Inside the dungeon, the cultivators opened the door before them. It wasn’t the first one they had run into. Some of the rooms had them, others didn’t.

Without giving it a second thought the man in the lead swung it open, ignoring the slight bit of pressure that almost pushed it out into his hand. Then he ducked down as his companions began their bombardment. Qi infused energy skills zipped past above his head, roaring into the interior of the room. It was a practiced procedure that they had done several times already.

The explosive skills tore through the air and hit the ground. They cracked the various surfaces of the dungeon and ignited the gas that Nate had pumped into several of the rooms. An enormous, compressed fireball was funneled over the unsuspecting cultivators roasting them and sending them flying backward with the force of a jet engine.

Nate watched all of this happen from his screens, a brow slightly raised in amazement. He had expected it to be impressive, but not quite to the extent of what he had just seen.

Unfortunately, the damage to the dungeon itself was also fairly extensive.

Not that they wouldn’t have gotten destroyed anyway, but this was a step or two beyond what the cultivators would have done.

As for the cultivators themselves, well, they resembled burned and barbequed husks more than anything else. Amazingly, there were still several that were alive among them, however, the damage the trap had done couldn’t be overstated. It had traveled back the way they had come and had caught many of the cultivators unaware. The damage to those farther back was lighter when it came to burns. The number of broken bones from the backblast and pressure, however, only grew.

The crater that was left of the rooms he had used was definitely worse than what the cultivators would have done. At the same time, he couldn’t help but feel like the trade-off had been worth it this time. They would be expensive to rebuild, but it was the first time the dungeon had been able to properly strike back at them this time around.

He doubted the same trick would work twice… at least not in the exact same manner.

There were plenty more cultivators still, and that single display wouldn’t stop them.

However, if they were going to continue destroying the dungeon, then he had another idea that might work.

The first time around, he had packed several rooms and corridors full of an explosive but fairly odorless gas. What he was going to do now was simply remove the extra step. The walls, ceiling, and floors of the dungeon were going to have cavities carved into them and the gas deposited inside.

Then either the cultivators would set it off or one of the traps would. He was doing a lot of damage to the dungeon with each of these, but he couldn’t allow these cultivators to continue exploring the dungeon.

Their methods were too destructive.

It would be one thing if they simply wanted to explore the dungeon. If that had been the case, he would have simply left the traps alone, even if they had been ineffective. What they were doing posed a risk to the dungeon itself. He could only imagine what they would do when they reached the room with the Dungeon Core.

He made the last of the adjustments and then donned his avatar.

Aura and he stopped beside the portal that would take them to the second floor. Neither said anything, but they were both thinking the same thing.

They could go down to the second floor and continue the practice they had been getting. It was a good and valuable experience, but even with Nate’s lower realm, he wasn’t finding it too difficult anymore, usually. As long as they weren’t swarmed or something else unexpected happened, he could fight them off on his own. However, everyone knew that things never went according to plan when it came to fights.

Or they could stay on this floor and attack the cultivators.

Nate had the gun, and she had her various energy skills, which could be used at a distance. Stronger beast cores equaled stronger attacks when it came to the odd gun he had been using. He had made sure to collect a decent variety of different realm cores after the weekend expedition.

That didn’t mean the current cores he had were strong enough to hurt the cultivators that were invading the dungeon. Which is why they were both hesitating. They had a lot to gain from attacking the cultivators, however, they also had much to lose.

Nate checked the equipment he was wearing and then looked at what he had in storage that he could access. There were two sections in the storage listing. One was greyed out while he was in his avatar form and the other was usable. The grey one was everything he had accessed or stored while awake. While the other was all the items that had never left the storage since being put inside during his various avatar times.

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The sole exception to this was the beast cores, which he put into storage while awake and could access later in his avatar form.

He was checking the storage because he needed something to cover his face. The avatar was a direct recreation of his normal body and looked exactly like him, well, outside of the few improvements he had originally made to it. By this time, they had mostly transferred over to his real body, so there was no longer any real difference between the two.

Either way, he didn’t want anyone possibly recognizing him if they got away.

The odds of that ever happening were low. A few rather unlikely items would need to happen for them to get the chance to meet the real him. However, that didn’t mean they couldn’t spread posters of what he looked like.

It was simpler and easier to just make sure that if they saw him, they couldn’t identify him.

