Chapter 349: Large Beast
Kaiden, while barreling through one wall after the other, had noticed something in the chaos.
Something that didn’t fit.
Traditionally, dungeon breaks were hell made worse. Monsters stepping through a gate weren’t the same creatures that awakened would face inside.
They were empowered, swollen with new strength. Taking the undead from the D-rank Hollow of Endless Hunger as an example, inside the dungeon, they were around level 25, but once spilling onto Earth, they would rapidly evolve to maybe even reach level 75. This was why dungeon breaks had to be prevented at any cost.
Yet the kill feed told a different story.
[You’ve slain Winged Ravager (Level 28).]
[You’ve gained 1,239 XP.]
No power-ups. No grotesque evolutions. These were baseline dungeon monsters, the same ones that appeared inside, not warped avatars of destruction. It was wrong. Everything humanity knew about dungeon breaks was being contradicted before his very eyes.
But Kaiden didn’t get the luxury of pondering mysteries.
The towering monster in front of them, plated in jagged black carapace, radiated menace with its mere existence as it blocked their path forward.
"This big bastard must’ve come from deeper inside..." Kaiden muttered grimly. "After the initial swarm of the nearest monsters to the gate, the ones lurking further within are starting to spill out. Things are only going to get worse from here on out."
Before Sarah could even take another breath, a new sound cut through the chaos. The thunder of dozens of claws slamming against stone. From behind, the path they had carved was already being reclaimed. Dozens more monsters flooded in, pulled by the scent of concentrated human prey. The survivors pressed tighter together, their terrified cries becoming more and more desperate as shadows filled both ends of the corridor.