17: Chapter 17: Dungeon Horror

The Shadow King, Morlock, stood at least five meters tall, his entire body enveloped in thick black mist, and his two blood-red eyes, like two lanterns, stared fixedly at the two people at the entrance.

He brandished a massive black axe larger than a door panel in his hand, and with a casual thud against the ground, the entire room trembled three times.

Chen Ergou's first reaction was—run.

But his legs wouldn't listen to him.

Shen Ruoxi's first reaction was—fight.

She drew her sword and charged forward, her figure moving like lightning, unleashing a "Dawn Slash" straight at the BOSS's face.

"Clang—"

The sword energy struck the black mist, emitting a crisp sound like metal colliding. The BOSS's health bar dropped by less than one percent.

The Shadow King looked down at this ignorant little worm, let out a disdainful snort, and swung his massive axe horizontally.

Shen Ruoxi hurriedly retreated, but she was still grazed by the axe wind, and her health bar dropped by a third instantly.

"This BOSS's attack power is too high!" she gritted her teeth and said. "I can't tank it alone!"

Chen Ergou crouched at the entrance, clutching his head and shouting, "Then what do I do? Go up and scratch it?"

Shen Ruoxi, while dodging the BOSS's attacks, shouted at him, "Do you have anything useful in your backpack?"

Chen Ergou slapped his forehead and hurriedly opened his backpack to search.

The products from the myriad worlds stall system were all in there!

His gaze swept over the items, and suddenly stopped on two things—the substitute scarecrow and the shrinking cookie.

"Got it!" Chen Ergou shouted. "Shen Ruoxi, hold on for a moment!"

He pulled out the substitute scarecrow and threw it onto the ground.

The moment the scarecrow landed, it immediately expanded to the size of a real person, wearing ragged clothes with a crooked straw hat on its head.

System prompt: [substitute scarecrow activated! It will continuously attract the aggro of surrounding enemies for 30 seconds!]

The Shadow King's attention was indeed drawn to the scarecrow. He turned around and swung his massive axe at the scarecrow.

"Crack—" The scarecrow was split in two.

But the next second, it pieced itself back together, patted the straw debris off its body, and waved at the Shadow King.

"Big Brother, stop hitting, stop hitting!" The scarecrow actually spoke—this was the system's random AI behavior; even Chen Ergou didn't know what it would say.

"Can we discuss something?" The scarecrow circled the BOSS, dodging the axe while chattering away, "If you let us pass, how about I introduce you to a partner?"

The Shadow King paused in surprise.

Not to mention the BOSS, even Shen Ruoxi was stunned.

Chen Ergou was even more dumbfounded—is this scarecrow here for comedy?

Seeing that the BOSS didn't react, the scarecrow became even more enthusiastic: "Look at you, how long have you been stuck in this dark, sunless place? Hundreds of years? Thousands of years? Aren't you lonely?"

The hand holding the massive axe actually paused for a moment.

The scarecrow struck while the iron was hot: "Let me tell you, I know an NPC in the mine east of the Novice Village. She's a girl who's a stone spirit, and she looks… uh… sharp-featured! You're a perfect match!"

Chen Ergou almost spat out blood.

Sharp-featured? That's a stone! You're introducing a stone spirit to a Shadow King as a partner?!

Shen Ruoxi's mouth twitched, but her hands didn't stop. Taking advantage of the BOSS's daze, she released three skills in succession, carving a deep wound on the BOSS's back.

The Shadow King felt the pain and let out a furious roar, slapping the scarecrow away.

The scarecrow did a 360-degree flip in the air, crashed into the corner, and was still shouting: "Big Brother, don't be hasty! I have other resources! There's a female spirit in the next dungeon, although she's a bit ugly, she has a good personality…"

"Shut up!" Chen Ergou yelled at the scarecrow.

The scarecrow's aggro time still had 15 seconds left; it struggled to stand up and continued to pester the BOSS: "Big Brother, let me finish! You can't rush matters of the heart. Tell me first, what type do you like? Gentle? Domineering? Or…"

The Shadow King was driven almost insane by this scarecrow. He gave up attacking Shen Ruoxi and chased the scarecrow all over the room.

But the scarecrow's AI was set to "random behavior"; it would run for a while, stop for a while, and sometimes deliberately burrow under the BOSS's feet, making the Shadow King look like a big dog chasing a ball.

"Now!" Shen Ruoxi shouted.

She pulled a shrinking cookie from her backpack and swallowed it in one bite.

System prompt: [shrinking cookie effect activated! You will shrink to the size of a mouse for 5 minutes! Note: Cats and chicken-type creatures will actively pursue you!]

Shen Ruoxi's body rapidly shrank until she was only the size of a mouse.

Chen Ergou looked at the tiny white speck on the ground that was almost invisible, his mouth wide open: "Shen… Shen Ruoxi? Where are you?"

"Stop talking nonsense!" Shen Ruoxi's voice came from the ground. Although she had shrunk, her tone remained icy: "Help me attract the BOSS's attention; I've found its weak point!"

