Chapter 120: Damn, Are You Sick?
Nothing happened overnight.
The next morning, Mark’s three-person team set off for the edge area of the Rotten Bone Swamp.
Among the magical beasts in the outer areas of the Monster Beast Mountain Range, only the Monster Beast Mountain Range’s central area and the edge of the Rotten Bone Swamp had the highest level magical beasts.
After all, this area was already bordering the central region of the Monster Beast Mountain Range.
The main objective for the three of them on this adventure was concentrated in the edge area of the Rotten Bone Swamp.
It took the three of them two days to travel from Moonlight Creek Valley to the edge area of the Rotten Bone Swamp, during which they also had contact with other adventurer groups.
When they met, everyone deliberately avoided each other’s routes.
In the Monster Beast Mountain Range, no one could guarantee whether the adventurer groups they encountered were friends or enemies.
Some adventurer groups might even belong to the Mountain Tiger Bandit Gang, so no one in the mountains would kindly ask other adventurers to travel together.
Furthermore, after seeing that Mark’s group of three was heading towards the Rotten Bone Swamp, those adventurers were even less willing to communicate with them.
Adventurers capable of heading that way were usually either unusually skilled in their professions or genuinely very strong.
Upon seeing how young Mark’s group of three looked, those adventurers immediately classified them into the category of unusual professions.
Speaking of the Rotten Bone Swamp, one must also mention the most famous magical creature on the Holy Dragon Continent—the Dragon.
According to the information Mark obtained from Beta.
The Rotten Bone Swamp was merely a small area within the Corrupted Dragon Swamp.
The Corrupted Dragon Swamp included the Rotten Bone Swamp, Poison Mist Swamp, Sepsis Quagmire, Dragonscale Wetland, and Witch Dragon Lake.
The Corrupted Dragon Swamp was a vast swamp spanning over two hundred thousand square kilometers, located between the outer and central regions of the Monster Beast Mountain Range.
The Thirty-Six Towns of the Lily Kingdom needed to pass through this vast swamp to enter the central region of the Monster Beast Mountain Range.
And the Rotten Bone Swamp, as the outermost part of the Corrupted Dragon Swamp.
Its formation can be traced back to the ancient Dragon Wars.
Legend has it that twelve fallen ancient dragons were punished by the Holy Dragon and perished here; their decaying bones permeated the earth, turning the entire area into a life-devouring forbidden zone.
The swamp’s surface appeared to be covered with ordinary moss, but beneath it surged hidden currents of acid that corroded metal.
Occasionally, giant fossilized skeletons of large beasts could be seen half-buried in the mud; these skeletons, covered with runic engravings, still exuded a suffocating aura.
The most dangerous creatures in the Rotten Bone Swamp were the Bone Leeches, which had been breeding for years.
These parasitic magical beasts, which fed on the bones of corpses, would erupt from the decaying swamp and drag adventurers into the bottomless swamp quagmire.
Of course, Mark didn’t know how credible this legend, told by Beta, actually was.
At least when he asked the commanders Frenzied Wolf, Stag, and Silver Fox, they only said that such a saying did exist.
However, during their missions in the Rotten Bone Swamp, they had only seen the bones of magical beasts like bears and tigers, and had never actually seen any dragon bones.
They hadn’t even seen the bones of Wyverns.
According to them, if there were really any dragon remains in the Rotten Bone Swamp, then no matter how gloomy and dangerous it was inside, there would still be plenty of adventurers daring enough to venture in.
As the morning mist, carrying the fishy scent of the Rotten Bone Swamp’s humus, seeped into his nostrils, Mark happened to crush a piece of phosphorescent beast bone, and the viscous black mud beneath his boot sole made an unpleasant squelching sound.
The three of them stopped at the edge of the swamp, dotted with sparse trees, and saw gray-green miasma churning, hanging like living things from the dead ironwood branches several meters away.
If they walked another ten meters forward, they would officially step into the Rotten Bone Swamp area marked on the mission map!
Mark picked up the map of Swamp Poison Lizard distribution that came with the mission for the 【 Ghost Mushroom spore powder 】, and said with some regret:
“Based on the various information we obtained from Osborn Town, the adventurers of Osborn Town have very little knowledge of the Rotten Bone Swamp. At least most adventurers have not explored locations outside the guild’s designated mission areas.”
Perhaps the Adventurer’s Guild considered that the adventurers in Osborn Town were not of very high professional levels, so the map they provided was only of a territory of Swamp Poison Lizards within the Rotten Bone Swamp.
Although this map showed a group of Swamp Poison Lizards ranging from Second Rank to Third Rank, which was not a safe place for many adventurers.
However, within the territory of Swamp Poison Lizards, there were generally very few other magical beasts active.
And these Ghost Mushrooms were found almost throughout the entire Rotten Bone Swamp. As long as the person carrying out the mission was careful not to provoke all the Swamp Poison Lizards, there was usually not much risk in undertaking this mission.
But precisely because there was no risk, the profit was also somewhat unsatisfactory.
The magic crystals produced by Swamp Poison Lizards were relatively rare poison-attribute magic crystals.
Compared to light and dark element magic crystals, because poison-attribute related professions were not common in human society, the value of their magic crystals was even 50% lower than that of magic crystals of the same level.
After all… if someone wanted to absorb the magic power from a poison-attribute magic crystal for recovery, they might even be poisoned to death…
“Perhaps some independent adventurers have information about this place, but they wouldn’t easily sell their information. Areas like this, with low levels of development, are destined to have very little information circulating outside.”
Monica, through her interactions with adventurers over the past two days, had come to understand the true situation in Osborn Town. She already knew that Osborn Town originally had several large adventurer groups capable of exploring the central region of the Monster Beast Mountain Range.
However, it seemed that due to an incident decades ago, the core members of those large adventurer groups either died or went missing.
The remaining dozen or so veterans either sadly gave up their adventuring careers or transferred to other towns to establish new adventurer groups.
As for the incidents encountered by their adventurer groups, not even the most well-informed information brokers could uncover any useful information.
For this reason, Monica also realized.
Among adventurers, information about the “public” resource areas in the outer regions of the Monster Beast Mountain Range was known by almost everyone.
And no one would deliberately conceal anything.
But venturing deeper, no one would share information about where they acquired their wealth without reason.
Furthermore, if they leaked the locations where they collected materials and supplies daily, they could even invite the danger of death.
“In short, let’s stick to the usual rule. We’ll go in first and complete the spore powder gathering mission. After the mission is done, we’ll clear out magical beasts and improve our professional levels. Now, I’ll cast a shield on you all… bear with it!”
When One-Eyed Pabi, several hundred meters away from the three-person team, was astonished to see Mark’s group attacking each other, he could barely restrain his excited emotions and wanted to rush forward again to tear open his High Rank scroll and destroy all three of them.
But in the end, reason made Pabi restrain his emotions.
He breathed a sigh of relief only after watching the three of them, enveloped in dazzling Holy Light Shields, enter the Rotten Bone Swamp.
“Damn it, are they crazy?”
