"Other than that, every dungeon has its own entries that either restrict or buff the players."

"What exactly those entries are, you only find out after you go in."

With that, Zhi Liao had finished explaining all the things to watch out for in a Cube Deck dungeon.

Normally, when people queue up for a dungeon, everyone will lay some cards on the table and show roughly what they've got.

But this step got skipped over directly by Zhi Liao.

Because according to Teacher Xiu, the difficulty of this dungeon wasn't all that high.

Those words made Zhi Liao feel very at ease and very confident that she could definitely lead the two juniors to a smooth clear.

So after Li Pu and Ah Yajun finished tuning their decks, the three of them entered the dungeon.

Wmm…

As the sense of weightlessness faded and then hit again, Li Pu's vision flickered, and he found himself already standing in a whole new environment.

Gloomy.

That was his first impression on sight.

And also the first impression of his body, because a clammy chill wind, impossible to tell where it was blowing in from, was gently brushing over him.

The touch felt like something disgusting was licking him.

The sky was dusky, with only half a moon peeking out, providing a faint bit of visibility.

Thankfully, he had [Night Vision], so everything that should've been hazy and dim was crystal clear to him.

They were currently in a cemetery.

Stone tombstones were set out in front of them, some broken, some toppled.

"Feels like… this is not a nice place."

Ah Yajun's Summoner bloodline decided to kick in at the worst possible time, letting him roughly make out shapes.

"Pitch-black and creepy as hell."

Zhi Liao, on the other hand, couldn't see clearly.

[Oooaaargh…]

Not far away, a patch of soil suddenly started to loosen, and a shriveled, rotten hand stretched out from within.

"Uh…"

Ah Yajun's expression tightened, and his legs started trembling a little.

Weren't the monsters here all supposed to be cards? Why was there a physical body, and one that looked this disturbingly realistic?

"What's that weird sound?"

Zhi Liao cocked her ear to listen.

"Senior, this looks like an undead-beast dungeon."

Li Pu reported honestly.

"Oh?"

Unexpectedly, when Zhi Liao heard that, a hint of delight flashed between her brows.

"That's actually great news. For this dungeon, just watch me carry."

Judging from her name alone, you could tell she was very good at playing healing cards.

And healing cards are the natural nemesis of undead-beast cards.

[Oooaaargh…] x2

While the three of them were talking, two more undead beasts crawled out of the ground.

They seemed to notice Li Pu and the others, and started shambling toward them.

"G-Get ready to fight!"

Ah Yajun went to open his storage space to release his summoned beasts.

But the moment he raised his hand, he froze.

Because his storage space suddenly wouldn't let him summon anything out.

Then he tried to move his legs, only to find them heavy as lead, completely unable to budge.

He hurriedly looked over at Li Pu. At a time like this, who'd still be messing around?

He knew this cripple had some way to make people heavier.

"Not me."

But Li Pu shook his head.

He was in the same state, discovering he couldn't move either.

"Don't panic, wait till they get closer."

Zhi Liao, who had experience, stayed calm and unhurried.

So the three of them just watched as the three undead beasts drew closer. When they stepped within five meters, the situation suddenly flipped.

Vmm!

A familiar, gigantic blue-glowing card table suddenly shot up from the ground, lifting them and the three undead beasts a full meter off the ground.

Shoo! x3

Next, the three undead beasts twisted and turned into cards, flipping face-down onto the enemy side of the table.

[Victory Condition: Wipe out all enemies]

[Failure Condition: Your Ace falls]

[The light is dim in the Soul-Eroding Cemetery beneath the falling night. Your eyes can't adapt, so you cannot clearly see one another]

An ancient-sounding voice echoed above their heads.

"So this is what a Cube Deck dungeon looks like…"

Ah Yajun stared up at the sky, unable to see where the voice was coming from.

"Feels like we're playing a game dungeon, kind of fun."

Li Pu found it pretty interesting.

