After ending the communication with Howard, Jeremy quickly organized his gear and set off at his fastest speed.
The Shadow City instance was located in the outskirts of Moonlight City, and Jeremy's residence was also in the outskirts of Moonlight City. However, the distance between these two places was incredibly vast.
Even at his maximum speed, it would take Jeremy approximately 20 minutes to reach the Shadow City instance.
Upon entering the instance, there was no way to predict how long it would take to locate Howard and his team.
When Jeremy arrived at the entrance of the Shadow City instance, he was surprised to find supplies left behind by Howard and his team. It seemed they had been camped at the entrance for several days.
"For such a low-difficulty instance, encountering insurmountable problems even after several days of observation? I might need to reassess whether partnering with you is a wise decision."
At this moment, Jeremy found himself at a bit of a loss for words.
In his perspective, even if a low-difficulty instance had received some enhancements, the strength of the monsters inside shouldn't be too formidable.
Both Howard and Ella had undergone extensive training over a long period.
Given their experience, these two should not encounter any unexpected issues when dealing with suddenly strengthened monsters.
"Perhaps it's because these two have been a bit too careless. It seems I need to exercise caution as well, who knows what unforeseen powerful monsters might appear within the instance?"
Before entering the instance, Jeremy made some preparations.
He placed a coordinate marker tool, which he had previously acquired, at the entrance of the instance.
The coordinate marker tool would continuously inform Jeremy of the distance between himself and the instance entrance. This allowed Jeremy to have a clear understanding of his approximate location while exploring the Shadow City instance.
Although Jeremy had never been to the Shadow City instance, he could roughly deduce the characteristics of this instance from the intelligence provided by Ella.
According to those who had previously ventured into the Shadow City instance, the place was teeming with all sorts of bizarre and grotesque monsters. Each person's description of these creatures varied significantly from others'
This implied that the Shadow City instance induced hallucinations in those who entered it.
The coordinate marker tool enabled Jeremy to swiftly assess his situation when confronted with illusions.
The closer he was to the instance's entrance, the weaker the enemies would be.
Conversely, the farther he was from the instance's entrance, the stronger the enemies would become.
After making all necessary preparations, Jeremy entered the Shadow City instance without hesitation.
Upon passing through the instance's entrance, Jeremy found himself facing a deep, seemingly bottomless passageway that appeared to lead straight to an infernal abyss.
Descending through the dark corridor, Jeremy spent roughly ten minutes before finally reaching the official entrance of the Shadow City instance.
The entirety of Shadow City was now laid out before Jeremy.
Shadow City appeared to be an ordinary city shrouded in shadows, albeit an ancient one rather than a contemporary metropolis.
The whole of Shadow City was encircled by a towering wall, upon which vague silhouettes seemed to linger.
These subordinates of Howard had already fallen into a state of unconsciousness, leaving Jeremy with no choice but to place some defensive items around them. He then continued his advance towards the deeper parts of the Shadow City instance.
At the very center of Shadow City's surface section, Howard, Ella, and the others had already been waiting for over half an hour.
Their moods had shifted from initial excitement to a feeling of time dragging endlessly, eventually transforming into the current state of restless anxiety.
"Captain, do you think Jeremy might have deceived us? Is he really coming to rescue us?"
One member of the Black Dragon Squad whispered to Ella, unable to contain his apprehension.
Ella shook her head.
In truth, she wasn't sure if Jeremy would come to save her. After all, their relationship had never been particularly good before.
Upon hearing this, the expressions on Howard's subordinates' faces turned slightly grim.
If Jeremy had no intention of rescuing Ella, would he not come to save them either?
"General, is there really someone coming to rescue us? If Jeremy has deceived us, should we consider taking action to save ourselves?" Howard's subordinate asked a question that weighed heavily on his mind.
Howard shook his head at this moment.
"You don't need to entertain the illusion of relying on your own strength to escape this predicament. We've already tried that before, and no matter which direction we advance, it's impossible to leave this place."
"What we need to do now is wait patiently, and during this waiting period, we must absolutely conserve our energy. Even if Jeremy arrives, he won't be able to carry all of us out by himself."
"We still need to rely on our own physical strength to walk out under Jeremy's guidance."
Despite the immense danger they've encountered and the lack of options besides hoping for Jeremy, Howard was still contemplating how to rescue all of his subordinates.
Ella found Howard's words quite laughable.
Considering how to rescue others without ensuring one's own safety first—isn't that a rather arrogant notion?!
As everyone waited with anxious anticipation, the sound of rapid footsteps suddenly echoed nearby.
When they turned to look in the direction of the footsteps, they saw Jeremy approaching with a smile on his face.
"So, it turns out all of you are hiding here! I thought you had already ventured into the underground section of Shadow City. It seems your exploration progress is exceedingly slow."
Though Jeremy's words were dripping with sarcasm towards Howard and Ella.
His mere appearance was enough to lift their spirits slightly.
"You've finally shown up! I have other subordinates scattered elsewhere, we need to rescue all of them as quickly as possible, so let's not waste any more time."
Howard hoped to urge Jeremy into action to save the others.
However, Jeremy remained motionless, simply stating to Howard, "Rescuing your subordinates is something you can handle on your own. My task is to completely resolve this instance."
"And I must inform you, the rewards within this instance are exclusively mine. You are not entitled to any share because you have made no contributions towards solving it."