Somewhere inside the jungle, Aldon regained consciousness and stood up groggily. Remembering what had occurred, he hastily looked around and realized that the fascinating city structures he had encountered when they entered the city were nowhere to be found, and they were replaced by a dense jungle. He quickly observed his body and sighed in relief as he found out that he had only sustained some minor injuries from the explosion.

Aldon noticed a figure lying under a tree not so far from him and approached it carefully. As he neared the figure, he started to make out its features. Noticing the luscious green locks of hair on the figure, Aldon recognized that it was Celes! It appeared that she was still unconscious from the explosion.

Aldon cast a Realm 1 Water-attributed Spell ‘Create Water’ and sprinkled some of the water formed by the Spell onto Celes’ face, intending to wake her up. Maybe due to the water, she slowly stirred and began to gain consciousness.

Just when Celes was regaining consciousness, Aldon felt shivers run down his spine as he perceived a ferocious gaze focused on his back. Taking action immediately, Aldon quickly grabbed Celes by her waist and flash-casted[1] the Realm 4 Lightning-attributed Spell ‘Mirage Dash’ on himself. The Spell increased the caster’s overall agility by ten times! In addition to the immense boost of agility, the Spell also created a mirage of the caster at his original position!

With Celes in tow, Aldon hurriedly distanced himself from under the tree and witnessed a huge shadow rapidly charge into the mirage formed by the Spell. Since the mirage didn’t produce any resistance due to it being an intangible phenomenon, the huge shadow easily passed through it and crashed into the tree behind it.

The intense force behind the crash decimated the tree as the shadow started to sway, seemingly disoriented from the impact. Due to this, Aldon could properly make out the shadow’s features. It was a bizarre creature towering almost two meters in height. Its head and lower body were that of a bull’s, and its torso was that of a silverback gorilla’s. Two golden horns protruded from its head majestically. It looked eerily similar to the mythological creature ‘Minotaur’ Aldon had heard about during his life on Earth. But, instead of being part-bull and part-human, this hideous creature appeared to be part-bull, part-gorilla.

While Aldon was observing the creature, Celes regained consciousness and became aware of being held by Aldon. Blushing, she struggled to break free from Aldon’s tight grasp. Noticing Celes had awakened, Aldon promptly released her and, gesturing to be silent, pointed towards the creature.

Celes noticed the creature and whispered horrifiedly, “What’s a Tavropithikos doing here? It’s a Dungeon Beast ascertained to possess the same prowess as a Realm 4 Mage!” The moment she spoke, she remembered the Dungeon’s explosion and hurriedly looked at her surroundings. Noticing the dense jungle, she realized what had happened and sighed.

Refocusing on the creature known as ‘Tavropithikos’, Celes drew her weapons, two huge dual-bladed axes, and wielded one in each hand, intending to fight it. Just as she was about to charge towards the Tavropithikos, Aldon placed a hand on her shoulder, stopping her. He whispered with a twinkle in his eyes, “Leave this to me. I want to have a serious battle for once!”

Celes observed Aldon’s excited face and his piercing gaze towards the Tavropithikos and felt aroused. Not noticing this, Aldon rushed towards the creature, with his eyes burning with fervor.

Aldon reached the Tavropithikos in an instant due to the Spell ‘Mirage Dash’ still being active. He instantly covered his hands and forearm with his Mana Armor and proceeded to punch the back of the still slightly disoriented creature. His hands and forearm were covered by his Mana Armor which took on the form of grey gauntlets as he struck the creature with immense force.

Astonishingly, the creature didn’t even flinch slightly, as if it hadn’t noticed Aldon’s attack. Instead, it was Aldon who was thrown back a few feet due to the rebound of his attack. Laughing, Aldon infused some of his Mana into the silver tattoo on his left wrist. Alastair suddenly materialized in Aldon’s left hand, taking the form of a staff. Gripping the staff with both hands, Aldon took a battle stance, simultaneously radiating intense bloodthirst.

