A while after I stepped into the Town Portal, the Paladin Druv arrived with his Druid wife Hana and their friend, the Assassin Madun. Seeing the Cave completely empty of monsters at this time, the faces of the three immediately turned ashen.
The Level 15 Paladin Druv was already considered an Expert in the Rogue Encampment. Coupled with the Level 13 Druid Hana and the Level 14 Assassin Madun, all possessing extensive combat experience, their small team was quite well-known even throughout the Rogue Encampment.
A few days ago, at Madun's suggestion, the three came to the Den of Evil again, planning to try their luck and see if they could encounter Corpsefire. It wasn't their first time fighting Corpsefire; the entire Den of Evil was like their backyard.
Relying on their familiarity with the Den of Evil, it only took the three a few days to bypass the layers of mazes and reach the depths of the Cave. Although the respawn location of Corpsefire was random, the other monsters inside the Den of Evil were simply too weak to stop their progress, significantly speeding up their search speed. Within a few days, they had found Corpsefire. After careful planning, the three spent another half a day clearing out the surrounding mobs before slowly wearing down Corpsefire. Relying on their past experience and skilled coordination, they quickly reduced Corpsefire's health to roughly one-tenth.
Just when they thought they could finish it off effortlessly as before, even fantasizing about magic equipment dropping, Corpsefire went berserk. Ghostly Strike appeared frequently, causing the three to suffer a setback. Although they hadn't experienced this situation before, the Paladin Druv had heard of such sudden occurrences from seniors. He just hadn't expected such a small probability event to happen to him, and right when a group of Fallen conveniently appeared. As the Captain, he had to consider the life safety of his teammates. This wasn't a monster worth risking their lives to defeat, so he could only accept their bad luck and order the other two to retreat, planning to re-engage after Corpsefire calmed down.
But now, they looked at the empty Cave. Corpsefire was gone, the group of Fallen that had just spawned was also gone, and even the items dropped by the other mobs had been completely swept away. The answer was obvious: Corpsefire had been killed by someone else, leaving nothing behind for them. With that level of strength, it could only be an Adventurer.
"***, who could it be?"
Madun slammed his fist against the wall, cursing with bloodshot eyes. Anyone encountering this situation would surely feel immense frustration.
"Madun, calm down. If you're always this agitated, how can you become an excellent Assassin?"
The Paladin Druv, standing nearby, said calmly.
"But, the Corpsefire we worked so hard to fight was stolen by someone else! How can I just let this go..."
Madun's voice was choked with emotion. Don't look at their shiny equipment and rich experience; these were all earned with their lives. Behind the glory were countless drops of blood, sweat, and tears. Now, after finally finding a Corpsefire, they thought they could get some equipment, but someone had gotten there first and stolen their spoils. Not to mention the hot-tempered Madun, even the gentle Hana clenched her fists tightly at this moment.
"Madun," Druv's gaze was as sharp as a knife, piercing directly into Madun's eyes.
"I ask you, how much health did Corpsefire have when we left just now?" Druv stared directly into Madun's eyes.
"About... about one-tenth or so," Madun seemed a little flustered under the sharp aura of Captain Druv. His eyes darted away, avoiding Druv's piercing gaze.
"Then I ask you again, if you were alone, could you kill this Corpsefire that only had one-tenth of its health left?"
"No... I couldn't."
"What about you, Na? Could you do it?"
Druv turned his head to ask his wife. With years of affection, how could he not sense the unwillingness in his wife's heart?
"I, I couldn't either."
Seeing her husband angry, Hana lowered her head like a child who had done something wrong.
"Yes."
Druv took a deep breath, calming the anger in his heart. It wasn't directed at the Adventurer who had stolen Corpsefire, but at the two closest people in front of him.
"You couldn't, and neither could you."
Druv pointed at Madun, then at Hana, and finally at himself.
"I couldn't either. Even with one-tenth health, we would still need to cooperate with each other to wear it down."
And the person who killed Corpsefire could stay nearby and remain undetected by us, which means there definitely weren't many of them. No, it's certain there was only one person."
"We couldn't, but he did. That's the reality. In this world, strength reigns supreme."
Druv said in a steady tone. How could he be willing? He was even more pained than the other two, but there was nothing they could do, absolutely nothing. Because the Adventurer who killed Corpsefire was clearly stronger than any of them individually.
