Demon King: Hero, don’t run away!
Chapter 157: You chase me, if you catch up to me, I’ll let you hehehe.

Chapter 157: Chapter 157: You chase me, if you catch up to me, I’ll let you hehehe.

Stepping through the mist, Yang Yu led Bai Jin and Iyas to the entrance of the underground maze constructed by the Hani.

The entire entrance looked like half a brown Hani buried into the ground, exceptionally eye-catching even amidst the fog.

Entering through the "Hani’s" mouth, they came upon Hani-shaped candle holders illuminating a continuously descending white staircase.

"Bai Jin, why don’t you just wait here for us?"

Considering this was the Hani maze, where all the monsters were Hani role-playing, a magician had no role to play.

Since the team would gain experience together, there was no need to put Bai Jin in danger. It would be best for her to stay outside in case anything unexpected happened.

"I know I’m not much use, but I still want to be a force for you." Bai Jin’s hand clutched her magic wand until it turned somewhat pale. "Even if I can’t use magic, there must be other ways I can be useful."

"If there really is a need for you, I will come up and find you. Taking you down now would be the same as doing nothing. Let the two of us scout first; it’s also the best way to ensure your safety."

Although Yang Yu would have liked to have someone cheerleading from the sidelines, Bai Jin clearly wasn’t cut out for that role.

"But..."

Bai Jin tried to argue, but Yang Yu interrupted her,

"There’s no buts about it. It’s crucial to play the cards in your hand wisely to win. When facing an opponent you can’t beat, it’s not about stubbornly holding on and waiting for a miracle, but utilizing the old ’retreat is the best strategy.’ Retreating might be shameful, but it actually works."

With a smile at Bai Jin, Yang Yu gestured to Iyas, and the two descended down the staircase into the Hani-built underground maze, leaving Bai Jin hesitating at the spot. In the end, she chose to stay put, watching longingly as Yang Yu and Iyas disappeared.

The Hani-constructed underground maze had a total of eight floors. To obtain the "Shadow of Hani King," Yang Yu and Iyas had to reach at least the fifth floor.

This underground maze wasn’t really an underground maze—the system didn’t pop up a task like last time to guide them through the maze. It seemed the rewards for clearing this maze had already been integrated into the "Friend of Hani" task.

And because it was a Hani-built maze, even if they mowed down Hani after Hani, all they would get was a pile of colorful rubble, not a single Gold Coin or Equipment.

If any adventurers accidentally stumbled in here and tried to conquer it, they would surely end up bitterly disappointed and curse that only if they were mindlessly stuffed would they try to tackle such an underground maze, swearing to themselves never to deal with the Hani again.

If Yang Yu hadn’t seen the generous rewards listed on the task, he wouldn’t have bothered conquering this man-made Underground Maze either.

The first floor of the Hani Maze emitted a faint light from the walls and ceiling, revealing every passageway in the subterranean maze clearly—a scene almost identical to the one Yang Yu and his companions had previously navigated through. Only the layout of the passages was different.

Various colored Hani’s bounced and wandered in the corridors.

"Iyas, follow my command, don’t run off. Don’t just use your Skills indiscriminately, wait until I’m pulling the monsters."

The sudden mention of terms made Iyas tilt her head, "Pulling monster, what does that mean?"

"It means I’ll go on ahead and knock each of them on the head to attract their attention and draw them over here while you use AOE Skills to wipe them out. If you still don’t understand, I’ll show you how it’s done. Just stay put by the exit; this place is spacious enough for us to work with."

With that said, Yang Yu ran straight off into the depths of the maze, tapping his sword on the head of each Hani he saw.

Yang Yu’s strike served as a kind of greeting to the Hani’s, flamboyantly announcing his presence and suggesting, catch me if you can, and if you do, happy days.

The Hani’s had never seen such bravado before. Excitedly greeted with a tap, and hearing a playful invitation of "Come play with me, big guy!", how could the Hani’s resist? Without a second thought, they started hopping toward Yang Yu in pursuit.

"Hani! Hani!"

"Hani! Hani!"

Realizing when to stop, Yang Yu didn’t get too greedy and only lured the enmity of about twenty-odd Hanis at once.

Looking at the dense swarm of Hanis rushing toward Yang Yu, Iyas really didn’t know what to say.

She was all too familiar with this method of Yang Yu’s.

In order to catch a large number of prey at once, the Elf Clan would also send out some swift elves as bait to lure the prey to an easily huntable location before catching them all at once.

In her view, what Yang Yu was doing was no different from their usual hunting practices.

"Just say luring the creature, no need for the fancy term ’pulling monster.’ Stop with the needless mystique."

She set up her bow and aimed at the flock of Hanis chasing after Yang Yu,

"Penetrating Shot."

Releasing the bowstring, the arrow "whooshed" out of her grip, the silver-white arrow gleamed with a sharp light, and in front of the arrowhead, a cross-shaped wind wave was formed, like a hefty anchor, smashing the relentless Hanis one by one.

The average level of Hanis on the first floor was around eleven, and Yang Yu could finish them off with just two or three sword strikes.

Unfortunately, Yang Yu had reached his level cap and couldn’t gain any experience, and although experience was shared among the party, there was a certain penalty amount.

All Yang Yu could do was gather the Hanis together, bring down their health, then leave them for Iyas to deal with.

"Horizontal Slash."

With one swing of his sword, Yang Yu instantly repelled several Hanis, and at the entrance, Iyas seized the moment, readying her arrows, shattering one Hani after another.

In no time at all, the Hanis following Yang Yu had turned into colorful fragments.

Just as Iyas thought to take a breather, Yang Yu, without looking back, ran into the maze, luring a large wave of Hanis toward them.

There was no other way, Iyas had to pick up her arrows and once again shattered the Hanis.

One after another, small, colorful hills started piling up at the entrance.

Looking at the fragments scattered all around, Yang Yu felt satisfied, "First floor cleared, now off to clean the second floor."

Wiping the sweat from her forehead, Iyas looked at Yang Yu and surprisingly found no signs of fatigue on him; on the contrary, he seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself.

"Don’t you ever get tired?"

Nonsense, all my points are in endurance, I have plenty of stamina.

Iyas’s mana capacity was really nothing to boast about, with a mana consumption of 100 for "Penetrating Shot," at best she could only make four shots, and that included the mana recovered from leveling up.

After settling the incident with Iyas’s brother and earning her trust, he’d have to seriously consider boosting her endurance to strengthen her mana and blood volume.

"It’s just you who gets tired too easily." Sheathing his sword to his side, Yang Yu smiled and tossed a potion to Iyas, "Drink this, we’re heading to the next level."