Who Designed This Underworld Dungeon?

"Good child, don't play with the long spear."

"Why?"

Savis City, within the survivor sanctuary built around Sain Dungeon's teleportation gate number two.

Isha took the wooden spear from the child's hands with a serious expression and said:

"Those legendary figures who are remembered for their spears, most of them didn't end well."

"Oh, oh..." The child nodded in awe, looking at the spear with fear in his eyes, and ran off to pick up a wooden saw meat blade, swinging it for practice.

Feeling she successfully guided a wayward child back on track, Isha couldn't help but show a proud smile.

This sanctuary built around the teleportation gate has the most people, with about forty survivors residing here, and in the Fishing Port District, there are four similar sanctuaries where the number of survivors adds up to just over a hundred. These are the last living people in the Fishing Port District.

The distance between each sanctuary is not too far, with small paths enabling quick commutes between them, allowing for swift support if one side encounters a problem.

People in the sanctuary still feel a bit surreal, not expecting a sudden emergence of hunters who saved them from hellish days, even clearing out the entire Fishing Port District. Some still mutter to themselves while in the sanctuary, "Could this be a dream?"

"Brother, you're back, how are things?" Isha heard footsteps, and turned back to look at Fanen.

Returning was a team of hunters, covered head to toe in blood, exuding a murderous aura, looking like crazed killers. Fortunately, the people present are used to seeing this look, and some even prepared hot water to welcome and clean the hunters.

Among the survivors, there are still some who know a bit of daily magic, and some who know a couple of combat skills, though their levels are generally not high.

For some reason, even now, they have not seen a single person with rich combat experience among the survivors, whether adventurer, soldier, or mercenary, none have appeared.

"The situation in the Pearl District is not good, but we've thought of a solution."

Fanen sat down on the spot, relaxing his tired body, and said:

"The dungeon undoubtedly attracts parasites, nine out of ten monsters entering the dungeon don't come out. If we can properly utilize this point, the city's clearing progress will accelerate greatly. Unfortunately, the teleportation gate doesn't seem to attract parasites effectively to the other two districts. Only those near the Pearl District seem to be drawn by the gate."

Isha immediately understood what her brother was thinking and said:

"Should we actively lure monsters from the other two districts over?"

"That's right," Fanen was grateful to have such a smart sister, "Isha, if it were you, you should be able to design routes to lure parasites to the teleportation gate using the city's layout, right?"

"If we have the city layout map, I think I can." Isha showed an eager expression.

Fanen smiled and took out a stack of well-protected maps, "We killed our way into the City Lord Mansion on our way back and happened to find this."

"Great!"

Just like that, the matter was settled. Isha would soon find several routes maximizing the efficiency of luring more parasites to the dungeon teleportation gate, designing various mechanisms along the way to attract parasites, possibly even using hunters as bait if necessary.

But Isha didn't plan to make the hunters take risks; she trusted her ability to design the mechanisms, taking on the task single-handedly.

There are many considerations, such as clearing personnel around the teleportation gate to avoid collateral damage, the initial large number of attracted parasites making it inconvenient to go out, the need to gather enough resources, and so on.

Isha and Fanen clearly took on leadership roles, and with the first batch of hunters being the most powerful, none of the survivors would disobey them.

On further reflection, once numbers grew, it was discovered that although everyone entering the dungeon undergoes blood therapy, the increase in each person's strength is incomparable. Some people's strength only improves slightly after blood therapy, making solo hunting impossible without assistance.

The root cause is whether they pass the beastly trial. The Reid people's strong spirit sometimes fails against the initial beastly trial brought about by blood therapy. Such individuals become deranged for a few days, recovering afterward, still gaining resistance to parasites but with negligible strength improvement.

Among the 100-plus survivors, about half successfully passed the beastly trial, and after further screening, only about forty people can be hunters for outside hunting, making human resources quite tight.

Moreover, they can't hunt parasites outside all day; they must return to the dungeon to train strength occasionally. Without strength, nothing else matters, and some think they should focus primarily on the dungeon now.

As for Fanen, he intended to manage both aspects.

"I'll go to the dungeon for a while. If you have ideas for the mechanisms or need anything, remember to tell me."

"Don't you want to take a bath first? Your clothes stink." Isha frowned, feeling her brother might be working too hard, to the point it seemed he might collapse.

"I'll just find the Messenger to repair my clothes."

Those "adorable" messengers in the Hunter's Dream can repair weapons and equipment, and even clean them, solving some bothersome chores for the survivors.

Watching him leave, Isha sighed, talking to herself:

"Don't work too hard."

Shortly after, Yarn.

"Yusefka Doctor, I've come again."

"...Here, my blood."

"Thank you."

At Yusefka Clinic, Fanen politely received a blood collection bottle filled with blood through a gap in the door window, and didn't forget to thank her before leaving.

There were other hunters with him, even the elderly Bell was there, queuing up to receive blood collection bottles from Yusefka.

Doesn't he die of anemia?

"If you encounter any living people, you can send them to my clinic, ah, this place is quite safe." Doctor Yusefka said; she always says this.

