Chapter 1776 - 1046: Exploring the Possibility of Ulashiro Evil Route Speedrun_2

At the door stood Berto from the Skyrim Strategy Group.

"Sorry to bother, but I heard Leon is back?"

Berto raised both hands, holding two bags full of gifts, smiling rather innocently.

The two strategy groups had long established a good cooperative relationship, and as everyone welcomed him inside, he revealed the purpose of his visit.

"Our captain faced another tough challenge in the Sain Dungeon, so this time we want to gather everyone’s combat power to see if we can break through it."

He looked at Leon and said, "By the way, since you just returned, you might not know, actually we—"

"Maru already told me," Leon chuckled, "Are you talking about the challenge posed by Manus, the Master of the Abyss?"

"You guessed it perfectly."

Berto sighed, showing a face of overworked exhaustion.

Nowadays, he hardly gets involved at the front lines; he’s wholeheartedly managing all sorts of affairs within the Skyrim Strategy Group, which is quite taxing.

Whenever the Skyrim Strategy Group makes a big move, he’s the one who has to work hard, and this time it’s particularly tricky.

Because the enemy they’re facing is overwhelmingly strong.

"The Master of the Abyss Manus, a monster no human could contend with."

Berto sighed and said, "Even with Artorias’s help, we still can’t beat him."

Recalling her own encounter with Manus, Maru nodded in agreement, feeling Berto’s struggle.

Then her nod suddenly froze, and she looked at him as if he was an alien, changing her tone and said:

"What do you mean by having Artorias’s help?"

Artorias wasn’t supposed to be helping; he would be engulfed by the abyss and stand guard before the abyss master’s lair.

"Oh, I haven’t told you guys about this yet, it’s all thanks to Luluwo’s good work."

Berto, rare for him, showed a proud expression for his captain and patiently detailed the intelligence he gathered.

————————————

Two days before Leon’s return.

"Wa! This is Ulashiro, huh? The air really stinks!"

"Captain, saying that with such an excited expression will only mislead people about your real thoughts."

"I know, I’m just too excited to calm down."

In the black cloak that had become her personal emblem, Luluwo’s eyes sparkled like a schoolchild on a field trip. In fact, she had field trip syndrome the night before, barely slept, and eagerly anticipated the day’s journey.

Right now, she stood amidst the Royal Garden’s greenery, followed by Tami, Mila, Ais, Em, and a few new members.

Also present was Dal from the Fran Guard and his giant wolf.

Dal pulled out a red and white elf ball and released his giant wolf with a "whoosh," consecutively deploying three elf balls to release three giant wolves, these being his initial companions who shared wolf blood with him.

Upon landing, these giant wolves stood up and transformed into a wolfman’s form, besides not wearing clothes and not speaking, they were as similar to beastmen as could be. This phenomenon was part of the Sain Dungeon’s magical influence, which even the beast tamers had studied for a while.

Each wolfman wielded a great sword as a weapon, capable of freely switching between wolf and giant wolf forms. Carefully cultivated, their combat power was not inferior to gold-level adventurers before Sain Dungeon appeared.

The term "before Sain Dungeon appeared" was used because within this year after its appearance, using adventurer levels to gauge combat power had become completely irrelevant.

A plethora of adventurers, upgraded to numerical freaks by the dungeon, were too lazy to enhance their levels anymore—who would believe an unknown copper-level adventurer could arm-wrestle with the former gold-level adventurer "Giant Gate" Bara?

The adventurer’s guild claimed they were revising the criteria for determining adventurer levels, but after months, there was still no result, probably because they themselves didn’t know what to do.

Thus, adventurer levels now basically made no difference.

Each of the three wolfmen stood over two and a half meters tall, towering over Dal himself, formidable in their presence.

"Now we have eighteen people," Ais remarked, "I’ve never felt our combat strength so sufficient."

"As long as the monster’s strength doesn’t get overly amplified," Em added.

Yet no matter how one looked, it seemed unavoidable for monster’s strength to be enhanced... Tami internally grumbled.

He glanced around; this time’s team configuration was not headed for a grand showdown. The battle and support personnel were almost evenly split, indicating Luluwo’s strategic arrangement for this adventure—she came to Ulashiro to explore possibilities.

To put it more simply, it meant searching for elements that Tami and the group missed during their first exploration, to see if there were any untriggered hidden segments.

"Here, everything can be reset upon death, as if tailored for me."

Luluwo, with hands on hips, looked at the verdant Royal Garden and the nearby Ulashiro, feeling a surge of grand emotions within.

"Try not to waste too much energy on insignificant things," Dal reminded, aware of this bat girl’s penchant for causing trouble.

The goal this time is to battle the Master of the Abyss Manus, but instead of coming together with her Fran Guard, concerns about hidden dangers from encountering the abyss meant the most powerful should come over and scout first. If all is well,

then the Fran Guard should come in.

Moreover, even though Luluwo was a restless spirit, her whims in battle could probably have unforeseen effects, following her as the first to see makes sense.

"What are we waiting for? Let’s go! Move out!"

Luluwo, full of energy, cheered and raised her arm.

The group, guided by Tami and Chaos, who had been to Ulashiro before, started along the old road they walked.

They first headed to ignite the bonfire of the Urasil Spirit Temple, incidentally spent time kicking down the temple’s holy beast, then receiving a mushroom blessing from Elizabeth, and subsequently entered Ulashiro seamlessly.

Of course, unsurprisingly, it triggered the abyss monster’s rampage.

People had learned their lesson this time, each donning mobility-enhancing gear, to outmaneuver the monsters for a while, and finally, the silhouette Dal longed for appeared.

"Artorias!"

Dal, as if seeing his idol, waved his cheering stick—no, his Artorias Greatsword and Fran Greatsword.

The silhouette that provided such profound security, coupled with the overwhelming combat power.

Artorias’s battle in his prime grasped Dal’s attention, reminiscent of when he first saw the Wolf Knight, a wave of shock surged from his sealed memories.

"Stop staring, you might be fighting him later."

Luluwo dragged Dal away forcibly.

Afterward, under the monster’s onslaught, the group rescued Young Wolf Shif, obtaining pages from the magic book that recorded the dark bomb.

Finally, they found Ulashiro survivors protected by a silver necklace and eliminated the surrounding monsters.

"Captain, what are you doing?"

In Tami’s bewildered gaze, Luluwo actively touched and picked up the silver necklace.

"Awwoooo!"

Shif’s sound came immediately; its hostile face appeared in front of them.

Luluwo smiled, gazing at the vigilant Shif and proposed:

"How about we make a trade?"