Chapter 163 : We’re in a Hurry, Stop Dilly-Dallying
Chapter 163: We’re in a Hurry, Stop Dilly-Dallying
Lilia felt like her entire being had shattered.
One second she was the precious darling being protected behind her boss, and the next she was packaged up and sent off to pioneer a high-risk dungeon called “Despair Swamp.” This kind of rollercoaster life experience—aside from working in the Palace of Eternal Night—couldn’t be found anywhere else.
She even suspected that Hera disliked how expensive it was for her to cast a Forbidden Spell last time and was now planning to switch to a more economical way for her to die.
Just as Lilia’s brain spun rapidly, debating whether to immediately hug Hera’s thigh and cry bitterly or simply lie down and play dead with dignity, that system that usually pretended to be dead suddenly went “ding” in her mind.
But this sound was different.
【Don’t put on an expression like you’re being sent off for breeding. It’s ugly.】
Lilia jolted, her eyes widening like copper bells as she suddenly looked at Hera, who stood a few steps away.
That cold and elegant woman didn’t even lift her eyelids, still maintaining that distant, icy expression, as if the one who had just spoken in Lilia’s mind wasn’t her at all.
Hera’s voice echoed in her mind, carrying a hint of casual disdain.
【I’ve looked at what’s inside Despair Swamp. You can handle it.】
Lilia’s lips trembled.
So I’m a lab rat for data testing?
【Don’t curse me in your head.】
Lilia immediately began singing praises in her mind: wise and mighty boss, eternal and invincible ruler of the world!
【…Shut up.】
The voice in her mind paused briefly, then a faint chuckle followed.
She sniffed, putting on a tragic expression as if she were about to sell herself for a good price, and looked pitifully at Hera.
“Um… Master…” Lilia blinked, trying to squeeze out two crocodile tears. “If I go like this… what if—I mean what if—the monsters in the swamp don’t play fair?”
Hera didn’t even spare her a glance, simply replying with three concise words:
“Just go.”
She couldn’t even be bothered to add extra punctuation.
Vivian, who had been watching the show from the side the whole time, couldn’t help but let out a “pfft” of laughter.
“Oh my, what a pitiful little thing.”
Swaying her waist, Vivian walked over, the green leaf dress on her body rustling softly with her movements. She extended her well-maintained hand, her fingertips lightly brushing across Lilia’s pale cheek, carrying a chilling coolness that made one’s hair stand on end.
As she spoke, her other hand grasped at the air, and a parchment scroll glowing faintly green appeared out of nowhere.
“Take it, little cutie.”
Lilia slowly unfolded the parchment map in her hand.
As the scroll spread open, faint green luminescent lines rapidly appeared on the blank parchment, outlining the terrain of this vast forest.
And at the very western edge of the map, there was an area painted in a lifeless gray, marked with a bright red skull symbol—it should be the so-called “Despair Swamp.”
Lilia narrowed her eyes, carefully identifying her current position, then followed the “shortcut” marked by Vivian toward the west.
At this glance, she froze.
“This…”
Lilia pointed at the skull on the map, her finger somewhat stiff.
“What, too far?” Vivian looked at her with a half-smile.
“Uh…”
Lilia swallowed, rolled up the map, and stored it away, glancing toward the forest not far away.
Staring at the parchment, she measured the distance between the small green dot marking her current position and the red skull representing the destination several times.
Converting based on the scale, it was at most a marathon’s distance.
Even if this body was as weak as Lin Daiyu, with the various passive skills from Combat Maid boosting her, running at full speed would only take one or two hours.
Lilia rolled up the map, straightened her back, and prepared to demonstrate to this inexperienced forest lord what it meant to have a “maid’s iron legs.”
“This bit of distance won’t trouble you.”
She tucked the map into her chest. “I just ate a bit too much earlier anyway. Walking there will help digestion, and I can also enjoy the magnificent scenery of the Forest of Life.”
Taking advantage of this green-haired woman clearly wasn’t so easy.
That map just now was probably already given out of respect for Hera. If she even took a ride, who knew if the price of that “Seed of Life” would go up again.
Her boss’s money didn’t grow on trees.
Although most of it was snatched from others.
“Walk there?”
Vivian’s eyes were full of amusement. “Little cutie, do you have some misunderstanding about the ‘Forest of Life’?”
She extended a finger and casually tapped a broad-leaf plant nearby that looked completely harmless.
“This is a Ghost-Face Fern. It looks pretty obedient normally.”
As soon as her words fell, the plant reacted like a shark smelling blood. Its previously spread leaves suddenly curled, revealing the backs covered densely with hook-like fine thorns, producing a teeth-grinding scraping sound.
“As long as it senses the body temperature of a living being, it can strip an adult wild boar down to bones within three seconds.”
Vivian withdrew her hand and looked at Lilia, whose face was gradually turning pale, with a smile.
“Along the way, there are probably a few thousand of these hospitable little fellows. Oh, and that’s not even counting the swamp trolls that like to drag you into the mud to use as fertilizer.”
Lilia felt her knees go weak.
“So…”
She swallowed again, her earlier heroic spirit instantly gone: “The shortcut you mentioned just now is…?”
“That’s more like it.”
Vivian nodded in satisfaction and casually pointed toward a pitch-black tree hollow beside the treehouse that had been concealed by vines.
The opening was about two meters tall, its edges covered in slippery moss. Inside was pitch-dark, and faintly, one could hear wind that sounded like the low growls of a beast.
No matter how you looked at it, this didn’t resemble any proper means of transportation.
It looked more like the esophagus of some giant monster.
“This… is a teleportation array?” Lilia’s lips twitched.
More like the dilapidated outhouse built from rotten wood at Old Wang’s village entrance.
“Why, disgusted?”
Vivian raised a brow. “This is directly connected to the ‘natural veins’ at the edge of the forest. The experience might be a bit… wild, but the speed is absolutely fast. Just ‘whoosh’—”
“You’ll be there.”
Lilia took half a step back, that familiar sense of being scammed rising again.
Anything related to “teleportation” had never given her a good experience.
The first time, Hera carried her while teleporting, and she nearly vomited out bile.
The second time, in Dark Moon Canyon, she was dropped straight into a pile of monsters.
This third time…
“Um, I think physical exercise is still very important…”
However—
Before she could even take a step, several thick vines, like ambushing venomous snakes, instantly wrapped around her waist and ankles.
“Since we’re in a hurry, stop dawdling.”