Chapter 74: The carnage

The whole carven was lit with a bonfires along the walls, casting a shadow over the entrance. On the side of Smith and the girls,they couldn’t see clearly who was coming from the other side.

​When the figure stopped nearly the entrance for a moment then a head suddenly popped out from the shadows. Upon seeing who it was, Smith smiled. It was Lily, the leader of the group sent earlier to the slaughterhouse before them inoder to protect the dungeon core. Smith had first met her and her group when they entered the slaughterhouse, where they had exchanged a few words.

​When Lily scanned the carven and when she saw what was in front of her, she was deeply shocked. The area was brightly lit, revealing a scene straight out of hell: countless corpses were littered everywhere, surrounded by pools of blood. Searching the area, she saw Smith standing directly below the entrance with the girls. They were drenched in blood from head to toe like they were swimming in it, except for the archer who—along with her pawns—looked completely clean, as if she hadn’t been involved in the battle at all.

​Lily was astonished that this small group had killed such a massive number of Snakemen. After a quick scan, she estimated there were at least 300 Snakemen on the ground. Although she had followed Smith for in the past few days and knew his team’s capabilities—since her group usually trailed behind them to observe from a distance and help clean the battlefield after battles—they had only ever seen them fight groups of around 100 Snakemen at a time. Back then, Smith’s group relied on their high mobility, kiting methods, and environmental advantages to wear the enemy down.

​She knew this area was a complete counter to their usual playstyle. The bright light countered the abilities of their Assassin, while the tight space prevented flanking and retreat.so this had to be a pure, head-on battle. Lily couldn’t imagine what kind of fight power and ability they possess to kill this many Snakemen under such unfavorable conditions and it had to be remembered that they where all in the same rank.

​Deciding not to dwell on it, she turned around and called her teammates. Moments later, the rest arrived. Using a rope from their storage artifact, they descended into the cavern.

​Lily walked straight up to Smith and said, "Congratulations on your hard-fought victory,and i am sorry for coming too late and missed the grand showdown"

​"It was nothing special, so don’t flatter me that much," Smith replied casually. "And don’t worry about it thankfully we solved it ourselves without any problems."

​Lily spoke with deep respect a person with such ability and remain humble.Her own group would normally run from a band of just 20 Snakemen, yet Smith’s team had slaughtered hundreds and came out intact. Without wasting any time, Lily and her team got straight to cleaning the battlefield by collecting the loot dropped.

​As Lily’s group worked, Smith and the remaining girls watched from the side. Smith thought back to Lily’s praise and shook his head internally. Her assumption about how the fight went wasn’t entirely correct.

​From the start, when the girls decided to take the berserk Pill, they had communicated with Lily using a communication artifact. They instructed her to arrive after receiving an emergency signal. That was meant to be their escape plan. After killing the Black Snakeman, the girls were supposed to return to Smith’s position and send the signal to Lily, who would toss down a rope. Smith would then put the Queens who had taken the pill into his spiritual space to recover from the backlash, while he and Astra—who hadn’t taken the pill—would escape. Since Snakemen were normally very slow, they wouldn’t have been able to catch up.

​However they didn’t expect the enemy to make things much easier,because the Snakemen’s counterattack after their leader’s death did not happen.and Snakemen seem to have had done something to their own kind that caused them to fight with fierce and had beeb fearless of death in the earlier battles butwhen the black snakeman was killed they immediately snapped out of that state , And the moment they were free they had no intention of avenging their leader. On top of that, the Black Snakeman opened the dungeon core area himself, relieving the pressure on Smith’s group. If the panicked Snakemen had felt completely trapped, they might have launched desperate a conter attacks in order to survive, which would have put the girls in a tight spot.

​Everything had gone far smoother than planned. Smith couldn’t complain—he could only mentally thank the Black Snakeman for making things so easy. If the Black Snakeman were alive to hear this, he would be vomiting blood and cursing his all eighteen generations,But the Snakeman was already dead, so there was nothing he could do.

​While Lily’s team continued clearing the battlefield, Velvet and the other girls stood behind Smith. Suddenly, Velvet said, "Smith... I think our time is almost up. We’ve reached already our physical limit. So we don’t slow you down, you can put us back into the spiritual space."

​Realizing they had reached their limit, Smith didn’t hesitate and directly recalled the six girls into his spiritual space. Earlier, while trying to stop the Black Snakeman from escaping, the Queens had left their pawns behind to buy time, losing nearly all of them in the process. The remaining damaged pawns returned to the Queens’ spiritual spaces as the girls vanished into Smith’s.

​Inside Smith’s spiritual space—a vast white void which was similar to the trial space—the girls floated in mid-air as usual. Despite being in a comatoselike state, their mental connection remained active, allowing them to communicate normally.

​"Velvet, from your estimation, how long will it take until you fully recover?" Smith asked in worried tone.

​"I estimate we only need one day before we can come out and be summoned normally," Velvet answered reassuring him. "However, after that day, we will be in a weakened state. We won’t be able to fight, and pushing ourselves will damage our bodies further. We can perform regular tasks, but we won’t be able to summon pawns, fight, or activate our titles. To fully recover, we will need nearly a week."

​Her voice wasn’t as cheerful as usual; the girls were clearly disappointed that they wouldn’t be able to fight for a full week.

​Smith hearing the answer he was relieved and also chuckled internally. "Don’t worry. I’ll ask Jacob about items that can help you recover fully or reduce the time. I know you’re all eager to grow stronger, and so am I. We’ll use our contribution points to speed up your recovery, so don’t stress."

​Hearing this, the girls cheered through the mental link, which felt like a small group chat on a phone. Even Astra joined in, chatting happily as if they hadn’t just survived a near-death battle a few moments ago.

​Smith was amazed by their mental fortitude. Normal people surviving such an ordeal would ask for time off to overcome the trauma, but these girls were actively looking for ways to recover faster so they could get back to the battlefield. Smith felt a bit sorry for them, knowing their urgency stemmed from his own lack of power; they wanted to get stronger quickly to protect him and themselves. Though they held high status as a Grand Elder among the seven families but external titles meant nothing—only personal strength gave you a true say in this world. Their drive was completely reasonable.

​After Lily and her group finished cleaning the battlefield, they returned to Smith.

​"We’ve finished cleaning everything up. Here are the spoils from the battlefield," Lily said, presenting the loot.

​Smith didn’t even look at the items; he stored them directly into his inventory and said, "Okay, let’s go."

​Since a rope was already set up, they climbed back up to the entrance. Astra assisted Smith by giving him a piggyback ride. Smith felt increasingly embarrassed—the girls were growing bolder by the day. He vowed to teach them a lesson when the time came a gentleman’s revenge can wait ten years, but for now, he just endured it. Seeing his expression, Lily’s group tried very hard not to laugh, though Smith couldn’t do anything about it.

​Led by Lily, they returned to the first cave they had entered in the slaughterhouse. Lily stepped forward and lifted an unremarkable rock in the cornernof the cave revealing the dungeon core hidden underneath. They had hidden it there so that even if their group outside was ambushed, at least one person could escape and keep the dungeon core safe.

​Lily picked up the core, presented it solemnly to Smith, and said, "Since you cleared the dungeon, I give you the honor of doing this."

​Taking the core with a solemn expression, Smith said, "Okay. Now let’s perform what we really came here to do."