Chapter 136: The Labyrinth

After hearing Caesar Pig’s assessment, Qin Fei raised his stone axe and began harvesting the meat from the toad.

It took him a full two hours to finish.

Qin Fei and Xie Nainai managed to collect over twenty kilograms of frog meat from the creature. Although the beast was massive, the meat on its back was inedible. Its back was covered in countless dead wood stumps and mushrooms. Having learned a hard lesson from eating mushrooms in the Rabbit Man village, Qin Fei no longer intended to consume random fungi. However, these mushrooms could serve as rations for Big Nose and Caesar Pig. The two pigs seemed to lack a "sanity" stat, so they suffered no side effects from consuming them.

During the harvesting process, Qin Fei discovered two unique items. They were pieces of equipment.

The first was hollow in the middle, and its cap could be opened.

[Mushroom Light: A natural mushroom lampshade formed on the Toad King’s back! It can hold a light source and increases its duration by 50%.]

A good find. Since no sunlight reached the underground world, having a reliable light source was crucial before exploring. With this Mushroom Light, the duration of fireflies was increased by 50%.

The second piece of equipment was a blue mushroom with the stem removed, leaving only the cap.

[Mushroom Hat: When equipped, it reduces stamina consumption by 25% and periodically produces mushroom spores. These spores drift in the air, emitting a faint glow.]

The effect of this gear was even better than the lamp. Qin Fei claimed the Mushroom Hat for himself, while Xie Nainai took the Mushroom Light. Although the hat had powerful stats, Qin Fei felt ridiculous wearing it, like a total fool.

After processing the toad's carcass, Qin Fei examined the obelisk that had crushed the beast. It seemed to be crafted from some kind of ore, and its appearance was identical to the three Arks on the island. Qin Fei speculated that the obelisk likely functioned the same way as the Arks. Perhaps the ancients built them to prevent the "Corruption Consciousness" from spreading and to maintain the ecological balance of the entire underground world. Of course, this was merely a guess.

He had no idea what its specific purpose was, and since the obelisk was too heavy to fit into his backpack, he abandoned the idea of further study.

Walking out of the abandoned village, the group returned to the pond where the Toad King had resided. To Qin Fei’s surprise, the stone lobster he had used as a shield had not been killed by the Toad King. It had turned into a stone, lying on the ground, and thus preserved its life. This was an ability common to all stone lobsters; when facing an invincible opponent, they would curl into a ball and become stone to withstand external attacks.

Seeing the surviving stone lobster, Qin Fei was overjoyed. He walked over and retrieved it into the cryopod. It truly lived up to its reputation as the number one fighter and tank of the *Don't Starve* world—it had even survived an attack from the Toad King.

After securing the lobster, Qin Fei went to the entrance where the Toad King had been hiding and placed the Mushroom Light from Xie Nainai’s hands inside. Looking in, he realized this wasn’t just a den; it was the passage leading from the first floor of the underground to the second! The toad had actually made the entrance its home.

At the edge of the opening, a spiral stone staircase wound downwards, connecting to the ground of the second floor. Logically, the second floor should be more dangerous than the first. But generally, the greater the danger, the greater the rewards. Besides, Qin Fei now possessed the "Shadow Form," a bug-like survival skill. As long as he was careful and escaped in advance when encountering danger, it shouldn't be much of a problem.

After weighing his options, Qin Fei decided to go down and survey the situation.

The terrain of the second floor was quite strange. The ground was not made of soil, but paved with an unknown type of rock. Countless walls stood everywhere, crisscrossing each other to make the entire second floor look like a massive underground labyrinth. However, the Shadow Form skill allowed him to pass directly through walls. With this divine skill, the maze walls were essentially non-existent to him. Of course, only Qin Fei and Xie Nainai could pass through walls.

To avoid getting lost in the maze, Qin Fei left Caesar Pig and Big Nose in place, and he and Xie Nainai ventured into the labyrinth together.

Upon entering, a chilling air from an unknown source made both of them shiver. The surroundings were covered in white spider webs, and occasionally, they could see bones on the ground—it was unclear what creatures they had belonged to.

"This place is pretty creepy..." Feeling the gloomy and terrifying atmosphere, Xie Nainai couldn't help but mutter. She held up the firefly light and blinked her large eyes at Qin Fei. "Hey, do you think there are ghosts here?"

"Hard to say..." To be honest, although Qin Fei was a veteran of *Don't Starve*, he wasn't very familiar with the game's underground world. Especially in places like this maze, he had rarely ventured here in all his time playing. Because he was unfamiliar with the environment, Qin Fei moved slowly. He had to memorize the route while remaining vigilant for dangers that could appear at any moment.

"Look above you!" Xie Nainai, walking behind him, suddenly shouted. She seemed to have spotted a threat.

Qin Fei had been maintaining his vigilance, fully focused. Prompted by Xie Nainai, his body immediately began to blur. Seconds later, he transformed into a ghostly, floating Shadow Form. At the same time, several white figures pounced on him.

In his Shadow Form, Qin Fei was naturally not ambushed. He hovered in the air and looked down. The white figures that had attacked him were giant spiders, each over a meter tall!

Seeing Qin Fei turn into a black shadow floating in the air, the white spiders immediately shifted their target and lunged at Xie Nainai. They had immense jumping power and reached her in mere seconds. But by then, Xie Nainai had also turned into a black shadow and floated into the air.

One cannot speak while in the Shadow State, but there was no need for words; both Qin Fei and Xie Nainai knew exactly what to do. They drifted slowly from the air toward the wall and passed directly through it.