Chapter 1751 - 1034: Falling into the Abyss 2.0

Reviving after death in the Sain Dungeon, and indeed all dungeons, is not a new concept.

However, dying and reviving with the ability to redo everything you previously encountered is indeed quite novel.

At least for now, apart from the Painting World, adventurers have not encountered anything similar in the Sain Dungeon, and even in the Painting World, the characters there still retain memories of the adventurers, not allowing a complete reset upon death return.

So, Ulashiro’s situation truly is a unique case at present.

"This is really the first time I’ve encountered such a situation."

Tami mused as he strolled near the bonfire.

He looked towards the direction of the BOSS battlefield where the Spirit Temple Holy Beast was located; there was no Fog Gate there, indicating that the defeat of the Spirit Temple Holy Beast had not been reverted along with the party’s complete annihilation, and the rewards obtained from defeating the Holy Beast were still intact.

Counting the items, only the Silver Necklace and the Wolf Blood Sword Grass obtained from Young Wolf Shif had vanished, while all other items remained.

Does this mean that Ulashiro’s characteristics could be exploited to farm materials?

No, no, they are people who fought their way here through sheer strength; how could they waste time on basic materials? Let’s have some ambition.

"Since there’s a special death return rule here, there must be something that can only be achieved through this rule."

Such as their interactions with Artorias and Shif.

"I’ve felt for a while that Artorias, who invades when the Silver Necklace is taken, may not necessarily be in a hostile state."

Maru said at this moment, "Is there a way to change this situation?"

"I don’t know," Tami decisively said, "That’s why we need to try."

The entirety of Ulashiro is vast; they have explored only about one-fifth of its area so far, and there are many unknowns waiting to be uncovered.

Perhaps among those unknowns lies the key to changing Artorias’ attitude?

In a story, if a gun appears, it certainly will be fired at some point. Similarly, if the Sain Dungeon has created a death return rule, there must be a specific place that relies on it to be fulfilled.

"Let’s go and continue exploring!"

The group set off on their journey once more.

In the next actions, they decided to follow the same steps as before with some added variables.

When encountering the rampaging Abyss monster horde and Artorias for the first time, they did not hesitate to join the Wolf Knight to fight against the Monsters.

The outcome was being completely overwhelmed by the increasing numbers, ultimately forming a black tide of Abyss monsters, leading to their death return.

The strategy of "displaying goodwill to Artorias at the first encounter" was declared a failure.

Next time, they sensibly fled under Artorias’ cover, went on to obtain the Wolf Blood Sword Grass from Shif, and finally took the Silver Necklace while persuading Shif with the Wolf Blood Sword Grass.

When Artorias took the form of a Red Spirit to invade, they chose to turn and flee, leading the chasing Artorias into the initial area, triggering an Abyss monster rampage.

The result was the group being overwhelmed by the Abyss monsters and the Wolf Knight.

In the subsequent attempt, the prepared group tried to kill Artorias directly, relying on the burst seed ability of Maru and Tami to claim one of Artorias’ arms, clearly causing him some injuries.

It proved that due to initial psychological shadows and other factors, they had somewhat misjudged Artorias’ strength, which now seemed slightly exaggerated.

The challenge level was above the double boss phantom Royal City of Yanor Londo and below the King’s Soul holders, making it a unique level of strength above other Boss Monsters.

If they could gather a team proficient in defeating King’s Soul holders, they could potentially defeat the Red Spirit form of Artorias here.

Provided, of course, that no unexpected factors were involved.

This time the conclusion was that Artorias voluntarily left without further entangling with the adventurers, achieving the Silver Necklace and successfully driving off Artorias.

However, everyone felt that this wasn’t quite right, not the proper path of development, as their intuition told them.

Moreover, antagonizing Artorias does not seem to be the prerequisite for a happy end.

Thus, they decisively opted for death return.

Next time again, they decided to first explore other regions of Ulashiro, spending considerable time uncovering parts of the deeper city district’s mist.

Yet found nothing that could be used to ease relations with Artorias.

And the further they went, the more severe the marks of Abyss erosion on Ulashiro City District became; not to mention the combat power of various Abyss Monsters, even the basic Abyss monsters had learned Abyss Magic, coupled with the Abyss-eroded ground being harmful to the human body...

Without the Silver Necklace able to deflect Abyss Magic, the subsequent battles were akin to hard mode.

To put it in perspective, it’s like walking bare without a rusted iron ring at the bottom of the waterlogged Sick Village with all Monsters replaced by Fat Brother, and the toxicity of stagnant water greatly increased with a chance to induce madness...