“Dark Hero Freya.”
Ailin flinched, about to warn Li Si about who these people were, but when she turned to look, she quietly closed her mouth.
Li Si fitted the Blue Class-Change Crystal into place and casually called for everyone to leave the valley.
“Hey, you woman, I’ve been sick of your face since the first time I saw you!”
Duke glared with fury.
The first time they met, this silver-haired woman had rubbed him the wrong way.
An adventurer who just left the Beginner Village without even a class change, yet she dared to undermine them right at the Dungeon Entrance.
Back then, if other adventurers hadn’t been willing to pay up, he would have taught her a real lesson.
Now he came bearing the power granted by the Hero, and that woman still had the same attitude.
Originally, the goal for entering this dungeon was to help the adventure group farm points while dragging down the kill count of the Life Vine, securing their spot on the rankings while helping that lord dismantle the Life Vine.
But now, he really wanted to teach that arrogant silver-haired woman a lesson first.
However, that woman didn’t care about his actions at all.
She just kept walking out of the valley.
The people around her seemed to trust her judgment completely and paid him no mind.
Duke couldn’t take it anymore, he raised his blade high and roared, “Stop!”
In an instant, four or five adventurer teams emerged sporadically around the valley.
These adventurer teams had been secretly following all along, and now, upon receiving the signal, they all revealed themselves to apply pressure.
Li Si gave them a brief scan.
About twenty people, and one team looked familiar.
A short-haired female swordsman led her team, standing on a cliff not far away, looking down with arrogance, her posture saying, “Didn’t expect this, did you?”
“Hey, I told you to stop!”
The veins on Duke’s forehead bulged.
This Level 16 woman didn’t take them seriously at all.
Even now, she just kept walking away on her own.
The people following her were the same—they completely ignored his threats, just staring at him like he was an idiot.
Duke was furious, his blade slashed down in rage, the sword aura bestowed by the Hero about to be unleashed.
Suddenly, his posture froze.
Duke felt like his heart had skipped a beat, and the entire world came to a stop.
An icy obsidian sensation touched his neck.
His HP bar was dropping at a visible rate, emptying in an instant.
But the obsidian dagger didn’t cut into his neck, and his body didn’t lose consciousness from the emptied HP bar.
In the blink of an eye, the world returned to normal.
That silver-haired woman had already walked out of the valley, and a flash of a cat’s silhouette passed before his eyes.
The figure left behind a single icy warning.
“Next time, decapitation.”
Duke snapped back in shock.
Looking around, everyone seemed to have just woken from a dream, clutching their necks in terror, as if someone had just pressed a dagger against them too.
“It’s… it’s the Shadow Assassin!”
Someone gasped in realization and said in fear, “It’s her Shadow Prison! It’s the Shadow Prison! We… we’ve already died once!!!”
“Are you kidding me? Didn’t the commander say their goddess’s power had already disappeared?”
“Duke, why didn’t you strike! Don’t you have the power Freya granted you!”
“Damn it! Give that power to me!”
Suddenly, the sword aura on his blade seemed to heed a call.
It detached from the blade, stretching into a dim, indistinct humanoid shadow, and instantly attached itself to a thin sword.
“Ha… ha… HAHAHA!!!”
Mora stared at the longsword wreathed in gray mist, laughing wildly at the sky in excitement.
She had only vented a single bitter complaint out of fear of death, never expecting that this wisp of Hero-granted sword aura would come to her on its own.
She couldn’t help but grip the longsword, laughing with exhilaration.
“Hahaha! I have power! I have power!!!”
***
“Goddess power… can it really be granted to others…”
On the road outside the valley, Ailin Li Sitened to the manic laughter behind them, somewhat surprised.
“That’s Freya’s special ability.”
Ao Li An Na said gravely.
Ailin glanced at the holy Elf Saintess, recalling that wisp of the Hero’s sword aura from earlier, and couldn’t help asking, “Who are they? Do you have a grudge with the Saintess? And it seems like they know you too, Li Si?”
Ailin turned to look at Li Si and pressed further, “I noticed them staring at you back at the Dungeon Hall.”
Li Si didn’t answer.
She just rested her hand on her sword, frowning in thought.
