A pair of black boots stepped on a stone, and two small hands quickly tied the shoelaces. The shoes looked old and worn. If someone knew what they had been through, they would be surprised by their quality.
"Are you ready?"
Rinchad's voice came from behind Reina. She stood up and picked up Mr. Ball's wooden staff. She turned around and said, "Yes!"
At this moment, she was wearing tight clothes with leather gauntlets on her hands and a slightly large leather breastplate. The four people in front of her were also fully armed. The red staff in Lilith's hand flashed, and a flame circled around the gem on the staff. Suddenly, the flame turned into a burning bird and flew into the forest.
"Done."
She cast a strange spell and looked at Rinchad.
This would probably draw away a lot of Dryads. Dryads weren't very intelligent. They would expel anything that didn't belong here, including enemy spells.
Dodoro had a bow strapped to her back. She looked serious and carried many black arrows on her back. Greer was wearing a metal armor. Unlike the others, he was the only one who looked excited.
"Finally, we can kill those damned monsters."
Reina heard him say this before.
Lilith was by Linchad's side. The two of them often walked together, and Linchad didn't know what their relationship was.
"What do I need to do?"
Linnai asked Linchad as she walked up to him before they departed.
"Stay in the back and listen to my orders. Don't act on your own. Alright, let's go!"
Rinchad shouted.
Under Rinchad's lead, everyone walked into the depths of the forest.
The Dryads were the most dangerous creatures in the outer area. However, they didn't see any Dryads even after walking for a while. She didn't know if it was because of Lilith's spell or because they were avoiding the Dryads.
Dodoro walked at the back. She held her bow with both hands and looked around. Greer and Lilith walked on either side of Reina. Rinchad was at the front. He was the only one who didn't carry a weapon. Reina didn't know why he didn't bring one.
Although it seemed like they were walking, they didn't slow down at all. Reina's legs were too short, so she had to jog to keep up.
At this moment, Rinchad suddenly stopped and squatted down. Everyone instantly spread out to the sides. Their speed was so fast that the stunned Linnai couldn't react in time before she was pulled into a bush by Lilith.
"F —"
She was about to ask what had happened, but Lilith immediately covered her mouth.
"Shh."
Seeing this, Linnai immediately shut her mouth. She didn't dare to move and stayed in Lilith's arms. After about two minutes, Linnai smelled an indescribable smell. What was this smell? It smelled like food from last night that had gone bad. It had a pungent stench.
A terrifying monster slowly appeared in the forest. It was like a lump of mud, and its body was covered in purple mud. It had a face, and its eyes were two drooping slits. Its mouth was half-open, revealing pebble-like teeth, which made it look a little sluggish. The monster was at least two meters tall, but it was very round and thick. It probably weighed more than a ton.
The mud on its body dragged on the ground like fat. It left a trail of disgusting snail-like mucus wherever it went.
Reina didn't want to fight such an opponent. Even if she won, she would be dirty and smelly.
The Stinky Sludge Monster didn't notice them and walked past where they were hiding.
"I think I know what kind of monster it is."
After more than a minute, Greer's voice came. He walked out from behind a dead tree.
"I've never seen it before. The Adventurers Guild's monster guide doesn't have any information about this guy."
Lilith said.
"Is it scary?"
Reina raised her head and looked at Lilith behind her.
"I don't know. But fighting an unknown monster usually doesn't end well."
The strength of humans lay in their ability to accumulate knowledge and pass it down. When facing an unknown monster, humans might not be able to fight it for the first time. However, if they let one escape, the monster would find that the next time they met the human, some of their attacks would be ineffective. Usually, the monster would be able to defeat the monster with some effort. However, the next time, the monster would be even more troublesome. The monster might even attack the monster's weakness.
This was also the reason why most of the demons wouldn't let the humans go. They could even learn something from the humans and use it to deal with them.
Dodoro looked at the direction where the Stinky Sludge Monster left and frowned.
