Miss Witch, it's time to clean up the entries

Chapter 313: The Second Layer of the Crack, the Horror Forest

Parker's fiancée was a witch, which shocked the Moriah family even more than Parker's disappearance.

What kind of person would dare to marry a witch?

Now the witch is a traitor being hunted by the entire empire.

The wise men even developed a weapon specifically for witches called a puppet.

Only the top nobles know what a puppet is.

The descendants of the Moria family all lived in the North and had never seen a puppet.

I only heard that it was a very terrifying existence, and even a witch would find it difficult to escape the puppet's pursuit.

Even if there was no imperial wanted order, they would not dare to marry a witch.

Everyone knows that the witch is a time bomb, and once it gets out of control, it will cause an irreversible disaster.

Just imagine, if your wife, who you have been sleeping with all night, suddenly loses control, you will definitely be the first victim.

Who is willing to take such a risk for love?
No, the Moria family has never lacked love.

They have plenty of choices, so they won't choose the witch at all.

"We didn't take advantage of Miss Ashley. We just came together to explore the rift."

Isaac said, shaking off his shock.

"Yes, we didn't take advantage of Miss Ashley."

Brown and Stowe also said that they were unwilling to admit that they had taken advantage of the witch.

If Ashley gets angry and gives them a vine, they won't be able to withstand it.

"There's no point in quibbling. Ashley needs to rest now, so I, your older brother, will take care of her. If your team wants to continue exploring the rift, you can either follow us or separate from us after daybreak and set off on your own."

Li En's tone was calm, but he did not give the three any room to maneuver.

Since Ashley is Parker's fiancée, it makes sense for Li En to say that he is her brother.

"Miss Ashley, please follow me. I'll take you to rest."

Nancy said gently.

Ashley nodded slightly and chose to follow Nancy into the tent.

"Lean, what gives you the right to do this? Miss Aisley, please trust us. Only we can help you find Parker."

Isaac shouted loudly, and a cold ice crystal blade appeared in front of him, making him shut up instantly.

"Be quiet and don't disturb everyone's rest."

Li En said.

Isaac, Brown and Stowe were all very stupid. They could get this far, not by relying entirely on the witch, but definitely by relying on Ashley most of the time. Now, the witch was directly abducted.

If I had known this earlier, I would have stayed out of the safe zone and just found a spider hole outside to spend the night.

After resting for a night, the three of them went to Field at dawn the next day to discuss the matter, hoping to bribe Field to persuade Li En to return the witch to them.

Field accepted the gift and turned around to sell out the three people.

So this situation arose.

Li En invited Ashley out, and Isaac, Brown and Stowe were also present.

"Miss Ashley, would you rather follow me or the three of them?"

Although Ashley is an innocent and simple witch, she can also find out from the attitudes of these Morias who really cares about Parker and who is pretending.

Even though the three of them looked at Ashley expectantly and said a lot of sweet words.

Ashley still resolutely chose to follow Li En.

Her intuition told her that only Lee En could understand her feelings for Parker.

And Parker only told Li En that she was his fiancée.

From this point of view alone, Li En is closer to Moria and Parker than the previous three.

In addition, there are witches like herself in Li En's team.

This made Ashley feel that she was not an outlier and did not need to endure the fearful gazes of those she protected.

After the three golden retrievers found that they could not persuade Ashley, they had no choice but to follow Li En's team.

They really don't want to face the harsh living environment of the crack alone.

However, Li En did not approve of them joining the team, but only tacitly allowed them to follow behind.

After all, they are all descendants of the Moria family. As long as they don't do anything particularly excessive, Li En is still willing to give face to his grandfather and take care of his disappointing grandchildren.

After leaving the safe zone, they officially left the first level of the cracks in the ice and snow and entered the second level, the horror forest.

Although the terrain is still heading downwards, there is already dense vegetation and open forest areas.

The light in the forest does not come from luminous animals or sunlight, but from fluorescent spores parasitic on the treetops. These spores decorate the entire forest like a fairy tale world.

The climate here is more suitable for the survival of humans and monsters, so the number of monsters on this floor is the largest.

