Who Designed This Underworld Dungeon?

It's hard to describe what Uffie saw that made her lose her composure.

Ever since she left the deep mountains and forests where she grew up to venture out on her own, she had encountered all sorts of weird and bizarre monsters and evil spirits, so her psychological resilience was supposed to be very strong.

Things like Mad Witch Demons, Ghouls, Sewn Monsters were commonplace, and the indescribable sludge and tentacles summoned by the Magic Array were just child's play. She had also faced ancient heroes who inexplicably crawled out of their graves.

For Uffie, whose goal was to leave more and more impressive legendary tales than Gapar in his youth, she had traveled to all the places her father had visited, and even peeked at places he hadn't. Her life experiences at a young age were already quite rich, and her reputation was finally starting to get out there.

Until this year, she was so tired from wandering everywhere that she found a job in the Warrior Country that provided food and lodging and started slacking.

Originally, she thought her years of traveling, even if they didn't surpass Gapar, could at least catch up with him. But then? Not long ago, Gapar pulled off a major feat, single-handedly defeating some Demon King Bloodline, which instantly added a lot of fuel to his already high fame, making it burn even brighter.

Uffie had worked hard for so many years, gradually pulling people's impressions of her out of her father's shadow. But due to Gapar's grand performance, people's evaluation of her reverted back to "It's no wonder she's the Sword Saint's daughter."

Well, years of effort ruined in an instant.

It is said that the reason Gapar was able to have a second spring in his old age was due to something called the Sain Dungeon. Although she knew that if it weren't for her father's help from the magic and items obtained from the Dungeon, he might have been seriously injured or even killed in the fight with the Demon King Bloodline, so logically she should thank Sain.

But since Gapar is fine, Uffie felt she had every reason to throw a little tantrum she hadn't indulged in much since childhood, and it's understandable to hold a bit of a grudge against Sain.

Sooner or later, she's going to kick down the door of the Sain Dungeon!

Perform a solo one-man raid on the Sain Dungeon!

However, before she could put this "grand ambition" into practice, she heard about a parasitic Monster disaster outbreak over in Red.

On one hand, she was quite worried about the safety of the Red people; on the other, she really liked the dried fish produced by Red; and thirdly, saving a country from dire straits seemed like a great way to skyrocket her fame. So for these various reasons, kicking the Sain Dungeon got pushed to the back, and she joined the rescue army and rushed to Red.

After that, she broke into Savis City solo, bumped into Fan En and Isha siblings at the museum, and then...

Saw a strange thing.

Uffie's development of her Unique Talent [Empathy] was quite good. When empathizing with others' feelings, she could choose what she wanted to see, avoiding seeing some strange things or polluting her pure brain.

This time, when she used Empathy on Fan En, she just wanted to learn his triple spin attack and peculiar, beast-like aura. However, for unknown reasons, this time [Empathy] didn't give her the opportunity to choose what to see, and a bunch of things flooded into her mind.

Not only did she not see what she wanted to see, but for a moment, she seemed to deeply enter a mind unknown to whom, where a bizarre eye had grown in the depths of that person's mind, and she involuntarily locked her gaze with that eye.

The next second, she felt the world spin around her, and she was transported to a city with a stark style she had never seen before, empty streets, yet feeling filled by some invisible thing, as if being watched by a great higher presence. That presence had no form, was unfathomable, yet seemed to be omnipresent.

The rustle of the breeze on the streets, the brushing of cloth against skirts, any sound seemed like a vessel for the invisible presence. Meanwhile, Uffie felt an uncanny sensation in her body, as if that invisible presence resided within her, more precisely, as if it lived in her blood!

This feeling of being unable to see the entity yet knowing it was everywhere, even within herself, could drive someone mad. For a moment, she wanted to tear open her skin to let her blood flow freely, forcing out that invisible higher being.

But this feeling didn't last more than a few seconds before disappearing without a trace, and the invisible presence seemed to lose interest in her and vanish from her surroundings.

Just as Uffie wanted to seize these moments of clarity to quickly close [Empathy], in an instant, a ludicrously giant moon suddenly flickered before her eyes.

Cold and lonely, the giant round moon stood before her, its stark size contrast causing a natural breath-holding reflex in the face of something much larger than oneself.

The next instant, the silver moon suddenly turned blood-red, her vision infinitely pulled back as if traversing the stars, yet no matter how far back she retreated, her gaze was forcibly locked onto the blood moon until she saw an indescribable figure slowly emerging from it. That figure was enveloped in thick fog in her eyes, rendering only an indistinct silhouette.

"Ah!"