Ao Li An Na glanced at Li Si, hesitated, then said softly, “Actually… our goddess’s power has disappeared.”
“What?”
Ailin was stunned, then her mouth fell wide open.
On the other side, Liewata, who had been watching their rear, stumbled slightly.
She turned around and repeated in confusion, “What?”
The next second, it was as if the signal finally reached them, and both of them wore looks of shock.
Although the guild had reported a few cases of goddess power disappearing, hearing it firsthand was still quite surprising.
Ao Li An Na gripped her vine staff, walking step by step.
Seeing no reaction from Li Si, she continued, “Our power has been fading since a few days ago. Because of this, our frontline performance has been poor, and our kill count is nearly at the bottom.”
“The Chosen One’s participation is a mission granted by the goddess. Even without power, we’ll carry it through to the end. But… if our points aren’t enough, our team will be disbanded and become vassals of other Chosen Ones.”
“And Freya is very interested in me… or rather, in my power of Light. Her Dark Holy Sword can grant others the power of Dark Stars, and after it’s used, she can choose a powerful Dark Star to absorb and devour. She’s absorbed many elemental powers before, but never Light element. So she wants me badly.”
Ailin snapped out of her shock and drew in a sharp breath, “So you’re saying the Dark Hero wants to devour the Saintess’s power?”
“Hisss, so those people earlier…”
Ailin smoothed her messy side bangs, still not quite understanding.
“Freya… is very calculating…”
Ao Li An Na said, instinctively glancing at Li Si.
“Freya, the Dark Hero, captain of the Soya Dark Blade. She’s indeed a troublesome existence. If I’m right, her goal is to devour you, and even your entire team.”
Li Si suddenly spoke, initiating her first conversation with Ao Li An Na, “Under normal circumstances, she’d never have a chance. But once you lose your power like the other Chosen Ones, and are forced to stay on the frontline, she’d have ample reason and authority to make you accept her power, and then devour you in the end.”
“To ensure everything goes perfectly, she allied with the bottom-ranked Wolf Pack Adventure Group to stop you from farming points in the dungeon. This dungeon run should be your last chance to earn points. If you miss it, it’ll be even harder for you to score when the next floor’s strategy begins.”
That was about the whole situation.
Ailin finally understood what was going on, but there was still one thing she didn’t quite get.
She turned to look at Li Si and asked, “What about you? Why do they seem to hold a grudge against you even more?”
The corner of Li Si’s mouth twitched.
The answer to that question was probably what they called jealousy.
“Hisss! So that means Mora is also a member of the Wolf Pack Adventure Group!!”
Liewata suddenly drew in a sharp breath, feeling like something had just slammed into her brain.
But she quickly recovered and noticed that Li Si showed no reaction at all, realizing Li Si had known all along.
Ailin barely managed to piece it together.
In short, someone else had taken a disliking to Li Si.
But there was still one thing she couldn’t figure out.
She turned to look at the three Chosen Ones walking ahead, blinking her eyes.
She really wanted to gossip and ask—your team is in this state, why are you still following Li Si?
Shouldn’t you be desperately farming kill counts?
But soon, Ailin found out why they were following Li Si.
Because in this dungeon, Li Si’s judgment, observation, and tracking were terrifyingly strong.
Thinking about it more carefully, she had always heard that Li Si was the strongest in the Beginner Village, but this was the first time she’d truly witnessed Li Si’s real strength.
Ailin couldn’t help but feel a bit doubtful.
Why exactly was Li Si kicked from her team?
This girl showed absolutely no sign of a reason to be kicked out.
“Um… I need to… use the restroom…”
After another battle ended, a weak voice spoke up.
Wei Ya hugged her staff and hurried toward the bushes.
Lili Ya suddenly raised her hand too, saying she also needed to go.
Li Si’s eyes turned wary.
Ever since they entered this vine-covered forest, the danger sense in her perception had been twitching nonstop, though not particularly obvious.
Suddenly, Li Si’s brow arched.
A wisp of black miasma drifted slowly into her view.
The miasma drifted crookedly, guiding her gaze toward the grass where Wei Ya had disappeared.
Li Si instantly caught sight of a thick, dark vine.
It was creeping toward that spot, following the scent.