Cathulhu Online, MUNYA!

Chapter 387 – Cat Dad Has a Date

= B5 Floor, Sacred Water Ocean =

In the sky, a handsome vampire flapped his wings to maintain his flight altitude while princess-carrying an angel. He gazed down at the ocean of refined sacred water.

This was the new level of Slave Dungeon, dedicated to Torrent. It served as a reservoir of raw sacred water as there was no place to store them.

In this level, no creature but Torrent and a few mermaids lived here. The entrance to this level was through one of the floating raft houses in the ocean. As for the exit to the B6 level, it was located in a sea cave on the seafloor.

James had been carrying Cardachion with him after he had received an emergency message from Undine, saying that intruders had already reached B4. He managed to bring his girlfriend here unharmed.

He looked around, searching for Torrent's ship as it was the only place that had a teleportation device.

Flying around for a while, James spotted Torrent's pirate ship. He descended and landed on the deck. Unfortunately, he couldn't find Torrent here.

James didn't care. He entered the ship's cabin and entered the captain's room. He found a small magic circle in the corner under the bed.

James tossed the bed away and stood on the magic circle, activating it. The magic circle lit up and created a portal to the B7 floor.

Without hesitation, James carried Cardachion with him and entered the boss room. Then, the portal was closed behind him.

.

One hour later, Wei Cao and 20 of his colleagues entered the B5 level and instantly found the pirate ship. They got on it as they didn't enjoy flying over the mysterious dark ocean for too long.

All immortals sat down and recuperated. They looked at each other, wondering what they should do without their boss.

Wei Cao silently entered the cabin and searched the ship for valuables. He went for the crew cabins, kitchen, storage rooms, and the bottom room first. Then, he entered the captain's cabin.

Instantly, Wei Cao noticed the magic circle that James had used. He touched the surface as he tried to activate it.

BZZZ

Unfortunately, the magic circle belonged to the dungeon. It exploded, preventing Wei Cao from using it.

"…"

Wei Cao narrowed his eyes. He unsheathed his white katana and redrew the magic circle.

DING

<You have activated the stellar constellation domain – Copy Cat!>

<You can copy or mimic any skill, spell, or domain abilities that you saw in your domain.>

Although the activation was late, Wei Cao already memorized the magic circle's pattern. He perfectly recreated it and injected his element essence into it.

The magic circle shone, and a portal was opened. Wei Cao peeked through the portal to see the other side.

Then, he found a massive hall, a round table, and a white-winged angel who had been meditating. A hundred meters behind him was a throne, a room, and a sealed vent.

Wei Cao's eyes shifted as he scanned through everything. Then, he glanced at Xiaomao's name.

Xiaomao, the Chaos Seraphim, Level 3,050 (?????)

"…"

Wei Cao found his target. However, he didn't rush in. He deactivated the magic circle and closed the portal. Then, he returned to the deck.

When Wei Cao walked out of the deck, his friends asked him, "You see anything interesting? I sensed your Qi."

Wei Cao shook his head, "I deactivated a self-detonation trap. Nothing to see in there."

"Oh, too bad. Well, what's next?"

"We wait for Lord Lu Bu."

"What if he's dead?"

"We teleport home. Easy and simple."

Wei Cao's colleagues laughed, "Hey, if Lu Bu really dies, wanna join our platoon?"

"No, thanks. I like being alone."

"Ah, too bad. Suit yourself."

"…"

Wei Cao deeply exhaled and picked a place to sit. He looked up, waiting for Lu Bu to arrive at the B5 floor.

Two hours later, Lu Bu finally arrived. However, his condition didn't look well as his level dropped from 4,500 to 3,000. Seeing the level and the condition of their boss, the immortals were nervous, except Wei Cao.

"Boss, what happened?!" Asked one of the immortals.

"Mao Miaomiao got me. Anyway, is that all of you? Where are the others?"

"They… got lost, I think. One of us ran out of sanity potions and drank the local holy water. He got gender-swapped and fainted."

