Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 94: Chapter 94: A Unique Dungeon

The bats hanging upside down above did not become agitated as Xu Xin imagined. Instead, they collectively shrank, all wrapped tighter and smaller in their wings.

...The power of this broom is surprisingly evident!

As he walked upward, the closer Xu Xin got, the more tightly sealed the bats became. Some even began to tremble slightly.

Until Xu Xin completely passed this section filled with bats, the swarm of blood-streaked bats showed no intention of attacking him.

Great! It feels like they could be hung at the door to ward off evil.

Having passed the bat area, Xu Xin looked at the exceptionally long staircase passage. He rolled his eyes, for a moment considering turning back. The passage was as long as climbing a mountain.

But Xu Xin had clearly marked the way back in the maze, so if this path was still walkable, returning would be an easy task for him.

He didn’t want to give up on this possibility and also wanted to verify the words of the Chang Yin Family and Xue Lan, so he continued walking upward.

Fortunately, there were apricots to restore energy, so climbing the stairs didn’t consume much of his energy.

”Keke, walk on your own!” Xu Xin rubbed Keke’s head. The little guy was at most five kilograms, but Xu Xin still wanted to conserve energy. He had quite a lot of stuff in his backpack and didn’t feel safe leaving it below.

”Oink!” Keke was a bit displeased but obediently got down from Xu Xin’s shoulders.

The staircase was still extremely slippery, and the sound of water droplets falling echoed around. Xu Xin climbed step by step, and Keke, like before, would sprint up dozens of steps, then look back at Xu Xin, waiting for him to catch up before sprinting up another dozen steps.

With the effect of the apricot (blue), Xu Xin felt his energy consumption was very slow, almost negligible. After about half an hour, he finally reached the entrance—the bronze-glowing door.

The door was tightly closed, unchanged from before he went down.

Xu Xin tried pushing the door with force, but it didn’t budge. He looked around but found no mechanism or anything that could open the door. He used his spear and iron sword to attack the door with force, but it didn’t leave even a trace.

Keke ran back and forth in front of the door, finding nothing of value.

”It seems this is indeed a dead end.” Xu Xin sighed, leaning against the closed door.

A wasted trip.

Suddenly, Xu Xin’s mechanical watch vibrated.

”Hmm? Can I use the treehouse watch here?” Xu Xin hurriedly raised his left hand.

The mechanical watch vibrated continuously, instantly sending all the information from the day.

Li Wenxi and Ji Chaoyang had both sent him private messages.

Ji Chaoyang only sent him messages twice, two hours apart.

”Xu Xin, I’m in the underground city. How are you doing?”

”Are you unable to receive messages?”

On Li Wenxi’s side, there were over a dozen messages.

”I found the entrance! Your method really works!”

”This corridor is so long, and it’s so slippery. Did you encounter anything on your side?”

”There are so many boxes in my underground city, all resources left by survivors!”

”Xu Xin, are you still there?”

”Where are you? You haven’t met with an accident, right?”

”There are mutated beasts in the underground city. Xu Xin, are you still alive?”

”Your name hasn’t turned gray, you must be alive!”

”Can’t receive messages?”

Meanwhile, the [Explorers] group chat was filled with communication records.

Xu Xin furrowed his brows.

They weren’t forbidden from using the watch for communication in the underground city. Could it be that only he was special?

He browsed through the content in the [Explorers] group, and everyone was exchanging information. Within minutes, Xu Xin pieced together their intelligence, deepening his doubts.

None of these people encountered bat swarms in the passages of the underground city. In addition to being wet and slippery, their passages had no other dangers. There weren’t any eerie statues or various tools related to mutated beasts in the underground city they entered either.

However, there were many high-level resources in the boxes in the underground city, even more than what Xu Xin had found.

The only common factor was that plenty of mutated beasts existed in their underground city. These mutated beasts would hide in some rooms, launching attacks once the door opened.

In short, ordinary treasure rooms and trap rooms.

”It seems that the underground city I’m in has become more special than others due to the Chang Yin Family’s influence.”

Xu Xin replied to Li Wenxi, who sent him many private messages, ”I’m fine, don’t worry,” and then sent a message in the [Explorers] asking: ”Have you found a way out?”

The group quickly responded.

Wang Lei: ”Whoa! It’s Boss Xu! Boss Xu finally spoke!”

Zhao Xiaochuan: ”Boss Xu, you hadn’t spoken for so long, we thought something happened to you!”

Wen Guixin: ”So you’re alright after all.”

Li Wenxi: ”!!! You finally made some noise! I thought you...”

Qin Yunlong: ”You finally spoke.”

