Countless Pale Pilgrims gathered together, their branches emanating pure and cold silver light. From a distance, they resembled a glimmering silver ocean, presenting a bizarre yet sacred beauty in this dim lower dungeon space.
However, beneath this breathtaking beauty lay deadly danger.
At the edges of the silver forest, massive piles of monster corpses had accumulated like mountains. Among them could occasionally be seen one or two equally lifeless Pale Pilgrims, broken and fallen to the ground.
"It's almost like a natural barrier..." Salian gazed at the scene before him, murmuring softly.
"It is indeed a barrier," Iros behind him explained calmly. "This is one of the Divine Tree's own defense mechanisms, blocking any existence from approaching its center."
"They seem... like they can't be infected?" Salian noticed that all the saplings' trunks maintained their silver-white color, showing none of the typical dark red veins that appeared after "Madness" erosion.
But Iros slowly shook his head. He raised his hand, pointing to a sapling long broken and half-buried among the wreckage in the corpse pile.
On one of its withered branches were clearly visible dark red patterns!
"It's not that they can't be infected—it's that those individuals already contaminated are eliminated by the others themselves."
"We're not going to... forcibly eliminate them all, are we?" Salian couldn't help but ask.
"Of course not," Guard Captain Eko behind them interjected. "If we chopped them all down, would my forest rangers have to stand guard here day and night forever?"
Under his command, well-trained elf rangers quickly divided into several small groups.
They quietly approached from different flanking directions, cautiously purifying the toxic mist permeating the air while using arrows or disruptive magic to provoke them.
Soon, a portion of the Pale Pilgrims were attracted by these actions, breaking away from the silver collective to chase after the sources of harassment.
Gradually, the silver forest blocking their path directly ahead became sparse.
However, when only a thin layer remained, no matter how much the rangers intensified their provocations, the remaining saplings would only chase for a very short distance before decisively returning, firmly guarding that final boundary, unwilling to venture far again.
"What now? Should we force our way through?" Salian asked.
But Iros, looking at that final line of defense, raised the staff in his hand: "Unavoidable sacrifices... are still within acceptable limits."
Guard Captain Eko was even more decisive, drawing the two elven curved blades from his back with a sharp "shing." The blades gleamed with cold light in the dim illumination.
The remaining Pale Pilgrims, even if they desperately released toxic mist and swung their roots in resistance, how could they withstand the combined advance of these two powerhouses, Iros and Eko?
Before long, they had been reduced to charred fragments and broken wood scattered across the ground under sharp blade light and powerful magical impacts.
After clearing a path, Iros didn't have everyone continue deeper. He left several mages at the perimeter for support, taking only his three most capable students along with Eko as they stepped toward the deepest area.
The darkness gradually receded, and the surrounding environment grew brighter.
Finally, a pure beam of light descended straight down from directly overhead in the vault above, causing Salian, already adapted to the dim environment, to instinctively squint.
They had reached the bottommost center of this massive underground spiral structure.
However, in the center of this empty dirt ground grew only an extremely small seedling—something that couldn't even properly be called a tree!
"Teacher, could that be..." Salian asked uncertainly.
Iros confirmed his guess: "That is the Divine Tree."
Another accompanying mage behind them couldn't help but click his tongue: "I thought... it would be enormous."
Hearing this, Eko laughed: "When I first heard about it back in the day, I thought the same thing."
Though this was his first time seeing the Divine Tree's true form with his own eyes, as Guard Captain, he had long seen relevant records in various documents.
Iros revealed more: "The Divine Tree is indeed immensely huge. What you see is merely an extremely tiny portion of it."
"The rest... is it all underground?"
While speculating, Salian instinctively cast his spatial detection sphere, attempting to probe the Divine Tree's form beneath the ground.
However, the scene displayed in the sphere was a chaotic spatial distortion, all images jumbled as if forcibly compressed. This was the first time Salian had encountered such a situation!
Just as he was about to move positions to check if there was some interference, the Puchi on his head suddenly used its two short mycelial legs to repeatedly kick his head lightly.
Having gradually gained experience from being "sat on," Salian immediately understood this was the Puchi warning him to stop.
Almost simultaneously, Iros behind him also placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Everyone stay where you are. Don't move casually," Iros's voice carried rare solemnity. "The spatial structure here isn't as simple as it appears to the naked eye."
Looking at the detection sphere in his hand that seemed deformed by invisible force, Salian suddenly understood. Cold sweat broke out on his back, and he dared not act rashly again.
At the same time, he was once again amazed by Little Ji's abilities. Besides mana perception, this Puchi seemed to also have means of spatial perception?
After returning, he definitely had to take this little guy for a comprehensive examination to see what other unexpected abilities it was hiding!
Lin Jun, however, had no attention to spare for whatever Salian was thinking. In fact, even stopping him from wandering around just now was something Lin Jun had done while extremely busy, reminding him only for Airaven's sake.
He was currently completely focused on looking at this seedling's panel!
[Name: Essogar]
[Level: LV99]
[Race: Divine Tree]
[Racial Talent: Mana Collection]
[Skills: ]
[Status: Dormant]
[Title: Dungeon Administrator No. 5 (Obtained highest authority over this dungeon)]
...
Lin Jun switched perspectives to the Far North, where Little Black was seriously scraping a block of ice with his claws, researching whether this thing counted as shiny.
He pulled up the panel.
[Name: Little Black]
[Level: LV62]
The panel was fine.
Which meant this really was a LV99 entity called Essogar, with a completely blank skill section, in dormant status, and serving as a dungeon administrator?!
Good thing it was dormant—otherwise Lin Jun would have to consider whether, as fellow dungeon administrators, they should greet each other right now...
During the time Lin Jun was completely focused on studying the panel information, Iros had already slowly walked up to that tender seedling.
He extended his palm, emerald nature magic radiance lighting up from his palm and gently enveloping the seedling, seemingly conducting some kind of deep probing and communication with it.
Time passed quietly. Guard Captain Eko behind him, who wasn't proficient in magic, finally couldn't restrain himself and spoke up: "Iros, what's the situation really..."
Before he finished speaking, sudden change erupted!
(End of Chapter)
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