"It's leaving. What's wrong?"
Lynchad noticed Dodoro's strange behavior and asked.
"No, it's nothing."
Dodoro shook his head. Maybe it was just her imagination, but she felt like she had seen that monster somewhere before.
The group continued forward. They were almost in the deepest part of the forest, and the deeper part was even more dangerous. The roars of the Dryads could be heard all the time. The group wore cloaks that could conceal their smell and mana.
There were poisonous slimes, poisonous flowers, scorpions that disguised themselves as dead leaves, and strange snakes that hung from the branches and pretended to be dead vines.
Touching them carelessly or accidentally would cause one to be poisoned or bleed profusely. The group moved forward cautiously. After half a day, they arrived at the inner part of the forest that Reina and Dodoro couldn't enter no matter how hard they tried.
They didn't even fight during the entire journey.
The inner layer of the Dark Forest was surrounded by a circle of huge withered trees. They were very huge, and each tree was over a hundred meters tall. Countless of these huge withered trees gathered together, it was very spectacular, like an incomparably huge bird's nest.
Looking down from the sky, everyone looked as tiny as a few ants.
Fortunately, there were no Dryads or large monsters here. Unfortunately, there were a lot of small blood-sucking creatures here. The dead trees had hairs that looked like mycelium on their surface, but they weren't hairs. Instead, they were hairs of a very nasty creature called White Blood Hairs. If one's skin was touched by these hairs, a small wound would be cut open, and blood would flow out of the wound.
Blood would attract a type of locusts. These locusts usually lived at the bottom of the maze-like tree roots. When they smelled blood, they would turn into a black whirlwind and instantly devour the blood until only the bones were left.
Therefore, Lynchad decided to move from the top of the tree roots to the other side.
The group crawled forward along the thick roots while keeping an eye out for poisonous creatures and traps. Dodoro had a fist-sized cage hanging on his waist. A stick of incense was lit inside the cage, and the smoke from the incense drove away the mosquitoes in the area. Everyone stuck close to each other and slowly moved forward.
Suddenly, with a bang, something fell from above, giving everyone a fright.
They looked up and saw a skeleton covered in spider webs. Fortunately, it didn't fall on their heads. One had to know that they were standing on the roots of the tree, and there were countless insects crawling five or six meters below their feet, waiting to eat their flesh.
Just as everyone heaved a sigh of relief, Rinchad's expression suddenly changed. He turned to look at Greer and said, "Have you seen any living creatures here before?"
Hearing this, Grier froze for a moment, then frowned and tore it open.
"We only found this path yesterday. To be honest, I'm not sure if it's here or not. But as you can see, there's no food here, only man-eating insects. There shouldn't be any larger creatures here," Greer said. He then looked at Dodoro, who was leaning against Reina at the back of the group.
"What do you think? Dodoro? You're a half-elf. You should know more about this place than we do. "
Dodoro looked back at Greer. "How would I know? I'm a foreigner among elves."
Greer sighed. It was a waste of time to ask this guy.
"What's wrong?"
Lina, who was sandwiched between Lilith and Dodoro, suddenly stuck her head out and asked. She was confused and thought that she had encountered some kind of problem. She looked at the two with a puzzled expression.
Lilith turned around and said with a serious expression, "Something's not right. Judging from the skeleton just now, this kind of animal shouldn't appear on the tree by itself."
"That's right. Judging from the color of the bones, they died less than a year ago."
Greer said.
"So, something caught them and hung them on the tree to eat?"
Linnai asked doubtfully. If she was alone, she probably wouldn't even think about it and would just walk over. However, Lilith and the others were able to obtain so much information from it.
"It's not good for us to fight here. If there's a creature that's good at climbing, it'll be troublesome."
Greer said.
Lynchad suddenly looked at Dodoro and said, "Dodoro, check the tree."
Dodoro raised her right hand. A white owl suddenly appeared on her arm.
