"The duration of the Cold Drink is still too short, we have to hurry," Luluwo wiped the corner of her mouth, her gaze sweeping over the magma in front of her.
As they approached the magma, the previously harmless-looking branch suddenly snapped upward, whipping towards Tami with lightning speed.
"Watch out!"
Berto wanted to push Tami away, but saw her draw her sword confidently to block and counterattack.
But the next second, with a crisp "bang," Tami was spun around several tis and slamd to the ground, leaving a deep dent on her chest armor.
"The strength of this thing is beyond my imagination," he got up sheepishly, showing no signs of injury, "I was careless, sorry."
"So they do attack people." Luluwo had already swung out her chain, wrapping it around the branch still flailing in the air with precision. "Indeed, quite strong."
The chain wrapped around the branch several tis, and at this mont, she gave a sharp tug to try and pull the branch out of the magma, but the branch tore off the part that was entangled, like a tail shedding for survival, and the detached section quickly disappeared back into the magma.
The entire Chaos Ruins of Izalis began to tremble slightly, as if welcoming an earthquake that would never stop, and those standing at the entrance could even see so tentacles stirring, waiting for the right mont to attack them.
"The Sain Dungeon is getting excited as well... Our next exploration target is simple," Luluwo retrieved her chain, "avoid all the avoidable battles, and find the route to the Izalith Witch as quickly as possible. Our goal is not to kill all the monsters but to gather intelligence, to understand the terrain of this area, the distribution of monsters, and ideally, discover any hidden shortcuts or chanisms."
"That’s what we’re best at, after all." Berto agreed.
The group split into two teams, leaping in different directions, landing on tentacles one after another. Neither the ongoing tremors nor the ambushing tentacles stopped their pace in exploration.
Judging by this alone, the Skyrim Strategy Group’s performance in map exploration looked significantly better than Temude’s group.
This is probably because mbers of the Skyrim Strategy Group have more or less trained and enhanced their "mobility," making it rare for adventurers to match them in speed and responsiveness.
Perhaps realizing the ground traps were ineffective against the Skyrim Strategy Group, the Sain Dungeon began to test them even more rigorously.
The tentacles near Luluwo suddenly went berserk, forcing them to run fast, as the branches behind them started flailing madly like angered Human’s Pus, constantly slapping the magma surface, splashing huge red waves, both tentacles and magma chasing after them.
Berto’s side encountered a flock of Rot Dragons with increased aggression, chased by Rot Dragons skilled in flying kicks, forcing them to activate a marathon mode, leading the opponents in circles while counterattacking.
Each mber of the Skyrim Strategy Group encountered trouble, yet miraculously, they gathered on the sa piece of floating land above the magma amid the chaos.
This land was close to the rock wall, still so distance from the spire complexes of Izalis, a temporary resting spot at best.
"Whew... whew..." Tami bent over, panting heavily, "I find this place more disgusting than the Sain Ancient City."
"At least in the Sain Ancient City, the ground doesn’t suddenly co to life and lash at you," Berto was also panting, his armor bearing several more dents, with burn marks from the magma all over its surface.
As the only one clad in iron armor, his injuries seed more than his companions’. Could this be the principle of piling the thickest armor to take the hardest hits?
"At least we’ve found a relatively safe place to rest, and I’ve almost figured out the strategy for dealing with these monsters."
Luluwo spoke as she eyed this rock, which was larger than the other pieces of land, still pondering the strategy here, when she suddenly raised her eyebrows with interest.
"The structure of this place looks like it has a hidden door."
"Let try."
Ais and Em cast a wide-range Dust Cleaning Technique, a magic that works wonders for triggering various hidden doors.
Just as the aura of the Dust Cleaning Technique swept onto the rock wall, the heavy wall cracked open, revealing a hidden scenery inside the fissure.
The rock wall split open with a gap, and a more scorching airflow surged from it.
Berto knocked a few more tis, and the fissure expanded, finally shattering the whole rock wall, exposing a natural tunnel extending upward behind it!
Perhaps it’s more fitting to call it a cavern; the ascending path transford into a lava waterfall, possessing an indescribable beauty just in its sight.
But as beautiful as it was, this place didn’t look suitable for ascending exploration.
"Perhaps we’re the first discoverers; this kind of information needs special recording."
Witnessing the hidden door, Luluwo decisively chose to lead everyone to explore here next.
Exploration, of course, should start with the odd and unusual places!
"And by the looks of it, it seems to be heading back."
"Heading back, to the Demon Relics?"
"Possible, as the Chaos Ruins of Izalis is located below the Demon Relics, there must be more than one tunnel between them." Luluwo’s eyes glittered with excitent, "Let’s go, head up and check it out now."
Everyone entered this cavern, struggling to climb upward, as the tunnel walls were heated intensely by years of magma, making them scorching hot to the point that one could still feel the terrifying warmth even through magic artifact level gloves.
Given the strange terrain here, they alternated between using the hook rope, flying skills, and climbing, aiming for stability.
As they were nearing the corner, suddenly, a series of heavy footsteps echoed above, followed by a coarse shout resembling a sheep’s baa.
It was the Sheep-headed Demon, and it was here!
Luluwo tossed an Enemy Attraction Skull above, imdiately causing the footsteps of the Sheep-headed Demon to beco urgent. Then she sharply yanked the chain entangled with the Enemy Attraction Skull back.
The Sheep-headed Demon, having overcharged, fell off the cliff beside them, plunging straight down into the magma pool below!
"The mass-produced Sheep-headed Demons and the one leading them are like they’re not even the sa species; the intelligence gap is quite large." Luluwo remarked sharply.
Even if monsters awaited them ahead, it did not deter their progress, and after so ti, they reached the end of the cavern without incident.
At the end appeared bright light points, growing larger as they progressed—light from the exit, not the crimson red of magma but a comparatively softer dim yellow, the color of the Demon Relics.
They moved forward, greeted by a relatively broad rock platform, underfoot familiar gray-black rocks, overhead the do of the Demon Relics, scattered around were collapsed stone pillars and broken statues.
The temperature here was significantly lower than in the Chaos Ruins of Izalis, and the air was no longer as suffocatingly hot.
"Have we really returned?" Tami looked around in disbelief. "But this place is higher than the Demon Relics; are we in the so-called upstream?"
"That’s right, ahead a large amount of magma falls towards the Demon Relics below, where the magma likely originates."
Upstream wasn’t large, almost possible to see its end, but it was here that the sharp-eyed Luluwo spotted sothing very familiar.
Near the edge of the magma not far away, there was a gleaming Summoning Symbol!
"Solar?"
Luluwo ran over briskly, but before she could check it out.
The magma before her suddenly trembled violently, as if so giant monster was going to erge from it!
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