Rumble—
A faint thunder rolled across the leaden sky.
Li Rui opened his eyes to see, beneath this kind of sky, a massive temple from which mournful howls occasionally echoed.
[Dungeon: Demon Wind Temple]
[Main Quest Update: Survive in the temple for five hours, timing starts after entering the starting point. 5:00:00]
[Quest Reward: 700 Experience Points, Free Attribute Points +3]
During training, it was said the freely allocatable attribute points are a fairly decent main quest reward. And 700 experience points is quite abundant, as only 300 points are needed to level up from level 1 to level 2.
Perhaps due to the high difficulty of the dungeon, the rewards are generous, with the condition being to complete it.
After confirming the main quest, Li Rui looked up, only to see the temple's entrance resembling a fierce beast's maw, with a two-meter diameter light ring on its broken tiles.
He didn't rush to go inside but stood at the entrance, looking around repeatedly. The temple, lacking a plaque, showed a scene of decline, as if it hadn't been inhabited for a long time. Stubborn weeds sprung from the tiles, the wooden columns were cracked, and rusty incense burners held no ash, only sedimented dust.
Such a setting contradicts its grand scale. If one were to film a horror movie, this place could provide suitable materials.
Li Rui studied the scene for a while, not finding any visible danger, thinking that the dungeon wouldn't be so underhanded as to pose threats before the timing even started.
Just as he was about to step over the threshold, he suddenly remembered something, reached into his inventory, and pulled out the clothes taken from a puppet.
[Admin's Jacket]
[Item Level: 1]
[Quality: Unique]
[Description: All staff are advised to keep it safe.]
[Attribute: Defense +6]
[Special Effect: Wearing this gives a stylish appearance when pulling a badass move.]
[Eternal: Yes]
Equipment with special effects is generally quite rare, yet the effect of this jacket is rather difficult to express. Li Rui had ample reason to suspect this was due to his consistently poor luck.
However, as a level 1 equipment, its defense is considered quite high, since normal level 1 items increase defense by only 2 or 3 points, making it somewhat useful for now.
Moreover, it's an eternal item; Li Rui tested it in the real world with a kitchen knife, and with an average person's strength, it could only produce sparks without leaving a scratch.
After putting on the jacket, Li Rui appeared a bit like a delivery guy. He zipped it up and stepped into the starting point's light ring.
Simultaneously, with a thunderous sound, the heavy temple door shut unexpectedly, a layer of cyan light appeared over its surface, clearly making it hard to reopen.
Looking around again, on both sides were dim corridors leading somewhere unknown, while ahead was a hall with inexplicably burning white candles. There seemed to be a statue in the hall, but from afar, it was unclear whether it depicted Buddha or a Bodhisattva.
Li Rui cautiously waited for a few minutes. The courtyard remained unchanged, and another look at the countdown in his retina showed it was still ticking.
"Can't I just stay here for five hours?"
Though he muttered, he didn't expect much, knowing a ten-star dungeon wouldn't be as simple as exploiting a bug. As expected, five minutes later, an imminent sense of crisis gripped his heart.
Li Rui showed not the slightest fluster; such situations were not unfamiliar to him.
A glance at the three different paths revealed similar degrees of danger, suggesting moving was safer than staying put, so he chose the closest hall.
The body fortified with six physique points reacted swiftly, requiring only a few strides to reach the main hall entrance and step over the threshold.
As soon as he entered, a clanging sound came from behind, and numerous iron spears sprang from the ground, turning the already shattered tiles into rubble and leaving no escape route in the expansive courtyard. Had Li Rui been a few seconds slower, the outcome would have been dire.
By now, he understood how the teams from the Profound Spirit Association, wiped out after enduring just five minutes, met their end.
"So tragic."
In the dungeon, even if death doesn't affect reality, the pain feels real.
Li Rui avoided the first killing trap and turned to the statue in the main hall. It was a golden Maitreya figure, yet the smiling face had been scraped off and painted with an obscure red crying face.
Whoosh whoosh.
The candles under the golden Maitreya flickered twice before extinguishing with a puff.
Sensing impending misfortune, Li Rui prepared to retreat when he suddenly felt cold breaths behind his neck, prompting a sharp jump sideways to create distance.
"Hiss—"
A figure at least two meters tall stood before the statue, snake-headed with a human body, its eyes blood-red beneath a tattered monk's robe, striking claws missing their target.
Confronted unexpectedly by such a bizarre creature, most people's legs would buckle in fear, but Li Rui, having faced countless emergencies from a young age, remained rational.
In such situations, he adhered to his usual approach and immediately started counterattacking.
No matter what you are, I'll beat you first.
With a fierce step forward, Li Rui positioned his right palm horizontally beside him, pale blue veins illuminated along his blood vessels.
Skill launched, badass move!
The snake-headed monk hissed, rapidly sidestepped, and transformed into a blur to charge at Li Rui.
"He's attacking my flank from the left."
Murder intent awareness allowed Li Rui to discern the enemy's intention instantly.
In the past, faced with such extraordinary power, even if aware, he would've been powerless. But now, possessing similar strength, he twisted his waist to dodge the clawed hands emerging beneath the monk's robe.
Smack!!!
A leap meant a counterattack; he jumped and executed a badass move.
Critical Strike!!!
Tha-thud.
Li Rui hadn't anticipated his badass move's potency; he knocked the monster's head clean off.
A mid-air flip to evade the snake neck's spouting black blood, he returned to the statue's base.
The snake-headed monk had high stealth capabilities; even Li Rui, with extraordinary sensing, only noticed it upon close approach, much less ordinary people.
If others entered the Demon Wind Temple, even bypassing the first hurdle of ground spears, they'd likely fail at the second stage due to dungeon agents at a maximum of level five, with low sensing attributes.
Li Rui hesitated about proceeding, as the current dungeon's pattern hinted that prolonging time safely in one location might be difficult.
While pondering, he heard a drip sound—something viscous dropped onto the nearby floorboard.
Looking up, he saw at least seven or eight monks crouched on the beams, torsos twisted, fixated gaze staring at him like diners at a table eyeing a gourmet dish.
At the same time, the system notified him.
[Rare random event triggered, Temple Killing Trap]
[Event Objective: Kill all serpent-headed Demon Monks and survive]
[Reward: Experience +200, Free Attribute Points +2, One Random Quality Item]
Bang bang!
As the notification appeared, both the front and back doors of the hall closed simultaneously, and like the heavy temple gate, it was enveloped in a dim cyan light.