"What's strange about it?", Hunter Five frowned, thinking that Ivankov was trying to steal credit.
"Yiya~ I just feel it's strange, how would I know what exactly is strange!"
"Aren't you just talking nonsense!", Hunter Five slapped Ivankov's hand away unhappily and said, "And stay farther away from me! Don't touch me!"
"If you're not scared then you're not scared, why are you being so fierce?", Ivankov pouted. A muscular guy acting all coy like that made people get goosebumps.
Hunter Five looked at Ivankov with even more disgust, then waved his hand and said, "Cowards stay here, everyone else follow me into the grass and carry the treasure chest for the lord!"
"Yes, Captain!"
The subjects responded in unison.
But this time, it was Ethan who raised his hand and stopped Hunter Five and the others, saying, "Hunter Five, don't be impulsive yet
I also think Ivankov makes a lot of sense. This oasis really does look very strange."
Ethan naturally knew the problem lay with those few trees, since he had the hints.
But what surprised him was Ivankov's intuition.
So Ethan really wanted to know, whether Ivankov could see something more from this. If Ivankov really could foresee danger and find the cause of the crisis, then with him scouting ahead, Hunter Five's team's exploration work would definitely be much safer.
"Lord, you actually believe his nonsense?", Hunter Five said unhappily, "Look at this oasis. Other than a few trees, it's all peaceful and quiet. There isn't even the slightest movement. What danger could there be?"
"No movement at all… no movement at all!"
After repeating Hunter Five's words, Ivankov's eyes immediately lit up, "That's it, it's too quiet. Yiya~ this place is just way too quiet."
"What does too quiet mean? Isn't quiet a good thing?", Hunter Five asked in confusion. But soon, this subject with a hunter's background finally reacted, "That's right. How could a forest be this quiet. Normally, there should be bird calls or the sounds of animals moving around."
"Yiya! My little friend, you finally understand?"
Ivankov tried to move closer to Hunter Five again.
But Hunter Five dodged aside, avoiding him, then directly drew an arrow and shouted angrily, "If you come any closer, believe it or not, I'll stab you to death with an arrow."
"I don't believe it. If you really want to stab me," Ivankov turned around and stuck out his butt, "Right here for you!"
"Get lost!"
And just at this moment, a small sparrow flew toward the oasis.
The little sparrow seemed not to realize the danger. After hopping a few times on the grass, it flapped its wings and flew toward the few large trees.
But right after that—
A bizarre scene appeared.
The large tree closest to the sparrow actually extended a vine, quickly wrapped up the sparrow, and then retracted it toward the trunk.
Only at this moment did everyone finally see clearly that this bizarre tree actually moved aside a branch, revealing a large dark hole in the trunk.
And the sparrow was directly wrapped by the vine and thrown into the tree hollow.
Immediately after, everyone heard strange "crack crack" sounds coming from within the oasis.
"Gulp!"
Only then did Hunter Five truly feel afraid.
He immediately knelt on one knee and said, "Lord, I was blind to danger. I'm not worthy to lead the hunting team. Please, Lord, give my position to Ivankov. He's the one with real skill!"
"You are an old hunter. You know what should be tracked and what shouldn't, while Ivankov is good at detecting danger," Ethan said, "So I think the two of you should work together. From now on, Ivankov will be responsible for scouting ahead, and you will be responsible for commanding everyone. Understand?"
"Understood, Lord!", Hunter Five nodded repeatedly.
Seeing the timing was about right, Ethan then raised his bow and set a fire arrow, saying, "Alright, next, I'll take care of these tree spirits."
However, just as Ethan raised his bow and was about to shoot.
Those large trees seemed to sense the danger. They hurriedly shook their huge bodies, making the leaves rustle loudly, and even a lot of dead leaves fell.
The next moment, Ethan's mind received a strange voice.
["Human! We have no grudges with you. Why do you want to deal with us?"]
"Because you have something I want here," Ethan said with a smile, "But I think if I don't show a bit of strength, you probably won't hand it over so easily."
["What do you want?"]
"I want the golden treasure chest beside you. Will you give it to me?"
["Golden treasure chest?"], The tree spirit said in confusion, ["What is that?"]
Ethan: "It's at the lower left of the third tree."
["There's nothing there except a cluster of energy."]
"You can't see it?"
At this moment, Ethan could finally be sure, these treasure chests seemed to be visible only to players like them. Other monsters could not see them at all.
["See what?"], The tree spirit tilted its crown, somewhat puzzled, ["Although I don't know what you want, as long as it's something you want, just take it. But don't disturb our peace."]
"That… works too, I guess."
Ethan thought about it. If he could win without fighting, it wasn't a bad thing.
After all, once tree spirits were burned, they would all turn into charcoal.
It didn't seem very useful.
Rather than that, he might as well save an enchanted arrow.
"Hunter Five, take two people and carry the golden treasure chest out," Ethan gave the order.
"Yes, Lord."
Hunter Five seemed a bit scared, but he also knew the lord would never harm him, so he immediately picked two people and stepped into the oasis with them.
And at this moment, Ethan suddenly shouted at Hunter Five and the others, "RETREAT QUICKLY, these tree spirits are playing tricks!"
Because at the very instant Hunter Five stepped onto the grass.
Ethan saw several red exclamation marks appear on the grass.
[Tree Spirit Vines: These vines are just like the tree spirits' hands and feet. They can easily travel underground and hunt the prey they have their eyes on. Once entangled by their vines, the outcome is more painful than death itself.]
"Damn you, Old Demon!"
Ethan was almost tricked by the tree spirits and immediately roared in anger, "You dare play tricks on me! Watch me shoot you to death with one arrow!"
Whoosh!
A fire arrow shot out at high speed.
And the tree spirits also seemed to sense the threat of the fire arrow. The vines that were originally traveling underground all burst out of the ground at once, directly toward the fire arrow in midair.
But the fire arrow was originally formed from a large amount of fire elements. How could these rotten vines possibly wrap it up?
BOOM!
The moment the first vine wrapped around the fire arrow,
the vine instantly caught fire, trembling in pain and quickly letting go of the fire arrow.
The fire arrow continued to shoot toward the tree trunk.
And those tree spirits actually, at this instant, all did something bizarre at the same time.
That was, they all revealed the hollows in the middle of their trunks, and sprayed a huge amount of clear water toward the fire arrow.
[Spring of Life: Contains a massive amount of spirit energy. It can not only increase a person's lifespan, but also enhance elemental affinity. It is a treasure that allows an ordinary person to quickly advance into a mage.]
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