“Hey, hey. Have you heard the rumours? I heard that one of the Rings were in a nearby area,” a huge, muscular, blue-skinned guy whispered before downing a mug of beer.

“You should drink slower… you’ll drown once. And why the hell do you bother with rumours of these kinds? Hell, the remaining rings had been seen by thousands of people already, but neither of those people said the truth. You should know better than to believe in these stupid rumours. As if you would ever get your hand on one of the Rings of Calamity,” another guy with similar looks, but shorter, shook his head scornfully.

“You little… Why can’t I believe in something? Then sit on your ass and wait for something good to happen, while I gather a team and check out the location. But this time, I heard this from one of the City Lord’s guards! It isn’t a fraud this time, I’m sure! And it’s said to be the Ring of Lightning, one of the most valuable ones!” the muscular guy slapped his hand on the table as he stood up and left the pub.

“Heh, idiot. Even if it was true, somebody would kill you before you could even touch the ring,” the short guy scorned in a low voice before downing his beer.

Elena and her friends sat in the corner and ate their meals in silence, but the duo’s conversation caught their interest.

“What do you think? Should we check out this rumour?” Elena asked with her Whisperings.

“Hmm- the other guy didn’t seem to believe him and it seems like rumours like these spread around quite often. But if the City Lord too is interested in it, then we should check it out. If nothing else, we could meet him and possibly the Darkling that terrorizes people at nighttime,” Dred replied.

“Alright,” she muttered. They spent two more days in the city, gathering information. They also met the muscular guy they saw in one of the local restaurants and after questioning him, they found out more about the location too. Although he wanted to invite them as helpers, Elena refused him politely. “I thank you for your help, but I have to refuse your offer.”

“Why would ya? Don’t tell me that you plan to go without me when I told you where to go?” Fing, the blue-skinned Jötunn asked. They were a physical attributed race, but they often excelled in Wind and Water Magic too. Elena didn’t know yet that they were also an outspoken and brutish race.

“I have my team, so I do,” Elena put her hands on her hips.

“Hmm, wide hips and slim waist. You are quite strong too, perfect for breeding,” Fing muttered to himself while gazing at Elena’s body. Raising his head, he picked up on her words, “Can’t I go with you then? If the city lord really wanted to get it, you won’t stand a chance alone. The more of us goes, the higher our chances to get the ring will be.”

“You shameless bastard, you even dare to speak after saying those kinds of things loudly?” Audrey flared upon hearing him.

“What are you talking about?” Fing raised a brow.

“Dred, should we just ignore it? Maybe it’s just a thing for their race…” Elena asked, feeling lost at what to think.

“I don’t know. I’m not a Jötunn, but I don’t think that we should think about it a lot, though I’m a bit annoyed by it.”

“Haha, don’t even say it. I’ll just ignore it,” Elena thought before saying loudly, “Leave it be, Audrey.”

“Fine. But you shouldn’t say these kinds of things so openly or you will get yourself killed in the future,” Audrey grumbled.

“Is that so? I’ve never heard any woman complain because of it. But they always made similar faces compared to yours. Ah! Maybe your words are true! My father also told me that I should talk less when I last saw him,” Fing said with a sign of realization on his face.

Covering her face, Audrey shook her head as she whispered, “This idiot…”

“I heard you! So will you take me in?”

“No.” All five of them said at the same time.

“W-What’s wrong with you? Is this some kind of plot against me?”

“We met just now, how could we plot against you? You are just stupid…” Audrey struck again.

“H-hey, have mercy on him. I’m starting to feel sorry for this poor guy,” Jake soothed her.

“Muh, fine. Can we go already? I don’t even understand how are you still alive if you are this stupid,” Audrey raged on as she walked away.

“What’s gotten into her?” Elena asked.

“Maybe she gets annoyed by stupidity? I don’t know,” Dred shrugged his shoulders and went after their friends.

“Why am I the stupid one? You are really cruel to me!” Fing exclaimed, visibly hurt by their words.

“Haah- Just ignore them. But I advise you to think a bit more before doing something. If you think about it, this may be a once in a lifetime chance for you to get that ring. If you tell about it to more people, your chance will decrease. I don’t know where you heard about it, but maybe you could have got it yourself if you hadn’t run your mouth. And telling women that they are good for breeding isn’t something you should do and especially not the first time you meet. That’s all, and be well.”

