Cathulhu Online, MUNYA!

Chapter 266 – Cat Dad's Rivals & Trails

"This place is interesting."

Marcus, Master Yeet, and the elites from Spartan Guild faced a similar situation as Butter Tank and his friends – They got separated from their allies and were stuck in the dungeon with a team of five people.

The guild chat still worked. Unlike a certain arrogant guild leader, Marcus was calmer and cool-headed.

He texted his guild members.

"There might be illusion traps in this dungeon. Check your surroundings and report what you are seeing. Tell me a landmark or two so that we can find you!"

The Spartan Guild instantly exchanged information among their guild members. Most of them told the same story as they were trapped in a maze with a wet seaweed floor, yellow walls, and loud buzzing fluorescence lights on the ceiling.

But one of the team reported something unique.

"Boss, we've found a marked area. Someone got here before us and left several X marks along the way."

Marcus was interested, "Do you know exactly where you are?"

"We used the oldest trick in the book, sir. We are advancing and hugging the left wall. We got to a dark area with a hidden room, though."

Marcus rubbed his chin, thinking of a way to regroup with his men. He furrowed his brows and closed his eyes for several minutes. Then, he asked the person.

"Do you have any unused runes? Can you mark the location?"

"I can, sir. Do you want me to mark it?"

"Yes. Mark it and send the marked rune to me."

"But we can't access our warehouse. How can I send the item to you?"

Marcus snickered and opened his guild menu. He looked at the section, which indicated what kind of power his guild's sponsor blessed their guild members.

He personally requested this to Pan Mei via email, asking him as a medium to get a specific blessing and other perks at the price of his allegiance. Pangu was generous enough to give him what he wanted.

"Activate guild's blessing – Smuggler's Exchange!"

DING

<Activating Smuggler's Exchange Feature.>

This unique feature was the blessing that he got from Pangu. It allowed him to exchange items between guild members, access black markets, and access auction houses. All members could also use their warehouse whenever the blessing was activated, and the effects lasted 30 minutes.

However, it came with a downside. Once used, all guild members would be cursed for two hours. All their stats would be temporarily decreased by the total items they transferred by using this method. If one player transferred or purchased one item, all guild members' statuses would be reduced by one. If a hundred items were moved, a hundred points of all stats would be decreased as a penalty.

It was a double-edged sword type of blessing. Still, it was useful for resupplying his guild members during war or combat.

Marcus texted his guild members in the main guild chat box.

"All members! Purchase a teleportation scroll from black markets and form a team with your friends around you. As for the team with the marked rune earlier, purchase as many blank runes as you can and transfer all marked runes to the party leader of each team. We'll regroup with the team that discovered the trail of previous adventurers!"

All 500 guild members were swift as these gamers knew what to do. In a few minutes, mark runes were sent to every party leader, including Marcus.

Marcus put the marked rune on the ground. Then, he looked at his subordinates.

"Use your teleportation scroll on it. We're teleporting!"

Master Yeet and others nodded. They brought out the exclusive teleportation scroll, which could only be acquired from Pangu's black market. They vanished and reappeared next to the dark area, where Butter Tank and his team had gotten here before.

WHOOSH

WHOOSH

The remaining elite members also appeared as they also used their teleportation scrolls. They returned to their ranks and regrouped with their company.

When all 500 elites were reunited, Marcus pointed at the dark area in front of him.

"Anyone with a spotlight or night sight? Lead the way!"

20 elven scouts came out from their ranks and brought out the same flashlight, which Alzheimer had. They installed their flashlights on tripods and positioned them at every dark corner.

All guild members immediately put on sunglasses. Then, the scout increased the light output.

The blinding light flashed. Then, everybody heard a painful screech from the other side of the pillar array.

Marcus turned to the pillar arrays. A hundred thin pillars formed a wall like prison cells. Beyond the barricaded area, a massive ant glared at them while it was shrinking back in fear.

Fire Ant Soldier, Level 55

Everybody smirked. Some of them laughed at the monster.

"Pathetic. This dungeon is so weak. Do we really need the immortals to help at all?"

Marcus dismissed the notion, "Never underestimate your enemy. When we arrived, the game warned us about the existence of a level-4000 monster. Do not let your guard down. Also, does everybody have an escape rune and a spare teleport scroll?"

