Exploration after crossing the safety line is much more difficult and dangerous than before, and of course the exploration efficiency is much lower.
There is nothing you can do about it, after all, safety is the most important thing. Even Divol, who has been exploring underground caves for many years, dare not say that he knows these deep underground areas well. In his past adventures, there were many situations where he encountered unexpected dangers—not to mention the terrifying four-armed minotaur back then.
There is no distinction between day and night in the dark place, and everyone can only judge the time through the pocket watch carried by Divol. In order to avoid the risk of fatigue, they took a half-hour break every three hours. During the third break, they camped and adjusted their schedules, which greatly increased the time for rest and sleep.
Strangely enough, what seemed to be a useless method at first glance had unexpected results. It was not until a week later that everyone began to feel tired and listless.
"Generally speaking, ordinary people will feel very uncomfortable if they live in an environment without sunlight for three to five days." While camping, Palin lay on his sleeping bag and looked through the adventure guide he had prepared in advance, sighing secretly.
Normally, the records in his book should be correct, but the fact is that many of the records in it are completely different from his experience this time.
This made the young mage, who was accustomed to absorbing knowledge from books, a little uneasy. He didn't know whether the things he usually studied were useful or useless.
He worried for a while, put away the book, and prayed silently to Sui Xiong.
With the faith link, he easily contacted Sui Xiong and raised his questions.
Sui Xiong flipped through the book for a while and found the problem.
"This "Guide Book for Young Adventurers" is aimed at novices." He said, "It is used to popularize some adventure experience and common sense to young people who lack experience, so that they will not be ignorant. Embark on an adventurous journey and die in a daze as soon as you step out. That's all."
"And what you are doing now is a very high-level adventure. Even experienced adventurers rarely go on adventures of this level. Only truly professional masters like Divol can lead the team all the way." There is no danger. His experience and his judgment of the situation are far beyond what novices can match. Therefore, he can adjust his work and rest according to the actual situation to keep everyone in a better state. But if any novice really follows his approach If you apply it mechanically, I am afraid that not only will you not get any benefits, but you will also be unlucky!"
Palin nodded, thought carefully for a while, and couldn't help but sigh secretly: Learning really needs to be combined with practice!
At this moment, Rhett, who was responsible for conducting reconnaissance at the front, hurried back to the camp and brought some worrying 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 rush to investigate carefully. Instead, he chose to report back and let everyone discuss and decide what to do.
"If it were up to me to judge, I would tend to turn back now." Divol said, "Everyone is almost exhausted. Although it is not serious, it will be no problem if it is just one or two battles, but underground, no one You can guarantee what you will encounter. Turning back once you are tired is the safest strategy."
"But we haven't found what we're looking for yet," Palin sighed.
Rafael immediately expressed his loyalty: "If you want to continue looking, I will accompany you to the end!"
"But you don't have a clear goal yourself." Rhett said, "You have to go underground to find suitable mushrooms—what mushrooms are suitable?"
Palin sighed, convinced.
So the adventure ended here, they returned to the surface, repaired for a few days, and then set off again.
With the experience of the first exploration, their journey was much smoother this time. Without spending too much time and energy, they arrived at the camp where they turned back.
But in the camp, they saw signs of fighting and killing.
"...Although the bodies have been moved away, it can be seen that a team of adventurers was attacked here." After carefully studying these traces, Red judged, "There should be four of them, one heavy A warrior, a bard, a ranger, and a priest. They should have been eating at that time. First, enemies jumped out of the bonfire, probably fire elements; then there were earth-moving monsters that suddenly attacked from the ground; and later There are also people using spells—"
He took a few steps and came to a dark corner: "That person should be standing here. His spell is of negative energy type, and it severely injured the priest with one blow."
"Then from that corner, a very powerful monster rushed out." He pointed to a corner in the distance, and specially used a spear to circle a few depressions on the ground that were very conspicuous if you looked carefully. "It's not that big or small. Not very big, but heavy. Probably wearing heavy armor."
"With the addition of that guy, the team that was still barely able to support itself collapsed. What followed was just a one-sided massacre." Rhett sighed, "Theoretically, a seasoned bard should be able to carry around a black bard with him. There is a fixed teleportation scroll targeting Maizhen, but we haven’t heard any news before, so I’m afraid they were all wiped out and not even one of them could escape.”
Everyone's expressions darkened, and they couldn't help but admire Divol.
