After crossing the safety line, the exploration was much more difficult and dangerous than before, and of course, the efficiency of exploration was much lower.
After all, safety was the most important thing. Even Devore, who explored underground caves all year round, did not dare to say that he knew these deep underground areas like the back of his hand. In his past adventuring career, he had encountered many unexpected dangers, not to mention the terrifying four-armed Tauren from back then.
There was no distinction between day and night in the dark places, so everyone could only judge the time by the pocket watch that Devore carried. In order to avoid the risk of fatigue, they rested every three hours for half an hour. When they rested for the third time, they set up camp and adjusted their work and rest schedule, greatly increasing the time for rest and sleep.
Strangely enough, this method, which seemed to be useless at first glance, had an unexpected effect. It was not until a week later that everyone began to feel tired and dispirited.
"Generally speaking, ordinary people will feel very uncomfortable living in an environment where there is no sunlight for three to five days." When they set up camp, Palin lay on his sleeping bag and looked through the adventure guide he had prepared in advance, sighing secretly.
The records in his book should be correct, but the fact was that many of the records in it were completely different from his experience this time.
This made the young mage, who had always been accustomed to learning from books, a little uneasy. He did not know whether the things he usually learned were useful or not.
He worried for a while, put away the book, and silently prayed to Sui Xiong.
With the link of faith, he easily contacted Sui Xiong and asked his own questions.
Sui Xiong flipped through the book a little and found the problem.
"This guide book for young adventurers is aimed at novices," Sui Xiong said. "It is used to popularize some experience and common sense of adventure for those inexperienced young people, so that they will not be ignorant to embark on an adventure and die as soon as they go out. That's all. "
"And what you are doing now is a very high-level adventure. Even senior adventurers rarely take this level of adventure. Only a real professional like Devore can lead a team all the way without any surprises or dangers. His experience and his judgment of the situation are far beyond that of novices. That's why he's able to adjust his schedule according to the actual situation, allowing everyone to maintain a better condition. However, if a newbie were to blindly imitate his methods, I'm afraid that not only would he not get any benefits, but he would also be in trouble! "
Palin nodded and thought about it carefully for a while. He couldn't help but sigh inwardly, "Learning really needs to be combined with practice!"
At this moment, Rhett, who was in charge of scouting, hurried back to the camp with a worrisome piece of news.
Fresh corpses were found in a pit not far ahead.
Because he was not good at detecting traps and identifying magic, he did not rashly investigate carefully. Instead, he chose to report back and let everyone discuss and decide what to do next.
"If it were up to me, I'd prefer to turn back now." Devore said, "Everyone is almost exhausted. Although it's not serious, if it's just one or two battles, it won't be a problem, but in the underground, no one can guarantee what they will encounter. Turning back once you're tired is the safest plan. "
"But we haven't found what we're looking for." Palin sighed.
Lafleur immediately expressed his loyalty. "If you want to keep looking, I'll keep you company!"
"But you don't have a clear goal yourself, right?" Rhett said, "To find the right mushroom underground — what mushroom is the right mushroom?"
Palin sighed. He was convinced.
So this adventure ended here. They returned to the surface, rested for a few days, and then set off again.
With the experience of the first exploration, their journey was much smoother this time. It didn't take too much time and energy to reach the camp where they had turned back.
But in the camp, they saw traces of battle and killing.
"… Although the corpses have been moved away, it can be seen that a team of adventurers was attacked here." After carefully studying the traces, Rhett came to this conclusion. "There should be four of them, a heavy-armored warrior, a bard, a ranger, and a priest. They should be eating at that time. First, an enemy jumped out from the bonfire, probably a fire elemental. Then, an underground monster suddenly attacked from the underground. Then, someone used magic — "
He walked a few steps and came to a dark corner. "That person should be standing here. His magic is of the negative energy type. He hit the priest heavily."
"Then, from that corner, a very powerful monster rushed out." He pointed to a corner in the distance and used his spear to draw a few obvious depressions on the ground. "It's not very big, but it's very heavy. It's probably wearing heavy armor. "
"With the addition of that guy, the team that could barely hold on collapsed. Then, it was a one-sided massacre. " Rhett sighed. "Theoretically, an experienced bard should be carrying a Fixed Teleportation Scroll with Rye Town as the destination. But we didn't hear any news before. I'm afraid they were all wiped out. Not a single one of them escaped."
Everyone's face turned gloomy. They couldn't help but admire Devor.
A monster that could wipe out an entire team of adventurers was definitely not easy to deal with. If they had stayed in the same place or continued to move forward, they might have to face those monsters.