"But Senior, what did that last sentence mean?"

Ah Yajun was confused.

He could clearly see Li Pu and Zhi Liao standing right beside him, so how was that "cannot clearly see one another"?

"The restriction entries are hidden inside lines like that."

"Try placing your cards."

Zhi Liao pointed at their side of the table.

Hearing her, Ah Yajun followed their earlier agreement and laid his deck out on the middle lane.

"Huh?"

After placing them, he took a closer look and noticed something off.

"I can only see my own middle lane here, I can't see where your cards are at all."

He voiced his discovery.

"Looks like the restriction is that we can't see each other's cards."

Zhi Liao tried placing her own cards and found she, too, could only see her lane and not Ah Yajun's.

This was quite similar to a blind-card restriction entry she'd heard others talk about before.

So-called blind-carding meant that all cards, friend and foe alike, appeared face-down.

No matter if it was a true flip, an action, card details, status, and so on, none of it could be checked.

"It's fine, this really isn't that big a restriction."

"At least we can still see our own lane. That's enough."

Zhi Liao didn't think it was a big deal. She looked at Li Pu and urged, "You're the last one, place your cards."

"Senior, do undead beasts count as beasts?"

But Li Pu asked a question first.

"Uh?"

That question stumped Zhi Liao.

In movies they're always called zombies, but in the Summoner scene people call them undead beasts. She honestly didn't know why.

"They count. I asked the teacher about that specifically before."

"They're a fairly special type of beast."

This one Ah Yajun actually knew the answer to.

"Oh."

Once he had his answer, Li Pu quickly finished placing his cards.

"This round should be easy, right?"

Ah Yajun eyed the opposite side. "Not like on a regular table. They only have a single row of three cards, not a 3+1."

"Why do I get the feeling it's like they're letting us rookies have a small test run to warm up."

He shared his guess.

[Oooaaargh!] x3

But when the three enemy cards flipped open at the same time, it proved him wrong.

The projections were still those three undead beasts, the same size as their physical bodies had been just now, but the card faces were…

[Soul-Eroding Undead]

Break-Form, ATK 70, 300/300

"Senior, what the hell is with that card stat?!"

Ah Yajun was stunned on the spot after reading it.

"Do tables have BOSS monsters too?"

"Those are basically three mini-bosses! Even Aces don't have that much HP!"

"And their attack is so high. If we can't see each other's cards, then Senior, you can't even heal us properly!"

He was getting the feeling that Cube Deck dungeons weren't anywhere near as simple as he'd imagined.

Which irresponsible bastard was it that just now swore up and down that this dungeon was child's play?!

For these card-monsters, they were the child's play, okay.

Their own cards compared to those things felt like they'd wandered into Giant Country.

"Uh…"

Faced with those stats, even Zhi Liao was a bit surprised.

"Well, it's fine."

But she quickly steadied her mindset.

"My deck hard-counters undead-beast types. You guys just relax."

"I'll be the carry this round."

Zhi Liao quickly did the math. As long as the two juniors didn't drag them down, once they stalled the game out to the point where the Aces were revealed, her deck should be able to deal with these three [Soul-Eroding Undead].

[Healing] counters undead-beasts mainly in that it's a method that cannot be [Defended] against.

Take this card of hers for example: as long as it doesn't leave the field, it can stably deal damage equal to 1/10 of a [Soul-Eroding Undead]'s max HP every turn.

Don't think 1/10 is small—that's only because the [Soul-Eroding Undead]'s HP is abnormally high.

Thirty points of damage on a regular table is already pretty decent.

However, what Zhi Liao would never expect was that not just this round, but this entire run of the dungeon, would be nothing like what she'd imagined.

[ROAR!!!]

As the action phase began, Zhi Liao vaguely heard a muffled roar whose source she couldn't make out.

And then…

Then she saw the three undead beasts' HP bars on the opposite side all neatly drop by a full quarter.

"Huh?"

...

...