Goblin Dependency

"Xia Nan!?"

Dispersed by the force field energy, the orange-red flame stream from the Fire Element transformed into the form of luminous blue Life Energy in the air.

Even before the surrounding dark Powerful Qi could fully dissipate, Xia Nan heard a low, familiar voice coming from beside him.

Looking towards the voice, he saw the Thorn Demon he had saved, capable of controlling Shadow Energy, looking at him with astonishment.

Clearly, it had recognized Xia Nan’s identity through the distinctive personal style of his battle skill combos just now.

With that realization, Xia Nan was almost certain that the Thorn Demon in front of him was the Vengeance Blade Squad Captain Lorin in disguise.

However, he didn’t rush to reveal his identity, instead maintaining a significant amount of patience.

After confirming that no other adventurers were present, the two exchanged information that only the ship members or the two of them knew, like "the scene during their first meeting" and "who was the intermediary introducing the relationship."

Once the confirmation was complete, Xia Nan called Sasha and Sarisa over from the side.

Evidently surprised that Xia Nan had already gathered two teammates, Lorin looked very unexpected.

After hearing about their encounter from Xia Nan, she marveled at the wonder of Destiny.

Meanwhile, Xia Nan and others learned about Lorin’s encounters after descending from her mouth — the Thorn Demon, having a vocal structure akin to a wise creature’s throat, could speak normally, making communication much easier.

Fortunately, when Lorin was swept into the Secret Realm initially, she possessed an adult Shadow Demon Bat with a challenge level of 0.5, surrounded by a large tribe which protected her through the most vulnerable juvenile stage.

Early development was quite similar to Sasha’s, utilizing her experience as a seasoned adventurer to grow while exploring the surroundings.

However, unlike Sasha, Lorin’s first encounter with an adventurer a week after descending into the Secret Realm was not with a Vengeance Blade Squad teammate.

In fact, she couldn’t even confirm the other party’s identity up to now.

The adventurer possessed by a mountain wild horse accidentally stumbled into the mountain cave nest of Lorin’s Shadow Demon Bat tribe, and by the time Lorin saw them, this unlucky adventurer had been drained into jerky.

Through this opportunity, Lorin absorbed the Life Energy suspended above the corpse, completing a Second Evolution while roughly understanding the ritual’s mechanism and forming her subsequent action plan.

Thereafter, steadily and surely, using the few opportunities to meet unknown adventurers, after confirming they were not on her team, she used her evolved combat strength to kill them, absorbing Life Energy.

By now, she had reached the level of Second Evolution.

It’s worth mentioning that during this entire process, Lorin found that within the visual range of a real human body, Druid Hai Yin, Ellison, and several adventurers likewise swept into the Secret Realm from the port, who were originally floating mid-air enveloped in blue light like herself, successively lost their glow and fell from the air.

She hence speculated these adventurers likely died within the Secret Realm, causing this change.

From another perspective, this also implied dying in the ritual wouldn’t significantly affect a real-world body, at most leaving it weakened.

This discovery stimulated Lorin’s subsequent more aggressive actions.

Thinking in line with Xia Nan and the others, she believed since Dodd orchestrated this ritual, even dragging a hundred Elite adventurers into it, he definitely had some backing.

If she wanted to survive until the end, rather than being consumed as Life Energy nourishment for Dodd, she must enhance herself as much as possible before encountering him.

This was precisely why Lorin was drawn here by the Life Energy falling from the air.

Moreover, she attacked the Fire Element on impulse, because she speculated that killing it would definitely earn a considerable Life Energy reward, hence taking the risk to engage in close combat, leading to her encounter with Xia Nan and others.

At this point, Lorin paused and looked at Xia Nan with a peculiar expression.

"You must have evolved too, twice? Or three times?"

No wonder she would ask this.

After all, with Xia Nan’s present appearance, draped in streamlined metal armor and the Wolf Mouth biting Longsword, he certainly doesn’t resemble what anyone could possess upon descending to this world.

In response, as a core teammate in the friendly camp, Xia Nan certainly had no need to conceal anything.

Excluding the attribute panel information, he explained his descent experiences and his encounters with Sarisa and Sasha.

"Evolved four times already!?"

"No wonder..."

Xia Nan’s evolution count clearly exceeded Lorin’s expectations, but combined with Sarisa’s special ability to perceive nearby adventurers, the progress seemed comprehensible.

"Since that’s the case, all the Life Energy on the field should be absorbed by you."

Without needing further explanation from Sarisa and others, as the captain of the Vengeance Blade Squad, Lorin directly made the same strategic decision as the previous team members.

On one hand, Xia Nan’s evolution level was the highest among the team; to thwart Dodd’s "Algae Scale" ritual, concentrating Life Energy at a high point was undoubtedly their optimal solution at present;

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