Chapter 206: Pride Goes Before a Fall

As Mephisto had mentioned earlier, this open-pit Mine Dungeon was a special Instance Dungeon, with mechanics similar to the Deep Pit Great Secret Realm in Main City Seriga.

Apart from selecting the overall difficulty of the Instance Dungeon before it began, one could also adjust the local difficulty to further increase the quantity and rarity of the Spoils of War.

Rewinding to just a short while ago, when Kamiyu and her group were battling Brother Butterfly, Brother Baojun and the other 17 Ability Users ignored the sounds of fighting outside and proceeded to initiate the next wave of the Instance Dungeon.

The Crimson Earth collided with reality, their rules merging, and even the terrain began to “combine like terms.”

The Stadium’s appearance closely resembled that of the Colosseum ruins Instance Dungeon deep within the Crimson Earth, so the two fused together.

Rewinding to the time when Kamiyu was fighting outside the Stadium, from the perspective of the Ability Users:

“Brother Baojun, we’re really lucky. This Instance Dungeon isn’t like other game dungeons where you have to explore room by room—the Aberrant Beast Demons come straight out of the Teleportation Array,” said a dragonfly Ability User.

“That’s right, it’s too convenient. Even though three people left, we still have enough strength to form a circle and eliminate these Aberrant Beast Demons.”

“Yeah, after wiping them out, we don’t even have to go far. We can just pile up the Aberrant Beast Demon corpses right here and perform the Blood Sacrifice on the spot.”

“Brother Baojun, how about we raise the difficulty a bit to avoid wasting time?” urged a dragonfly Ability User.

“Dragonfly is right. We’re all Fourth-Tier Ability Users now, no worse than those ‘Tree Branches’ like Men San. Let’s crank up the difficulty for the next wave,” another Ability User egged them on.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re all Fourth-Tier now. Fighting these weaklings is getting boring.”

The more they talked, the more excited and encouraged they became, and Brother Baojun also grew smug.

“Since everyone feels this way, how about I set the difficulty to the highest—Torment Tier?” Brother Baojun had long wanted to press this option on the Instance Dungeon information panel. He winked at Dragonfly, signaling him to rally the others.

This way, if they succeeded in clearing it, the credit would be his; if they failed, the responsibility would fall on everyone else, leaving him completely blameless and his hands clean.

At this point, they still didn’t know what Torment Tier represented. Even bold, high-tier players like Lei Yao from the First Echelon rarely dared to attempt it lightly.

“What’s there to fear? It’s just Torment Tier,” Dragonfly, having received Brother Baojun’s signal, began rallying the others.

“Won’t that be too difficult? We struggled a bit even with Hard difficulty before,” one Ability User voiced dissent.

“No wonder they call you Dog Coward. In this world, the timid starve while the bold thrive—don’t you know that?” the dragonfly Ability User said loudly.

“That’s right, take a risk and turn a bicycle into a motorcycle. We’re Fourth-Tier Ability Users now—what’s there to fear?” another clueless Ability User chimed in.

Seeing that others supported the idea, Brother Baojun stepped forward to set the tone: “Higher difficulty means richer rewards. Imagine all 17 of us advancing to Fifth-Tier—even Fear Emperor might have to watch his back around us.”

Hiss. Brother Baojun truly lived up to his reputation as a scheming villain, already overreaching and plotting to betray their source of power—Fear Emperor.

Fortunately, these individuals were in the villain camp. If they had been mingling in the righteous camp, they would have stirred up quite a storm on the Crimson Earth again.

“As long as we keep farming this instance dungeon and continue the blood sacrifices, the Fifth Tier is no chasm at all, let alone the Sixth or Seventh Tiers,” Dragonfly urged everyone.

“Brother Baojun is awesome.”

“We’ll follow Brother Baojun forever.”

“Brother Baojun? More like Emperor Baojun.”

Brother Baojun narrowed his eyes, thoroughly enjoying everyone’s flattery.

However, they had no future. Choosing the “Path of Slaughter” meant this road wouldn’t lead far.

It didn’t take long before Brother Baojun’s next brilliant move shattered his beautiful illusions.

Lost in the praise, Brother Baojun, dazed and confused, wandered over to an instance dungeon information terminal.

It was a pitch-black demon arm, as thick as a large tree, that had burst through the ground, stretching straight upward, with a stone slab clutched in its demonic palm.

“Hmph, a mere Torment Tier will surely be no match for us Fourth-Tier Ability Users, especially with 17 of us here.”

“Speaking of which, why haven’t Butterfly, Minotaur, and Rhinoceros returned yet? Weren’t they supposed to finish the battle in three minutes?”

“Forget it, let’s not wait for them. The 17 of us are more than enough to wipe out all these Aberrant Beast Demons.”

After a brief internal monologue, Brother Baojun cranked the difficulty on the instance dungeon information terminal to the highest setting—Torment Tier, which corresponded to levels 41 to the max level of 50 on the Crimson Earth.

But Torment Tier alone wasn’t enough.

Mephisto had mentioned that this was similar to the Greater Rift, with further subdivided difficulty levels.

Brother Baojun snorted and selected the hardest option in the subdivided difficulty column: all Aberrant Beast Demons’ Attack Power increased by 100%, the Dungeon Boss’s Attack Power increased by an additional 100%, and their own Movement Speed reduced by 50%.

“With an open, centralized instance dungeon like this, there’s no need to run around. Just stand and kill,” Brother Baojun said dismissively.

His large green hand pressed down.

A sizzling, whirring sound echoed.

A deep crimson Magic Circle, massive in scale, emerged from the ground of the Stadium-Colosseum instance dungeon, enveloping all the Ability Users.

“Huh, this Magic Circle is over three times larger than before. It’s almost expanding into the spectator stands,” one Ability User remarked in confusion.

“The color and brightness of this Magic Circle are off. It used to be light red, but now it’s turned deep crimson. Look, it’s almost black,” another Ability User exclaimed, his eyes wide as copper plates.

“Don’t panic. We’re Fourth-Tier Ability Users. What is there to fear?” Dragonfly said.

At that moment, Brother Baojun sensed something was wrong. His insect Perception Special Ability warned him that something was very, very off. The energy intensity of the Aberrant Beast Demons about to emerge from the Teleportation Array was immense, completely incomparable to before.

Brother Baojun grew tense and restless.

“Right, we have Brother Baojun with us. He’ll hold the line for us,” one Ability User said, engaging in some high-level trolling.

“That’s right, you’re absolutely correct. Brother Baojun is invincible,” other Ability Users chimed in.

Brother Baojun cursed inwardly, “Damn.”

With a resounding “Boom!”

Thousands of Level 45 special Goblins clad in deep red Legendary Tier armor emerged from the Teleportation Array. Each wielded Ancestral Legendary Tier curved blades in both hands, charging madly toward the seventeen Ability Users ahead.

Level 45—that was the same Level as An Dao, the Disciple of Suffering from before, and these were just foot soldiers.

“They’re so fast!”

“No, it’s us who’ve slowed down.”

“Why are we slowing down?”

“Damn, they’re so tough—I can’t break their armor!”

With a roar of “Woo-woah~,” an Ironhead Red Giant three stories tall appeared, instantly crushing the Dragonfly Ability User in its grasp.

“This is bad—we’ve messed up.” Brother Baojun gasped at the sight, a chill running down his spine.