The Tavropithikos, now recovered from its disorientation, noticed this bloodthirst and turned towards Aldon. Aldon noticed that the creature had gone berserk and lost all its intelligence as its eyes were glowing red, and he once again charged into the creature.

Stretching his hands upwards to their extent, Aldon brought Alastair crashing down towards the Tavropithikos’ head. The creature still had some awareness left as it realized the strength behind the blow and shielded its head with both its arms.

Aldon slammed Alastair heavily onto the creature’s guard, causing turbulent gusts of wind to rise from the impact. These turbulent winds brought back Celes to her senses as she stopped fantasizing about Aldon. She started to observe the fight between Aldon and the Tavropithikos intently. At the same time, she also kept an eye on their surroundings, watching out for any disturbances.

Alastair seemed to have dealt quite a damage to the creature as it began to bellow loudly in agony. Backing off, Aldon observed the creature’s forearm, where the blow had connected, and spoke with a sparkle in his eyes, “Truly fascinating! This creature’s defense is remarkable! I truly believed that this strike would break some of its bones! To think that it only suffered some minor injuries! This is going to be interesting!”’

Howling loudly, the creature started throwing punches wildly at Aldon. Grinning, Aldon guarded against the punches with his forearms which were covered by his Mana Armor, intending to figure out his opponent’s power. He was bombarded with one punch after another restlessly.

After defending against a few punches, Aldon’s Mana Armor began to crack. Noticing this, Aldon quickly side-stepped the subsequent punches with the help of his still-active Spell ‘Mirage Dash’ and put some distance between himself and the Tavropithikos.

The Tavropithikos didn’t notice this and continued to barrage Aldon’s mirage with his punches. Noticing this, Aldon took a break to plot out his strategies to deal with this creature.

Taking only a few seconds to finalize his strategy to deal with the Tavropithikos, Aldon licked his lips in excitement and cast the Realm 4 Lightning-attributed Spell ‘Chain Current’ on Alastair. Though Alastair was made of wood from the World Tree and possessed insulating capabilities, the Spell still created numerous arc of electric currents on its surface. Aldon could hold Alastair without being electrocuted himself because of the Mana Armor covering his hands.

With a sparkle in his eyes, Aldon rushed towards the creature, which was still pummelling the mirage relentlessly, and lightly tapped Alastair on its back. The arcs of current flowed from Alastair to the ground through the Tavropithikos. The creature started shaking wildly and let out screams of anguish.

Knowing that the electrocution itself wouldn’t be enough to finish the Tavropithikos, Aldon backed off a bit, stretched out his right hand, and flash-casted the Realm 4 Fire-attributed Spell ‘Inferno Vortex.’ A swirling, orangish-red ball of dense fire formed above his palm, which appeared to be in tranquility.

Aldon threw this ball of fire at the creature that was paralyzed by the electrocution and retreated a few steps back. The moment the swirling ball of fire came in contact with the creature, it exploded and created a huge vortex of blazing fire that encompassed the creature in its entirety. The creature let out screams of immense pain as it ran here and there, wanting to extinguish the flames.

Celes, who was witnessing the fight, almost felt pity towards the Tavropithikos because of the hugely one-sided battle.

Aldon watched the rampaging Tavropithikos come to a standstill as the flames slowly started to die out. Though the creature was badly burnt, it was still alive, albeit very close to death. Being this close to death seemed to have made the creature regain its sense as it broke free from its berserk state.

Aldon accidentally made eye contact with the Tavropithikos and was shocked by what he saw. He could make out signs of intelligence from its eyes. It was seemingly pleading with him to end its life quickly.

Aldon was completely aghast by this since he had never heard about any Dungeon Beast possessing even the slightest amount of intelligence. Even in his previous life, in every Dungeon he had entered, he had only encountered savage, berserk Beasts!