Her goodbye turned into whisperings in Fing’s ears as Elena’s shape turned into black smoke and disappeared. He looked around with a surprised face, but couldn’t catch their signs even after using Sense. “This is the first time somebody talked so openly with me. Hah, and they even badmouthed me! I can’t believe it! I really shouldn’t smile, I probably look like a fool…” he talked to himself.

“Virgo, let’s go back to my father! I want to tell him that I found a few interesting people! One in a restaurant and a group on the streets! The world is really quite interesting!” as he said those words, a long, pink haired elf appeared beside him and bowed her head.

“As you wish, my prince.” Two butterfly-like wings unfolded behind her back and she grabbed Fing’s hand.

“By the way, what do you think about them? They seemed rather strong to me,” Fing asked as Virgo flew into the air, towards the capital city of Alof Kingdom.

“Their levels should be around the upper half of three hundred, but their strength may go beyond it. They were indeed very talented.”

“What do you mean by ‘should be’? Did you not inspect them?”

“I did, but all I saw was an empty, black table, instead of the usual text. They must have some kind of artefact or spell that’s blocking Inspect. Would you like me to get it?”

“No! I told you that I’m not like my brother. We can ask them about it and if they don’t wish to speak about it, they won’t. I’m not the kind of person to kill them randomly for some possible treasure. That black haired beauty, Elena. She even went as far as to teach me a few things. Nobody told me what was wrong with my style up till now and women always left me with frowns on their faces. Why did you not tell this to me before even though I asked?”

“M-My lord, I’m sorry but I’m not allowed to critique you. I’m just a servant in the palace, your personal guard. Nothing more.”

“See? This is why I keep going out of the palace. All of you are like this because of my father. I’ve sworn that one day I’ll make you all friendly with me and I need to meet travellers who don’t know my origins to do that. You will see and understand that I don’t care about my title as the second prince of Alof! Hopefully, you won’t be so thick-headed to keep up your current behaviour!” Fing grumbled unhappily.

“Haah- Maybe I can call you Fing, but only when we are alone!” Virgo said strictly.

“Yes! That much is fine!” Fing shouted happily.

“Seriously, you are always causing troubles for me,” Virgo sighed loudly and sped up.

“Tomorrow we should go to the dungeon or somebody might get ahead of us.I hope that I can count on you.”

“Of course, Master.”

“Call me Fing!”

“...”

---

Elena and her friends booked two rooms in an Inn. Elena and Dred stayed in one room, while the others again in one room. Elena and Dred took a shower together and got in bed quickly. Dred laid on his right side, his back against the wall and Elena in his arms.

“Haah- it’s so fucking cold outside, damn it! Can’t they make this Inn warm?” Elena shivered as she crept really close to Dred and covered her body with their blanket.

“You’ll be warm soon enough,” Dred whispered into her ear from behind and coiled his arms around her waist. He gave a kiss on the back of her head and closed his eyes.

“Hehe, it’s really much better. But it’s poking me…”

“I-I’m sorry, I can’t help it when you get so close to me.”

“Mhm, pervert.”

“Why? I’m a Demon, it comes naturally and I’m also hugging the person I love the most, can you really blame me?” Dred asked as he inched closer and kissed the tip of her ear and slowly moved towards her neck.

“No~ Argh, stop it, damn it. It tickles,” Elena tried to escape, but Dred held her back.

“Hahaha, stop it, the others are just a room away!” she sat up, showing her bare chest.

“...”

“Don’t look at me with puppy eyes, it’s not gonna work.”

“Yeah? Then what’s this?” Dred asked as he reached towards her lower half.

“Mh- You bastard. I’ll punish you this time!”

“Like always, yeah? Just keep your voice down.”

“I’ll try~”

---

The next day Elena woke up to knocks on the door, but by the time she opened her eyes, she saw Audrey standing in the door. “Wake up, sleepy head. We are running late! And cover yourself… you look like a mess,” she said as she shut the door.

“Good morning to you too… This is your fault, I told you that we shouldn’t do it,” she elbowed Dred in the stomach.

“Ugh. You are a woman in the heart. It’s not like I did it alone, you were in it too so it can’t be just my fault.”

“It is!” She got out of bed and quickly dressed up. By the time she combed her hair, Dred too was standing behind her, ready to go.

