"Failed."
Isha, the captain of the Ice Flower Adventure Team, stood with her silver hair dusted with grime. A jagged stone had split her forehead, and blood streamed steadily from the wound as a look of deep remorse crossed her face.
She shouldn't have pushed straight for the twelfth floor just because Leia had cleared the ninth, all in a desperate bid to close the gap between their teams.
Now, their Heavy Armor Warrior was severely injured, their Healer was drained of mana, and their mage had already lost consciousness.
They had no choice but to give up.
The Ice Flower Adventure Team could not afford to lose another member.
After turning the matter over in her mind, Isha finally reached a decision. Clenching her teeth, she gave the order to her remaining teammates: "Everyone retreat! Use your [Return Scroll]!"
A Return Scroll could forcibly pull an adventurer out of a Secret Realm, but such scrolls were exorbitantly expensive, worth as much as an entire set of magic equipment.
The biggest drawback of the Ice Flower Adventure Team was their subpar gear, and the reason for that was Isha's strict rule: every single member was required to carry a [Return Scroll].
Since Isha couldn't recruit a Healer like Linda who could keep a party operating without taking damage, she had carved out an alternative path to survival, ensuring everyone had an escape route.
Just as she was about to channel her Battle Qi into the scroll and leave the twelfth floor, the Sensor Ladybug No. 3 tied to her thigh pouch suddenly began to buzz and beat its wings so fiercely that it stung her skin.
The sensor ladybug was radiating a golden glow.
"Golden Advice? Could that be Leia mocking me?"
Isha's expression darkened. She gripped the sensor ladybug so hard that she nearly crushed it into a pulp.
Advice fell into two categories: ordinary advice and golden advice. Ordinary advice caused no reaction from the sensor ladybug; if teammates didn't check it in time, ordinary advice would simply slip away like flowing water.
Golden Advice was entirely different. It required the sacrifice of a high-level monster core, causing the sensor ladybug to vibrate and emit golden light to alert adventurers that someone had offered Golden Advice.
Isha flipped the sensor ladybug over and looked at its belly:
[An unremarkable adventurer: Right in the center of the Armored Turtle-Snake's shell, there is a slightly darker scale. Attack that spot with your 'Ultimate Move'.]
An unremarkable adventurer? Who was this?
Attack the Armored Turtle-Snake's shell? Was this person deliberately trying to trick her into throwing her life away?
Isha's delicate eyebrows arched in anger.
The shell was the monster's highest-defense area. Breaking through its head was difficult enough, let alone its shell.
And this person had specifically instructed her to use an 'Ultimate Move', which consumed a massive amount of mana. It was hard not to suspect the sender of harboring malicious intentions.
***
In the Sparrow District, right outside the Adventurers' Guild.
"Mr. Linda, are you serious? You spent a Level 20 monster core just for this one message?"
Jeban, the short, blonde logistics member of the Ice Flower Adventure Team, asked in utter disbelief.
Linda nodded. "Give me another Level 20 monster core."
Jeban hesitated, but thinking of Isha's high praise for Linda, he gritted his teeth and pulled one out of his pouch.
If this former Healer of the Snow Goose Adventurer Party could actually help the Ice Flower team conquer the twelfth floor, Jeban would have considered twenty Level 20 monster cores worth it, let alone one.
The quail-egg-sized, fire-red monster core, which resembled a precious gem, was placed by Linda into the groove of the stone altar.
Then, a flash of light illuminated the area as the sacrifice to the Goddess of the World Tree was completed.
Linda had only one sentence he wanted to share as 'Golden Advice':
"Captain Isha, it's me, Linda."
If Isha's appreciation for him back at the Secret Realm Square hadn't just been surface-level flattery, she would trust him.
As for why he was stepping in to help, Linda didn't have any grand reason. If a simple effort on his part could save a young woman's life, he was more than happy to do it.
***
Inside the crystal screen, Isha's sensor ladybug flashed with golden light once more. She glanced at the text on the bug's belly, rested her chin in her hand, and fell into deep contemplation.
A moment later, Isha made up her mind.
She bit the wooden stopper off a purple potion and drank it down in large gulps. Instantly, her depleted Battle Qi surged violently.
"A Gluttony Potion? Is she really going this hard?"
Linda raised an eyebrow, a flicker of surprise crossing his face. A Gluttony Potion was a rare item capable of instantly restoring the user's Battle Qi and mana. It was exorbitantly expensive and carried severe side effects, leaving the user in agonizing pain after a certain period of time. It was typically kept as a desperate trump card.
Linda hadn't expected that a young woman he had only met a few times—someone who couldn't even be considered a casual friend—would take his advice so readily.
Within the crystal screen, Isha bent low like a sprinting snow leopard, her long silver hair and the ice-crystal longsword in her hand tracing an elegant, glowing arc.
Moving with the grace of a blade dancer, she dodged a barrage of rock fragments hurled by the Armored Turtle-Snake, her strong, agile legs kicking powerfully off the ground as she leaped straight onto the monster's back.
The entire sequence of movements was as fluid as flowing water, leaving the surrounding crowd of onlookers staring in stunned silence.
Linda silently noted that her skills were every bit as impressive as Leia's, the genius Swordsman. It was clear that Isha wasn't ordinary if she could lead the Ice Flower team all the way to the twelfth floor.
After landing on the Armored Turtle-Snake's shell, Isha sprang into the air once more, executing a dazzling three-hundred-and-sixty-degree flip that made her look like an icy wheel suspended in the sky.
The silver-haired swordswoman drew a deep breath, channeling her freezing Battle Qi into her one-handed sword. White frost began to diffuse through the cavern like a thick mist.
"Ice Blade Waltz!"
With a sharp cry, Isha unleashed the level-20 Ultimate Move of the Frost Swordsman!
Clang, clang, clang!
A volley of diamond-shaped ice spikes rained down like a storm, violently striking the bucket-sized, darkened scale right in the center of the Armored Turtle-Snake's shell.
The members of the Ice Flower team, along with the crowd gathered outside the Adventurers' Guild, instinctively held their breath.
If this attack failed to work, Isha would likely be struck by the Armored Turtle-Snake's massive tail.
The sheer impact of that blow would be enough to leave Isha severely injured, or even cost her her life!
While everyone else's hearts were in their throats, Linda remained completely calm.
Among the players of the previous world, this weakness of the Armored Turtle-Snake had long been an open secret.
Yet here on the reality-bound Secret Realm Continent, very few adventure teams ever dared to launch a frontal assault on the shell. Even those who discovered the secret kept their mouths tightly sealed or sold the information at exorbitant prices.
At least among the adventure teams in White Dove City, no one else knew the secret of the Armored Turtle-Snake.
The ice spikes hammered relentlessly against the target scale. Suddenly, the Armored Turtle-Snake on the crystal screen let out a piercing shriek, thrashing its thick limbs in agony.
Dust billowed through the cavern as the ground shook violently.
To everyone's astonishment, the scale in the very center of the monster's turtle shell proved to be bizarrely fragile. The moment that first scale shattered, the entire turtle shell began to collapse like a castle built of sand.
Even Isha hadn't expected the effect to be this devastating, and she stared in wide-eyed shock.
The members of the Ice Flower team finally snapped out of their stupor, instantly shifting from despair to blazing morale, as if energized by a surge of adrenaline.
"Take down this monster!"
"Captain Isha, we're coming to help!"
"Healer, cast Healing Magic on the Captain right now!"