A sword slashed away a wild wolf in front of him. Duan Qing slowed down his physical strength, and then shouted to the other side: "How are you? Can you withstand it?"
"It's okay now, it won't be difficult to say in a while..."
When he realized that the four people on his side were about to be surrounded, Duan Qing gave the order decisively and moved the team to a position near the cave entrance against the wall. With his back to the rock wall, he began to face the attacks of wild wolves on the left and right. .
That's right, the monsters in the cave now are wild wolves.
Why are there wild wolves in this place? This question is no longer the first thing Duan Qing and the others think about, because the attack power of these wild wolves is much stronger than what they encountered in the wild before. They fell at the entrance before. The crystal worms are evidence of this.
Those wild wolves seemed to have signs of demonization, and after becoming demonized, they did not gain some ability to cast magic, but their power was enhanced. When Duan Qing's team just retreated to the edge of the rock wall, a wild wolf that rushed over was knocked to the wall by Duan Qing, and then... that claw scattered the protruding rocks over there.
Several people's eyelids twitched, and they gave up their original idea of a quick victory, and instead began to calmly resist the attacks of several monsters.
Mengzhu's fighting ability is not strong, and with the purple robe she has not changed out of in the Novice Village until now, she probably has a tight defense, so she can only hide behind Uncle Smiling's shield and fight Xiao Hongchen. One right guarded the attacks from both sides. Due to the previous lessons, the shirtless man was no longer as brave as before. He honestly cut back the threats on both sides with axe after axe, and even made mindless moves to gain something from the siege of the four wild wolves.
Of course, the wild wolf's attack is mainly focused on the smiling uncle at the front.
"Pay attention to your position. Just stay behind me at all times." The uncle, who turned around from time to time with a focused look, still had the energy to direct the other two people who had an obvious gap in strength and consciousness: "If you can't see clearly what's ahead If the situation arises, it’s just a no-brainer to take action...eh."
The wild wolf in front made another violent impact, knocking back the smiling butcher's next words.
"Uncle, are you okay?"
"It's okay." The old man in front let out a long breath, and then put the shield up in front again: "Fortunately, I replaced it with this black iron shield before..."
"There is no way to go on like this." Mengzhu drove back the wild wolf that was coming around with a knife, and then looked anxiously to the other side: "If you keep guarding like this, my uncle's physical strength will not be able to hold on..."
"Hey, I can't hold it anymore... just follow me!" The smiling uncle suddenly removed his shield, took two steps back, and then pointed the black iron shield forward again: "But it's not a problem, let's I just need to take a breath..."
"So you need to be bold at this time!" Behind him, Xiao Hongchen's arrogant shout suddenly rang out. Before the smiling butcher could say anything to stop him, the muscular man jumped out screaming.
"Eat my whirlwind fire dance!"
He held the ax in both hands and slashed from the upper left to the lower right.
Because he fell after jumping up, Xiao Hongchen's ax was extremely powerful. The two wild wolves that were barking in front of the iron shield were sent flying by this sudden axe, and rolled to the side wailing, but they were on the ground. The way he was twisting wildly meant that he didn't die directly. Xiao Hongchen let out a long laugh, and just as he was about to rush forward to finish off the attack, the remaining two wild wolves rushed forward, one on the left and the other on the right, biting the prey in front of him that dared to attack their companions.
In desperation, Xiao Hongchen could only lift the ax handle and barely blocked the attack of one of the wild wolves. The other wild wolf stretched out its claws and slapped his right leg with one claw.
With a bang, it was swatted away by the smiling butcher's shield.
Xiao Hongchen staggered to the side, and then was thrown to the ground by the wild wolf biting the ax handle. With saliva dripping from his mouth, the wild wolf stared with red eyes and roared in a low voice. Then he suddenly let go of the ax handle and slapped a claw on the head of the man lying on the ground.
Then, its head was stabbed with a dagger.
Mengzhu pulled out his weapon with all his strength, staggered back two steps, and was protected by the smiling uncle. Among the barking of the other wild wolves, the uncle roared like never before.
