We're Already In Close Combat And You Still Say You're A Mage?

Xu Bai and Omi followed the traces along the way and hung far behind the fire ant army.

Originally, traveling in a misty forest full of plants was a very physically demanding job.

The bushes growing everywhere in the misty forest and the vines hanging from the giant trees are all obstacles blocking the way.

But these are nothing worth mentioning in front of the fire ant army.

The area where the fire ant army passes.

Bushes were trampled and vines snapped.

They plowed this place like a super-large crusher.

As for those creatures living in the misty forest?

Feel sorry.

When the fire ant army arrives, all those that run slowly become food for the fire ants.

that's all.

The two men, covered in smelly black sludge, followed the fire ant army from a distance.

The journey was very smooth.

Just two hours later, we arrived at the central area of ​​the "execution circle".

The fire ant army bypassed the central area and continued to advance deeper into the misty forest.

........

The central area of ​​the "Execution Circle" does not have giant trees and shrubs growing like other areas of the misty forest.

Instead, a huge castle stands.

This castle is made of rocks that have been divided into uniform shapes.

On the stone walls of the castle, green moss grows wildly, making the entire castle look mottled.

The two of them walked around the castle.

It was found that there were no windows, balconies or other light-transmitting and ventilation devices on the walls of the entire castle.

Only in front of the castle, there are two stone doors about 10 meters high.

The stone door is closed and has patterns carved on it.

Both stone doors are carved with patterns, but they are different.

The stone door on the left is carved with a woman wearing armor and a crown.

There is an upright pyramid pattern on the crown.

Under the woman was a huge scorpion.

If we assume that the woman carved on the stone door is about the same size as a human being.

Then the length of the scorpion under her body is at least 20 meters.

The woman sat cross-legged on the scorpion, with two short scythes beside her, looking down at the front.

And around her and the huge scorpion beneath her were smaller scorpions with crystal clusters on their backs.

Those little scorpions were the sand crystal scorpions that Xu Bai had seen in the desert. They migrated to the hilly areas between the desert and the misty forest to lay eggs.

Under the feet of these sand golden scorpions, there are many corpses of large ants.

There are fire ants and black crystal ants.

The background of this carving is full of huge fallen trees.

On the stone door on the right, there is also a woman carved on it.

It's just that this woman is kneeling on the ground, holding a crown wrapped with thorns in her hands, and her appearance cannot be seen clearly.

The woman is naked without any clothes on.

Behind her was a mixed group of fire ants and black crystal ants.

These big ants all have injuries on their bodies.

He lowered his head and lowered his antennae to the ground, making a surrender gesture.

The environment around them is a misty forest with dense trees.

In the stone carvings of these two stone gates, the backgrounds are misty forests with tall trees.

Although these are just carvings on two stone doors, there seems to be a trace of spiritual power attached to them.

Through this trace of mental power, Xu Bai seemed to "see" the scene in the sculpture:

"A few years ago, the rocky desert had not yet appeared. Towering giant trees belonging to the misty forest occupied it. In the misty forest at that time, many extraordinary creatures lived."

"Among them, the ant clan composed of black crystal ants and fire ants was the largest in number. Under the leadership of the ant king, they quickly dominated the misty forest at that time and wantonly slaughtered other groups of extraordinary creatures in the misty forest."

"Among them is a race that was also born in the misty forest, the Wood Crystal Scorpion."

"In order to avoid the fate of being massacred by the ants, the Wood Crystal Scorpions had to leave the Misty Forest and move to other areas of the Twilight Continent."

"So far, the Ant Clan and the Scorpion Clan have developed a grudge."

"In order to kill them all, the ant king sent out soldiers to hunt down those extraordinary groups who left the misty forest, including the wood crystal scorpions."

"On the way to escape, the wood crystal scorpions strayed into a vast desert. The desert was covered in sandstorms, causing them to lose their way."

"But this also allowed them to get rid of the ants' pursuers."

"The wood crystal scorpions have no concept of carrying supplies. During the escape, they ate whatever they encountered. Basically, they were hungry and full. Therefore, after being trapped in the desert, there were wood crystal scorpions every day. The crystal scorpion died in the desert."

