My Mercenary Guild is Full of Beauties

Chapter 10: Illusion

"Lady Aurora... I'm done..."

Claudia shook her sour hands and let out a deep breath. After nearly a morning of grinding, there were nearly ten glass vials full of flower juice beside the two of them, while not far away from them someone stared at those bottles with a resentful look. It was Rodrigo, the businessman.

Prior to the arrival of Claudia, who brought a mount of little flowers, Aurora was searching for a suitable carrier for the liquid amid the wreckage of the carriage. In the middle, she happened to find that the merchant had sneaked off with a box and put it in his arms.

Aurora was overjoyed when she opened the box and found more than a dozen bottles of high-end perfume inside. The businessman was simply a model person who gave charcoal in the middle of winter; the contents of the box were exactly what she needed at the moment. The glass bottle could hold a lot of flower juice after pouring out these perfumes!

Later, after a period of "friendly" communication with the businessman, under the dilemma of life and money, he finally chose the former, full of joy. Aurora could feel how happy he was by looking at the tears in his eyes!

The businessman stared at Aurora begrudgingly as she poured out all his expensive perfumes, which made himself, who was on the verge of bankruptcy, even worse, but... he couldn't refuse!

"Miss Claudia please help distribute these flower juices among the mercenaries, two bottles per person. After that, we can prepare to enter the forest after distribution."

Aurora picked up four bottles of flower juice herself, put one bottle in her backpack, and threw the other three bottles into the hands of the merchant.

"Try to get as close to us as possible after you go in, don't be careless, or even a thousand bottles couldn't protect you." Aurora stretched out her hand and patted the merchant's shoulder.

Although she didn't like the selfish merchant, Aurora still felt grateful for him in her heart. Gard's mercenary would not have rescued her if it hadn't been for his order, and she might have died on the grassland.

So, after entering the forest, she would do her best to protect him.

In the game, Twilight Forest was a class E dungeon, where the players were advised to form a party with at least five people who had reached at least level 5 before entering.

The newbies who didn't understand the dungeon mechanism in the early stages were wiped out several times. Later, as long as you prepared the antidote potion in advance or used the crushed flower juice from the small flowers outside the forest, you could increase the rate of passing safely through by nearly 50%.

The poisonous fog that covered the entire area and was emitted by the monsters all year round was the scariest part of this forest, aside from the monsters who were a little more aggressive than outside.

Once entering the forest range, a poisoned yellow icon would appear uniformly on the player status bar, which would not have any effect for a short time, but once the poison icon changes from yellow to red, you must escape quickly.

After all, in the state of red poisoning, 100 HP will be deducted every second. Which cute newbie could resist such a terrifying DPS?

Aurora was now at level 5 while Gard was at level 7, and his members were also between level 4 and 5 on average. With a trainee priest, it barely met the standard number of people in her targeted strategy.

Soon everyone was ready to enter the forest, and Claudia carefully handed out the flower juices to them one by one according to Aurora's request.

"Okay, let me explain to you guys here."

Aurora walked in front of them and was about to explain the precautions to them. Several mercenaries hesitated and took a glance at Gard, who was standing beside them and prepared to listen carefully.

"What are you looking at me for?! Listen carefully! If anyone doesn't remember what happened, don't blame Lady Aurora for not explaining clearly!"

Gard scolded immediately; he couldn't admit that he, too, was humbly seeking advice; the mighty and omnipotent character of the group's leader couldn't crumble here!

The mercenaries immediately stood upright when they heard this, and Aurora, who was standing in front of him, couldn't help but twitch her mouth slightly.

"Ahem... now everyone has this flower juice in their hands, right?"

Aurora took out the glass bottle and shook it in front of their eyes. "If you see strange things inside later or feel dizzy, drink it right away." Then, her gaze shifted to the apprentice priest. "And Miss Claudia, after entering the forest, you and Lord Rodrigo will be placed in the center of the formation, you must hold him firmly! Even if we suddenly disappear on the road, don't panic, just release the purification directly."

"For the others, if you find something strange on the road or a large monster rushing to attack us, no matter how tall it is, just cut it directly at its feet... Another point, if you don't want to cause a big explosion, you must not use naked flames in the forest, do you understand?"

A group of people nodded one after another. Aurora looked up at the sky. Now that the sun had reached its peak, the best time to enter the forest had come.

"Elemental Transformation"

A light blue light flashed in Aurora's eyes, and then the fire attribute in her body was being transformed rapidly.

[Elemental transformation has been completedtransformed into water element]

"Set off!"

Aurora took the lead into the forest, while several others followed immediately.

As soon as she stepped into the forest, the surrounding scenery suddenly dimmed. Even though the entrance to the forest two steps away was still shining brightly, the inside of the forest was as dim and gray as at dusk.

"Follow me and try to keep an eye on the bushes and treetops."

Aurora summoned the Flamberge Waltz. The sword's body was now dimmed, and the flames around her had disappeared, but Aurora was relieved to see it like this at this time.

If the Flamberge Waltz was the same as before, then she could only choose to use magic attacks all the time.

However, just to be on the safe side, Aurora still used magic to enchant the crimson sword with water elements, so as to avoid accidentally igniting the flames during the battle and causing violent explosions.

A group of people slowly advanced toward the forest in the formation, and while they advanced, their eyes kept focusing on the shadows in the bushes and treetops. In the hearts of these mercenaries, the Twilight Forest had always had a fierce reputation and was synonymous with the god of death. Anyone who strayed into it, wouldn't leave with their life intact.

