Chapter Forty-Four: The Mausoleum Guardian

  "Actually... escaped?"

  Standing beside the trap, looking back at the dense rows of knife wheels, Liu Feng couldn't help but feel a sense of unreality. When Hu Si Ming forced her to jump over, she had almost made up her mind to die. But she was luckier than Zhang Hao by just a little bit, so she survived!

  Escaping from what he thought was certain doom and rising to heaven, Liu Feng couldn't help but cry tears of joy.

  This time, Hu Si Ming didn't urge her on, but instead patiently waited for a while, allowing Liu Feng to vent her emotions before patting her shoulder and preparing to continue their journey.

  "I didn't expect it, but you actually look like a captain, even though it's just a temporary team."

  When they brushed shoulders, Yan Shao praised Hu Si Ming in a low voice. In his opinion, a qualified captain not only needs to be strong in combat and decisive in action, but also needs to help teammates when their emotions are low. Being able to keep the team's morale high at all times is what it means to be truly competent.

  Undoubtedly, Hu Shiming's comforting of Zhao Feng just now is very much in line with Xian Shao'e's idea.

  "It's probably just a habit... " Hu Si Ming said, walking shoulder to shoulder with Yan Shao Ou, subconsciously recalling his two-year professional gaming career: "That's what we do in the real world, it comes naturally."

  "The real world?"

  Hearing him say this, Yan Shao became even more curious about what Hu Si Ming did in the real world.

  "Haha, nothing."

  Realizing he might have misspoken, Hu Shiming smiled and still avoided talking about it.

  Seeing this, Yan Shao also knew the meaning and did not continue to ask questions, but instead guessed Hu Si Ming's work in his heart. He had a deep understanding of Knife Tower and had a team consciousness, could it be?

  He vaguely thought of several possibilities.

  ………

  After passing through the Blade Maze, there were no more deadly traps on the next section of road. Although Hu Shiming accidentally triggered a poisonous rune, he only lost 150 health points. Two healing spells later, his life was back to safe levels.

  At last, after thirty minutes of countdown, they arrived at the end of the third layer of the underground mausoleum.

  Like the pharaoh's tomb, there is also an underground palace here. Through the broken stone gate, you can see that at the end of the underground palace, there are stone stairs leading to the second underground layer. Because the tomb has a circular structure, the two paths on both sides of the main chamber will meet again here. From this, it can be determined that the Nightmares team had already rushed ahead and passed through here, reaching the second floor of the tomb.

  "Even if they set off a bit earlier than us, the Nightmares team's speed is still fast enough."

  Zhao covered his mouth, complaining uncomfortably: "That road of theirs, shouldn't it have traps like the Knife Edge Maze? If not, we'll be in big trouble!"

  "The battlefield is definitely fair, no reason to give them a safe route. Besides, the reality is that they have already gone ahead, and it's useless to make wild guesses here, let's just hurry up and catch up."

  So saying, Hu Siming led the way into the underground palace through the broken stone gate.

  Then his body froze!

  At the entrance to the second level of the underground tomb, a two-meter-tall mummified general stood guard, blocking the way. His body was wrapped in black bandages, his right hand holding a short sword and his left hand grasping an oblong shield with a pointed bottom, on which was painted a pattern of fierce cobras.

  Noticing its presence, Zhao Feng and the others also stopped in their tracks.

  Tomb Guardians

  Ordinary unit LV5.

  Undead creature cursed by the pharaoh, faithfully guarding the safety of the underground tomb, it will strike down any thief who dares to enter the tomb. Maximum life value 500 points, basic movement speed 300 points, life recovery speed 1 point/second, 4 ordinary armor classes.

  Other attributes?

  "It's the tomb guardian!"

  After several consecutive investigations, the students of Tianhui finally got some information. Seeing that the optional team task monster was right in front of them, everyone had a feeling of getting what they came for without much effort. However, after seeing its powerful attributes clearly, that excitement immediately vanished into thin air.

