The rabbit girl's sorrowful gaze broke young Nam's heart. He quickly went forward and carefully comforted her.
Tana wasn't as weak as she looked. She lowered her head and wiped away her tears. She quickly calmed down and started to chat with Nam about other topics.
Nam enjoyed chatting with Tana along the way. Even though the journey was difficult, he didn't complain.
One day, we arrived at a valley.
It was already dusk and the valley was quite spacious. It was a good place to rest.
According to the map that the village chief gave us, this place was called Sunset Valley. From the name, it seemed that the scenery was pretty good when the sun set.
After hearing my speculation, Nam immediately put down the cloth bag on his back and pulled Tana to the other side of the valley. He said that he wanted to watch the sunset together.
After a few days together, the two of them became more familiar with each other. This was Nam's fate. I didn't want to disturb them, so I stayed behind to set up the camp.
After nightfall, the two of them returned. I had already set up the camp and gathered a lot of wild fruits. After barely filling their stomachs, Nam and Tana were very tired and quickly fell asleep.
My body was much stronger than theirs, so I naturally wasn't tired. I sat cross-legged on the ground and closed my eyes to rest.
While cultivating, I spread out my spiritual sense to detect the movements in the surroundings.
Although this place was spacious, it was still in the wilderness. I didn't dare to be careless.
Cultivating instead of resting was something I had gotten used to over the years, so I didn't feel tired. However, at dawn, I suddenly heard a rustling sound.
The sudden turn of events made me immediately stop repairing my acupuncture points.
After carefully investigating, I realized that the sound came from under Tana. Not only was there a sound, but the ground under her was also shaking. There was a strange aura coming from the soil, as though something was about to break out of the ground.
I frowned and was about to go over to check, but the soil under Tana suddenly caved in and she disappeared.
The sudden noise woke Nam up from his sleep. He rubbed his sleepy eyes and asked me in a daze. "Duo Ji, why is there thunder? Is it going to rain?"
I didn't have time to answer him. I jumped in front of the hole and looked down.
The hole was only one meter wide and three meters deep, but Tana was nowhere to be seen.
There were two auras left at the entrance of the cave. One belonged to Tana, and the other was very fishy. Obviously, it was left by some kind of orc.
Since I couldn't see the whole cave from above, I jumped in and looked around. Soon, I found some clues.
There was a hole on one side of the cave wall. It was about the same size as the entrance of the underground cave and could only fit one person at a time.
Although the entrance was small, the hole was extremely long and narrow. One could not see the end of it at a glance, and no one knew where it led to.
As I was sizing it up, Nam's shout came from above my head. After I replied, Nam also jumped in and asked me anxiously, "Duo Ji, why are you digging a hole?
Have you seen Tana? "
I told Nam about what had happened earlier. Then, I asked him to carefully analyze the remaining aura in this area to see if he could find any clues.
When Nam heard that something happened to Tana, he was shocked. He quickly moved closer and sniffed carefully. After a while, he found something, "They can dig holes, and the smell is very pungent … Could it be someone from the Rat Tribe?"
Rat Tribe?
An image of a rat popped up in my head, but I was very confused.
Along the way, we hadn't interacted with anyone from the Rat Tribe. We hadn't even seen them before. Could it be that Tana's enemy had come to pick a fight?
I didn't have time to think clearly. Nam was very anxious and urged me to quickly enter the cave to chase after Tana.
I nodded. No matter what, we were travelling together. Even if I didn't consider Nam's thoughts, we couldn't just watch a weak girl get into trouble in front of us.
I jumped out of the cave first and packed my belongings. Then, I called Nam and we entered the cave one after the other.
The cave was very low, so I had to lower my head and crouch to walk. As for Nam behind me, his body was thicker than mine. The moment he entered, he couldn't help but pant.
After we hurriedly walked for about half an hour, the monster energy in the cave became thicker. I became vigilant. The exit was most likely in front of us.
I turned around and told Nam what to do. He quickly took a few deep breaths to adjust his condition. He took out Primer's long bone from the cloth bag on his back, ready to use it at any time.
Soon, there was a faint light in front of us. Nam and I couldn't help but increase our speed. We quickly arrived at the light. It really was the exit.
After I spread out my spiritual sense to make sure there was no one around, I leaped out of the cave. Nam followed closely behind me.
Because the air in the cave was thin, Nam and I had been holding our breaths. After we exited the cave, we subconsciously opened our mouths to pant. However, we didn't expect the smell outside the cave to be even more disgusting.
A damp stench entered our nostrils and mouths. Nam and I retched at the same time.
I was slightly better as I immediately closed my mouth and nose after smelling the stench. However, Nam took in a huge breath. After retching, he coughed for half a day before he finally came back to life.
As we were in a dangerous place, I didn't have the time to turn around to look at Nam. After I calmed down, I looked around. I quickly realized that we were still in a cave. However, this cave was extremely wide. It was several times bigger than the tree hole in the forest.
