Chapter 560

Chapter 560: The Crazed Cavern

In the rumbling sound of the Tree Men’s thoughts, the stone walls, caves, and earthen cliffs became increasingly unstable. Then, a beam on a stone door in front suddenly collapsed, followed by a large amount of dust and rocks rolling down. Vereesa looked at the stone door and asked, "Is it going to collapse?"

In that moment, Jesse felt like his heart skipped a beat.

He remembered the terrain he saw when entering the demon hideout cave, with protruding fractured floorboards on the cliffs, untimely appearing stone pillars, stone doors on the walls without entrances, abrupt stone walls blocking the path, and the murals above them…

The elven ruins here might have been on the ground many years ago, and the terrain inside Maraudon must have changed countless times to ravage the interior into this state.

At that moment, the nearby Tree Man roared incomprehensible words again towards the depths of the cave, the same words he had been repeating since entering the Satyr palace where they were hiding.

This time, Jesse listened intently and understood clearly.

Theradras!

Everyone immediately ran outside, leaped off the cliff, and rushed towards the original fork in the road, but it was completely blocked off by the collapsed rocks.

"This damn it!" Greed cursed, Mosa roared and beckoned, leading everyone to hide in another tunnel.

Loud roars kept coming from deep underground, Jesse felt like the whole world was boiling up. Greed ran ahead of Jesse, and suddenly a mud wall collapsed nearby.

The rubble and dirt that collapsed on the ground suddenly surged in a magical flow, sticking together to form a huge rock and mud elemental monster.

The monster swayed and knocked Jesse flying into a nearby mud wall. He coughed heavily, while Molofeel behind him stumbled and caught hold of some roots to avoid falling down completely.

Clearly, her Soul Link helped Jesse share a lot of the damage from the impact. Judging from Molofeel’s condition, if she had taken the hit herself, she might have passed out immediately.

The rock monster completely ignored the warlock and demon behind it, and instead lunged directly at Greed ahead. Dust filled the air, obstructing the view. Jesse, who had just gotten up, was unable to cast a spell in time to stop it, while the whole cave rumbled. Greed seemed unaware of the giant monster creeping up behind.

Jesse immediately shouted, "Greed, watch your back!"

Greed heard the sound, turned around, and struck the giant monster back a step with a hammer. Then, with a loud cry, summoned a lightning bolt that illuminated the whole cave and struck the monster’s chest hard, smashing its stone body into pieces.

The monster collapsed with a rumble after its chest was shattered, rocks and dust flying everywhere. However, after the rocks were shattered, they were influenced by the raging elemental power and turned into a pile of small Gnomish or imp-like rock creatures between Greed and Jesse.

Molofeel picked up one of the rock creatures charging at Jesse and threw it backwards, but another stone creature climbed onto her arm and hit her with a fist, making a muffled "crack" sound. This punch made the succubus stagger, almost falling, but she managed to grab it and throw it away.

Jesse waved his magic wand to make a small rock monster fly away when it tried to hit his leg. Another one rolled towards him, and he kicked it away without thinking, hurting his own foot in the process.

Despite the pain in his leg, Jesse took a few steps forward but was stopped by several rock monsters. Mosa came back and hit the monsters with a stick, pushing Jesse ahead.

After making sure everyone else was safe behind him, Jesse, the dwarf, the elf, and the demon smashed the rock monsters by their feet. Mosa stood at the back, reciting a spell as thorny vines emerged from the ground to trap the monsters.

Glancing at the vines, Jesse felt a bit relieved, but then he saw the vines entangling the Tauren who had summoned them. Mosa broke free from the vines, took out a dagger, and cut the vines. Then, he kicked away a broken rock monster and caught up with the others.

Mosa led everyone to escape from the rock monsters and crazed vines for a while, returning to a water cave they had passed before. However, they searched for a long time but couldn’t find the crack to go back to the Centaur Holy Sepulcher.

During this time, the water cave started collapsing, with stone pillars falling one after the other into the water. The group had to dodge them nervously as the underground river became intermittent.

Looking back upstream, Mosa felt the rumbling vibrations getting stronger. Soon, the river only had a small, turbulent flow remaining.

Everyone knew that the place they came from might have collapsed, possibly blocking their way back through the Satyr’s area.

Greed looked downstream at the dark abyss barely visible in the dim light from scattered purple crystals, swallowing nervously.

Jesse coughed, cleared his throat and mouth of dust, and said, "There must be another way out here. Those Satyrs clearly have communication with the outside. I don’t think they come and go from the Centaur cemetery at will. I can track demons, Vereesa, Mosa can help too. We can definitely check if there’s a passage used by Satyrs here."

"We’re counting on you, Jesse," Greed nodded. "I’m getting completely dizzy from being here."

Although Jesse said that, he was actually thinking of the cave with the orange crystal, which is another entrance to the Maraudon dungeon in the game. It’s a completely natural cave occupied by giant lizards and elemental monsters, a place where Centaurs haven’t ventured. However, if changes in the cave structure prevent them from reaching the orange crystal cave, what should they do?

Besides, where does this underground river flow to?

Jesse looked down into the dark depths, listened to the muffled low hum coming from inside, and had a not-so-good estimate in his mind. This river most likely leads to the deepest part of Maraudon, beneath the tomb of Zaetar guarded by the Earth Elemental Princess Theradras.

If they can’t find the orange crystal cave, the open deep pit of Zaetar’s tomb, or the underground pool that connects to an unknown location, might be their last resort.