Zhou Yi looked down at the 【Porter】 in his hand, his expression stiffening slightly.
“This is ridiculous. They didn't even ask, they just bound it to me?”
Reece ignored his complaints. He walked to the entrance of the trade route, crouched down to inspect the ground, and tapped the edge of the stone slab with his scabbard.
The sound was dull, with no hollow echo.
“The road is solid. We can go.”
Damon irritably tapped his iron shield with the back of his hand.
“I came here to kill a treant, not to take a stroll. What the hell are we supposed to do now?”
After saying that, he instinctively turned to look at Rena, and the others' gazes followed.
Isolde gripped the 【Guide】 wooden badge, suddenly feeling its weight in her palm grow heavier.
She was the one who had taken the identity, so naturally, she had to lead the way on this “trade route.”
Fortunately, there was only one entrance before them, so there was no need to choose a direction for now.
She had originally thought this so-called treant was just a normal dungeon.
She could have pushed the others to the front to wear it down while she stayed behind to observe, just like she did with Valen, ultimately reaping the rewards for herself.
But this time, she had too little information. She had been constantly adjusting her strategy reactively, and things were getting somewhat out of her control.
But that didn't matter.
If she didn't have information, she would gather it on the spot.
As long as she could understand the rules faster than anyone else, she would eventually turn this passive situation to her advantage.
Isolde calmed her mind slightly, looped the hemp rope of the wooden badge around her belt, and gave it two firm tugs to ensure it wouldn't fall off during battle.
The thick fog on both sides of the road was slowly closing in, and the ancient tree in the distance that had swallowed carriages and skeletal remains gradually faded into the depths of the mist.
Rena delayed no longer and quickly arranged their formation.
“First, we follow the stone road to the road marker ahead.”
“Damon, follow me at the very front. Severn, Ryan, and Xu Zhiheng will take the middle, with Su Xiaoman keeping close to them. Zhou Yi, don't fall behind. Kolo and Milo will stay together, and Reece will bring up the rear.”
Xu Zhiheng raised an eyebrow slightly. “Are you sure this arrangement is appropriate?”
Isolde was already irritated by the rules before her. Hearing him trying to probe her again, her tone instantly turned cold.
“Do you have a better arrangement?”
Xu Zhiheng spoke in a haughty tone, raising his chin. “I'm merely using my experience as a Descender to remind you.”
“There are very likely ambushes hidden in the fog.”
Isolde rolled her eyes at him without any politeness.
As if she weren't a Descender herself.
Oh, right.
Her current identity indeed wasn't one.
But that didn't stop her from being disgusted by Xu Zhiheng's superior attitude and idiotic remarks.
“You're a Descender, and we are mercenaries. We don't need you to remind us of things even a three-year-old would know.”
Failing to show off and getting mocked instead, Xu Zhiheng felt a bit embarrassed.
However, he didn't argue further. Muttering a few words to save face, he walked to his designated position.
Damon followed with his iron shield. As he passed by Xu Zhiheng, he let out a cold snort from his nose, making no effort to hide his ridicule.
Kolo also took down her weapon from her back, casually grabbing Milo who was trying to get closer to Rena, and dragging him back to her side.
Milo stumbled from the tug.
“What are you doing?”
“Protecting you.”
Kolo pushed him to the position in front of her.
“It's a bit safer here.”
“I can walk on my own.”
Milo was somewhat annoyed at being treated like a "useless weakling." His gaze swept over the black roots slowly crawling in the thick fog, and he instinctively nudged a bit closer to Kolo.
The others also stepped onto the “trade route” one after another.
When Reece, at the very rear, stepped past the stone pillars on both sides and onto the stone path, the roots behind them suddenly began to close up.
The ten of them turned back at the same time.
Behind them, only a wall of roots covered in slippery moss remained. The path they had come from was no longer visible.
With no way to retreat, they had no choice but to brace themselves and move forward along the stone path beneath their feet.
They hadn't walked far when the wooden badges hanging on all ten of them lit up with a faint dark-red glow at the same time.
Immediately after, a strange rustling sound came from the surrounding thick fog.
Rena stopped, her left hand pressing on her shortsword as she raised her right fist.
“Stop. There's movement around us.”
The atmosphere instantly tensed. Everyone gripped their weapons tightly, warily staring at the billowing white fog on both sides of the road.
“On the right!”
Just as Rena finished speaking, a thick root suddenly tore through the fog, thrusting straight toward the side of the party.
Damon's reaction was incredibly fast.
He took a step forward, slamming his iron shield heavily onto the stone slabs.
