209: Chapter 209 The Mysterious Tree

Tang Yao had visited quite a few tourist attractions and seen many historical sites in the past, but she had never seen a tree this large. Even the thousand-year-old trees that were protected by plaques weren't this big. Moreover, the tree before her was lush with branches and leaves, obviously full of vitality, which left her quite amazed.

Hu Gualing, on the other hand, had an intuition that this thing was definitely not simple. So many compartments were completely empty, yet this compartment deep in the Dungeon hid such an unusual tree. Even with his butt, he could think that it was a place worth exploring; it might even be where some rare treasure was located.

'It seems Xiao Niao's luck is quite good. He can even find hidden treasures just by changing his pants.' The look in Hu Gualing's eyes as he looked at Xiao Niao was indescribably satisfied. He chuckled at Xiao Niao's puzzled expression, then turned his gaze back to the lush tree in the distance, his eyes gleaming with excitement as he said, "Let's go, let's go! Let's go over and take a look!"

Tang Yao quickly agreed, "Let's go, let's go!"

Xiao Niao was rendered speechless. Was it possible that these two hadn't listened at all when he was telling them about his narrow escape just now?

Looking at the excited expressions on Hu Gualing and Tang Yao's faces, Xiao Niao felt a sense of being ignored, excluded, and isolated well up in his heart...

"Right, you said earlier that something took away seventy points of your health in one hit?" Hu Gualing asked Xiao Niao as if he had suddenly remembered something.

Hearing his question, Xiao Niao finally felt a little better. At least it showed that Hu Gualing hadn't completely ignored him, and that the story of his narrow escape had been heard a little bit. "Yeah, it was right in front of that big tree just now..." Xiao Niao patiently recounted the terrifying scene from earlier once again.

To his surprise, after he finished speaking, Hu Gualing and Tang Yao didn't quite believe him.

"Taking away seventy health points in one hit? That's too exaggerated, right?" Hu Gualing said, shaking his head, his expression full of disbelief. The damage from a single attack by the previous Mutated White Wild Boar BOSS only reached thirty or forty points, and even that was already very high—three or five attacks could take out any one of them. But now Xiao Niao was saying that some unknown thing had taken away seventy points of his health in one hit. How could that be possible?

Seeing that Hu Gualing still didn't believe him after he had said it again, Xiao Niao couldn't help but get a bit anxious. "Didn't I say it? It seemed like a critical hit!"

"A critical hit?" Hu Gualing calculated in his mind. If it was a critical hit, it seemed barely plausible. "But how could you, all by yourself, encounter such a strong monster and still escape without losing any health?" Hu Gualing looked at the full health bar above Xiao Niao's head, still not quite believing it.

"You! Me! Didn't I just learn the 'Recovery Spell'!" Xiao Niao was about to go crazy from this guy Hu Gualing's repeated questioning. After explaining irritably, he waved his hand unhappily. "Forget it, forget it. If you don't believe me, go over and see for yourselves. Anyway, I didn't see any monster. Maybe it was just my imagination." Xiao Niao said, sounding sulky.

Seeing him like this, Hu Gualing and Tang Yao felt a bit guilty instead. Could what Xiao Niao said be true? Besides the Mutated White Wild Boar BOSS in the center of the hall that they had already killed, was there another monster in this Dungeon with attack power no weaker than the Mutated White Wild Boar?

Just as Hu Gualing was hesitating and unsure, Tang Yao noticed the mana bar below the health bar above Xiao Niao's head. The mana bar, which should have been the same length as the health bar, was now shorter by a segment. Tang Yao realized suddenly, "What Xiao Niao said is all true. Look, he has already used quite a bit of his mana."

Hu Gualing followed her gaze and indeed saw that the blue bar representing mana above Xiao Niao's head was now significantly shorter. Clearly, he had just used a skill. Among all the skills they had encountered so far, only the 'Recovery Spell' that Xiao Niao had learned required mana consumption. In fact, it was only after Xiao Niao used the 'Recovery Spell' skill book looted from the Mutated White Wild Boar that the mana bar was unlocked. It was at that moment that the three of them learned that this Wuxia-style game even had a mana bar setting!

Thinking of this, Hu Gualing knew he had wronged Xiao Niao. He quickly humbled himself and said half-jokingly, "Brother Xiao Niao, I was wrong. You are a big person with a big heart, please don't be angry." It made Xiao Niao unable to hold his unhappy expression, and he broke into a smile. He gave a tsundere snort and didn't say anything else, and the matter passed.

Hu Gualing accepted the fact that there was a monster, but couldn't help but be puzzled. "But a monster capable of dealing seventy points of damage in one hit should be quite powerful. There's no reason for it to just poke you when you're not paying attention and then hide, right? Could it be that some kind of trap was triggered?" Hu Gualing speculated. According to Xiao Niao's description, the yellow soil ground he was standing on had softened into fine sand without warning, and an Earth Spike had shot out from it, disappearing after taking away seventy of Xiao Niao's health points. It didn't seem like the work of a monster at all. Otherwise, since Xiao Niao's total health was barely one hundred, if the monster had just followed up with one normal attack—even without a critical hit—the damage would have been enough to take Xiao Niao down. But Xiao Niao's subsequent experience wasn't like that; instead, he had escaped with only thirty health points left. This didn't look like the style of a monster, but rather like triggering some kind of mechanism trap in the game?

Hearing Hu Gualing's speculation, both Xiao Niao and Tang Yao nodded, as if this deduction made a lot of sense.

However, why would a trap in the Dungeon not be set near the BOSS to increase the difficulty for players during the BOSS battle, but instead be set in such a remote place? If it weren't for Xiao Niao needing to find a hidden spot to change his pants, they would have already left this Dungeon and would never have known that such a trap was hidden in the corner. As for triggering the trap, that would have been out of the question. So, what was the point of setting such a hidden trap?

Hu Gualing rubbed his cheek, a look of wisdom shining in his tiger-like eyes, and analyzed for Xiao Niao and Tang Yao, "What's the point? That's simple. Look at that big tree. Even with my butt, I know it's not simple. It might be the treasure guarded by the Mutated White Wild Boar BOSS, and it's definitely not a simple treasure either. It's hidden so well that if it weren't for a stroke of Opportunity, we wouldn't have discovered it at all. And even if we did, there's such a powerful trap outside it... The value of this big tree... I dare not think about it, I dare not think about it..." After his analysis, Hu Gualing's eyes were shining, his expression greedy, and he was almost drooling. Looking at that big tree from afar, his hands had already involuntarily reached out as if to embrace it.

Tang Yao hadn't felt anything wrong at first, thinking it was only natural for Hu Gualing to be excited upon seeing such a unique tree. After all, even she felt curious and couldn't help but want to go over and take a look at such a large, lush tree. But when Hu Gualing reached out with his hands as if to embrace it, and even wore a lecherous expression while walking towards the big tree in the distance without a care in the world, Tang Yao suddenly realized something was wrong. There was something wrong with that tree!