Chapter Twenty-Four: The Hidden Boss and Mission Resolution

Although the three-headed serpent Bikadrak reacted instantly, the hunters had already achieved their goal. The middle serpent head was blinded, and the creature’s attacks became chaotic. Or so the hunter claimed. Standing in the farthest corner, Liu Zong couldn’t discern any confusion in Bikadrak’s movements. All three heads still seemed capable of launching attacks. The goat head was like a battering ram on a siege engine, relentlessly smashing into a fixed point. The wolf head appeared to be purely physical, tearing at everything nearby with its jaws.

Normally, these attacks would be coordinated by the serpent head, but now, with its eyes destroyed, the direction and focus of the assaults had to be determined by the goat and wolf heads. This forced the serpent head to relinquish command. The other two heads immediately unleashed all their abilities, sometimes even activating their powers simultaneously. Though this chaos left the hunters scrambling to respond, once the skills were all expended, everything changed. Apart from the fixed ultimate attacks at the 33%, 66%, and 99% health thresholds, Bikadrak’s abilities became almost useless for the remainder of the battle.

As the fight wore on, the first to fall was the goat head, whose attacks had been the most ferocious. It kept charging at the hunters, but each time they evaded, and every time it struck the ground, it became momentarily immobilized. During these moments, the hunter’s leopard would attack the goat head with all its might. Because of this, the goat head’s health depleted fastest, and it was down before the first wave of ultimate attacks came.

Bikadrak had a particular trait: if one head died while the other two remained, they’d have one minute to revive their fallen companion. The only way to prevent this was to defeat a second head within that minute.

But the situation changed. The moment the goat head collapsed, the wolf head went berserk, shifting its attacks from the druid to the fallen goat head. At first, the hunters were stunned, but then the hunter realized what was happening and shouted, “He’s going to devour the goat head and become the dominant force of the three-headed serpent. Focus all attacks on the wolf head!”

At this command, the leopard leaped onto the serpent head, drawing its attention away, while the rest concentrated their efforts on the wolf head. Under their combined assault, the wolf head quickly fell upon the platform.

Only the serpent head remained. It tried to escape, but the hunters were relentless. With all their firepower focused, the already-blinded serpent head lasted less than a minute before collapsing to the ground.

As all three heads perished, a thick, green mist surged from the platform's edge, instantly dissolving Bikadrak’s corpse into a pile of stark white bones and a strange green liquid. Watching this, the hunter turned to Liu Zong and said, “Looks like you won’t be getting any loot from this boss.”

Liu Zong understood. If not for his mission, this boss would have yielded at least two more pieces of blue gear. But because of the task at hand, the boss’s corpse immediately became a passage downward; any hope for equipment was lost unless he chose to abandon the mission.

Acknowledging this, Liu Zong nodded to the hunter. “Thank you for your help with this dungeon. I need to go below and complete my task. As for what comes next—”

“We can’t help you with what’s down there,” the hunter interrupted. “But we’ll wait here until you return or leave the dungeon on your own.”

Liu Zong thanked the group, then made his way down, following the skeletal remains of Bikadrak. Whether due to the mission or simple fate, the serpent’s bones had formed a perfect staircase, allowing Liu Zong to descend easily, stepping from vertebra to vertebra.

At first, the sensation was unremarkable, but as he neared sea level, he felt a sudden tremor in the air. The sky darkened to a deep purple, and the sea turned a blood-red hue. The immense sea beast’s corpse, nearly a hundred meters long, now loomed before him like a mountain. The mountains of white bones scattered atop it looked like pine trees growing from the crevices of a peak—covering the surface but serving only as embellishment.

Eerie wisps of yin energy floated among the bones. Since most of it originated from animals, no ghostly monsters formed, but even so, Liu Zong felt a growing pressure.

Fortunately, he had prepared thoroughly before entering the dungeon, knowing both his goal and his method. He had spent nearly a month planning, considering every detail, and gathering all necessary materials before making his final decision.

Stepping onto the sea beast’s corpse, Liu Zong began following his plan. He opened his backpack and withdrew one hundred and eight cards. After taking them out, he instantly transformed them into items: all were metal columns. The longest was three meters high and as thick as an arm, resembling bamboo, divided into three segments, each set with seven mirrors. Seven medium-length columns, each a meter long and arm-thick, looked like torches crowned with lotus-shaped braziers. Twenty-eight short columns, each about the length and thickness of an arm, resembled awls with thumb-sized diamonds embedded in their tips. There were also seventy-two locator devices, each wrapped in metal and gem-like, about the size of a fist.

With these implements in hand, Liu Zong began searching for precise locations atop the sea beast’s body. His plan was simple: he wanted the corpse, but could not handle it yet. His only option was to mark and fix the position of the sea beast and all its contents, then transfer them to the space provided by his academy.

Once he had the strength to process it, he would return to deal with these top-grade materials. To accomplish this, he had sold all the items and resources he’d accumulated over the years in exchange for thirty years’ usage rights to an attribute-aligned storage space at Third High School in Yang City. He also acquired this positioning system. According to the school, once the system was installed, it could move not just a single corpse but an entire mountain from a dungeon to the designated space.

[Spacetime Converter]
[Quality: Lv1 (Blue)]
[Use: Tears open spatial boundaries]
[Description: A special device that can breach dungeon space and drag everything within its range to a specified location. Each converter can be used only once.]