Dalun Li had set Tongmu to react whenever a powerhouse entered the town.
With the [Insight] skill paired with [Clairvoyance], Tongmu could perform real-time monitoring of the dungeon's surroundings.
"Another powerhouse is here!"
Dalun Li immediately focused his attention on Tongmu.
Tongmu had marked four people: one woman and three men, led by a red-haired woman; they seemed to be an adventurer team.
The mana reactions of three of them were quite high, already exceeding the limits of [Insight].
He could only confirm they were second-rank or higher.
Only a brown-haired male mage was within the detection range of the [Insight] skill.
But his level was as high as lv20!
This adventurer team bore no noble crests, only adventurer badges pinned to their cloaks.
Since adventurers explored the dungeon every day, Dalun Li had figured out the markings on the adventurer badges.
The adventurer badge had a copper base, engraved with a circle of grass patterns surrounding the holy staff of the Goddess of Light.
The grass pattern represented the national flower of the Lanxi Kingdom, the leaves of the Roland Vine.
A first-rank adventurer, also known as a first-rank extraordinary being, would have one White Roland bud in bloom.
This symbolized the adventurer's extraordinary status.
A second-rank adventurer would have two White Roland buds in bloom.
In this adventurer team, three of them had two White Roland buds—undoubtedly second-rank adventurers, or second-rank extraordinary beings.
Based on their attire...
The woman appeared to be a swordsman, while the remaining two men were heavy warriors.
And a priest?
The priest did not wear the vestments of the Church of Light; although he wore an adventurer badge featuring the holy staff of the Goddess of Light, he seemed to be a believer of another deity.
The Church of Light was the state religion of the Lanxi Kingdom, but there were also churches in the kingdom that worshipped other gods, though they were not as powerful as the Church of Light.
For example, the Harvest Church, the War Church, and the Foundry Church.
It was said that the Magic Association also had a faith, but they believed in the source of magic, knowledge, and truth rather than a specific god.
"They aren't from the Grey family."
"Adventurers, huh? This is getting a bit troublesome."
High-rank adventurers were clearly more free than the extraordinary beings dispatched by nobles.
Moreover, this was a very bad sign; the arrival of these adventurers meant that the Adventurer Association in Gray City had truly taken notice of him and was starting to free up manpower.
They might even continue to send high-rank adventurers in the future.
Even though Dalun Li had recently stopped proactively hunting adventurers to lower his profile.
But as a dungeon, as long as he existed here, he was bound to attract attention.
"The crises truly never stop."
Dalun Li sighed.
He had just gotten used to Manfred and his group, and now even stronger ones had arrived.
If he wasn't careful, they really would clear him to the very end.
In this world, as long as he was a dungeon, these people wouldn't rest until they reached the bottom.
Exploration had no end; the only thing he could do was become the strongest dungeon and strike down anyone who dared to explore the deepest floors.
Currently, he was on the eighth floor, with two floors left as a buffer.
Manfred's party wouldn't explore the next desert stratum until their supplies arrived.
He still had time to prepare.
After confirming the situation of these four newcomers, Tongmu still glowed with a red light.
"Hmm? There's another expert?"
The image projected by Tongmu shifted again, locking onto another source of danger.
As Tongmu locked on, Dalun Li could no longer sit still.
There was only one person in the image!
No, not a person!
The figure in the image was almost at the edge of Tongmu's [Clairvoyance] detection.
The other party hadn't entered the town but was in a cave in the forest north of the dungeon.
He was alone, draped in a heavy black cloak, with a pair of pitch-black horns protruding from the front of the hood.
It appeared humanoid, but it was impossible to tell if it was male or female.
Furthermore, even with [Insight], it was impossible to determine the other party's rank.
Just as Dalun Li noticed this presence, the figure suddenly moved.
He actually raised his head, and from beneath the pitch-black cloak, an invisible gaze met Tongmu's line of sight.
He had actually sensed the gaze of the Clairvoyance coming from Tongmu!
The moment the other party sensed Tongmu, a wave of mana rippled out.
In an instant, Tongmu began to tremble violently.
Dalun Li hurriedly had Tongmu withdraw its gaze, but even so, Tongmu cracked right down the middle.
Liquid continuously leaked from the wound, spilling onto the yellow sand of the floor.
"No way!"
Dalun Li was shocked.
How could there be such a powerful enemy? This time, he really was in danger of being cleared to the bottom.
He quickly used his power to stabilize the injured Tongmu.
Even though Tongmu was specialized for visual support and had no defensive or offensive capabilities, it had been tracked and subjected to this level of attack just because of a single glance.
Too strong!
Third rank, or even higher!
And its specialization was quite unusual!
Fortunately, he always had Tongmu monitor the movements around the dungeon instead of acting personally.
Within the dungeon, Dalun Li's gaze was very safe.
Because he was the dungeon itself.
Wait, this was across eight dungeon floors; no matter how strong the opponent was, it should be impossible to bypass the dungeon's protection and attack Tongmu directly.
This wasn't an attack, but...
After carefully checking Tongmu's condition, he found that Tongmu hadn't been injured by an external force.
Instead, it was a collapse of internal power, an injury sustained from the inside out.
"Just observing the opponent causes injury?"
"Impossible to gaze upon?"
Dalun Li spoke in astonishment.
What kind of trait was this, directly making it impossible for people to look at him!
This feeling didn't seem like an individual's ability but more like a magical artifact.
"It's that cloak!"
Recalling the shielding ability of that cloak...
Even with Tongmu's vision, there was no way to penetrate the darkness beneath the cloak to see the opponent's face.
The damage came from the cloak's magical power.
However, the presence beneath the cloak had indeed relied on itself to detect Tongmu.
Looking at Tongmu, which was crying tears incessantly, Dalun Li took a deep breath.
He should stop casually casting his gaze outside the dungeon in the future.
He would let Tongmu handle the monitoring of the world outside the dungeon.
Furthermore, Tongmu needed an upgrade.
To think there was a freak who could directly sense a gaze; he hadn't even thought in that direction before.
Thus, Tongmu hadn't been specialized with Stealth capabilities.
Looking at the crack on Tongmu's body, Dalun Li decided to pay a heavy price.
He locked his gaze onto the hidden space on the seventh floor.
In the hidden space, the substitution tree was soaking in the magic spring, growing slowly.
Dalun Li carefully broke a branch off the substitution tree and then transferred it to the eighth floor.
Looking at the emerald-green branch before him, Dalun Li also fetched some mana water from the magic spring.
This mana water had a much higher mana concentration than the small lake under the magic tree on the fourth floor.
Placing the mana branch and the mana water beside Tongmu, the jewel on the pedestal lit up with a dazzling silver light.
The branch and mana water quickly filled Tongmu's wound; at the same time, Dalun Li's massive power continuously poured into Tongmu.
Tongmu's growth accelerated.
The texture of the massive eyeball shifted from liquid to something closer to a crystalline gemstone.
And the red copper pupil at the center of the eye grew obscure patterns.
Rate on N.U.
