Dungeon guides are something that vary greatly from person to person.
No guide—no matter how detailed—can ever satisfy everyone. After all, people themselves are different.
Faced with the same scenario, some guides advocate charging straight in and brute-forcing through the monsters, even offering advice on how to do so as efficiently as possible. But for those whose strength is lacking, such guides are completely unusable—they simply don't have the power to bulldoze their way through.
So what then? Give up?
Absolutely not.
Instead, they'll work even harder to find alternative ways to clear it.
Because of this, for the same dungeon, the same area, or even the same monster, there can be dozens—or even more—different versions of guides. Adventurers choose according to their own needs, or they can even create guides of their own.
Among all of these, guides produced by the Leon Group tend to have the highest "gold value." Or rather, if you want to call yourself a Raid Group, being able to produce high-quality guides is a basic requirement.
Take Leon's group as an example. Whenever they publish a guide, they provide at least three different approaches for the same situation or monster: one aimed at strong players, one based on their own exploration experience, and another tailored specifically for weaker players.
Lulowo's Group wanted to imitate this format as well, but unfortunately, their level of professionalism still needed improvement. Sometimes, they even got confused while writing their own guide.
Among them, Belto had the highest level of education—but even he had only learned basic literacy and simple arithmetic from a tutor during his childhood. Most of the guide summaries were handled by him alone.
As for the others… it could only be said that they possessed a kind of beauty untouched by knowledge. Their eyes were very clear.
"AAOOOHH!"
The priest trapped among the tombstones let out a furious roar. Everyone "worked him over"—or rather, they enthusiastically rained all kinds of weapons down on him.
It was suffocating. Far too suffocating.
Father Gascoigne's negative emotions skyrocketed, and just as the Group was about to secure victory, he transformed.
"GRAAAH!"
A gigantic werewolf burst out of the mire. With a single sweeping motion, he forced everyone back. His howl was filled with endless madness, chilling all who heard it.
This howl was far more authentic than Darrick's.
Belto's face turned pale in shock.
The priest had a second phase?!
Wait—why had none of the previous guides mentioned this? It couldn't possibly be that weaker players couldn't even beat phase one, while stronger players never got to see phase two, right? That would be way too absurd!
He didn't have time to think further. The werewolf's massive, tangible hand was already swinging toward him head-on, and behind him stood a tombstone—there was nowhere left to dodge.
Clatter—!
Several chains suddenly wrapped tightly around the priest's arm. He struggled violently, but the chains were anchored to the tombstones.
Another metallic clatter rang out as chains bound his other arm as well. Now, escape was impossible.
"Get him—now!" Lulowo shouted, her voice weak. Father Gascoigne's strength after fully beastifying was terrifying, and in her already incomplete state, she was barely managing to restrain him.
Naturally, Mira and the others didn't waste Lulowo's effort. They launched a fearless series of coordinated attacks against the priest.
"ROAR!"
With his body bound by chains, how could the priest break free? With his guard completely open, was he really about to perish like this?
Absolutely not!
With a thunderous roar, the muscles in his arms bulged explosively. To everyone's disbelief, he actually ripped the tombstones out of the ground!
The chains bound his arms—and the tombstones. Now that the tombstones had been uprooted, it was as if he'd been handed a bundle of meteor hammers for free.
BAM!
Mira, unable to dodge in time, was smashed in the head by a flung tombstone. Belto was struck in the back while trying to shield Lulowo and was sent flying.
Ais and Aim attempted to retreat into the distance, but the chains had effectively extended the priest's attack range, so—
Crackle, crackle.
The bonfire burned merrily once again, and the members of the Group were seated in front of it.
Well-paced detail.
But this time, they weren't cosplaying as "Despair Guy." Instead, they looked… excited.
They'd been killed and were still excited—were they masochists?
"Belto, did you record that intel just now?" Lulowo asked.
"I'm already writing it down." Belto somehow produced a notebook and began scribbling rapidly. He even put on a pair of glasses, instantly looking scholarly and refined.
"The Leon Group never provided information like this, right?" Lulowo asked, still sounding uneasy.
Belto shook his head.
"And no other adventurers either?"
Belto shook his head again.
"Yes!"
Mira poked Ais beside her. "It's been a long time since I've seen the captain this happy."
"Yeah, yeah," Ais agreed. "The last time she was this happy was when we wiped out those monsters whose bodies grew garlic."
Belto listened to their chatter and couldn't help but smile. In his notebook, he had written:
[Warrior Jar Event · Warehouse Guide]
[The tombstones inside the warehouse are indestructible. They can be used to trap monsters, greatly reducing combat difficulty.]
[Important: You must be thoroughly familiar with the placement of the tombstones to use this method. Otherwise, the monster may break free, and the tombstones will become your own prison.]
[Additionally, it is best if the party has someone capable of using Mire spells or other sustained control-type magic. Magic scrolls can be used as substitutes, but the duration must be long enough.]
This guide had a very clear target audience—it was meant for those lacking in strength.
With this, the weak could defeat the strong.
Although they still didn't know how to deal with the priest's second phase, discovering a stable way to clear phase one was already a huge step forward.
Lulowo stood behind Belto, carefully reviewing what he had written. Suddenly, she thought of something.
"This… this is the real shortcut."
She muttered to herself, a thoughtful look on her face.
