No longer paying attention to the two corpses of zombies, Ethan began gathering herbs—this was his main task for this trip, while honing his combat skills was only a secondary goal.

After collecting and storing the herbs, Ethan continued searching the surrounding area. He carefully kept track of his distance from the Rogue Encampment; whenever it was out of sight, he would walk back a bit, then move along an arc at a distance where he could see the camp, and then explore a bit farther out.

Find herbs, collect them. Encounter a lone zombie, kill it. Then retreat, continue moving in an arc with the camp as the center, and after covering a certain distance, explore farther out.

Repeating this cycle, after half a day he had collected several herbs and killed about a dozen lone zombies.

Fortunately, he didn’t run into the formidable Quill Rats or Fallen that he was very wary of.

Quill Rats liked to hide in the grass and shadows, blending perfectly with the environment and making them very hard to spot. They also attacked from a distance. With Ethan’s current strength, if he was caught off guard, he could easily be killed instantly by a Quill Rat’s sneak attack.

The Fallen, on the other hand, moved in groups, often led by Fallen Shaman who could cast Fireball and Resurrection spells—very troublesome enemies. They would die and revive, die and revive, and never fight you head-on, always darting around chaotically, making them very hard to kill. They were also extremely fast; if you tried to escape, they could catch up and entangle you, making even running away impossible.

With Ethan’s current strength, if he encountered the Fallen—even the smallest group of five—he would be doomed without question.

So, when Ethan was exploring farther out and saw a few red-skinned Fallen in the distance, making a ruckus around a campfire, he decisively began to retreat.

“I really am... so weak.”

He shook his head helplessly. Back in the day, even a level 1 character in the game could kill these weaklings at will, but now he didn’t even have the qualifications to face them head-on. Thinking about it was truly frustrating.

“If Agatha really asks me to clear out the Den of Evil, it looks like I’ll just have to chicken out and refuse.”

Carefully retreating, Ethan kept his movements controlled to avoid drawing the Fallen’s attention, all the while keeping an eye on that small camp.

“I’ll tell Katherine when I get back. She’ll probably send Rogues to clear out these Fallen... If they’re allowed to grow stronger this close, it’ll be a huge problem...”

Just as he was thinking this, a figure seemed to appear in the distance. Before Ethan could wonder if he was seeing things, the figure suddenly flickered, and then a flash of light appeared outside the Fallen’s camp. The person who had been far away was now suddenly standing right in front of the Fallen.

Then, the figure raised a long staff and swung it at the Fallen. A massive fireball roared toward them, exploding with a thunderous boom in their midst. The fierce burst of flames instantly engulfed the Fallen, and the dazzling firelight made the previously dim sky a bit brighter.

When everything calmed down, the Fallen were completely gone, and only the woman holding the long staff remained in the camp—yes, Ethan could now see clearly that it was a woman, and she had also noticed him.

Ethan straightened up, but before he could react, a flash of light appeared in front of him, and the woman who had been standing in the distant camp suddenly appeared right before him.

“Hello!”

Ethan understood this sentence.

“My name is Isabella.”

Ethan understood this sentence too.

“I am a mage from the East. Is there a town nearby where I can find lodging and food?”

Ethan did not understand this sentence.

So his response was simple: “Hello, my name is Ethan.”

“……”

The atmosphere instantly became very awkward. Isabella hadn’t expected her question to go unanswered. Why didn’t this young man named Ethan answer her? Was it a difficult question? Or was he wary of her?

“I mean no harm. I just want to find a place to rest and buy some food.”

Still no answer from Ethan, but at least she got some response—he pointed in the direction ahead of him, which seemed to be giving her directions.

In fact, if it weren’t for the word “food” letting Ethan guess roughly what Isabella meant, he wouldn’t have been able to point out the location of the Rogue Encampment to her.

As for why he so easily revealed the camp’s location to a stranger, it was because he had already recognized the woman’s identity.

One of the five original playable characters in Diablo II, the female mage who wielded the powers of fire, ice, and lightning.

As for her backstory, Ethan hadn’t known much back in the day—not even the sorceress’s real name—but her outfit was easy to recognize.

Slightly dark skin, a green top that looked like leather armor but exposed much of her waist and abdomen; a black skirt-like bottom; brown leather boots; gold trim and various golden accessories brimming with mysterious energy.