Li Huaiming paused, then heard the ground trembling violently behind him.
He quickly spun around to look.
Before him, a mountain giant strode across the Gobi Desert, each step it took sending tremors through the earth.
If the multi-meter tall rock monsters he had seen earlier were mere single-story buildings, then this mountain giant was a towering skyscraper.
It stood dozens of meters high.
He could barely crane his neck far enough to glimpse the stone crown atop its head.
‘This is!’
‘What rank of monster is this!?’
Li Huaiming trembled uncontrollably; under the gaze of those blood-red pupils, his blood felt as though it would solidify.
‘A Lord!’
He suddenly recalled what his mentor had once taught him: an entity that might not even appear in one out of a hundred dungeons.
‘Heh, such luck would be wasted if he didn’t buy a lottery ticket…’
****
“Xiao Ming, keep it up. I’m a bit busy here, seems I don’t have time to look after you.”
With those words, Aya Tone gradually vanished amidst the siege of rock monsters.
However, if one listened closely, faint chewing sounds could still be heard.
Li Huaiming shouted back, “Senior!”
Yet, his calls elicited not even a hint of a response.
‘No way…’
His senior was clearly expecting him to face that lord-level monster alone.
But this mountain giant was undeniably beyond his current capabilities.
Li Huaiming knitted his brows tightly, struggling to suppress the tremors wracking his body.
Just then, from within the rock monster legion behind him, a pure white surge of magic rose, flowing into Li Huaiming’s body.
It dispelled the fear that gripped his heart.
Aya Tone would certainly not allow his junior to walk to their death.
That mountain giant was the true terrifying entity born from the dungeon’s rampage; most of the dungeon’s essence had been funneled into it.
This had elevated its strength to the peak B-rank, while the other elite rock monsters were merely thrown in as an extra.
Hmm… that’s not quite right either.
This dungeon was only C-rank, so how could a B-rank monster emerge from it?
If he wasn’t mistaken, the mountain giant had fused with the dungeon core, thus breaking through the dungeon’s natural limits.
Aya Tone perched on his small stool, meticulously analyzing the current situation.
As for the rock monsters surrounding him, they were all kept at bay by a transparent barrier; no matter how they struck it, they could not advance a single step.
‘No!’
‘No matter how I consider it, Xiao Ming will be no match for it.’
Aya Tone stroked his chin.
The pristine ceremonial robes clung to his slender frame, the hem casually fanned across the ground.
‘Power! Confidence! They surged within him!’
Li Huaiming felt the energy within his body surge at an astonishing speed, a flicker of excitement sparking in his eyes.
All his previous injuries had healed, and he felt better than ever before.
‘Is this Senior’s power?’
‘So strong!’
‘With this power, I can do it!’
‘Since Senior trusts me so much, I must achieve something, proving that his judgment was sound!’
Li Huaiming’s calves flexed suddenly, propelling him swiftly towards the mountain giant.
The mountain giant gazed down at the ant-like figure rushing towards it from the ground, its colossal palm swatted towards Li Huaiming.
Staring up at the enormous hand blotting out the sky, Li Huaiming’s lips touched with a scornful smile.
He felt invincible now.
The energy within him swelled continuously, leaving him in an utterly exhilarated state.
He desperately needed to unleash it!
“Come on!”
Moving at high speed, Li Huaiming clenched his fists, leaped upward, and with a thunderous assault, unleashed a barrage of rapid punches.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!”
Numerous rock fragments crashed to the earth, kicking up clouds of dust.
Li Huaiming leveraged the falling debris, pressing his attack once more, aiming his fist at the newly formed breach.
Noticing the sudden void pecked into its palm by that tiny ant, the mountain giant let out a low growl.
It accelerated the descent of its palm.
“Boom!”
The massive hand slammed heavily into the ground, letting out a deafening roar.
The entire dungeon quaked in response.
“Break!”
A brilliant light shone from the center of the colossal hand, spreading like a spiderweb in an instant.
With a resounding crash, Li Huaiming punched through the massive hand and surged upward along the mountain giant’s arm.
Li Huaiming knew full well that he lacked the means to directly annihilate such a colossal monster.
Thus, his eyes were fixed solely on the large head adorned with a stone crown.
Once that was shattered, this monster would fall.
The mountain giant gazed at its stump of an arm, pierced by a large hole, a flash of fury igniting in its crimson pupils.