"Oh? A class-skipping player has finally appeared."
In the Dungeon Lord's room, Wade stroked his chin and smiled with interest.
He had deliberately placed those tombstones there. Back then, he'd wondered whether anyone would discover that they could be used to lock down Father Gascoigne.
For a long time, no one did.
Whether it was Leon's group, who arrived here first, or other adventurers, they were either killed outright or fought through the encounter head-on.
Were these people all just too straightforward?
Now that this Group had finally unearthed this "skip-class" playstyle, Wade felt a sense of satisfaction—like a designer whose carefully laid ideas had finally been discovered by the public.
"But even if you can skip class, I'm not going to let monsters be free handouts."
Tonight, he'd adjust the durability of the tombstones so that each one could only withstand five or six of the priest's attacks—that would be more reasonable.
He'd also slightly tweak their positions. Only two spots would truly work with Mire spells to trap the priest; the rest would be decoys.
Those two real "skip points" would be placed near where the Lulowo Group had discovered theirs—giving them a bit of face. Otherwise, if adventurers enthusiastically rushed in only to find the guide was fake…
The Lulowo Group would be completely finished.
Aside from tweaking the warehouse, the Warrior Jar event also needed adjustments.
The normal flow after rescuing the Warrior Jar didn't need to change. But the flow after killing the Warrior Jar did.
Previously, killing the Warrior Jar caused players to receive dung blocks upon entering the jar settlement and be attacked by jar-related monsters. On second thought, that setup was too forced and subjective—not very good design.
It should be turned into branching outcomes, with the choice left to the adventurers.
So instead, after killing Warrior Jar Karl, the jar settlement would become fully hostile. Small jars would disappear, replaced by two Warrior Jars and one Living Jar Contents.
Defeating them would drop Raw Meat Dumplings, Beast Pellets, and other scattered rewards. In subsequent exploration, players would be invaded by Jar Man. Defeating Jar Man would grant a Jar Helmet and a crafting manual for a jar-type item.
Items crafted using manuals produced by the Sein Dungeon possessed special properties that ordinary items in this world did not—
Such as the accumulation of various abnormal status effects.
"That should do it."
He stretched his stiff arms, then continued spying on the New Strategy Group.
To be honest, Wade had some expectations for this group.
There were many adventurers exploring the Dungeon, but those truly at the cutting edge of strategy were—aside from Leon's Strategy Group and the various second- and third-tier teams—the exploration squads organized by the Church of Holy Light, composed entirely of priests and holy knights.
Additionally, some capable teams could keep pace closely with Leon Group's progress, such as the Stella team.
If the Raid Group were the first to eat the crab, then the Stella team and the others were responsible for spreading the crab to the masses and letting everyone research new ways to eat it.
A clear division of labor.
Wade paid different levels of attention to different people, occasionally fine-tuning the dungeon in response to certain adventurers' situations.
As a result, his days were extremely fulfilling—so fulfilling that he worked 24/7, year-round. A normal person would have gone to see the King of Hell long ago.
"By calculation, this Group will release the skip-class guide tonight. After fermenting for a day tomorrow, the information should really start shining the day after, drawing people in to try it."
Based on past patterns, after three or four days of hype brought by a new guide, dungeon traffic would stabilize.
But this guide was incomplete, so the hype period would likely be shorter than usual.
"In that case, the timing is perfect," Wade muttered as he watched the celebrating Group through the crystal ball. "The dungeon won't cut off right when adventurers' enthusiasm is at its peak."
In his hand was a purple-black letter, its ominous color representing the Hive Nest Dungeon.
The content of the letter was simple:
[Bastard. Hurry up. Fight me! I'll kill you!]
"It even learned how to use punctuation. That must have been hard for it."
Wade tossed the letter aside disdainfully. He had already drafted many battle plans and would choose one based on the situation—preferably the one with the lowest cost.
There were many ways to wipe out large numbers of creatures. For example, throwing a Marker from Dead Space into the Nest Dungeon and then simply waiting for the flowers to bloom.
Of course, that was only hypothetical. As of now, Wade hadn't unlocked the authority to create Markers—and even if he had, he probably wouldn't use them. No matter how one looked at it, that thing was far too outrageous.
Combat methods were no longer his concern. What he truly looked forward to now was the authority of the Nest Dungeon.
I really hope it comes with something interesting. I might even be willing to give up its dungeon.
Recently, Wade had run into difficulties in dungeon design—the construction of the dungeon had hit a bottleneck.
Should it be set as an independent dungeon space, connected via teleport chests and the like? Or should it use some other method?
In his concept, the Painting World was like a dungeon within a dungeon—small in scale, light in content, yet capable of telling a complete story.
Wasn't that basically DLC?
The difficulties lay in map construction, monster selection, and… possibly the characters to be added.
If adventurers, during their exploration, were to receive help from a good-brother figure named Solaire, the Warrior of Sunlight—growing increasingly attached to him—only to suddenly discover he'd been parasitized by a Sunlight Maggot…
The mental shock that would erupt would surely be delicious.
But when it came to actually implementing these ideas, all sorts of problems cropped up—mostly small, but numerous details.
If the authority of the Nest Dungeon could solve these issues, that would be perfect.
Thinking this, Wade looked back at the crystal ball.
Inside it, Lulowo and her group decisively chose to leave the dungeon.