Xu Xin didn’t expect one sentence to trigger so many responses, but he was too lazy to explain, so he just replied, ”I don’t know why there was no signal in my dungeon earlier, but it has just restored.”

Xu Xin didn’t plan to tell them about his encounters; it was pointless and a waste of time, plus he needed to keep some strength in reserve.

”Isn’t Boss Xu’s watch purple level? Yet it’s worse than our signal, so tragic.”

”How could it be worse? Surely Boss Xu’s dungeon is more advanced and has found many resources!”

Xu Xin didn’t expect these people would actually start chatting away, so he helplessly sent a message: ”Are you guys that idle? Have you already gotten out of the dungeon?”

Wang Lei: ”Yeah, I’m out, heading towards the treehouse now.”

Zhao Xiaochuan: ”Almost there, I can already see the ground exit.”

Wen Guixin: ”You’re all too slow, I’m already back at the treehouse. I wonder what they were thinking with this event, giving two days for something so simple.”

Qin Yunlong: ”You can’t say that, others spend a lot of time just searching for the dungeon entrance. If it weren’t for Xu Xin’s method, how could we find the entrance so quickly and get out of the maze?”

So... they really have gotten out of the dungeon?

”Did you follow the corridor to get out?”

”Yeah, there were some traps and mutated beasts in the corridor, but they were child’s play for us.”

”I just dashed through boldly; although the mutated beasts were stronger than ordinary ones, they were small, really weak, just big rats after all. But the points rewarded were quite a lot.”

The chat was chaotic, so Xu Xin directly sent a message to Li Wenxi: ”Have you gotten out too?”

Li Wenxi replied quickly: ”Yes, I’m heading to the treehouse now. You really scared me, being quiet for so long, because of poor signal.”

Xu Xin made a voice call.

”Can you tell me how you got out?” Xu Xin asked.

”You... the... speaking... signal... poor...” The voice from the other end was stammering. Xu Xin tried several positions, finding that only pressing the watch against the door improved the signal a bit.

”You’re still underground? I really believe you had no signal now.” Li Wenxi’s voice became clear.

”I’ve encountered some minor trouble here, can you tell me how you got out?” Xu Xin asked again.

”No problem!”

Then, Li Wenxi recounted her process from entering the dungeon to returning to the surface to Xu Xin.

Just as Xu Xin expected, Li Wenxi followed the stairs down to the dungeon without facing danger. Her dungeon also featured a long corridor with dozens of wooden doors, each containing a choice of treasure, trap, or mutated beast.

But wearing blue-level iron armor, she was unharmed by the simple traps and mutated beasts and easily collected all the resources. After exploring all the doors, she continued along the deep corridor, which led her up directly to the surface, despite encountering many traps and beasts that she overcame one by one.

Xu Xin hadn’t expected their dungeons to be so easy. Though easy only for them.

The traps Li Wenxi faced included crossbow arrows shooting suddenly, spike traps, walls that spurt flames, and even rolling stones as wide as the passage. For most people, one misstep could mean death.

”You’re quite skilled, not even getting a scratch with all those traps?” Xu Xin couldn’t help being surprised.

”Hehe, just lucky, just lucky. How is your situation, is it different from mine?”

”Yeah, it’s a bit different, I’ll tell you once I’m out.”

”Oh, okay, good luck!”

After hanging up, Xu Xin leaned against the metal door, pondering.

The traps on his side are probably not as simple as what Li Wenxi experienced. If it were so simple, the survivor twelve years ago couldn’t have stayed here until death without escape.

Xu Xin then messaged Ji Chaoyang, asking about his situation.

He waited several minutes without reply from Ji Chaoyang. Earlier, he hadn’t spoken in the group chat, but he did participate in the previous discussion, indicating he had signal and could communicate in the dungeon.

Maybe he’s dealing with something.

Xu Xin didn’t intend to continue wasting time here.

After giving the door a final shove to no avail, Xu Xin left the metal door and headed down the steps.

Passing through the bat swarm, Xu Xin picked the largest bat, crushed the Mutated Beast Contract in his hand, and easily formed a contract with the blood-marked bat trembling in fear.

The contracted blood-marked bat no longer feared the broom in Xu Xin’s hand, landed on his shoulder, and clung to his leather armor with its claws.

”Eek!” Keke felt its territory was invaded, and quickly crawled onto Xu Xin’s other shoulder, baring teeth at the bat, paws waving.

Finally, Xu Xin tapped the bat with his ringed hand, taking the bewildered bat into the ring, ending the farce.

This bat can fly, and I can use it to explore places out of reach. Soon I’ll contract a few ground-walking beasts to scout ahead, as the Chang Yin Family can create contracts, I can have them make more once I’m out.

If I can’t get out, keeping them is pointless, better to use them up.