Mia was silent for a moment: "There’s nothing more, then I encountered the lord."
Mia’s silence clearly meant she had more to say. But no one asked further; they could guess her little scheme. She remained silent because she dared not admit that her reason for coming here was to redirect the trouble.
Just like when she sold out her teammates, it would be best to "sell" them to the Ghosteye Witch too, to buy some time for her own escape.
The unspoken that everyone knew, they couldn’t be bothered to ask.
Dox: "Is that all, are there any other details? Especially when encountering the Ghosteye Witch and being chased by it, did it have any peculiarities? Or were there other companions around it?"
Mia thought for a moment but couldn’t remember any oddities and was about to shake her head.
At this moment, Dox muttered again: "Is your adventure group stupid, or is it the captain, with no sense of crisis at all, still going to greet an unknown entity?"
Listening to Dox’s words, Mia was struck with a thought and said, "I remembered something, not sure if it has anything to do with the Ghosteye Witch."
"Then go ahead and say it." The speaker was Angel.
After speaking, Angel cast a meaningful glance at Dox. He had read many detective mystery novels, where the key clue provider always said a bunch of useless things and then, suddenly enlightened, offered what they thought was an unimportant add-on. Generally speaking, these supplements turned out to be crucial clues.
Now, the person who enlightened Mia was undoubtedly Dox.
Sure enough, someone with inspiration is just different.
Angel admired for a moment and continued listening to Mia’s account.
"This matter might have to be traced back to the beginning of the White Crocodile Adventure Group. Initially, the earliest members were six, then it slowly grew, even reaching twelve people. But, during the prime of our adventure group, we encountered a group of despicable guys."
"They called themselves the Hero Squad, but they didn’t do anything heroic. The third district at the lower left of the ruins had already been taken by our adventure group, yet they forcibly intervened under the banner of justice, seizing a lot of treasures."
"They even brought members from other adventure groups to our third district to search for treasures."
"How could the leader endure this humiliation, so we clashed with the Hero Squad... Their strength was stronger than we imagined, and even the leader perished in that battle. With the leader’s death, the members also left one by one, eventually leaving just the three of us."
At this point, Mia’s face was full of sorrow.
But Angel listened with a face full of speechlessness, "Taking over" something like this was wrong from the beginning. Besides, the initial Hero Squad only came to find treasures, not to conflict with you. Instead, your leader couldn’t stand the humiliation—which is hardly a humiliation—and took the initiative to pick a fight, only to lose.
Who can be blamed for this?
Of course, Angel looks at it from his standard, perhaps "taking over" is a rule here, and maybe Mia’s team stood on the moral high ground.
However, a long-abandoned ruin, not even transcendent people thought of claiming it, yet these ordinary people allocated regions for themselves. They were indeed bold and unafraid that Bilun Tree Court might come one day to clear them out.
"Since the leader died, with members leaving, we often encountered provocations from the Hero Squad and numerous traps, all man-made, definitely by the Hero Squad. This time, running into the Ghosteye Witch might also have been aided by them secretly, wanting to put us to death."
Mia reached the end of her story. But all Angel heard was Mia’s various speculations and casually blaming others; as for valuable clues, he did not hear any.
Could it be that the patterns of detective mystery novels don’t apply this time?
Or perhaps, the clue is actually the Hero Squad?
While Angel was pondering this, Dox asked, puzzled: "Since you claimed the so-called third district, how could you let other squads break in?"
Dox, as a wandering wizard, often encountered situations where treasures were claimed by witch organizations, the Wizards’ Alliance, or wizard families.
In Dox’s eyes, taking over implies being airtight, not even allowing a mosquito in. Because any variable could disrupt the balance.
However, Mia’s concept of taking over was far from what he envisioned.
Mia: "Because that Hero Squad is like a group of groundhogs. Our scout reported their tracks immediately upon discovery, but by the time we went looking for them, they had clearly never left the third district, yet they were nowhere to be found. Later, we accidentally found out that they actually hid underground, and even when they infiltrated initially, they tunneled in from underground, making it impossible to guard against."
As Mia spoke, everyone’s eyes suddenly brightened.
This was definitely it!
Underground, with channels connecting all places back to the surface, this must be a complete entrance!
In the Black Earl’s prophecy, Mia indeed played a key role in breaking the situation!
As they rejoiced at finding a clue, Angel silently looked at Dox: Indeed, Dox’s spiritual intuition came into play again.
From the start, the one who suggested checking what was happening was Dox.
The one who interrupted Mia’s rambling and pointed her to the key was Dox.
The one who encouraged her to provide supplementary information was also Dox.
Most importantly, the one who highlighted the inadequacy of the "takeover" that led Mia to reveal the ultimate answer was still Dox!
If this isn’t spiritual intuition, what is?
Angel suddenly felt very fortunate to bring Dox along on this exploration of the ruins. This guy’s premonition was so strong that he might not even realize it himself, thinking it’s just unconscious questioning.
But he always hit on the critical points.
At least, if it were Angel, he definitely wouldn’t ask about such a detailed matter like "taking over."
With a clue in hand, the next steps were simple and clear: the target was to find the Hero Squad and locate the true entrance to the Underground Labyrinth.
As for how to search? The answer was simple: wasn’t Mia here?
Mia would lead to where the Hero Squad was active, and Angel and Dox could release the Scout Puppet or Wizard’s Eye, overlooking from above to seek traces of people.
Once they identified people as part of the Hero Squad, the rest would be easy.
After informing Mia of the search for the Hero Squad, Mia initially thought that her "emotional performance" touched this group of transcendents, who decided to find the Hero Squad to avenge the White Crocodile Adventure Group.
With this beautiful vision in mind, Mia naturally did not refuse, suppressing her excitement and enthusiasm, and set off again toward the third district.