Isha’s sudden words dealt a heavy blow to Uffie’s heart.

Initially, when she barely realized she might have mistakenly attacked a communicable residual shadow, Uffie tried to convince herself that it wasn’t a big deal.

However, the more she pondered, the more it didn’t feel right. How could there be a residual shadow in the dungeon that doesn’t matter even if it’s chased away? Everyone should have a purpose for appearing, right!

But unfortunately, the die had been cast. Fanen chose to see through it without mentioning it, so she also followed suit and didn’t discuss it further.

Then, Isha’s words directly broke the tacit balance everyone had maintained.

"I, uh, I..." Uffie stammered for a moment, then finally gave up and lowered her head, saying, "It was my foolishness that drove the White Mask away..."

Disheartened, the one who had always flaunted her prowess in front of everyone had made such an obvious mistake, and the shame was just too great.

But at least she knew to apologize when wrong, which was much better than those who would stubbornly refuse to repent.

At this point, she could only hope the White Mask wasn’t caught and killed by the Big Tree Guard, hoping he could somehow run back to the cliff, though that hope was slim.

"Ah..." Isha was stunned for a moment, then quickly waved her hand, saying, "It’s okay, it’s okay, I’ve already noted everything the White Mask said. I’ll tell you all later, no need to blame yourself."

This gentle consideration only made Uffie feel more self-reproach.

"Boom!"

A loud noise, and the ground beneath them suddenly trembled, realizing that the Big Tree Guard had followed up the last Arrow Rain with a shot of the Golden Return, hitting the base of the cliff directly, causing parts of the mountain to collapse.

And it didn’t stop there; he galloped up as if determined to slash everyone down before the blessing.

Tepi reacted the most intensely, his eyes widening as he said, "Normally, monsters shouldn’t pursue us all the way to the bonfire!"

Having experienced adventures in other areas of the Sain Dungeon, people instantly equated the blessing with the bonfire. However, they hadn’t yet discovered a way to upgrade through the blessing, only to refill the Holy Grail Bottle.

"Quick, quick, come in here." Fanen promptly lifted the stone door, and everyone once again squeezed back into the secret chamber they came from.

The thundering footsteps of the Big Tree Guard outside sounded like a monster, the scene could now be used as a horror movie set with just a change of filter. Influenced by the atmosphere, even Uffie held her breath like the others, waiting for quite a while before the Big Tree Guard gradually moved away.

"Seems like it left?" Fanen listened by the door for a while "Let’s go out then."

"No, absolutely not!"

Tepi suddenly got a bit agitated and said, "That guy is definitely hiding nearby, waiting for us to go out and then attack us!"

"That’s a bit exaggerated..."

"You may not believe me, but you must believe in the weirdness of the Sain Dungeon!"

He pursed his lips, no longer maintaining the calm composure from when they first entered the dungeon, and said:

"The Sain Dungeon, with all its bizarre functions, cultivated a lot of adventurers with twisted personalities—it’s a dangerous place. I’ve witnessed people come back from Sain completely changed, more violent and bloodthirsty than the Demon Clan, something’s definitely off here."

"You’re too agitated, Mr. Basque," Uffie noticed the change in his emotions and promptly said, "Control your emotions, regain your calm demeanor."

"I’m perfectly calm right now."

He muttered on, "Which is why I’ve always been reluctant to enter here. At first, it was about saving face, but now it increasingly feels bizarre, with various unreasonable monsters and traps. Even it doesn’t follow a fixed pattern, and it’s still..."

Uffie said nothing, just shrugged helplessly at the people behind her.

Clearly, Tepi hadn’t really noticed any so-called "Sain’s conspiracy," but was suffering from a psychological condition common amongst adventurers.

[Paranoia]!

Among the adventurer community in the Sain Dungeon, this condition seemed to have a fairly high incidence rate, but the cure rate was also quite high—showing adventurers something good usually motivated them to dive deeper with their paranoia, and once they came to, they’d recovered.

Entering Sain Dungeon was quite stressful for Tepi, due to factors like Leon. His resistance and even fear of Sain were greater than others, just never expressed it before, and the knowledge about Sain he’d gathered gave him the confidence, making him feel he could achieve something in there, so he joined others against his will.

But the Big Tree Guard at the start gave him a harsh wake-up call, causing a mental breakdown was normal.

But Venturing into Nimgefo hadn’t even begun when someone already fell ill, not a good omen.

Uffie exchanged whispers with the others for a bit, and finally, she approached Tepi and asked:

"Mr. Basque, we’re going to continue exploring this area, will you..."

"You all go, I’ll stay here!"

Tepi now looked like a stubborn old man in a biohazard, insisting on locking himself in a container.

Since he had touched the blessing, it was unlikely he’d face a fatal incident, so Uffie and the others had no choice but to leave him there.

Carefully lifting the stone door, everyone quietly tiptoed out, only to see the Big Tree Guard had returned to his post, diligently patrolling.