Soon, the river was blocked by a swamp shrouded in gray mist, with the dense forest faintly visible behind it.
In the gray haze, half-dead grass could be seen scattered about, seemingly guiding a narrow path through the swamp. The damp air carried a musty odor, making it feel as if a dirty, wet cloth were covering one's mouth and nose, making it hard to breathe.
Twilight in the swamp arrived particularly quickly. Half an hour ago, the setting sun could still be seen in the west, but by the time they reached this point, it was nearly dark. Fireflies floated through the mist, flickering in and out, adding a layer of mysterious romance to the gray atmosphere.
"It looks like we might be able to wade through. Let's give it a try, and if not, we may have to turn back," David, at the front of the group, voiced his thoughts and stepped forward.
At the back, Charlie suddenly accelerated, gripping David tightly before he could take a firm step forward. His violent action jolted the team, causing several women to gasp.
Caw! Caw!!
A crow screeched, breaking the swamp's silence, flapping its wings and disappearing into the depths of the mist.
A sinister and fearful atmosphere enveloped the group. Due to their trust in Charlie, they didn't immediately turn to flee, but the terror on their faces betrayed their inner thoughts.
Charlie made a gesture for silence.
David sensed his seriousness and focused his attention on the unstable mud beneath his feet. Ahead looked like a waterlogged patch of grass, with the water barely reaching their ankles.
David wore high-top combat boots, with alloy steel plates in the soles and thick leather made from highland rhinos for the uppers, making them very durable and resistant to venomous creatures. Thus, he took on the role of vanguard, trampling forward.
Charlie probed ahead with a wooden stick, and without applying any force, the stick sank into the mud just from its weight. When Charlie let go, the stick, over a meter long, silently disappeared into the mud.
What deceptive mud!
David's mouth fell open, cold sweat breaking out on his back; if Charlie hadn't grabbed him, he would have vanished without a trace!
Suddenly, bubbles began to rise from the swamp ahead, releasing a foul smell, as if someone had stirred the sediment beneath the water, bringing forth decades or even centuries of curses and decay. The smell was suffocating…
"Turn back! Run!" In an instant, Charlie entered combat mode, pushing his teammates backward one by one. He had to take responsibility for his decision and cover their retreat.
Gray-green bubbles kept surfacing, becoming more intense, like a boiling pot of mixed ingredients. Occasionally, indistinct solid objects surged up, only to sink back down. The air was filled with a pungent acidic odor, causing people to sneeze repeatedly, with a searing sensation in their nostrils.
"Watch out! The acid fog is toxic!" Charlie covered his mouth and nose, loudly warning.
As the teammates completely turned on the narrow path, Charlie turned back and sprinted for his life. Just as he looked back, he saw a soft-bodied creature made of swamp sludge slowly rising to the surface, emitting two faint green lights from its top. It was pursuing him, and the sludge wriggled, revealing various items buried within: shattered skulls, broken arrows, decayed boots, roots, fragments of armor, and other assorted debris.
Whether in this life or the past, Charlie had always been a staunch non-believer in ghosts and monsters. Yet today, its appearance triggered a brief malfunction in his chip, confronting him with a creature that defied the knowledge of Earth—an inexplicable existence.
Fortunately, it wasn't fast enough.
Just as Charlie felt a moment of relief, he sensed a powerful mental wave from behind, as if someone had struck the back of his head with a stick. His vision blurred, and he staggered, hot blood streaming from his nose. Wiping it away and looking at his palm, he saw it stained red.
In front of Charlie, the five teammates reacted even worse, collapsing like ripe wheat, with Qingyan still groaning after hitting the ground, while the others passed out immediately.
It seemed there was no way out?
Charlie's expression turned grave as he turned back, retrieving his gnarled wooden staff. He couldn't afford to hold back now; he had to get through this crisis. The more dire the situation, the less he could lose his composure. Charlie constantly reminded himself to test the creature's resilience first.
Enduring the splitting pain in his head, Charlie recited the incantation for Fireball. A bright red fireball shot from his hand.
Puff!
A thick, dark green fluid erupted from the creature's sludge, hitting the fireball with a foul stench and sizzling but failing to intercept the roaring flame.
Boom! The fireball successfully struck the swamp sludge, exploding outward in a circular spray, shattering it into pieces. The splattering sludge caused Charlie to duck for cover, but he couldn't escape unscathed, getting hit all over. Fortunately, the slime wasn't corrosive, only emitting a nauseating stench.
The chip captured an image of the moment the swamp sludge exploded, revealing a gray-white gas evaporating from the heat. Upon closer inspection, the gas contained distorted human faces, trapped and twisted together by some eerie force.