Perhaps it was because they saw the long-lost green vegetation and flowers that many adventurers showed joy on their faces.

"Finally, we don't have to endure that damn snowstorm."

"Yeah, I haven't felt this kind of temperature and humidity for a long time. I feel like I've come alive."

People laughed and said.

The red-haired female knight Lindsay suddenly reminded,

"I saw a quote in some adventurer's journal: Every leaf in the forest whispers, every root peers—here, even shadows are deadly. So don't think the second floor is safer than the first; it's even more dangerous."

"Yes, it's not without reason that this place is known as the Horror Forest."

Field said.

"Oh?"

Li En asked this question, after all, he knew nothing about this place.

Lindsay explained,

"Some say the entire forest is made up of a massive 'Tree of Flesh and Blood,' with its pulsing pulses and blood vessels running through its trunk. All the trees share a network of consciousness, and attacking one tree triggers a counterattack from the entire forest."

"And if you want to walk here, you must sacrifice 24 grams of flesh and blood to the forest every 100 hours, otherwise the roots will actively entangle and digest living creatures."

"That does sound horrible."

Noah exclaimed.

buzzing-

Li En's ears keenly caught the sound of the swarm of insects.

"Everyone, be careful, there are bugs coming."

"It's the light-devouring bugs! No external light sources are allowed here. The light-devouring bugs will be attracted by the light and then indiscriminately attack all living things here."

Isaac said that although he disliked the two illegitimate sons, Li En and Field, but since his team was also here, he had to tell everyone the news.

Even Lindsay didn't know this news.

When everyone heard Isaac say this, they all noticed the glowing beast in Sophie's arms.

During the day, only the luminous beast will continue to glow. The light it emits is completely different from the fluorescence in the forest, so it attracts those light-eating insects.

"They're just some bugs, what's there to be afraid of?"

Noah asked in confusion.

They have even seen giant ice-eating worms, so why are they afraid of these little bugs that devour everything?
"The attack power of the Devouring Light Bugs themselves is not strong, but tens of thousands of them can destroy an army. Once these light bugs find themselves in danger, they will choose to self-destruct. The power of self-destruction is equivalent to that of a barrel bomb." Isaac explained.

Sophie frowned slightly.

"let me."

The forest witch Ashley can control plants, and this forest is undoubtedly her best home ground.

Ashley controlled the trees and vines in front of her, making them move together quickly to form an impenetrable wall, blocking the path of the light insects.

At the same time, Sophie put her beloved glowing beast into a sack, avoiding the crisis.

"If, as you say, we need to sacrifice 24 grams of flesh and blood to the forest every 100 hours, what will happen to the creatures living here?"

Li En suddenly asked.

"All creatures living here obey the laws of this place. They will periodically grow extra tumors on their bodies. We only need to sacrifice one tumor every day to maintain a normal life."

Lindsay said.

“Even species that don’t develop tumors regularly perform sacrifices.”

"Sounds like protection money."

Li En said.

"That's right. We have to sacrifice enough flesh and blood every day we spend here. If there are 70 people, that would be 7000 grams of flesh and blood."

Lindsay said.

Now the total number of people in the several teams is 110, so they must sacrifice 11000 grams of flesh and blood, or 22 kilograms.

It's very simple to do this, just catch a monster and sacrifice it.

Monsters are not uncommon here. Li En saw a rot-feathered eagle circling overhead.

Their bodies are covered with rotten feathers and their heads are covered with extra tumors, making them look hideous.

As if they had smelled the crowd, these carrion hawks called their friends and waited for their opportunity in the sky.

Nancy took the bow and arrow from her back and shot at the leading Rot Feather Eagle.

A beautiful arc was drawn in the air, and the arrow accurately shot into the body of the Rotten Feather Eagle.

As the leading rot-feather eagle was shot dead, the other rot-feather eagles scattered and no longer dared to continue spying on this group of people.

The Rot Feather Eagle fell to the ground and was picked up by an adventurer.

The adventurer covered his nose and said, "This stuff stinks."

"The rot-feathered eagle feeds on carrion, so of course it smells bad."

"How do we sacrifice this thing?"

the adventurers asked.

"It's actually very simple. You just need to not pick it up."