With their condition at that time, would they be able to deal with a group of monsters?
The conclusion was obvious. Of course not!
"Now we have two choices," Devor said. "We can continue to move forward. Those who can reach here are all experienced adventurers. Although they were all wiped out, those monsters must have suffered great losses. If we go after them now, we might be able to catch up with them and destroy them. "
Rhett laughed dryly and looked around, as if saying "I don't know anything".
Palin's face was heavy and his brows were knitted. He didn't dare to make a rash decision.
"It seems that you all don't think this option is very reliable." Devor sighed. "Then we can go back now. At least we can bring the news back."
Palin frowned and said, "Isn't that too pessimistic?"
"I think so too," Devor said. "So I'm inclined to the former. Adventurers are meant to fight. Our fame, wealth, and power must be obtained through battle, from the bodies of those dangerous monsters. "
"No matter what, at least we have to deal with a group of monsters that have lost their strength."
His eyes swept across everyone's face. His scorching eyes made everyone's heart involuntarily excited.
Just as he had said, adventurers were meant to fight against magical beasts. This was obviously a good opportunity, why should they retreat?
"Let's do it!" The priest, who rarely spoke, waved the light warhammer in his hand. The enchanted weapon emitted a faint white light, leaving an obvious trace in the dark air.
Rhett was obviously still a little hesitant, but when he saw Devor's determined eyes and looked at the attitude of his companions, he finally sighed deeply.
"… If I knew this would happen, I wouldn't have come!" He muttered, his face full of frustration. "I'd rather fight against the monsters on the ground!"
Palin smiled and took out a golden scroll and handed it to him.
"I remember that you also know how to use scrolls, right?"
"Yes, I've learned spells. Although I haven't learned how to cast spells, I have no problem using scrolls. "Rhett took the scroll and slightly examined it with his mental power. Suddenly, his eyes widened.
This was a scroll of "Group Teleportation"!
Teleportation was one of the mages' signature spells. "Try not to sell teleportation scrolls" was an unspoken rule of the mages, not to mention a group teleportation spell that could allow the whole team to instantly return to a safe place. This scroll was probably worth more than the employment fees of the four of them combined!
With this treasure, he suddenly felt a little more confident in his heart.
Can't beat them? At least we can still run!
But when he thought of the price of this treasure, he could not help but feel a dull pain in his heart.
The world of the rich was not something the poor could understand!
After the problem of safety was solved, the team changed into a battle formation under Devor's command. Lafleur was scouting in front, paying attention to any possible traps. Devor and Morton followed behind, one on the left and one on the right, ready to fight at any time. Palin was a little further behind, but he made sure that Lafleur was within his spell range so that he could use spells to support him at any time. Rhett was the last one. On one hand, he was good at archery, so he needed enough distance, and on the other hand, if there was any danger, he could activate the scroll at any time and lead everyone to escape.
Because there was no need to look for mushrooms in every dark corner, the team's movement speed was obviously increased. In less than two hours, Lafleur found the traces of the monsters.
To be precise, it was Morton who found the traces of the monsters.
"Negative energy." Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks and raised his war hammer to signal to everyone.
The war hammer, which was engraved with the holy emblem of the God of Light, was emitting a light that seemed to be burning. That was the divine power encountering an enemy, and it was stimulated.
With his reminder, everyone hurriedly stopped and gathered around him.
"I don't feel cold..." Lafleur muttered in a low voice. "Doesn't negative energy make people feel cold?"
"When you feel cold, you're not far from death," Rhett said impatiently. "Negative energy is not cold, it's death. The reason why you feel cold is because your life force has been sucked away. Believe me, you don't want to really encounter that kind of situation! "
Lafleur's hair stood on end after hearing what Rhett said. He shrank his neck and carefully looked around, as if the monsters would rush out at any moment.
At this time, Morton had already used a divine spell to resist the negative energy on everyone. They did not know if it was a psychological effect, but everyone really felt a lot warmer.
"It seems that the enemy is in front of us!" Devor smiled and clenched his war axe. "I just don't know what we'll encounter..."
This question was quickly answered — Morton could feel the negative energy, and of course, their enemy could also feel Morton's divine power.
Just as Devor was speaking, accompanied by an angry howl, a medium-sized, heavily armored guy rushed out from the shadows in front of them.
Its footsteps were unusually heavy, and the soles of its metal boots stepped on the stone, making a sound like a hammer hitting the rock.
"Prepare for battle!"
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