The transition felt like being pulled through a straw.
One second, Lin was dodging bullets in the rainy subway station. The next, he was tumbling onto damp, mossy stone.
[Entered Dungeon: The Goblin Nest (Rank F)] [Time Dilation: 1:4 (1 Hour Outside = 4 Hours Inside)]
Lin scrambled to his feet, suppressing the urge to vomit. The air here was thick, smelling of sulfur and rotting meat. The only light came from bioluminescent moss clinging to the cavern walls, casting everything in a sickly green glow.
SCREE!
A shrill shriek echoed from the darkness ahead.
Lin froze. He pressed his back against the cold wall. Three green-skinned figures waddled into the light. Goblins. They were short, barely reaching Lin's chest, but they held jagged rusty daggers. Their eyes glowed red.
[Monster: Goblin Scout] [Rank: F] [Note: Pack animals. If one sees you, they all see you.]
Lin's stomach cramped. The hunger was back, sharper than before. His calorie reserves were low. If he fought these three head-on, he would burn energy he didn't have. If he summoned clones, he would starve faster.
"Efficiency," Lin whispered to himself. "I need a kill zone."
He didn't engage. He moved silently into the shadows, heading deeper into the tunnel network, away from the entrance.
The dungeon was a maze of winding tunnels. Most were wide enough for five men to walk abreast—suicide for a solo hunter. He would be surrounded in seconds.
Lin ran for ten minutes, his breathing heavy. The sounds of screeching grew louder behind him. The scouts had found his scent.
Then, he saw it.
It was a geological fault. A massive slab of rock had collapsed from the ceiling, creating a narrow, V-shaped fissure in the wall. The opening was tight. Barely wide enough for one person to squeeze through. Behind it was a dead-end cul-de-sac.
"Perfect," Lin muttered.
He squeezed through the crack. It was a tight fit. Inside, the space was safe. No goblin could flank him here. They would have to come through the crack one by one.
Now, he just needed them to come. All of them.
Lin opened his inventory—the small spatial pocket granted by the System. He pulled out a glass vial filled with a thick, red liquid. He had found this in Kane's pocket.
[Item: Pheromone Bait (Low Quality)] [Effect: Enrages F-Rank beasts within a 500m radius. Causes Berserk state.]
Kane had probably planned to use this to murder a rival or cause chaos. Now, it was Lin's dinner bell.
"Let's speed this up," Lin said.
He uncorked the vial and smashed it against the rock wall at the back of the cul-de-sac. The smell was instant—pungent, sweet, and aggressive. Like raw blood mixed with pure adrenaline.
ROAAAAAR! SCREE! SCREE! SCREE!
The dungeon instantly woke up. The distant shrieks turned into a cacophony of frenzied howling. The ground beneath Lin's boots began to vibrate. They were coming. Not three. Not ten. Hundreds.
[Warning: Massive Hostile Force Detected.]
Lin stood facing the narrow crack. He checked his status. [MP: 60/60] [Calories: Critical]
"Clone."
Two shadows detached from him. They squeezed into the front of the fissure, blocking the entrance completely. Because the crack was so narrow, only one goblin could attack at a time. But Lin had two clones waiting.
It was a meat grinder setup.
The first goblin burst into view, eyes rolling back in its head, foaming at the mouth from the pheromones. It didn't care about tactics. It just threw itself at the gap.
Lin stood behind his clones, safely out of reach. He held the rusty screwdriver in a reverse grip.
"Farming start," he said.
("Enjoying the massacre? Drop a Power Stone to feed the Clone Army!")