Sandy Rock Palace — Ambush
Lu Yuan was no longer in Gray Rock Forest.
He now stood in a region of dry, cracked wasteland. He'd already made enemies of a consortium, and with his strength still not where it needed to be, operating in terrain as labyrinthine as this would give him far more options if he ever needed to disappear.
Beneath him lay Sandy Rock City's largest underground maze: the Sandy Rock Palace.
The entrance plaza was buzzing. Dozens of Gene Warriors lingered outside, and the area had nearly turned into a small bazaar. Voices called out from every direction.
"Antidote potions! Antidote potions for sale! If you know anything about black scorpion venom, you know you can't go in without one! Peace of mind guaranteed! Limited stock — get yours now!"
"Common-rank short blade going fast! 180 Spirit Crystals, firm price!"
"Forming a party for the dungeon's north district — hunting Frenzied Lizards! Need one control-type warrior! Equal split on all loot!"
Where there are people, there's opportunity.
The Sandy Rock Palace was one of the most heavily trafficked areas in all of Sandy Rock City. It was nothing like Gray Rock Forest — the danger level far exceeded it. Inside, creatures ranged from weak to fearsome, and they were plentiful. On top of that, if luck was on your side, you might stumble across a ruin hidden in the depths, housing rare and precious treasures.
Dozens of underground tunnels led to the Sandy Rock Palace. The one before him was just one of many.
His main reason for coming here was precisely its complexity. The Sandy Rock Palace's layout was a labyrinth — and in terrain this tangled, he'd have far more escape routes if the consortium came looking. Walk into a place like this unprepared, though, and you were just asking to die.
Lu Yuan scanned the crowd. Most of the Gene Warriors preparing to enter were organized into small parties. Solo operators like himself numbered only three or four, and every one of them was fully kitted out — leather or plate armor, weapons in hand, carrying themselves with quiet confidence. Being able to run this dungeon alone meant you had something to back it up.
Going in alone naturally drew a few glances. Some Gene Warriors looked his way, then quickly looked elsewhere.
Everyone kept their guard up.
Before him, a shaft dropped into the earth. The opening was roughly four to five meters wide, with stone stairs spiraling downward. Torches hung at intervals along the passage walls, burning steadily.
*"This is the place. Sandy Rock Palace."*
Lu Yuan stepped in without ceremony and descended the stairs.
As they went deeper, the vendor cries from above faded. Only the sound of armored boots on stone remained in the passage.
After a while, the group reached the bottom.
It opened into a small clearing, roughly fifty meters across. Along one side, four tunnel entrances waited.
Besides Lu Yuan, two other parties had descended alongside him: a group of four cat-kin, and a mixed group of two elves and two cat-kin. The silence between the three was thick. Eyes moved from face to face. Everyone measured everyone else.
Understandable. Down here, trust was expensive.
Lu Yuan's gaze swept past both groups without interest. He walked directly to the rightmost tunnel.
Once he disappeared inside, the remaining two parties exchanged a few loaded glances and each filed into a separate tunnel.
The rightmost passage branched almost immediately. Lu Yuan didn't know the layout, so he picked directions at random.
The deeper he went, the wider the tunnels grew. What had started as a few meters across expanded to over twenty, then — after several more branching points — to nearly thirty meters.
He walked for a long time.
Not a single monster.
He checked around him. Nothing. No sign of any creature.
He'd read the Sandy Rock Palace entry before coming in. It had listed the creature types found inside — Stone Men among them — but hadn't gone into their behavioral habits in any detail.
*Near the entrance like this, other warriors have probably already cleared a path through. Makes sense.*
He kept moving.
Then, passing a heap of rubble along the passage wall, a head-sized stone suddenly launched from the top of the pile — rocketing toward the back of his skull at blinding speed.
Lu Yuan's pupils shrank.
Wind. Behind his head. His instincts fired before his thoughts could catch up. He stomped hard and threw his body sideways.
A stone whipped past his head and struck the ground in the position that would turn out to be the Stone Man's right hand.
He spun to see where it had come from.
His eyes went wide.
