Infiltrating the Enemy's Nest (Seeking Follow-up Reads!)

They had temporarily escaped danger, but at the same time, they had fallen into a dilemma with no good way forward or back.

With Elaine's mana, she could support "Invisible Shadow" for at most one hour. In that time, they could barely withdraw to the forest's outer region.

But that would also declare the ruin of their exploration plan. The Moonshadow Necklace needed at least a week of recharging before it could provide them with enough time to explore.

And without the Moonshadow Necklace's aid, it would be very hard for a party with their configuration to explore safely in the depths of Whispering Forest.

"The terrain here is too complicated, and it's not convenient to explore at night either. There's no way we can find that guy's hiding place within an hour!"

Liam said in a low voice, his brows tightly furrowed, already showing signs of wanting to retreat.

Because they could not block out sound within the concealment range of "Invisible Shadow," they had tried to communicate with gestures and glances along the way. Now, they were using Lynn's "Message Casting" as a bridge for communication.

Just as everyone was at their wits' end, Ulshi bent down and slipped into the grass beside them. When he straightened again, he was actually holding a long, brilliantly colored snake in his hand.

It was already mid-spring, and the weather was warm. Creatures like snakes liked to come out and move around during the cool night.

Elaine was so frightened she nearly screamed, but covered her mouth in time.

Celine, who was gently swaying her fluffy tail, licked her lips instead. She was starting to miss the taste of snake-meat soup.

Lynn thought of something, and his tone carried a hint of pleasant surprise. "Animal Speech?"

Ulshi glanced at him and nodded lightly. Then he lowered his voice and chanted a few lines of incantation. When he spoke again, what came out was Common mixed with "hiss hiss" sounds, the original meaning barely distinguishable.

"Here... is there... a creature... similar to us... abnormal... giving off... an evil aura?"

The colorful snake had still been struggling desperately a moment ago, but after hearing this, it calmed a little. It stared with round mung-bean-sized eyes, its bright-red forked tongue constantly flicking in and out as it let out hissing sounds.

Ulshi's expression was truly calm and cold, making it impossible to tell what exactly he had heard.

Not until he spoke again did he ask, "Where... is he? Please take... us there. Jerky... food... in exchange..."

As he spoke, he pulled a bundle of dry rations from his backpack and took out a piece of wind-dried beef jerky.

The colorful snake immediately stretched out its head and lunged over, biting down in one mouthful, only to seem as though it had bitten a rock. When it lifted its head, its mung-bean eyes stared at Ulshi full of confusion.

"...I will... soak it with water... until it is soft... Please lead the way."

As he spoke, he carefully set the colorful snake on the ground. After hesitating for a moment, it slowly slithered along the rock wall in a certain direction.

Animal Speech really counts as a divine skill in the wild, doesn't it? Speaking of which, Ulshi treats animals much more warmly than people... Lynn laughed inwardly and carefully advanced in step with his teammates.

With the guidance of a "native resident," their exploration went much more smoothly.

More than ten minutes later, the colorful snake led them to a recessed section of rock wall.

Liam carefully parted the weeds and vines, and sure enough, found a narrow crack that could barely allow a normal-sized human to pass through.

"Thank you..." Along the way, Ulshi had been trying to solve the issue of payment. Jerky simply could not be softened in cold water within a short time.

Celine was the one with more experience. She suggested simply chewing it up for the snake with their mouths... Of course, there was no need to make the two mages lower their noble selves for something like that.

And so, along the way, the three of Celine walked while keeping their mouths busy chewing, chewing, chewing.

The colorful snake received a mushy portion and immediately began to feast with great relish.

"There shouldn't be any traps set at the entrance," Liam said. As a rogue, he had some ability to scout for traps, and he speculated, "Probably because that eyeball is too powerful. Its scouting range already covers the entire mountain area, so it made him lower his guard."

Lynn also agreed with him. According to Tana, the Forest Gnome they had rescued that afternoon, the guy who had abducted her teammate was mentally unstable and probably could not make very meticulous arrangements.

The traces he had left everywhere along the way also confirmed this point.

The five of them therefore decided to sneak in carefully. Liam, the most agile among them, would take the lead, while the powerful Celine would bring up the rear.

They had to turn sideways one after another to squeeze through the crack between the rock walls. This was not difficult for the others, who were either lean or short, but it was a little troublesome for Celine at the very end.

Her overly curvaceous figure had now become a huge burden!

Only after a rather awkward round of assistance did she barely squeeze inside.

The gentlemen were more or less fine. Ulshi kept his usual cold face, Liam laughed heh-heh-heh in an extremely lecherous manner the whole time, and Lynn silently turned his gaze aside.

Instead, during the process of helping Celine, Elaine's face gradually flushed crimson, even the roots of her ears becoming overly engorged with blood.

Especially when Celine, breathless from all the struggling, leaned close to her ear and thanked her in a soft, sweet voice, it startled her into hugging her staff and retreating several steps in a row.

After the group put themselves in order, they continued forward along the winding tunnel inside the rock wall.

There was not the slightest trace of artificial excavation in this tunnel. Rather, it seemed like a fissure formed after a natural collapse.

At first, it was extremely narrow, then grew wider and wider, until strands of bright moonlight seeped through from ahead. Liam carefully probed forward and discovered that before his eyes was actually a fairly spacious and flat valley floor, overgrown with trees, weeds, and shrubs.

"There's actually a valley like this in the middle of the mountain? Who knows how that guy found such a hidden place..." he muttered softly, then immediately turned back to report the situation to his teammates.

"Did you spot any figures?" Lynn asked him.

Liam shook his head. "The angle isn't enough. I can't see clearly."

After a brief moment of thought, Lynn still chose to use "Mana Wave" to conduct a probe.

There was a chance the enemy might notice it, but compared to rushing in blindly, the risk was still lower.

He tried his best to control the amount of mana, sending it rippling out at the lowest possible level. Slow, invisible waves spread toward the entire valley, but before they had gone more than a few meters, they suddenly broke off.

"There's a layer of magical barrier concealing that place..." Lynn immediately understood.

Barrier magic counted as one of the more difficult categories in all magic classifications, a variation of protective magic.

That meant the caster's strength was rather extraordinary.

"He's very likely already noticed that someone has approached this area, but at the same time, that also means he's inside," Lynn analyzed.

Taking such pains to set up barrier magic over such a large area meant there had to be some secret hidden there. Most likely, it was the evil ritual Elaine had mentioned!

Earlier, when they were discovered by the Detection Magic Eye at the foot of the mountain, aside from that wave of corrupted Magic Wolves, they had not seen any other enemies.

Either that guy did not have many Demonic Beasts under his control to begin with, or he could not spare any attention right now...

Thinking of this, Lynn warned them sternly, "I think the Dark Magic ritual Elaine guessed at has already begun!"

At his words, the faces of the group darkened, especially Elaine's. She understood this sort of evil ritual better than anyone.

A ritual that required living sacrifices was either meant to summon an evil demon into the world, or to create a terrifying disaster akin to a plague.

Whichever it was, it would inevitably affect Colin Town!

As the daughter of the lord of Roan City, she naturally felt a responsibility to protect Colin Town, which belonged to Roan City's territory.

She was just about to speak and persuade her teammates to try to stop the ritual when she happened to hear Lynn say:

"We should try to interrupt the ritual. That guy is unlikely to be Veteran Level; otherwise, he wouldn't have let an Initiate Level vagabond escape so easily."