They quickly had breakfast and then flew towards the northern side of Alof. Luckily they didn’t have to travel for long as the dungeon was only a hundred kilometers away from the city and since all of them were able to transform into Wyverns by now, they proceeded much quicker than before. The whole travel took only half an hour.

The snow-covered landscape below them slowly turned into a barren land where not even monster could be found. Large craters filled the ground with no more than ten meters among them. In the middle of the craters, the earth seemed to be charred black. Blue bolts of lightning flickered in the dark grey clouds above the area, threatening to fall down any moment.

Cor reverted to his true form and jumped onto Jake’s back. All four them created lightning attributed shields around their bodies, right before a lightning struck Audrey. But thanks to the lightning shield, it just passed through and entered the ground without hurting anyone.

They soon reached the entrance of the dungeon where bolts of lightning struck the ground every moment, causing the ground to explode from the power of the lighting. There was a large hole in the ground that led underground. Everyone flew into that hole and was met with complete darkness. But dark blue lights soon lit up the cave because there were strange transparent cubes in the walls with bolts of lightning flickering in them.

As the size of the large tunnel continued to decrease, they landed on the ground and reverted to their original forms. It didn’t take long before they reached a spacious chamber where a few groups of people stood. Audrey was the first to spot Fing in the crowd, while Elena’s eyes caught a plain looking young boy, who stood beside a Darkling. He had short black hair, brown slit eyes, and he was two hundred and twenty centimeters tall. Inspect.

Name: Culxur

Race: Demon

Level: 435

Threat Level: 8

Race: Darkling

Rarity: Rare

Level: 426

Threat Level: 8

The Darkling looked very similar to Elena’s Shadow Form. It looked like a swirling mass of black liquid, but they usually had claws, wings, and gaping jaws. Although their claws couldn’t cut, they were able to devour and make their targets rot upon contact. Very similar to Elena’s Devour, except for the fact that Darklings were a lower ranked race and had weaker Devour. And unlike Elena, they couldn’t use it unless touching their target.

But they were still a generally fearsome race and physical attacks didn’t really work on them. And if somebody didn’t know this, they usually had a bad end very soon when fighting this kind of monster.

“Is that boy the city lord? He is really young and how did he tame an unruly monster like the Darkling?” Elena pondered.

“Maybe he found some treasure or has some kind of mind-controlling spell. You can find out if you devour him and steal his spell,” Dred replied with a chuckle.

“As if that would be so easy. We had spent most of our time training Cor and we are only at the three hundred and ninetieth level. Taking a single blow from him would be dangerous. But at least we can ignore the Darkling. Its attacks won’t have any effects on us.”

“And is that true when it comes to us too?” Jake asked with a concerned voice. After all, they were only Elena’s and Dred’s servants and were a different race.

“Since you have our blood, its attacks should be ineffective on you, but take caution if we have to fight, just in case,” Dred replied, while Elena kept eyeing the crowd.

“Great…”

Everyone in the crowd eyed the other suspiciously, and even some of the groups and teams looked at their own partners suspiciously. They all came for the same thing and only one person could have it. But since its existence wasn’t sure, nobody wanted to start a battle. The dungeon opened its gate every week and allowed entrance for death-seeking people.

Unlike on Kriton, where only new dungeons were found, the old ones were very dangerous. But anyone owning the Ring of Lightning, the Fourth Ring of Calamity, would enjoy the Dragon Emperor’s protection and would turn into an important person. No one in their right mind wanted to give up on a possibility like that.

“Oi! Hey, you lot! So you have come, hahaha!” Fing ran towards Elena and co. upon noticing them.

Elena and Dred furrowed their brows as a sense of dread filled their hearts.

“Can you feel it?” Elena asked.

“Mhm. I don’t know why, but my instincts are telling me that something bad is about to happen.”

“Yeah, and the worst is that its cause isn’t in here. It’s something else…”

“And would you guys really give up on a chance like this? No risk, no reward!” Cor interrupted their thoughts as he slapped their backs.

“Damn it, Cor. Can’t you behave?” Elena cursed loudly.

“Hahaha, but you are cute when you are angry. Right, Dred?”

“Well, I can’t deny that can I?” he shrugged his shoulders as a reply.

“Aren’t you all excited?” Fing asked as he reached them and stopped in front of them.

“We are…” Elena said with a smile, while Dred finished her thoughts, worried.

“Good to hear,” Audrey thought as she shook her head.