"Wait!"
However, just as Ethan had only taken a few steps, Nana suddenly called out to stop him!
Ethan turned around and looked at Nana in confusion, "What? Is there something else?"
"I think... maybe we can work together."
Nana bit her lower lip and spoke.
Even though she really did not want to cooperate with Ethan, the battle just now had already left her team with countless dead and injured.
Their original team of ten people was now down to only four, and all of them were hurt.
And the most fatal thing was that their team's only Explorer had also been killed by the Ghost Needle Grass during the battle.
[Explorer: Can use the special skill Crisis Prediction to determine whether the road ahead is dangerous, allowing the team to avoid danger and move toward safer areas.]
Without an Explorer, and with almost no fighting strength left in the team, Nana knew very clearly that relying on their own abilities to get out of this damned place would probably be impossible.
And from Ethan's earlier words, Nana could also tell that the man in front of her was not completely without principles. At the very least, he did not kill innocent people randomly. Maybe they could cooperate for now.
"Why should I work with you?"
Ethan smiled at Nana. His eyes only carried one meaning: what value do you still have to me?
"Because... because I'm a healer!", Nini saw that Ethan did not seem as scary as Sister Nana had described, so she quickly stepped forward and said, "Hero, if you get hurt along the way or something, I can still heal you."
"No need! With the current level of danger here, nothing can hurt me yet."
After speaking, Ethan turned around again and prepared to leave.
Since these people had nothing worth his effort, Ethan naturally would not waste time on them.
"Then why did you help us earlier!", The moment Nini saw Ethan turn around to leave, she saw disappointment all over Sister Nana's face. Nini immediately gathered her courage and questioned Ethan, "You're obviously such a good person, so how can you..."
"Oh, shut up for fack's sake!"
Ethan turned back around and directly pointed the Godslayer Sword at Nini, "Don't try to morally blackmail me. I'm not a good man. If you anger me, I don't mind killing you right now."
"Nini!"
Nana also realized that Nini had caused trouble again and quickly pulled her behind herself.
But Nini still refused to accept it, "Then tell me! Why did you save me before? After saving me, why make me face despair again? Why?"
"Why?", Ethan laughed after hearing that, "I simply didn't like that guy. And I also wanted an excuse to steal his equipment. Is that reason enough?"
"..."
This time, it was not only Nini who was shocked by Ethan's bluntness, even Nana and the other two male teammates were left speechless by what Ethan said.
'Are experts really this arrogant and direct?'
But they had no way to deal with Ethan at all.
After all, they could not beat him.
"Alright, I've already said enough nonsense. You'd better stop bothering me," Ethan glanced at Nini and said, "Otherwise I don't mind using you people to practice my swordsmanship."
"I have a treasure chest map for this forest!"
Nana knew that if she did not show some sincerity now, the man in front of her would leave.
And without this expert's protection, their group would probably have a hard time getting out alive.
So even though she knew, once she took out this treasure map, there was a high chance she would not be able to keep it, she still had no choice but to force herself to take it out.
After all, what use was treasure if she lost her life?
"A treasure chest map?"
Ethan immediately stopped walking after hearing that.
He really was curious about why there were so many wooden treasure chests in this place.
And many of the wooden treasure chests were already open, which made things even stranger.
'Normally, wouldn't treasure chests automatically break down into materials after being opened?'
'Could these treasure chests be related to this woman's treasure map?'
'If that is true—'
'Then her map is definitely valuable!'
"Yes!"
Nana took out the map and boldly stepped toward Ethan, "You can take a look. I originally didn't want to bring it out, but I also know that if I don't show enough sincerity for cooperation, then we probably won't leave this place alive today."
"I hope your map is valuable enough," Ethan grabbed the map at once.
[Hidden Treasure: This is a map that can locate treasures buried underground or hidden inside special spaces.]
[PS: As long as you follow the directions on the map, you can always find good stuff.]
"Hidden Treasure Map?"
Ethan noticed that the map showed a treasure chest about ten meters south of him.
But when he turned to look south, he could not see any treasure chest at all. Even his prompt system gave no notice of any treasure chest. That made things very strange.
"How do you use this?"
"You just need to walk near the treasure chest and tap the treasure chest icon on the map. Then the treasure chest will appear automatically," Nana explained, "I don't know why either, but this map is just very magical."
"Interesting."
Holding the Hidden Treasure Map, Ethan walked toward the spot about ten meters away where the treasure chest was shown.
But right then, Nana suddenly shouted, "Careful!!"
Immediately after, Ethan saw a giant man-eating flower appear above him. It opened a huge mouth over one meter wide and lunged down toward him!
"No need to worry. It's just a flower."
"Chaotic Sword Style!"
Ethan raised his sword and casually slashed upward.
Everyone watched as the giant man-eating flower was sliced apart by Ethan's sword into countless flower petals that drifted down from the air.
"This..."
Nini stared blankly at the scene in front of her and said, "Sister Nana, I remember when you ran into this kind of giant flower before, you said... even you would have to risk half your life just to drive it back, right?"
"Yeah," Nana nodded stiffly.
"But this guy only stirred his sword once to kill the giant flower. It was as easy as stirring egg mixture. I'm not seeing things, right?"
"You're not seeing things. He really is an expert," Nana replied, her eyes filled with shock.
Originally, after repeatedly encountering all kinds of lucky opportunities in this Mist World, and after working hard enough herself, she thought she should already count as one of the top people in this world.
But the moment she saw Ethan, she finally understood, she was wrong.
She was still unimaginably far away from the true top level.