Navigator: I have a double six-story house

The sound of metal scraping against the ground, coming from deep within the cave, grew closer and closer.

Wang Yao raised the iron shield to his chest, crouched slightly, and a hint of tension flashed in his eyes.

Su Qing stood two steps behind him, the musket already set up.

"They're here."

A monster darted out from the shadows.

It was a skeleton with an eyepatch over its empty eye sockets. It only reached Wang Yao's chest and was clutching a rusty curved knife. It walked with a limp and looked like it could be blown over by a gust of wind.

It opened and closed its jaws, making a "clattering" sound, and charged towards the two of them.

Wang Yao glanced at Su Qing.

Su Qing glanced at Wang Yao.

"That's it?" Wang Yao's voice rose at the end.

The skeleton pirate charged forward, slashing down with his curved blade.

Wang Yao didn't even use any skills; he simply stepped to the side and swept his shield out horizontally.

The iron shield slammed into the skull's chest cavity, the sound of bones shattering crisply like stepping on dry twigs.

The entire skeleton shattered into pieces on the spot, and the skull flew out, bounced twice, and rolled to Su Qing's feet.

Su Qing glanced down at the skull and nudged it aside with her toe.

Immediately afterwards, two more skeletons sprang out from around the corner of the cave.

One of them carried a broken sword, while the other, unarmed and wielding only two bone claws, pounced on them.

Su Qing aimed the musket for a second.

boom--!

The musket fired, the bullet tearing through the damp air and striking the right skeleton's spine.

The skeleton was broken in two, and the upper body crawled on the ground a couple of times before stopping.

[Precision shot triggered! Critical hit!]

It must be said that its power is indeed formidable.

But problems soon followed.

Loading.

Su Qing took out a gunpowder bottle from his waist, poured gunpowder into the barrel, inserted lead bullets, and tamped it down with a cleaning rod.

A process can be clean and efficient, but even the fastest process takes time.

Before he could even finish setting it up, Wang Yao was already facing the third skeleton.

With a thrust of the shield forward, the bone claws were deflected, and Wang Yao followed up with his right fist, slamming it into the skull.

"Snap!"

The skull was shattered, and the skeleton collapsed.

Wang Yao shook his hand, turned around and saw Su Qing still pushing the cleaning rod into the gun barrel, and grinned.

He didn't speak, but his eyes held a smile.

Su Qing ignored Wang Yao's smug look and focused on observing to avoid any suspicious behavior.

Even though it was an easy difficulty level, he was still cautious.

After clearing out the three small monsters, a stone door appeared at the end of the cave.

A skull and crossbones symbol was carved above the stone gate, and a dim yellow light shone through the crack in the door.

Boss Room.

Wang Yao took a deep breath and held the iron shield upright.

Su Qing stood behind him, the musket already reloaded, its muzzle slightly lowered.

"Open the door."

Wang Yao kicked open the stone door.

Behind the door was a circular stone chamber, in the very center of which stood a pirate a head taller than an ordinary skeleton.

A living person, not a skeleton, wearing a tattered coat with more than a dozen patches.

He wore an eye patch over his left eye, and a glistening trail of drool hung from the corner of his mouth.

[Easy Difficulty Boss: One-Eyed Pirate - Cheat Dog]

[Level: 3]

The two fell silent.

A thought suddenly flashed through Su Qing's mind: Even if this kind of person is cured, he will still drool.

When the two men barged in, the scoundrel paused for two seconds, then picked up a chipped machete and charged at them, howling.

After running three steps, I tripped over my own foot and fell down.

Wang Yao stood frozen in place, his shield halfway raised, unsure whether to lower it or not.

"..."

"Are you sure this is the Boss?"

Su Qing raised her chin: "It's up to you."

Wang Yao walked forward expressionlessly.

The rascal had barely gotten up, and before he could even raise his machete above his head, Wang Yao's shield had already slammed into his face.

The iron shield struck head-on, and the scoundrel's nose dented instantly. He flew backward, crashed into the stone wall, and slid down to sit on the ground.

The blindfold was knocked away, revealing an empty left eye. It was unclear whether the person was born blind or blinded by their own stupidity.

The scoundrel swayed to his feet, mumbled something incoherently, and charged forward again, knife in hand.

Su Qing even tucked the musket back into her waistband.

Wang Yao yawned, sidestepped the rascal's horizontal slash, kicked it in the waist, making it spin half a circle, and then swung his shield horizontally.

"Duang!"

The rascal lay down on the ground and stopped moving completely.

[Defeat the Boss: One-Eyed Pirate - Cunning Dog, and clear the game on Easy difficulty!]

