Before Gondola period

Blue planet's calendar – 13th January 2024

Xia kingdom – Mount Taiyuan

...

It took Murong almost 8 hours to look for any fissures or abnormalities until he, eventually, found one. At first, he thought he would be able to find it quickly since he roughly knew where it was. However, the terrain was different from what he remembered. He was lost in the mountain forest several times until he found what was supposed to be the dungeon entrance, the fuzzy transparent circular look with the size of palm in the air.

Then, Murong chose not to enter the dungeon immediately but to go into it the next morning instead. He recalled, in his previous life, this dungeon was not a fighting type. It was a time-consuming dungeon that released the mission to find a golden key. It was already at night-time when he found the dungeon portal, and he did not know how long it would take to clear the dungeon. He was both exhausted and hungry due to scouting around the mountain all day long. Hence, he decided it was better to wait for tomorrow.

So, where should he sleep tonight? He was very fatigued and lazy to go down the mountain to the inn that he had his former lunch. Looking around the area, he discovered an excellent small empty cave that he could sleep in it. It might be hard for a young master from a noble family to sleep in nature like this. However, for Murong, who had experienced the tussle in the apocalypse for many years before, it was certainly not. Therefore, after having a tuna sandwich as a quick dinner, he soon fell asleep in that cave.

The following early morning, Murong woke up in the orange light. He found out that it was actually not that bad to spend the night in the uncomfortable cave. At least, the air was filtered through the limestone rock of the cave, so you would be breathing air that was as dry and as clean as you could get. Except it got a little bit cold in there during a certain part of the night, and he wished he had someone with him to snuggle up with.

After washing his face with a bottle of water and having some snacks, he went to the Mount Taiyuan portal entrance that he found yesterday again. He reached out his hand on the dungeon entrance and said, "Activate."

"Ding! Welcome to Chimera dungeon," the familiar sound from the system appeared on his mind.

"Dungeon class: Soldier."

"Dungeon type: Team dungeon. 5 people limit."

"Dungeon objective: Finding a golden key within 12 hours of the time limit."

"Dungeon time ratio: 1:6."

"Dungeon fail's penalty: Spiritual energy accumulation reduced by 10%."

"You will be given the freedom to act as you please upon completion of the dungeon objective. You can hunt as many enemies as you wish, but there will be no reward on the hunt."

Chen Murong listened carefully to the system's announcement while took the chance to survey the new surroundings. He thought to himself. This dungeon was a treasure hunt dungeon. Basically, he had to find a golden key to unlock the treasure case within the time limit. While he might have to fight some monsters during clearing, it seemed the spiritual energy in the air was not enough to induce the presence of strong monsters here yet. In the end, the biggest obstacle was probably the time limit. Chen Murong set out to explore the dungeon when his thought was beginning to reach a conclusion.

The dungeon was not vast and boundless like what he remembered in his past life. Within it, Chen Murong saw dwarf weeping willow trees scattered around the area, blocking out the landscape. All sorts of various weeds and dense vines filled the land. Thorns and thistles were equally everywhere. Several fresh leaves and small purple flowers covered the ground. With each step, Chen Murong's footprints have been left behind.

After a short walk, he suddenly heard something. Murong involuntarily glanced at the grassy area in front of him. The grass was almost half as tall as him. Such thick and tall bushes really could hide a beast. Taking a deep breath, Murong stood there and held his pistol with his right hand.

"Black wolf, a beast of the soldier rank, level 2 detected," the announcement from the system sounded in his mind when the wolf has suddenly shown up.

The past life information regarding this black wolf came to Murong's mind. It seemed he would be able to kill this black wolf with this pistol. Level 2 soldier rank beast was still able to be easily killed with a gun.

When the wolf got closer to him within five meters, he pointed the gun at the wolf and fired several subsequent shots.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The ferocious wolf froze its movement and stared at him in shock. It let out a disgruntled roar and quickly continued moving its body toward Murong.

"Bang!"

"Thud."

Another bullet has been fired, piercing into the wolf's head with thunderous power and speed. With a following bone-crunching sound, this time, the wolf was pushed back, fell down to the ground, and collapsed. The wolf's head bones had already been shattered, and its blood had already begun leaking out from its several wounds. Its four limbs quivered momentarily, then grew still.

Even though, Murong has not gotten an apocalypse ability yet. Just based on his weapon and experience, killing a simple wolf was not a tough feat for Murong.

However, suddenly, there was another howl coming from behind his back. As this new howl echoed, it was responded with different howls from all directions.

"This isn't just one wolf...it's a pack!" Murong thought.

He felt frightened, and his body became stiff. Hearing those howls getting closer and closer, Murong couldn't help but turned his face and looked. He swept his gaze across the area, and as he did, it was met by several pairs of cold, shiny black eyes hidden in the darkness.

Indeed, approximately twenty meters away, a pack of wolves with black fur was carefully approaching him. Due to the density of the local bushes, Murong could not notice this wolf pack earlier.

Murong's heart immediately tightened while he cautiously looked in all directions.

"This is getting dangerous."

"Hoooowl!"

One of them suddenly let out a high pitch howl and charged forward Murong. He fired another shot at that wolf and began to run.

"Not good!" Murong thought. His forehead and back were all drenched with cold sweat. His heart also tightened in his chest. He hurriedly continued to run at a breakneck speed. However, just at the beginning of his sprint, he stopped. The wolf pack had already surrounded him. He had nowhere else to go.

The wolves showed their white fangs and snarled at Murong. At the same time, he noticed there were a big tall tree and a huge stone dome monument nearby.

Without another escape plan, he quickly climbed up on that tree. In terms of climbing ability, wolves were definitely inferior to humans. Murong agilely rosed on that tall tree while the pack of wolves howled with fury as they circled around. He then jumped on top of the stone monument, looking down on those wolves.

All the wolves were staring at him as if waiting for him to come down.

However, there was no way that Murong would satisfy that desire of the wolf pack. Now, Murong had such a high vantage point, and he was able to see all members of the wolf pack. Murong stared downward at them and lifted out a rifle behind his back.

"I'm not afraid of you guys now."

He looked through his scope image to find his first target, gauging a distance, adjusting the hold-up, and, then, squeezed the trigger, issuing a death sentence to that wolf.

The whole process took less than 5 seconds. After several years of the gun firing in his previous life, his gun handling skill was practically the hand of God. Each shot that he fired had never been missed. Some wolves had been killed instantly. Some wolves fought against the penetration of the bullet – that was the penetration of death itself but still were eventually in vain. Some wolves ran around hiding behind trees. The last injured wolf frantically fled in terror when there were no other wolves left. He saw that wolf and fired his last shot.

Finally, he had killed them all!