"Laugh at Hongchen! If you are a man, stand up quickly!"
"...Damn it, Lao Bang's legs were broken!"
It seems that the wild wolf's blow just now was not completely avoided...
Mengzhu gritted his teeth and wanted to rush out and drag his teammates back, but the two wild wolves that had been knocked away by Xiao Hongchen also rushed back and pounced on the remaining three people.
Mengzhu grabbed Xiao Hongchen, who was still lying on the ground struggling. In the field of view ahead, the bodies of two wild wolves suddenly enlarged, and then... a foot appeared out of the air and kicked one of the wolves. superior.
The wolf howled again and flew sideways, knocking over its companion running side by side, and then rolled on the ground several times before stopping.
"They just have stronger attack power." When Duan Qing's voice sounded, the outermost wolf had already been chopped down by his sword: "Don't carry them all the time, you must learn to avoid them."
He rushed forward, stepped behind a certain wolf in a few steps, and then punched out, knocking the wolf staggering.
Uncle Smiling rushed forward in two or two steps, swatted the other wolf with his shield, sending that wolf flying away, and then he and Meng Zhu held Xiao Hongchen back. In front of them, the man wearing the brown leather armor that Mengzhu received in Novice Village was still dealing with the remaining two wolves. At a certain moment, he rolled onto the ground behind a certain wolf, then knelt down, raised up, and slashed horizontally, forcing the two wolves out again.
I remember that there were three wolves surrounding the bad uncle before...
Mengzhu stared blankly at Duan Qing, who was still rolling in front of him, and then was woken up by the smiling butcher: "Hey, hey! Where are the bandages..."
"oh oh......"
The little girl hurriedly took out the first-aid bandage from her backpack, and then bandaged Xiao Hongchen, who was constantly gasping for air. .
"Uncle Xiao Hongchen, please don't be so impulsive next time..."
"Hey...hey, man...how can it be...not impulsive..."
"I guess that's why you always get kicked out of other teams."
"How did you know... No, labor and management didn't... get kicked out... Ouch, it hurts so much, lovely Mengzhu... Sister, can you be gentler..."
"Stop talking nonsense! The injured should squat down..."
"Just...don't worry about me, just save your life if you can..."
"Don't underestimate us, the fight is almost over."
Amid another wolf howl, Duan Qing got up from half-kneeling on the ground and walked back to the middle of the team.
"Can I still leave?"
"Hiss...it's a bit difficult..."
"Then there's nothing we can do. Let's fix it first."
"What does fixed mean...?"
Under Xiao Hongchen's puzzled gaze, Mengzhu took out two more wooden boards from his bag, and then... took out some ropes.
"What is this..."
"Don't be afraid, I found the method online." Duan Qing said, "But we haven't tried it yet... so."
"Just in time to practice with you."
************************
Although they survived the attack in the end, the team's losses in this battle could be considered serious, and the remaining people became more and more cautious during the exploration.
As for the original mission goal, it has become less important.
As one of the moderate monsters, the Tunnel Crystal Worm is not a very dangerous monster to begin with, so even with the current team's average level of 20, this kind of task of cleaning up the mine is within their acceptable range. However, their purpose was not to kill insects in the first place. Now that things have developed to this extent, they have to give up the idea of "taking advantage of others".
As they went deeper, more and more strange monsters appeared.
Fortunately, the remaining three combat-effective personnel were much more cautious. In the next tunnel, several people encountered lone wild wolves, wild boars, lizards, and poisonous snakes. They were all pulled out and cleaned up separately, smiling. With the cooperation of Uncle and Duan Qing on offense and defense, there was not much danger in their advancement. However, because of this, their progress slowed down greatly until they encountered a wild bear that could stand upright. After several people worked hard to solve it, they finally stopped moving forward.
"Although these monsters are less powerful than the old Emerald Forest, they are... really weird."
"We are all people who have read very few books and do not understand the game of the free world... Xiao Hongchen, you should be the person who knows this game best. In such a situation... in the free world Is it common?”
Dragging his injured leg, Xiao Hongchen followed the team slowly. What was being used as a crutch in his hand was the clothes-drying pole he had obtained in the previous mission.
