Duo Leveling LITRPG | Post Apocalyptic | SYSTEM-Chapter 27 - Into the Garden of Death

Chapter 27 - Into the Garden of Death

The abandoned mall, and the hidden garden within it.

[E-rank Dungeon ’Garden of Death’ has been discovered.]

Jhin stared at the small door that barely reached his waist and felt his suspicions confirmed.

’This is it.

This is why Kimmy reacted back at Stoneveil city Station.’

The people of Stoneveil city Station—

They were sick.

Their fingertips dark, their faces flushed unnaturally red, and then—wracked by fever—they collapsed.

It was all because of this dungeon.

’Dungeon Sickness.’

In Exodia, there were all kinds of dungeons.

Places where undead roamed ruined schools, standard monster-filled dungeons with goblins and orcs,

and even the special "theme dungeons" with their own genres.

Among them, the ’Garden of Death’ was unique—

It was a dungeon where the monsters didn’t move.

Because all the enemies were plant-type monsters.

’One of the trickiest kinds once you know the details.’

When the Garden of Death broke open, monsters didn’t flood outside.

Plants, after all, couldn’t move on their own.

Instead, they released something else—

’The Spore Virus.’

And that caused Dungeon Sickness.

In other words, the people of Stoneveil city Station were infected with the Spore Virus and had fallen ill because of it.

’No wonder Kimmy reacted so strongly.’

The Spore Virus was a byproduct of the dungeon, a deadly parasite that invaded human bodies—

and eventually transformed them into monsters.

’There was a similar case even in Exodia.’

When was it?

Ah, right. He once took a quest to clear an S-rank version of the Garden of Death.

That time, it was located on a remote island in the middle of the sea.

’The villagers had all already turned into monsters by the time we arrived.’

Jhin had only learned about Dungeon Sickness in detail because of that quest.

He had found the village doctor’s journal, hastily written before his transformation.

It had been critical information.

Since then, Jhin had tackled several versions of the Garden of Death,

using that knowledge again and again.

That’s why he had figured out the situation faster than anyone else.

’The survivors of Stoneveil city Station are in the same boat as those NPCs.’

Fortunately, the Spore Virus didn’t affect players much.

Thanks to going through the "Trial nexus," players developed a basic resistance to dungeon side effects.

But ordinary people?

Ordinary people, just like NPCs, had almost zero resistance.

’Of course, if the dungeon rank gets higher, players could be infected too.’

But for now, at E-rank, they were safe.

’Problem is, nobody else seems to realize it.’

From the looks of it, hardly any players noticed anything strange about Stoneveil city Station.

Maybe Caleb or Millie had picked up on it.

Especially Millie—she had probably cleared plenty of Gardens of Death before.

"Detective, the sun’s almost down.

We don’t have time to clear a dungeon."

"He’s right. There are still Skeletons wandering outside!

If we stay out too late, we’ll become the prey."

Naturally, they were hesitant about raiding the dungeon.

Night was falling.

And when the sun set, the Skeletons would lose their daylight debuff—and regain all their strength.

Even for them, fighting Skeletons at full power would be dangerous.

’And monsters are always stronger at night.’

Undead, in particular, received two buffs at night.

Right now, the Skeletons were double nerfed by daytime effects—

but soon, that would flip.

They would fight at full force again.

At the level of E-rank dungeon monsters.

Even so, Caleb couldn’t make the decision easily.

Because leaving things as they were would be even worse.

"That door’s glowing red.

It’s about to break.

If we just leave it, there’ll be another Skeleton outbreak."

The problem wasn’t just the current threat.

If the Garden of Death broke completely, a wave of E-rank monsters would flood out, and the dungeon would even upgrade to D-rank.

The players sighed heavily.

"Haah... I thought all the hard work was over after clearing the Ruined School dungeon.

But now a brand-new undiscovered dungeon pops up out of nowhere."

"How the heck did nobody find this place before?

I thought we searched every corner already."

"Nobody expected an entrance this small, that’s why."

Their gazes all focused on the tiny door deep inside the garden.

It was barely big enough for an adult to crawl through, stooping low.

Compared to the massive, palace-like dungeon entrances they had seen so far,

the Garden of Death was... downright unnatural.

"What do we do?

We don’t have time to clear the dungeon properly.

But it feels wrong to just walk away.

Detective, is there any good option?"

All eyes turned to Caleb.

He stared at the group, thinking hard, and finally made his decision.

As Jhin had already guessed.

The sky turned a deep violet.

Green vines stretched up like they were trying to pierce the clouds.

Toxic plants surrounded everything— This was the E-rank dungeon known as the ’Garden of Death.’

Caleb glanced around at his companions.

Three players matched his pace.

’The best lineup we could’ve picked.

There was no better way.’

His decision: A small elite squad would raid the dungeon.

They would choose only the top players to go in.

The rest would immediately head back to camp.

Even thinking about it again, it was the smartest move.

’Four players are more than enough to clear this.’

Honestly, even two players would have been enough.

Millie and Jhin.

Those two alone could clear any E-rank dungeon—

They had even cleared the Ruined School dungeon when it had upgraded to D-rank.

This dungeon raid was practically guaranteed.

Just then, the fourth member walking nearby, Luke, grumbled under his breath.

"Why are we bringing along a scammer?"

He shot a sour look at Jhin.

"I really don’t get it, Detective.

Why let a filthy impersonator join the team?"