"As extraordinary creatures, the remaining wood crystal scorpions began to actively convert the elemental attributes in their bodies, transforming the wood element that originally belonged to the forest into the rock element that was closer to the desert, and began to settle down in this vast desert. .”

"Until they encountered a huge pyramid standing in the desert."

"The pyramid is actually a mausoleum, but the owner of this mausoleum is not dead, he is just pretending to be dead and sleeping in it."

"The one sleeping inside is none other than the King of Sand in the Twilight Continent."

"As the King of Sand, as long as there is still a desert in the Twilight Continent, the sleeping will in the pyramid will never die. It can even use the deserts in other areas to speed up its recovery."

"As for who caused the Sand King to sleep, the spiritual will attached to the stone door carving was not mentioned."

"The sleeping will of the Sand King was awakened by the scorpions coming from afar. He briefly woke up and talked to these scorpions who had transformed into sand crystal scorpions with the equality he considered in his heart."

"After a conversation, the displaced scorpion tribe reached a deal with the briefly awakened ancient king - the Sand King gave the scorpion tribe lord a humanoid body, transforming it from a lord-level creature to a master-level creature to a certain extent. Creatures, at the same time, some individuals with higher intelligence attributes in the scorpion tribe were selected and given huge bodies, while the rest of the ordinary sand crystal scorpions have stronger reproductive capabilities."

"As a condition, the scorpion master needs to lead the race back to the misty forest and convert at least half of its area into desert."

"If the scorpions cannot do it, as a price for gaining power, their souls will become a little dessert for the resurrection of the Sand King."

"Then, the King of Sand, who briefly woke up, crystallized a drop of his blood essence and gave it to the master of the Scorpion Tribe. At the same time, he pointed out the direction back to them, and then fell into a deep sleep."

"In order to fulfill the agreement with the Sand King, after two years of preparation, the scorpion master led a large number of sand crystal scorpions back to the misty forest."

"Relying on the life level of the master-level creatures to crush the lord-level creatures, the scorpion master effortlessly defeated the ant king, while the sand crystal scorpions under its command easily defeated them with their larger numbers. Ant."

"The ant king expressed his surrender to the scorpion master, but was still killed by it."

"After the victory of the war, the Lord of the Scorpion Tribe fulfilled his promise and ordered his Sand Crystal Scorpions to cut down half of the giant trees in the misty forest. After everything was completed, the Lord of the Scorpion Tribe condensed the essence and blood of the Sand King into a The crystal was crushed, and the misty forest that lost half of its trees instantly turned into a desert, which is exactly what it is today."

"After the ant king died, the defeated ants fled back to the depths of the misty forest."

"Originally, the scorpion master planned to turn the entire misty forest into a desert, but the third-level master creature living in the wide river in the misty forest - Purple Bearded Kun, made him give up this idea."

"This allows the remaining half of the misty forest to be preserved."

"Without the leader of the group, the defeated ant tribe even began to kill each other."

"Without the suppression of the ant king, the black crystal ants and the fire ants gave birth to their own lords. A fierce conflict broke out between the two sides, and they had no time to "clean up" other extraordinary creatures in the misty forest."

"Without the "cleaning" of the ant colony, new extraordinary creatures appeared again in the misty forest."

........

At this moment, the prompt from the Garden of Origin appeared, and the picture in front of Xu Bai disappeared.

"Tip: The walker witnessed the birth process of the "Barren Stone Desert" across time and space. The walker's spirit resonated, and his mental power was permanently +2."

"Tip: Mental power is a hidden attribute. When you complete it, it will appear on your personal panel."

The prompt from the Court of Origin brought Xu Bai back to consciousness from the previous scene, and Omi's voice came to his ears.

"Hey, hey, Mo Xiu, what are you doing standing there?"

"Didn't you see that?"

"what did you see?"

"......"

It seems that in those scenes just now, for some unknown reason, the unknown spiritual power on the two stone doors was only shown to Xu Bai.

It was not presented to Omi.

Xu Bai retold Oumi what he had just witnessed.

After hearing this, Omi felt a little regretful.

However, her regret was not that she had not seen those scenes with her own eyes.

