“Hahaha, idiots!” The group on the other side laughed, except for one of them.

“I- I don’t think that they are idiots. We should jump down too.”

“Listen, boy, I’ve been to many dungeons before and it happened countless times already. Dungeons threw tables like these in your face and if you followed the ‘solution’, you usually died. At least, that’s what happened with many of my friends before. I’m an experienced dungeon diver, believe me. It’s very rare that you really have to follow-”

“Captain! You are turning shorter!” the same boy interrupted him with a panicked face.

Without waiting for even another second, all of them jumped into the chasm. They tried to use Wind Magic to slow their fall, but their Mana couldn’t leave their bodies. Instead, they slowly started slowing down as they got closer to the ground. But the slowing effect didn’t help them much as they crashed into the stone ground with a loud thump.

“A-Argh! Help me!” the boy shouted as he raised his hands. His knees shattered and broke into pieces because of the fall. Only their captain stood up and walked the way they came from, but at the bottom of the chasm this time, limping on both of his legs.

“Captain! Help us!” the boy shouted, followed by the rest of his group.

“Shut up! You’d be a burden and I won’t be able to get the ring if you stay with me. Less trouble for me, I won’t have to kill you!” he shouted without turning around.

Looking at them from afar, Dred furrowed his brows. “Strange. We slowed down completely and landed as if it was only a simple jump, while they barely slowed down. Probably this is what it meant by ‘the least you get’.”

“Cor, you can kill him if you want, but we aren’t going to wait,” Elena said as she ran the way they came from.

Cor looked back and forth unsure of what to do, but he decided to follow his friends. “I’m coming, damn it!”

“Heh, then it’s fine. I left him a small present anyway. Ekilsta will devour him when he steps into the black puddle,” Elena said when he caught up with them.

“Is that a new spell or what?” Jake asked.

“Hmm- I wouldn’t call it a spell. Since I’m the master of the hive mind connecting my body and Ekilsta, I can leave him behind and he can react like an extension of my body. And I can use Devour through my body. Here we can’t cast Magic because we are inside the dungeon. It probably doesn’t allow us. But it will happen inside my body, in a way. So…”

“Oh, I get it now,” Jake nodded his head. The moment he said it, he heard a loud scream and a few seconds later Ekilsta returned to Elena’s body.

“Just how quick is that thing?” Audrey furrowed her brows.

“Heh, it travels at the speed of light and it’ll turn even quicker later,” Elena said with a smug look on her face. They soon reached the end of the road and saw a hole in the wall in front of them, which had a diameter of five meters.

There was a chamber on the other side where Culxur was fighting against a two-meters-long worm. It had a circular mouth filled with sharp teeth, and a bone-like shell covered its body on the outside. It trashed around in the room and moved around with incredible speed. Noticing Elena and her friends from the corner of his eye, he clicked his tongue right before jumping to the side to evade the jaws of the worm.

“If we don’t get close, we definitely won’t get the ring,” Dred said and then jumped forward with a loud roar and landed on all fours in his bear form. The empty cavern echoed with his voice. The darkling that’s been following Curlux was attacking the worm as well. Each time it touched a spot on the worm, its bone-like shell turned thinner and softer, while at a few places it was already black.

“Tsk, focus on the spot on spot on its neck,” Curlux commanded the darkling.

“We shall join, whoever kills it first will get the rewards~” Elena said as she rushed past him and appeared right on top of the worm with her Shadow Step. She used Nature Magic to quickly tie her legs to its back and thrust her daggers into it. The monster screamed in pain as her daggers and her Devour got through its shell and started corroding its flesh.

It quickly rotated its body and tried to squash Elena under its back, but she jumped off expecting it. The worm gave out a strange whistle and turned towards Elena when she landed. Earth spikes shot out of the ground below her feet, but Audrey pushed her to the side with a strong gust of wind. At the same time, Dred rammed into the worm’s side and bashed its shell, leaving behind a few cracks where his head hit.

“I’m fine with that,” Curlux murmured as he ran past Elena with his darkling behind him. The worm turned its head towards him, not wishing to suffer from another attack, and spat out a mouthful of magma. Curlux held out his hand and shot a huge ball of water towards the magma, turning it into pieces of rocks.

