"A trainee... Forest Ranger?"
Paimon looked at the green-haired girl before her in confusion.
"Anyway, come with me and leave the Withering Zone first. It's too dangerous to stay here. I'll explain everything once we're outside!"
An anxious look appeared on Collei's fair face as she urged them along.
"Miss Collei, please don't worry. We can use Elemental Power too. The Withering Zone power here won't pose a threat to us for a while."
Li Qiuzhi hadn't expected to meet Collei here, and he spoke with a smile.
At the same time, he raised his hand to show her the water sphere he had formed.
"Hehe, that's right. We're really strong!" Paimon said, patting her chest.
"Oh, I see. Looks like I worried too much."
Seeing that Li Qiuzhi and the others were Vision holders too, Collei relaxed a little.
But since they seemed to know about Withering Zones, she instead asked in some confusion:
"Then did you not enter the Withering Zone because you got lost?"
"That's right." Li Qiuzhi nodded and explained, "We're adventurers from Liyue.
"Before coming here, we learned about Sumeru, including the existence of Withering Zones.
"We happened to encounter one, so we thought we'd see whether we could clear it out, to keep other travelers who can't deal with Withering Zones from getting hurt."
Naturally, his explanation didn't mention that Lumine could control Withering Zone power, lest Collei mistake them for bad people.
"You actually entered the Withering Zone on purpose!" Collei said in surprise.
Withering Zones were extremely dangerous, after all, and contained nothing but frenzied monsters. Even many famous adventurers could do nothing about them.
There weren't any treasure chests either, so anyone encountering one while adventuring could only give it a wide berth.
Only Forest Rangers like them went out into