“What’s that?” Little Blue pointed at a small white creature in the distance.
“That’s a rabbit,” answered the Puji perched on his shoulder.
“Rabbit?” Confusion filled Little Blue’s massive wolf face. “How could that be a rabbit?”
“Why not a rabbit?” the Puji countered.
Little Blue gestured with his claws. “Rabbits should be twice my size! Their teeth sharp enough to bite through stone, and a single kick of their hind legs can launch them sky-high…”
From his description, Lin Jun immediately realized he meant the savage beasts on the tenth floor known as Splitfang Beasts.
“Oh, you mean the big rabbits.” The Puji swayed its mushroom cap. “This is a little rabbit. Different breed.”
In truth, neither of them were rabbits at all.
“I see.” Little Blue nodded his wolf head. The big mushroom sure knew a lot.
Looking around at the countless Pujis scattered throughout the cavern, he couldn’t help but sigh. “I never knew you had so many kin!”“Of course,” Lin Jun replied matter-of-factly. “Weak little things like me can only survive by relying on numbers.”
Little Blue nodded seriously—he understood that logic.
He extended his enormous paw and patted the Puji’s cap gently.
“Don’t worry! From now on, I’ll protect you! In my clan, apart from those old geezers, no one can beat me!”
As they walked, Little Blue lifted his head to the glowing mushrooms hanging from the cavern ceiling. He voiced another question:
“Why can’t I see the sun or the moon here?”
“Because this is still the depths of the dungeon. Of course you can’t see the sun or moon.”
“This… is still the dungeon?!” Little Blue’s eyes went wide as he took in the unimaginably vast space around him. “It’s this big?! I thought…”
Clearly, he had believed the dungeon was only as large as his own floor.
“Don’t worry. Not this time, but next time I’ll take you to see the sun and moon. By the way, are you afraid of the cold?”
“Cold?” Little Blue barked a laugh and proudly slapped the thick, messy fur of his chest. “Never once!”
Lin Jun glanced at his status panel, which showed level 6 [Cold Resistance], and only hummed in response.
Suddenly, Little Blue gently set the Puji down on the ground. In an instant, he dropped low, back arched high, fully entering battle stance!
His nostrils flared rapidly.
“It’s human scent!”
Werewolves had long carried a heavy bounty on their heads posted in Adventurers’ Guild halls. Their hatred of humans needed no explanation.
But this time, things were different.
“Wait, that’s not—”
Little Blue had already bolted forward. On all fours, he dashed at incredible speed through the passage. His eyes locked onto a silver humanoid figure ahead, its surface reflecting light. With a mighty kick, he lunged like a predator pouncing on prey!
But before he could strike, Jida, standing beside Norris, stepped forward and smashed his left arm toward the wolf.
Little Blue dismissed the creature—barely the size of a Splitfang Beast—as insignificant. His claws swept forward, intent on tearing it apart.
[Ahhhhhh!]
“Awooooo!”
His claws slammed into the seemingly ordinary square yellow shield. The impact snapped two of his talons, blood gushing out instantly!
What stunned him even more was that, now that he had stopped, he could see clearly—this being that smelled of human was not human at all!
“What are you?!” he roared through the pain.
The body before him was covered in silver scales. From a distance, he had mistaken the sheen for human armor!
“Werewolf?” Norris recognized him without panic.
Though Norris himself was only silver rank, his arsenal of skills was vast. Together with Jida, he judged this werewolf might not even be his match.
More importantly, he immediately realized—something like this happening in their own territory could only mean their boss was up to something again.
Sure enough, a Puji floated over and landed right on the wolf’s head.
“I told you to wait!” The Puji wriggled its backside against his fur. “This is a friend—half-lizardman Norris!”
Off to the side, Norris muttered under his breath, “Half-lizardman again today, huh…”
“Half-lizardman?” Little Blue sniffed again, utterly puzzled. “But this scent is clearly human!”
“Have you ever met a half-lizardman before?”
Little Blue shook his head honestly. In truth, he didn’t even know what a lizardman actually looked like.
“Then there you go!” the Puji declared confidently. “That proves half-lizardmen and humans naturally smell the same!”
Though his nose told him something still felt off, Little Blue eventually accepted it and nodded.
“Don’t keep making a fuss like that,” the Puji tapped his nose repeatedly. “Do it again, and I’ll just send you back.”
“Sorry, I thought it was those cunning humans…”
“All right, all right. Just be careful next time. For now, make friends.”
After a brief introduction, Lin Jun promptly dumped the “tour guide duty” onto Norris.
Thus, Little Blue spent three whole days exploring this bizarre underground world!
In those three days, he seemed to have endless “whys”; he devoured delicious glowing mushrooms; he and Norris went from awkward strangers to back-slapping friends; and he even sparred with monsters he had never seen before.
Happy times always flew by. When he finally set paw back on the stairway leading to the tenth floor, he actually felt reluctant to leave.
But the Puji had said he could always come down again. In a few days, he would be back to play with the big mushroom and the half-lizardman!
“You’re alive! We thought the rabbits ate you!” Several familiar werewolves surrounded him the moment he returned to the settlement.
“Can’t you say something nicer?” Little Blue snapped his tail in irritation, then corrected them solemnly. “And besides, those are big rabbits!”
“What?”
…
In the werewolf settlement, Little Blue ran on all fours, animatedly describing to the others what he had seen “down below”—the vast lands, strange monsters, glowing delicious mushrooms, and his “half-lizardman” friend.
His jumbled but passionate account quickly attracted a crowd of young werewolves, their eyes gleaming with curiosity and longing.
Soon, even a few gray-furred elders were drawn over, frowning but listening.
Arguments broke out. Shouts escalated into blows.
In the end, Little Blue was beaten unconscious and dragged away like a dead dog.
Lin Jun, watching with interest, made no move to intervene.
He knew perfectly well that, at most, they would restrict Little Blue’s movements. His life was never in danger.
For Lin Jun, who had been observing the werewolves for a long time, this was all within expectations.
Little Blue—was merely the first werewolf to step out of the tenth floor.
——
Fifth floor.
Horn knelt on a patch of Mycelium Carpet dotted with Pujis, staring at the dagger in his hand that shimmered faintly with mana, steeling himself.
“Horn… maybe don’t do this…” Priest Noah covered his mouth anxiously, trying to dissuade him.
Old Hammer and Aime remained silent, but their eyes clearly showed their disapproval.
Yet Horn only shook his head.
“A debt of three hundred gold coins… this is my only way! Noah, I leave the rest to you!”
With that, he shut his eyes and drove the dagger into his own abdomen!