Gracefully evading them, he reached the worm and punched its side where Dred did, followed by the devouring touch of his darkling. The monster roared in pain once again when it felt its blood leaving its body. It swung the tip of its tail, trying to wipe away everyone, but Jake and Cor blocked it with their weapons and body respectively. Audrey shot a fireball towards the same spot and it penetrated its body and exploded inside it.

The worm’s roar died down and it turned completely silent. “Did we kill it?” Cor said with a thoughtful face as he bit into the tip of the worm’s tail. With the help of Minor Devour, he got through its shell and bore his teeth into its flesh without any trouble. “It’s quite tasty!” The darkling followed his example and levitated to the side of the worm. Upon contact, the worm started dissolving.

“There is nothing…” Elena furrowed her brows, feeling disheartened.

“It’s fine. It was worth a try and none of us got hurt,” Dred soothed her and sat down beside her. But the worm suddenly started twitching and trembling. Its shell turned transparent, along with its whole insides. A ring with a blue gem appeared in the middle of it and started spinning at a crazy speed.

Bolts of lightning recreated the worm’s body, turning it into a weapon. “I suppose we can’t enter its body with a simple lightning barrier?” Elena asked Audrey hopefully.

“No chance. Those bolts of lightning are way too strong. We would be shocked to the death, but maybe Earth Magic can help unless the lightning simply makes the earth shield explode. We will have to test what happens with a piece of rock!” she replied as she shot a ball of earth towards the worm.

Before it even reached its body, a lightning struck the earth and caused it to explode.

“...Maybe if we focused on keeping it in one piece and used a lot of Mana, it would work. We could wait, but we have to hurry because I have a very bad feeling. Something is coming!” Elena thought while looking at Curlux.

“Heh, are you afraid little girl?” he smirked.

“You are quite young yourself, cheeky boy,” she replied and ran towards the lightning work, which was fifty levels ahead of her.

Clicking his tongue, the Curlux ran towards Elena and blocked her way. Since she wasn’t in ‘combat’, she was able to use Shadow Step and get behind him. She kicked his back to propel herself towards the worm and push him back at the same time.

“Bitch!” he cursed at her and quickly ran after her. Right when he caught up, Cor and Jake attacked him from both sides.

The darkling rushed to attack Elena, but it simply passed through her body without any damage. “What the fuck?!” Curlux shouted, surprised to see Elena without any wounds since other people would have rotted by now. He blocked Jake’s blades with his plated gloves and tried to push him away, but he used Blink to evade his hands. Cor bit into his shoulder from behind, cursing him with Necrosis and prevented him from catching up with Elena.

“I COMMAND YOU TO STOP!” a female voice shook the whole cavern and a blinding golden light covered everything. Elena felt somebody hit her side and she crashed into the wall on the left with a loud bang, breaking even the rock wall.

At the same time, nobody noticed Dred who snuck behind the lightning worm and covered his body with a thick layer of earth. Audrey helped him from afar by creating thick layers of earth around him. The worm also attacked him, but he got into its body and grabbed the ring. A thick cloud of mist raised into the air, hiding everything.

At Elena’s place, Inhe stood with an angered face. “YOU TRASH!” she shouted, dispersing the mist cloud. Dred stood with the ring on his finger, in his demon form, Ekrok right in front of him, his hand only a centimeter away from Dred’s. “You were quicker than me, that’s rare…” Ekrok remarked.

“Nah, you were much quicker. I just had a big headstart.”

“That’s what you say, but if not for the vine you latched onto my foot, I’d have caught you,” Ekrok furrowed his brows as he pulled back his hand and turned around.

“Heh.”

“I wouldn’t be happy in your place. Your actions will have consequences, I apologise beforehand,” Ekrok shook his head as he walked towards the hole in the wall and stopped right there. Fing arrived with Virgo right then and made a surprised face upon seeing a golden-scale-covered, three meters tall man, with short pointy ears and two long horns.