"How do I know...well, I really don't know." Seeing the team stop, he panted and leaned against the wall of the cave, stood the iron pole aside, and sat on the ground with his broken leg stretched out. ——It must be said that he was also one of the reasons why the team was moving slowly at this time. In order to ensure the safety of the rear, Duan Qing and others even had to explore and clean up the aisles along the road.
"All kinds of strange phenomena are one of the charms of the free world. So...the appearance of these messy things in the mines is considered normal?"
"No, this is not normal at all..."
"Okay, it has to be solved." Duan Qing put away his weapon and sat next to Xiao Hongchen: "Then let's analyze together, why do these wild monsters appear here... ....”
"Before that, I think another issue is more noteworthy." Uncle Smile put the black iron shield aside and participated in the discussion: "The person who gave us the task before did not mention it... This is the current situation.”
"Well......"
"Maybe it's because he doesn't know?"
"With so many miners coming in and out, it's impossible that not a single wild wolf was discovered...and their desire to attack was so strong, those crystal worms were as hard as rocks, and they were actually eaten by them... ..."
"So they are all demonized creatures. It is understandable that demonized creatures appear in places like mines where there is no sunlight, right? And with their unscientific powers, it makes sense why the bugs can easily lead to dogs. That’s it…”
"But their existence itself... doesn't make sense."
"Is there another entrance to this mine? They might have come in from that kind of place..."
"Then they became demonized? Then they took over the mines?"
"It still doesn't make sense..."
"Come on!" The little girl's cry suddenly came from the front of the cave. Soon after, several people found Mengzhu rushing back from the tunnel behind the black bear's body.
"There is a corpse ahead." She gasped, "I was scared to death..."
The little girl sneaked to the front without knowing when, and then ran back in panic. Then she was laughed at and comforted by several grown men as usual.
Under the light of the torch, Duan Qing led the team to find the body. Judging from the degree of decomposition, the man seemed to have died not long ago. The brown robe was draped over his body, but it had been torn to pieces. It seemed that it was the work of those crazy beasts. Several people endured nausea and searched his clothes up and down, but found nothing that could prove his identity.
The only thing that could be confirmed was that this man seemed to be a mage in life. In addition to the fact that he was wearing something that looked like a robe, several people also found his staff not far away.
[Stone Staff (Excellent)]
[Weapon power: weak]
[Equipment requirements: Intelligence 7, Spirit 10]
[Special effect: Your soil spell will become harder. 】
["Most of Sunderland's mages focus on earth magic. Even the most junior mages will have their own earth magic staff, which makes their earth magic more powerful."]
"Hmm, it seems to be something with a lot of background." After reading the description of the staff, which was all yellow and seemed to be made of tree branches, Duan Qing passed it on to others.
"This mage should also have a background, so..." Uncle Smile touched his chin and nodded: "If we go back and report to the Mage Council, we should have an answer."
"Of course." Duan Qing said, "But we have to wait until we get back. And..."
He looked towards the front of the mine. There was no light in the dark depths of the cave, like the mouth of a wild beast that chooses people to eat.
"We have to be able to withstand what's coming next..." He took out his weapon and shook the sword as usual: "If he is indeed a member of the Council of Mages, then things will be serious."
"Assuming he is a member of the Mage Council, then the Mage Council does have a lot of vision." The smiling butcher raised his torch and tried to light up the road ahead: "No matter what he was sent here to do, he should be an earth magician. , then... sending him here should be a very correct choice."
"But he's dead now."
"So what we're going to be dealing with... could be a very serious situation."
"Let's look for other things that can represent his identity, so that when we go back, we can find out his identity..."
"Hey guys, maybe there's more to this than you think."
Sitting aside with his injured leg, Xiao Hongchen, who had not moved all this time, suddenly said, "Didn't you discover... the cause of death of this deceased?"
He leaned against the wall and pointed at the neck of the corpse who also had his back against the wall with the makeshift clothes pole that served as a crutch.
"He was killed and...it was a stab wound."
