Wizard: Starting with Dealing with Magical Plants

Chapter 280 A Perilous Environment

"Let's go." Rowling lay back down on the stretcher.

Ellie took a deep breath, pulled up the trailer, and stepped into the slowly flowing gray-white mist.

Visibility instantly dropped to less than thirty meters. Silence reigned all around, broken only by the tractor's churning on the ground and Ellie's own breathing and heartbeat.

The twisted trees, like menacing ghosts, appeared and disappeared in the mist.

The air was so humid it felt like you could wring water out of it, and the rotten, sweet smell could be faintly detected even through the ointment and strips of cloth, making one feel a little dizzy.

The ground beneath my feet became soft and muddy, leaving deep footprints with every step.

Ellie walked more carefully, relying entirely on Rowling's guidance on the trailer to avoid suspicious areas that were particularly dark in color or had bubbles coming out.

Broken Feather and Blue Feather could not fly effectively in such dense fog, so they could only land on either side of the trailer and follow along on foot.

Baha also lowered its altitude and scouted through the fog, its vision seemingly unaffected by the fog.

After walking for about half an hour, the surrounding fog seemed to thicken and the light became dimmer, as if dusk had arrived early.

The temperature actually dropped a bit, and there was a chilly, damp feeling in the air.

"Stop," Roland suddenly said.

Ellie stopped immediately and nervously looked around.

Apart from the fog and the distorted shadows of the trees, nothing could be seen.

"Something's coming from the left front—" Rowling's voice was low. "Quite a few, not moving fast—it looks like—a swarm of insects?"

Insect swarm?

Ellie's heart tightened.

Encountering a swarm of insects in a swamp is terrifying to even think about.

Luo Lin told her to pull the trailer to a particularly thick, crooked tree with bark that looked like scales, and to try to hide behind the trunk.

Soon, a dense, chilling rustling sound came from the mist, growing ever closer.

Through the edge of the thin mist, Ellie saw a nauseating scene.

Those were hundreds or thousands of fist-sized, flat-bodied, dark green multi-legged worms with disgusting tumors and bristles on their backs!

They crowded together, like a creeping tide, covering the ground, moving slowly but steadily toward them!

Where the insect swarm passed, the low-lying plants and moss on the ground were visibly devoured, leaving behind bare mud.

"Swamp Moss Worms, first-tier social enchanted creatures. They're not very aggressive, but their numbers are huge, and getting entangled with them can be troublesome. Plus, their slime has a slight corrosive and paralyzing toxicity," Rolin explained quickly in a low voice. "They usually only eat specific types of decaying plants and moss, but if we block our way or disturb them, we might get attacked."

"Don't move, wait for them to pass."

As the swarm drew closer, a stench of rotting plants and insect secretions assaulted the senses, making one feel nauseous even through the cloth.

Ellie held her breath, pressed herself tightly against the tree trunk, and dared not move.

A "tide" of bryophytes swept over the path they had just traversed, submerging the traces left by the trailer.

Some insects even crawled onto the tree trunk where they were hiding, but seemed uninterested in the bark and slowly crawled back down.

The swarm of insects lasted for nearly five minutes before finally passing completely past them and disappearing into the depths of the fog on the other side, leaving behind only a patch of mud that had been gnawed clean and that nauseating smell.

Ellie let out a long sigh of relief, feeling her back was completely soaked.

"Keep going." Rowling's voice remained calm. "The appearance of this swarm of insects indicates that there is a food source they like nearby, which may also mean that something more dangerous is active nearby, driving them away or attracting them."

"Stay vigilant."

Ellie nodded, pulled the trailer up again, and moved forward more carefully.

The first day of the Forgotten Swamp slowly unfolded amidst this oppressive, eerie, and suspenseful atmosphere.

Deeper into the fog ahead, who knows how many unknown dangers and challenges lie hidden.

But at least they had temporarily shaken off the cold, mechanical pursuers behind them and stepped into a complex land where even automated units of the Observer Legacy would probably have to think twice before venturing in.

The stench of the bryophytes still lingered in Ellie's nostrils, making her pull the trailer even more cautiously.

The mud was of varying depths, sometimes sinking above the ankles and making a "plop" sound.

The grayish-white mist flowed as if it were alive, entwining the twisted trees, blocking out most of the light, and blurring the sense of time.

Luo Lin lay on the stretcher, focusing most of his attention on guiding [Quiet Dust Star] to slowly repair the shock damage to his internal organs. A small portion of his senses, like the finest spider web, spread outwards from himself, capturing every abnormal energy flow and life force in the mist.

The environmental energy here is abnormally chaotic and inert, carrying a profound rhythm as if everything is slowly decaying and dying.

For [Quiet Dust Star], this environment is both a challenge and requires more power to settle and filter impurities.

It is also an opportunity; extreme chaos and decay, in turn, can better highlight and hone the essence of calm and stability.

The mark on his wrist remained silent and unmoved after he entered the swamp.

It seems that even the higher units of the Observer Legacy are wary of such regions of extreme energy disorder and distorted rules, or that their tracking methods are severely hampered here.

This is good news.

The bad news is that the swamp itself is no less dangerous than the mechanical pursuers.

"Turn right, go around that puddle," Rolin suddenly said, his voice muffled through the cloth. "The water is black, with a colored oily film on the surface; it's quite toxic."

Ellie turned as instructed and indeed saw a black puddle about three or four meters in diameter less than ten meters to her left. The surface of the water was eerily calm, shimmering with an oily, rainbow-like sheen.

She quickly pulled the trailer around to the more solid muddy ground next to it.

After walking for about half an hour, a relatively open area without tall trees appeared ahead.

The ground was covered with low-lying, purplish-black ferns, and the sweet, rotten smell in the air was even stronger.

