Demon King: Hero, don’t run away!

Chapter 99: Chapter 99 You Are My Tool Man

The underground city existed to be conquered.

Returning along the original path, one could see a passage that had never appeared before, a design intentionally created to allow the conquerors to perceive the strategy for overcoming this underground city.

While explaining to Iyas, Yang Yu lightly touched the wall at the end of the passage, causing the light on the wall to suddenly brighten, revealing the number 6 composed of horizontal and vertical lines.

”What does this mean?” Iyas asked.

”This is the key needed to open the next passage. Iyas, with your long legs, we need your help.”

”What kind of help requires long legs?” Iyas asked.

”Tool Man.”

”Tool Man? What Tool Man?”

”A human pedometer.”

Turning away from the passage, the corners of Yang Yu’s mouth kept curling upwards.

If one didn’t understand the strategy, it might be very difficult, but once understood, it was just like that, almost all puzzle games were like this.

In the beginning, although Yang Yu gleaned the general strategy from what Calugada had said, he didn’t know where to start. It wasn’t until he saw the passage that had led to the rescue of Calugada suddenly disappear that he had an epiphany.

Following Yang Yu out of the passage, Iyas looked back to find the passage behind her had vanished once again, replaced by a cold wall.

Lightly tapping the wall with her hand, the crisp sound echoed through the underground city as if the wall had never disappeared.

Just as Iyas was marveling at the wonder of the Underground Maze, Yang Yu took out paper and pen from the System.

”I will map out the entire third level. Then, we will conquer this underground maze as quickly as possible. Iyas, what I need you to do is to measure the length of each section of the maze with your steps.”

...

Measuring the entire Underground Maze was not an easy task.

The Hall of Wisdom had countless intersections.

Every time Yang Yu encountered an intersection, he would mark it on the draft map, and after reaching the end, he would double back to measure those branches and determine where they actually led.

In the passages of the Underground Maze, there were several adventurer teams entangled in battles with Bull-headed Monsters.

Engaged in fierce combat with the Bull-headed Monsters, one could easily become embroiled in the skirmish.

Upon encountering these teams, Yang Yu would symbolically lend a hand, fighting his way past the Bull-headed Monsters and continuing to use Iyas as a Tool Man to measure the length of each path.

The Underground Maze wasn’t too large; walking and stopping, it could be traversed in just over an hour.

With the mapping nearly complete, Yang Yu added the final touch to the paper, and Bai Jin and Iyas gathered around him to look at the wrinkled sheet in his hands.

The lines on the paper were crooked, and each segment was recorded with numbers—if Yang Yu did not explain, Bai Jin simply couldn’t tell it was a map.

”Feels like it’s poorly drawn, will this kind of map really work?”

Looking at the vague map, Iyas glared at Yang Yu resentfully, ”I walked for half a day just to get this?”

”This is the initial draft map, of course, it looks like this. I’m not a great painter. Could I draw the lines straight while walking? Don’t complain too much, having a direction and scale is enough, as long as we have these data, I’ll be able to show you the real map shortly.”

Taking out a ruler, a table, and new sheets of paper, Yang Yu began to craft the actual map; maybe because it had been a long time since he had used drafting tools, he kept drawing crooked or slightly off.

But these minor issues were inconsequential, as the full view of the third level gradually emerged on the map.

As Yang Yu had suspected, at the center of the map was a vast square—the third level boss they were seeking was within—hidden behind these walls.

After identifying all the places on the map that resembled the number 6, Yang Yu led the team in reverse along the mapped paths, finally unlocking the second door to ”Death”.

Where there had previously been no passage, a new corridor had suddenly appeared. Entering that corridor and proceeding a dozen steps brought them to the end of it. At the end of the passage awaited a Blue Female Ghost who had been waiting for some time.

[Strange Ghost Level ??? HP 500/500]

”Bai Jin, Fireball Technique,”

Yang Yu gave the command after glancing at the Ghost’s attributes. Bai Jin wove brilliant flames in her hands, compressing them into a sphere, and smashed it fiercely toward the Ghost, which was instantly turned to dust.

In the corridor, walls emitting a faint glow bled out bits of blue light, which infused into the bodies of Yang Yu and his two companions, and an icon resembling a Blue Ghost boldly appeared in their Status Bars.

[Touch of Death]—Damage dealt to monsters in this underground city increased by 50%, and the Attack is converted to True Damage.

The strength of this buff far exceeded Yang Yu’s expectations.

”50% damage increase, plus converting Attack to True Damage... No wonder Calugada’s team was desperate to collect this.”

Iyas felt an indescribable change in her body as if in an instant she could grind those Bull-headed Monsters into the ground, ”Did Calugada’s team detect the secret of the underground city just like we did? With such a strong buff, they still failed... Do you really have a way to deal with the monster that Calugada mentioned?”

”No need to worry about that,” Yang Yu smiled with confidence in his eyes, ”As for whether they found the right strategy like we did... who knows.

Luck is something nobody can predict. If they were just being chased by monsters and stumbled upon a passage by accident, taking refuge in it and thus discovering the secret, it’s not impossible.”

Had it not been for that passage near the exit, he might never have realized the true nature of this maze, nor would he have found the strategy.

Such a friendly maze, I like it.

He placed his hand on the wall, and a new pattern immediately appeared; Yang Yu took out the map he had drawn and carefully searched for a path similar to the one on the map.

”So no one else has realized the strategy of the maze like we did?”

”It’s possible, but definitely only a minority. If it were you, would you tell others that defeating the Blue Ghost can quickly beat the maze’s monsters?”

”Of course, it would be much faster to conquer the maze together,” Iyas stated matter-of-factly.

...

Yang Yu was rendered speechless again.

”Okay, I phrased the question wrong. If you were a purely profit-driven adventurer, would you tell others about something like this? The answer is definitely not. So even if some adventurer teams do know this secret, they absolutely won’t share it with others.”

To prevent Iyas from deviating from convention again, Yang Yu answered his own question before his gaze settled on the map with even greater determination.

”But right now, we really can’t be sure how many people have discovered this strategy like we have.”