Turning to the side, Dred noticed Elena, who fell out of the hole in the wall, unconscious. Gritting his teeth, he ran to her and examined her body. “Damn it, what happened to you? Can you hear me, Elena?” he shouted in her mind, but no response came.

Touching her body, he felt that a few of her bones were broken, but nothing serious for their standards. Sighing out of relief, he leaned closer and bit his own tongue before kissing her. He forced his blood down her throat and closed his eyes. Inhe appeared behind him and grabbed the back of his head.

“You little shit, what are you doing? Being lovey-dovey? I’ll torture both of you for disobeying my command! But since you love her so bad, I’ll go ahead and kill her in front of you!” she shouted as she threw him towards another wall.

“Don’t move,” Dred commanded his friends before crashing into the wall. But he had enough time to transform into his bear form and his thick fur absorbed most of the returning force. He quickly closed his eyes and focused on his blood in Elena’s body and controlled it to spread out and heal her wounds.

As his blood reached her brain, she regained her consciousness and opened her eyes. “Huh? Already awake? Great! I can make you look at each other while I torture you!” Inhe raged on.

“Stop! You can’t kill them, look, the girl too has a ring of calamity,” Ekrok shouted.

“ARGH! Fuck it!” Inhe raised her voice and stomped on the ground. She walked up to Dred and threw him towards Elena. Both of them fell to the ground since they had no way to resist Inhe’s mighty strength. They could have used their Shadow Forms, but they knew that escaping was impossible in this kind of situation and they also knew that these two probably knew of the Devourer race.

If they used an obvious spell like Shadow Form, they would be revealed in no time. “You can move, but don’t attack,” Elena commanded their companions, seeing that they were frozen in place.

“What do we do now?” Elena asked Dred.

“The best we can do is to make the others stay out of this for now. It’s better if they are free or aren’t related to us. They don’t have a ring of calamity, and I’m afraid this woman would kill them if she found out.”

“What about the man?”

“I’m even more worried about him. Maybe he noticed that Audrey covered me. I’m not sure if he knows it or not. But we could play it off as if Jake and Cor were trying to help that woman and obey her command,” Dred quickly thought.

“Mhm, if the man doesn’t know, it could work. I’ll share your thoughts with the others,” Elena said, already doing it.

“Hell no! What do you think you are doing!?”

“Don’t be stupid, what’s going to happen to you?” Audrey and Jake shouted in Elena’s mind before she broke the connection, and thanks to her commands, they had no way to disobey her request.

“I told them to don’t fuck this up. I hope that I can really trust them with something like this. This shall be their first real test. Abandon us to help us later, hehe,” Elena chuckled in her mind.

“Yeah, but we have to survive in one piece at first. How are your bones? Can you stand up?”

“Mhm. I almost finished healing, a minute at most. Thanks dear. It’s great to have you around,” Elena thought as a small smile formed on her face.

“I love you too, but keep a straight face. We don’t want to annoy her any further. Let’s break this connection or they might notice your Mana around my head.”

Turning around, Inhe looked at Curlux and the rest of the people present. “You slave, you didn’t even try to stop when I told you to. But you have no ring to save you~” Inhe mused with a grin on her face as she walked towards Curlux.

“Block her!” he commanded the darkling and ran towards the hole in the wall. Ekrok raised his brows, wondering about the man’s ignorance. He even stepped to the side and let him leave the room, while his darkling turned into a black mass and covered Inhe’s body. But thanks to her powerful Magical Resistance, not even as much as a patch of darkness appeared on her scales.

“Against creatures like you, I just simply have to diffuse Mana and you will dissolve,” she talked to herself as she controlled the Mana in her surroundings, causing the demise of the darkling. The same could be used against Elena’s and Dred’s Shadow Form, but the weak and low-level humans didn’t know it. She swung her arm and a huge dragon paw flew towards Curlux, made up of nothing but a cluster of Mana.

Ekrok stepped back once again and let her attack pass. It obliterated the walls upon contact, along with Curlux. As the energy caught him, his body exploded on the spot and his blood sprayed on the walls and the floor. A few smaller pieces of his broken bones bounced off of the walls and gave out small knocks. “Hahaha, this guy died so hilariously. I haven’t met somebody this weak in a while,” Inhe laughed.

