You could even imagine it.
Lu Ran, single-handedly, braving the mechanism corridor.
Entering the Dwarf Lair completely unscathed, then summoning a legion of the undead inside, leaving a path of utter devastation in his wake!
The Dwarf King suddenly understood why the Natural Elf Queen, Tina, was so confident in Lu Ran.
Even the level 100 Dark Elf Queen, Silulu, willingly followed by Lu Ran’s side.
With such terrifying ability.
He was probably the number one human!
But Lu Ran wasn’t as composed as he appeared on the surface.
Those initial wall slams, although Lu Ran didn’t lose any health, the feeling was absolutely awful.
It almost squeezed the life right out of him!
After finally sprinting past that part, the corridor began to slope downwards, heading deep underground.
Lu Ran ran even faster.
The second wave of mechanisms was more conventional, matching Lu Ran’s expectations for hidden passages.
A thousand arrows shot at once!
Lu Ran kept running forward, tanking the mechanisms head-on.
Arrows stuck out of him all over.
And the pain was just as intense, not lessened in the slightest.
Lu Ran ran forward, yelling and hollering the whole way.
After that.
Flame jets, whirling blade traps, freezing traps—they came at him in a relentless rotation!
“Geez, did the dwarves make these mechanisms this sophisticated? And there are so many types!” Lu Ran couldn’t help but mutter.
The whole process was a real mix of fire and ice.
Eventually, Lu Ran even became numb to it.
He just kept his head down and ran.
He didn’t know how long had passed when he suddenly couldn’t stop in time and slammed into a wall.
Thud!
Lu Ran came to his senses and turned his head to look back. He could no longer see the light from the entrance in the corridor behind him.
He didn’t know the exact length, but Lu Ran now understood what the Dwarf King had said earlier. This Dwarf Lair, after all these years of excavation by the Hill Dwarves, was incredibly deep!
But since dwarves weren’t naturally good at digging, reaching this depth had taken countless years.
Digging in from other directions on the side would be too difficult and not worth the effort!
Of course.
This was most likely just a requirement or rule of the quest storyline.
“That should be the last of the mechanisms, right?” Lu Ran turned his head and looked around.
To his left was a stone wall, and to his right was a passage entrance.
He had probably made it through the mechanism corridor.
Lu Ran walked towards the entrance on the right and went in about ten meters. When he didn’t trigger any more mechanisms, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Then.
Ding!
[Quest: The Eternal Flame’s Continuation (3) Complete!]
[Reward Received: 80,000,000 Experience!]
[New quest triggered. Please check promptly!]
It was done!
Lu Ran’s eyes lit up. He thought to himself, that wasn’t so hard.
Of course, as always, it wasn’t hard for Lu Ran, but for a normal professional, it would be next to impossible!
[Level increased to 41!]
[Level increased to 42!]
At the same time.
Lu Ran had also gained two levels.
He was getting closer and closer to level sixty.
Although he was still eighteen levels away, Lu Ran was already starting to look forward to it.
From his current level of 42 to 60, Lu Ran could unlock four new skills and four new talent slots!
Each talent’s ability was incredibly overpowered; it was hard to imagine what Lu Ran would be like or how terrifying he would become by level sixty!
The skills themselves weren’t anything special to talk about, but standard skills combined with Lu Ran’s talents often had great results.
What Lu Ran was most looking forward to.
Was unlocking the ability to summon an Abyssal Bone Dragon at level fifty!
And the Necromancer awakening skill at level sixty!
Phew…
Lu Ran exhaled and murmured, “Almost there. I wonder if I’ll have a chance to hit level sixty before the nation war.”
After all, the nation war was also getting closer.
Next.
Lu Ran opened his quest log to check the next quest.
[Quest: The Eternal Flame’s Continuation (4)]
[Objective: Find the Eternal Flame and return it to the Dwarf King]
[Reward: One opportunity to forge at the Dwarven Forge!]
Just as he thought!
Lu Ran’s eyes lit up. Silulu’s judgment had been correct.
