It's a pity that the summoned beast from the dungeon can't come in, otherwise, asking the scarecrow for help might reveal what it is.

"I'll ask someone once I'm outside; in any case, the quality definitely won't be bad."

Li Pu put the large irregular piece of metal into his storage space and continued forward.

Having made a find, his steps seemed lighter.

And after driving away the vampire, the entire dungeon seemed to become peaceful.

Li Pu quickened his pace and walked for 30 minutes without encountering any card beasts.

"Eh?"

Just as he was wondering about the situation, the enormous silhouette of something in the distance caught his eye.

Here in the cube card dungeon, ambushing isn't really a concern.

Plus, since there were no other paths to choose, Li Pu simply walked over.

When he reached about 10 meters away, the tattered figure seemed to notice him and turned around.

At this point, he finally got a clear view of its full appearance.

It was a tall, dark-colored creature, with two large spikes inexplicably driven into its temples and stitches all over its exposed skin.

It somewhat resembled the kind of thing seen in movies, like a Frankenstein-like monster.

But its posture was more twisted, as if it had been hit by a truck.

Its eyes, nose, and mouth were also all slanted to one side.

However, the most noticeable thing was the treasure chest it was sitting on.

It looked exactly like the one with the vampire.

[You are, adventurer, gah!]

This large creature could speak, albeit not very well.

It stuttered and had a strange throat sound.

Though it was talking to him, Li Pu noticed the creature's eyes weren't on him since they were askew and asymmetrical.

"Seems not too smart..."

Li Pu evaluated as he observed the creature.

[Adventurer, gah! Come play cards! Gah!]

The large creature seemed not to understand human speech, stomping its foot.

Buzz!

A blue light card table rose afterward.

"Another mini-boss, huh."

Li Pu loosened his muscles, apparently in for another challenging card match.

However, the ending was not quite what he expected.

Only 10 minutes later, the card game ended.

"It's not just 'seems,' it really isn't smart."

Li Pu himself hadn't anticipated the game would be so quick.

This large creature's cards were quite strong, including an S-rank card.

Moreover, its card deck style was notably aggressive, filled entirely with various berserk beast cards.

Yet there was no strategy to speak of, as it just kept frantically losing life points to use skills.

The problem was that Li Pu wasn't afraid at all; just the Dragon card soaked up all the firepower and damage.

In the end, without defeating the Dragon card, the opponent went berserk and self-destructed.

The treasure chest looked identical to the vampire's, and once opened, a pearl the size of a fist floated up automatically.

"It should be something good too."

Li Pu couldn't understand it either but pocketed it nonetheless.

After acquiring two treasures, he felt a bit strange.

He could roughly assess that the items were of good value, but had no idea what they actually were or their uses.

Probably only by leaving the dungeon could he find the answers.

The problem was that this cemetery path seemed endless, unclear when he might find an exit, or whether there were more treasure ahead.

To put it bluntly, he felt itchy to proceed.

"Let's continue; speeding up might solve things faster."

"I wonder how far Junior and the senior are in their progress."

Regaining his composure, Li Pu continued onward.

...

"Damn it, boo hoo!"

Feeling dizzy, Zhi Liao squatted on the ground, feeling a bit aggrieved.

The three large, blocking beasts were impossible for her to defeat.

The reason was simple; they weren't just ordinary minion card beasts from before.

They were guys with skills.

[Hateful Beast]

Balanced, Attack 20, 120/120

[Hateful Poison Gas - Passive]: Targets attacked by Hateful Beast gain 1 round of [Healing Reduction] effect

([Healing Reduction]: Recovery effect decreased by 30%, can stack) 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

If her original [Healing] restores 20 health points, then one stack of [Healing Reduction] decreases it to 14, two stacks to 9.8, three stacks to 6.86.

These three [Hateful Beast] started with one attack each, and her initial healing effect was nearly useless.

Healing methods were Zhi Liao's proudest, strongest, and most specialized card style.

She's relied on this hand to reach platinum rank.

Other card styles she had weren't absent, just weaker in strength.

The better ones she either took or exchanged or sold, only to be replaced by healing cards that aligned better with her style.

The leftover card decks were at most good enough for gold rank, utterly failing against the three [Hateful Beast] turning cards all revealed at the start of a game.

In cube card dungeons, failing a card game results in some depletion of spiritual power.

She tried several times with different card stacks, all in vain against the three large beasts, feeling extremely distressed.

"There weren't any [Healing Ban] monsters in the previous single-line dungeon."

"Just bragged to the juniors earlier, now stuck here for over an hour."

"Absolutely embarrassing, damn it!"

"Wonder what progress those two juniors have now..."

Zhi Liao looked pitiable as she hugged her knees.

Objectively speaking, her skill wasn't lacking, and her card style was popular with teammates in cube card dungeons.

Since good, complete healing card stacks aren't easy to come by.

Furthermore, cards like [First Aid] and [Healing] involve prediction and calculation, requiring great card-playing skills to use effectively.

Yet now, this dungeon limited practical card-table interaction with teammates, adding single-path task monsters with healing bans, sending her into a plight.

But Zhi Liao knew she could only rely on herself now; she still had some potentially effective card stacks to try one by one, hoping to find one that works.

If all else fails, she'll pick the strongest one and grind repeatedly, increasing the chance of getting through.

Because the three [Hateful Beast] cards also have tactical synergy, not merely constant [Attacks], timely [Defense] makes them puzzling.

Her current situation demands either a strong enough card stack or fortunate luck to overcome them.

"Gotta hurry, no more resting."

Feeling somewhat recovered, Zhi Liao stood up, forcing herself onward.

She dared not rest too long, fearing the juniors required her support.

"Senior?"

At that moment, Zhi Liao suddenly heard someone calling her.

And that voice came from beyond the three large beasts.

"Li Pu?! What are you doing here?!"

Recognizing the voice's owner, Zhi Liao felt quite surprised.

Why was he approaching from the direction she meant to go?

"Careful! Don't come over!"

Next, she recalled they were separated by card beasts.

The beasts have a mechanism where approaching them elevates tables and begins a card battle.

"What."

Alas, Zhi Liao's warning came too late, Li Pu had already taken a step forward.

Just stepping into the beasts' alert zone.

[A living being!]

[Chop it!]

[Smash into pulp!]

The three large beasts immediately turned around.

The card table rose, and they turned into three cards displayed again.

"What the heck? Looks really ugly."

Li Pu smirked.

As before, Zhi Liao still couldn't see what cards Li Pu played.

She only knew the battle ended in just 15 seconds.

The projections of three large beasts crashed onto the ground.

[Such powerful living being...]

[It's sliced...]

[We are the pulp...]

Zhi Liao: "...huh?"

...

...