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Mystic Calling:Stone of Glory-Chapter 462: Targeted Gate
Chapter 462: Targeted Gate
"There’s no way I can just throw them straight into a fight with the Dungeon or Inferno factions, right?"
Ethan muttered to himself, clearly torn.
It wasn’t that those factions were completely off-limits...
But right now, the enemies from both Dungeon and Inferno were just too damn strong.
Sending Oakenmaw, Orryn, and Kaiin in alone?
That’d be a suicide mission.
They’d be walking corpses—no question.
But if he sent Seraphina to lead them?
That risked drawing out the enemy’s King-tier powerhouses.
And if that happened...
things could spiral out of control real fast.
Plus, he wasn’t ready to reveal Kaiin or Orryn to the world just yet.
Part of it was strategic—he needed to keep some cards close to the chest.
But more importantly, Kaiin was an Ebonite Colossus. That alone made him a walking red flag.
If the Tower faction caught wind of that?
Yeah... that would open up a whole new can of worms.
So now he was stuck in a frustrating loop—
couldn’t send them out, couldn’t keep them idle, couldn’t expose them, couldn’t risk them.
But just as he was about to spiral deeper into that deadlock—
Good news arrived.
"Master, Lilith and Balthazar have returned!" Elynn’s voice rang out from nearby, and at the same time, echoed clearly in Ethan’s mind.
The moment he heard it, Ethan’s eyes lit up.
Finally—something he could work with.
"Perfect. That’s our answer."
He clapped his hands. "Alright, everyone, dismissed! Go handle your own tasks!"
Then he turned to Elynn. "Take me to Balthazar and Lilith. Now."
"Yes, Master!"
...
A short while later, inside the palace of Emerald Castle—
"My Lord!"
Lilith knelt gracefully at Ethan’s feet, her voice calm and respectful. "We’ve returned."
"You’ve done well," Ethan said with a warm smile, motioning for her to rise. Then he turned his gaze toward Balthazar, eyes gleaming with curiosity.
"So, Balthazar—how was it? Your time in the Dungeon... what did you think?"
"My Lord, honestly... I think the Dungeon suits us pretty damn well," Balthazar said, shaking his head with a grin. His eyes gleamed with raw battlelust. "While we were down there, we ran into all kinds of heavy hitters—Black Dragons, Titans, Archangels, Chaos Hydras, Ghost Dragons, Phoenixes... you name it. I fought every single one of them. Got my ass kicked a few times too, sure—but damn, it was worth it."
He cracked his knuckles, clearly itching for more.
"I gotta say, I really liked it down there. Plenty of fights, the terrain’s perfect for us Behemoths, and there’s a ton of gold veins scattered around."
"You fought all of them?" Ethan blinked, his expression turning a little strange. "Wait, hold on—weren’t you supposed to be mapping out the route to the third layer of the Dungeon? Where the hell did you end up going?!"
Lilith stepped forward with a soft laugh, pulling out a rolled-up map.
"My Lord, this is the map to the third layer of the Dungeon," she said, unfolding it. "Just like you asked, we found a direct route to the Malenthia territory. But... we also stumbled across something else. Something strange."
"Strange?" Ethan raised an eyebrow.
Lilith nodded, her eyes glinting with curiosity.
"It looked like a special structure—called the ’Witch’s Hut.’ While we were there, a mysterious witch asked us to retrieve something for her: a Heartfeather of the Firebird... from a Crimson Ultimate-tier hero."
"Witch’s Hut?" Ethan repeated, surprised.
"Yes," Lilith confirmed. "We figured we’d follow your advice and reached out to Isaryne for help. After we completed the witch’s request, she gave us a set of coordinates. According to her, there’s a Targeted Gate at that location—one that leads to a much deeper layer of the Dungeon."
She handed Ethan a piece of parchment. frёewebnoѵēl.com
Ethan took it and studied it carefully. The coordinates pointed to somewhere in the fourth layer of the Dungeon. His brows furrowed.
"The fourth layer, huh... That’s gonna be tricky."
In the Dungeon, each layer was connected by two types of access points: standard entrances and exits, and specialized teleportation gates.
