Lord: Sequence Master

Half an hour passed quickly, and Rosen suddenly realized he had not yet left the Trap Lair dungeon.

This meant one thing: there were still Crypt Demons alive in the dungeon.

In this case, he had no choice but to find the exit on his own.

Usually, unless one is transported in randomly, the place where one enters is also the exit.

However, at that moment, Rosen wasn't in a rush to leave.

He summoned Gray Mouse and released a vast number of rats from the Divine Beast Pen.

Gray Mouse led the swarm to perform a thorough search of the Trap Lair.

Soon, Gray Mouse made a discovery: it had located a still-living Crypt Demon underground.

Despite its burrowing abilities, Gray Mouse couldn't catch up with this Crypt Demon.

Even using Panic Escape, which increased its speed tenfold, Gray Mouse couldn't kill the Crypt Demon before its speed decayed.

The fact that it knew how to run and could bypass the dungeon's rules clearly indicated it was another intelligent Crypt Demon—likely a rare variant.

Rosen returned to the Time Loop Realm, determined this time to master two trap skills.

First, he refined the skill crystal for Elemental Trap Creation, quickly gaining the ability to create elemental traps.

However, having the ability wasn't enough to master the technique, so he pulled out a book titled Comprehensive Guide to Elemental Trap Crafting.

This book detailed the crafting methods for most standard elemental traps known to the Hunter's Guild.

There were traps hidden in pits, disguised as rocks or trees, or seamlessly integrated into the natural environment.

Theoretically, traps could blend into any setting, and mastering the art of perfectly concealing them was a never-ending process.

Rosen expanded his Trap Space and, using his new skill, began creating a continuous stream of traps with various elemental attributes.

Typically, crafting a trap requires a hunter to create Trap Runes tailored to the specific trap.

These Trap Runes can imprint a variety of supernatural skills.

The most effective skills are those the trap-maker already possesses and are suitable for turning into traps.

Alternatively, Supernatural Essence can be used to imprint abilities, or skill crystals, or even the skills of deceased supernatural beings.

Elemental Trap Creation was a rare trap skill that allowed the imprinting of any element-based ability.

Rosen condensed his first Trap Rune, imprinting it with the Earth Spike ability of the Crypt Demons.

He embedded the Trap Rune into a chair, then conjured a round Nen Bullet and tossed it at the chair.

The moment the Nen Bullet hit the chair, a series of earthen spikes erupted from it.

This method of laying traps was relatively concealed, but the power of the trap was limited.

Since the chair was made of wood and the Earth Spike was a pure earth element ability, embedding the rune underground would have increased the spike's destructive power several times.

Choosing the right environment for a trap was basic knowledge in trap-making.

At this point, Rosen realized that his Trap Space not only allowed him to modify the environment locally but also significantly boosted the speed and success rate of his rune imprints. This naturally accelerated the leveling of his Elemental Trap Creation skill.

In less than ten days, Rosen had upgraded the skill to LV2.

This wasn't just because of the Trap Space—his increased Spiritual Strength and overall skill foundation were key factors.

A Spiritual Strength of 25 compared to 2 would obviously result in much faster mastery of any skill.

Moreover, Rosen's Innate Skill from his noble sequence, Vast Knowledge, dramatically enhanced his learning efficiency.

LV2 was sufficient for now. To advance the skill to LV3, it would be best to incorporate advanced materials.

Next, Rosen began learning Spatial Trap Creation, focusing on laying space-based traps.

Spatial Traps were more concealed, but the number of space-related skills that could be imprinted was limited.

This time, it took Rosen five days to reach LV2, benefiting not only from his trap-making foundation but also from the fact that his Trap Space was naturally suited for creating spatial traps.

Rosen didn't stop there. He spent two more months pushing Spatial Trap Creation to LV3.

He used the Magic Altar to generate large amounts of Spatial Mist, incorporating it into the skill.

From now on, even without the Magic Altar, he could create weaker versions of Spatial Mist on his own.

Rosen still wasn't satisfied and spent an additional six months raising the skill to LV4.

The final enhancement material he used was the Magic Altar's Sacred Space Flame.

[Spatial Trap Creation LV4: Able to imprint almost all space-related skills from Sequence 5 and below into Trap Runes.]

[Enhanced Trait: Multi-Trap Fusion – Able to combine with other types of Trap Runes for compounded effects.]

