Its massive body broke through the ice, like a mountain of flesh rising from a swamp.

Its main body resembled a bloated giant toad, with dark green skin covered in pus-filled bumps, constantly oozing foul-smelling mucus.

But on its back, eight thick, slimy tentacles grew, writhing wildly like giant pythons.

Most terrifying was its giant maw, split to its ears, with no teeth, only rings of keratin like a meat grinder.

Kraken's single eye, crimson and murky, locked onto the two tiny figures on the ice.

The next second, it opened its mouth.

"Gua—!"

A piercing roar transformed into a visible dark green sound wave, sweeping over them.

Immediately after, its eight tentacles plunged into the mud below, and when they withdrew again, they had already coiled up eight massive spheres of mixed venom and sludge.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The eight venomous mud balls, like eight whistling cannonballs, cut through the sky, blocking all of Yasuo and Gandalf's escape routes.

However, Yasuo's figure had already vanished from his original spot.

Lightning Rush!

He transformed into a Z-shaped bolt of electricity, effortlessly weaving through the dense barrage without a single speck touching him.

Gandalf's movements were completely different.

He didn't possess Yasuo's swift movements; instead, he simply shifted one step to the left, unhurriedly, the moment the barrage was upon him.

Just one step.

A venomous mud ball grazed his robe's hem and exploded where he had stood moments before, corroding a sizzling, deep pit.

He [N O V E L I G H T] then took half a step back.

Another venomous mud ball smashed onto the ice, almost touching the edge of his hood.

Each step was perfectly timed, as if calculated with the utmost precision, always finding the only path to survival just before an attack landed.

This was the terrifying aspect of Smart Core AI, turning combat into cold mathematics.

"It's our turn."

Zhou Huai's command was given.

Yasuo's figure suddenly soared upwards in the midst of dodging, his longsword flashing with lightning!

"Thunderous Strike!"

A giant bolt of Thunderous Strike, ten meters long, carrying an Aura of destruction, fiercely slashed towards Kraken's massive body!

At the same time, Gandalf stopped.

He raised his staff.

"Forbidden Spell - Meteor Shower!"

Three burning meteors appeared out of thin air.

Trailing long tails of fire, they precisely slammed into Kraken's head!

Boom! Rumble—!

Thunder and explosions intertwined, making the entire cave hum.

"Aoo—!"

Kraken let out an extremely painful shriek.

The Thunderous Strike left a charred wound on its body, deep enough to expose bone, and the Meteor Fire Rain blew its head into a bloody mess.

A series of astonishing damage numbers floated up from its head.

"Gua!"

The Lord of the Swamp let out a painful howl.

Its health instantly dropped by one-third. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

It suddenly took a deep breath, its abdomen distended, and then spewed a fan-shaped blast of highly toxic breath!

The dark green poisonous mist instantly enveloped an area of nearly a hundred meters ahead.

The ice surface was rapidly corroded, emitting a piercing sound, and white smoke rose in wisps.

At the same time, its body began to slowly sink, seemingly wanting to submerge back into the swamp.

This was Kraken's most troublesome aspect.

Countless adventurer teams had been slowly worn down to death by its rogue tactic of retreating when outmatched, healing, and then ambushing again once its health was full.

Unless the team had water or flying-type professionals, there was simply no way to deal with it.

But today, it met its nemesis.

"It's time."

Gandalf's calm voice rang out.

He raised his staff again.

"Forbidden Spell: Thousand-Mile Ice Seal!"

Buzz—!

The extreme cold wave swept through this underground space for the second time.

The toxins in the air, along with the water vapor, were instantly frozen into countless tiny, pale green ice crystals, clinking as they fell to the ground.

And Kraken's massive body was also frozen by the surging cold, its sinking motion abruptly halted.

Its lower body had completely merged with the ice layer below, unable to move.

"Now!"

Yasuo's figure appeared beside Kraken as if teleporting.

Thunder Blink Seal!

