"Squish~"
Not long after entering the passage, Tenten felt like she had stepped on something.
She looked down and saw it was a highly decomposed hand.
When she stepped on it, not only did green corpse fluid burst out like an exploding filling, but some disgusting corpse worms also appeared in her sight along with the fluid.
"Ugh~"
Naturally, upon seeing this, Tenten instantly threw up.
If Rock Lee and Neji hadn't been there to support her, she probably would have collapsed onto the ground. (Wouldn't collapsing on the ground be even more disgusting?)
Team 7, walking ahead, paid no mind to Tenten's retching. They had now arrived at the fork in the path again.
After discussing it, everyone agreed that taking the middle passage would be better.
Since so many Wandering Dead had already come out, even if there were still some monsters inside, there wouldn't be too many.
Yes, they were here to earn points, but they also needed to ensure the safety of their game characters.
There was still a lot of time left before the six hours were up, and if they died now, it would truly be a huge loss.
This time, Naruto didn't walk in front; instead, he let Sasuke's summoned creature lead the way. It seemed even Naruto was 'afraid' of these 'zombies.'
Their journey along this path was very smooth, and they didn't encounter any enemies.
When they reached the end of the passage, everyone's view instantly broadened significantly.
This was a space roughly the size of an indoor basketball court, with many glowing green fungi growing on the surrounding cave walls.
Utilizing the faint light of these fungi, the outline of a structure about three meters tall could be vaguely seen slightly to the left of this space.
To the right, leaning against the cave wall, seemed to be a graveyard. A few scattered tombstones stood on the ground, some only half-remaining, and a few figures could be seen wandering in the distance.
"Which way should we go?" Kakashi looked towards Sasuke.
He wanted to use Sasuke's exceptional hearing to determine which side had the 'loudest commotion.'
"Let me listen first," Sasuke said, cupping his ears and carefully listening to the movements around them.
After listening for a while, Sasuke spoke with a slightly uncertain tone: "The right side is a graveyard. I only hear some faint noises, probably just a few Wandering Dead there. There shouldn't be much danger."
"The other side looks like an Altar. I don't hear any movement at all, but I feel like something is wrong there."
"Then let's go deal with those few Wandering Dead first," Kakashi immediately decided.
"As for the Altar... if there's danger there, we'll just be careful later."
The process of eliminating the few Wandering Dead was very easy. No one was injured, and no one consumed mana, so there was no need to rest.
Without wasting time, the group, led by Kakashi, walked toward the Altar hidden in the darkness not far away... As they got closer, everyone finally saw what the "Altar" looked like.
This was a structure with a circular base. Although it was only three meters high, it occupied a considerable area.
If viewed from above, it resembled a mosquito coil with the center dug out, leaving only the outermost ring. The dug-out center was the platform on top of the structure, and the remaining coil was the narrow, winding staircase.
Because the area of this structure was quite large and its height limited, the ascent angle of the stairs was not steep.
The staircase gradually rose from right to left, reaching a height of about thirty centimeters right in front of the group—tall people could step over it in one stride.
"Everyone be careful. Something really isn't right here."
There was a structure resembling an Altar, yet not a single monster was around. This seemed suspicious no matter how you looked at it.
After giving the warning, Kakashi stepped forward again.
Just then, four pitch-black beams of light shot up from the surroundings.
When the light beams disappeared, four mysterious warriors, completely shrouded in black armor, each holding a sword and a shield, appeared before everyone.
They were surrounded!
Naruto reacted quickly, rushing immediately toward the enemy closest to him.
Taking two large steps, he arrived in front of his opponent, and his gleaming sharp axe descended, accompanied by a whistling wind.
A deafening clang sounded—the noise of the axe colliding with the shield.
Unexpectedly, Naruto's opponent was just as quick. Not only did it block the fierce strike without retreating a single step, but it also immediately swung its short sword in a horizontal slash.
In haste, Naruto only managed to bring his axe back to parry, but the immense force transmitted through the axe sent him flying backward.
Seeing this scene, several people in the team looked like they had seen a ghost.
Naruto's class was the Barbarian, which focused on strength. After so many battles in the early stages, Naruto's Rank was no longer low.
According to his attribute distribution, both his HP and Strength had reached a very impressive number.
For such a Naruto to be sent flying by a single move upon first contact—just how fierce was this enemy?
Rolling on the spot and immediately standing up, Naruto felt a tingling numbness in the web of skin between his thumb and index finger gripping the axe.
Following Naruto's usual style, he should have charged back without hesitation at this moment.
But facing this dangerous enemy, he acted contrary to his norm and adopted a defensive stance.
Well, he only liked to rush headlong into things; he wasn't stupid.
It was clear at a glance that this monster couldn't be dealt with by one person, and if he insisted on a direct confrontation, he would be the one to suffer the loss.
Just as Naruto stood up, the remaining three mysterious warriors already raised their short swords and strode toward the group, surrounding them.
These black-armored warriors not only had extremely high attributes, but their combat skills were also excellent.
Especially their inherent strength, which was noticeably higher than Naruto's.
Fortunately, the number of people in the squad was double that of these black-armored warriors.
They paired up, two people facing one black-armored warrior.
Perhaps because the monsters were enhanced tenfold in Hell mode, even with two people versus one black-armored warrior, they were at an absolute disadvantage.
Guy pessimistically estimated that without a miracle, he would be defeated by this monster in thirty seconds at most.
At the critical moment, Kakashi risked being slashed by the monster and directly used a Small Fireball on Guy's opponent.
The Small Fireball successfully hit the monster, and the thrust generated by the explosion caused a significant disruption in its hand movements.
Facing the opening exposed by their opponent, Guy and Rock Lee certainly wouldn't miss this opportunity.
They pressed close, almost brushing past the short sword the enemy swung, and attacked the monster's neck with all their might.