At the top of the cave, there was an ancient tree that reached the sky. This place seemed to be hidden. Even though it was daytime, there was only a weak ray of light.
The ancient tree that reached the sky was covered with dark green vines. These vines extended all the way to the bottom of the cave.
The surface of the vines was smooth and almost all of the skin had fallen off. It was obvious that there were signs of activity from a certain race.
After Nam observed the surroundings, he was certain that this was the nest of the rat tribe.
However, the strange thing was that the cave was strangely quiet. There wasn't a single rat tribe member in the surroundings.
After asking Nam, he told me that the rat tribe members were naturally cowardly and cunning. They were experts in burrowing and stealing. They wouldn't show themselves during the day. They would only come out at night.
Since it was daybreak, it was possible that the rat tribe members were hiding.
However, since we followed them into the cave, it wasn't too long before we were discovered. Moreover, if we wanted to find Tana, we would have to clash with the rat tribe.
Thus, I didn't hurry to search for her. Instead, I asked Nam about the cultivation of the rat tribe members.
After asking, Nam shook his head. "The rat tribe members rarely interact with the outside world. He's the same as me. We don't know anything about the rat tribe."
I couldn't figure out their cultivation, but I couldn't leave Tana to save her. Feeling helpless, I could only bring Nam to continue exploring. I tried to be as careful as possible to avoid alerting the enemy.
However, after walking for a while, I discovered that there were hundreds of large and small caves in front of me. Each cave was extremely deep and dark. There wasn't a single ray of light that seeped through. I didn't know which path to take.
I tried to find Tana's aura, but the ancient aura in this place was very dense. In addition to the stench in the surroundings, it was hard to distinguish her aura.
Feeling helpless, I could only tell Nam to be careful while I released my spiritual sense to search through the countless caves in front of me.
In this kind of environment, spiritual sense was surprisingly useful. After exploring a few caves, I quickly felt a weak aura of Tana in the depths of a relatively large cave.
After making this discovery, I hastily called Nam and carefully walked along the cave.
Not long after entering, Tana's aura became denser. At the same time, there were a dozen other auras. These auras were very chaotic. Some of them had low cultivation, while others didn't have any cultivation at all.
Apart from these people, there were two other auras that were slightly denser. They should be at the early stage of Monster.
One of them was naturally Tana, while the other one should be from the Rat race. However, even though the Rat race's aura wasn't strong, they were able to secretly kidnap Tana, who was also at the early stage of Monster, under the cover of my spiritual sense. I didn't dare to be careless.
After walking for a quarter of an hour, Tana's aura became denser. I could faintly hear a sharp voice. "Even though you're all lower class commoners, you're still pretty. When the time comes, I'll gift you to Lord Kratos and I'll definitely get a lot of gold coins.
When I get the gold coins, I'll leave this broken place and buy a few houses in Rock City. I'll marry three to five beautiful wives. "
After saying that, the person let out a 'jiji jiji' laughter.
Nam, who was following behind me, muttered, "Lord Kratos?
I think I've heard of this person before … "
After thinking for a few seconds, he suddenly remembered. He immediately lowered his voice and said to me, "Duo Ji, I remember now.
Uncle Qu Wang once told me that this Lord Kratos opened the biggest brothel in Rock City. It was said that many nobles would go there to play! "
Brothel … If that was the case, then the Rat race wanted to sell Tana and the others to Rock City as prostitutes.
After realizing this, Nam was enraged. He squeezed past me and hurried to rescue them.
I thought for a moment and didn't extend my hand to stop him. There weren't any other movements in the surroundings. With my cultivation, even if this Rat race person wasn't ordinary, I should be able to deal with him easily.
Nam quickly disappeared in front of me. I also quickly chased after him.
Before I could catch up to Nam, I heard an exclamation in front of me, followed by a scolding, "Why did a dog-headed person like you come here?"
Hearing that Nam had been discovered, I quickened my pace and ran towards the source of the voice.
Before I arrived, another stench assailed my nose. This stench was even more disgusting than the one outside the cave.
I closed my mouth and nose. After turning a corner, the area in front of me suddenly opened up. In a cave that wasn't too big, there were a dozen women of different races tied up on the ground. They were all unconscious, including Tana.
In front of everyone stood a rat race member. He wasn't more than half a meter tall and his tattered clothes gave off a stench. At this moment, he had a relaxed expression and was constantly wagging his slender tail as he looked at us.
As for Nam, he was clutching his chest. His eyes were filled with anger. It was obvious that the two of them had exchanged blows and Nam was at a disadvantage.
Seeing me enter, the rat race member's expression changed. The relaxed expression on his face disappeared and he screamed, "What are you dog-headed people doing here?
Don't you know that this is our Rat race's Black Mud Cave? "