Lord: Sequence Master

Continuous rain had turned the roads of the underground world into a muddy mess, making travel difficult. Unlike the surface, where extraordinary battles might leave only craters, underground conflicts posed a serious risk of collapses. As a result, fixed roads were impractical, and travelers often had to dig new tunnels to reach their destinations.

Rosen stared at the unrelenting rain and the collapsed passages, barely able to contain his growing frustration.

When someone cuts in line, someone else gets pushed back. Normally, adventurer groups were allowed one priority pass—a reward from the Hunter Guild—and these instances rarely caused much conflict. But this time, Rosen had clearly encountered an adventurer group that didn't play by the rules. Since morning, his path had been plagued by constant rain and collapses, with the underground passages conveniently caving in just before he could pass.

Someone was clearly trying to sabotage him, hoping to reach the dungeon first.

Suppressing his irritation, Rosen withdrew Chrollo and the others into his Divine Domain and summoned Gray Mouse, sharing its abilities through the Nightmare Chain.

Gray Mouse had mastered a variety of abilities: at Sequence 9, it had Rat King, Divine Doppelganger, Tunnel Vision, and Burrow; at Sequence 8, it had gained Plague, Divine Senses, Panic Escape, and Excavation.

While Burrow allowed movement through soil, combining it with Excavation made it as easy as swimming through water.

Rosen sank into the ground, bypassing the collapsed passage, and moved swiftly through earth and rock. What should have taken two hours took him only one. Soon, he arrived at the dungeon entrance—well ahead of schedule.

An adventurer group was already making final preparations there. They were short of their full fifty members, with the missing ones likely busy sabotaging Rosen's path.

Emerging from the ground, Rosen approached the dungeon's stone monument. With a simple touch of his adventurer group badge, he secured his group's right to enter at noon.

The adventurers, known as the Wolf Pack Adventurer Group, were caught off guard by this sudden turn of events. In no time, they surrounded Rosen, weapons drawn.

"This dungeon belongs to the Wolf Pack Adventurer Group of Count Fritz today. You shouldn't be here," declared a fully armored Beast Knight as he stepped forward.

"As I suspected," Rosen thought, scanning the group.

Under normal circumstances, adventurer groups didn't provoke one another easily. The groups, often comprised of fifty extraordinary individuals, were formed out of necessity to conquer dangerous dungeons, not out of loyalty. Only those with leaders possessing both absolute power and personal charisma could command full obedience.

Yet, the moment Rosen appeared, the group instantly encircled him. Many were still Sequence 9, making their presence in a Sequence 7 dungeon risky. It wasn't difficult to deduce that the Wolf Pack, like his own Demon Hunters, had been formed by a Domain Lord.

However, the Wolf Pack's lord clearly had deeper foundations, as they even had Sequence 7 Beast Knights in their ranks.

Ignoring the Beast Knight's threat, Rosen simply summoned his forty-nine retainers. Seeing this, the Beast Knight realized Rosen was also a count.

He quickly blew a horn, the sound bypassing reality to reach the spiritual realm, where Count Fritz, currently in the spiritual world, received the signal.

As a Playwright Sequence extraordinary, Count Fritz returned to the real world immediately.

While the Beast Knight had been wary of Rosen, Count Fritz quickly assessed the situation. Though Rosen was only Sequence 7, the fact that he commanded a Divine Domain and had raised fifty extraordinary retainers suggested that his foundations might even surpass some Sequence 6 Domain Lords.

Not eager to provoke such a person, Fritz offered, "I can compensate you with 500,000 spiritual crystals."

"That won't be necessary," Rosen replied, issuing silent commands to Chrollo and the others through his Mind Canvas.

As they remained vigilant, Rosen's retainers stepped forward one by one, touching their adventurer badges to the stone monument, solidifying their right to enter the dungeon.

Count Fritz's face darkened. Without a word, he turned and left. Yet through the Mind Canvas, Rosen sensed the murderous intent buried deep within Fritz's heart.

It was clear that something in the dungeon was critical to Fritz—so valuable that he was willing to kill another count for it.

Rosen briefly considered initiating a fight but decided against it. In the human world, it was best to avoid breaking the surface-level rules unless absolutely necessary.

The Hunter Guild monitored the stone monuments marking dungeon entrances. If a bloodbath started here, Rosen's reputation could suffer, and he might attract unwanted hostility from other adventurer groups. The wisest course of action was to wait for the Wolf Pack to make the first move, then retaliate.

Both sides stood in tense silence until noon, when Rosen and his group entered the dungeon.

As he watched Rosen disappear into the dungeon, Count Fritz approached the stone monument.

[Trap Lair: Demon Dungeon]

Level: Sequence 7

Capacity: 50 participants

Description: The Trap Lair is home to trap-master Crypt Demons. Every step must be taken carefully to avoid their traps.

The Trap Lair was dangerous but offered incredible rewards. Defeating the Crypt Demons could yield Hunter Sequence skill crystals, and clearing the dungeon perfectly might even reward the Trap Master passive talent.

But that wasn't all—a rare mutant Crypt Demon could sometimes appear. Killing one of these mutants could grant the coveted reward of a Domain Building.

On their last delve into the Trap Lair, the Wolf Pack had accidentally discovered one of these mutants.

Killing such a mutated species could yield extremely rare domain buildings.

The last time the Wolf Pack Adventurer Group ventured into the Trap Lair, they had accidentally discovered one of these mutated Crypt Demons. However, the mutant managed to escape, leaving them waiting for another chance to capture it.

Without specific preparations, taking down the mutant would be no easy feat. Having been severely injured, the creature was likely hiding deep within the dungeon, making it improbable for other adventurer groups to stumble upon it.