The elites checked their belongings and reported, "All prepared, sir!"

"Alright. Scouts! Lead the way. Rearguards, collect all spotlights along the way and pass them to the front. We'll keep rotating the spotlights to ward off dark creatures and sneaky assassins!"

"YES, SIR!"

Like professional explorers, Marcus's guild members systematically moved as one. In no time, they reached the dead end, where Butter Tank and others found the illusion wall.

One of the scouts followed tracks of Marcus. Then, he pointed at a wall and touched it.

"The traces end here, sir. This is a dead end."

"Are you sure?" Marcus frowned, "Did someone really come here?"

"Someone indeed entered this place. The tracks are still new. I think there might be a trap door somewhere around here."

Marcus turned to the scout team, "Search! Find the trap door in this room. You have 10 minutes. If you can't find it, we'll use the demolisher and blow up the walls of this room!"

"YES, SIR!"

The scout split up and inspected the walls of this dead end.

A few minutes later, one of the scouts found a button on the ground. He laughed and thought that it might be the hidden trap door, so he pressed on it.

CLICK

RUMBLE

The ceiling shook and dust fell on top of everybody's head. The players looked up.

The ceiling slowly lowered, threatening to squash them into meat pastes!

"An idiot stepped on a trap! Leave this room, NOW!"

Everybody rushed out of the room, carrying their tools and gadgets along with them. After they had gotten out, the ceiling fell on the floor, sealing the secret passage.

Marcus and the players stared at the closed area in pity.

"Let's head back. We can't go through here."

The company traveled back to where they came from. They passed through the dark area once again.

When Marcus reached the pillar zone, he suddenly had an idea.

"Demolishers."

"Here, sir!" 10 gnomes and 30 dwarves came out of the formation, reporting for duties.

"Destroy these pillars. I have a feeling that we have to get through here somehow."

"YES, SIR!"

The scouts installed spotlights for the demolishers. The dwarves and gnomes also brought out demolition chargers and connected the bomb.

30 minutes later, the bombs were set. The scouts put the gadgets away and retreated to a safe spot.

The dwarves pressed the switches in their hands, and a massive explosion erupted. The thin pillars collapsed, opening a new path for Marcus and his team to explore.

However, nobody noticed that the demolishers earlier fell into the ground, no-clipping through the dungeon to another place.

When the dust settled, the scouts proceeded ahead. Once again, they pointed their flashlights into the abyss.

The hidden area behind the pillars was an empty hall. However, at the end of the empty room, 50 doors with numbers could be seen, ranging from 101 to 150. One of the doors was open, but the rest was closed.

The leading scout raised their fist and knelt, signaling everybody to be careful and turn off the lights. He then pointed his index finger and middle finger in front of him.

"BAD!"

"BAD!"

A party of mannequins staggered and walked toward the area with the opened door. They entered the room in order as if they were patrolling or doing something.

Marcus crouched next to the leading scout, "What's wrong?"

"I found multiple tracks of monsters. Strong ones."

"How strong?"

The scout's face was pale, "Very strong. At least, level 1,000. I can only find clues of level-999 monsters and below."

Marcus pursed his lips. He looked at the mysterious rooms with numbers on them. Although he didn't get to see the mannequin's level, he didn't want to risk it.

"Withdraw. Don't alert them. We go back."

"We're not attacking this place, sir?"

"Are you stupid? You found an immortal here. We're not going to fight level-1000 monsters. Leave that to the main forces."

Marcus ordered everybody to quietly retreat in the dark. The team turned around and left without a sound.

Unfortunately, they forgot that they spooked a fire ant earlier.

One of the rooms suddenly slammed open, and a certain cat girl mannequin with [UwU] face stormed out. She dragged a limbless corpse of a female mage with her.

As soon as she came out, the cat girl paused. She turned toward the direction of the blown pillars.

"Puta? (I sense an ant's SOS pheromone. Which ant is fighting?)"

Gata threw the corpse into her game inventory. She ran toward the hole. When she got outside of the blasted area, she looked left and right.

Then, she saw the moving lights of the unit's spotlights.

"PUTAAAA!!"

As if Gata were overjoyed, she kicked the ground and pursued. At the same time, all 50 doors were blasted open, and countless mannequins rushed out like a frenzy zombie hoard.