In the Duke's Palace of William Scalander, in the Plencia region.

A butler rushed in, disregarding the etiquette of knocking, and pushed open the door to Duke William's study.

"My lord! Miss, we have news of Miss!"

William, who had been dejected, suddenly straightened up, his eyes, which had been dull for days, suddenly gleaming, and he quickly asked, "Where? Where is my Austin?!"

"The Rotten River Dungeon! New intelligence says a red-haired girl registered as an adventurer there a few days ago; that must be Miss!"

Is it accurate?

"I had my men take the portrait to ask, so it's almost impossible for them to be wrong, but... by now, Miss might already be inside the dungeon..."

William laughed upon hearing this. "No problem, as long as we find her, that's good. I know my daughter's strength; ordinary people are no match for her, especially since she's carrying the Dragon Blood Sword."

"However, there are always exceptions..."

William pondered for a moment, then said, "Call Louisa and Riesfir over."

After a while, the two went to the study.

Louisa is Austin's older sister, while Lisfield is the swordsmanship teacher William hired to teach Austin, and the former leader of the Holy Knights Sword Saint Order.

One is a top-tier magical genius, and the other is a master swordsman. This combination is more than enough to find Austin, but William still feels uneasy.

He told the two of them about the situation and then asked them to temporarily form a team, with payment not being an issue.

"Father, I will definitely bring my sister back safely!"

"Lord William, I swear in the name of the Holy Emperor that I will protect Miss's safety with my life!"

With their fame and financial resources, a top-tier dream team consisting of three Diamond-level and two Steel-level players quickly took shape.

The seven of them set off for the underground city of the Decaying River without stopping.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"Yes, it's fresh, and it's nearby."

Onsk threw away the monkey feces in his hand and pulled out his newly bought steel scimitar.

The two moved slowly through the accumulated silt of the Green Bone Forest. Suddenly, Norn felt his right foot bump into something and looked down.

A hand covered in mud and moss reached out of the puddles, grabbed the hand, and pulled it out, dragging out a half-rotten human corpse.

"vomit……"

Norn quickly released his right hand and stomped it back into the mud with both feet.

"This is what the human-faced monkeys left over. It looks like we've gone deep into their territory."

After speaking, Onsk stopped moving forward and his pinpoint pupils quickly searched.

Soon, it spotted its target in a large tree not far away.

Three or four human-faced monkeys were eating something on the tree trunk.

"Norn, can you see it? It's right there," Onsk said in a low voice, pointing to the tree trunk.

"Hurry up and control one of them, I'll carry you out."

Onsk picked a few clumps of grass and held them up as cover. The two slowly moved to the tree until they reached the limit of the organ transfer.

Norn lost consciousness, and Onsk quickly caught him, carried him on his back, and slowly walked away.

In the tree, a monkey with a human face was possessed by Norn, and the stench from its mouth made it instinctively spit out what was in its mouth.

That's when Norn realized what the monkeys were eating.

A monkey, or more precisely, a human-faced monkey, is eating another human-faced monkey.

The monkey in front of them had its limbs torn off, while the other monkeys with human faces each held up a hand or leg and were gnawing on it with relish.

Even more surprisingly, this "monkey stick" is still alive!

The face, which resembled the Yuanmou Man, was contorted with pain, and the person was pouting and sobbing.

At this moment, the slightly larger human-faced monkey behind Norn, seeing that Norn wasn't eating, raised its hand and smashed the head of the monkey stick.

Then he pinched a soft, bouncy lump of brain with his hand and shoved it straight into Norn's mouth.

Holy shit! !

Norn threw away the monkey's hand that was gagging him, quickly spat out the bits of brain matter in his mouth, then grabbed a vine and swung away without looking back.

The human-faced monkey has well-developed limbs and is highly mobile in the forest using vines. He quickly spotted Onsk slowly crawling on the ground.

A human-faced monkey suddenly jumped down in front of Onsk, and he immediately drew his sword.

Norn, controlling the human-faced monkey, gave Onsk an OK sign, a pre-arranged signal between the two. Only then did Onsk feel relieved and put away his knife.

The man and the monkey emerged from the Green Bone Forest. Onsk disgustedly shook the mud off his feet and said, "I never want to come back to this godforsaken place again!"

Then it kicked Norn to the ground, stepped on Norn's right shoulder, and drew its gleaming scimitar.

"Go back now. The moment you wake up, I'll split that beast's head open."

Norn regained consciousness, and a muffled thud came from behind him from the human-faced monkey.

Bright red blood flowed all over the ground. Onske used the tip of his knife to pry open the skull and take out the ice box that had been used to hold the monkey brain.

"Damn it! Norn, come here and take a look! What the hell is going on here!?"

Norn looked over at the sound and saw Onsk stabbing a monkey's brain with a knife and holding it up in the air for Norn to see.

"Didn't you realize something was wrong when you were controlling it? Who would want a brain like that?"

Norn examined it closely and found that the brain was covered with pits and that its color was not the normal pink, but rather an oxidized dark brown.

It looks almost identical to the zombie pig brains sold by unscrupulous merchants.

Thinking of the scene where they cannibalize each other, Norn probably understood the reason.

Prions.

The monkey was already terminally ill, but its brain had overwritten the damage, so it was unaware of it.

"My ability is to transform the transferred organs into the same quality as me. How would I know if it's mentally ill?" Norn was a little angry at being shifted the blame.

Onsk was speechless for a moment. Of course it knew the mechanism of Norn's ability, but when it thought about how it had just struggled in the mud for so long and only got a rotten brain in return, it stomped its feet in anger.

"How about we eat something first and rest a bit?" Norn couldn't wait any longer; he just wanted to poison Fury and get out of this hellhole.

This mission was registered under Onsk's name alone, and whether or not it was completed had nothing to do with Norn.

"Eat my ass! The ice in the box is almost melted! If we don't get some fresh brains over soon, we'll have to make another trip!"

After saying this in a bad mood, Onsk pulled Norn and headed back into the Greenbone Forest.

Norn had no choice but to go back with them, hoping that the human-faced monkeys hadn't left yet, otherwise they would have to keep looking for new ones.

Returning to the previous location along the same route, the monkey was nowhere to be seen on the tree trunk.

"Damn it! We have to find it all over again!" Onsk spat angrily on the ground.

"Wait, there sounds like monkeys are calling around here." Norn quieted Onsk down.

The two listened carefully for a while and could indeed faintly hear the monkeys' calls.

"Looks like they haven't gone far. Come on, follow me!"

Following the sound, Onsk slowly walked to its source.

As it parted the grass, its pupils instantly shrank to the size of pinheads!

A large, dark red, sticky mass of flesh hung upside down on the tree, with the limbs of the human-faced monkey sticking out of it like birthday candles.

The heads of the five human-faced monkeys were embedded in the lump of flesh, their mouths opening and closing in unison, emitting hissing sounds.

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