After Alice chose Option A, she felt the Voice of Truth growing increasingly faint before her eyes, and then her eyelids gradually drifted shut…
After an unknown amount of time, noisy sounds echoed in her ears.
Alice felt a sensation like warm sunlight continuously nourishing her entire body.
It was incredibly comfortable, and she wanted to keep sleeping like this forever.
However, as the noise grew louder, her sleepiness completely vanished.
‘Where… am I…?’
Alice opened her eyes. The first thing that came into view was an ordinary-looking bonfire.
About 3 meters away from the fire was a dense wall of Mist. Within those 3 meters, there were more than ten scantily clad adventurers.
“Where is this? How did I end up here?”
“Where’s my Magic Staff? And my money!”
“Ugh, I’m basically naked…”
The noise Alice had heard was the confusion of the adventurers. The scene was chaotic and loud.
Most of them were girls, as only girls lacked the strength to escape the suction of a Second Rank Slime.
Consequently, the view at the site had become… somewhat suggestive.
“Huh? My clothes!”
While checking her body for injuries, Alice discovered that her Mage robes had been halfway dissolved by the Slime.
If she moved even slightly, she would be completely exposed. However, the sticky Slime residue still covered her entire body, managing to hide her private areas.
The problem was that the Slime residue was translucent, leaving Alice’s body partially visible. It looked even more provocative.
‘My underwear?! Where did it go? Shouldn’t slimes dissolve the outer clothes first?’
“Ah… my underwear is gone too!”
At that moment, all the girls discovered the same thing, and the shouting grew even louder…
The reason their underwear had vanished was due to the setting in the Revival Mechanism where half of one’s equipment is randomly dropped.
As for why the girls had a 100% precision rate for dropping their undergarments, perhaps only Truth knew the answer to that…
……
“Over here.”
At the same time, near the south entrance of the Mist, Anderson led Eldon and Truth around the Slime swarms.
After failing the challenge during the Slime ambush, they had followed the dying adventurers who had been whisked away by the Life Insurance Mechanism.
It was common knowledge among adventurers on the Dea Plateau that once the Life Insurance was triggered, the Mist would automatically transport them to the nearest Bonfire Safe Zone.
Thus, it was very safe for Anderson and the others to run after the dying adventurers.
However, they had underestimated the visibility of the Mist. Since the nearest bonfire was not on the main safe road, Anderson and his group had to risk venturing deep into the Mist.
In a moment of carelessness, they lost their targets and became lost themselves.
“Alice!”
Near the bonfire where Alice was located, Eldon was running in circles while shouting.
He, Truth, and Anderson were all holding onto a thin rope to prevent themselves from getting separated.
Other adventurer teams searching for their teammates were doing the same.
“Here! I’m over here!” Alice’s response echoed through the Mist. It indicated that both parties were very close, yet it was difficult to actually meet.
After all, the Mist could confuse the senses of any adventurer.
For the next few minutes, both sides continued to call out to each other.
At their closest point, they were only about 15 meters apart.
If they had moved just a little bit closer, they would have seen the glow of the bonfire, but they ended up wandering away again.
This made Truth feel rather irritable. She didn’t want to waste time here, so she found an opportunity to focus her mind, causing the bonfire where Alice was located to suddenly erupt in a spectacular burst of flames.
“There it is!”
Anderson spotted the small orange point of light in the Mist. Before the light could dissipate, the adventurers all charged toward the bonfire.
They successfully found their half-naked teammates.
Eldon and Alice immediately threw their arms around each other, followed by a typical round of crying and “I was so scared” complaints.
“So many people were eaten? The difficulty is a bit high…” Anderson remarked from the side.
“You guys are just a bit weak…” Truth commented from beside him.
Anderson froze for a moment, then felt a bit defensive. “Hey, do you even know how strong those Slimes were? Those are the strongest Slimes I’ve ever seen in my life!”
“That just proves your life has been quite short,” Truth replied without even looking at him. Perhaps she should find an opportunity to let him meet the legendary Slime King.
Furthermore, this guy was already over Level 20, yet it had taken him about 20 minutes just to deal with the first Earth Element Slime earlier.
If it weren’t for his level advantage, Anderson might have been solo-killed by a Slime.
She had never seen such a pathetic Ranger…
“You, it’s easy for you to say. You act like you contributed so much earlier, when you didn’t do anything at all,” Anderson muttered under his breath.
He might be mediocre, but he wasn’t like a certain Second Rank Priest who did absolutely nothing! And doing nothing was one thing, but to turn around and mock him afterward—sigh, what a spoiled second young lady…
“Oh? I’m actually being looked down upon by a weakling like you? That won’t do.” Truth narrowed her eyes at Anderson.
Immediately after, she raised the Magic Staff in her hand. The tip of the staff burst with a brilliant emerald light, and her long dress began to flutter naturally.
Within the Mist, Truth’s Mist Healing Art was practically inexhaustible.
She could even refine it, separating the green life particles responsible for healing from the Mist Healing Art and gathering them together.
The result was that Truth’s healing magic transformed into a common green-light spell: Healing Light.
It was very traditional, very healing, and very green.
The Healing Light attached itself directly to every injured adventurer present. Everyone was stunned for a moment as they looked at Truth.
Then, they realized that a Priest who looked like a junior was actually a senior casting a Group Healing Spell.
“Huh? A Priest who can cast a Group Healing Spell has appeared!”
“A senior is actually healing us for free…”
“Thank you for your selfless contribution, Senior!”
Usually, a Priest wouldn’t take the initiative to heal adventurers from other teams; otherwise, they wouldn’t have enough Mana to heal their own teammates if they got hurt.
But now, a Priest was performing group healing. What incredible selflessness!
“Please accept this small token of our gratitude!” After the healing had continued for 2 minutes, a swordsman with burn marks on his arm approached Truth and presented her with 2 bottles of Mana Recovery Potion.
Under Truth’s treatment, his right hand, which had been burned by a Fire Element Slime, was already mostly healed.
Soon, the dozen or so adventurers all offered gifts. Although they were all low-rank items that Truth didn’t care for, they could still be used by Anderson and the others.
“Now, whose contribution is greater?” Truth asked Anderson, who was currently collecting the gifts on her behalf.
Her expression was calm, but Anderson felt as if the mockery was about to overflow.
He wanted to retort, but he swallowed his words after looking at the various gifts in his hands… There was nothing he could do.
He couldn’t bite the hand that fed him, and Truth had perfectly performed a Priest’s sacred duty — healing the wounded.
“Fine, your contribution is greater. I admit I’m a weakling. Alright, alright, you can stop the healing spell now. Otherwise, what will we do for the rest of the Dungeon challenge if you run out of Mana?” Anderson was someone who knew when to yield.
The mockery of a second young lady wouldn’t make him fly into a rage, though it was a bit annoying.
‘Just you wait, my lady. I’m going to get serious for the rest of this adventure. I’ll prove to you through my actions that I’m not that much of a weakling!’
“A weakling is a weakling. I’m not like you. Do you think I don’t know how to control my Mana consumption?” Truth continued to mock him.
“Can you stop calling me a weakling? I admit that word is hurting my confidence a little…”
“Scrub.”
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