“Hey, hey, that monster just now that looked like a flower left a lot of slime behind as it left…”
Lulu crouched down, gazing at the dark red, dragging streaks on the ground.
“Why don’t we follow and see? Maybe we can find the Scarlet Flower.”
The team continued deeper along the trail.
From the marks, it was clear that the flower monster had crawled toward the depths at the bottom of the deep pit.
The narrow passage stretched endlessly forward, and the red roots clinging to the rocks became more and more abundant.
“That’s—” Lulu, walking at the front, suddenly stopped.
At the end of the passage, it suddenly opened up. A vast underground chamber appeared before them.
In the center stood a fortress made of giant boulders, the stones stacked in irregular shapes but forming a relatively orderly, sunken stone stronghold.
The surface of the rocks was covered in crimson clots, like dried secretions from the flower monster.
The entrance to the stronghold was mostly obscured by bright red vegetation, making it look as though no one had visited in a very long time.
“So, is this the Crimson Flora’s Happy Home?” Lin Shu murmured.
“It might be happy, but with such a big house, we sure aren’t,” a teammate complained.
“Well, let’s go pay it a visit,” Sephina said, lifting her parasol and taking the lead.
The group entered the stone stronghold.
The passage sloped downward, and the temperature in the underground depths grew colder and colder, making her instinctively shrink her neck.
The sound of their footsteps broke the dead silence, echoing especially loud in the narrow corridor.
Whenever they paused, Lin Shu could even hear her own heart pounding faster out of nervousness.
“This is bad.” Lulu blinked furiously. “There are lots of monsters wandering around here, not just one. Let’s all try to keep quiet, okay?”
Everyone following behind her nodded in agreement.
The stronghold branched off in all directions, each passage stretching into the darkness.
Torches illuminated the walls around them. The deeper they went, the denser and thicker the red tendrils clinging to the walls became.
They arrived at a crossroads in the passage.
“Let’s follow the red tendrils. These must be part of the Scarlet Flower stretching out—if we follow them, we should find the main body,” Lin Shu reminded them.
Plop.
A sticky, squelching sound suddenly came from behind.
Turning back, Lin Shu’s teammates’ expressions changed as they saw something terrifying.
Part of a branch suddenly detached from the stone wall. Like a snake, it lifted its head and hovered in the air.
A bulge formed on the surface of the branch. The skin split open, revealing a round eyeball, its black pupil staring straight at Lin Shu’s back.
Lin Shu felt a chill run down her spine.
The next moment, something cold and slick coiled around her thigh.
The tendril wound tightly around Lin Shu’s thigh and yanked her backward. Losing her balance, Lin Shu fell to the ground.
Caught again!!
“Grab on to me!” Sephina swiftly seized Lin Shu’s hand.
The other teammates reacted quickly, drawing their swords and rushing forward to slash at the tendril wrapped around Lin Shu.
“The eye! Stab its eye!” Lulu shouted urgently.
A teammate turned the tip of their sword and stabbed at the bulging eyeball on the branch.
With a squelch, the eyeball collapsed in on itself.
The wounded tendril recoiled violently, and Lin Shu’s thigh throbbed with pain. The tough plant skin had scraped her flesh, leaving a long, bloody gash.
Blood gushed from the wound, sticking to the tendril and quickly being absorbed by it.
“Roar!!—”
Low growls from monsters echoed from all directions at the crossroads.
Immediately after came the sound of something thick being dragged—getting closer and closer, clearly more flower monsters crawling this way.
The squad drew their weapons, standing back to back, watching the passageways on all sides.
This was a terrible position, almost surrounded on all fronts, and judging by the sounds, at least two or more flower monsters were closing in.
If only they could, like before, somehow make the monsters withdraw…
“Tendrils…” Lin Shu gritted her teeth and pushed herself up. “I’ll try again, see if it works on them.”
Lulu scanned the area, her face pale. “Uh-oh, this is bad, more and more monsters are coming. Eh? That is…”
In her field of vision, several wisps of red thread drifted in all directions, as if drawing the flower monsters toward them.
And the starting point of the red threads was—Lin Shu’s wound.
It’s blood!
“The smell of blood is attracting them—we need to stop Lin Shu’s bleeding!”
“Let me do it.” Sephina lifted her skirt and crouched down, her eyes meeting Lin Shu’s as she steadied her on the ground.
Huh?! Lin Shu froze, sensing what she was about to do.
*****
At the same time, in the upper levels of the underground jungle.
Lia swung her scythe, the massive blade slicing all the venomous bees in half at the waist.
She sheathed her weapon and turned. “How many people have been poisoned?”
The commander of the warriors behind her gripped his arm, now green from the poison, and half-knelt, trembling as he reported:
“Miss, there are still more than a dozen teammates poisoned, but we’ve used up all our antidotes.”
“All used up?” Lia’s anger surged. “Who was in charge of preparing supplies?!”
“I-it was me…”
A half-blood vampire lowered her head and stepped in front of Lia. She dropped to her knees, her whole body trembling with fear.
“Miss, I prepared the supplies according to standard exploration requirements, b-but I didn’t expect there’d be so many poisonous creatures!” she explained in a trembling voice.
“Didn’t you research the enemies and ecology of the underground jungle before we left?!”
The other woman lowered her head even further. “Lin Shu always did that before. This time we set out in a rush, so…”
Clang!
Before she could finish, Lia’s massive scythe struck the ground just inches in front of her.
The half-blood recoiled and fell back, on the verge of tears. “I’m so sorry, Miss!”
Lia clenched her jaw. Hearing that name, a flood of sadness mixed with frustration rose in her heart.
She turned away, lost in memory.
Those nearly forgotten memories, at a moment as desperate as this, rose uncontrollably in her mind.
During past expeditions, Lin Shu always carried a bulky pack on her back, making her look clumsy in battle.
Once, Lia had complained, “Why do you always lug that huge bag around? It’s so stupid.”
Like a child finally receiving attention, Lin Shu hurriedly opened her pack. “Master, the supplies inside are all for being prepared for anything.”
“This is a pain-relief potion, because the giant mosquitoes in the marshes stimulate pain nerves. And this is the honey Master likes to add to her blood meals…”
Lin Shu pointed to the well-organized tools inside, explaining each one.
Even tiny details, like Lia’s preferred flavors, Lin Shu remembered and carried with her, just in case her master got hungry and needed a good meal.
Lia clicked her tongue and tossed Lin Shu a tiny storage pouch.
“This is a magic item. There’s enough space inside for all your useless junk,” she said, turning away and sounding dismissive. “Use this from now on, don’t embarrass me.”
Lin Shu took the pouch and held it in her palms for a while.
“Yes, thank you, Master!” Lin Shu beamed, her eyes shining like stars.
Just receiving something from her master made her that happy.
…How could she have forgotten these memories?
Why had she once called Lin Shu “dead weight”?