The wild one's longsword in his hand glowed with dazzling lightning, furiously unleashing damage on Kraken's bloated body!

-1150!

-1201!

-1188!

...

A series of damage numbers, like a waterfall, floated up from the BOSS's head.

Kraken let out a painful roar, its eight tentacles furiously lashing at the surrounding ice, attempting to attack Yasuo.

But Yasuo's figure constantly flickered over its massive body; each time a tentacle swung, he could use Thunder Blink Seal to transfer to another mark a step ahead, causing all of the BOSS's attacks to miss.

It was like a clumsy giant, stung all over by a nimble mosquito, yet unable to even catch the other side's shadow.

"Gua!!!"

When its health dropped to half, Kraken's single eye suddenly turned blood red!

The pus-filled bumps on its back began to violently writhe, then suddenly burst open!

Puff! Puff! Puff!

Countless dark green venom splattered in all directions like a torrential rain!

This was a wide-range, indiscriminate attack!

Yasuo's brows furrowed slightly, and he immediately activated Wild Surge, his speed increasing dramatically again, narrowly navigating through the venomous rain.

Gandalf, meanwhile, had already run out of the attack range.

Now his Forbidden Spell skills were all on cooldown.

He could only watch Yasuo perform.

When the venomous rain stopped, Kraken's Aura also weakened a bit.

Yasuo seized the opportunity and once again closed in!

Five stacks of Thunder Blink Seal instantly stacked and detonated!

Boom!

A thick bolt of lightning descended from the sky, striking Kraken's head with full force!

-3540!

The BOSS's body trembled violently, falling into a brief paralysis.

"It's over."

Yasuo's figure leaped high, gripping his sword with both hands, the tip pointing down, all his lightning power gathered into the blade!

"Thunderous Strike!"

Chii—!

The lightning longsword, shimmering with destructive Aura, pierced through Kraken's massive head from top to bottom like a divine punishment!

-5899!

A crimson critical hit number slowly floated up from the BOSS's head.

Its massive body convulsed violently a few times, the light in its single eye rapidly dimmed, and finally, it collapsed with a crash, turning into countless specks of light.

Killed Shadow Swamp Demon Cave Lord Kraken LV20, gained 15000 experience points!

Whoosh!

A large pile of loot burst out, covering the ice surface.

Zhou Huai merely glanced at a few rare blue-glowing pieces of equipment and lost interest.

Even with the same rare quality, the equipment forged by Ouyezi was still far superior in attributes to these common items.

It was the pile of Materials, however, that caught his attention, with a few items emitting a special glow.

Kraken's Venom Sac, Heart of the Swamp...

"Good luck."

Zhou Huai's heart stirred.

These were precisely the rare Materials needed to craft the star moon set.

Killing this BOSS was not in vain.

The two quickly gathered the loot and continued deeper into the cave.

The journey that followed was a breeze.

Any beast that dared to show its face faced only one outcome before Gandalf's world-shattering Forbidden Spell:

Death or crippling injury.

Yasuo didn't even need to do much; most of the time, he followed behind, responsible for picking up Materials.

Gandalf's Rank also soared under this almost cheating method of grinding monsters.

LV7!

LV8!

By the time he reached Rank eight, his Mental Energy had easily surpassed the one-thousand-point mark!

The fireballs of the Forbidden Spell - Meteor Shower increased from three to five!

Wider range, greater power!

Often, one Forbidden Spell would leave no survivors in the area ahead.

Ordinary teams, even on normal difficulty, would take at least a full day to go from the dungeon entrance to the final BOSS area.

But they took less than an hour.

The only drawback was that Gandalf's Mana was consumed extremely quickly; he almost had to chug a bottle of Advanced magic recovery potion, confiscated from Young Master Mo, as soon as it ran low.

It consumed too much Mana.

When they reached the end of the cave, their vision suddenly opened up.

There was no longer a swamp here, but an extremely spacious circular hall.

At the end of the hall, stood an ancient stone gate, over ten meters high, carved with intricate and eerie patterns.