"Did you bring him with you?"

"No, we teleported "her" back to base."

"Good. Anyway, let's figure out the way…"

Lu Bu looked around and gazed at the sacred water ocean. He leaned forward while he held the ledge of the ship, inspecting the water.

"Is the ocean cursed, too?"

The immortal crew sighed, "Yes, senior. I'm afraid so. The sea has the same sweet scent as that cursed water."

Lu Bu deeply sighed, "I have bad news for you. We might have to dive into the ocean to get to the next area."

"…"

Every immortal looked at each other. Their faces lost all color as they were afraid of the sacred water's effects.

Seeing his subordinates' reactions, Lu Bu calculated the pros and cons of bringing them along. He made a quick decision.

"Use the teleportation scrolls and get back to base. Wait for my return. If I manage to find Xiaomao or get into trouble, I'll teleport home. After that, we'll talk about how we will proceed from there. Oh, can somebody leave a blank rune behind? I can still mark it if I manage to get to the final floor of this dungeon."

"Y-Yes, sir!"

The group brought out their teleportation scrolls and used them. Wei Cao handed Lu Bu his blank rune stone. However, he secretly used another blank rune to mark this location as a teleport destination before he left with his teammates.

After everybody had left, Lu Bu closed his eyes and paced his breath. He glanced at the timer on his Antagonist Menu.

Two hours remained.

Lu Bu smirked. He sat on the ship and meditated, recuperating from his injury. From here on out, he would wait to see what would happen when the timer run out.

.

.

= B7 Floor =

DING

<Dungeon Guest, Qidia, has slain killed by Lu Bu.>

<Dungeon Boss, Cookie-Cookie, has been slain by Lu Bu.>

"…"

Xiaomao looked at the countdown timer on his menu. There were less than two hours remaining until he would be forced to fight Lu Bu. However, he couldn't stop reading the recent notification messages.

He was angry.

He was mad at himself for taking so long to get stronger.

He was mad at Lu Bu for killing so many of his friends and comrades.

He was also mad at Pangu, Hongjun, and their allies for launching attacks on his dungeon for no reason.

[Cathulhu Instinct]: "You're getting drowned in useless emotions. If you want to vent, defeat that clone in your dantian universe."

[Foresight]: "Frustration is always followed by heart demons. Get rid of your anger at once. Do you think your fallen comrades wish to see you go berserk and get yourself killed?"

Xiaomao lowered his head and took several deep breaths. He slapped his face and closed his eyes, sinking his consciousness into his dantian universe.

There were two hours left until the fateful duel. He could convert that into 120 days of training.

Not giving up hope, Xiaomao summoned Lu Bu's clone again. The difficulty was the same as the previous bouts.

Driven by rage and emotions, Xiaomao decided to battle Lu Bu's clone without thinking or planning. He charged forward and launched a barrage of sword strikes at Lu Bu.

Lu Bu calmly parried them all. Then, he kicked Xiaomao's O-katana from his hand and swung his halberd at him.

Xiaomao didn't dodge. He created an aura sword from his empty hands and thrust forward. Both energy swords pierced Lu Bu's chest.

SWUA

However, Lu Bu's crescent halberd sliced Xiaomao in half!

POOF

The sliced body turned into smoke. Xiaomao's body reappeared two steps away from Lu Bu, but his forehead was bleeding. He created two more energy swords and slashed him again.

Lu Bu didn't parry. He kicked the ground and kept his distance. Then, he raised his halberd, trying to use the instant kill slash again.

As Xiaomao had been killed by this weapon domain so many times, he learned a few tricks and its weaknesses. He charged forward, not allowing Lu Bu to cut the air in front of him.

Lu Bu's clone flinched and changed the trajectory of his attack. His swing slanted 45 degrees.

Xiaomao lowered his stance and slid as if he was a COD character. He slid under Lu Bu's legs and attacked his nether region.

Nut Cracker!