Yet, as fate would have it, one of the Wolf Pack's retainers had drunkenly revealed the existence of the mutant. Word spread, and soon, many adventurer groups were aware of the mutant lurking in the Trap Lair.

But stealing prey from the Wolf Pack? That would be no easy feat. And surviving afterward would be even harder.

Count Fritz, knowing full well that his advantage lay in careful planning, projected his Divine Domain and seated himself comfortably on a plush couch brought over by his retainers. In his hands, the Playwright's Fate Script appeared, and he began conducting a fate check, targeting the Trap Lair.

"Demon Hunters Adventurer Group... Non-hereditary Count Rosen Howard..."

Through the Fate Script, Count Fritz quickly learns Rosen's name and the names of his adventurer group members, including Chrollo and the others.

While fate checks were a powerful tool, for now, knowing their names was the limit of what Count Fritz could achieve at Sequence 6. But with their names, he could begin weaving his play.

A powerful Playwright excelled at manipulating characters and toying with their fates. With a flick of his wrist, Count Fritz summoned a Sequence 7 Extraordinary Item, the Pen of Fate, and plunged the tip into his vein to draw blood. His blood, infused with the supernatural power of a Fate-Doom Demon, would amplify his skill as a playwright.

"The Trap Lair is about to host a spectacular play..."

Grinning, Count Fritz gripped the Pen of Fate and began feverishly writing the scenes that would unfold. His script would dictate the fate of all within the dungeon.

At the same time, deep inside the Trap Lair, Rosen's extraordinary instincts flared, alerting him to a sudden increase in danger. He hadn't sensed this when they first entered, so something outside the dungeon was manipulating events—likely Count Fritz.

"Let the soldiers come, and the waters rise; we'll settle this once we get out," Rosen thought grimly.

The Trap Lair was a maze-like underground cave system, and its layout changed with each adventurer group that entered. Without a map, the safest strategy was to advance slowly, step by step.

But that meant fewer rewards.

The cave was cramped, barely ten meters in diameter—conditions that might have been a disadvantage for most groups. However, Rosen saw it as an advantage.

He summoned Nightmare Slime and 25 ordinary slimes, transforming them into 26 Frost Naga through Pet Transformation. Then, with Sea Elemental Summon, he called forth 260 Sequence 9 sea elementals to form the front lines of his army.

The sight of this summoned force sent chills down Chrollo's spine.

But that was only the beginning. The Frost Naga army then used Mirror Image, creating an additional 130 sea elementals.

Now, 390 Sequence 9 sea elementals were ready for battle. Without hesitation, they began casting Waterball, sending a barrage of meter-wide water orbs down the dark cave tunnels. Every second, 390 waterballs flew through the air, triggering traps in the distance.

The sound of traps being activated echoed continuously, though the ones triggered by the waterballs were the weakest. The traps couldn't even scratch Rosen.

The Frost Naga switched tactics, casting Ice Arrow to freeze the flooded cave tunnels. As ice formed, more powerful traps activated and shattered in the process.

But Rosen's actions soon provoked the wrath of the Crypt Demons lurking nearby.

He released Gray Mouse, who immediately used Divine Doppelganger, summoning 22 doppelgangers—each as strong as a Sequence 8 Frost Naga. Despite Gray Mouse's Sequence 8 rank, few Sequence 7 opponents could stand against him.

With Divine Senses, Gray Mouse detected the Crypt Demons moving beneath the ground. Leading his doppelgangers, he burrowed into the earth using Panic Escape.

Though its name suggested cowardice, Panic Escape was an incredibly powerful ability. It provided a tenfold speed boost that gradually decreased, but for the first moments, Gray Mouse was invulnerable to attacks below Sequence 8. Even direct hits caused no damage.

As rocky spikes shot up from underground, aiming to impale Gray Mouse, they were effortlessly deflected by Panic Escape. When he and his doppelgangers reached the Crypt Demons, they tore into them with claws and fangs. Each wound became infected with a supernatural Plague, causing the demons to convulse and ooze black pus.

Within minutes, the Crypt Demons were slaughtered.

Gray Mouse dragged their bodies back to the cave, where the Frost Naga cast Water Prison to submerge the corpses in spinning water orbs. Slowly, the Crypt Demons' bodies dissolved into sludge, tainted with the Plague. This infected water was absorbed by the sea elementals, transforming them into Plague Sea Elementals.

Though Gray Mouse's Plague wasn't particularly potent, it had little effect on elemental lifeforms, allowing them to become carriers of the disease without suffering ill effects.

The Plague Sea Elementals surged through the cave's cracks, triggering more traps along the way. Even as some were destroyed, more were summoned to replace them.

Rosen, still wary, knew something was wrong. His extraordinary instincts were screaming that there was a greater threat in the dungeon.

Crypt Demons rarely attacked unless all their traps were destroyed. Even then, getting past Gray Mouse was unlikely.

The only real danger was the Sequence 6 Crypt Demon Leader, but Rosen hadn't destroyed any of its traps. There was no reason for it to attack.

It had to be Count Fritz pulling the strings from outside.

"Playwright Sequence..." Rosen mused. "He's trying to make me a character in his little play."

Without hesitation, Rosen donned the Actor's Mask—a Sequence 7 extraordinary item specifically designed to disrupt Playwright Sequence manipulation.

A good actor could synchronize with a playwright, enhancing their control, but an uncooperative actor could turn the whole performance into chaos. The Actor's Mask, containing Sequence 7 extraordinary essence, would significantly interfere with Count Fritz's control.

Sure enough, once the mask was on, the sense of danger lessened, though it didn't disappear completely. The threat remained—it was just delayed.

Now aware of the looming danger, Rosen knew he had limited time. He ordered his pets, summoned creatures, and retainers to charge ahead, smashing through every trap in their path, as they pressed forward through the treacherous Trap Lair.