The rubble was moving. Fragment by fragment, chunks of rock lifted into the air, drifting, swirling —
Then all of it snapped together.
A stone figure, one point eight meters tall, stood before him.
*"...So that's what a Stone Man looks like?!"*
He had checked his surroundings not moments before. Nothing. Not a trace of a monster. He had been completely and utterly fooled.
*Stones could be deceptive.*
The Stone Man raised two fists — each the size of a sandbag — and produced a low, grinding sound from somewhere inside its rocky frame. Lu Yuan couldn't quite work out how a creature made entirely of rocks was making any noise, but there it was.
Before he could think too hard about it, the thing was already charging, right fist swinging in a howling arc.
Lu Yuan frowned. His longsword materialized in his grip. He faced the creature with measured attention.
The fist came fast, wind screaming around it.
He sidestepped. The punch missed. His sword swept up in the same motion and bit into the joint where the Stone Man's head met its body.
*Clang!*
The blade carved a deep crack through the stone. The impact sent the Stone Man stumbling back several paces.
Lu Yuan assessed it quickly. Stronger than a Gray Rock Beetle, but clearly weaker than a Black-stripe Gray Rock Beetle. In Gene Warrior terms: roughly equivalent to an apprentice-level warrior with about forty percent tempering but no Transcendent Gene inscribed.
Not a real threat.
Having taken its measure, he launched into a full assault. It didn't take long. Within moments, he'd shattered the Stone Man's head.
The instant the head crumbled, the body seemed to lose whatever force had held it together. The whole thing collapsed, rubble clattering across the ground.
White light pulsed. Three Spirit Crystals condensed from the debris.
Alongside the crystals sat a smooth, rounded stone — white, like a river-polished pebble.
Information surfaced in his mind:
*Stone Man's Heart: Common-rank material. Can be used to craft Gene Armaments and gene potions.*
A faint smile crossed Lu Yuan's face. He picked everything up.
More Spirit Crystals per kill than Gray Rock Beetles — a welcome improvement.
Only this one Stone Man had dropped a Stone Man's Heart, though. Clearly it wasn't a guaranteed drop.
*Stone Man's Heart...*
He turned the thought over.
Lu Yuan genuinely hadn't expected Stone Men to be this underhanded. Disguising itself as rubble to launch a sneak attack — he'd checked his surroundings carefully and seen nothing. He'd been completely caught off guard. Lucky his reactions were sharp. Anyone with less capability would have taken that stone to the back of the head and had very few good options afterward.
That settled it. From here on, he'd keep Black Iron Body running at all times during exploration. No more getting blindsided by something that had been sitting three feet away the whole time.
For most warriors, sustaining a continuous defensive combat technique was out of the question. It drained spiritual force at a steady rate — keep it running indefinitely and you'd burn through your reserves in no time. But Lu Yuan was different. He absorbed Spirit Crystals fast enough to replenish his spiritual force in real time. Keeping Black Iron Body active around the clock cost him nothing.
Black Iron Body engaged, he pressed deeper into the dungeon.
This time, he paid close attention to every pile of rubble along the passage walls.
He hadn't gone far when two heaps of rubble came into view ahead.
He raised an eyebrow and approached slowly.
Sure enough — the moment he drew close, two stones launched from the tops of the piles, aimed straight at him.
*"Hmph. Still trying to ambush me?"*
He sidestepped both without effort and cut the two Stone Men down.
Each dropped three Spirit Crystals. Only one yielded a Stone Man's Heart.
He picked up his loot with a quiet smile and moved on.
Lu Yuan continued deeper. After a few more branching paths, the tunnel around him had widened to nearly thirty meters across.
He walked.
Then, from somewhere ahead in the passage, the unmistakable sounds of a fight drifted toward him.
He raised an eyebrow, frowning slightly as he peered down the tunnel.
Ideally, he preferred not to get involved in other people's problems. Blundering into a situation with someone he couldn't afford to cross would be a real headache.
But there was no alternative route. Just this single path.
With no other choice, Lu Yuan pressed forward to see what was happening.