Yuexia Jiu said nothing. The members behind him instinctively unleashed their skills, bombarding the wall. This time it was slightly different from before—only two partial holes formed.
Just as they were about to succeed, an accident suddenly occurred. One section of the wall finally cracked open under the Oka Forest group’s attacks, revealing a pitch-black passage behind it. Two impatient warriors immediately grabbed their glowstone lanterns and rushed inside.
Before Yuexia Jiu could even call out to stop them, several strange sounds rang out. The two warriors quickly scrambled back out, their bodies covered in lingering flames and several arrows sticking out at odd angles.
“Vice-leader, there are traps inside…”
“I was scared to death! Flames and arrows suddenly shot out.”
Although the two had scouted ahead and prevented the entire team from triggering the trap, seeing how miserable they looked still made everyone want to laugh.
However, they soon found it hard to laugh anymore, because what followed could no longer be described as ordinary suffering.
Every segment of the path was guaranteed to have walls blocking the way, forcing them to repeat the tedious process of blowing up walls to find a route. If it were only that, it would still be bearable. Sometimes multiple obvious paths would appear, and when they ran into walls that couldn’t be destroyed, they would realize it was a complete dead end and have to waste more time going back to try another route.
Even when they successfully blew up a wall, there were often at least two or more paths ahead. At those times they had to be extremely cautious, because besides the correct route, all kinds of nasty surprises awaited—hidden monsters, traps, and more.
One careless moment could result in heavy losses for the team.
On this journey alone, the Oka Forest group had encountered no fewer than dozens of similar situations. They had even summarized a pattern.
Every section had at least one safe route that could be passed. The walls at the end of paths hiding monsters or traps were generally indestructible—complete dead ends.
After grinding back and forth for more than an hour, every member of Oka Forest was both physically and mentally exhausted. During this time they had not only repeated the boring process of blowing up walls, but also had to stay on high alert the entire time to avoid being ambushed by monsters or traps.
Moreover, the Gloom City Ruins were already very dark. In such an environment, even energetic people would eventually break.
But at this moment, a message from the front of the team suddenly jolted everyone awake.
Yes, it was news that truly shocked them. The previously numb group subconsciously shivered and became alert the moment they heard it.
“Vice-leader, we seem to have walked into the swamp again,” the Holy Knight at the front said helplessly.
Yuexia Jiu’s body also jerked. He quickly asked, “Which swamp?”
“The same one we encountered before.”
Only after this reminder did Yuexia Jiu notice the increasingly muddy ground beneath his feet. His expression darkened instantly. It wasn’t just him—every single member of the raid party behind him also looked unpleasant.
After all, what had happened in the swamp earlier was still fresh in their minds.
Yuexia Jiu thought for a moment. “It might just be similar terrain. Let’s keep going a bit further and see.”
Facts proved his guess was wrong. After advancing only a short distance and encountering the familiar Explosive Mother-Child Trees, Yuexia Jiu didn’t hesitate at all. He immediately turned the team around and retreated to the previous area.
“How is this possible? I remember we were quite far from that swamp, weren’t we?” Timeless Serenity looked back at the passage behind them, voicing the confusion shared by almost everyone in the raid.
“Maybe we got the directions mixed up,” Yuexia Jiu replied, feeling somewhat irritated. It was the only explanation he could think of.
After all, they had been following what they thought were correct routes earlier and hadn’t paid much attention to the swamp. Combined with the inherently dark environment of the ruins, it was natural for them to lose their sense of direction without realizing it.
In reality, this was merely a psychological trap maliciously set by a certain pink-haired girl. The swamp route they had just walked through was actually the genuine “correct route.” Of course, the Oka Forest members had no idea.
Yuexia Jiu led the team again, testing several other passages before finally choosing another seemingly passable route.
However, they had barely advanced for a minute when the Oka Forest members froze once more—because a familiar terrain had appeared before them again.
Muddy ground, faint mist floating in the air, and the occasional familiar flashes of firelight in the distance.
That’s right. Somehow, they had unknowingly entered the swamp once more.
“That’s impossible! The direction we chose was completely different from before. How is it still the swamp!”
“Does this swamp exist on both sides? Or is most of this floor just swamp terrain?”
After reaching this conclusion, the Oka Forest members fell into speechless despair.
“Wine Bro, should we go back and look for other paths?” Timeless Serenity hesitated before speaking. Having already experienced dying to his own skills once, he naturally understood how awkward it was for fire mages in this area.
“There were only two paths back there. You saw the other one—it wasn’t any better,” Yuexia Jiu shook his head decisively. “Besides, I already wanted to give up on that side earlier. This is too much of a waste of time. We’re spending all our time traveling, and when we’re not hitting traps, the number of monsters is too low. We’re barely earning any points at all.”
“Then Wine Bro, what do you suggest?”
“Swamp it is. Everyone, stop complaining. The most important thing right now is to farm points as fast as possible.” Yuexia Jiu glanced at the troubled-looking Timeless Serenity. “Don’t worry. You guys don’t need to deal damage. Leave it to the others.”
Timeless Serenity wanted to say something else, but seeing Yuexia Jiu’s determined expression, he could only sigh silently and instruct the fire mages behind him.
Although the team had lost the fire mages’ damage output, the good news was that they now understood the mechanics here, so they no longer had to worry about their backline suddenly dying out of nowhere.
Moreover, since they had come around from the neighboring area, they had clearly reached a slightly deeper section of the swamp. At the very least, they had passed the earlier Explosive Mother-Child Trees. This could be seen from the sudden increase in variety of monsters around them.
The frontline didn’t stay idle. They immediately stepped forward and pulled more than a dozen Explosive Mother-Child Trees along with other monsters, slowly clearing them. Of course, they also made sure to use Charge to dodge away in advance when the Explosive Mother-Child Trees’ health was about to hit zero.
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