Seniors Are Meant to Care for Juniors

At the same time Gong Qiying and Sithran were adventuring.

Shuen, Aili, and Danya, members of the Morning Wind team waiting in the swamp area, encountered a truly baffling event.

"I'm sorry, really sorry, we'll leave right now!"

Before them, a strange adventurer team was bowing in unison, apologizing profusely.

"Alright, alright, it wasn't on purpose, we forgive you," Aili said with a strained smile. The last time she saw so many people bowing was at a funeral, and it felt weird.

"We are truly sorry!"

The captain of the strange adventurer team, "Falling Hammer," a mage named Qilajie who looked utterly exhausted, had become a broken record, only repeating apologies.

What happened in between, you ask?

"Everyone on our team is new, and we haven't fully memorized the rules. We didn't know there was a waiting period when entering a teleportation gate. We apologize for disturbing you."

This team, composed entirely of rookies, had been behind Sithran and the others when entering the dungeon's teleportation gate. They forgot to wait a few minutes before going in, and now they had run into the Morning Wind team.

It was quite a coincidence. Although the two teams entered the dungeon less than two minutes apart, the Morning Wind team, with their experience from multiple explorations, took a shortcut and were far ahead in the blink of an eye. The Falling Hammer team, on the other hand, was exploring the dungeon for the first time and was completely lost in the vast swamp. Despite the mere hundred-second difference, the two teams miraculously did not meet.

It was Danya who eventually heard the screams of the Falling Hammer team being surrounded by monsters and brought his people to rescue them.

Without Danya and the others, this rookie team would have been fed to the Curse Frogs.

"The teleportation gate can automatically identify if the entrant is a teammate. The probability of such a mix-up is only two percent," Danya clicked his tongue twice. "I should go buy a lottery ticket."

"We are truly sorry."

"Okay, okay," Aili helped the members of the Falling Hammer team up one by one.

"Is this really okay?" Qilajie said nervously. Their team was in the wrong, and the other party was a senior Silver-rank adventurer. If they didn't express their apologies properly, they might seek revenge.

Thinking this, his waist trembled, and he felt the urge to bow again, but his shoulder was pressed down by an iron hand.

Looking up, he met Aili's darkened gaze.

The girl, usually known for her gentle and good-natured personality, now wore an expression that said, "If you bow one more time, I'll make sure your parents bow to you when you get home." Although she was smiling, her smile was terrifying.

"Eek!"

The young mage snapped to attention, startled.

"Captain," a timid young girl tugged at Qilajie's clothes, saying with a pained expression, "Let's go."

Including Qilajie, the Falling Hammer team had four members: a timid loli priest, a tsundere glasses-wearing sword mage, a chubby heavy armor warrior, and Qilajie, the scrawny mage. All were Bronze-rank, and each bore the greenness of inexperience on their faces.

To face the Sain Underground City right after debuting... this was truly something.

Perhaps the greenness would be shed within a single night.

"Ah," Qilajie said with a forced smile, "Then we'll take our leave."

No one on the Morning Wind team spoke. But just as the Falling Hammer team turned to leave, Shuen spoke up, "Wait a moment."

Sweat beaded on Qilajie's forehead. He asked, "Is there something you need?"

"Since you're already here, let's go together," Shuen said, an unexpected response.

"Huh?"

The entire Falling Hammer team was shocked. They looked back at the Morning Wind team, whose members showed no change in expression.

"After all, you'll have to wait a long time to enter again once you leave, won't you? What a waste of time," Aili chuckled. "You're all wearing Flowers of Victory on your chests. Let me guess, you bought them from the flower lady near the teleportation gate? She can tell at a glance who's exploring the dungeon for the first time and comes over to sell Flowers of Victory, saying that wearing the flower makes you invincible, right?"

Qilajie's face turned red. She had guessed everything correctly.

"Only newbies get fooled into buying that thing," Danya mocked mercilessly, then changed his tone. "But then again, people without passion and longing for adventure wouldn't spend money on a good omen. And you, you bought flowers for your companions out of your own pocket, you must be a good captain. It's fine to bring you along."

"Eh?" Qilajie looked bewildered. He had indeed paid for the flowers, but how did they guess?

Did they even need to guess? Danya saw Qilajie's confusion and thought, Look at your companions, they're all dressed plainly, even shabbily. Clearly, they don't have money to buy flowers. Only you, despite your clothes also being worn, have a decent magic staff.

Putting aside their confusion, the Falling Hammer team was so grateful they were moved to tears. They never expected to meet such an understanding senior team!

This was a precious opportunity. Exploring with Silver-rank adventurers would allow them to learn a lot!

"Thank you so much!"

"Remember to buy me lottery tickets after we get out to repay my life-saving grace," Danya waved his hand.

Aili breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, Qilajie and his team didn't bow again.

Shuen didn't say anything, but the corners of his mouth turned up slightly.

The two teams decided to act together for the time being. They built a campfire, rested briefly, and waited for Sithran to rejoin them.

They waited all morning.

Sithran was still nowhere to be seen, and this delay also caused the Falling Hammer team to waste time. Shuen and the others couldn't wait any longer and decided to move on.

Both teams had the same objective: to find the recently appeared specialty ingredients, which essentially meant finding the region where these ingredients were produced.

The Morning Wind team believed that the area should be in a part of the dungeon they hadn't explored yet, such as the middle or lower levels. The news that Sain Underground City had levels filled with forests and levels full of ore was no longer a secret. Many people had mistakenly triggered Teleportation Traps and been sent to the middle or lower levels.

Except for a very small number of lucky individuals like Verde, the vast majority were instantly killed by elite monsters guarding the Teleportation Traps, leaving them no time to explore.

Therefore, adventurers knew that Sain Underground City had three levels, but whether there were more remained unknown.

But as the Morning Wind team decided to explore further down, the Falling Hammer team offered a different opinion.

"I bought this from an old man who sells local ingredients," Qilajie took out a dirty bundle cloth that smelled strongly of seafood, which was rare near Bed City, located inland.

So, it was him who had bought the bundle of ingredients from Jack that day!

Because of the Morning Wind team's friendliness, he didn't mind sharing this secret with them.

"Are you planning to use tracking magic?" Aili asked.

"Yes, I was originally worried that my magic power wouldn't be enough to sustain long-term tracking magic," Qilajie looked at Aili, "If I can't hold on, please take over for me."

He drew a magic circle on the ground, placed the magic materials, and after a chant, the surface of the bundle emitted a faint glow, floated up, and flew towards the swamp, leaving a visible trail along the way.

Unexpectedly, the place the bundle flew towards was the outskirts of the swamp area!

Either the tracking magic failed, or...

The true location of the gourmet area was much closer than they had imagined!

After chasing for a short while, the bundle stopped in front of a mountain.

The entire swamp area was surrounded by high mountains, which acted as the map's boundary. No one

"We're here?" Qilajie looked around in confusion. The surroundings were all bare mountains, with no other paths.

Did he have to forcibly carve out a big hole?

"I can't do it anymore, I can't walk."

The stout, heavily armored warrior sighed and leaned against the mountain wall, but then--

"Ah!"

He fell backward onto the ground.

"What's wrong?"

Everyone's attention was drawn by the commotion, and then they were all stunned.

"Ouch, it hurts so much, why did I suddenly fall?" The heavily armored warrior sat up, rubbing his head. "Huh, what's that delicious smell?"

"Kruger, behind you..."

Qilajie said in disbelief:

"A big hole appeared behind you!"