Divine Glitch: I Regressed With Endgame Knowledge-Chapter 42: The Path Left Untaken

"Join me in hell, mortals!"

With a final shriek, the Boss’s body blurred, then collapsed. The shimmering light that clung to its form burst outward in a violent explosion the instant it struck the ground, incinerating the massive grizzly bear still clawing at it with blind fury.

Ryan had already retreated far from the blast zone, Faded Leaf Kitten curled on his shoulder, unaffected by the carnage.

"That was the second Boss?" Evelyn strolled up behind him, laughing. "It’s nothing compared to the first."

"The first one’s just a gatekeeper," Ryan replied, already heading toward the Boss’s body. "It’s there to test if you’re even qualified to step into the dungeon."

He knelt and began to loot. From the remains, he pulled a short staff, its shaft wrapped in tiny, pulsing red orbs. Clearly an item for Mages or Priests. Without a second glance, he tossed it straight into Mia’s bag. freeweɓnovel~cѳm

Then he found what he was really after: a single, dark-red blossom—the Blood Blossom.

That was his class advancement quest item.

"It’s already past 5:40," Mia said, examining the staff with a thoughtful frown. "Should we break for dinner? We can turn in our class quests, then come back and tackle the rest of the dungeon afterward."

She had a point. They’d been careful—painfully so—with every enemy, and while no one had died, it had taken a toll on their time. If it had been Ryan from his previous life, these first two Bosses would’ve been cleared in under forty minutes. Today, it had taken nearly two hours.

All class advancement items were found in the first half of the dungeon. Ryan’s item, as a Protection Paladin, was notoriously the last one to drop. That made him the final member of the team to complete his quest.

"Alright," Evelyn said, stretching with a satisfied groan. "Everyone log off and get ready. Let’s meet back here in half an hour."

She could barely contain her excitement. Clearing the dungeon’s first half, which had halted most teams in their tracks, felt unreal—especially with this loosely formed party.

She’d just checked the forums. According to the latest posts, any team that had managed to down the first Boss had done it through sheer luck—and not without casualties.

Their team hadn’t lost a single player.

One by one, the others pulled out their Hearthstones and began channeling their return spells. Ryan joined them—but at the last moment, he canceled his cast and stayed still, quietly watching as the others faded from view.

Once their departure light dissolved into darkness, a faint smile touched his lips.

He turned around and began walking back the way they had come. There was one more thing he needed to do—something that would take what players called "the impossible path" and turn it into a highway.

After a short trek, Ryan arrived at a fork in the dungeon corridor.

Earlier, the team had chosen the right-hand path. It was the obvious route—it led to a Boss. The left path? No one even considered it. Forum videos had made it clear: that way led to death.

Still, Ryan turned left.

Barely two minutes down the path, he reached a rusted iron gate. On the other side was a small, dimly lit chamber, eerily quiet. Nothing stirred—but everyone knew what lay beyond.

Once that gate was broken, it would begin.

Not a Boss. Not even elite monsters, Just mobs—dozens upon dozens of them.

They were called Volatile Skeletons.

Individually, they weren’t threatening. Each had less than ten HP. But they carried a deadly quirk: upon death, they exploded, dealing 50 points of fire damage to anything nearby.

Fifty points might not sound like much. But there weren’t ten of them. There weren’t even twenty.

There were hundreds.

And they didn’t stop.

Their spawn point sat just a few feet beyond the gate, triggering every thirty seconds like clockwork. Players had reported watching the mobs regenerate in waves, over and over again, with no end in sight.

The forums called it a death trap.

Ryan had other plans.

He chuckled as he approached the rusted iron gate, small hammer in hand. With a few solid swings, the metal groaned and shattered.

If Evelyn found out what he’d just done, she’d probably want to kill him.

There was a popular saying on the forums: "If someone breaks that gate by accident, just log off. The dungeon’s over."

The reason? Once that gate was destroyed, the undead mobs inside—those volatile, endlessly spawning skeletons—would begin pouring out in waves. They didn’t just scatter randomly. No, they headed straight for the second Boss’s area and swarmed it relentlessly.

And they didn’t stop.

Their numbers kept growing, overwhelming the entire zone, effectively resetting the dungeon. For any unsuspecting group still fighting in that area, it was an instant wipe.

Ryan wasn’t worried.

He retreated from the left passage calmly as the mobs began to spill forth like a tide of bone and fire, then settled into a safe vantage point, watching them skitter away toward Foreman Arlen’s chamber.

Once he was satisfied with the chaos he’d set in motion, he pulled out his Hearthstone.

He had no intention of continuing the dungeon now. What he’d done was lay the groundwork.

The forums were buzzing lately with one major question: how do you get past the path after the second Boss?

It was known as the impossible path—and for good reason.

After defeating Foreman Arlen, the iron gate behind him would unlock, revealing a narrow descent into the lower levels of the Abandoned Mine.

But barely a minute in, players would hit a wall—metaphorically and literally.

Dozens of Level 10 Kobold Elites lined the walls of the corridor in tight, overlapping clusters. They stood shoulder to shoulder, group after group, forming a near-impenetrable blockade.

Each pack numbered at least ten.

Triggering just one group with an errant spell or misstep could alert the rest. And when that happened, the response wasn’t gradual.

It was a flood.

Hundreds of Kobolds charging in a screeching, coordinated swarm.

Players had thrown everything at the problem: crowd control, bait tactics, stealth. Nothing worked.

No one could pass.

But Ryan knew better. He always had.

In his past life, few had ever connected the dungeon mechanics to the lore of Goldmine Town’s main questline. But if you paid attention, it was all there.

The undead haunting the mine weren’t random. They were once miners—victims of the Kobolds.

They hated them.

The tragedy ran deep, but it was cleverly hidden beneath surface-level quest text and ambient NPC chatter. Most players missed it.

The twist? The most powerful undead—the Foreman—wasn’t roaming free.

He was enslaved.

Controlled by the Kobolds. Turned into their gatekeeper.

But once the Foreman was slain, and the iron gate holding back the volatile skeletons was broken, something beautiful happened: the mine’s undead began to stir. Driven by vengeance, they spilled out, ignoring players completely.

Their hatred was focused.

One by one, they would clash with the entrenched Kobolds, whittling down their numbers over time. Slowly but surely, the "impossible path" would open.

And when the Kobolds were finally wiped out, the skeletons too would vanish. No more explosions. No more respawns. Just silence.

That was the real secret of the Abandoned Mine.

And once that path was cleared, it led to the final chamber—the lair of Goldtooth, the elusive Kobold Priest.

An emerald glow pulsed softly as Ryan’s Hearthstone activated. A moment later, he was back at the inn in Goldmine Town.

The place was buzzing.

Players milled around, sharing rumors, strategy clips, loot screenshots—anything that might offer a clue on how to progress. The usual noise of early-game chaos.

Ryan stepped outside into the dusky streets and made his way toward the towering Grand Cathedral that loomed at the town’s center.

His Protection Paladin advancement quest was ready to turn in.

And with it came something even more valuable: two Auxiliary Talent Points.

In the early game, that was gold. Pure gold.

Back on the forums, new posts were already going up—teams bragging that they’d finally cleared the upper levels of the Abandoned Mine. And now, they too had set their sights on the lower floors.

Soon enough, someone would stumble upon the left path.

Maybe they’d even figure out the real reason it was there.

But by then, Ryan would be long gone—already steps ahead.

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