CHAPTER 76: CHAPTER 76: A SIMILAR WEIRD PLANT

Shane lowered his head and said to Ethan: "Sorry. My man was rude. I’m apologizing for him."

Ethan said calmly: "I don’t need your apology. It means nothing to me."

Shane paused. There was no anger on his face. Instead, he nodded and said:

"You’re right. An apology should come from the person who did it."

Then Shane looked over to where Ryan was and called: "Get over here."

Ryan looked unwilling, but he still rode his horse over, slowly, to where Ethan stood.

Shane’s eyes dropped to the horse Ryan was riding. Ryan, still unwilling, swung down from the saddle, took a deep breath, and spoke in a low, fast voice:

"Sorry. I was wrong."

"You’re skilled and strong. You could’ve killed the rest of the thieves with no effort. I misspoke."

Ethan knew he was being sarcastic.

Shane took a deep breath and said he could agree to Ethan’s terms. If the chance allowed, he would heavily injure the thieves in the underground caves, then leave them for Ethan to finish off.

Clearly, Shane knew this offer was very tempting to a player.

Ethan hadn’t expected Shane to offer that.

Getting an NPC to act as muscle and help a player farm and level up—if other players heard about it, they wouldn’t believe it.

Ethan nodded and accepted Shane’s terms.

Soon, they headed deeper into Frost Valley.

Only then did Ethan have time to check what kind of Purple-quality Intel had dropped when he killed Thief Simon.

[Frost Valley Underground Caves "Siphoner" Intel (Incomplete)]

[Quality]: Purple-quality

[Requirement]: None

[Description]: An unlucky thief hiding in the Frost Valley underground caves accidentally went all the way to the deepest area. No one knows what he saw. When he showed up again, he had gone mad. Use this Intel to gain the related memory fragments.

Memory fragments?

It seemed that using Intel could give many different things. To be honest, Ethan still didn’t get why they were all called "Intel." Sometimes you got a bit of information, sometimes a map, and sometimes strange memory fragments.

He thought about it. The Intel from killing Thief Simon was incomplete, but it could be used right away, and it was Purple-quality.

If it were complete, it would probably be Orange-quality Intel.

As for Orange-quality Intel, the only one in Ethan’s [Inventory] was the [Hellblade Class Intel (Incomplete)] for the strongest hidden class, Hellblade.

Ethan didn’t use the [Frost Valley Underground Caves "Siphoner" Intel (Incomplete)] right away. He worried the so-called memory fragments might affect him. If he acted weird, that would be bad.

So he planned to wait until they reached the cave entrance. When the team stopped to rest and reset, he would find an excuse to slip away for a bit and then use the [Frost Valley Underground Caves "Siphoner" Intel (Incomplete)].

Ethan then checked the other loot from Thief Simon: a white cloak and a dagger.

[Poisoned Dagger]

[Quality]: Blue-quality

[Equip Requirement]: Thief class

[Effect 1]: +2 Speed

[Effect 2]: Poison. When the dagger hits an enemy, it applies poison, slows them, weakens them, and also causes Bleed.

[Note]: Do not lick this dagger. You’ll regret it.

...

[Snow Cloak]

[Quality]: Green-quality

[Equip Requirement]: None

[Effect]: In snow- and ice-covered areas, it slightly lowers your presence, making you harder for enemies to notice.

[Note]: Better take a bath before wearing this cloak.

...

Ethan didn’t really need either item. The Blue-quality dagger was clearly worse than his [Damaged Blood-Drinking Long Knife], and the [Snow Cloak] wasn’t as good in quality or effect as his [Stalker Cloak].

Looks like he could only stash these two items in his [Inventory] for now and sell them later.

Ethan had only killed one thief, so he wasn’t sure if these NPCs had a higher drop rate and would always give loot on kill.

As he was thinking, the team walked into a clearing. It was unusually flat, like a plaza covered in snow.

Shane said: "We’re here. Rest for a bit. Once we’re ready, we’ll head down."

Ethan looked around and spotted an opening about a dozen meters ahead, like a sewer hole. That should be the entrance to the Frost Valley underground caves.

Ethan said to Shane: "I’m going over there to take care of something... personal."

Shane glanced at him and nodded. "Alright. Be careful. Monsters show up around here too. If you’re in danger, shout and I’ll get to you right away."

After Ethan left, Ryan watched his back with annoyance and said:

"Hmph, we’re about to go into the caves, and he got so scared he had to pee. People like him only talk big, he—"

Shane shot him a look, and Ryan shut up.

Shane said: "He’s not as weak as you think. You saw that thief’s body, right? Head cut off in one strike. That means this player fights clean and fast."

"The wound on his arm was likely from a distant archer while he was fighting melee enemies."

Ryan scoffed: "If it were me, I wouldn’t get hurt."

Shane said calmly: "What if you took off your armor?"

Ryan froze and closed his mouth. His level wasn’t as high as the captain’s, but he was much stronger than those thieves. Still, in an ambush and a swarm, without armor, it’s hard to avoid getting hurt.

...

In a corner of Frost Valley, Ethan looked back and saw that Shane and the others weren’t watching him.

He then used the [Frost Valley Underground Caves "Siphoner" Intel (Incomplete)] from his [Inventory]. At once, he felt something flood into his mind.

Ethan closed his eyes without thinking. It felt like he became someone else, feeling his way through a dark space, moving toward a faint point of light.

Soon the light grew clearer and brighter, and he walked faster.

At last, a strong glow appeared not far ahead. Ethan stopped short—there was a huge cliff at his feet.

The light was coming from something inside the cliff. It was so bright that he had to adjust before he could see what it was.

It was a huge white plant, dozens of meters tall, like a giant mushroom. Countless thin, string-like tendrils hung from the top down to the ground, and on those tendrils were things that looked like fruit.

As Ethan stared, a white tendril suddenly whipped toward him.

Only then did he see clearly: those "fruits" were heads. One after another.

There were beast heads and human heads—children, elders, men, and women.

The heads looked fresh, as if they had just been cut from their bodies.

As Ethan watched the heads on the tendril, they suddenly opened their eyes and stared at him.

Countless eyes with only the whites showed no emotion. They were eerily calm, like statues. But their mouths kept opening and closing without a sound.

Yet in Ethan’s mind, a voice seemed to speak:

"Come. Come closer."

"Come. Step forward. Everything you want is here..."

In an instant, the scene shattered. Ethan opened his eyes.

He took a deep breath, replaying what he had just seen. Then it hit him—the strange white plant... he had seen it before.

Yes. Deep in the sewers under Safe Zone 9527, in that hidden space, he had seen a similar huge white plant.

But that was inside Safe Zone 9527. What he just saw was at the deepest part of the underground caves beneath his feet.

What is this strange white plant, really?

Back when he first saw that huge, creepy white plant, Grimmount showed up. Ethan even used that incident to get quite a few benefits from him.

Ethan knew Grimmount must know what this plant is. But if he asked, Grimmount would never share anything useful.

From the Intel reward, this plant should be called the "Siphoner."

Looks like he needs to find a way to dig up Intel on the Siphoner, or kill more monsters and try to get related Intel to drop with the [Ten-Thousandfold Intelligence Reward].

Ethan took a deep breath and headed back toward Shane and the others.