[Enhanced Trait: Spatial Disintegration – Crafted spatial traps now possess a disintegration ability.]

At LV2 of Elemental Trap Creation, Rosen had also gained the Trap Fusion trait.

In fact, all trap-making skills acquire Multi-Trap Fusion upon reaching LV3.

Without this trait, no trap hunter could master the art of traps.

Rosen began crafting spatial traps, imprinting them with Sequence 6's Space Transfer.

The source of this skill came from an expensive wizard scroll he had purchased.

Originally intended as an emergency escape tool, it was now used to create spatial traps.

If anyone triggered the Space Transfer Trap, they would be instantly transported to a pre-set coordinate within the Gallery Maze.

Rosen then crafted Elemental Traps, imprinting them with Shadow Walk, a skill he excelled at.

This particular elemental trap wasn't deadly or capable of trapping enemies, but it could hide within shadows and move around via shadow teleportation, changing its position a few times.

Neither the Space Transfer Trap nor the Shadow Walk Trap alone could capture the variant Crypt Demon.

But when fused together, the combined trap would certainly capture the elusive prey.

A few hours later, Rosen had prepared 25 Fusion Trap Runes.

While it was possible to create many Trap Runes, they would gradually weaken over time after being formed.

Although the Trap Space could store them, it could only slow down the weakening process tenfold.

On average, one point of Spiritual Power could perfectly control one Trap Rune.

Controlling more than that would compromise the precision with which spiritual power manipulated the runes.

After leaving the Time Loop Realm, Rosen felt disconnected from reality.

Aside from its high energy consumption, the Time Loop Realm had a side effect of easily detaching one from the real world.

Although only a short time had passed outside, several months had gone by inside.

Thus, everything that had happened in the Trap Lair felt like it had occurred months ago.

Rosen summoned Chrollo and the others and began dismantling the entire Trap Lair.

All the dirt and rocks were excavated and piled at the edge of his Divine Domain.

Once the entire dungeon was stripped of its earth and stones, leaving only an empty shell, where could the variant Crypt Demon hide?

Of course, time was limited, so it wouldn't be possible to completely dismantle the dungeon within the available timeframe.

Of course, dismantling the entire dungeon within the limited time was impossible.

Even if the adventurer team stayed inside, they could only remain in the dungeon for a maximum of three days. Now, with half a day already gone, only two and a half days remained, which wasn't enough time.

The purpose of the dungeon "demolition" was to mislead the Crypt Demon mutant and reduce the hunting area.

Two days passed in the blink of an eye, leaving the dungeon full of cracks and holes.

Rosen also randomly placed 25 trap runes around the dungeon, creating spatial traps.

"Gray Mouse, it's your turn now," Rosen ordered.

Gray Mouse nodded, frustrated with the elusive mutant as well.

With his main body and over twenty divine clones, Gray Mouse burrowed underground to capture the mutant.

The Crypt Demon mutant, hiding deep underground, sensed the approaching mice and immediately began moving through the earth at high speed. Often, when the mice surrounded it, it used its rocky armor to break through.

However, as it kept evading, the Crypt Demon mutant began to feel something was wrong.

It sensed the power of traps but couldn't precisely locate them.

This forced it to rely on instinct, constantly avoiding dangerous spots.

"It can even detect spatial traps?" Rosen muttered as he began manipulating the traps, making them move.

The traps, imbued with shadow-stealth runes, could teleport through shadows.

Gray Mouse chased the mutant from behind, while the teleporting spatial traps blocked its path ahead.

Soon, the Crypt Demon mutant found its space shrinking, and eventually, it had nowhere to go, falling into the range of the spatial trap.

The trap's teleportation was instantly activated, and despite its struggles, the Crypt Demon mutant was teleported into the Gallery Maze.

Upon arrival, it was submerged in water, and within half an hour, it was boiled alive by radiant beams of light.

The moment the Crypt Demon mutant died, a loot orb appeared in the scavenger space.

Rosen crushed the orb, revealing an object resembling a gravestone.

[Demon Nest: Unit Building]

[Level: Sequence 7]

[Properties: Once a month, this building consumes resources to produce one Crypt Demon, up to Sequence 7 in strength.]

[Enhancement: The Demon Nest has a chance to produce mutant variants.]