  Just looking at the few attributes, it has already surpassed all new students. Moreover, an ordinary unit of LV5 in this unified exam should be considered a monstrous creature, wouldn't it have any skills? With such attributes, just matching up with a powerful skill point is enough to pose a mortal threat to new students!

  Zhao Feng stood near the entrance of the underground palace, gazing at this cursed creature from afar and said with some doubt: "Nightmare Fang's team actually didn't defeat it?"

  Liu Feng thought for a moment and guessed: "Maybe they want to use it to slow us down, of course, it's also possible that they're afraid of meeting us after fighting halfway."

  "What's the opponent's purpose is unimportant." Zhao Feng asked: "What's important is our choice, this is a 200-point mission for the team, do we fight or not?"

  Compared to the two, Hu Si Ming thought further ahead and said: "If the Nightmares left it here, it's probably for us to deal with. This tomb guardian must be a powerful enemy, even if we can kill it, we'll likely suffer heavy losses and have to use all our skills. By then, the Nightmare team will be able to reap the benefits."

  Zhao Feng hesitated for a moment and asked: "Is the Night Walker so certain that we will fight?"

  "Maybe his idea is the same as what you said, and he didn't deliberately design us. But when making plans, we should consider this factor ourselves, just in case."

  "Alright, being cautious never hurts." Zhao Feng nodded in agreement.

  Yan Shao's eyes lit up and he interjected, "If he wanted to take advantage of us being injured from fighting the tomb guardians, how did he judge the timing? If we had just started fighting and he came out, wouldn't that be meaningless?"

  "So..."

  Hu Si Ming said, taking out the specially made 【Tomb Torch】 from the storage compartment. After waving it in the air, the torch automatically ignited. Under the dim blue glow, a hidden pair of eyes with a hostile red light indicator appeared near the tomb guardian's location.

  "Scout's honor!"

  Zhao Feng and Yan Shao's faces showed a look of sudden realization, seeing this thing, they no longer had any doubts about their speculation about Hu Si Ming. If it was just to delay their footsteps, there was no reason to waste an investigation guard here. Only if Nightmare Fang's team had another purpose would they need the view from here.

  Every move is under everyone's eyes, so the Nightmare team can accurately grasp the time and reap the benefits.

  "So, what do you plan to do?"

  Yan Xiao had already made up his mind, but he still asked Hu Si Ming for his thoughts.

  "It depends on what you mean." Hu Siming quickly came up with two plans in a short period of time: "The first method is the most stable, lure away the tomb guards, and we'll directly go to the second floor without disturbing it. The second plan is to openly and honestly expose the truth, tell the Nightmare team that we've already discovered your trick!"

  "What's the point of openly provoking him?" Liu Feng didn't understand Hu Si Ming's idea: "The person who is being haunted at night isn't stupid, what's the use of doing this?"

  "It's simple, take the initiative!"

  Hu Si Ming swung his hand with great momentum and said in a resolute tone, "As long as we don't show our faces, the Nightmares will keep guessing whether we've really defeated the Ling Grave Guardians. They won't let go of this opportunity easily. But if they come down directly, they might not dare to do so; it's likely that they'll be lurking around the second-level entrance. We can take advantage of this chance and launch a surprise attack on them at the second level!"

  "Do you want to take down that repeater directly?" Zhao Feng was a bit surprised by Hu Si Ming's appetite.

  "Why not?"

  The battle in the tomb had completely dispelled Hu Siming's fear of the repeater students. He bluntly said, "Leaving this hidden danger behind, we can't do anything without being on tenterhooks. If we can solve him here, the remaining two new students are not worth worrying about. Even if we can't escape back to the surface in the end, at least we can get the basic reward for the unified exam. You guys need to be bolder, the previous battle has proven that repeaters aren't as strong as imagined."

  "But after all, he is a senior, shouldn't be so easy to kill..."

  Zhao Feng still had some concerns about his own team's strength, and the Nightmares team had acceleration skills in their camp. If they couldn't beat them, could they at least outrun them?