Winter Demesne.

Edgar who was given the responsibility to guard the city monument had bid farewell to his previous purposeless life in the Underworld with his two comrades. Ever since Winter Demesne was built, he embraced civilization after he left the forsaken land behind. He felt alive again after he watched for a long time the endless flow of people, traveling to and fro the Mythical Continent and the Underworld.

The world full of Specters, which had haunted him for most of his life, seemed to be gone for good.

Listening to the busy street in the city put a gentle and satisfied smile on his face all day.

Today, the Deputy Castellan of the city, Violet Orchid, was paying him a visit with several other familiar faces.

“My respectable Captain Edgar.”

“My beautiful Deputy Castellan, what help do you need from me today?”

Perhaps due to the difference in rank, Edgar had ditched the bureaucratic speech he normally used when he conversed with normal players. Sometimes, he would even flirt with Violet Orchid like he did that day.

The visitors were already used to his occasional jovial behavior when talking to them. They went there purposely to ask him about the information he had shared with the Deputy Castellan previously.

When they thought about the conversation that was about to take place, the visitors breathed in heavily and put on stern expressions.

“Captain Edgar, I have some questions for you,” Violet Orchid looked straight into Edgar’s eyes and said.

The latter was stunned by the formality and nodded. “Sure, I am happy to help but I will only be able to answer questions that are related to the Underworld.”

“All right.” Violet Orchid paused for a while. Then she quickly summarized for Edgar what Qin Ruo had conveyed to her earlier through the voice chat.

At first, Edgar was still able to maintain a calm face. But when he heard the part where Violet Orchid brought up an area that was shrouded by a dark fog, he visibly raised his eyebrows a little.

Finally, he could not help but furrow his brows when Violet Orchid mentioned the Ancient Ghostvine.

“Ancient Ghostvine?”

“That’s right.”

Frowning, Edgar looked at Violet Orchid and questioned, “The Castellan brought someone with him into the Ghostvine Shrub?”

“Yes. According to the clue you gave, our League Commander flew all the way straight north after he exited the city to look for the Underworld Abyss. But he discovered the shrub after he noticed the unusual activity of Predators and Ethereal Skeletal Dragons—”

Before she could finish her sentence, Edgar interjected her in a solemn tone, “That’s bad. The Castellan obviously deviated far from the Abyss. Yaeger went to the Shrub once in search of valuable herbs. That place is more than ten kilometers away from the Black Hole…”

Violet Orchid was speechless.

She turned her upper body slightly and glanced at Slayer’s Heart. The latter nodded and immediately relayed the information to Qin Ruo and company, who were now more than a hundred kilometers away from the Demesne.

“F*ck!” Black Rock looked at the dark region in the distance dejectedly. He sat down and bawled, “I knew we were lost. After so many battles along the way, we must have deviated from the north at some point. But I never expected it to be this much! We’ve diverged more than ten kilometers from the path! What the hell!”

Qin Ruo and Homme Fatale were both rather helpless too.

The chance of getting ambush while flying through the air was very high. Besides, they did not have a map of the Underworld (actually, nobody had it). The direction and distance given by Edgar were also very abstract, so the deviation was expected and forgivable.

“We shouldn’t continue, should we?” Homme Fatale looked at Qin Ruo, who still had his gaze fixed on the dark region, and pleaded. The place was not their original destination, to begin with. Moreover, their previous attempts to enter the dark region were telling enough.

The powerful monster named the Ancient Ghostvine was obviously guarding something. It was highly aggressive against intruders and possessed an extraordinary intelligence. No matter from which direction they tried to break in, the Ancient Ghostvine always found a way to block them out. The stakes were too high judging from how it went around Qin Ruo’s Chaotic Frostrampart twice and heavily injured the Aquamancer. Under such circumstances, continuing to probe the dark region would just be a waste of time.

Qin Ruo shook his head and denied Homme Fatale’s request to leave. “We still haven’t seen the Ancient Ghostvine’s true form. We can’t just retreat like that. I believe Edgar still has more to tell us about this region. Let’s wait.”

“Brother Slayer, please ask Sister Violet to inquire more about the Ancient Ghostvine and the details about the dark region.”

His query was immediately met by an implicit laugh from Slayer’s Heart. “Hehe, we knew you weren’t going to give up so easily. She’s already on it.”

***

“The Ancient Ghostvine doesn’t originate from the Underworld. It’s a unique organism imported by Hades from another dimension. Due to its high adaptability and aggressiveness, Hades usually transplants it in several important locations as a guardian of the place.”

“Transplant, you say?” Violet Orchid astutely pinpointed the unusual term Edgar used.

“Smart lady,” Edgar smiled back and complimented.

“The Ancient Ghostvine is a type of plant that can survive the worst kind of environment. Despite being highly intelligent and aggressive, this monster is immobile. Thus, it can only release a weird gas from within to protect itself from being mutilated by other organisms. Of course, they also use the gas for predatory purposes.”