But missed the 2 points of mental power bonus.

"..."

After Omi complained a few words, he stepped forward and pushed the two doors with stone carvings.

Only to find that the door was motionless.

This made Omi a little annoyed because he missed the 2 points of mental power bonus. He took out an explosive device directly from the storage space. After installing it, he and Xu Bai moved away from the two closed stone doors there and pressed the detonator in his hand. key.

"boom--!"

"Wow, wow, wow~~~"

After a loud noise, rocks flew.

The two stone doors were blown to pieces, revealing the interior of the castle.

Since there are no windows in the entire castle, the interior is dark.

The two walked in and inspected the entire castle.

The interior space of the castle is not very large, with a total of 5 floors connected by a stone staircase that rotates up the wall.

Since there are no windows.

If each layer of entities is sealed with the stone staircase connecting the upper and lower floors.

Except for layer 1.

The other floors will form a closed independent space.

Through the light emitted by the lighting device in his hand, Xu Bai discovered that the first floor of the castle was filled with the remains of black crystal ants.

The remains have long since weathered.

Just touch it with your hand and it will turn into powder and float in the air.

It seems to have been dead for a long time.

Walking up the stone stairs, the two found that the first four floors were filled with the remains of black crystal ants.

Soon they arrived at the fifth floor, which was the highest floor of the castle.

There are no remains of black crystal ants on the fifth floor. Compared with the first four floors, it looks very empty.

In the deepest part of the fifth floor, a human figure had several black crystal ant limbs pierced through his body and was nailed to the wall of the castle. His head and limbs drooped unnaturally, and he looked like he had been dead for a long time.

There are no other living creatures in the castle. It seems that the two of them were the first to arrive here.

Xu Bai walked forward and looked at the body nailed to the wall.

The corpse was that of a woman, with tentacles on the top of her head. Because she was nailed to the wall, Xu Bai and Omi couldn't see her face clearly due to her drooped head.

Suddenly, the corpse looked up, and a woman's face appeared in front of Xu Bai.

Look at Xu Bai.

However, her eyes are not ordinary pupils, but have many small and dense compound eyes.

At this time, those compound eyes were staring at Xu Bai.

It seems she is not dead.

But it seems that death is not far away.

"Pfft~~~"

next moment.

Next to Xu Bai, there was a sound of breaking wind, and the short blade in Omi's hand had been nailed to the head of the compound-eyed woman.

Pin her back to the wall.

"Ho~ho~ho~."

The head was penetrated by a short blade and nailed to the wall again, but the compound-eyed woman was still alive.

The mouth kept opening and closing, and gasping sounds came from the throat.

He seemed to want to say something.

Xu Bai looked at her neck and found a ferocious incision there, severing the compound-eyed woman's entire throat.

It was that incision that made it impossible for the compound-eyed woman to make any sound no matter how much she opened her mouth.

He could only make a gasping sound of "ho ho".

"What the hell is this?"

"It makes me feel a little trypophobic."

Omi looked at the densely packed and tiny compound eyes of the woman with compound eyes and said with disgust.

With that said, Omi reached out and pulled out the short blade inserted into the compound-eyed woman's forehead, preparing to stab her again.

"Wait a moment."

Xu Bai stopped Oumi and signaled her to be calm.

Pointing to the incision on the throat of the compound-eyed woman's neck, she said to Omi, "She seems to want to tell us something."

As he spoke, Xu Bai took out a roll of tape from the storage space, tore off a palm-sized piece, and stuck it on the incision on the compound-eyed woman's throat.

The pipe no longer leaks.

The compound-eyed woman finally succeeded in making a sound.

The woman with compound eyes kept opening and closing her mouth, repeating one syllable.

The sound was very subtle, but with Xu Bai and Omi's hearing.

You can still hear it clearly.

"Run...run...run..."

The only syllable she kept repeating was the word "run".

"What does she want us to run for?"

“Isn’t this already the center of the ‘execution circle’? "

"Where else are you going to run?"

Looking at the compound-eyed woman in front of him, Omi was puzzled.

Xu Bai thought for a moment and said.

"Maybe...she's not talking to us."

........