Standard entrances were straightforward—layer one to two, two to three, and so on. But those were rare. And more importantly, most of them were already claimed by powerful factions.
In the Dungeon, controlling an entrance meant controlling the flow of resources, movement, and power. It was like owning a golden highway—everyone wanted it, and no one gave it up willingly.
And even if someone did let you through, would you really trust them?
Because if you didn’t have your own way back up, you were basically handing your life over to someone else. One wrong move, and you’d be trapped down there—no way out, no backup, no second chances.
Would you take that risk?
Of course not. No one would be that stupid.
Which is why, if you wanted to survive—let alone thrive—in the Dungeon, the first thing you needed was your own secure route in and out.
The more routes you controlled, and the deeper you could go, the more territory you could claim. That was the rule of the Dungeon.
As for the second type—teleportation gates?
Those were a whole different beast. More unpredictable, more dangerous... but also full of opportunity.
First off, teleportation gates in the Dungeon generally fall into three main categories: Tiered Gates, Targeted Gates, and Random Gates.
Tiered Gates are the most straightforward—they function like natural stairways between layers. One to two, two to three, and so on. Just like the standard entrances and exits.
Targeted Gates, on the other hand, are a whole different story. As the name suggests, they allow you to skip layers entirely. You might go from layer 1 straight to 3, 4, 5—even 6. In rare cases, you could jump as many as seven layers in one go.
That’s the hard cap:
A Targeted Gate can bridge up to seven layers.
So theoretically, you could go from layer 1 to 8, 2 to 9, and so on.
But these gates are extremely rare—and insanely valuable.
The moment one is discovered, it becomes a hotbed of conflict. Everyone wants it. Everyone fights for it.
Then there’s the Random Gate...
These are the rarest of all—and the most dangerous.
They don’t follow any rules. No layer restrictions. No logic. It’s pure chaos.
You might get lucky and land deep in the Dungeon’s core, surrounded by untapped resources and ancient relics.
Or you might get dumped right into the heart of an enemy stronghold and die before you even realize what happened.
Anything can happen.
Now, the key difference between these gates and the standard entrances?
Standard exits can’t be destroyed.
They’re permanent fixtures of the Dungeon.
But teleportation gates?
They can be destroyed.
Which makes warfare in the Dungeon a logistical nightmare.
Because it’s not just about fighting armies—it’s about protecting your routes.
Your gates. Your lifelines.
Let’s say two major factions are at war. Their territories span layers 1 through 7. The battle breaks out on layer 7. As the war drags on, it’s only a matter of time before the conflict shifts to a new objective: cutting off the enemy’s access routes.
If you destroy their gates or seize their exits,
you trap their forces on that layer.
No reinforcements. No retreat. No escape.
At that point, it’s just a matter of time.
Surround them. Starve them. Crush them.
That’s why, when Ethan saw the coordinates Lilith handed him—
and realized they pointed to the fourth layer of the Dungeon—
his head started to ache.
It wasn’t just that he didn’t know how to get there.
The real problem was...
he didn’t have a single route of his own that reached that deep.
So even if there was a priceless Targeted Gate waiting for him down there,
he couldn’t risk it. Not without a secure way in—and more importantly, a way out.
But then—
"My Lord," Lilith said suddenly, her voice calm but firm, "as far as I know, there is a route to the fourth layer—inside Malenthia’s territory."
Ethan’s eyes narrowed. "Go on."
Lilith nodded. "But... according to what we’ve heard, there’s a powerful Dungeon King stationed at the other end of that route. Malenthia’s forces haven’t been able to push past him. Her expansion stopped cold right there."
"I see..." Ethan’s gaze sharpened, gears turning fast.
Then he looked directly at Lilith. "Tell me—how strong is Malenthia’s army?"
Lilith didn’t hesitate for a second.
"My Lord, she commands a mixed force of 800 units—Black Dragons and Red Dragons. In addition, she has around 9,000 Tier-12 Shadow Matriarchs under her command."
Ethan’s expression didn’t change, but his mind was already calculating.
Lilith continued, "She also has over a dozen orange-tier Legendary Heroes. Two of them are at the absolute peak of the orange tier—right on the edge of breaking through."
...
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