Isaac said.

An embarrassed look appeared on the adventurer's face, and he threw the smelly rotten feather eagle to the ground again.

A crack soon appeared on the ground, and several vines entangled the body of the Rot-Feathered Eagle.

In fact, the forest floor was already covered with tree roots, and the entire forest belonged to the body of a giant tree of flesh and blood.

Then, Li En and the others saw the spore rabbit, whose body was covered with fluorescent mushrooms and which scattered glowing spores when running; the root hound, whose limbs were made of roots and had an extremely sensitive sense of smell; the thorn rat, whose body was covered with spikes and could curl up into a ball and roll; the rot-heart deer, whose antlers were made of corrupted crystals and whose hearts were exposed... These animals all had one thing in common, that was they were completely inedible.

Because they are all polluted by this big tree.

Therefore, if the adventure team does not leave the second layer of the rift as soon as possible, they will face the dilemma of insufficient food supplies.

And there is no hint of the Gift Crystal on any of them.

It was not until everyone arrived at the territory of corrupted tree people that a red dot appeared on the crystal compass.

These are the low-level guards of the Flesh Tree. They appear as twisted humanoid trees, moving slowly but with great strength.

They can use their roots to entangle their prey and drag it underground for digestion, and they can also use their roots to walk.

But they will not leave their territory and generally will not attack humans or other creatures.

"Can we kill these tree people?"

Lee En asked.

If these corrupted tree people are also part of the body of the giant flesh and blood tree, then it will be a bit tricky.

"They are not part of the tree's body, but they can spew out corrosive liquids that melt flesh and metal. Be careful when hunting them."

Lindsay reminded.

Then Linsiya demonstrated to many adventurers how to kill the corrupted tree people.

Linsiya used the flaming sword to pierce the dark green "corrupted core" in the center of the corrupted treeman's trunk. After shattering the "corrupted core", the corrupted treeman also died.

The combat effectiveness of the Corrupted Treeman is not high. A four-star knight only needs two or three people to work together to easily kill a Corrupted Treeman.

However, the probability of a Corrupted Treeman dropping a Blessing Crystal after death is not high.

100 Corrupted Treants can only drop 8 fragments.

After Li En killed these corrupted treemen, the hunter attribute he had previously obtained was upgraded.

[Successfully killed more than 3 types of rift creatures, and the entry was upgraded to Monster Hunter.]

[Monster Hunter] Each time you kill a monster, you'll earn 1000 points. Killing monsters also increases your chances of receiving a Blessing Crystal.

After the fusion entry, each time you kill a monster, regardless of its species and level, you will get 1000 points. The only advantage is that it can increase the probability of obtaining a gift crystal.

There were only 100 corrupted treemen in this area, and they were all killed by the adventure team.

Li En's team obtained 6 fragments, while Isaac and others' team only obtained 2 fragments.

Just after they dealt with this group of corrupted tree people, screams were heard from the edge of the crowd.

"what--"

A bloody mark appeared on the neck of an adventurer.

The area within 5 meters around the adventurer turned into a shadow quagmire.

Behind the adventurer was a shadow that wasn't real enough, and the dagger in the shadow's hand was stained with blood.

"What kind of monster is this?"

"I do not know either."

Even Isaac and Lindsay didn't know what it was.

Until Li En saw the entry above Shadow's head.

[Shadow Hunter] A hunter cursed by a terrifying forest, their body merges with the shadows, allowing them to move swiftly in the dark. They are afraid of strong light.

Was he once a human?

But his weakness is almost equivalent to having no weakness in this forest that cannot release light, which is a bit of a headache.

But it's not unsolvable. You just need to remove the [Shadow Hunter] attribute above their heads first, and you can deal with them.

"This is the Shadow Hunter. Everyone, pay attention to the shadows beneath your feet. If the shadows begin to expand rapidly and turn into a shadowy quagmire, it means he is nearby."

Li En reminded everyone.

"Everyone gather together, don't be alone, because being alone makes you more likely to be targeted."

Everyone gathered together, looking at their feet vigilantly, guarding against the Shadow Hunters who might appear at any time.

(End of this chapter)