Chapter 83 Dungeon Fragment

Chapter 83: Dungeon Fragments

Behind the security booth, Hua Diao crouched, rubbing her hands together before opening the treasure chests.

The leftmost golden chest swung open, revealing three items: a book, a potion, and a fragment.

Hua Diao’s face lit up with excitement—two new items! Eagerly, she reached into the bottom of the chest.

The first item she pulled out was a golden book with a cover depicting a fantastical plant, resembling a blackened, poisoned cactus.

***"Flora of the Fantasy Continent: A Compendium (Volume 1): A detailed illustrated guide to the plants of the Fantasy Continent, documenting their appearances, characteristics, properties, and effects. A beloved guide among adventurers of all races on the Fantasy Continent. With this book, you’ll never miss a rare and valuable plant again. Note: This series consists of five volumes."***

Hua Diao’s eyes sparkled, but she didn’t rush to flip through it. The *Flora of the Fantasy Continent* would be far more useful on the Fantasy Continent itself. Right now, they were still on Aqua Blue Star, and since items from treasure chests came with descriptions, the immediate value of this book wasn’t particularly high.

However, in the later stages, when the game invaded reality—or more accurately, when Aqua Blue Star merged with the Fantasy Continent—that was when this compendium would truly shine.

She tucked the book into her island space, then leaned in and reached to fish out the inconspicuous puzzle fragment at the bottom of the chest.

It was an actual puzzle piece, like something from a child’s toy, with irregular indentations and protrusions.

Hua Diao picked it up and examined it closely. The fragment depicted half of a goblin’s face and one of its long ears.

This must be a fragment of the goblin dungeon.

As the stories went, collecting all the fragments and assembling them into a complete image would open a portal to the dungeon, allowing entry to battle monsters. The artwork on the fragments represented parts of the dungeon’s content.

More fragments meant a higher-ranked, more difficult dungeon.

Naturally, higher risk meant greater rewards.

A dungeon with more than fifteen fragments is considered an advanced dungeon, which ordinary teams generally dare not challenge; it requires a national team to enter and have a chance of clearing it.

When the puzzle reaches over twenty fragments, it enters the realm of top-tier intellect dungeons. As the name suggests, the monsters in these dungeons are no longer mindless, raging creatures that only know how to attack; they possess human-like intelligence.

Or perhaps these dungeons are no longer dungeons at all, but rather a teleportation to some corner of the Fantasy Continent for a real-life穿越 experience.

The thought was quite exhilarating. Perhaps the *Flora of the Fantasy Continent* could be put to use sooner than expected.

Hua Diao carefully examined the shape and size of the fragment in her hand, estimating that this puzzle wasn't large and required only a few fragments.

But she wasn't upset. At this stage, lower-level dungeons were better; as a small weakling, she might struggle to pass if the level was too high.

After carefully storing the puzzle piece, she picked up the last bottle of potion from the bottom.

***"Item: Vitality Potion"***

***"Level: Common"***

***"Description: Restores 30% of stamina. Note: Can be stacked."***

Hua Diao’s eyes lit up. At this stage, this was more useful than a Life Potion. The Life Potion replenished mental energy, but she didn't consume much of it unless she used the curses stored in her consciousness sea. The Life Potion was mostly just a decoration, at best keeping her awake through a sleepless night and then restoring some energy with one dose. But the Vitality Potion was different; it restored physical stamina.

She could drink one when tired from running to quickly replenish lost stamina; drink one when her arms ached from drawing the bow to ease muscle soreness; or drink one after battling monsters to feel refreshed and ready to fight another hundred or so...

Hehe, the thought made her feel good.

She carefully stored the potion.

Hua Diao then proceeded to open the two treasure chests beside her, obtaining 2 one-time skill scrolls, 2 fragments, 10 gold coins, and 1 stone sculpture.

She picked up the stone sculpture with curiosity and examined it.

***"Support Item: Stone Lion"***

***"Level: Ordinary"***

***"Description: The stone sculpture can enlarge or shrink in size. It allows the user to merge with it to hide. While merged, it cannot be identified by the Identify spell. It has stone-like hardness, lasting 3 minutes per use. Note: The support item can be upgraded using materials, which will increase both the possession duration and hardness. The extent of improvement depends on the materials used and the skill of the craftsman."***

Hua Diao’s face lit up with a smile. This was another great find. If her island pocket dimension failed and she couldn’t enter, she could still hide inside this in case of danger. By shrinking the sculpture to the size of a peanut or a pebble on the ground, no one would spot her.

This was an extra safety net. She needed to upgrade this item, aiming for a level of sturdiness that even a werewolf’s spiked club couldn’t smash.

After happily storing the stone lion away, she went to check the other two fragments.

One of them depicted the other half of the goblin’s face, perfectly matching the piece she had obtained from the previous treasure chest to form a complete goblin’s visage.

Well, well! With these two fragments as the foundation, she could confidently deduce that this goblin instance's puzzle required only four pieces in total. Collecting two more fragments would allow her to unlock the dungeon and start the instance.

As for the other fragment, it bore the image of a tender green sprout sketched with just two strokes. This had her completely stumped—what kind of dungeon could this be?

Frowning, Hua Diao fished out a metal cookie tin from her space, dumped the cookies in her pocket, and placed the three puzzle fragments inside.

The fragment with the sprout was too ambiguous to identify now, so she’d wait until she gathered more pieces before figuring it out.

After snapping the tin lid shut and tucking the box back into her space, Hua Diao finally emerged from behind the security booth and cheerfully headed toward Zhao Xu.

Zhao Xu had just finished clearing a wave of monsters and was now scanning his surroundings as if searching for someone.

When he spotted Hua Diao, his eyes instantly brightened, and he strode toward her with large steps.

He was clad in military-green camouflage, with multiple tears on his shoulders, arms, and back. Through the torn fabric, glimpses of fresh blood were visible—proof of how perilous the earlier battle had been.

Hua Diao’s initially radiant smile slowly faded, her lips pressing together as her excitement dampened.

Yet Zhao Xu’s resolute face remained cheerful as he called out warmly, "Miss Hua."

Once he drew near, he continued with a smile, "The director has assigned my squad the task of escorting you to the Research Institute. You’ve met my team members before at Dongyang Lake, so you should be familiar with them. If there are no issues, we’ll head out now."