No one knew what was behind this gate.

It was said that many top teams had tried, using all sorts of methods, but couldn't budge it an inch.

Just as Yasuo's gaze fell on the stone gate.

"Hiss hiss—"

A grating, teeth-setting friction sound came from above.

A massive shadow silently descended from the dark dome.

It was a giant spider, its size comparable to a heavy truck.

Eight jointed limbs covered in black bristles, like eight sharp spears.

Its abdomen was a bloated, constantly writhing, pale white fleshy ball, covered with dense, crimson spots like human eyes.

Shadow Swamp Weaver Arachne LV22 (Calamity-Rank BOSS)

Health: 150000 / 150000

Skills: Venomous Spider Silk, Spider Swarm Summon, Embrace of Death...

Before the two could react, Arachne launched its attack first.

The fleshy ball on its abdomen suddenly contracted, and a huge spider web, covering the entire hall, descended!

At the same time, it opened its hideous mouth and spewed countless small white balls.

Those small balls exploded in mid-air, turning into hundreds of slightly smaller venomous spiders, hissing as they surged towards the two.

Gandalf's staff gently lifted.

"Forbidden Spell - Meteor Shower."

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Five giant fireballs, trailing long tails of fire, descended from the sky!

Fire was the bane of all spider-like creatures.

The huge spider web was burned to ashes the moment it touched the fireballs.

And those fearless small spiders didn't even have time to scream before they were charred in the towering sea of fire.

This final BOSS was even easier to deal with than Kraken, whom they encountered halfway.

With the interference of the small spiders cleared, Yasuo had no more reservations.

"Wild Surge!"

He let out a low shout, his muscles instantly bulging, and a wild Aura erupted.

The longsword danced in his hands, forming a dazzling blur of afterimages, furiously unleashing damage on Arachne's massive body!

Gandalf's second Forbidden Spell had also finished chanting.

Thousand-Mile Ice Seal!

Extreme cold frost instantly covered the BOSS's entire body, making its movements incredibly sluggish.

With one side gaining and the other losing, this arrogant Calamity-Rank BOSS, with 150,000 health, seemed so fragile before the two of them.

It took no more than five minutes.

Accompanied by an unwilling hiss, Arachne's massive body crashed to the ground, dropping a pile of loot.

Unfortunately, there was still no blueprint for the star moon set.

Zhou Huai wasn't discouraged; after all, they were destined to grind this dungeon until they vomited.

Before exiting the dungeon, he controlled Yasuo to approach the giant stone gate and tried to push it.

The stone gate remained motionless, as if it were one with the entire mountain.

"It seems some special trigger condition is needed."

Zhou Huai had a plan in mind, no longer lingered, and quickly led Gandalf out of the dungeon.

...

Outside the Shadow Swamp Demon Cave.

When the two figures reappeared before the teleportation stone, the atmosphere around them was clearly off.

At this moment, a new group of adventurers had arrived at the dungeon entrance.

They were gathered in a circle, pointing at the corpses of the Sword of Azure Sky members on the ground, their faces filled with shock and horror.

"My god! The Sword of Azure Sky members actually all died here?"

"Who did it? So ruthless?"

"Now there's a good show to watch; the Sword of Azure Sky is definitely going to go crazy!"

A sharp-eyed adventurer saw Yasuo and Gandalf, who had just emerged from the dungeon, and quickly ran over.

"Brother! Do you know what just happened here?"

He pointed at the corpses on the ground, his face full of gossip.

"Who killed these people?"

Zhou Huai controlled Yasuo, spread his hands, and a playful arc appeared at the corner of his masked mouth.

He shook his head innocently.

"I don't know."

"We just arrived too."

With that, he ignored the bewildered adventurer.

Ding! Dungeon 'Shadow Swamp Demon Cave' has been reset!

The cold System prompt sounded.

Yasuo and Gandalf turned around, and under the astonished gazes of the crowd, they once again stepped into the bloody portal.