Had the seemingly bizarre creature been defeated just like that?! Charlie couldn't believe the situation; he felt danger was far from over.
Could it be some sort of vengeful spirit? Was it possible for the spirits in this world to have the power to control inanimate matter?
Charlie recalled the mental waves it emitted, likely a soul-level magical attack, leaning towards the dark arts. Charlie's own mental strength was greater than that of ordinary mages. After consuming a ghost mushroom, he had gained 3 points of shadow resistance and 2 points of shadow affinity, giving him a foundational resistance to dark magic, inadvertently defending against the swamp creature's strongest attack.
Otherwise, like the others who were knocked unconscious by a soul shock, he wouldn't have been able to resist at all. The outcome would have been grim; their bones or equipment fragments could have become part of the sludge creature, while their souls were trapped within, enduring endless torment.
After the swamp sludge creature was hit by the fireball, it left behind a puddle of unburned corrupted mud, carrying a pungent odor. This was likely the essence of the creature. Charlie couldn't help but think of his teacher, Anthony.
His teacher would surely be interested in this substance. Charlie took out a container and carefully collected the remaining sludge.
Then, he rushed to his teammates' side, waking them up one by one.
"Ugh! That hurts! It feels a hundred times worse than a hangover!" Colin groaned, pressing his forehead in pain.
"What was chasing us just now?" David asked, seemingly recovering quickly, whether from his resilience or curiosity dispelling the pain from the soul shock.
Charlie nodded towards the back. "Over there! I don't know what it was, just a strange swamp sludge."
"Acidic slime creature?" Colin suggested, offering a term.
"Right! That name fits perfectly. Its other attack method is acid spray," Charlie clapped, agreeing.
Colin exclaimed in surprise, "So it really exists! I've seen similar descriptions in some adventure logs. Only in extremely evil and dangerous putrid swamps do these spirit creatures emerge. They say it's formed from the souls of beings that died tragically in the swamp, not necessarily humans. Those creatures endure despair, fear, and pain at the moment of death, filled with resentment as they sink into the swamp, fermenting with the decaying matter, ultimately twisting together to form this kind of evil being. It's said that those devoured by it will have their souls captured, unable to ascend to heaven—a truly tragic fate, a vile entity listed in church records!"
This aligned closely with Charlie's assumptions, indicating that collecting its remnants was indeed the right choice. His teacher, Anthony, would likely be interested in it.
Qingyan, seeing the splotches on Charlie, made a disgusted face and pushed him away towards Qianxue. "Eww! You stink! Get away!!"
Charlie shrugged helplessly.
Qingyan then gestured for him to comfort the quiet Qianxue nearby, but Charlie shook his head firmly.
Qingyan glared at him.
Seeing the five people mostly recovered, Charlie said sternly, "We can't linger. This is no safe place; we must leave immediately."
Coincidentally, just as he finished speaking, a deep growl echoed from the nearby swamp, and a massive shadow crawled out from it. Its body was covered in dark green, decaying water plants, with pouches bulging beneath, revealing shadows of serpentine creatures wriggling within.
In the mist, its true appearance was obscured, yet the vague outline was shocking—an enormous beast over three meters tall.
Charlie felt a name surface in his mind, amplified by the chip, and he was struck with a realization like a thunderbolt. In that instant, every hair on his body stood on end, his eyes widening to their limits. Could this be the "Swamp Crawler" that Teacher Anthony warned him about?! An entity to which one could only pray for mercy?
"Run! Quickly!!" Charlie shouted at the top of his lungs, summoning all his strength.
If fleeing from the acidic slime creature had only stirred a sense of fear of the unknown, now it was a tremor from the soul itself, as an irresistible force emanated from behind.
impossible to imagine such a heavy beast could thrive in the swamp.
Charlie gathered all his courage, desperately fighting the urge to flee, and began chanting a spell.
This wasn't a third-tier spell, "Frostbind," because freezing wouldn't help; even a fourth-tier spell, "Ice Nova," would be insufficient to stop this ferocious giant.
His chip's cold rationality guided Charlie's trembling body, telling him that even if they ran at full speed, they couldn't escape the pursuit of the swamp monster. The only option left was to try using magic to hinder it.
This spell was also an ice-based magic that would be more effective in an area rich in water elements.
A water dragon formed, skimming just above the ground, followed closely by an intense cold air that burst forth from Charlie's hands. His target wasn't the swamp beast itself, but rather the ground beneath it. In the blink of an eye, a thick layer of ice formed on the surface.
Having completed this, Charlie didn't stop to observe the results of his spell but chased after the silhouettes of his fleeing companions.