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Chapter 541. Dungeon Exploration! [AotSC]
🕑 Added 2025-09-17 19:00:41 +0000 UTCLiu Shu was baffled; she had not expected to gain such a powerful <Title> and have her <Passive Skill> evolve.
‘Ten percent stats for free. Wow.’
After checking the skill and title once more, Liu Shu decided to go and try to use the new skills. “Let’s see… It says that I can interact with dimensions now through my roots? How true is that? Because that wording is too vague to say for sure…”
As her first test, Liu Shu looked inside the <Rumbling Earth Domain>, not with the <Dungeon System> but with <World Tree Eye>.
From the outside, the edge that separated the <Dungeon> and the rest of the continent looked like an invisible wall. It was a clear division between outside and inside that you could cross while walking. So, Liu Shu followed one of the roots that went into the <Dungeon>.
“This is the edge. If it were any of the other two <Dungeons>, then my gaze would be unable to pierce through this layer. Now, though… I can see how to peel it.”
The layer between her dimension and the <Dungeon> was like a waterfall. So, for Liu Shu to enter, she needed to use her energy to create a blockade and open the waterfall. Once she placed the blockade, Liu Shu’s expression changed. It felt as if her mind was suddenly pressed down by a mountain, and her ternary essences began draining extremely quickly. ‘Wow! I am even losing Phoer when forcefully opening the layer between the <Dungeon> and the outside world.’
After a few moments, Liu Shu dove inside with her consciousness and then stopped supporting the blockade. The second she did so, the dimensional wall recovered its previous state. Nevertheless, Liu Shu could now move back and forth without much effort.
“I am… Inside! Yay!”
Her surroundings had changed a lot. The relatively barren terrain was now filled with trees, mountains, and many other environments. When creating the <Dungeon>, Liu Shu made sure to divide it into clear environments and areas. That way, those with different affinities could move to places where they could kill monsters the easiest.
“I created three ways to escape the <Dungeon>. The first is a <Scroll> that can drop twice per Dungeon Dive. The chance for the scroll to drop is abysmal, though. Even then, it does change with monster <Level> and <Tier>. So, if a Level 50 killed a Level 60 monster of a high Tier, the drop chances would be much higher than when defeating Level 40 monsters.”
The chance calculation was complicated, but the <Dungeon System> approved of it, so there were no problems. “The second way is defeating a mini-boss.”
Liu Shu had spread mini-bosses with the <Super Rare> drops from the pulls. These mini-bosses dropped good items and also opened a portal to the outside. “The interesting part is that the mini-bosses scale depending on enemy numbers. The boss would be much tougher if a group of five Level 50 attacks it than if a single Level 40 attacks it. What the mini-boss used was a proximity metamorphosis managed by the <Dungeon System>.”
Her roots moved forward through the jungle with tall and dense trees trying their best to stop her advance. Sadly, the environment on the outskirts of the Dungeon was at around Level 25 to Level 30. So, Liu Shu moved without feeling their struggles. When the jungle tree’s roots latched onto her, they just shattered like dry wood.
Liu Shu’s root finally connected with the roots stuck on the other side, and the second she did so, everything fell under her control. Information about the layout, earth, and even the reach of her roots flooded her mind. She could see the different environments, creatures, and flora.
After ten minutes of full-capacity processing, Liu Shu’s mind became normal again, her gaze now covering a large part of the <Dungeon> area.
“I thought that my roots would reach the center of this place. After all, I controlled the entirety of the <Origin Water Continent>. Nevertheless…”
As Liu Shu’s <World Tree Eye> and her own gaze looked beyond the edge of her domain, she noticed the oddity.
“...there is a lot of terrain I have yet to explore. Has there been spatial dilation during the building of the <Dungeon>?”
She was quite curious, but she knew that she just needed to ask the <Dungeon System> to get the answers to these questions. Instead, she continued exploring the <Dungeon> by herself.
“This is my first <Dungeon> exploration! I am so excited!”
Instead of controlling the entirety of her root network, she decided to enjoy it like an individual. So, she chose one of her thickest roots and moved it alone. Liu Shu spoke to herself, somewhat playfully.
“I have arrived at a strange location! How could there be such a large realm in the middle of a continent? I feel that, although the spatial disturbance outside occupied around 40% of the continent, the space inside is almost three times larger than the <Origin Water Continent>.”
Liu Shu changed her tone to a deeper one, which only sounded like a cute girl trying to make her voice deeper. “Headquarters has received your report, Explorer Liu Shu. Please keep us informed of your surroundings.”
Changing the voice back to normal, Liu Shu looked around and answered. “Headquarters, I can see tall trees of an unknown variant. They look like common <Dipterocarps> species but with more expansive and lush canopies. There are still gaps between them, so sunlight easily falls through them, illuminating the grassy land below. Perhaps it is because of the season, but there are plenty of leaves on the floor.”
Her voice deepened again. “That’s great to hear. You are doing excellent work, Explorer Liu Shu.”
