Conquer the other worlds with abandon, they've fallen in love with me!

In the early morning of the forest at dawn, the mist had not yet completely dissipated.

Lin Yu walked in front, with Bell following half a step behind, holding his spear.

The two walked one after the other, stepping into the soft, damp humus soil.

The deeper you go into the forest, the denser it becomes. The branches and leaves overhead filter the sunlight into fragments, which fall to the ground like overturned coins.

The birdsong gradually faded away, replaced by the low rustling sound of the wind blowing through the treetops, like something breathing slowly overhead.

Bell's ears twitched slightly, picking up on the sounds around him.

She walked almost silently, her boots making only a slight creaking sound on the fallen leaves, her tail maintaining a delicate balance behind her.

He was a completely different person from when he was feeding chickens on the farm.

"How much further?" she asked in a low voice.

"Almost there." Lin Yu pushed aside a clump of ferns and squeezed through the gap.

Bell followed through the bushes, the leather armor on his shoulders and chest rustling against the leaves.

She was much taller than Lin Yu, so she had to squeeze through the same gap much more sideways. Her breasts, which were held together by leather armor, had almost nowhere to go in the narrow space.

After walking for about half an hour, a dense thicket of thorns appeared ahead, with thorny vines intertwined and blocking the road completely.

Bell frowned. "There's no way out."

Lin Yu didn't say anything. He squatted down, looked at the ground, then took out the handkerchief from his pocket, covered his face, and took a deep breath.

Three seconds later, Lin Yu's eyes lit up.

On the wild boar path on the left, covered with fallen leaves, the scent of wild boars has dried up; no large creatures have passed by for at least three days.

A faint smell of sulfur wafted from the seemingly normal grove of shrubs on the right, a mark left by a low-level monster.

Behind the thicket of thorns directly ahead, the dampness of the soil mingled with the scent of moss and a faint metallic rust.

The entrance to the underground city lies behind these thorns.

Lin Yu put the handkerchief away and pointed to the thicket of thorns: "Go in from here."

Bell's eyes widened: "Are you kidding me? How are we supposed to get in?"

"There's no way around it." Lin Yu had already started to act, grabbing the thickest vine and pulling it outwards.

But the vines didn't move an inch, so Lin Yu immediately let go and stepped aside.

He didn't mean to use brute force to pull him; he was just demonstrating for Bell.

Bell clearly understood what Lin Yu was trying to say, glanced at Lin Yu, and sighed.

She then planted the spear in the ground, drew a short knife from her waist, and with a few quick strokes, cleaved a hole in the thorns.

The knife work is swift and precise, the cuts are clean and even.

"Make way." She pushed aside the thorns with her shoulder, revealing a narrow gap that was barely wide enough for someone to pass through.

Lin Yu squeezed in sideways, his clothes were snagged and torn, but he didn't care and continued walking forward.

The thicket of thorns was thicker than expected, and it took the two of them quite a while to squeeze through.

The moment I saw the light of day again, the scene before me changed.

A downward stone staircase cuts diagonally into the ground; the steps are mostly buried by soil and fallen leaves, but the outline is still clear.

The stone walls on both sides of the steps were covered with moss, and the metallic rust smell in the air was much stronger.

Bell whistled: "There really is."

She turned to look at Lin Yu, her gaze different from before:

"You're quite capable. I've been wandering around Dawn Forest for so long and never found this path before."

"I just happened to know," Lin Yu said casually.

"A coincidence?" Bell sheathed his dagger, pulled the spear from the ground, and gestured with his chin towards him.

"Don't be modest. Was that handkerchief-smelling gesture you just made some kind of sensory magic item?"

Lin Yu thought for a moment and nodded: "More or less."

"I knew it," Bell said, walking ahead and using his spear to push aside the dead branches on the steps without turning his head.

"Back when we were adventurers, we had an elf in our party who knew similar magic. He could just stand there and chant a few spells, and he could sense any danger within a hundred paces, even more so than a hunting dog."

She said with a touch of nostalgia, "That guy was my best friend."

The two walked down the stone steps, and the light grew dimmer and dimmer.

Belle took a small crystal out of her pouch, flicked it with her finger, and the crystal lit up with a pale blue light, hovering beside her shoulder.

"And then?" Lin Yu asked.

"And then?" Bell snorted. "Our captain thinks her combat strength is too low and wants to make her leave the team."

Saying that the team can't afford to support someone who does nothing is just idiot talk. He's nothing but a brainless brute, yet he has the nerve to accuse others of doing nothing.

I was so angry that I argued with the captain and quit the team. Later, that team encountered a monster horde deep in the mountains, and most of them were killed or wounded.

At this point, Bell smiled and said, "What karma!"

Footsteps echoed through the narrow passage. Bell's light shone on the carvings on the stone wall. The carvings were old, their edges blurred by moisture, making their original shapes indistinguishable.

"And what about your elf friend?" Lin Yu asked.

Bell paused for a few seconds: "She said she wanted to see the world properly, and we later went our separate ways."

After that, I stopped being an adventurer and moved to Holm Village...

Her voice lowered: "I guess we'll never meet again in this lifetime."

Lin Yu didn't press further, only thinking to himself, "I remember Bell will reunite with that friend later."

There is indeed an elf character in the mid-game, and the side quests are related to Bell.

Lin Yu couldn't quite remember when it was triggered. All Lin Yu knew was that after bringing that person back to see Belle, there seemed to be a duo of best friends... cough cough.

Shaking his head, Lin Yu quickly pulled himself out of his thoughts; now was not the time to think about these things.

"We've arrived." Lin Yu stopped.

Ahead, the view suddenly opened up to reveal a large hall transformed from a natural cave.

Stone pillars and stalactites hung down from the dome, and the ground was covered with broken stone slabs, the cracks of which were filled with unknown moss that shimmered with a faint green light.

Opposite the hall were three archways, pitch black, and it was impossible to see what was inside.

Bell gripped the spear, his tail straightened, his ears turned forward, and he switched from a relaxed mode to a combat state.

Which way to go?

"In the middle," Lin Yu said calmly.

Bell nodded, walked across the spear and stepped forward, his shoulders slightly hunched and his steps light.

The muscles beneath her leather armor were taut, and she took each step with great steadiness. The tip of her spear gleamed coldly under the light.

After entering the central archway, the passage narrowed again. After walking less than a hundred steps, a rustling sound came from ahead, as if something was crawling.

Bell raised his chin, and Lin Yu understood and stopped.

The next second, three giant beetles rushed out from around the corner.

Its carapace is jet black, each leg is as thick as an adult's arm, and its mouthparts are covered in a sticky liquid, emitting a piercing hissing sound.