"Damn it, Leon, didn't I tell you not to use my real name out in the open?"
The thief named Hawk retorted dissatisfiedly, his gaze still scanning the surroundings, clearly much more careful than his reckless companion.
Leon waved his hand irritably. "Alright, got it."
"Goddamn it, coming all this way and the employer ended up dead, what terrible luck. Should've squeezed more gold coins out of that old lizard."
"That corpse should be worth something..."
Before Hawk could finish speaking, he saw other thieves from outside the forest had already carried away the body.
Leon had nowhere to vent his anger, so he punched the slippery oak tree, only to end up shaking his fingers in pain from the impact.
"Thought the Swamp Master would have some good treasures, turns out it's just a brainless crocodile. All that work for nothing."
"'Miracle' Yano, hmph, I bet this guy is secretly a Druid."
"Alright, stop wandering around here. That damn undead is still chasing us from behind, followed us all the way from the outpost ruins to here. Can't believe its patience."
"If it weren't for him setting fires everywhere and messing up this Death Swamp, we would've completed the mission long ago."
"Undead?"
Chen Yu blinked underwater, hearing this fresh and interesting term.
And from what they said, it seemed the burnt traces Yano found while exploring south a few days ago were left by this undead.
In Chen Yu's imagination, undead were just moving skeletons. The more advanced ones would wear more clothes and equipment, or be hybrid undead composed of a pile of magical creature bones.
So if there really was an undead race, he was quite curious about how a pile of bones could move. The Xu Xuan Heaven didn't seem to have such magical demonic creatures.
Just as Chen Yu was curiously bubbling with curiosity, the thief named Hawk suddenly focused his gaze beneath the swamp.
"Leon, look, is there another crocodile here?"
Leon came closer, staring at Little Ka who was growing increasingly frightened underwater.
"There really is, probably the offspring of that big crocodile... Wait, you said you wouldn't use my real name, why are you calling me by name?"
"Slipped out... ahem, never mind that. Should we kill it to prevent it from holding a grudge?"
"Oh, there's a slime inside too. What, not going to deal with your 'Swamp Master'?"
"Shut up!"
Hawk flushed with anger and embarrassment, snorted coldly, drew the dagger from his waist, and was about to stab downward.
"BOOM!!!"
A violent explosion suddenly occurred in the dense forest. Several seconds later, only Leon came running out in terror.
"Help! Save me!"
"What happened?"
Other guild members gathered around, frowning as they asked.
"Inside... there's a slime that can explode! It blew Hawk to death!"
"It's the Swamp Master!"
The remaining four thieves found this utterly absurd upon hearing it.
A slime that explodes?
And the Swamp Master?
This guy must have gone crazy, or be hallucinating from poisoning.
They exchanged glances and, out of caution, decided to slowly feel their way toward the explosion site.
They tightened their grip on their weapons, stepping extremely lightly, their eyes vigilantly scanning the damp, dim forest, trying to find the strange "exploding slime" Leon mentioned.
However, before their feet truly stepped inside, a sudden sound pierced through the Death Swamp's oppressive air, coming from far to near, clearly audible.
"Clip-clop... clip-clop... clip-clop..."
The sound was crisp, rhythmic, carrying an inhuman emptiness, like hard bones knocking against soft, wet mud.
"What's that sound?" one thief abruptly stopped, tilting his ear to listen.
Another thief frowned tightly, his face full of confusion.
"Sounds like... hoofbeats?"
"Where would horses come from in a swamp? You're crazy!"
"Horses? Swamp... the undead's horse!"
The lead thief's face instantly turned as pale as paper, his pupils dilating with extreme fear.
"Idiots, it's that undead! It's coming, run!"
All the thieves' faces changed dramatically, as if they'd heard something terrifying. They didn't even bother with their loot anymore, fleeing for their lives.
"Split up! Split up and run!"
"Don't let it catch up!"
Inside the forest, Chen Yu also heard the hoofbeats.
Curiously, he quietly poked half of his round head out from the murky water surface, his gaze piercing through the layers of gray-green thick mist, looking toward the direction of the sound.
He saw the thick mist being torn open by an invisible force as a heart-palpitating figure slowly strode out.
It was an unusually tall horse, but its flesh had long since rotted away, leaving only stark white bones. Empty eye sockets burned with two clusters of eerie blue flames.
On the horse's back sat a knight.
He wore a set of heavy black armor covered with dents and rust from age, with an eerie blue flame-waving cloak on his back, holding a long-handled lance wrapped in blue flames.
Under the helmet's faceplate was an abyssal darkness, with only eerie blue flames burning quietly deep within, indifferently scanning this land of slaughter.
One word instantly popped into Chen Yu's "mind" - Death Knight.
Huh?
What day is it today? Why is the swamp spawning elite monsters again?
This Death Knight's appearance was worlds apart from the simple skeletons he had imagined - it was downright cool and stylish.
To describe how cool it was...
It would be like a rare character you'd only get after ninety pulls with guaranteed pity in a gacha game.
It just didn't look very friendly.
Anyway, it has nothing to do with me. Time to slip away.
"Little Ka, let's go back."
"Kaka!"
A slime riding a crocodile climbed out from the swamp, their figures disappearing into the dim swamp along with the returning Poison-stinger Wasps.
...
A moment later, several thief corpses were left at the swamp border. The Death Knight's lance pierced through Leon's shoulder, the eerie flames in its eye sockets flickering, yet emitting no warmth.
The thief Leon spat blood, shouting unwillingly.
"Fuck! Chasing us all the way from that damn outpost ruins... to here, what the hell do you want?!"
"That shitty place... we... we didn't even touch it! What... what are you after?!"
The knight's ghostly flames wavered, remaining silent for a long time, so long that Leon felt despair, before finally speaking.
"You, stepped on my flower."
His tone was very serious, as if that flower was some precious treasure to him.
"That's it?!"
Leon's questioning expression froze, then transformed into astonishment and frustration.
He had considered various possibilities - some misunderstanding, or an evil ritual, necromancer's orders, mad mage's experiment...
He had thought of everything except that this knight was after him for casually stepping on a white flower with his left foot when he first entered the ruins.
He made a strange 'heh heh' sound in his throat, finally bursting into hysterical, uglier-than-crying laughter:
"A flower? Hahahaha! For a fucking wild flower?! I'm done in by a flower?! Haha... ugh!"
The laughter abruptly stopped, cut off mercilessly by the cold spear tip.