MMORPG: Crowd Control

With Omnivision activated, Lei Zhen maintained his state for a few minutes before closing it.

The Omnivision was still too taxing to him and he merely used it as a scouting method.

'Seems like 50 meters from here are empty and no monsters are lurking.' Lei Zhen thought to himself.

Some minutes had passed by since Lei Zhen and the rest entered the swamp region.

And as expected, the swamp was completely different than the environment outside.

The swamp was a dark and foreboding place. The air was heavy with the smell of decay and the ground was soft and spongy beneath the feet.

A thick mist clung to the surface of the water, making it nearly impossible to see more than a few feet ahead.

There were also numerous algae across the muddy water, making the path somewhat difficult to travel.

"Sigh, Magnolia is indeed too realistic. I can feel my shoes wet and filled with dirty water." Griselda pouted slightly.

"This is not the worst I've been in," Tie Longkun added, feeling nonchalant about the environment. Given his poor attire, it was true that the swamp environment posed no difficulty to him as he had gone through many places.

As for Lei Zhen, he remained calm and collected as he had already made preparations and equipped a boot that was suitable for a swamp environment.

Although the price was a tad expensive, it was worth it considering how much Griselda was pouting for.

"One is a famous player and the other is a top 50s ranker. How can you be pouting at such trivial details when even the poor attire one isn't complaining at all?" Lei Zhen turned around and asked her.

"That's because I've never been to dirty places like this."

"Is your rank bought then? I'm starting to doubt if Magnolia's ranking system is faulty or not."

"..."

Being reprimanded like this in front of another person as well, Griselda truly wished to strangle Lei Zhen alive.

Couldn't he have just worded it differently and not embarrassed herself like this?

Sometime later, Lei Zhen suddenly paused his footstep and glanced around the surroundings.

Seeing his weird action, Griselda and Tie Longkun had long been alerted as they drew their weapons out.

If a newbie like Lei Zhen could notice something was amiss, then these two veterans would definitely know firsthand.

"I sensed around 10 monsters surrounding us from each side." Tie Longkun said, and his expression wasn't goofy anymore but was replaced with a solemn one.

Griselda nodded her head. "These monsters sure know when to ambush us. The water level is now steep and our movements are subtly hindered by it."

"Let's just hope they are not summoned monsters from the black mage." Lei Zhen said calmly, hoping that the 2 experience point crap doesn't happen again.

With the Ferold's Ring extracted, the curse no longer existed and his original abilities had returned.

Nothing could really fear him at the moment since he got two lovely people to be at the frontline. What truly feared him was the horrendous experience points gained that gave him trauma.

"Don't worry, let me handle this." Tie Longkun smiled and happily leaped above, unsheathing his sword and ushering a slash in one direction.

A sound wave echoed and some of the algae began moving back and forth from the impact.

Soon, two monsters that were holding a spear-like weapon collapsed from the side and dropped into the muddy water.

Instantly, two notification screens appeared on Lei Zhen's screen that stated he had gained 325 experience points for each of the dead monsters.

'Finally… the experience points seemed to be aligned with the monster level.' Lei Zhen felt like crying when he could enjoy the blessing of gaining experience points.

At the same time, he stayed put and allowed Tie Longkun to show off his swordsmanship.

Why waste energy when a fool is so eager to do the work?

Griselda didn't bother assisting Tie Longkun either since she knew he could handle these monsters alone. Besides, she had no interest in running around in this muddy water, further dirtying her clothes.

Time slowly passed by, and Tie Longkun slew all the monsters that tried to ambush them.

"Easy peasy lemon squeezy." Tie Longkun laughed heartily.

"Please don't ever say that again. Otherwise, you can head back and squeeze some lemon." Lei Zhen said in a deadpan tone.

The joke was so cringe and old that he wanted to puke.

Griselda nodded her head.

"Less talking, more fighting. If we encounter more monsters ahead, then you can kill them all." She said nonchalantly.

She was starting to understand why no one wanted to party with him.

He was talkative and immature.

Tie Longkun scratched his head slightly, but not an ounce of embarrassment could be seen on his face.

"Gotcha, I will just use my sword to slay them all. Thou shalt not pass with me here." He raised his sword up high and said cheerfully.

Lei Zhen facepalmed at this and decided to ignore him. Never did he expect his fellow co-worker would be this peculiar of a person.

Despite feeling awkward, Lei Zhen decided to just let Tie Longkun act the way he is.

Everyone had their own personality, and if this is what Tie Longkun found comfortable, then so be it.

As long as he continued being useful and was not being a drag, then he could stay at the party.

"When will the black mage show up?" Lei Zhen muttered. The more they tread deeper into the swamp, the more monsters appeared but were slain by Tie Longkun's battered old sword.

The experience points gained were abundant, meaning they are natural monsters and not summoned monsters.

However, that was what got Lei Zhen confused since these monsters don't usually appear here, much less gather in this specific area.

'Why are there so many Lizardark appearing in the open here? Shouldn't they be habituating in a dark cave as their base?' He thought to himself, feeling the situation was a bit weird.