"I originally wanted to fish for some information, but now it seems unnecessary." Asta rushed out like a ghost. There were a total of eight Mages before him.
"One!" Asta's sword swept across the first person's head, then the second, then the third!
"Don't kill us, we have important information!" The remaining bandits panicked. What kind of humanoid monster was this? They had barely escaped the black maggots, and before their hearts could settle, they encountered the magic-forbidden zone and the poison bees, losing another hundred men. They finally reached a place without magic isolation, but they were now deep within the battlefield, and an even more terrifying creature had appeared: the Headless Soldiers left behind from the ancient battlefield!
"You will encounter tens of thousands—no, millions of Headless Soldiers ahead. They are everywhere, and they will ruthlessly kill any living thing that appears before them. I know the way to escape, spare my life!" one bandit knelt and pleaded.
"Pity. I heard your conversation just now. Now, atone for the sins you've committed!" Asta delivered a swift and decisive killing blow, and the system prompt immediately rang out.
Ding-dong! You have killed 8 first-class low-level Mages. Reward: 2,400 points!
"Not bad!" Asta looked at the meager points, though it was better than nothing!
"Nero, they said your brother is in this cave. Can you feel him?" Vanessa asked with concern.
"Sister Vanessa, I can feel that my brother is inside, but what about these cockroaches?" Nero asked urgently.
"Cockroaches are afraid of fire, leave it to me!" As Asta spoke, he unleashed a Great Fireball Technique, instantly scaring off many cockroaches, while some were burned to death in the flames.
Ding-dong! You have killed 59 Ruins Cockroaches. Reward: 5,900 points!
"As expected, every creature here is worth a fortune!" Asta began to ramp up his efforts to clear the cockroaches on the perimeter. After their initial panic, the cockroaches began to use their superior numbers to launch an attack.
"Water Bullet!" Noelle immediately joined the battle, while Vanessa protected Nero, easily killing any cockroaches that slipped through.
Ding-dong! You have killed 680 Ruins Cockroaches. Reward: 68,000 points!
"Finally driven them back!" Asta looked at the floor covered in cockroach corpses. He used his demon-slayer sword to whip up a powerful whirlwind to clear them away before stepping into the cave.
"It's so dark!" Noelle couldn't help but think of that dark, narrow corridor in the Magic Palace. Her body subconsciously moved closer to Asta. "Sister Vanessa, is there a lighting device here?"
"There probably aren't any, Little Noelle. Magic Palaces are man-made structures, but most Ancient Battlefield Ruins are located in the wilderness. Moreover, under the terrifying magic unleashed by both sides when they were fighting for their lives, even man-made structures were rarely preserved. Therefore, Ancient Battlefield Ruins, aside from the occasional chance to scavenge some terrifying ancient Slaughter Magic, have a hundred harms and not a single benefit!" Vanessa explained.
"I see." Noelle felt a bit regretful. Pitch-black caves were indeed a nightmare for clean little fairies like them, as they never knew if their next step would land on some hideous and terrifying creature, or if some disgusting sticky worm would drop from the cave ceiling.
"Someone is ahead." Asta's vision was not obstructed at all through his Sharingan; he could see very far with the help of the faint fluorescence in the cave.
"Is it my brother?" Nero asked excitedly.
"And the Bandit Group Leader; he has also discovered us," Asta said in a calm voice.
"I didn't expect someone would actually come to save this trash. Let me see which Magic Knight Squad has arrived. Is it the Golden Dawn? No, no, how could those arrogant nobles take on such a mission? So..." The Bandit Group Leader's finger sparked with fire, and under this light, he clearly saw the Black Bulls' capes.
"So it's the bottom-ranked Black Bulls. How about we make a deal?" The Bandit Group Leader lifted the limp Kryss with one hand from the ground. "I'll release this trash, and you release me, how about it?"
"Brother!" Nero covered her mouth. She knew her brother would be in a bad state, but she didn't expect it to be this terrible. His whole body looked as if it had been soaked in blood and sludge, and his fiery red hair had become dull and gray.
"Ne... Nero? Why are you here? How could you come here!" Kryss struggled to lift his head. Originally, his gaze was very calm, but now panic appeared. This was his most precious sister, his only relative left in this world.
"It seems this girl is very important to you. So, if you don't want her to be buried with you, you'd better tell me how to leave this place." The Bandit Group Leader curled his lips as he spoke, then dragged Kryss toward the group. In his eyes, a bottom-ranked Magic Knight Squad, a team mainly composed of girls, didn't require him to be so cautious!
Besides, maybe he could even relax a bit in this ghostly place!
The Bandit Group Leader looked at the sexy Vanessa, the graceful Noelle, and the cute Nero, and couldn't help but have wicked thoughts.
"If you dare to hurt her, you can wait to be buried with us!" Kryss said this and gave Nero a difficult smile.
Because his life force was rapidly draining, memories from before his death even began to appear in his mind...
"Brother, brother, why do the children in the Village throw stones at me?"
"Do they not like seeing me?"
"Brother, I'm so sad. Why does everyone in the Village have relatives and friends, but we don't? Especially Nana's family; the villagers say they are heroes and respect them very much!" the young Nero said sorrowfully.
"Heroes? Then okay, Brother will become a hero too!" Kryss, still a teenager, pulled himself together. He once had the same troubles as his sister. Facing everyone's ridicule and sneers, he would hide like a stray dog, but he didn't want Nero to be like that, so he wanted to be a hero!
From then on, when there were mudslides outside the mountains, Kryss would risk his life to clear them. If a house in the Village was broken, he would move wooden blocks for free. But clearing the mud was called atoning for his parents' sins, and moving wooden blocks was called him intentionally damaging the family's house and then hypocritically bringing wood.
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