[Rewards: 30 Copper Coins, 2 Dry Breads (Common Food)]

Two dry pieces of bread and a small pile of copper coins fell off the Boss's corpse.

Wang Yao picked up the bread, turned it over and over, and frowned deeply.

"this one?"

He looked at the pile of copper coins again, his face full of disgust.

"Don't expect too much from the easy difficulty." Su Qing squatted down and collected the copper coins.

Mosquitoes are meat no matter how small they are.

The food produced in the dungeon was not given to Wang Yao, since two loaves of dry bread were not enough for him to level up once at level 4.

However, it's just right for Su Qing, who is at level 1.

Su Qing stuffed the dry bread directly into her mouth and chewed it a couple of times.

To be honest, the taste was comparable to the culinary disasters his sister Suya made.

[Su Qing's Level: 2]

A warm current flowed through my body, but it was very weak and didn't provide much relief.

Wang Yao stretched his shoulders. "But then again, this is too easy."

"According to Zhang's mother, even on the easy difficulty, it takes an ordinary captain half a day to clear the level, and they have to struggle through it."

He patted the iron shield, making a clanging sound.

"At the start of the game, I'm level 4 with C-grade gear, it's like I'm walking into my own backyard. If those captains who are just doing normal exploration saw this, hehe."

Wang Yao's face was full of the smug look of a petty person who had succeeded.

"Alright," Su Qing interrupted him, "Don't get carried away."

"It's only easy; there are four more levels to go."

"If we have the current strength, it would be a problem if we struggled to fight the first three levels."

"The key difficulties are Nightmare and Hell."

Su Qing's eyes were filled with seriousness; very few people could survive the nightmare and hell difficulty levels.

Wang Yao stopped laughing and didn't say anything more.

The two did not linger and went straight to the second floor.

Normal difficulty.

The number of monsters has doubled, and the skeleton pirates have started wearing tattered armor and their weapons are no longer so rusty.

However, they were still no match for Wang Yao, who was at level four, and Iron Shield, who was at level C.

Wang Yao activated the "Taunt" skill to draw aggro, holding his iron shield in front of him. Three or four skeletons surrounded him, hacking at him and sparks flew everywhere, but he stood firmly in place like an old dog.

Su Qing was in the rear, loading, aiming, and firing.

Every shot hit the skeleton's weak point precisely, one shot, one kill, without any pressure.

The interval between reloading ammunition made him feel a little uncomfortable.

The boss on normal difficulty is an upgraded version of the scoundrel, called [One-Eyed Pirate Scarface], with an additional scar.

Their intelligence is barely online, and they can dodge, but that's about it.

Wang Yao's shield rammed into it, causing it to stumble. Su Qing then fired a shot through its chest.

Cleared customs.

The reward was still meager, with a few more copper coins and the food upgraded from dry bread to dried grilled fish.

The third level is the hardest difficulty.

Monsters began to appear in small groups, with skeletons wielding shields in the front and skeletons wielding bows in the back.

Wang Yao was hit by an arrow for the first time. It struck his chainmail, but the force was insufficient, and the arrow bounced off the armor ring, leaving only a white mark.

Su Qing targeted the archer skeletons in the back row first, and the range advantage of the muskets was fully demonstrated at this moment.

The difficult boss finally acts like a proper boss; he's a real pirate captain, carrying a decent-looking scimitar and accompanied by two henchmen.

Wang Yao [provoked] and grabbed the Boss and a henchman. Su Qing first blasted away the lone henchman, then circled around to the side during the reload interval and fired a second shot at the Boss's knee, crippling him.

The boss, now unable to maneuver, was pinned against the wall by Wang Yao, who slammed his shield down repeatedly.

By the time Su Qing finished loading the third bullet, the Boss had very little health left.

He raised his gun and aimed it at the Boss's eye socket.

"Bang!"

The bullet kicked up a cloud of blood.

Hard difficulty, cleared.

The reward was finally a bit more substantial; in addition to copper coins and food, there was also a bottle of basic healing potion.

A rare find.

Su Qing handed the medicine to Wang Yao. "Keep it safe, you'll need it later."

The two stood in front of the entrance to the fourth level of the dungeon.

This door is completely different from the previous three.

The door was made of cast iron, its surface covered with dark red rust marks, whether from iron rust or blood, it was hard to tell. The doorknob was shaped like a distorted human face, its mouth wide open, as if screaming silently.

Wang Yao stared at the iron gate for a few seconds, then exhaled through his nose.

"This is getting interesting."

Su Qing stood beside him, his expression unchanged, but his grip on the musket tightened unconsciously.