Seeing the building's properties, Rosen instantly understood what Count Fritz had been after.

The value of higher-level unit buildings grew exponentially.

His Sequence 9 Slime Nest could produce one ordinary Sequence 9 slime per day, and even that was worth 600,000 spiritual crystals.

Had he any other choice, or if the Slime Nest didn't have significant evolution potential, Rosen wouldn't have bothered wasting resources to cultivate it. His monster army was composed of slimes, so it made sense to keep the nest.

But the Demon Nest was different—it could produce Sequence 7 creatures.

Sure, killing Sequence 7 Crypt Demons in a dungeon seemed easy because most lacked intelligence, except for the leaders and mutants. But a true, intelligent Sequence 7 Crypt Demon could match any human superhuman in a one-on-one fight.

Rosen eagerly transported the Demon Nest into his Divine Domain. However, for now, he lacked the skill slot to activate it with his noble sequence.

It seemed after dealing with Count Fritz, he would need to advance his noble sequence further.

...

Outside the Trap Lair dungeon, a Ghost Assassin had been keeping watch for three days straight.

Ambushing the Demon Hunter Adventurer Team directly at the dungeon entrance would have been the most effective way to deal heavy damage.

But the stone markers at the dungeon's entrances were all monitored by the Hunter's Guild.

An ambush here would not only bring severe punishment from the guild but also provoke the ire of other adventurer teams, who would be hostile to the Wolf Pack Adventurer Team afterward.

Thus, the unwritten rule was that ambushes could only be set up at least ten miles away from the dungeon.

If an adventurer team couldn't escape after traveling that distance, being ambushed was simply a sign of weakness.

Suddenly, the Ghost Assassin noticed the dungeon marker turning red and immediately used a supernatural item to alert Count Fritz.

By now, Count Fritz was already seething with anger.

He hadn't expected Rosen to be an actor. 

This made his fate writing repeatedly fail, and Rosen seemed to wield considerable divine power, disrupting his fate manipulation and rendering all his scripted events useless.

However, this had been done remotely, with the dungeon in between. If they were face-to-face, not even an actor could resist his fate manipulation across such a level gap.

Receiving the Ghost Assassin's message, Count Fritz began writing a new fate script.

As he worked on his new script, Rosen's team had already left the dungeon.

The moment they entered Rosen's Divine Domain, a small earthquake occurred on the left side of the path back to Adventurer King City.

Though the quake wasn't large, it buried the road leading to the left—the most direct route back to the city.

The message was clear: Count Fritz wanted to force Rosen onto the more remote, right-hand path, ideal for the Wolf Pack Adventurer Team's ambush.

Rosen could easily burrow underground, but without the dungeon's barriers, Count Fritz's fate manipulation would become much stronger. If Rosen traveled by the right-hand path, he would be at a severe disadvantage, taking hits without being able to retaliate, which wasn't his style.

Without hesitation, he summoned his God-Slaying Crossbow, enlarging it.

The gun now had a five-meter-long barrel, and its bore was wider than a fist.

Rosen gripped the trigger and activated Godslayer's Eye, scanning for the Wolf Pack Adventurer Team's position.

However, Godslayer's Eye had linear vision and couldn't see through walls.

With the dungeon tunnels' numerous twists and turns, finding the Wolf Pack would require either sending out Godslayer's Eye for a closer look or enhancing the eye's targeting capabilities.

Rosen activated his left eye's Void Eye Technique, using it as a medium for Godslayer's Eye.

A radius of 25,000 meters was scanned, completely bypassing any rock or soil obstacles.

Where the Void Eye couldn't detect, that's where the Wolf Pack Adventurer Team was hiding.

In an instant, Rosen locked onto their location and pulled the trigger, firing a Spatial Armor-Piercing Bullet the size of a fist.

The bullet tore through space, bypassing the dirt between the two points and reaching its target.

A nearby knight instinctively swung his sword at the incoming bullet, but the Spatial Armor-Piercing Bullet transformed into a spiritual painting, which the knight's sword slashed in half.

From the painting emerged the Rose of the Poor, detaching from the spiritual artwork and manifesting in the real world.

The limited space of the underground cave prevented the explosion from forming a rose-shaped blast cloud, but the destructive power was heightened, engulfing the Wolf Pack Adventurer Team in endless light, heat, and plague. 

(End of Chapter)