"Nana! Look! This scarecrow can move by itself."
Nini opened her mouth wide in surprise. She looked completely shocked that a scarecrow could move.
Nana also had shock in her eyes, but she still spoke calmly, "There are all kinds of strange things in this world. A moving scarecrow should count as nor... normal, right?"
"Is this be a person turned into a scarecrow?"
Logan and Idris had also caught up by now. Watching the scarecrow hop left and right from time to time, Logan said with surprise, "Why do I feel like this scarecrow is... scouting the way?"
"It probably is scouting. Otherwise it wouldn't move in this snake-like pattern. And watch where it lands after every jump."
Idris, who had long studied beast tracks as a hunter, also gave his opinion at this moment, "Every place it lands is either on a rock or hard ground. If the scarecrow in front of us were only an ordinary scarecrow that could carry out special orders, it absolutely couldn't do something like this. So I'm sure there must be a human soul inside this scarecrow."
Bang!
However, just as Idris finished speaking.
The moment the scarecrow landed on the ground, it sank straight down.
No one had expected, this patch of grassland was actually a swamp. And not only that, the instant the scarecrow sank into the mud, countless huge vines suddenly shot out from beneath the swamp. Then the vines instantly spread through the air and formed something like a cage.
Right after that, they wrapped around the scarecrow and dragged it into the swamp.
[Predatory Vine: Grows beneath mud and swamps. When prey sinks into the mud, these predatory vines instantly burst out from underground and form a net to catch prey! In the end, they drag the prey into the swamp and drown it alive until it becomes nourishment for the swamp.]
[PS: Predatory Vines have strong resistance to corrosion and acid, are not afraid of fire, and are extremely tough. Ordinary attacks cannot harm them at all.]
"No wonder this place is called a D-rank danger zone."
The moment Ethan saw the scarecrow dragged into the mud, he also saw the monster description appear.
Only then did he understand why explorers classified this place as a D-rank danger zone.
The main issue was that the Predatory Vines were too well hidden.
On top of that, the Predatory Vines themselves were extremely strong. As plants, they weren't afraid of fire, resisted corrosion, and normal attacks were useless against them. That was a bit too ridiculous.
Luckily, Ethan wasn't an ordinary person either.
So although he thought the Predatory Vines were somewhat troublesome, he didn't really care much.
But at that moment—
"Ahhh!"
The instant the scarecrow was dragged into the swamp, Nini let out a scream, "Hero! Your scarecrow..."
"It can't die," Ethan directly cut her off.
The reason he stayed completely calm and didn't even seem to want to save the scarecrow was because the scarecrow wasn't human in the first place.
It couldn't even count as real prey. There wasn't a bit of meat on it. Aside from the two eyeballs that still had some protein, it had no nutritional value at all.
So Ethan believed that before long, the Predatory Vines underground would probably spit it back out.
After all, if something couldn't be eaten, then keeping it underground aside from taking up space and becoming garbage, what else could it do?
"But Hero, isn't it your companion?", Nini said with a pained look, "It already got dragged in. Aren't you going to save it?"
"Nini!"
Nana had already experienced Ethan's bad temper before.
Afraid that Nini might anger him by talking too much, she quickly pulled her aside and stopped her from speaking carelessly, "Hero naturally has his own plans. We shouldn't talk too much."
"Nana..."
Nini looked toward the place where the scarecrow had been dragged under, and her eyes carried a trace of tears.
She had been kind since childhood. Even when mosquitoes bit her, she didn't dare kill them.
And just now, she had heard Brother Idris say that this scarecrow might have a human soul inside it, which made her feel upset.
The scarecrow had clearly gone to scout the way for this man, but now that it was in danger, the one who caused it was doing nothing at all. Wasn't that too much.
"Good girl."
Nana rubbed Nini's head and comforted her.
But Nini still said sadly, "Nana, let's leave him soon! He really isn't a good man."
"I know, but right now... it really isn't the time yet."
Nana quietly comforted Nini.
But right then...
Ptooey!
A huge ball of mud suddenly got thrown out from the swamp.
And it was flying right toward Ethan and the others.
When Ethan saw the mud ball flying toward him, he immediately jumped up and stomped it onto the ground.
Then he somehow brought out a large amount of water and poured it over the mud ball, finally revealing what was inside. It was the scarecrow, completely covered in mud.
"Uh..."
After seeing this scene, Nini finally shut up.
Because she realized she really had misunderstood Ethan. When he said "it can't die," he really did know the scarecrow would be thrown back out, not that he simply didn't plan to save it.
Now Nini felt a little awkward, and Nana also embarrassedly pulled Nini to the side.
"Sorry. She's still a child and doesn't know how to speak properly. Please don't take offense, Hero."
"This is the last time," Ethan said coldly, "If you want to follow me, then follow quietly. This is my payment for taking your map. But if you say one more piece of nonsense, then either get far away from me, or I'll cut out your tongues so you stop yapping."
"Yes, yes. We understand," Nana nodded repeatedly.
After confirming the monster's attributes, Ethan finally took out his wand and pointed it at the ground.
"Harden Up!"
Immediately after, a cement road strangely appeared across the swamp.
Even the grass along the path was sealed into the cement, as though the grass had become decoration on the cement road. It looked strangely beautiful.