“Hehehe. Thank you, thank you. I am doing my best!” Liu Shu looked to the side and exclaimed. “Oh! Headquarters! I just saw one of the natal monsters! From its body structure, I can tell that it is a carnivorous species. The body is covered in scales, yet the form is that of a mammal beast. The head of the beast is sharp, with protruding fangs at the side of the snout. The claws are long and slightly serrated, perfect to create wounds on the flesh of its prey.”
“We hear—” Liu Shu paused. “Oh, I forgot to change the voice. Ahem. We hear you, Explorer Liu Shu. If the beast is high-level enough, you are allowed to engage in battle.”
Liu Shu then analyzed the beast.
***
Name: -
Titles:
<Forest Predator>: +10% stats when hunting prey in a forest. Your dynamic vision is sharpened by 100%.
<Dungeon Monster>: Your attributes can lightly scale up depending on the number and strength of <Outsiders> targeting you.
…
Race: Scalaptera Ferox Tigris
Level: 69
***
Liu Shu didn’t need to look at the rest of the stats. “Headquarters, Explorer Liu Shu is engaging in battle!”
The poor beast suddenly felt something amiss, and in the next second, a root flashed before him. The speed was so fast that the beast only saw a brown-blue blur before his sight turned completely black.
[Congratulations on defeating <Level 69 Scalaptera Ferox Tigris>. You’ve earned 1 Experience Point!]
Liu Shu looked at the monster that her root pierced right into the brain of with a curious expression. “Now… The monster might disappear after being hunted, right?”
Liu Shu let the body of the beast drop and waited. After a minute of waiting, nothing happened. “Hm… This shouldn’t be this way!... Do I ask the <Dungeon System>? No! I need to fulfill my duties as an Explorer!”
As Liu Shu looked at the beast, she noticed that its body was not disappearing. However, after thirty minutes, Liu Shu noticed that it had started to decay. “Huh? It is decaying already? It has only been 30 minutes!”
As the corpse decayed, the flesh slowly melted away, and the scales fell down one by one. It took four hours for the corpse of the monster to be absorbed by the land below it.
“...I understand.” Liu Shu looked quite interested in that phenomenon. “If you don’t collect the loot, the <Dungeon> recycles the monster carcass. Does this happen in the other <Dungeons> as well? Perhaps they say that the monsters disappear because the decay is relatively fast, but sufficiently slow for normal people not to notice. I mean, who would wait by the corpse of a beast for hours in the middle of a <Dungeon>?”
After coming to a conclusion, Liu Shu felt accomplished. “See? I didn’t need the System to tell me! Tsk, tsk. With this brain of mine, the System is useless!”
[...]
“What? Wanna fight? I’ll smack you around! Hmph! Hmph!”
After poking fun at the System and feeling better, Liu Shu continued with her exploration. The deeper she went, the higher-level monsters she encountered. Sometimes, they were alone; other times, they were in groups.
She was lucky to find one of those <Monster Nest> locations and got a taste of what it meant to face endless monsters. “This is quite… profitable. I’ve already gained 2,000 Experience Points, and I’ve been in the dungeon for just a few hours.”
Currently, Liu Shu was earning 1,554 Experience Points daily passively. The <Delicious Berry> gave her 748 points, and her own Energy Gathering Method added 495. Then, Flor’s <Royal Pollination> gave her 162, and <Sprouts Of Chaos> added an extra 149, for a total of 1554.
Now, while the experience she needed to Level Up was an astounding 3,737,460 Experience Points, she would be able to collect that amount in 2,406 days, or six and a half years.
The Leveling Up speed was extremely fast for a World Tree. After all, if there were no barriers, imagine Liu Shu’s Level at the age of Warlya or any other World Tree.
‘Hm… If I go deeper, I guess I can hunt in my own <Dungeon> as well, right?’
It was at this moment that the <Dungeon System> spoke without prompts.
[If Tianlian Liu Shu hunts in the <Dungeons> she creates, there is a chance of <Dungeon Collapse>. Tianlian Liu Shu would be stealing source energy from her own <Dungeon> without returning anything. It is not recommended for Tianlian Liu Shu to earn over 200 Experience Points daily from the <Dungeon>.]
“Only 200?” Liu Shu was honestly surprised. If she took into account the number of people that would be participating, 200 felt like a microscopic amount. Nevertheless, there must be a reason why that limit was imposed.
“To begin with… It is already strange that I can earn Experience from something I’ve created. The <Delicious Berry> works because my children and other World Trees can produce it and give it to me… On the other side, the <Dungeon> is both created and harvested by me. It’s like creating energy from nothing.”
With that in mind, Liu Shu decided to be cautious. It was a bit tempting to take those 200 Experience Points, but she chose not to touch them until she gained extra knowledge in the future. “Hm… Let’s continue the exploration without killing. To begin with, only the trees are hostile to me. No creature has attacked me even after seeing me first.”
And so, Liu Shu’s roots began moving all around, moving towards the center of the expansive dungeon.
Comments
Andrew Miles
I think it might be a good idea to say she can scout but not fight in the dungeons or just say nothing at all, it's likely to prompt difficult questions to answer.
Minerva
Yay, liu shu can now go dungeoning with the wives. Although this begs the question, how many world trees can go into dungeons and how much tea is flor gonna need to consume.
Plateworm
Tftc