“Immobile?” Violet Orchid and Slayer’s Heart quickly exchanged gazes. They could see the excitement brewing in each other’s eyes.

In that world, the easiest creature to counter was either a slow-moving monster or a physically weak Magic Type creature.

It was the first time they had heard about an immobile monster, which should be even less troublesome than the aforementioned two.

If they learned about this good news, Qin Ruo and company would definitely find a way to defeat the Ghostvine. All they needed to do was locate the position of the monster’s mainframe, which would not be hard if they deployed the Grand Reaper with its exceptional defensive prowess.

“By the way, Captain Edgar”—Violet Orchid’s mood had brightened up—”you said Hades transplanted the Ghostvine personally to guard something. So what is that something?”

“Forgive me, my lady. I have no answer for that.” Edgar laid out his bare hands and said, “The Ancient Ghostvine is a Divine Monster that cannot move around. So understandably, its Attack is greater than most other Divine creatures. In addition, the zone it has created blocks Elemental Perception and reduces Movement Speed. That’s why we’ve never gotten near enough to investigate the area. All this information was passed to me by another Demigod Warrior. According to this person, it’s very difficult to completely eradicate the Ghostvine. Even if it is destroyed, its seeds will germinate within a very short span of time and eventually grow into the aggressive plant. He only managed to pass the Ghostvine once and glimpsed a deep hole hidden inside before he was chased out by the Primeval Ghostvine. He said that the Primeval Ghostvine is a Divine Elite Miniboss, which was beyond his league, immediately deterring him away from the region.”

Everyone was at a loss for words.

After consecutively receiving information from Slayer’s Heart, Qin Ruo was stunned for quite some time.

‘A Divine organism from the other dimension? An immobile giant tree? Just a Tier 7 monster? Damn!’

Qin Ruo initially thought that the guardian had be a Tier 6 Boss or something equivalent at least.

He never expected a normal Tier 7 monster to be so dominant!

A single attack from it directly collapsed his defensive shield and 200 Endurance Points from his barrier, not to mention more than 2,000 of his HP. The tree even knew how to evade unimportant defensive spells.

“Who would have thought that a common Tier 7 monster would scare the sh*t out of the three of us? F*ck, this is embarrassing!” Black Rock stood up and glared at the dark region, full of resentment. He bellowed, “Sh*t, I wish we could go in there right now and ignite the hell out of that monster!”

“You’ll get your chance.” Qin Ruo gave him a light smile.

It was not only Black Rock, he, too, felt humiliated.

A non-moving Tier 7 monster almost killed him twice. That left a bad taste in his mouth.

However, it was still not the right time to launch an attack. Since Edgar was supplying them with new info by the minute, they did not need to make any hasty moves. It was better to gather more intel regarding the unknown enemy for the time being. Moreover, since the place was set up by none other than Hades itself, its danger had to be off the charts. Qin Ruo had not forgotten that there was also another Primeval Ghostvine in there, which could be equally strong or even stronger than the Grand Reaper.

‘Better be safe than sorry!’

***

Winter Demesne.

Violet Orchid continued to dig deeper. Other than learning about its basic attacking pattern and additionals fact regarding the Ancient Ghostvine, she also acquired one very useful info from Edgar.

“If all of you plan to bring down the Ancient Ghostvine and explore the region… I mean, maybe you can go and consult Yaeger. At one point, he was rather obsessed with the alien plant. If only we could withstand the Ghostvine or get help from a Warrior… According to Yaeger, the Ancient Ghostvine’s vitality is exceptional, and it may be used to produce an HP potion with a strong healing effect. I bet he’ll be jumping on his feet if you can get him some roots of the Ancient Ghostvine.”

“A mission?” Violet Orchid and Slayer’s Heart looked at each other curiously. They never would have thought that by talking to Edgar, they would accidentally trigger Yaeger’s supposedly hidden mission.

The Vice Castellan was indeed influential!

***

“An HP Potion with a strong healing effect?”

“Yes, it’s officially known as the Rootless Elixir. Yaeger had once obtained the root from a Warrior. He made a Rootless Elixir out of it, which could instantly recover 3,000 HP and replenish 100 HP per second for the next ten seconds.”

The news delivered by Slayer’s Heart had greatly enthused the three of them.

Instant recovery of 3,000 HP, and subsequently, 1,000 HP over the span of ten seconds…

Although it was a one-time consumable and may not be considered a potion, its powerful effects were definitely comparable to a Tier 4 Magic Potion.

Besides, if they could mass produce the item…

Imagine the elixir in the hand of Judge… Even if the opponent was at the level of a Divine Specter…

Mass producing was not feasible if the material was a rare and expensive herb. But to their astonishment, Yaeger confirmed that even a small piece of root from any Ancient Ghostvine would allow to do that.

In other words, if they could figure out a way to defeat the Ancient Ghostvine, it was entirely possible for them to mass produce the Rootless Elixir, which worked miracles.

Qin Ruo was completely pumped.

All the cadres from the Fallen Angels who learned about the news were also as excited as their League Commander.