A monster that can wipe out an entire adventure team is definitely not something that can be dealt with easily. If they had stayed where they were, or even continued to move forward, they might have faced those monsters.
In their current state, could they possibly deal with such a group of monsters
The conclusion is yes, of course not!
"Now we have two choices." Divol said, "We can continue to move forward. Those who can reach here are all experienced adventurers. Although they are all destroyed, those monsters must have also suffered huge damage. We If we chase them now, we might be able to catch up with them in time and eliminate them."
Rhett laughed dryly and looked around, looking like "I don't know anything."
Palin's face was heavy and his brows were furrowed, not daring to make an easy decision.
"It seems that you all think this choice is not very reliable." Divol sighed, "Then we can return now, at least we can bring this news back."
Palin frowned and said, "Isn't that too negative?"
"I think so too." Divol said, "So I prefer the former. Adventurers want to fight. Our reputation, wealth and strength must be obtained from those dangerous monsters through fighting."
"No matter what, at least we are dealing with a group of monsters whose strength has been compromised."
His gaze swept across everyone's faces, and his burning eyes made everyone feel excited.
As he said, adventurers are meant to fight monsters. This is obviously a good opportunity in front of us, why should we shrink from it
"Done!" The priest, who rarely spoke, waved the light war hammer in his hand. The enchanted weapon gave off a faint white light, leaving an obvious trail in the dim air.
Rhett was obviously still hesitant, but seeing Divol's firm eyes and the attitudes of his companions, he finally sighed deeply.
"... If I had known better, I wouldn't have come!" He muttered, his face full of frustration, "I would rather fight monsters on the ground!"
Palin smiled, took out a golden scroll and handed it to him.
"I remember you also know how to use scrolls, right?"
"Yes, I have learned spells. Although I didn't learn how to cast spells, there is no problem in using the scroll." Red took the scroll and checked it with his mental power, and his eyes suddenly widened.
This is a scroll of "Group Teleportation"!
Teleportation is one of the mages' signatures. "Try not to sell teleportation scrolls" is an unspoken rule among mages, not to mention group teleportation that can bring the entire team back to a safe place at once. Such a scroll is probably worth more than the combined employment wages of the four of them!
With this treasure, he suddenly felt a little more confident.
Can't beat it? At least you can still run!
Just thinking about the price of this treasure, he couldn't help but feel a little pain in his heart.
The world of rich people cannot be understood by poor people!
After the safety issue was resolved, the team converted into a combat formation under the command of Divol. Raphael was scouting in front, always paying attention to possible traps; Divol and Morton followed behind, ready to fight; Palin was a little later, but made sure that Raphael was in his spell Within the range, he can use spell support at any time; Rhett is at the end. On the one hand, the bow and arrow he is good at need to have enough distance. On the other hand, if he encounters any danger, he can activate the scroll at any time and lead everyone to escape.
Because there is no need to search for mushrooms in all dark corners, the team's traveling speed is also significantly faster. It only took less than two hours for Raffl to find the traces of the monster.
To be precise, it was Morton who found the traces of the monster.
"Negative energy." Suddenly, he stopped and raised his war hammer to signal to everyone.
The warhammer engraved with the Holy Emblem of the Lord of Glory was emitting a burning light. That was when the divine power encountered an opponent and was inspired.
After receiving his reminder, everyone hurriedly stopped and moved closer to him.
"I don't feel cold..." Raphael muttered in a low voice, "Doesn't negative energy make people feel cold?"
"When you feel cold, you are not far from death." Rhett said angrily, "The negative energy is not 'cold' but 'death'. The reason why you feel cold is because your vitality has been Take it. Trust me, you don’t want to actually be in that situation!”
Raphael's hair stood up at what he said. He shrank his neck and looked around cautiously, as if the monsters would rush out in the next moment.
At this time, Morton had already used magical techniques to resist negative energy on everyone. I don’t know if it’s a psychological effect, but everyone really feels a lot warmer.
"It seems that the enemy is just ahead!" Divol smiled and tightened his grip on the battle ax, "I just don't know what I will encounter..."
The answer to this question soon came - Morton could sense negative energy, and their enemies could certainly sense Morton's divine power.
Just as Divol was speaking, with an angry howl, a medium-sized guy wearing heavy armor rushed out from the darkness in front.
Its footsteps were extremely heavy, and the soles of its feet wearing metal boots stepped on the stone, and the sound it made was like a hammer hitting the rock.
"Ready to fight!"