Polaris's candor also made Dongyang raise an eyebrow. He simply handed the Transcendent Materials he had picked up to Polaris as well.
"Since we're dividing them up later, keep these with you too."
Dongyang said.
"Okay."
Polaris took them and nodded.
"Let's keep moving!"
When the players returned to the spot where they had just fought, they found it deserted, with no sign of where the ratmen had gone.
Even the corpses on the ground had disappeared, as though the battle had been nothing but a collective hallucination.
"Where did they go...?"
Doghead Gold asked quietly.
"No idea."
Polaris replied.
"But in any case, better safe than sorry... Let's keep going. Having no ratmen blocking our way would be a good thing, too."
The group continued onward.
It seemed the ratmen really had withdrawn. Everything around them was deathly silent, without so much as a glimpse of a rat.
But just as they were leaving the area, Doghead Gold, who was walking along one side of the group, suddenly stepped into the ground-as though it were a swamp rather than soil.
"Huh?!"
Doghead Gold exclaimed in surprise.
Wangwuji, beside him, noticed something wrong too.
"Your foot...?"
Wangwuji saw that Doghead Gold's leg had sunk straight into the ground up to his knee, and he was still sinking deeper and deeper.
Everyone stopped and looked toward the two of them.
"What happened...?"
Ma Ren asked.
Polaris suddenly frowned, feeling the ground loosen beneath his feet.
He looked down and discovered that his own feet had begun sinking just like Doghead Gold's.
"Watch out, everyone! This area..."
He shouted a warning.
Before anyone could react, the next instant-
Rumble!!
The entire area beneath them collapsed like a sinkhole. The players cried out as they plunged helplessly into a deep