Boom! Boom! Boom!
Suddenly, muffled footsteps echoed throughout the vast cavern, even the ground began to tremble slightly, as if millions of soldiers were advancing simultaneously.
“What’s that?”
Aylin looked around in a panic, the dull thud of footsteps coming from all directions, but as far as the eye could see, there was no passage except for the one on the wall not far away.
“It should be the monsters that went to chase those adventurers returning.”
Sophie, standing beside her, stared intently at the passage on the wall, all the footsteps coming from there, and then reflecting off the surrounding walls to create the current effect.
“Um, Captain, I think what we should be worried about now isn't those monsters that haven't arrived yet, but that thing.”
At this moment, Lu Minghao patted Sophie on the shoulder, pointing with a wry smile at the enormous meatball three thousand meters tall behind them. The meatball was trembling incessantly, its flesh writhing up and down as if alive, and a huge crack had appeared in the center of the meatball.
Through the gap, countless thumb-sized pupils could be clearly seen staring fixedly at them. At the same time, the magical equipment crafted by the Hero on the three of them suddenly shone brightly, and tiny, visible cracks began to appear.
“So… so beautiful!”
Aylin stared blankly at the giant eyeball formed by countless pupils above. Whether it was the countless pupils within, or the constantly writhing flesh at the edge of the eyeball, or the eyelashes made entirely of tentacles, everything, everything was so beautiful in Aylin's eyes, and a desire to become part of this beautiful creature was born in her heart.
And the moment this thought appeared, Aylin's body began to unconsciously walk forward, the black robe covering her body began to bulge constantly, as if there were snakes swimming inside.
Snap!
Just as Aylin had taken a few steps, Sophie, standing beside her, noticed something was wrong and quickly lowered her head, stepping forward to slap Aylin unconscious. Throughout the entire process, Sophie didn't dare to look up at all.
In a short moment, Sophie's rich adventuring experience and instinct made her understand one thing: if she had just looked up, she would definitely have become exactly like Aylin.
“Little Brother Minghao, are you alright?”
As she brought the unconscious Aylin back to her original position, Sophie noticed Lu Minghao, who had been standing still beside her. Because she had been keeping her head down, Sophie couldn't see what Lu Minghao looked like now.
“I’m fine, Captain. I closed my eyes the moment I sensed something was wrong.”
Lu Minghao lowered his head slightly, looking at Sophie, who didn't dare to look at him at all. He said he had closed his eyes, but in reality, his eyes were wide open, scrutinizing Aylin, who had fainted in Sophie's arms.
At this moment, through the gap where Aylin's head emerged from the black robe, Lu Minghao could clearly see that Aylin's exposed skin had completely mutated, and finger-length fleshy sprouts were writhing on her fair skin, occasionally burrowing into Aylin's body.
“That’s good.”
After hearing that Lu Minghao was alright, Sophie breathed a deep sigh of relief, then took out a piece of purple crystal from her pocket and crushed it without hesitation. Instantly, a magic circle appeared out of thin air above Sophie's head, enveloping the remaining three members of the Crimson Rose within it.
The next second, Lu Minghao and the others instantly disappeared from the spot, and the meatball, which had already fully opened its eyes not far away, silently glanced at the shattered magic circle in mid-air. After confirming there were no problems, the meatball slowly closed its eyes again.
At the same time, millions of Gluttony Monsters throughout the Kingdom of Eldras seemed to have received some kind of order, and began to gather here. Whenever a Gluttony Monster arrived here, its body would begin to dissolve continuously, completely merging into the ground.
At this moment, if someone were to observe from mid-air, they would discover that the mountain outside the cavern where the meatball was located was growing larger and larger as more and more Gluttony Monsters merged into it. The entire mountain had grown from less than three thousand meters to a mountain as high as five thousand meters in just a few minutes.
“I hope those heroes like the gift I’ve prepared for them.”
Inside the cavern within the mountain, a slime the size of a fist slowly emerged from the meatball. Looking at the constantly expanding cavern around it, a hint of a smile appeared on the slime's round body. This was the tomb he had specially prepared for those heroes and the remaining powerhouses of the Western nations.
.......
......
Bang!
On the other side, inside that dim hall, a purple magic circle suddenly appeared, and Sophie, Lu Minghao, and Aylin fell directly out of the magic circle, crashing heavily onto the ground.
“It’s Sophie’s Crimson Rose squad!”
“Three people actually came back alive!”
“Wait, one of them has been corrupted, quickly take her to the Hero.”
The moment Lu Qiming and the others appeared, a large number of soldiers emerged from the dim square and surrounded them, helping them up in a flurry. One of the soldiers, who clearly recognized Sophie, breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Sophie's rugged face.
However, when he noticed Aylin, who was suspected of being corrupted and had already fainted, his expression suddenly became tense, and he quickly called several soldiers to take Aylin away. The remaining soldiers skillfully took out healing potions and poured them into Lu Minghao and Sophie's mouths.
“Cough cough, I’m back?”
After drinking the healing potion, Sophie's tightly closed eyes slowly opened, her gaze filled with vigilance as she looked around. When she saw the soldiers wearing armor, Sophie understood that they had successfully escaped.
“Sophie, what exactly did you encounter? Did you find the reason why those monsters were born?”
After seeing Sophie wake up, the soldier captain on the opposite side quickly asked. It should be known that of the adventurers who went to carry out this mission, only the current four had successfully returned. Ox, who was the first to return, had fallen directly into a coma as soon as he came back.
Even his body began to mutate uncontrollably. If the soldiers who discovered this matter had not notified the Hero in time, Ox would have become the same existence as those monsters outside.
However, even so, the mutations on Ox's body have been controlled by the Hero, but Ox's mind is still in chaos. As for whether he will clear up, even the Hero doesn't know.
And now, the three members of the Crimson Rose squad who have returned are their last hope.
“Yes! We did find the reason for the birth of those monsters.”
Facing the soldier captain's question, Sophie nodded lightly, but the sadness in her eyes couldn't be concealed. For this mission, almost all of her teammates had died in the Kingdom of Eldras, and even their corpses had become food for those monsters.
Of the only two remaining teammates, one had mutated because he had looked at that giant meatball monster earlier, and only Lu Minghao, the magician, was relatively intact, without any missing arms or legs.
