Who Designed This Underworld Dungeon?-Chapter 1212 - 780: When Did We Get Infected?

No! Wait a minute!

Everyone suddenly shivered simultaneously, realizing that the excitement brought by the bonfire had vanished completely.

In fact, everyone's gaze at the bonfire carried an indescribable fear.

It was the first time anyone showed such an expression towards a bonfire, marking a first in the history of Sain Dungeon.

People were not afraid of the bonfire itself; it remained a symbol of safety, a place of restful sanctuary during travels, an invention of convenience by the heavens.

However, now, because it offered too much convenience, it became what people feared at this moment.

"Umm... if we touch the bonfire here, won't it mean we're even less likely to return?" Tami voiced the question on everyone's mind.

Yes, if they touched the bonfire here, they would revive right at this spot.

At this place in the center of the swamp, far away from the buildings in Sick Village!

This...

Although they hadn't yet found a way back to the upper levels, what if the true path lay hidden within the building clusters of Sick Village? Wouldn't such an action just make things more difficult for themselves?

But if not, avoiding touching the bonfire would also increase the difficulty for themselves.

They were caught in a dilemma...

"Captain, what do you think?" Tami turned her gaze to Luluwo, and soon everyone else followed suit.

Why are you all looking at me? Can't we take a democratic vote?

Luluwo's mouth twitched slightly; she didn't want to make a decision in such uncertain times, as she'd bear the blame if it turned out wrong!

Honestly, Luluwo had intended to approach Sick Village with a cautious exploration strategy.

From the moment she'd seen the ominous name, she'd planned to exhaust all her efforts in a slow exploration, knowing it was impossible to directly encounter the leader.

And reality matched her expectations, they unintentionally wandered from the building cluster of the Sick Village into the swamp.

Leaving aside the apparent vastness of the swamp, it undoubtedly contained unknown elements waiting to be explored.

They hadn't even finished exploring the buildings of Sick Village!

If shown as a progress bar, they've probably explored only forty to fifty percent, walking along the most obvious "main path," while the hidden paths and branch roads remained uncharted.

As someone with a steady approach, Luluwo considered raising the exploration completion of Sick Village to seventy or eighty percent before even thinking of venturing into the swamp.

This swamp felt extremely treacherous to her, as perilous as the building cluster of Sick Village, making these two undeniably paired maps.

Luluwo instinctively touched her cheek, feeling its coldness terrifyingly, realizing her face probably didn't look well, understandably so given passing through Sick Village.

She wondered if it was her imagination, but she felt increasingly fatigued, gasping for breath after mere movement.

Did others experience this too?

She looked at Tami, who seemed quite healthy, while other members' faces were obscured by the official equipment of the Starfire Church, which inexplicably favored Covered Armor, making them appear dashing but concealing their expressions, hindering any observation of their physical condition.

Was she incompatible with the environment of Sick Village?

The effect of the filtering mask had all but disappeared; while she'd become accustomed to the stench, it undeniably still existed, surely affecting personal health.

This place should not be lingered in...

Luluwo thought of leaving, considering they had enough gains already and it was time to leave and share information with others outside.

Moreover, on the next exploration, unless bringing sufficient filtering masks or some races that could endure the stench, like the Kobolds who might enjoy this environment, ordinary people couldn't stay here.

"We..."

Luluwo paused, saying, "Let's go back and finish exploring that village before returning to the swamp."

Return by the way they came!

Although it seemed like a setback in adventure progress, everyone's expressions showed a seemingly agreeable consent.

"My intuition tells me there's greater danger ahead."

Obviously, the leader might just be sneaking around the swamp.

"I want to go back and inform Hevi about the sorcery as soon as possible."

This was indeed a priority.

"I'm so hungry, but I have no appetite here at all...."

....

Overall, they all wanted to return, merely using excuses for it, damn it!

Luluwo's forehead vein throbbed in frustration.

"Then let's go back!"

Watching as two people went to touch the newly appeared bonfire, the group preserved a future possibility by doing so.

After finishing all this, everyone set off back along the road they came, to climb the rundown buildings of Sick Village again.

Perhaps because they had delayed for a while, the road was once again filled with monsters, forcing them into another battle.

