The corpses of bat monsters lay, blood and chunks of flesh were scattered around the stone bridge while several of the bat monsters struggled weakly or floated, dead in the river. A couple members of the Black Feather group were picking through the corpses while the rest sat to catch their breath.

Beginning the crossing wasn’t bad, as no monsters had confronted them at the river bank. However, while crossing the stone bridge to reach the other side, a cloud of bat-like monsters had appeared from deeper within the cave. A combination of the large bats and the bats with sharp wings had descended upon them in a tirade of flashing wings and snapping mouths. Most of the monsters were killed off with Luna’s water magic, which she could skillfully manipulate into large orbs of water or high-pressured water sprays. Although the water orbs she created were less powerful than a water blast, it was enough to knock the bats out of the sky or knock them into the water, and it took less time to chant the spell to conjure water orbs.

The rest of the group had a much lesser contribution to the battle, instead focusing on protecting Luna and Ramey by fending off the bats to buy time for them to chant spells. In this regard, Weld was a great help, using his skill [Provoking Shout] to attract the attention of a large portion of the incoming bats, tanking the blows while Ramey healed him.

Although no other types of monster had appeared at that point, the group had been slightly tired after that encounter. Luna had also reported that she was lower on mana before consuming a potion made to stimulate her mana regeneration. The cost of the potion itself was fairly high due to the rare ingredients required to make it, but the group was confident that they could pay off the cost of the potion and then some after they reported this monster world. After all, monster worlds contained valuable resources and had high chances of containing monsters which had cores. Collecting the resources and bringing them back, plus reporting the monster world itself was a surefire way to make a good amount of cash, in fact, enough to let them live comfortably for a few years. If they were normal people.

Unfortunately, the Black Feather group was made up of these adventurers and a few other members, who required maintenance of weapons and medical treatment at times. Expenses for potions and enchanted items ate away at their savings, but they were well worth it if a life was saved in exchange for an item. Many adventurer groups saw large amounts of money come and go in their occupation, and the Black Feather group was no different.

They poked through the monster carcasses searching for cores while Luna filled back up on her mana capacity before crossing the bridge finally.

“There weren’t any cores…” grumbled Weld. “Hopefully there’s some good plants or ores we can find?”

“It’s unknown whether or not we’ll find anything,” Allen replied curtly. “We just need to find the culprit wolves and their tamers and bring back proof that they had died, or find the core of this place. Although there haven’t been many indications of the wolves right Ali?”

“No signs of wolves. We came across patches of blood and fur outside, but no actual sightings of wolf-like monsters within. No signs of humans either. It’s strange since we would’ve at least found bones, fur, or blood but none of those have been spotted.” Ali reported.

“Then we continue to look and possibly find resources too.” With that, the group continued on their way.

They killed their way through many insect-type monsters yet found no clues. The plants and trees were orderly and undisturbed while the monsters which came at them were pathetically weak. Although their stamina was withered down bit by bit with approaching monsters, there were no real threats capable of harming them; much less taking out several villages’ worth of people.

“This is concerning. There aren’t any wolf-like monsters or powerful monsters yet the trail ended here.” Ali voiced his concerns out. “How are we going to report this?”

In that very moment, several wolves attacked them. These weren’t evolved wolves; they were simply normal wolves. It only took a few skills from Allen and Weld to put them down.

“Thoughts?” Ramey looked at Ali with a pointed look as he crouched down and looked down at the wolves, taking the body of one and lifting it up to his nose.

“There are no signs that these wolves have fought recently. They’re all healthy with no injuries and I can’t smell anything on their fur, even with my skills. They don’t smell anything like the outside does.” Ali said after taking a long sniff as well as feeling the wolf bodies. “Plus, these aren’t Black wolves. They’re Grey Wolves. The fur doesn’t match what we found outside.”

