Chapter 173: New Type Of Dungeon [GOLDEN TICKET BONUS]

Alex put down his phone when Roan returned. Roan was wearing a simple white shirt and baggy jeans, and he had also cleaned his face with some water, making him look much less disheveled than before.

"Let’s go," Alex said as he stood up.

He packed his belongings and followed Roan outside. Before leaving the area, Alex stopped near a pile of rubble, took several iron rebars, cut them into smaller pieces, and stored them in his Inventory.

They continued moving and soon reached an open area, but neither of them entered immediately. Instead, they stayed behind the surrounding buildings and carefully observed what was ahead.

Calling it an open area was actually inaccurate. Every building around Patrick High School, extending for roughly five streets in every direction, had been destroyed, leaving the school standing out clearly from the surrounding ruins.

There were eight Wild Orcs in the area. The number was not particularly high considering that Alex and Roan had already killed more than twenty Wild Orcs, but these eight were different from the ones they had fought before.

Every one of them was an ’elite’ Wild Orc, meaning each carried a weapon. Their metallic weapons were mostly clubs, and some were so large that they reached half the height of the Wild Orc carrying them, while others were almost as large as the creatures themselves.

The eight Wild Orcs were moving around the buildings in a loose formation, clearly acting as guards. Alex watched them for a while before shifting his attention toward the top of Patrick High School.

A blurry figure was standing on top of the tallest building.

Alex took the binoculars from his backpack and looked through them. As expected, the figure was a Wild Orc, but this one was smaller than the others, standing almost as tall as a single floor of a building.

It wore a robe and carried a wand, although the robe looked different from the one worn by the Wild Orc Shaman they had already killed. Alex studied the creature carefully before passing the binoculars to Roan.

"That must be the leader," Alex said.

"Yes," Roan replied with a hardened expression.

However, Roan was not looking at the Wild Orc leader anymore. His attention had shifted toward the sky above Patrick High School, where something stood out even more than the armed Wild Orcs, the destroyed buildings, and even the leader.

Alex stared at the sky above Patrick High School. It was a giant blue cross, but it was not actually floating in the air; the space itself had been torn apart, leaving behind a cross-shaped opening.

Through the enormous tear, Alex could see swirling blue space on the other side. Waves of Origin Energy continuously rolled out from it, spreading through the surrounding area and making the air feel different from anywhere else they had been.

’That must be the blue cross marked on the map,’ Alex realized. The realization immediately changed how he viewed the situation because the Wild Orc leader was clearly not the blue mark itself.

It seemed that either the Wild Orc leader had created the blue cross, or it had come to Patrick High School after the blue cross appeared. Either way, there had to be a connection between the two, and Alex did not think it was a coincidence that the strongest Wild Orc was guarding this particular location.

Alex continued studying the blue tear while trying to understand what could have caused it. He had never seen anything like it before, and the amount of Origin Energy coming from it made him even more cautious about what the Wild Orc leader was intending to do with it.

All of this had to be connected to why the Wild Orcs were gathering humans.

"So, what’s the plan?" Roan asked, turning toward Alex.

"First, I’ll try to kill the leader from here. It seems like they haven’t detected us yet, so I can make a try. After that, we will quickly rush to the high school. You will enter the area and protect the people while I deal with the monsters," Alex said.

Roan nodded, and the two of them slowly moved closer while staying hidden. They reached the edge of the last building without attracting the attention of the Wild Orcs, giving Alex a clear view of the school and the leader standing above it.

Just as they reached that position, a system screen suddenly appeared in front of Alex.

[You have entered Wild Orc Stronghold Open Dungeon]

Alex raised an eyebrow as he read the notification. It seemed that this entire area was being counted as a dungeon, which was unexpected because until now, Alex had developed a theory that dungeons were places where large amounts of Origin Energy had become concentrated.

This was also why most dungeons were found inside enclosed spaces like buildings, underground areas. If the area was closed, the Origin Energy could remain concentrated instead of constantly escaping into the surrounding environment.

However, this place was completely open, yet the System was still calling it a dungeon. More importantly, it specifically referred to it as an Open Dungeon, which meant this was probably not simply an exception that the System had overlooked.

Alex considered the possibilities carefully. There were two explanations that seemed reasonable to him, although he could not yet determine which one was correct.

The first possibility was that the amount of Origin Energy coming from the blue tear in the sky was simply too great. Even though the energy was being released into the open air, there was so much of it that the concentration in this area could still reach whatever threshold was required for the System to classify it as a dungeon.

The second possibility was more unsettling. Someone, most likely the Wild Orc leader, could be controlling the Origin Energy leaking from the blue tear and preventing it from spreading into the surrounding area.

If that was true, then the leader might be doing more than simply guarding the blue cross. It could be deliberately keeping the Origin Energy concentrated around Patrick High School, allowing this open area to develop the properties of a dungeon despite having no walls or roof to contain it.

..

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