Chapter 142: Re-entering the Dungeon

“Captain, why didn’t you wait for me just now? Do you hate me? Then why did you give me such an expensive golden orb?”

Fiona caught up with Luo Yong and followed silently for a while. At last, unable to hold herself back any longer, she moved closer and asked in a low voice, “Captain, why are you ignoring me? What are you drinking? It looks rather strange.”

“Cooled boiled water.”

Luo Yong shook the secret potion in his hand, then downed it in one gulp. He casually tossed the little bottle aside, and it shattered into pieces on the ground.

“Cooled boiled water... Why didn’t you just say ice water...?” Fiona muttered, growing somewhat displeased. Seeing the broken glass scattered among the rubble, she said solemnly, “Captain, it’s wrong to throw things around like that. What if someone gets hurt?”

“Then go pick it up,” Luo Yong said.

“...”

Fiona’s breath caught. She pouted and glared resentfully at Luo Yong’s back, but said nothing more.

After spending some time walking slowly along the way, the two of them reached the area where the stone circle stood.

From far away, Luo Yong could already see the Holy Light Sorceress guarding the place, as well as the Word of Truth Sorceress who had come to take over her shift.

“Captain, do you know them? I’d only heard about them in the camp before. I never thought I’d actually get to see them...” Fiona said softly.

“When you registered as a mage, didn’t you meet them?” Luo Yong asked.

“Uh... hee-hee...” Fiona suddenly laughed, apparently a little embarrassed. “The Holy Light Sorceress is my aunt. She didn’t want me to become a mage or warrior too early, so she never let me register, and she wouldn’t let me touch anything related to magic... So I secretly registered with the Mages’ Guild without telling them.”

“They?” Luo Yong asked. “Who are you talking about?”

“There, that’s my aunt Emma, the Word of Truth Sorceress,” Fiona said.

“...So you’re a second-generation heir after all!” Luo Yong sighed, then said, “You can go now. The party is disbanded. I don’t need any more members.”

“What?!” Fiona was shocked, but she still did not dare raise her voice too much. She was afraid her two relatives would notice her. If they did, they would certainly question her at length, and she might even get a scolding.

“Why? Captain, what did I do wrong? I worked so hard at the camp just now to sell all those golden orbs!”

“For your own good.”

Luo Yong said it without a trace of emotion.

What if the girl learned too much, enough that he had no choice but to silence her? And what if, when the time came, he softened and could not bring himself to do it? Wouldn’t that be courting death?

“What do you mean, ‘for my own good’?” Fiona said angrily. “Every one of you says it’s for my own good, but none of you ever explains why. You never think about how I feel. I’m not all right at all!”

“Take this.”

Luo Yong casually handed her a golden orb.

“Wait, what does this mean?” Fiona stared at the orb, clearly tempted, but stubbornly refused to accept it. “Are you trying to fob me off with this? Hmph! You’re underestimating me. I don’t want it!”

“This is your second mission.”

As he spoke, Luo Yong took another pouch from his storage space. No one could tell what was inside.

“A mission?”

Fiona accepted the pouch and cautiously opened it a crack. Instead of the golden orbs she had expected, she saw an assortment of bottles and jars.

“What are these?”

“Mission items.”

Luo Yong pointed in the direction from which they had come. “The same camp as before. The same general store. Put them there on consignment.”

“Still... one bottle for fifty gems?” Fiona asked.

“Correct.”

“Then, Captain, aren’t you coming with me?”

“This is a mission assigned to you by your captain. You may choose to go or not. The result will be either your departure from the party, or...”

“I’ll go! I’m going right now!”

Fiona put both the pouch and the orb into her storage space, then ran off. After a few steps, she turned and hurried back.

“Captain, are you going to wait here for me?”

“Go!”

“Captain, you have to wait for me!”

Fiona shouted as she ran, anxious and somewhat angry. With a flash, she summoned her Wings of Light.

But just as she was about to take off, she glanced back at Luo Yong and rummaged through her storage space for a teleportation scroll—one she usually could not bear to use.

At that moment, however, she could not worry about such things. Gritting her teeth, she activated the scroll and darted into the gate of light.

“Captain, you have to wait for me!”

She was already far away, yet her voice still came through the teleportation gate.

“Wait for you to report me?” Luo Yong rolled his eyes, then glanced toward the stone circle.

The Holy Light Sorceress, Anne, and the Word of Truth Sorceress, Emma, had already completed their shift change. They were waiting there like hunters beside a snare.

Originally, Luo Yong had intended to lure them away before entering the secret realm, but for the moment, he had no good plan.

“Ah...”

He sighed, and his figure vanished into the dark forest.

