Chapter 344: Hidden Ending

Chapter 344: Chapter 344: Hidden Ending

Seraphina first opened the group chat’s member list and searched for the name "Fayestar."

Unsurprisingly, the search came up empty.

’A fake name, as expected.’ Seraphina chuckled, then exited the page to see what the group chat was talking about.

They had already talked the topic of Expansion Crystals to death, so now, everyone was discussing the dungeon instead.

"Three dungeons in, and the system is still playing with this whole sacrifice shtick."

"It’s pretty interesting, though. The hint said the reward would be doubled if everyone survived, but then the sacrifice ended up being the Sunflowers. And hey, technically, no one died."

"Yeah, that part is interesting. But... isn’t it strange? Don’t you think the sacrifice was too convenient? It’s like it was pushing us to choose sacrifice, a bit of a lure."

"You’re overthinking it, aren’t you? What do you mean, ’lure’? Was there any other way to end the dungeon besides sacrifice? And... what do you mean ’convenient’? That was two Sunflowers, two human lives! Seems like after so many sacrifices, human lives aren’t worth much in anyone’s eyes anymore."

"Human lives are valuable?"

"If lives were so valuable, people wouldn’t have been fighting tooth and nail when someone found a Name Change Scroll last time. That thing has a clear price tag—a great item for trading a teammate’s life for your own."

The group chat fell silent for a moment.

Seraphina didn’t want to read any further. A quick glance showed dozens more messages below, all discussing sacrifice. Not a single person mentioned choosing another path.

She was now certain: Fayestar had either never spoken in the group, or...

The person was deliberately hiding their identity in the chat.

Seraphina closed the chat window, stood up to stretch, and was just about to start moving for the day when the dungeon settlement notification arrived.

[Greetings, survivors! Congratulations on your survival!]

This time, the preamble was just that single line. Before Seraphina could even finish reading it, the official settlement page popped up.

[Dungeon: The Embers of the Abyssal Mine has officially concluded!]

[Calculating rewards...]

[Survivor Seraphina Sinclair’s Team Contribution Evaluation: S-Class!]

[Survivor Seraphina Sinclair’s Personal Performance Evaluation: S-Class!]

[Overall Rating: S-Class!]

[Number of people who completed the hidden ending: 4!]

Seraphina’s gaze immediately fell on the last line of text.

’A hidden dungeon ending? And four people completed it?’

’Isn’t that exactly one team?’

It took a moment, but the gears in Seraphina’s mind finally clicked into place.

’Aren’t those four people... us four?!’

Seraphina’s eyes narrowed.

This meant Lyra Lowell and Alaric Hawthorn had also completed the hidden ending.

Even though they were forced to pay a protection fee, since the system judged them as having survived and participated in the entire process of cleansing the Embers, they had clearly received a corresponding evaluation.

’They got off easy.’

Still, the protection fee she’d collected from them was a fair price for that bargain.

The rewards, just like last time, would be distributed later.

This little interlude killed Seraphina’s desire to get moving, and the regional channel was already in an uproar.

"Holy shit?! A hidden ending?? Does that stuff really exist?!"

"Four people? Four people completed a hidden ending? Isn’t that exactly a full team? What kind of team is that badass?! My team argued forever about who to sacrifice. In the end, the two who lost had to go reluctantly."

"The Sunflower withers right after the sacrifice. Who would be willing to do that?"

"What is the hidden ending? And what are the rewards? System, just tell us already! This is killing me!"

"I don’t know what all that is, I just know I was sacrificed to get out."

"+1 to the guy above, we used sacrifice too. Does not sacrificing and killing the boss get you the hidden ending?"

"Kill the boss? What boss? All we ran into was Ember’s Victim and the one who released it. Is the victim the boss, or is the releaser the boss? It can’t be that mountain of flesh blocking the road, right? That monster didn’t seem very threatening!"

"I’m so damn curious. Can one of the masters in the know come out and explain?"

"Where are the people involved?! Are there no people involved?!"

"They must be masters, right? Did the system put a few masters in one team? Master Blacktiger! Master Artemis! Why isn’t anyone saying anything?! Even just to debunk the rumors!"

"Yeah, yeah! We all know what we went through in the dungeon. You’d know if you got the hidden ending. Not speaking up just means you’re deliberately keeping us in suspense!"

The accusation was utterly unreasonable, but Seraphina didn’t care.

The regional channel was always like this—paranoid and prone to jumping on bandwagons. Life would be exhausting if you let every little comment get to you.

She was about to close the regional channel when she saw an interesting message:

[LyraOfTheWoods]: Settle down, settle down! The person involved is here, I’m here!

An ID like that? No need to explain—it was clearly Lyra Lowell.

His ID held no fame in the regional channel, so his first few messages were ignored until he started revealing details from inside the dungeon.

[LyraOfTheWoods]: I’m telling the truth! We really got the hidden ending, no sacrifices. The final boss of the dungeon was a C-level Rotsea Emberfiend. Me and my other teammate were pretty much useless. It was the other two masters who killed the C-level monster!

The moment the message appeared, the regional channel exploded.

"C-level?! Holy shit, for real?"

"Rotsea Emberfiend... sounds like trouble... Two masters? Which two?"

"You were there, right? Spill the details! Who was the other teammate? And who are the two masters?"

"No wonder they got the hidden ending. They can even kill a C-level monster. That kind of power..."

Lyra Lowell seemed to be enjoying the spotlight, posting another message:

[LyraOfTheWoods]: The other teammate is named Alaric Hawthorn. We were just support. The real powerhouses were two... um, very low-key masters. I won’t say their IDs, to avoid bothering them.

Lyra Lowell was indeed shrewd, knowing how to ride the wave of public attention. But whether this borrowed momentum would turn out to be a good or bad thing was still uncertain.

Still, as long as he didn’t spill any crucial details, Seraphina couldn’t be bothered to intervene.

But if he said something he shouldn’t have...

Before Seraphina could even finish the thought, a message popped up on the regional channel’s small announcement board: someone had used an Arena Challenge against Lyra Lowell.

The challenger was named [Brooke], another unknown.

The discussion in the regional channel grew even more heated:

"Hey! Killing him this early? What’s the rush! The dungeon rewards haven’t even been distributed yet!"

"What does this mean? It means they’re not after the rewards from the hidden ending."

"Then what are they after?"

"What are they after? Didn’t you hear that Lyra-what’s-his-name say there were two masters in the team? I’d say he and that Alaric Hawthorn were lucky just to get out alive. Now he dares to come out and run his mouth? Isn’t this just getting silenced?"𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