The Darkplague swamps, a place full of danger and with chaotic planar laws that made the corruption by the abyssal plane possible.

The trees where all twisted and had a dark gray color, most of these trees had no leaves and if they did have some, these leaves would have a sickly black color to them, the water was viscous and had a fetid smell; the place was covered in a very thin mist all year, and the sky above the region was always full of black clouds.

Suddenly at the border between the Sepherdia forest and the black swamp a magical gate appeared. From this gate, Marr walked out followed by Dayer and Merrich, and the gate closed behind them as if it had never existed.

Dayer let out a breath of relief as he said.

“Finally, I can get away from that crazy Elf! Damn her, she looks at me as if I was a test animal!”

Marr laughed out loud as he walked towards the border.

“Come on, she is a nice girl. It’s just a that she loves her profession a bit too much.”

Merrich who was tuning his lute by the side grinned as he added.

“And you got to admit her abilities are quite useful!”

Dayer mumbled something understandable as he walked up to Marr and Merrich who were about to enter the swamp.

-----------------------

Ardokk and Yllana where standing in front of the place she had just opened the gate for Marr and the other to get down there.

“Will Lizardman and two friends be okay?”

The Elven girl squeezed the jade slip Marr had given her with her two hands as she said.

“They will surely be okay Ardokk, we must believe in them!”

Ardokk nodded as he sat down on the floor of the deck with his legs crossed as if waiting for them.

Yllana smiled warmly looking at the Orc when she looked away a worried glint could be seen on her eyes.

[I hope they can come out unscathed.]

--------------------------

Marr and his companion went inside the Darkplague swamp with caution. Marr was leading the way as he followed the map. There was a single base inside the swamp and it was the main base of this region.

All of them had serious expressions on their faces as they looked around and made sure not to get in contact with anything that might contaminate them.

Suddenly a big wolf with bloodshot eyes and black colored fur attacked from a nearby bush, the beast was far bigger than a normal wolf and blood-thirst could be seen on its eyes. Marr quickly grabbed at the Jennu Ariiogarurt on his back and a made a cleaving motion with the axe. As the axe got down its blades suddenly lit up with a pale pink color and the familiar blue lightning arks that coursed through the axe. The axe directly hit the wolf’s neck separating its head from the rest of its body.

Marr stared at the corpse as he took a mask from his bag and put it on.

“Remember to wear your masks at all times and avoid contact with any fluids from these beasts.”

Both Merrich and Dayer nodded as they put on their own mask and followed behind the Dragonborn.

The Eladrin who was constantly inspecting his surroundings asked.

“Where is the base located?”

“Near the center of the Darkplague Swamps the closer, we get to it the more dangerous it will be. The epicenter of the corruption is located near the base if I’m not wrong.”

The three friends kept walking for a few of hours and attacks of Darkplague beasts like the previous wolf would happen increasingly more often indicating that they were going deeper into Darkplague Swamp.

As they went in deeper, the mist around the group got increasingly thick and trees with leaves could not be seen anymore.

Suddenly, a strange wail was heard as a humanoid creature could be seen at the distance. When the creature saw them, it walked in their direction. As it got closer, a human with a long sword was visible. He had black skin, bloodshot green eyes, and gray long hair.

Merrich quickly chanted an incantation and 4 small fireballs appeared behind him. The halfling extended his arm and pointed at the Darkplague corpse, the fireballs flew directly towards his target incinerating it.

Dayer looked at the corpse as shook his head as he said.

“Poor fella, probably came in here for a mission or as part of his training... he was probably at the initial level of the heroic stage.”

Marr nodded as he added.

“His appearance signifies we are getting closer to the center region. Be ready it will get a lot harder from now on.”

The three friends kept going and the attacks now had a few Heroic level Darkplague corpses added into them, the amount of Darkplague beasts slowly diminished until none could be found anymore, and the number of Heroic level Darkplague corpses raised.

As they kept walking in, the power of the Darkplague corpses increased as well as their numbers, a deep frown could be seen on Marr's face as he commented.

“The number of Darkplague corpses is rising too fast this is not normal, and there are many mid and late Heroic stage corpses in here.”

The three friends kept advancing, and it got increasingly harder for them to kill the Darkplague corpses.

Finally, after killing hundreds of Heroic stage corpses, a different silhouette appeared in front of them. When they got close enough to the creature, they realized it was a Dwarf. It was equipped with heavy armor, a tower shield and a big hammer. The signs of the infection were much less obvious on this Dwarf, his hair and beard were gray, his eyes were bloodshot and had that strange green color to them, but his skin no longer was completely black and only the bulging veins on his neck had that peculiar black color to them.

When the Dwarf saw them, he charged with his shield at their direction. Marr dodged the attack of the dwarf as he used his axe to cleave directly at the dwarf’s back. The dwarf quickly turned around despite all the weight on his body and defended the attack with his shield. The Dwarf swung his Hammer at Marr as the veins on his arms bulged up. Marr met the attack from the Hammer head-on with the blade of his axe.

Dayer who was observing the fight said to Merrich.

“Is that a Dwarven Defender? If he was of a higher level, Marr would have a hard time dealing with him.”

Merrich face had a deep frown as he commented.

“That’s without a doubt a Paragon Path Holder… things are getting harder and there is still a 30-minute walk from here to the base.”

“Hey Marr, finish it already we got to hurry!”

Marr who was engaged in combat with the dwarf suddenly dodged one of the dwarf’s attack and made a sidestep as the light on his axe got stronger and a crescent-shaped ray of light came out from it severing the Dwarf's head.

The Dragonborn walked towards his friends and was about to say something when suddenly the expressions on their faces froze up as they looked towards the mist ahead after a while many corpses could be seen walking towards them, and all the corpses were Paragon level.

Marr looked ahead and said.

“What the hell is going on, Paragon corpses should be a rare sight! How is it that they now became like cabbages!”

Dayer had an ugly expression as he looked at the Dragonborn and said.

“So, what do we do now?”