Ancient City Ruins.

Although new parties entered the dungeon beneath the ruins every moment, the crowd gathered outside had not diminished in the slightest. On the contrary, it had grown larger and larger.

When Luo Yong emerged from the teleportation gate, there was hardly anywhere left for him to stand.

It was only when he was about to begin another round of monster farming that he suddenly realized the Wizard’s Eye he used to lure monsters was still with Fiona. He had forgotten to take it back.

“What a waste of time!”

Luo Yong shook his head helplessly. He felt as if he had become a walking corpse, his mind growing more useless by the day.

When he returned to the vicinity of the stone circle, he spotted a young girl waiting there from a distance. She kept looking around, so anxious that she seemed on the verge of tears.

Seeing this, Luo Yong stepped out of the shadows and waved to her.

“Captain!”

Fiona spotted him at once and ran over joyfully. Standing beside him, she said in an aggrieved voice, “Captain, I thought... I thought you had abandoned me!”

“...”

Luo Yong truly did not know what to say. If not for the Wizard’s Eye, he would never have come back.

There were still certain ties he was unwilling to sever completely, but he could no longer accept any new ones.

“Let’s go,” he said flatly, then walked into the teleportation gate.

“Huh?”

In the distance, the Word of Truth Sorceress standing guard beside the stone circle suddenly sprang to her feet. The two figures that had appeared just now seemed strangely familiar.

One of them looked like the Forbidden Arts Guard she had been trying to capture.

And the other... could it be her own little Fiona?

How old was that child?

She should not have registered yet.

Yet the girl who had just appeared was already a warrior.

At that thought, she shook her head and withdrew her gaze.

Although there was rarely anything important to do at the Heroes’ Association and she had plenty of free time, waiting here indefinitely was enough to kill anyone. She was practically turning into a salted fish.

...

A gate of light opened in the dark dungeon.

Two figures, one tall and one of medium height, appeared together.

It was the same familiar hall.

And still...

“Ugh! It stinks in here!”

The moment Fiona entered, she covered her nose and backed away several steps, nearly colliding with Luo Yong.

“Damn...”

Luo Yong frowned as well. The dungeon was filled with an unbearably foul stench. Anyone with even a slightly sensitive sense of smell could be killed by it outright.

“Captain... let’s get out of here... Cough, cough. We can’t stay here! I can hardly breathe!”

As she spoke, Fiona tugged at Luo Yong’s cloak.

“No need. I have a way.”

Luo Yong frowned at the heaps of severed limbs and broken bones piled together, mixed with black blood. Scavenging creatures had gathered there, feasting upon the remains...

The sight was almost impossible to describe.

“What way? Then use it quickly! Cough, cough...”

Fiona clung tightly to Luo Yong’s arm, barely able to remain standing.

“Why have thousands upon thousands of troops gathered in the dungeon?” Luo Yong sighed. He recalled the swarming crowds he had seen in the Ancient City Ruins, and an expression of incomprehension appeared on his face.

Perhaps he was losing his human emotions...

Nothing remained except sorrow.

“Captain, what are you talking about? If you don’t hurry...”

“Watch this.”

Luo Yong spoke indifferently, then casually threw out an already activated teleportation scroll.

Whoosh!

A teleportation gate opened ahead of them.

He had learned this trick from Pang Ding, that damned fat man. It was extremely useful when fleeing.

“Huh? Captain, why did you open it so far away? How are we supposed to get there?” Fiona asked in confusion.

The gate had opened on the opposite side of the rotting corpses, leaving quite a distance between it and the two of them. Under normal circumstances, no ordinary person would have done such a thing.

But Luo Yong had already begun to become somewhat abnormal.

Whoosh!

Another scroll was activated and sent flying.

Whoom!

A violent wind suddenly rose.

A whirlwind formed, starting small and growing larger as it moved rapidly forward. Along the way, it sucked up the scattered corpses and broken bones, leaving everything it passed completely clean.

Then, carrying all those nauseating remains, it passed through the teleportation gate and arrived on the other side.

“Uh...”

Fiona stared at the scene before her, her admiration for Luo Yong reaching an indescribable height.

“Captain, you’re amazing!”

That single whirlwind had cleared away a great deal, and the air throughout the hall had become noticeably fresher.

Luo Yong repeated the same process in another direction, opening another teleportation gate and using the same method to sweep out the rotting remains.

Before long, the hall and several passageways had been cleaned completely, and the foul stench was gone.

There was still a trace of an unpleasant odor, but compared to before, it was incomparably better.

“Ah... at last we can breathe. Wait, Captain, are you going to keep farming monsters nonstop again?” Fiona asked.