This female doctor named Yusefka is also a residual shadow; Fanen didn't notice her at first until he wandered around the clinic and found her.

The other party seemed very wary of hunters, unwilling to let him into the room behind her, saying it was to protect the safety of the patients, which Fanen understood.

Moreover, Yusefka would periodically provide him with blood collection bottles filled with her own blood.

This item, called "Yusefka's Blood Collection Bottle," offered a much greater recovery speed and quality of life force when used compared to ordinary blood collection bottles, which made it very popular among hunters. Almost everyone would come to her for a bottle upon entering the dungeon.

"Doctor Yusefka is really a good person."

His sigh was met with agreement, and everyone left the clinic to enter the increasingly familiar Yarn.

In a short period, the hunters initially summarized a route for the quickest acquisition of Blood Echoes, which included famous spots like bonfire parties and stronger monsters like Wolfman, Brick Brother, and Axe Brother. So far, only Fanen can solo this route, although the risk of failure remains high.

Currently, he is steadily advancing towards level forty.

However, before entering this route, he knocked with a mischievous grin on the door of a nearby house with a lit lamp, and everyone around wore helpless expressions.

"I'm tired of the noisy ruckus from rude outsiders like you; all the chaos in Yarn is your doing!"

An old lady's angry voice came from behind the door. However, instead of getting angry at being scolded, Fanen was delighted and knocked on the door forcefully two more times, prompting more furious curses from the lady before he quickly ran away.

Proceeding along the planned route, Fanen seriously fought with monsters, but whenever he saw a house with a lit lamp, he always had a "this could be fun" expression, knocking on the door twice.

The houses with lit lamps always had people inside, yet in the face of hunters like him, the reactions of those inside the houses were typically:

"Get lost! Who would open the door for an outsider like you on a Night of the Hunt, get lost!"

"To be locked out on a Night of the Hunt, oh, you're really out of luck, hehe, really out of luck."

"Despicable outsider, trying to trick me into opening the door, how awful..."

The residual shadows of the Yarn residents had an even worse attitude towards Fanen than rascals meeting a Demon Hunter.

As they gradually grew familiar with Yarn, Fanen and the others discovered that there were quite a few normal people in Yarn, as the houses with lit lamps all had residents.

Unfortunately, these houses seemed to be protected by some force; they couldn't get in even if they used violence.

And the people inside the homes in Yarn had such terrible attitudes, wishing "outsiders" like them would just die, let alone open the doors by themselves. When they knocked on the doors, they were either cursed or mocked.

Now Fanen understood why Gilbert would complain about the Yarn people's hospitality.

At first, people would get angry when insulted, but gradually, there emerged people like Fanen who deliberately knocked on the doors to disturb the Yarn people for fun, which was also a way to relieve stress.

Even more, he found that as long as he led monsters near these Yarn homes, he could hear the screams and scrabbles from the people inside, which was tempting to laugh out loud.

"Alas, Brother Fanen wasn't such a person before," Bell lamented on her aged face, "the dungeon really changes people, but luckily I've grown indifferent to these things."

Someone heard what she said and suddenly pointed to the side, shouting, "Miss Bell, there's a monster over there!"

"Kill! Where, where, see me stab it to death!"

Bell immediately transformed into a terrifying grandma, springing up wielding her hunter's staff with fierce momentum.

"...." Everyone fell into silence seeing her like this.

To be honest, it's you, old lady, who has changed the most, right?

"Mr. Fanen, how much longer do you plan on playing? Our goal this time is that cemetery, isn't it?"

After exploring Yarn, the map of this city became increasingly clear, which included a cemetery that no one had ever ventured into before.

Just standing outside, one could hear the roars of beasts and the horrible sounds of slicing flesh coming from the cemetery, making it feel like entering would surely encounter formidable enemies, so people dared not rush in, waiting for Fanen to start the exploration.

Not long after, having had enough fun, Fanen finally led people to the cemetery, it seemed his stress had been quite relieved.

The cemetery was quite far from Yarn Center, with many dangers along the way. The closer they got to the cemetery, the less frequently people ventured into these areas, resulting in a lack of information, and thus increasing the likelihood of encountering danger. Therefore, supplies were consumed more rapidly, and people's faces grew more solemn.

The cemetery was almost in sight, but just then, people suddenly noticed something.

"Look, there's yet another house with a lit lamp."

Wiping off the monster blood splattered on his face, Fanen smiled and said, "There's still a Yarn person in such a place? Let's take a break here and prepare for the upcoming battle, I'll go relax a bit."

Everyone shook their heads helplessly, letting him be.

This time, is it a man or a woman inside the house, curses, or mockery? What kind of monster should I bring to scare them?

While pondering in his mind, he knocked on the door and asked, "Anyone there?"

However, contrary to his expectations, a timid little girl's voice came from behind the door.

"Hmm, are you a hunter? I don't recognize your voice, but I know this smell, it's the hunter's smell,"

Fanen didn't expect a question like that and blinked, responding, "Yes."

Who would be familiar with a hunter's scent?

"If you are a hunter... may I ask you to help find my mom?"