“Grey Wolf fur is tougher and thicker than Black Wolf fur, it’s unlikely to have fallen off even if the wolves brushed against sharp thorns so it’s possible for grey wolves to be the culprit.” Allen pointed out.

“We’ll see.” Luna told the two. “We should at least find the core before we find all of the monsters and wolves and whatnot.” With that, the group continued deeper into the monster world.

After a short while again, the group encountered another group of monsters which consisted of two large boars, and three evolved wolves. The boars charged forward aggressively while the wolves darted in from the sides. Once again, Weld used his [Provoking Shout] skill followed by [Fortify] to bear the charge of the boars while his teammates attacked the wolves. After a short battle, the wolves were killed, followed by the boars, who even managed to slightly injure Weld in their death throes. After Ramey finished healing Weld, and the wolf bodies were analyzed by Ali, the group continued until they reached a strange stone forest, with pillars rising up towards the sky.

Amazed at their surroundings, Ramey whispered to herself “What the hell…” as the group traipsed through the pillars. Weld remained at the front, followed by Ali, Ramey and Luna, then Allen. In the slightly more open space around them, it was better to maintain a loose formation which could engage enemies from all angles. Currently, no monsters had appeared, but Ali had noted that the place stunk of wolves and goblins, but not of blood or people. Suddenly, Ali spotted something out in shock.

“That’s a Mana Stalk guys! Right there!” Ali signaled for the rest of the group to wait as he ran up to the stalk, which was growing out of a pillar of stone.

Resembling a common weed, the mana stalks had a base of thing grass blades with a single long stem growing out of the center of them. At the edge of the stem, a bud grew. Mana stalks which absorbed a lot of mana would have their buds open up into a beautiful blue flower, yet this one remained closed, meaning that it hadn’t absorbed enough mana to grow to its full potential yet. Even though it wasn’t full, it was still worth a decent amount due to its mana restoring capacities.

Whipping out his dagger, Ali slowly began to pry the plant out through the pillar from the base of its roots to ensure its freshness. Unbeknownst to him, the pillar began to crumble under his prying. The pillars had been trapped by Dylan to crumble under slight disturbance, and within a few seconds, a crack alerted Ali.

Jumping back just in time, Ali activated his skill [Shimmer Step] which caused his body to move with frightening speed back to his allies, leaving behind a strange mirage which slowly faded away. As the pillar he had triggered fell, it crashed into other pillars causing the destruction of even more pillars as heavy chunks of stone fell from the sky.

Shouting, Weld called his allies over and activated [Fortify]. Allen held his shield up as well, and Luna, muttering under her breath, conjured a thin water barrier over the group quickly. Ali braced himself against Weld and Ramey chanted before casting the spell [Endurance] on her allies to further bolster their defenses. As the pillars came crashing down, most of the stones were at least slowed down by the water barrier before crashing down heavily on Weld and Allen’s shields. It only took a minute or two before all of the surrounding stone pillars had fallen. Luckily enough, all of them were alive and unharmed, yet weary.

Shaking off the dust and pebbles which covered them, the group looked around only to hear growling and grunting around them. Looking up, it appeared almost as if the debris which had landed around them had sealed off some of their escape. Shapes began to emerge from the large boulders dotted with holes, and began to climb over the fallen pillars. In a moment, dozens of goblins had surrounded them, all of them glaring aggressively towards the group. Their attention was caught by two large goblins which had pulled themselves onto a large boulder; one of them was green skinned with a large horn protruding from its head and fangs from its mouth, its bulk towering over the other goblins by at least a couple feet. The other was a tall and lanky goblin with purple skin and a wiry build, and two sharp horns protruding from its forehead.

Weld put himself between the larger goblins and his group, while Ali and Allen faced the other sides of the goblin encirclement. Luna and Ramey began to hurriedly chant spells, but they were interrupted by the purple skinned goblin, which surprisingly began to speak in the common tongue.

“Human! Why have you come into My Lord’s Dungeon?!”