Chapter 96 : Chapter 96
Chapter : 96
The scene before my eyes shifted, as if a thick fog had enveloped them, making it impossible to see clearly.
I clearly felt the muscles in the arm I was holding tense up. I patted Divik's arm, "It's fine, just follow me later."
A prompt appeared before my eyes:
『The level of [Mandiper·Golden Factory] exceeds your level. The probability of failure for a level-skipping challenge is increased. Do you wish to continue the challenge?』
From the prompt, I knew this was an exploration instance.
The level requirement was 60. I was only level 46 now, 14 levels short.
No wonder the system prompted me about the level difference.
But I still chose yes. A mere level 60 instance, even if my level wasn't enough, Divik's level wasn't low. Our average was still over level 60.
Plus, it was an exploration instance, so there probably wouldn't be too many combat situations, right?
With my confirmation, the fog before our eyes finally dissipated.
Only then did I see clearly that we were now in a huge mechanized factory.
In front of me was a running conveyor belt, but there was nothing on it; the belt was running empty.
I looked around at the surroundings.
Everything here seemed to have been magnified more than a dozen times, making our figures look exceptionally short, as if we had suddenly traveled from a land of little people to a land of giants.
The ground trembled slightly. I pulled Divik down to hide in the gap beneath the conveyor belt.
The height of this conveyor belt exceeded my shoulder. After we squatted down, the gap was more than enough to accommodate us.
As the ground trembled, I looked out through the gap.
A giant black-robed man appeared in front of me, dozens of meters tall, with a proportion similar to all the other magnified objects around.
Everything around us had been magnified, which in a sense meant that we had shrunk.
The black-robed man's movements were very stiff.
He operated the conveyor belt in front of him a couple of times, and the machinery immediately began to buzz, so loud that my ears were ringing.
The vibration made me stumble. A pair of warm hands covered both my ears, and a familiar scent enveloped me. The piercing sound weakened a lot.
I couldn't help but look back at Divik.
Seeing that Divik's expression wasn't very good either, I drew a couple of strokes on the back of his hand and mouthed: Go!
In this noisy environment, Divik wouldn't be able to hear even if I spoke. It was faster to just gesture and mouth the words.
Divik nodded. The two of us found a gap, quickly ran past the black-robed man's feet, and scurried to the platform on the opposite side.
I surveyed the surrounding environment and saw a pile of debris suitable for us to climb. I pointed in that direction to Divik and ran over first.
Climbing that pile of debris wasn't too strenuous, but it required dodging the occasional passing black-robed man, so it took some time.
After finally reaching the top, Divik also followed close behind.
Only then did I use the higher ground to get a clear view of this instance space.
Just like the name of the instance, this was a factory. But what was being placed on the assembly line was one white mask after another.
The starting point of the assembly line was a large black tank, from which a strange liquid flowed out continuously.
After several stages of precipitation, a white powder was finally filtered out and sent to a new furnace for boiling.
The boiled liquid was squeezed into mask molds, then sent for baking, and finally formed into white masks, which were then sent out of this factory along the conveyor belt.
The black-robed men were busy with these processes, occasionally operating the machines, but I couldn't understand what they were doing.
But the factory's name was Golden Man? What did this white mask have to do with a golden man?
Divik tugged on my hand and pointed in a direction. I looked over and saw the gears of the factory machinery.
The machine was very tall, reaching straight to the ceiling, and directly above it was a ventilation duct.
With our size, we could just climb up along the gears and enter the duct to see if it led to other places.
I quickly understood Divik's meaning. This was indeed a feasible method, so I nodded in agreement.
This time, it was Divik's turn to lead the way. He was the first to climb onto the gear.
The surface of the gear was rough, but there were no points to climb.
The process of going up was very difficult. Even if Divik could make it up, it would be a bit difficult for me.
After several attempts, all of them ended in failure.
I sat in the pile of debris, using the messy objects to hide my figure, looking at the gear in front of me, thinking if there were any other ways to explore other areas.
After observing the production process of this white mask, my instance exploration progress had only increased by 25%.
This meant that this golden factory didn't just produce this white mask; there must be something else related to its name.
However, this scene before me, why did I have a strong sense of déjà vu...
Was this instance a two-player co-op mode?
While I was letting my thoughts wander, Divik made a new move—he transformed back into his original form.
Giant dragons, giant dragons, with the word 'giant' in their name, one could imagine how massive Divik's original form was.
According to real-world proportions, Divik's original form was at least ten times larger than mine.
But I didn't know if it was because of the instance's influence, but after Divik turned into a dragon, what appeared before me was a small dragon about the same size as me.
