message.
They met in the same old spot, the same three old buddies.
During their greetings, Bai Qiu also learned how Zhao Daqiang was running his meat business.
There were definitely quite a number of people in the Safe Zone who had learned cooking or knew how to cook.
They handed the meat over to these people and let them handle it as pure life-skill work to solve everyone’s food problem.
The survivors benefiting from this weren’t eating for free either—each person had to pay Zhao Daqiang one Sanctum Coin per day to cover expenses.
Zhao Daqiang then distributed the coins to the cooks as compensation for their labor.
He would take a portion himself to purchase raw materials… and just like that, a healthy cycle was formed.
Although there were still many small flaws to be addressed, the policy had already been set and was running smoothly.
Before long, the Safe Zone would probably have a fully developed system in this area.
Seeing this, Bai Qiu nodded slightly.
Although meals cooked by players themselves didn’t provide the attribute bonuses that those prepared by a [Chef] would, that didn’t matter to laid-back players who didn’t like fighting every day.
On the contrary, the fact that the Sanctum Coins they originally used to buy one day’s worth of food could now cover three days made them feel it was an excellent deal.
“By the way, Brother Bai, where’s that set of badass armor you had before?” Huang Qi asked in confusion.
This time, Bai Qiu wasn’t wearing his silver armor.
Instead, he was dressed in casual clothing and even wasn’t wearing his mask.
If not for his voice and the bright level-20 icon hovering above his head, they might not have recognized him.
“It was pretty handsome…” Ning Xingxue withdrew her gaze, which had lingered for quite a while, and said sincerely with a hint of reservedness.
Bai Qiu shook his head and spread his hands. “You guys should know, right? I got into a fight yesterday. Everything’s being repaired. Right now I’m basically a pure Caster.”
“And also, don’t ask me how many Lord-tier bosses I killed. Everyone who sees me asks that.”
He added, causing the others—who were just about to speak—to exchange glances and swallow their words.
“Let’s just start. What’s the dungeon blueprint this time?” Seeing the group fall silent, Bai Qiu immediately understood and moved the conversation back on topic.
“This dungeon is called the ‘Shadow Mire.’ It’s also an E-rank dungeon, but the max party size is ten.” Ning Xingxue said as she took out a dungeon card and handed it to Bai Qiu.
Bai Qiu nodded.
Just like before, they chose him as the party leader.
The experience sharing and distribution settings remained unchanged.
Bai Qiu would still try to handle the elite mobs himself to complete the staff task.
Once everyone confirmed their settings, they teleported into the Shadow Mire instance.
Plop!
Thud!
Squish!
Three sounds rang out as objects hit the ground.
Their lower legs sank into the mud up to their knees—it was quite the “welcome gift” the moment they arrived!
“Hahaha, Miss Ning Xingxue, even those plastic boots you prepared beforehand are useless now!” Huang Qi reacted first, pointing at Ning Xingxue and laughing.
From the dungeon blueprint’s nickname, Ning Xingxue had already anticipated a swamp environment and came prepared with knee-high plastic boots—the airtight, watertight kind.
But she never expected the terrain to be this bad.
The moment she landed, the depth she sank into exceeded the length of her boots.
Black, murky water seeped in through the gaps, and before long, her boots would probably be completely filled.
As for Huang Qi and Zhao Daqiang, they had prepared as well—unlike Ning Xingxue, they didn’t have any burdens about maintaining their appearance.
Both were wearing chest-high waterproof overalls.
Although the muddy water splashed all over them, at least it wasn’t getting inside.
“Damn it!” Ning Xingxue regretted it the moment she entered.
Had she known, she would have gone straight to a D-rank dungeon instead of getting involved here.
Now her whole body was covered in pitch-black muck, and her over-the-knee boots were constantly letting dirty water seep in!
“Huh? Where’s Brother Bai?” Huang Qi asked doubtfully.
As he looked around, the others followed suit.
But Bai Qiu was nowhere to be seen.
“Whew… that was really close!” Bai Qiu’s voice came from above.
They looked up to see him floating seven or eight meters in the air.
His casual clothes and shoes didn’t have a single speck of mud or moisture on them.
“Ah… I forgot Brother Bai can fly.” Huang Qi said with envy.
Zhao Daqiang also looked on with longing—after all, the ability to fly unaided was something humans instinctively yearned for.
Bai Qiu was speechless.
How did it turn into him being able to fly?
He was merely generating magical footholds beneath his feet.
In reality, he was still standing on solid platforms.
It was essentially generating a floor tile at a designated coordinate—a personal platform that only he could use.
By continuously jumping and creating new footholds, he could move through the air as if walking on flat ground.
Right after being teleported in, Bai Qiu immediately noticed the swamp beneath him.
He created a magical foothold and leapt upward as fast as he could, then created another platform to stabilize himself—avoiding the splash from the three who teleported in with him.
His judgment had been correct.
The three were already smeared with mud to varying degrees.
Bai Qiu silently shook his head.
It couldn’t be helped; no matter how strong he was, he couldn’t create four footholds at once.
And honestly, these three had clearly come prepared, while he walked in wearing casual clothes.
They definitely avoided reminding him on purpose, hoping to prank him.
Fortunately, after waking up, he had returned to peak condition—perhaps even slightly stronger in all aspects—which allowed him to react quickly and save himself.
Otherwise, he would have made a complete fool of himself.
He didn’t dwell on it too much.
After all, growing stronger was something happening constantly.
Still, this situation couldn’t continue.
While he could maintain long-term airborne movement using magic, it consumed mana extremely quickly.
The Flame Orb was already depleted and wasn’t with him, meaning all the consumption came from his own mana reserves.
For now, the priority was to assess the surroundings. Bai Qiu thought to himself and activated the Fivefold Arcane Crystallized Eyes.
Instantly, the entire dungeon’s size became clear to him.
With several consecutive jumps, he ascended to more than fifty meters above the ground.
If he went a few meters higher, he would reach the barrier.
This E-rank dungeon card could accommodate ten people exploring together, making it significantly larger than the five-player dungeons.
Overall, the space had expanded by more than double.
The environment here was nothing but marshland, with almost no solid ground to stand on.
The swamp was filled with pitch-black trees that looked like dead wood, yet Bai Qiu could clearly sense the life force within them.
After observing for a while, Bai Qiu realized that the spot they had landed on was practically a “treasure location.”
There were no monsters nearby, and the mud only reached slightly above knee height.
In the wetter parts of the swamp, the water alone was three to four meters deep—and hiding within were giant catfish and crocodiles!
— The end of the Chapter–
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