"Go."
She raised her hand and the owl flew up to the tree.
In the middle of the tall tree cage, which was the area between the tree trunks, a large area was blocked by countless spider webs, and the top could not be seen. Although the spider web covered a large area, there were no giant spiders on it. Moreover, the spider web was not strong enough to support a giant spider. The countless holes were the best evidence. Light shone through the holes in the spider web, and one could see white rays of light.
The owl flew over the spider webs. Suddenly, Dodoro's blue eyes widened.
"So many monkeys!"
She said.
"Monkeys?"
Before anyone could react, they heard a long howl. A few dozen meters away from them, a disgusting creature was sticking to the tree trunk. It was covered in fur, had human-like limbs, and a very long tail. The main reason for their disgust was their ugly, human-like faces. Under their red fur were black faces, wrinkled foreheads, terrifying fangs, and unpleasant ear-piercing screeches.
"It's a red monkey! Damn it! Why is it here?! "
Lilith was shocked. She looked at Rinchard.
"It's too late to retreat. Lilith, create a barrier. Dodoro, cover me. Greer, be careful. We're going to charge through!"
"Okay!"
Everyone was ready. However, the light above their heads suddenly flickered. Countless figures appeared on top of the spider webs.
Lilith softly chanted an incantation, and suddenly a red magic barrier enveloped everyone.
"What should I do?"
Reina didn't know what to do.
"Hold on to me! Don't fall! "
Lilith shouted.
Dodoro pulled his bow. Suddenly, a strange white bone flew toward them. It was aimed at Dodoro, who was at the back of the group. Dodoro ducked and dodged it.
The noise was getting louder and louder. More and more monkeys appeared. The group quickly passed through the tree roots. However, more and more noises were coming from above. The monkeys were attacking them, throwing branches, bones, stones, and even feces.
Lilith's barrier blocked the attacks. Dodoro shot a few arrows, and several monkeys fell from the tree.
Rinchard, who was at the front of the group, looked around. Suddenly, he waved his hand. Several rays of cold light flashed, and the sound of wood breaking could be heard. A few branches fell from above, and a group of monkeys fell from the sky.
The monkeys that fell to the tree roots screamed in agony as they were devoured by countless insects.
Taking this opportunity, the group continued to move forward. However, Lynchad suddenly stopped.
"Stop!"
He shouted, and a huge rock fell down, directly crushing the tree roots in front of them, smashing a huge hole in the ground.
The light shone down on the pit, and countless insects were crawling around.
"How can there be such a huge rock?"
Greer was shocked.
However, as soon as he finished speaking, a terrifying roar echoed throughout the cage.
"Uha!"
The voice contained a massive amount of energy, and it was accompanied by a shockwave. Everyone was startled as they heard a rumbling sound that sounded like footsteps.
"Look around! Find a safe place to stay. Spread out! "
Rinchard shouted.
At this moment, a huge figure fell from the sky.
"Boom!"
It clenched its fists and punched two holes in the ground where the group was standing. Its feet were holding onto a huge tree trunk and it was standing on it.
"Hahaha!"
The huge monstrous monkey opened its mouth wide and roared, pounding its chest. The monkeys on top of its head screamed crazily as if they were responding to it.
However, Rinchard and the others appeared in front of the monstrous monkey unharmed. Whoosh! An arrow accurately hit the monkey's eye. At the same time, a magic ball that looked like a bubble flew to its feet.
Suddenly, there was an explosion. There were no flames, and the impact of the explosion was like being bitten by some kind of insect. The giant monkey lost its balance, and it found that the roots under its feet were all destroyed. It fell directly into the swarm of insects.
"Did you succeed?"
Greer asked.
"No! Not yet! Reina! Run! "
Rinchard suddenly shouted.
At this moment, Reina, who was running on the tree roots, suddenly heard a boom. A terrifying hand appeared behind her.
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