Chen Ergou bit the bullet, stood up, and waved at the Shadow King: "Hey! Big guy! Your daddy is right here!"

The Shadow King turned his head, his blood-red eyes staring fixedly at him.

Chen Ergou's legs were shaking with fear, but he forced himself to shout: "Yes, that's your daddy! Why are you so ugly? Does your mom know you look like this?"

The Shadow King was enraged and swung his massive axe toward Chen Ergou.

Chen Ergou let out a "Yelp" and ran, circling the room frantically.

Seeing this, the scarecrow also joined in shouting: "Big Brother, don't chase him! His small frame will be gone with one axe! Why are you chasing him? Come chase me! I'm tough and thick-skinned!"

The Shadow King was caught in a dilemma, chasing Chen Ergou one moment and the scarecrow the next, throwing the entire BOSS room into chaos.

Just then, Shen Ruoxi found the BOSS's weak point—there was an area on the back of the Shadow King's neck not covered by black mist, revealing a dark red core.

She climbed up the BOSS's leg, stood on the back of its neck, and raised her long sword, which was now only the size of a toothpick after shrinking.

"Dawn Slash—!"

A golden sword light erupted from the back of the BOSS's neck.

"Awooo—!!!" The Shadow King let out a shrill scream, and his health bar dropped by a quarter instantly!

He shook his body frantically, trying to throw Shen Ruoxi off, but the shrunken Shen Ruoxi was too small and couldn't be shaken off at all.

"substitute scarecrow! Stall for another ten seconds!" Shen Ruoxi shouted.

Without a word, the substitute scarecrow rushed in front of the Shadow King and wrapped its arms around his thigh: "Big Brother! Calm down! Let's talk this out! Just think, you've been single for so many years, don't you want someone warm and caring by your side?"

The Shadow King looked down at this tattered substitute scarecrow hugging his thigh, his eyes full of confusion.

How… could this monster talk more than a human?

Shen Ruoxi seized the opportunity, continuously releasing skills and stabbing the core on the back of the Shadow King's neck, one sword strike at a time.

Chen Ergou also mustered his courage and released "Sword Saint Strike" on the BOSS—although his attack power was only 3, 200% meant 6 points of damage, but even a mosquito's leg is meat.

[You dealt 6 damage to the Shadow King!]

[Critical hit! You dealt 9 damage to the Shadow King!]

Chen Ergou looked at those pitiful numbers, wanting to cry but having no tears. The BOSS had a total of 100,000 HP; how long would he have to hack away at this rate?

But Shen Ruoxi's damage output was the real deal. Every one of her sword strikes could deal thousands of points of damage, and with critical hits and skill bonuses, her output was explosive.

Five minutes later, the Shadow King's health bar finally hit bottom.

"Roar—" The Shadow King let out a final roar, his massive body crashing to the ground and dissipating into a cloud of black mist.

System prompt: [Congratulations! You have defeated the Shadow King, Morlock!]

[Obtained EXP × 5000!]

[Obtained Gold Coins × 2000!]

[Obtained Rare Material: Shadow Core × 1!]

[Obtained Rare Material: Shadow King's Fang × 2!]

Chen Ergou leveled up from level 1 to level 8 directly.

"Awesome!" He jumped up excitedly. "Leveled up 7 times at once!"

Shen Ruoxi on the ground also returned to her normal size. She stood up, brushed the dust off her body, and said expressionlessly, "Don't be happy too soon, we still haven't gotten the star-shattering sword."

Chen Ergou only then remembered the main task and hurriedly looked deep into the BOSS room.

At the end of the room was a huge black throne. And on the backrest of the throne, a long, silvery-white sword was quietly stuck there, with starlight-like patterns flowing across the blade.

The star-shattering sword.

Chen Ergou's eyes lit up instantly.

"Found it!"

He ran over and reached out to grasp the hilt. A warm light surged from the sword, wrapping around his entire arm.

System prompt: [Congratulations to player "Ergous Stall" for obtaining—the star-shattering sword!]

[star-shattering sword: Legendary weapon (Unawakened), Attack +50, comes with the skill "Starlight Slash".]

[Task "Find the star-shattering sword" completed!]

[Reward: myriad worlds stall system upgraded to Lv.2! New items unlocked!]

Chen Ergou held the star-shattering sword, his hand trembling with excitement. A legendary weapon! This was legendary!

Shen Ruoxi walked over, glanced at the sword in his hand, and a complex look flashed in her eyes.

"Congratulations," she said.

Chen Ergou chuckled, "Thanks to you, if it weren't for your massive damage output, we both would have died here."

Shen Ruoxi didn't speak, just turned and walked toward the exit.

"Let's go, it's time to head back."

Chen Ergou put the star-shattering sword into his backpack and hurriedly followed.

When walking out of the BOSS room, he looked back at the empty throne, and a thought suddenly occurred to him—this Shadow King… didn't seem that hard to fight?

It was mainly because that substitute scarecrow was so effective.

He silently opened the product list and looked at the price of the substitute scarecrow—50 gold coins each.

"This thing sells for 50 gold coins? I'm raising the price! At least 100!"