‘It was that ant!’
It let out a heavy growl, and countless rocks peeled away from its body, raining down upon Li Huaiming like missiles.
Li Huaiming’s figure flickered, agilely dodging the barrage of stones, all while continuing to charge towards the mountain giant’s head.
Just as he was about to reach his target, the mountain giant suddenly opened its massive maw, and a torrent of searing magma erupted.
The intense heat instantly made the surrounding air scorching, forcing Li Huaiming to twist aside and evade.
But this momentary delay allowed the mountain giant to seize the opportunity, raising its other hand and smashing it down fiercely towards him.
Li Huaiming quickly adjusted his body, furiously swinging his already numb fists at the incoming colossal hand.
“Bang!” Countless fist-shadows rained down upon the colossal hand in an instant.
The colossal hand paused, then, in the blink of an eye, crumbled into a pile of rubble, scattering across the ground.
The mountain giant, gazing at its stump of an arm, couldn’t help but be momentarily stunned.
‘A good opportunity!’
Seeing this, Li Huaiming seized the opportune moment, darting to the mountain giant’s head and leaping high into the air.
“Die!”
He unleashed punch after punch with all his might, pummeling the stone-crowned head.
The stone crown shattered on impact, and the mountain giant let out a roar of despair as its massive body slowly toppled, shaking the very earth with its fall.
“A Lord? Nothing more than that!”
He landed lightly beside the mountain giant’s corpse, using the scattered rocks to absorb his momentum, then sneered arrogantly.
Suddenly!
Li Huaiming stumbled, the abundant power within him slowly receding, leaving behind only an empty husk of a body.
He quickly steadied himself against a nearby rock, narrowly avoiding the embarrassment of collapsing to the ground.
‘Mountain Giant: Should’ve just turned into dust earlier.’
“Xiao Ming, don’t just stand there after the fight; hurry up and clear out the remaining rock monsters.”
“?”
Li Huaiming leaned back against the mountain giant’s remains, gulping in air to alleviate his body’s exhaustion.
Hearing Aya Tone’s call, he painstakingly turned his head, looking towards the small hill.
Aya Tone still had a chip dangling from his mouth, his nonchalant demeanor starkly contrasting with the army of rock monsters beneath him.
But Li Huaiming truly had no energy left to complain.
Seeing Li Huaiming didn’t respond, Aya Tone pursed his lips, muttering softly: “‘So, a full body enhancement of 100% was still too much for him?'”
“‘Then I’ll just have to finish things up myself.'”
Aya Tone stood up, put away his small stool, and with a light tap of his magic wand, a teleportation array materialized beneath his feet.
When he reappeared, he was already by Li Huaiming’s side.
Then, pointing his magic wand at the small hill, he softly uttered: “Starlight breaker.”
“!”
Witnessing all the elite rock monsters annihilated with a single blow, Li Huaiming’s mouth fell open. “‘So, so powerful.'”
“‘Enough with the ‘so powerful,’ it’s time to go.'”
“‘Oh, right…’
With the mountain giant’s demise, the dungeon core fused with it also collapsed.
Watching the fading crimson magic array, Li Huaiming slumped to the ground in the cave, feeling a profound sense of disorientation.
‘Was he truly not dreaming?’
He had cleared a dungeon with an S-rank, and personally slain a B-rank lord.
“There’s no danger outside; you can wait here for rescue. I’m leaving now.”
The teleportation array vanished completely, and Aya Tone left the cave without a backward glance.
He still needed to change back into his disguise to rescue people later, so he couldn’t linger here.
“I…” Li Huaiming tried to call out, but Aya Tone had already vanished from the cave entrance.
He didn’t have time to listen to his idle chatter.
“‘Ooh, good stuff, good stuff.'”
From his four-dimensional pocket behind him, Aya Tone pulled out a blood-red gem as large as his own head and began to examine it.
This was the mountain giant’s magic crystal.
After fusing with the core, this magic crystal seemed to have undergone some changes.
That’s why he had secretly hidden it from Li Huaiming; if it were discovered, it would certainly be confiscated.
‘Hehe…’
“‘What good stuff? Can I see it?'”
“‘No!'”
“‘Hmm!? That voice sounds familiar.'”
Aya Tone suddenly realized something and snapped his head up.
“‘Holy crap! Li Jia!?'”
Drat.