A Core Ship From The Start-Chapter 904 - 637: Gnomes

After passing through the labyrinth, everything before them suddenly opened up—the narrow passageway was no more, replaced by an almost boundless underground cavern. Towering cliff faces loomed before a chasm so deep it might as well have been bottomless, though no one had the mood to appreciate such a spectacle.

"Hey, I’m asking you, what exactly is that thing?"

Gavi couldn’t help but ask; she hadn’t really spent much time in action with Duanmu Huai, or rather, most of the time she was sealed inside cards and didn’t understand much about the outside world. But even so, she could still sense the terror of the Black Soldiers—at least Gavi was sure that each one of them had the ability to kill her with ease.

"They are our enemies, the ones we’ll inevitably face in the future."

Duanmu Huai looked toward the distant Underground City.

"Everything we are doing now is to lay a solid foundation for when we fight them."

At this point, Duanmu Huai’s expression became somewhat grave. Although these were just illusions from his memories, they had already explained a lot. "Mass Unbinding" was completely useless against them, "Old God’s Will" was directly immune, and only "Fearful Aura" could affect them for a second.

The biggest probability was that the levels of "Pleasure God" and "Old God’s Will" were too low, and only the "God of Destruction" had reached Intermediate Divine Power, which was barely enough to contend with the Black Soldiers. Since there was no player army in this world, Duanmu Huai had to rely on himself; hence, the only thing he could do was to quickly elevate the levels of his other two Divine Positions and find a way to counter "Corrupted Foil."

Frankly speaking, this was no easy task.

"You’re going to fight that thing, aren’t you scared of dying?"

"For this world, death can be considered a wonderful blessing."

Duanmu Huai shrugged his shoulders.

"Firstly, it’s my duty, and secondly... if I don’t go to them, they will come to me."

The reawakening of the Eye of Fear was only a matter of time, so for Duanmu Huai, it was essentially a countdown mission. Once the countdown ended, whether you liked it or not was irrelevant, for the other side would actively come seeking you out.

There was no way to hide.

"You are really unlucky to encounter such monsters."

"It’s this world that’s unlucky, not me. When they return, we will die together. Don’t think you can keep out of it."

"Uh... surely not."

Upon hearing this, Gavi’s face turned pale. freewebnσvel.cѳm

"What do you think I’ve been running around for? Wouldn’t spending my time at home in retirement be a better use of my time?"

Duanmu Huai silently looked up at a forty-five-degree angle; this world was truly a cursed place, and he was also unfortunate to have crossed into this world... but what else could he do? Now, apart from growing stronger, he had no other option. Duanmu Huai wasn’t good at leading a large legion in battle; he wasn’t the type who enjoyed commanding large guild operations, so he had always acted solo.

In fact, Duanmu Huai had hoped the Human Empire would be able to stand strong, and the Tribunal could be responsible for assistance—well, those were fantasies now. Apart from self-reliance, he had no other choice.

Ogis seemed not to care about these issues, she just quietly looked ahead and then spoke up.

"There’s light."

"Oh?"

Duanmu Huai looked up and gazed forward. Indeed, deep in the darkness of the Dark Region, he could see a faint light. The orange-red glow, like that of a flame, was like a lighthouse in the darkness, guiding them onward—or perhaps like a dangerous lure, enticing the ignorant to fly towards destruction and death like moths.

Each time the gates of the Underground Labyrinth opened, they led to different paths. Duanmu Huai had not traveled this one before, so he did not know what lay ahead.

"Let’s go take a look; let’s hope we’re lucky."

At this moment, Duanmu Huai braced himself. Combatting Chaos indeed drained one’s spirits, especially considering the endless battles and deaths. However, one of Duanmu Huai’s strengths was that he didn’t fixate on things that would happen in the future. He focused more on the present and the past, which was very much in line with the abilities he had acquired. Unlike Cunning Deception, Duanmu Huai had no worries about the future. For him, the distant future was never a problem.

It only became an issue when the future became the present.

For now, Duanmu Huai’s only thought was to find, as quickly as possible, a city of Gray Dwarves, Drow Elves, or Heart Stealers, where he could unleash havoc, relishing in the miserable wails and deaths of those filthy, corrupt, depraved, and evil creatures of the underground.

Unfortunately, his luck was not at all good.

The stone door before them was massive and impressive, thick and strong enough to withstand all Attacks. However, the creatures standing before Duanmu Huai were even shorter than Dwarves, their frail bodies appearing utterly devoid of any fighting spirit. They clutched their long spears and Short Swords, but to Duanmu Huai—they posed no more threat than a bunch of kittens and puppies.

"It’s Gnomes, talk about bad luck."

Duanmu Huai silently sighed. The vast majority of beings living in the Dark Region were evil, with only two exceptions, one being the Dwarves, the other the Gnomes.