Compared to the giant black-robed men, Divik looked like a toy dragon.
Divik also seemed a bit unaccustomed to his suddenly smaller body. He tried to flap his wings and flew up steadily.
My eyes lit up.
That's right, giant dragons have wings and can all fly. We can't climb up, but Divik can fly and carry me up!
Divik prostrated himself in front of me, signaling for me to sit on his back.
I wasn't polite at all. I climbed directly onto his back.
To steady myself, I instinctively grabbed the only place I could use for support—Divik's wings.
The dragon beneath me trembled for a moment, but then it tried its best to restrain itself and not move.
I looked down and realized that I was grabbing the base of Divik's wings, where they connected to his back.
It was one of the few sensitive and fragile spots on a dragon.
Letting go of my hand, I said sorry in my heart.
After I sat firmly, I patted the dragon's neck. Divik understood and flapped his wings twice, flying up from the spot.
We still followed the original plan and flew to the front of the ventilation duct.
Although Divik's original form could carry me, the target was still a bit too large, making it inconvenient for us to hide.
I reached out and pushed. Sure enough, the opening of the ventilation duct wasn't that tight.
I pushed it twice and it loosened. With a push, I pushed open the cover of the ventilation duct.
I stepped on Divik's back and climbed into the ventilation duct.
Divik also squeezed his head up, but the duct was relatively narrow, and his dragon butt was stuck outside.
Seeing this, I almost burst out laughing. Divik wasn't annoyed either.
His claws clung to the opening of the duct, and he transformed back into his human form.
Instantly free from being stuck, Divik's figure swayed. I reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling him up.
The noise inside the ventilation duct was much quieter.
Talking and communicating here was no longer affected.
I poked my head out of the duct and looked around.
The group of black-robed men hadn't noticed our recent movements.
“It's safe. Let's continue exploring the other areas of this factory.”
I glanced at the system introduction. “If the exploration progress exceeds 80%, the exploration is considered successful, and we can leave this instance.”
Divik: “Exploration instance?”
I briefly explained: “It’s a separate, isolated space that is different from the original world.
The content here is usually generated based on the owner’s impressions or experiences. Completing the challenges in this space can yield some rewards.”
Although this world had the concept of levels, no one knew about the concept of instances.
But logically speaking, the Demon King's retainers should know about the concept of instances. After all, the Demon King had grinded quite a few instances back then...
Divik was lost in thought.
The ventilation ducts were interconnected. My minimap didn't work in the instance, so I simply took out a purple fruit from my backpack, squeezed it twice, and purple juice overflowed, dyeing my fingers.
This was a purple dye fruit. People in remote areas often used it to dye fabrics. The color it produced was a slightly fluorescent purple.
In the daytime, it looked similar to what ordinary dyes produced, and it would only glow at night.
Furthermore, the color dyed by the juice of this fruit was not easy to wash off. Unless it was cleaned with the juice of its leaves, the color could not be dissolved.
I had gotten some into my backpack when I was in Sunset Village, but I hadn't had a chance to use them since. Now they could be used as markers.
I used my purple-dyed finger to draw a triangle on the wall of the ventilation duct.
Looking at the slightly glowing purple triangle in the dark duct, I satisfactorily withdrew my hand.
Every time we encountered an intersection, I chose the path on the right and drew a triangle on the wall.
After walking like this for more than ten minutes, I felt the humming sound of the machinery gradually weaken and become indistinct.
I confirmed that we should have left the assembly line workshop that produced the white masks.
“Let's find the opening of the ventilation duct here,” I whispered.
Divik fumbled around in search. This was relatively easy to find. In a short while, Divik and I found the cover of the ventilation duct together.
I took out a longsword, inserted it into the gap of the duct, and pried it a couple of times. With a soft creak, we pried open the cover of the duct.
I lay at the mouth of the duct and looked out. I found that it was a dimly lit room. My night vision allowed me to see the furnishings in the room clearly.
A sofa and strange-looking ornaments.
Other places were in my blind spot and I had to go down to see clearly.
However, I was sure there were no black-robed men in this room, so the risk of going down was not great.
“Let's go, let's go down and have a look.”
Divik jumped out first. In mid-air, he transformed back into a dragon, and before landing, he flapped his wings and successfully took off, avoiding the tragedy of a crash landing.
He flew up to meet me. I found the right moment, jumped onto the dragon's back, and directed him to land on that giant sofa.
The filling of the sofa was very soft. When I jumped off the dragon, I almost stumbled and fell with one deep step and one shallow step.