SWUA

"!!!"

One of the energy swords cut Lu Bu's banana while the other one severed his right leg. The clone's expression turned dark as he was in pain.

Using this opportunity, Xiaomao finally activated his domain. One of his white world trees on the chaos stars manifested into a Dao Avatar, and the tree glared at Lu Bu's clone.

DING

<You have activated the Stellar Constellation Domain – Destined Death!>

<All damages that you have inflicted upon your enemies in your domain cannot be healed. Your next attack cannot be dodged, parried, or defended.>

The clone was shocked as he reacted too late. He turned around and tried to destroy the domain.

SWUA

He was too late. Xiaomao's energy sword split his head into two.

The clone collapsed. He slowly dissipated into dust.

DING

<Congratulations. You have defeated Lu Bu's clone for the first time!>

Finally, Xiaomao managed to defeat the clone of level-5000 Lu Bu at 100% difficulty potential. He stared blankly at the dust in the air in a daze.

A minute later, Xiaomao came back to his sense. He raised his eyebrows in confusion.

Earlier, he just wanted to vent his anger and haphazardly attacked Lu Bu. However, the clone failed to cope with his attacks and died easily as if he was a weak mob.

Xiaomao scratched his head. He died to Lu Bu's clone a hundred times when he fought systematically. But when he went berserk, he won.

"System, can I review the fight and how I won?"

The game system didn't reply. However, his Senpais were there for him.

[Cathulhu Instinct]: "ULTRA INSTINCT!! Good job! By the way, there's a silly proverb for this situation. If you don't know what you're doing, your enemy can't possibly understand what you're doing. Strong fighters tend to overthink and overcalculate their tactics or battle plans. When that happens, just go wild and catch them unprepared like how you did earlier."

[Foresight]: "Sometimes, you have to discard the useless thoughts and fight with your muscle memory to win. High-leveled combats are mostly decided by reflects, muscle memories, and foundation of the fighters. In short, experience and a solid foundation are the keys."

[Cathulhu Instinct]: "Now, you're talkative."

[Foresight]: "At least, it's better than your stupid proverb."

Xiaomao snickered. He was no longer emotional.

He got one win in the bag, but that didn't count as Xiaomao hadn't defeated Lu Bu's clone at the max difficulty and the highest age yet. He wouldn't gain anything unless he could defeat Lu Bu in his demon god form 1,000 times.

For now, Xiaomao aimed to consistently defeat the clone at this current difficulty. He summoned it again.

The clone was resurrected. He glared at Xiaomao and got into a combat stance as if he had learned from his mistakes.

"Whoops. Oh, well. That happens."

Xiaomao extended his hand and recalled the long katana of Wei Xiong. He also got into a battle stance.

WHOOSH

Both Xiaomao and the clone vanished. They collided in mid-air.

The training sessions continued for two hours in the real world.

.

.

TICK

TICK

When the countdown timer was 5:00, Xiaomao opened his eyes and stood up. He unsheathed the flying sword, Vehicle, and put on the clothes and scale armor that he got from Wei Huang. Then, he leisurely went to take a leak in the boss room's public toilet.

Meanwhile, Lu Bu on the B5 floor also stood up and adjusted his armor. He rechecked his dantian universe and his conditions.

His level recovered to 3,200, but most of his constellations and stars were still unusable. The only power available was the weapon domain, which he had used to kill all his enemies so far.

Both Lu Bu and Xiaomao stared at the clock until it counted down to zero. Then, the game system sent them a message.

<Antagonist Lu Bu and Protagonist Xiaomao are fated to meet and fight in a death match according to the Antagonist System. As both fighters aren't seeking to fight each other, a new event will be enforced.>

DING

<A rift has appeared. It will transport Antagonist Lu Bu and Protagonist Xiaomao to a special location.>

A portal was opened above Lu Bu. Then, the vacuum pulled him into the wormhole.

A similar portal also appeared above Xiaomao. He was sucked into the warp hole as well.