At first, he couldn’t find anything in his storage that he could use. He didn’t have a full-face helmet, nor did he have a neckerchief or facemask. That was when his eyes caught on the shredded remains of his old fish leather shirt. He hadn’t thought of the shirt since it was destroyed during his first foray into the second level of this dungeon.

It would be a callback to his youth, but he could certainly wrap the shirt around his face. How many kids had done something similar? Acting like they were superheroes or masked vigilantes. He certainly had when he was younger.

Nate wrapped it around his head, using the sleeves to make up for the gashes and huge tears. It took some creative tying, but a few minutes later, his face was covered.

“What do you think?”

Aura took a few seconds to respond. “It would be best if we can keep you mostly hidden. Your eyes and hair are still visible. From what I have seen the last few days, your blue eyes and your curly rust-colored hair are somewhat outside the norm.”

He nodded in acknowledgment of her words, a hand going up to touch his hair. “I’m definitely not unique, but yeah, they can be used to help identify me. So, sticking to the corners like I did back in the second dungeon, it is.”

With all of that finished, they headed to the next room in the cultivator’s path and waited for them. It was moments like this that made Nate remember that he had never created the paths specifically for him and Aura. Though, it was probably a good thing in this case, as they would have been found by the cultivators.

Nate had the camera screens pulled up and was monitoring the invaders as they finished clearing out the rubble, obstructing them. Now that the last of the debris was out of their way, they could continue exploring the dungeon.

The first of the rooms, with the hollowed-out floors, walls, and ceilings, would be in their way next.

He was curious if they would change their methods at all after how explosive the last room had been. That was part of why he had switched up how he was doing the explosions. It would work once. After that though, they would be on guard against it.

Sure enough, as he watched the group in the lead, the cultivator who opened the door was extra careful with how it opened. After noticing that there was no extra pressure forcing it open, the woman relaxed slightly and swung it open.

Without delay, the bombardment started.

Nate scoffed and rolled his eyes. They had shown some caution, but that was it. Clearly, they had yet to learn their lesson, but that was fine with him.

He and Aura were hidden behind the door on the opposite end of the room. As soon as the place blew, they would be ready to swing it open and begin their attacks. He wasn’t worried about the door being damaged, but even if it was blown off its hinges, they were standing off to the side where they would be safe.

Just in case though, since this was his first time being near an explosion, Nate kept his mouth open. It was an action that was supposed to be effective when someone was near concussion grenades.

Aura followed his example as she flattened herself to the ground and covered her ears with her paws.

A few moments later, the walls shook, and a jet flame shot past them, blowing the door clear off its hinges and sending it rocketing into the wall at the end of the corridor. He had definitely underestimated how much gas he had been able to compress inside the cavities.

The insides of his body felt as though they had been compressed and then shifted forcibly to the side and then yanked back into position. Nate coughed out a mouthful of blood as he collapsed to his knees, immediately regretting the desire to be so close to the room.

Aura rolled onto her side and coughed as well, just without the blood. She was a higher realm than him in her cultivation, and her body was stronger than his as a result. The pressure from the explosion had still hurt her, but not nearly as bad as it had Nate.

“That was not pleasant,” Aura said, staying on her side for the moment.

Nate rubbed his tender chest and stood. “That is putting it lightly, I think. Next time, let’s not stand so close.”

He stumbled over to the doorway and peeked into the destroyed room. There was something different about seeing the destruction in person than from the camera screens.

The crater that had been left inside was even bigger than the first time around. At least this time, it was more localized to a single room instead of the multiple areas that had been taken out the time before.

The blast had been oriented toward the open door at the time. Blackened charred silhouettes around the edges were all that remained of where the closest cultivators had been. The source of those particular char spots had been violently hurled down the corridor until they hit the remains of the wall for the last destroyed room.

The sudden stop to their impromptu flight had left many of them broken and barely able to move. At least one was dead, judging from the angle of the neck.

Nate was fairly certain necks weren’t supposed to fold that way. He never claimed to be an expert though, so it was possible they were still alive and merely paralyzed.

The main issue at the moment was getting across the ruined, cavernous room, and into a position where they could attack the cultivators. From their current position, they couldn’t do anything.

With dual sighs of annoyance, they climbed down into the room and began gingerly making their way across. There were several times when Nate had to help Aura across particularly large pieces of rubble.

After climbing back up to the doorway, they finally laid eyes on the cultivators in person. Taking up their hidden positions, they prepared to attack the barely aware group of concussed cultivators.