“What about you lot?” she furrowed her brows as she appeared in front of Cor. “Oh? An undead with intelligence? How rare you are! Maybe I’ll take you as a toy.”

*sniff*

“Ah, I better not, you filthy creature. What should I do with you? I wonder~” she mused, enjoying that she could order around everyone.

“You didn’t move after I said so, did they?” she asked Ekrok.

He looked at Elena and Dred, and then at Audrey.

Shit, he knows it, Dred cursed in his mind.

“They didn’t,” he sighed loudly.

Huh? Why did he not tell it to her? Dred thought confused.

“Y-Yeah, we were just trying to stop that man you killed,” Audrey said with a small stutter, feeling disgusted inside. Damn it, Elena. Why did you have to command me to act? I can’t even slap this bitch, even though she is right before me. But well… I understand that it’s for survival, she thought.

“Indeed, if you don’t-”

“Call me her highness, Inhe~” she interrupted Jake.

“If her highness Inhe doesn’t mind it, we three came for the ring originally, I admit. But since her highness said so, we tried to stop the others from getting their hands on it,” Jake continued. Fuck me, I feel like puking. ARGH! I’ll definitely beat up Dred if we survive this!

“Mhm, mhm. You aren’t too stupid. You may leave now, I won’t hurt you. You too, blueie and you elf, you came after us anyway,” she waved her hands and shooed everyone away.

Gritting their teeth, everyone left the cavern and found the stairs leading upwards, which appeared after they killed the boss of the dungeon. When passing beside Ekrok, he whispered, “Don’t ever try to help your friends. You should appreciate my kindness and the chance you’ve got.”

“What are you whispering there?” Inhe furrowed her brows, finding it strange that she couldn’t hear him. “Did you even use a spell?”

“Ehehe, it’s men’s thing,” Ekrok waved his hand.

“Tsk, fine.”

“Now then, what should I do with you two? You fucked up real bad. How will I face my king now, huh? Maybe if I tell him that we didn’t get here on time…” she mumbled.

“See? Had you not taken a shower when you bathed half an hour ago, we would have got here before everyone else,” Ekrok rebuked her.

“Shut up! Just help me out when we have to report to our king!” Inhe raised her voice.

“Not gonna happen. You can do it alone and I won’t say a word. But I’m not going to lie to my friend.”

“Fuck you… but alright.”

“What a dirty mouth you have, that’s as far as your grace goes, miss perfect…” Ekrok shook his head.

Clenching her fists, Inhe opened and closed her lips but couldn’t say anything back. Appearing in front of Elena and Dred, she looked into their eyes. “You don’t seem to be afraid all because you have the rings on your fingers huh? But you are wrong if you think that it’s a good thing. This just means that I can torture you without killing you~”

As soon as she said it, she grabbed Dred’s fur covered arm and broke it with a simple squeeze. She didn’t know that they were able to completely disable their sense of pain since they were in complete control of their bodies. Dred’s lack of scream and straight face surprised her a lot. “You had a demon body before, transform this instant!” Inhe commanded.

“Just do it…” Elena sighed.

As Dred transformed, Inhe grabbed his other arm and broke it as well. Her grin froze on her face upon seeing Dred’s lack of reaction for the second time. She tried her hand with Elena as well, having the same result. Her brows twitched as she slapped both of them unconscious and bound their bodies with a powerful spell.

“Now they won’t be able to move or use any kind of spell,” she muttered as she threw their bodies towards Ekrok. “You carry these bastards.”

“I’m not your underling. I’m stronger than you if my memory serves right,” Ekrok furrowed his brows, but still grabbed Elena’s and Dred’s arms with his left hand. Raising his hand, a huge roaring dragon shot out of his palm, opening a hole right to the surface.

Feeling a bit ashamed of her shortcomings, Inhe stayed silent. Both of them grew wings and flew out of the dungeon. Ekrok spotted Jake and the others on the ground. He transformed into his complete dragon form and held Elena and Dred in his paws. Ignoring the flickering lightning, he flew towards the centre, the main capital city, the location of the Dragon King, Novia Deros.