The dark skies above the gloomy swamp were still shrouded in perennial gloom and miasma, and the Dark Realm in the center of the marsh was even darker than the night.

"I don't like this place, can't see a thing," murmured Aetrus, while gripping a piece of bright jade in her right hand. This waxy stone, which had the value of twenty gold coins, finally revealed its worth as Chi ignited it, causing a warm but dim yellow flame to immediately rise from its surface and dispel the surrounding darkness within a few meters.

But it was only limited to this range, as further away still remained pitch black, illuminated only by the faint blue glow of fluorescent plants that grew to adapt to the dark environment of the swamp depths.

"What's the deal with this place? It's basically the same as Devildom," Aya complained, taking a breath of the air saturated with a rotting stench and wrinkling her nose muscles in an attempt to alleviate the tickling sensation in her nostrils.

As for why she couldn't use her hand... it was because one hand was supporting her walking cane while the other was carrying the unconscious Ino.

—Speaking of which, isn't he a bit too fragile? It's understandable for a gunner to be fragile, but even the witch who had also lost consciousness had already recovered and was lively. It's a bit too much to still be sleeping, isn't it?

If Aetrus hadn't explained that this guy had focused on strengthening his attack power during his training and had a physique that was only slightly stronger than the most fragile mage, Aya would have doubted if he was pretending.

"You just mentioned Devildom? Have you been to that place?" Aetrus asked with a hint of surprise, looking at Aya with suspicion.

Not to mention how dangerous Devildom is for human adventurers, after the war between the two realms, the spatial rifts were almost completely broken, and the remaining few were strictly monitored and rarely allowed passage. Even she, an S-class adventurer, hadn't found an opportunity to go to Devildom.

"Cough, no, I haven't been there, I haven't! I just read about it in books!" Aya quickly denied, even though she had actually been there before, running all over the continent several decades ago and taking a walk in Devildom as well, almost getting trapped by some abyssal demon...

But telling someone that she had been to Devildom several decades ago... would probably make her sound like a lunatic, right?

"Uh... my head hurts. What just happened?" Just then, Ino, who had been disconnected for a while, finally regained consciousness. Holding his head, he lifted it off Aya's shoulder with a pained expression.

"Oh, you're awake? I thought you were going to sleep until we left the swamp," Aetrus said with a disgusted look on her face, poking his cheek with the magical gun in her hand.

"Wha- sis? Where are we?! What am I—" The gunner suddenly woke up and struggled to lift his head, finally understanding their current situation upon seeing Aya carrying him.

And then he forcefully struggled.

"Hey, what are you doing?! This place is slippery! What if the two of us end up rolling into a mud pit!" Aya panicked, struggling to find her footing on the slippery moss.

"Hey, let go of me! What is this?! I'm the future great hero, how can I let a woman carry me on her shoulder?!"

Alright, I changed my mind. Can I just throw this guy down now? Right here, right now!

Aya's mentality exploded, but in the end, she decided to forgive him, considering that maybe his mind wasn't clear yet since he had just woken up.

"This is almost there..."

Seeing the guy being let down and still looking disgusted, Aya was so angry that she wanted to punch someone, and Atilas beside her had an expression of "just get used to it".

"Oh, where's my partner?" After moving her body a bit, Ino immediately started looking around for her red gun.

"Here it is." Aya raised her hand and threw the red gun, which was being used as a cane, towards Ino.

As Ino took hold of the weapon, she was initially delighted, but when she saw the disgusting semi-solid mud and strange black liquid on the gun's body, her smile immediately froze.

"What did you do with it?! How did it end up like this?"

"Oh, I didn't do anything, I just made it into a cane and killed two ghouls with it." Rolling her eyes, Aya sneered and said.

"You used my combat partner as a cane?!"

"Yeah, it works pretty well. Do you have any spares? Give me one?" Aya smirked.

Just as Aya was getting ready to have a good argument with this fool using the spraying technique she learned from Tiran, a girl's voice suddenly came from ahead, interrupting the imminent argument.

"Sister Atilas! We're almost there!"

The girl with a cloak and a hood jumped and ran to the three of them from the front, looking very excited. "We'll arrive at my home soon."

...

Time went back a few hours.

The atmosphere in the temporary camp became tense. Atilas' body tensed up like a drawn bow, her gaze fixed firmly on Anjelika, who still had an innocent and cheerful smile on her face.

Aya was also secretly nervous, trying to figure out what level of ability the witch really possessed. The mission description did not provide a detailed combat power description, only a vague "Level 9".

And Level 9 was really annoying. Although humans have a clear level classification from one to nine, Level 9 and above is already Holy Rank, with a huge gap in between.

For example, that Guffett guy, being close to Level 9 is also considered Level 9, but his actual combat power is probably only slightly stronger than a Great Knight. On the other hand, creatures like the Mist Tree Lord, as long as they are below the Holy Rank, are considered Level 9, but their actual combat power can surpass dozens of Level 9 knights.

Aya felt that she herself could take on several human Level 9 knights, but the witch's abilities couldn't just be seen as ordinary Level 9, and whether they could defeat her was truly an unknown.

In the blink of an eye, Atilas and Aya had already devised more than a dozen responses to different attacks in their minds, waiting for the other party to make a move.

"Huh? Why aren't you saying anything?" The girl blinked in confusion, leaned forward, and waved her hand in front of the two.

"...Aren't you going to attack?"

After a while, Atilas reluctantly squeezed out a sentence.

"Attack? Fight? Sister never taught me that." The girl touched her head, looking a little embarrassed, and smiled shyly.

"Aya, what do you think about this?"

"I don't know, but one thing's for sure, she's not the cunning, wicked witch described in the mission, otherwise she would have attacked directly, right?"

"Although it's not impossible that she's pretending... I have a strange feeling about it."

"If she's not a witch, why would she be here?" After going around in circles, they ended up back at this question.

"Because my home is here." The girl answered naturally.

It's that answer again. Aya and Atilas were both dumbfounded. Does someone really live in a swamp like Masaka? How big must their heart be!

"Where is your family? Are you living alone?"

"My sister used to be with me all the time, but she said she had something to do and told me to stay home and not wander around..." The girl looked aggrieved.

"So why did you go to the town outside?"

"There was no food at home."

I couldn't argue with this reason.

Although we didn't end up fighting, there were still many doubts about this sudden appearance of the girl. Aya guessed that even if she wasn't a witch, she must be related somehow, otherwise, how could such a coincidence happen?

Or maybe that witch is actually her sister? Who knows.

But if that's the case...

The two of us locked eyes and saw excitement in each other's eyes. How lucky, we thought we would have to search in the swamp for a long time before collecting any clues, but here it is, the lead came to us.

"Can you take us to your house and let us have a look?" Ayla asked tentatively, with a slightly nervous gulp.

"Yes, of course. We've never had any guests at our house before," the girl seemed very happy and immediately agreed.

I wonder if it's a bit suspicious to lure an ignorant girl like this.

...

"Hold on, this is your house? Are you sure?"

Ayla stared at the rare flat ground in the large swamp in front of her, her expression filled with doubt.

Ino, who had finally cleaned his spear and hurriedly caught up from behind, frowned as he looked down after seeing the faint light of Mingyu Fire: "Isn't this... the old adventurers' town?"