The bunch of 2-circle monsters was dealt swiftly by the team leader and another swordsman. Both of them are 4-circle experts. So, they weren't a big deal. The other four just focused on the protection of the clients.
Adventurer Liu Zhong, who was tasked to protect the horse carriage from the left as well as turning into a guide for their esteemed civilian client, spoke to Mark with a smile, trying to reassure him, "Don't need to worry, Lord Lu. Incidents like these are too common in a dungeon, and as you can see, our leader alone is enough to take care of them."
"I can see that," Mark nodded in response, and then, asked a series of questions, "Tell me more about the dungeon. What are the prime locations here? What kind of treasures did people find? Do you have any map?"
Liu Zhong patiently answered one by one, clearing Mark's doubts. At the same time, he was given a rough sketch of a map drawn on a goat's skin.
Although Liu Zhong said it was for free, Mark generously gave him a gold coin for it, which made the poor adventurer feel the envious gazes of his brothers.
That's right. All of the six adventurers in the Spades team are biological brothers of the commoner Liu family. From Liu Zhong, Mark heard that their parents are farmers who died because of a dungeon break more than 15 years ago.
The six of them were rescued by a wandering adventurer. Since then, they were staying together and fighting together.
Mark was really surprised upon hearing his story. How could all the six children of a poor farmer in the countryside possess ether energy?
It's obvious for Mark that either there might be a hidden story to this or this adventurer is lying to him.
Either way, neither Liu Zhong nor his siblings were any special based on what Mark saw with his Sage's eye.
So, he didn't care much about their story and focused on the dungeon.
After acquiring the map, which Liu Zhong claimed to be 80% correct, the remaining 20% being the innermost core, Mark took a closer look at it.
He stored it in the inventory and then, sent a telepathic message to his lovely female Android.
Alina received the message, then, retrieved the goatskin map silently from the inventory and scanned it in a fraction of a second before placing it back into the inventory.
*Ding! You received an image from Alina. Download?
"Yes."
The holographic screen displayed a map identical to that of the goatskin map with a proper sketch and graphics.
Their entrance was in the north.
There are two outposts located at the southwest and northeast with a long curved road between them.
This path passes through several camps like the Dragon Knight Camp, Grotto Camp, Shimmerwood camp, assault camp, and finally, the war camp. All of these five camps have exit portals where the adventurers can escape. These camps are also the places where they can take a rest.
Now, the whole dungeon was basically divided into five regions, namely Grotto, Shimmerwood, Pritsha's Nest, northern ruins, and the core region.
No one knows who named these regions, probably earlier adventurers but either way, Mark doesn't have any interest in it.
After traveling for 30 minutes, they finally reached the Northern ruins, it is usually filled with 1-circle giant ants and medicinal flowers.
Upon reaching the place, Mark peeked outside. The captain and the other novice adventures became busy with massacring the ants.
Even though there are literally thousands of ants that are 1-ft big, the place was also swarmed with several low realm adventurers. There are no medicinal flowers to be plucked as all of them are already cleaned up long ago.
About 15 minutes later, the team continued their journey amid the gazes of the other adventurers. Naturally, the double horse carriage and Alina attracted the attention of everyone wherever the team passed by.
It led a few adventurers to follow them from behind and some even tried to strike a conversation but Alina didn't even speak a word no matter who talked how much. She just turned deaf to their words
Some felt humiliated and thought of taking revenge but seeing the 4-circle expert in their midst, they put away such thoughts. None of them know that they just saved their lives by not doing such foolish things.
However, the trouble for the party is far from over. After another thirty minutes of a journey, while occasionally battling a group of warthogs, they reached their first resting point, the Assault Camp.
Mark saw several adventurers sitting there and chatting around, healing their wounds from battle, there was even a trading center set up here where the adventurers can exchange the corpses for money.
While Liu Zhong stayed behind to accompany Mark, the others left for the trading center.
Just a couple of minutes later, a rude group of adventurers came to the horse carriage. One of them addressed Alina, "Hey beauty, what's your name?"
Alina stayed silent as before.
The guy who is in his late thirties furrowed his brows by the lack of her reaction. He spoke to her once again, "lady, it's not a good manner to ignore an Elite like me, making time to talk to you."
As Alina ignored him again, Liu Zhong hurried forward and reached him. It seemed like he recognized him, "Fang Bao, please don't disturb our clients."
"Oh, it's Liu Zhong," The other guy also seemed to know him. Adventurer Fang Bao proceeded to ridicule him right away, "if you are here, then, your pathetic brothers must also be here somewhere. Where are they? Did they perhaps go to exchange those low realm monsters, again?"
The others who are standing behind this 4-circle expert also started to laugh along.
Liu Zhong's face turned red but he bore with it because he knew that he cannot defeat even one of them. In the end, he said, "If you have something to say, you can tell it to our captain. We'll not sit by and watch if you try to use your strength to bully us."
Fang Bao raised his arm and grabbed Liu Zhong's shoulder. The former's face turned cold as he said, "I guess it's time we show everyone's places. Or else, every trash would mouth off as they wish."
While the other adventurers who are resting behaved as if it has nothing to do with them, Liu Zhong was trying his best to get free while he was pushed onto his knees through brute force. "C'mon, hahahaha, scream for help. I want to see which trash of your brother will come and beg me to forgive you."
Just then, a shout escaped from the carriage as the door opened, and Mark peeked outside, "Who is that barking outside, near my carriage. Get los…"
His eyes fell on Liu Zhong and then, the buffed man with an unruly beard and messy hair.
Mark furrowed his brows, "what are you doing?"
"Who are you?" Fang Bao asked him in return before remembering Alina once again. He glanced at her and then at him, "You appeared like a civilian. I bet you are here as a tourist. Here's the deal, young man. Leave the girl here and run away. I'll let you live."
"Again?" Mark felt like a headache this time because Alina attracting this man's attention is of no use. When he saw the lusty looks the other adventurers also had on their faces while they were staring at his Android Assistant, just for that moment, he thought it would be better for him to hide her beauty with a robe and hood.
He then stared at the man and inspected his details for information.
Fang Bao
Race: Human
Rank: 4-circle (peak stage)
Description: A member of the Mt. Hua sect, and the leaders of the Classless Knights adventurer team.
***
"Okay, that was interesting." Mark, who was enemies with Mt. Hua Sect, decided to act after confirming the identities of his other companions who just have a normal background.
"Do you know who I am?" Mark asked him in response, to check his reaction.
To his surprise, Fang Bao let out a laugh, "This is a lawless land. Even if you are a prince, no one cares whether you die or not."
"In that case, it's fine." Mark gave him a strange reply and nodded.
Before the man understood what was going on, all of a sudden, a shotgun appeared in Alina's hands and she shot at him.
*bang*
It wasn't the loud gunshot that attracted the attention of everyone but it was the screaming of Fang Bao who was bleeding in the eye.