Although, if the three of them were together, they might not fear him, what good would that do? Find him and make an enemy? Make an enemy of a strong person? Unless they could kill him, this would absolutely be the most unwise course of action. And killing him would also be the most unwise course of action. What Adventurers fear most is fighting among themselves. Even if they could successfully kill him, what if someone found out? Killing an Adventurer for a Corpsefire would likely mean the entire Dark Continent wouldn't let the three of them off.
Announce this matter to the public and let all Adventurers scorn him? No, doing that would only make others laugh at them. They would only remember one fact: with the strength of three people, they couldn't even handle Corpsefire, yet another person successfully killed it. Three people were not as good as one. From then on, their team's reputation would be ruined.
This Continent is just like that. Beyond principle, strength reigns supreme.
As long as you don't violate principle, then the one with the harder fist is the boss.
"Corpsefire isn't something we raised. Why should we be allowed to kill it, but others aren't?"
"Is it just because we fought it once before? Yes, perhaps that's it. But don't forget, we retreated. So, anyone has the right to continue the challenge. Blame, we can only blame our bad luck." Druv said in a steady voice, half to calm the unwillingness of the other two, and half to console himself.
Yes, although this approach was a bit unreasonable, since we had already chosen to retreat, others had every reason to step in and kill it. Corpsefire wasn't reserved by us. There's no principle that says we can fight it whenever we want, take a break when we're tired, come back later, and forbid others from interfering during our break. Perhaps, if one's strength was sufficient and their fist was hard enough, they could indeed do that. But the facts were laid bare: the opponent's strength was clearly stronger than anyone on their side.
"Let's go back."
In Druv's voice, a hint of fatigue was subtly present within it. He, as the Captain, had put in the most effort to kill this Corpsefire, but unexpectedly, things went against his wishes. Heaven's Will, indeed.
Having said that, Druv had already activated a Town Portal Scroll. The other two exchanged glances, both sighing heavily, and also took out Scrolls from their Inventory Space. More than thirty seconds later, accompanied by three Pillars of Light, the figures of the three disappeared from the Cave.
...
...
I once imagined that things like Space-Time Gates would generally involve unpleasant conditions like weightlessness, nausea, and vomiting, similar to the Space-Time Tunnel some Transmigrators have to pass through. Moreover, for a Transmigrator like me, perhaps every time I passed through, my body could even be modified and strengthened by mysterious Space-Time Power.
Unfortunately, this beautiful wish was destined to fall through. The moment I touched the Energy Pillar formed by the Town Portal Scroll, my body was involuntarily sucked in. I didn't even have time to react. The next moment, I had appeared on a Large Terrace.
The moment I stepped out, the setting sun felt like spicy water splashing into my eyes. Having stayed in the dark Den of Evil for almost half a month, I hadn't seen a single ray of sunlight. Even the gentle evening sun nearly blinded my eyes, and tears streamed out. It took a while before my eyes gradually adapted to the light, but I still felt a bit dizzy.
"Respected Lord, you must be the advanced Druid, Master Wu Fan. Welcome back."
Just as I slowly opened my eyes, a Rogue holding a bow and arrow came forward, bowed to me, and said respectfully.
"Uh... uh, hello..." It had been almost a month since I came out. A month of solitary life made me so unused to seeing a living person that I didn't even know how to speak.
The Rogue in front of me seemed to understand my current awkwardness from my appearance. He smiled slightly and said, "Master Wu Fan, you must have gone through a fierce fight and now wish to relax properly. Would you like me to take you to the best Inn to rest?"
"Uh, no need, thank you."
I waved my hand, and the Rogue tactfully withdrew.
"Lord, please take your time."
As I took heavy steps, my dizzy brain, affected by the sunlight, gradually cleared up—Where was this place?
I looked around. The place I was standing was something like an Altar, at least dozens of meters high. The entire Altar was pure white, and on top of the Altar, right under my feet, were countless profound and complex rune lines. These rune lines were socketed with a layer of beautiful color, like gold but not gold, emitting dazzling hues, adding a touch of magnificent mystery to the entire Altar.
This was probably the Town Portal Akara mentioned. Holy crap, this was too magnificent and stunning! Compared to the Town Portals in the game, which were just an X and a circle with a lamp on each side, this was like sandcastles built by children.
I slowly descended the steps from the Altar. The Town Portal was in the Central Area, which meant I was now in the Central Area. That was truly convenient.
(end of chapter)