Though various thoughts were running amok in his head, Aldon made a grim face as he rapidly approached the creature and cast the unranked Spell ‘Mana Arrow’ which he had obtained from the Tower of Gods. He quickly ended the creature’s suffering with a stab right between its eyes from the Arrow that had materialized in his hands due to the Spell.

In its last moments, the Tavropithikos’ eyes seemed to express relief, confusion, and grief! Aldon perceived all of this as various thoughts ran through his mind.

The Tavropithikos’ body slowly disintegrated, only leaving behind its glorious horns. No one knew why the Dungeon Beasts, without any exceptions, disintegrated after dying and left behind a part of their bodies.

Seeing Aldon standing still, Celes hurriedly approached him and questioned him worriedly, “Captain! Are you alright? You haven’t sustained any major injuries, right?”

Snapping back to his senses, Aldon forced a smile as he replied, “I’m alright! I was just occupied with some thoughts.” Though she knew something was not right, Celes didn’t question her Captain and kept quiet.

Aldon changed the subject as he exclaimed with a smile, “I very much required that fight! I haven’t been able to go all out in quite a long time!”

Celes thought about something as she questioned curiously, “Doesn’t Captain train with the Commander-in-chief all the time? Do you hold back during your spars?”

Aldon quickly clarified his words, “Ah! I didn’t mean it that way! The thing is, during every spar with my Grandpa, it’s not that I don’t want to go all out; rather, I can’t! Due to Grandpa’s experience and sneaky tactics, I barely manage to draw out half of my actual strength during the spars! Training with him is surely rewarding, but the inability to show your utmost strength in them can be frustrating!”

Just as Celes was about to express her admiration, a loud screech resounded within the depths of the jungle. Both of them realized that the commotion caused by Aldon’s fight with the Tavropithikos could potentially attract more Dungeon Beasts. They quickly stopped their conversation and nodded to each other, agreeing on something.

Aldon quickly put the Tavropithikos’ horns into his storage bag, and both of them started to walk deeper into the forest, away from the screech, wanting to get away from their current location. A storage bag was a type of Artifact that contained a small dimension where one could store things. Though the manufacturing processes and theory behind the storage bag were only known to a few top-ranked elves, it was widely available to the elves of the Empire.

***

Aldon and Celes traveled for a few hours, and as the sun slowly set, decided on a place to camp for the night. They pitched their individual tents nearby and started a fire to warm themselves from the chilling cold of the night.

Both Celes and Aldon sat around the fire, warming themselves with both of them occupied with their own thoughts. Breaking the silence, Aldon questioned Celes, “Celes, have you ever heard of a Dungeon Beast possessing intelligence?”

Celes came to her senses as she answered, “No. I’ve never heard of such a thing!” She continued, puzzled by the question, “Isn’t it common knowledge that none of the Dungeon Beasts possess intelligence?”

Aldon replied, “It is! That’s why I was puzzled by the clear signs of intelligence in that Tavropithikos’ eyes!”

Taken aback by Aldon’s words, Celes laughed and dismissed it, “Hahaha! Captain, you must be tired from the fight! Maybe your eyes deceived you at that time! So many things occurred one after the other. You may have been overwhelmed by stress!”

Aldon spoke with a doubtful voice, “Perhaps so!” Realizing that he couldn’t unravel the mystery behind it with his limited information regarding the Dungeon Beasts, Aldon stopped thinking about it and prioritized the current situation. They were separated from their squad and were camping in unfamiliar territory.

Aldon questioned Celes, “Do you have any means of contacting your squad?” Celes remembered that she had forgotten to keep Aldon up to date and answered, “I’m so sorry, Captain! I should have informed you of this before. I have already contacted my squad while you were battling the Tavropithikos. We all have an artifact through which we can communicate with each other and even locate each other. I have only confirmed their well-being and haven’t issued any orders to them. I forgot to mention this to ask for your orders! I’m truly sorry!” She bowed her head down and apologized profusely.