The final quest in this chain was to retrieve the Eternal Flame, and the reward was one forging opportunity!
Lu Ran gripped the Sea-Calming Trident in his hand.
He licked his lips.
He said, “I wonder how ridiculously powerful the Sea-Calming Trident will be after it’s forged.”
After all.
It would be forged at the dwarves’ Dwarven Forge, reaching the Saint-grade level!
It was just a bit of a shame.
This was the final quest.
Lu Ran was a bit disappointed because every stage of the small quests had given such generous rewards.
He had been hoping for a few more waves of experience.
But as it turned out, this was the last step.
The difficulty had certainly been considerable.
“There shouldn’t be any more challenges in this Dwarf Lair, right?” Lu Ran muttered to himself.
The dwarves had already left this place.
There were no monsters here either.
It was just a matter of finding the Eternal Flame.
Thinking this, Lu Ran continued walking forward.
But he quickly ran into a problem.
This Dwarf Lair had no signs or markers!
From the moment he entered the Dwarf Lair, the tunnels around him started forking, and the forks multiplied. They went in all directions—downwards, upwards—like a spiderweb, sprawling in every direction!
Lu Ran had no signs to guide him.
Although there were no monsters, no mechanisms, nothing at all.
The whole place was like a maze, and Lu Ran’s head was spinning from all the twists and turns!
He even wished some boss would show up for him to fight, and then give him the Eternal Flame. That would actually be easier!
“Right, I can ask the Dwarf King!” Lu Ran suddenly slapped his forehead.
Even though he couldn’t contact the Dwarf King directly.
He could contact the three guild leaders!
So.
He immediately sent a message to Liu Xinxin: “Sister Xinxin, can you ask for me? How do I navigate this Dwarf Lair? Where is the Eternal Flame?”
Liu Xinxin turned to the Dwarf King and asked Lu Ran’s question.
But the Dwarf King shook his head, looking a bit embarrassed.
He said, “After the data conversion, the terrain changed drastically. The Dwarf Lair was expanded, and the layout is different from before. The Eternal Flame is deep within the lair, but as for the route now… I don’t know it either. To find it… you’ll have to rely on luck and time.”
Uh…
Liu Xinxin let out a helpless, wry laugh.
She sent a reply to Lu Ran: “The Dwarf King said, it depends on luck.”
Pfft~
Lu Ran nearly spat out a mouthful of blood.
Depends on luck!
Geez, that means it’s purely down to chance!
Ever since the mechanism corridor, Lu Ran had been thinking how frustrating it was that necromancers had no movement or speed-boosting skills!
If he had a speed boost or a movement skill, combined with his no-cooldown mechanic, he wouldn’t have had to suffer so much in the mechanism corridor.
Finding the Eternal Flame in this Dwarf Lair would also be much faster.
But now, he just had to charge ahead blindly!
Half an hour later.
Lu Ran wasn’t sure if his luck was good or bad.
Panting, he finally spotted a different-looking door at a corner.
The door was wide open, revealing a huge space beyond!
It was as if a massive hall had been hollowed out underground.
Lu Ran’s eyes lit up, and he quickly walked inside.
The hall was empty.
Many dwarf warrior statues stood in front of the walls on the left and right.
Two rows of them lined the path forward, looking quite majestic.
But Lu Ran didn’t pay attention to the statues. His gaze went straight to a torch at the far end of the hall. In it burned a small, dark red flame.
This was the only flame he had seen in the lair so far.
“Could that be the Eternal Flame? Looks like you could blow it out with a single puff.”
Lu Ran muttered to himself as he walked step by step towards the torch.
Meanwhile, in the instance dungeon hall of a certain tier-three main city.
Nanami had been standing there for quite some time.
So far, the leaderboards hadn’t changed at all.
She wasn’t in a hurry.
In response to Yamata no Orochi’s urging, she said calmly, “No need to rush. He won’t stay unknown forever. As soon as something changes, I’ll find him and kill him.”