Fortunately, everyone had almost become accustomed to the foul environment, their combat abilities somewhat improved, and having gone through many battles before, they had gained a certain understanding of the monsters' movements. At least they wouldn't be baffled by unexpected moves.

Their combat efficiency had therefore improved, and among them, Reid was the most enthusiastic about killing monsters.

Anyone who gets a new weapon, armor, or magic will be eager to try it out, and Reid was no exception.

With an intensely absorbed expression, he was fiercely throwing Flame Bombs at the monsters, large bursts of flame exploding amid the monster tide, making the scene lively as if celebrating a festival.

Monsters like "spider" and "blood mosquito" have a natural high resistance to fire, but fat and thin animated corpses have no resistance at all; hit by a Flame Bomb, it's either dead or injured.

Even if they luckily broke through others' blockades and charged at Reid, they would be smacked in the face and killed instantly by his unimaginably fast casting speed of igniting flames.

This casting speed was so fast that it defied logic, how could magic be cast so instantly!

"How does it feel, is this new magic useful?" a Starfire Knight asked from the side.

"This is sorcery, sorcery! It's different from magic, okay." Reid corrected, saying, "I feel like I'm a flame, originally very small, but after receiving a part of it from my teacher, now I can burn stronger and stronger."

"Every time I cast sorcery, I feel my flame grows a bit; as long as I keep casting, I can burn brighter!" He said fervently.

"Uh..." The Starfire Knight thought for a moment, and said, "Isn't this just the more you practice, the stronger you get, why speak in riddles..."

Reid rolled his eyes immediately, feeling the atmosphere he had built up was completely destroyed.

He wasn't intentionally speaking in riddles just to create an atmosphere; his previous statement was his true feeling when using sorcery.

Even though it's just a slight sensation, he believes that sorcery should be something different from the magic they are using now.

Just then, a huge living corpse suddenly rushed from the side to attack, Reid noticed it, and assumed his companions, who were stronger than him, would notice it too, probably even faster.

However, it wasn't until the huge living corpse let out a roar and smashed the ground with a Giant Stone that the Starfire Knight barely reacted, fiercely leaping aside and finally dodging the heavy blow at the cost of getting covered in filth.

"What are you doing!?" Reid exclaimed in shock, slapping an igniting flame onto the huge living corpse's face to force it back, then hurriedly helped his companion up.

"I, I don't know," the Starfire Knight shook his head, "I was a bit dazed just now."

"Is now the time to be dazed!?" Reid's shock couldn't dissipate; they were elites, how could elites be dazed on the battlefield?

But as soon as this thought crossed his mind, he suddenly felt dizzy himself, the vision went blurry for a moment.

The Giant Stone thrown by the huge living corpse came flying, and the two bizarrely forgot to dodge, getting knocked down in a heap.

"Someone is injured, go save them!"

Luluwo saw the situation here and immediately helped block the enemy Tami was dealing with, instructing to rescue Reid.

"Huh?"

The sticks of two huge living corpses fell; she habitually used chains to resist, but the chains suddenly became slack, and she herself was knocked flying.

"Cough cough... what's going on?"

Sitting on the ground, Luluwo was full of doubt.

She, she suddenly felt weak?

Her body seemed colder than before, not only that, her strength was leaving, cold sweat was all over her forehead.

And what's weirdest is that after taking two hits unquestionably hard, she actually felt no pain?

"Something's wrong!"

As if breaking through the barrier of cognition, she suddenly noticed the abnormality on herself.

Was her body this fat before?

Underneath the leather, it felt as if countless tiny creatures were wriggling frantically.

"So, so tired, no strength left."

A soldier suddenly collapsed like a puppet with strings cut, losing all strength, unable to raise a hand even with the enemy close, only repeating how tired he was.

"Feels like there's something inside my helmet."

The soldier dreamily muttered, raising his nearly powerless arm to touch the helmet, struggling a few times before finally unfastening the buckle, exerting effort just to remove the helmet.

"!"

Upon seeing his appearance, Luluwo's face turned pale, covering her mouth.

"Do... I have something on my face..."

The soldier raised his hand and scratched his head full of wriggling tiny bugs.

With his movement, the bugs fell like raindrops, looking like leeches.

Meanwhile, more soldiers were taking off their helmets.

Everyone's equipment underneath was crawling.