Rodrigo was walking in the center of the team, supported by Claudia. He was holding the badge with the goddess pattern in his hand and praying all the time, hoping to get the blessing of the goddess so that he could leave this damn forest smoothly.

Aurora secretly sighed in her heart about this situation. She could tell at a glance that these mercenaries were too nervous, but she didn't say anything to comfort them. High vigilance was not necessarily a bad thing.

Snap!

Just after advancing for another ten minutes, Aurora suddenly heard the sound of strings snapping in her ears. She looked back in the direction of the sound, and a mercenary on his right looked at the sword in his hand in bewilderment.

Damn it! Something bad was going to happen!

Aurora's heart tightened. The mercenary accidentally triggered the warning lines of those creatures.

After the mercenary broke the cordon they set up, within a few seconds, they found that the fog that originally lingered in the forest became much thicker, and their visual range was rapidly reduced from the original ten meters to four meters or so.

"Everyone pay attention! Be careful of the surrounding!" Gard's pupils shrank as a chill crawled up his spine.

Suddenly, a huge black shadow roared and rushed towards them on their left side. It looked like a black bear whose fur had been stripped from its body. It roared and raised its thick, giant palm and slapped them hard.

The mercenary had never seen this scene before, so he raised his weapon and slashed at the monster in panic.

"Damn it!" Aurora's face sank, and she quickly threw the Flamberge Waltz in her hand at the monster's feet.

The moment the mercenary's blade slashed the monster, it seemed to be slashing through the air, passing directly through the monster's body.  Just when the monster's claws were about to tear the mercenary apart, Aurora's attack happened to pierce through its feet.

A sharp shrill sounded from its mouth, and then everyone was shocked to find that the huge figure of this monster melted like ice and snow.

In front of their eyes, a ferocious black and yellow-striped spider the size of a calf struggled powerlessly before dying on the ground. Its sharp forelimbs were less than a slap away from the mercenary, and the crimson sword pierced it through, nailing it to the ground.

"Oh! Goddess! What the hell is this!" The businessman sat down on the ground in fright.

Watching the dead spider, bean-sized cold sweat involuntarily burst out of his forehead. Trembling, he wiped away the sweat with a handkerchief, but the fear in his eyes did not subside in the slightest.

"This is the Twilight Poisonous Spider, a monster that inhabits the Twilight Forest..." Aurora approached the poisonous spider and reached out her hand to retrieve Flamberge Waltz.

"But Milady... Didn't we see a monster just now? Why did it suddenly turn into a spider?"

Claudia, who came back to her senses, couldn't understand the situation at the moment. She was 100% certain that the monster just now looked so real. You can even smell the disgusting smell of blood coming from the monster.

But now she could only smell a fishy and sweet smell; the strong bloody smell didn't seem to exist at all.

"As you have seen, Miss Claudia, in this forest, don't easily believe what you see and hear, because the senses can sometimes be deceiving." Aurora flicked the blood from the sword. " There is no time to worry about this matter, now that the cordon of these guys has been triggered, we have to speed up!"

After Aurora instructed everyone to move forward immediately, Claudia hurriedly pulled the businessman and ran forward with them.

As the poisonous fog thickened across the forest, a giant monster broke through it and charged toward them as they passed through a sharp turn. It swung a heavy sledgehammer and smashed toward Claudia like a falling star.

At this critical moment, Gard hurriedly pushed the two away and, at the same time, swung the long sword in his hand to chop at the giant monster's feet.

"Puff!"

A stream of warm and foul-smelling blood splashed on Gard's face, and the figure of the giant monster suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a figure of a twilight poisonous spider with its front leg cut off.

"You guys go!"

Gard stared vigilantly at the monster in front of him and waved his left hand back to signal the two to leave quickly.

"Captain, you have to be careful! We will wait for you in front." Claudia hurriedly helped the businessman to leave, she knew that she must not drag him down at this time.

Hearing the footsteps behind him gradually fade, Gard breathed a sigh of relief. At this moment, the twilight poisonous spider in front of him shrank its whole body, bounced up its hind legs, and rushed towards him.

Gard's pupils froze, and his fighting instinct prompted him to bend down. The long sword in his hand circled, cutting through the soft abdomen of the poisonous spider the moment it flew into the air.

A large amount of blood spattered from the twilight poisonous spider's abdomen. It fell to the ground and struggled for a while, then died as soon as its body went limp.

Gard thrust the sword and tried to stab the poisonous spider's body several times. After confirming that it was really dead, he relaxed his body. He reached out to wipe off the blood on his face and chased after Claudia and Rodrigo in the direction they had left.

"It's strange... Claudia obviously went in this direction?"

After walking forward for a long time, Gard still failed to find Claudia, and there were no traces of other mercenary members or Aurora around him. After walking forward for more than ten meters, he found Claudia standing below the tree in front, waving at him.

Gard quickly stepped forward, and just as he was about to come to Claudia, he noticed a figure slowly appearing behind her. As the figure gradually became clear, he found that Aurora was covered in blood and gradually approached from behind Claudia with a crazy look on her face.

"Claudia, watch out!"

Gard roared furiously in shock.

"Eh?"

Claudia looked puzzled and suddenly felt a sharp pain in her chest. She lowered her head and found the sharp crimson sword piercing her body.

"AURORA! HOW DARE YOU!!!"