Just a glance at the beast-like figure caused Uffie to let out a scream, tears of blood streaming from her eyes. Only then did she realize that the fog, like a mosaic, was actually protecting her spirit, and if she stared directly at the creature emerging from the blood moon, her mind would surely suffer severe damage.

The scene before her flickered again, seemingly arriving at a tide-ridden beach, everywhere scattered with foul-smelling rotten fish and shrimp, the dead fish-eye gleaming with a bizarre light.

Uffie hadn't had time to recover from the impact of the blood moon when suddenly she saw the beach again. Although she hadn't seen anything terrifying yet, her heart seemed to turn as cold as seawater, especially when she suddenly found herself seemingly unable to cancel [Empathy].

She saw hundreds of people whose bodies had mutated into half-human, half-fish monsters kneeling in worship to something. She didn't want to know what they were worshipping, but her gaze was forcibly drawn by an invisible power, forcing her to look over with humiliation and reluctance.

"Roar!"

Accompanied by a huge scream that could pierce one's eardrums, a wheel of flesh and placenta suddenly slammed in front of her, smashing her to pieces with such a real sensation that she truly thought she was dead.

After an unknown amount of time, her consciousness gradually became clear, and she finally uttered the first words since [Empathy]:

"Guh, kill me..."

How could she possibly get what she wished for? The scene flickered once again, and her vision returned to the interior of a fog-filled building, where various skeletons wandered amidst the thick fog.

And what is this this time?

She longed to feel the presence of her body, but unfortunately, it seemed unresponsive to her commands, like a puppet manipulated by strings.

In the dense fog, not far from her, suddenly appeared a man whose face was obscured. He wore a tall cage on his head, locking his own head inside it. Uffie had never seen such a bizarre outfit before.

The man suddenly started running, murmuring words she couldn't understand, sometimes even uttering ghostly screams. Uffie, in bewilderment, found her body inexplicably pursuing him, drawing a weapon and slashing madly at the man, as if killing him would end everything.

But this man with the cage on his head was evidently skilled at the art of escape.

He fled while she chased, but he wasn't cornered.

No matter how she pushed her legs, Uffie just couldn't catch up with the caged man. Every time she was about to reach him, he would suddenly perform a brilliant movement technique to dodge the attack, continuing his escape.

Frustration, endless frustration filled Uffie's heart. Her anxious mood, coupled with the man's occasional murmurs, was a torture of another kind. Uffie couldn't stop running in this nightmare, her legs never getting rest, just like her spirit!

Why on earth am I chasing him!?

Why the hell am I seeing these strange things!?

When will these monstrosities ever end!?

And so, she was mired in an unending chase.

In any case, she couldn't wake up anytime soon.

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"About this white-haired girl... Isha, do you have any ideas?"

In the real world, Fanen stared at Uffie, who was frozen like a statue, confused about what was going on with her.

Just now, her eyes seemed to emit a formidable light, felt like some powerful magic, so why did she suddenly go quiet?

Given Uffie's earlier expert-level performance, Fanen thought her current state was some mysterious ritual before casting magic, so he didn't dare to touch her, only staying on guard.

However, the next second, Uffie's body went limp, and with a splat, she fell to the ground, soft as a stranded squid.

Fanen blinked—was this also part of the mysterious ritual?

"Brother! Are you okay?"

Isha hurried over, her face tear-stained and snot-covered, utterly frightened earlier.

"It's okay, it's okay..." Fanen patted his sister's back, comforting her while recalling the sensation of spiraling into madness earlier, feeling both scared and oddly thrilled.

This kind of thought was dangerously tempting.

"Did you subdue her?"

Isha looked at the fallen Uffie, eyeing Fanen again with a fresh perspective, wondering when her brother managed to bring such a formidable expert to her knees.

Fanen's mouth twitched as he said, "No, I think it has nothing to do with me. Do we have any more Healing Potion? Let's give her some first."

Although she had intended to disable his ability to move, it was also to protect Isha, so Fanen believed this white-haired girl was probably a good person.

Besides, the nearby meatball was stirring again, seemingly ready to spawn new parasitic creatures. Fanen, feeling a bit exhausted, would not be able to exert much strength. If using a potion could awaken Uffie, it might protect them both.

Isha obediently took out a Healing Potion, pried open Uffie's mouth, and poured it in. She didn't use the Blood Collection Bottle, fearing it might not be appropriate.

The salty fish-flavored Healing Potion from Reid was poured into her mouth. Uffie's tightly shut eyelids twitched, showing signs of opening, but the salty potion also made her instinctively want to close her mouth.

Isha tried her best to keep her mouth open while Fanen watched the nearby meatball warily, momentarily lost in his thoughts.

It was just a moment—a parasitic creature suddenly burst from the shadows, leaping straight into Uffie's mouth!

The whole museum trembled once again!