After System's repeated threats, the snail, who was intelligent and extremely afraid of death, became much more honest. He eventually calmed down and started telling System about his past.

  This snail had a name, Jace, and was a magic creature of the Abyss. He had the ability to create vivid illusions and charm others.

  Jace soon confessed, revealing his acts of deceiving the lizardmen and luring the giant slime, then told System about the situation in the nearby area.

  Having such a native who knew this yer of the Abyss very well allowed System to gain a deeper understanding of it.

  In short, System's current location was called Moned Swamp by the creatures of this yer of the Abyss.

  The name Moned came from a powerful legendary dragon. In the beginning, Moned's dragon cave had been in the center of the swamp. Later, Moned had disappeared for some reason, but the previous name stuck around.

  System didn't ask much about the origin of the name Moned. Instead, he asked the snail about the size of Moned Swamp, the types of pnts and creatures living in the swamp, and what was outside of the swamp.

  System soon learned that outside of Moned Swamp was still more swamp, with no obvious boundary to the outside world.

  This level of the Abyss was basically just swamps, with very sparse non-swamp nd and hills.

  As for the extent of Moned Swamp, the snail Jace, who had no measuring tools, wasn't very clear. He only said that it would take more than ten days to ride a long-legged lizard beast across the swamp.

  Although there was no distinction between day and night in this level of the Abyss, there was an obvious pattern of bubbles coming out of the swamp, which would stop and start every twelve hours. The time in the Abyss was also measured according to the pattern of swamp bubbles, with days being the same length as those in the main world.

  At the upper level of the food chain in Moned Swamp, in addition to the magic lords in the neutral area where System lived, there were many rge and small lizardman tribes that had been fighting to occupy territory for years.

  The reason the lizardmen fought wasn't only to plunder resources and snatch female lizardmen, but also for Moned's treasure.

  In the past two hundred years, news had spread from an unknown source that as long as the entire Moned Swamp was occupied, the legendary dragon Moned's inheritance would be passed down, and the dragon's blood could be obtained.

  The dragon's blood held an unimaginable temptation for the lizardmen who worshiped the Dragon Cn. In addition, there hadn't been a lizardman with overwhelming power over the years, so the lizardman tribes had been fighting for two hundred years.

  Jace seemed to know Moned Swamp very well. According to him, the top creatures in Moned Swamp were extraordinary, and there were only a dozen extraordinary creatures, possibly even fewer.

  Among the dozens of lizardmen tribes, there were three extraordinary lizardmen. In addition, there were two poisonous flying dragon nests in the southwest of Moned Swamp, each containing an extraordinary flying dragon.

  In addition, the species with the most extraordinary-ranked members in Moned Swamp was System's old friend, the giant slime. There were about five or six of them spread across the swamp.

  After hearing the snail's expnation, System realized that the chances of encountering a giant slime actually weren't very high.

  There were many giant slimes in Moned Swamp belonging to the magic rank, but giant slimes with purple cores inside their bodies were actually very rare.

  ...

  Under System's questioning, Jace also expined the purpose of his trip.

  As it turned out, the snail had obtained an oval magic crystal in the lizardman tribe from which he'd obtained the location of a ruin. The magic crystal was actually the key for activating the ruins.

  After learning the news, Ying quickly located the oval magic crystal near the pce where the snail had been captured and brought it back to System.

  Unfortunately, just like he couldn't activate the teleportation array, System was unable to get a reaction from the magic crystal. Only Ying and Jace could make the magic crystal emit a faint blue light.

  It seemed that Ying's power of invisibility was very close to the snail's power to create illusions, so they could produce simir effects. Ying had been able to accurately find the snail's location previously, which was also reted to the simirity between the two's powers.

  When Ying sensed the location of the ruins, she discovered that the ruins were located exactly where System and the others had been teleported to the Abyss.

  ...

  Jace had deceived the two lizardmen and lured the giant slime to clear the way so that he could get to the ruins and activate it.

  After all, the snail didn't have any ability to protect himself. When facing intelligent creatures, creating a terrifying atmosphere might have some effect, but when encountering unintelligent magic creatures, he would still be attacked without hesitation.

  The magic creatures occupying the territory in the neutral area were stronger than ordinary magic lizardmen because they'd been in a constant state of fighting for a long time. That was why Jace had instructed the two lizardmen to lure a giant slime to clean up these powerful magic creatures.

  That was why the lizardmen and giant slime had come to System's territory.

  As for the words the two lizardmen had said before dying, the lizardmen had been completely deceived by the snail's lies; none of what they'd said had been true.

  It could be said that until the moment the two lizardmen had died, they had remained immersed in Jace's lies, believing that they would be thrown into the arms of the evil god after their death and gain eternal life.

  After hearing the snail's introduction to Moned Swamp, System knew that he could let his ant subjects breed with peace of mind. There was no need to worry that the rapid expansion of the ants would result in the colony being targeted by any intelligent races.

  The snail hadn't only deceived the two lizardmen; he had also deceived their entire small lizardman tribe. There were thirty-seven lizardmen under Jace's control, of which four were at the magic level.

  Unfortunately, due to the accident that had just happened, only two of the four magic-level lizardmen were left.

  System, who controlled Jace the snail, could be said to indirectly control the thirty-odd lizardmen who had been brainwashed by Jace.

  With Ying's help, this lizardman tribe could also annex other lizardmen, allowing him to indirectly gain control of even more lizardmen.

  The snail-brainwashed lizardman tribe wasn't far from System's current location. According to Jace's description, System estimated that it was about ten to twenty kilometers away.

  ...

  Although System didn't know whether the words the snail had spoken were all true, he could verify them one by one in the future.

  What he could verify immediately was the ruins. He quickly brought the others to the ruins they had originally teleported to, which was less than one kilometer away.

  Based on Ying's feelings about the magic crystal, there should be a huge, strange-looking building buried in the ruins.