Bang—
The root slammed hard against the shield, the dull impact echoing through the thick fog.
Damon was pushed back half a step along with his shield, his boot soles scraping two greyish-white marks on the stone slabs.
The muscles in his shoulders tensed, and he couldn't help but curse.
“What immense strength...”
Just a single root extending from the fog was enough to push Damon back in a head-on collision.
Rena gripped her shortsword, her gaze quickly sweeping over both sides of the road.
The decaying leaves outside the stone road were bulging one after another. One black root-tendril after another burrowed out from the ground, but they didn't pounce immediately, only slithering slowly along the ground.
“What are you all standing around for?” Damon gritted his teeth, using his shield to firmly hold back the root that was still exerting force. “Get this thing off me!”
Severn raised his staff. Just as a spark of fire appeared at its tip, Kolo had already rushed out from the rear of the party.
With both hands tightly gripping the heavy weapon wrapped securely in cloth, Kolo suddenly exerted force from her waist and core, swinging it down hard at the middle of the root.
Crack!
The bark split down the middle as it was forcefully severed. Wood chips and gravel exploded simultaneously, tumbling into the mud outside the road.
The cloth wrapped around the weapon's surface slid down the axe handle, revealing an oddly shaped double-bladed heavy axe.
The blades on either side were asymmetrical.
One side was broad and heavy, while the other curved inward like a sharp hook.
Damon only needed one look to recognize that this was definitely no ordinary item.
“Nice piece of gear.”
Kolo shouldered the heavy axe once more.
Damon couldn't help but ask, “Where'd you get it?”
“Looted it.”
Damon was taken aback. “You looted it from someone else?”
“He tried to loot me first,” Kolo corrected him earnestly. “But he lost.”
For a moment, Damon didn't even know what to say, while Zhou Yi's eyelids twitched as he listened.
He looked at the double-bladed heavy axe that was almost wider than Kolo's entire upper body, then at her not-so-tall figure hidden under the dark-green cloak, and couldn't help but ask skeptically:
“Can you actually lift that thing?”
Kolo glanced at him. “Why wouldn't I be able to? The rabb—”
She almost let it slip, but managed to swallow it back down just in time.
“I've always been very strong.”
Just as Zhou Yi was about to press further, several slender root-tendrils around them suddenly lashed out simultaneously, whipping toward different parts of the party.
Damon immediately activated 【Strength Storage】, raising his shield to block the front.
The moment the root-tendril slammed into the iron shield, a dim halo lit up along the shield's surface, rapidly absorbing the force of the impact.
Severn waved his staff, sending a 【Flame】 rolling along the stone slabs, setting ablaze two slender tendrils attacking from the side.
The scorched root-tendrils writhed frantically and quickly retreated into the thick fog outside the road.
“Fire works!”
A hint of joy surfaced in Severn's eyes.
The next moment, another thick root-tendril slithered along the edge of the road, heading straight for Milo's ankle.
Realizing its target was him, Milo's expression changed, and he hurriedly raised his hand crossbow.
Just as he pointed the bolt at the root-tendril, a heavy sound of tearing wind echoed beside him.
Kolo swept her heavy axe across, sending the root-tendril flying along with the loose stone bricks beneath it.
Muddy water and gravel splashed all over Milo.
He looked down at his empty feet, his legs still a bit weak.
“Don't just stand there,” Kolo said, pulling back her weapon. “You're not a block of wood.”
Feeling his self-esteem bruised, Milo couldn't help but retort:
“This road is so narrow, where am I supposed to dodge?”
“I know,” Kolo glanced at him. “That's why I'm reminding you.”
She spoke very earnestly, without the slightest hint of sarcasm.
Milo, on the other hand, didn't know how to respond.
On the other side, Reece suddenly spoke up, “We must reach the next road marker as quickly as possible. If we stay on the road, these things won't stop attacking.”
Ryan sidestepped a root-tendril and shot an arrow.
“How do you know?”
“Because we are currently a caravan.”
Reece severed a slender root wrapping toward Zhou Yi with a slash of his sword. “And the one thing a caravan never lacks is attacks lurking in the shadows.”
Ryan sneered. “It's just an illusion created by the treant. Are you seriously treating this place like a real trade route?”
Reece gave him a cold look. “The badge is already hanging on you. If you don't believe in these rules, you can throw it away first.”
Ryan said no more, only tightening his bowstring as he kept a wary eye on the movements of the surrounding roots.
On the other side, the trio of Descenders was cursing and slashing.
Although their character and morals were lacking, since they had managed to survive to the late stage in their past lives, they still possessed a decent amount of self-preservation capability.
Rate on N.U.