Rowling frowned slightly. "Stop."

Ellie immediately stopped and looked at him nervously.

"These purple night ferns—they're growing too well." Rolin's gaze swept over the ferns whose color was too dark and whose leaves were abnormally thick. "Usually, purple night ferns only grow on a specific concentration of humus, but these—they look like they've been over-ripened."

There might be something underground.

He gestured for Ellie to slowly back away, while he himself struggled to turn sideways from the trailer and, with his still slightly mobile left hand, reached out from the edge of the package to retrieve a small, spare low-quality energy crystal fragment.

"Get behind that crooked tree," Rowling whispered, then forcefully threw the crystal fragment toward the center of the purple night fern patch!

The crystal fragment traced an arc and landed in the dense fern thicket.

At first, there was no reaction.

A few seconds later.

Boo!

A very faint sound, like a bubble bursting.

Immediately afterwards, the purple night ferns within a five-meter radius of the crystal's landing point suddenly withered and collapsed at a speed visible to the naked eye!

It was as if the support below had been instantly sucked away!

A dark pit, about two meters in diameter with smooth edges and an unfathomable depth, suddenly appeared in the middle of the once lush fern bushes!

The soil around the edge of the pit had an unnatural grayish-white color and was slowly flowing downwards.

The low-quality energy crystal fragment had long since vanished, leaving not even a trace.

Ellie gasped, shuddering with fear. If she had rashly gone in just now—

"It's an energy-devouring swamp," Rolin said with a hint of gravity. "It specifically devours energy and objects rich in life force."

"The purple night fern was forced to mature because it absorbed the mixed life energy emanating from the swamp."

"If a higher concentration of energy source or a living creature steps on it, it will trigger a collapse."

"If you fall in, not even your bones will be left."

He gestured for Ellie to go around the area from a greater distance. "Remember this characteristic. Overly bright and lush vegetation is often a bad omen in a swamp."

For the rest of the journey, Ellie walked with even greater caution.

Rowling kept pointing out the signs of danger:

The strangely colored fungal patches, the pool of water emitting eerie sounds, the inconspicuous but regularly arranged pits on the ground resembling animal footprints—

On one occasion, they even spotted a colossal beast, the size of a small house, covered in thick mud and vines, with only its murky yellow eyes visible, moving slowly through the depths of the fog, each step causing the ground to tremble slightly.

Lorin immediately told her to hide, and they didn't dare to move forward until the sound of the giant beast's footsteps had completely disappeared.

The swamp is like a huge, malevolent maze, where every step forward could trigger an unknown trap.

Time slipped by in anxious anticipation. Judging from the changing light, it was probably already afternoon.

With the continued care and medicinal effects of [Quiet Dust Star], Luo Lin's injuries have stabilized somewhat, and at least speaking is no longer so difficult.

But they are still far from regaining their mobility.

"We need to find a relatively safe place to spend the night," Rowling told Ellie. "We can't stay on the ground anymore. The nights in the swamp are more dangerous. Many nocturnal creatures come out, and the toxicity and hallucinogenic effects of the fog are also enhanced."

T

His gaze swept around, finally settling on an exceptionally tall tree with grayish-white bark and a crown that was faintly visible in the mist.

The tree trunk was so thick that it took several people to encircle it. About four or five meters above the ground, there was a huge, naturally formed hole in the tree, with the entrance half-hidden by hanging vines.

"That tree," Rowling pointed, "has bark made of gray bone wood, which is hard and emits a faint scent that repels most low-level insects and swamp creatures."

"That tree hollow could serve as a temporary shelter if there are no residents inside."

Ellie looked at the height, then at the heavily injured Roland, and hesitated. "But—how do we get up there?"

"Use vines." Rowling already had a plan. "Find a vine long and strong enough, tie one end to the cross branch of the frame, and you climb up to the tree hole with the other end to secure it. Then pull me up."

"Broken Feather and Blue Feather can help you carry the vines up."

This was a project that required teamwork and physical strength. Ellie didn't hesitate and immediately got to work.

She found enough vines nearby and, under Rowling's guidance, wove them into a thicker, stronger rope.

Duan Yu used its beak to pick up one end of the rope, and with great effort, flapped its injured wings to fly to the entrance of the tree hole, where it looped the rope around a thick branch above the entrance.

Lan Yu also helped out from the side.

Ellie, carrying the remaining rope, carefully climbed upwards, using the protruding bark and cracks in the tree trunk.

The bark of the gray bone wood was indeed hard and rough, providing a good foothold.

Although they climbed very slowly, they eventually reached the entrance to the tree hole.

The inside of the tree hole was wider than it appeared from the outside, about the size of a normal room. The bottom was relatively flat, with some dry fallen leaves and dead branches piled up. There were no signs of animals living there, only some small, harmless insects crawling in the corners.

There was a faint smell of wood and dust in the air, which smelled much better than the swamp outside.

Ellie secured the rope firmly to a sturdy tree root inside the cave, then gestured downwards.

Below, Luo Lin used the remaining vines to tie himself more tightly to the main frame of the trellis, creating a simple "hanging basket".

Ellie pulled from above, while Broken Feather and Blue Feather supported them from below with their heads and wings. Baha also flew over to help by holding the rope in his mouth.

After a great deal of effort, they finally managed to pull Luo Lin, along with the makeshift trailer, up into the tree hole.

The two people, two birds, and a crow huddled together in a not-so-wide tree hollow, finally finding a relatively dry and safe place to stay for the time being.

Ellie was so exhausted that she was almost collapsing, and she leaned against the cave wall, panting heavily.

Luo Lin's injuries were aggravated by the ordeal, and his face turned even paler, but his spirits remained relatively good.