Aldon realized that it was also partly his fault since he hadn’t bothered asking the question and was preoccupied with other things. He waved his hand and spoke, “Don’t mention it! We both are to blame for this! Rest easy!”

Aldon began to think about their situation inside the former city of Cartos, now turned into a jungle, and looked up at the Barrier enclosing the city. It was shimmering with a slight glow and appeared to have cut them off from the outside world. He sighed and thought, ‘It appears that the Barrier has activated in its entirety, making it impossible for anyone to enter or exit this city. Then our next course of action should be this...’

Arriving at a decision, Aldon spoke with Celes, “After intense contemplation, I’ve decided on our next course of action. We are trapped within this Barrier due to it being activated in its entirety. Hence, we should advance to the heart of this jungle and destroy the Dungeon’s Core. It’s the only way we can destroy the Dungeon, and along with it, the threat it poses. Its detonation should be able to blow this Barrier away! It’s like killing two birds with one stone. But before that, we should regroup. Convey to the squad that they are to regroup first thing in the morning! Each of them should seek out the closest squad member to them and regroup with them. Once all of us are gathered, we’ll advance to the heart of the jungle!”

Celes had never once heard anything about the Dungeon Core and questioned Aldon, “Captain! What is this Dungeon’s Core you’re talking about?” Aldon remembered that the elves hadn’t explored any Dungeons completely and thought to himself, ‘I always wondered why the advanced civilization of the elves hadn’t explored any Dungeon in its entirety. Coming to the Kingdom of Anae sure made me realize why! If this level of Dungeons is the common sort of Dungeons that spawn in the Empire, then it's absolutely understandable why they haven’t explored them in entirety.’

Aldon answered patiently, “The Dungeon Core is sometimes a place, sometimes a thing, which is located in the heart of the Dungeon and is its essence. It is also the reason for the Dungeon’s existence. Destroying it causes the Dungeon to vanish from existence like it never existed in the first place.” Giving some time for Celes to digest the information, Aldon continued, “Convey this information along with the orders to the squad as soon as possible.”

Acknowledging her Captain’s commands, Celes pulled out her communication Artifact that looked a lot like a flip phone, infused some Mana into it, and conveyed Aldon’s words and orders to her squad.

Aldon noticed the flip phone-like Artifact and wondered how eerie it felt to see Earth-like technologies in this world. He stopped wondering about it as he had experienced such instances several times in his previous life.

Aldon remembered something and questioned Celes after she finished conveying the orders to her squad members, “Do you also have any means to communicate with the troops of Kingdom of Anae?”

Celes replied apologetically, “No. Unfortunately, the Dungeon blew up before we could exchange communication methods!” Aldon sighed heavily and hoped for the Prince and the troop’s well-being.

Both Aldon and Celes started eating their supplies in silence; each once again caught up in their own thoughts. Aldon finished eating quickly and started to rummage through his storage bag, looking for something. Noticing this, Celes questioned curiously, “What are you looking for, Captain?”

Aldon answered, still rummaging through his storage bag, “Well, I had packed a bunch of Dungeon Beast Wards that I had bought in the Sunshine Marketplace, but I cannot seem to find them! It would be the perfect solution to keep the Dungeon Beasts at bay during the night. Argh! Where did those go?”

Celes smiled and pulled out a bunch of them from her storage bag. Their appearance was of thin sheets of paper with something written on it illegibly. She spoke, “Don’t worry, Captain! I have plenty of them!” She continued proudly, “No soldier of the Elven Empire would forget to prepare the most essential item when exploring a Dungeon!”

Aldon scratched his chin awkwardly and laughed wryly as he soon realized that he had accidentally given away his portion of the Dungeon Beast Wards to Taeral when he had divided their supplies in the Sunshine Marketplace.

Celes soon finished eating, placed one Dungeon Beast Ward in front of each of their tents, and sat beside Aldon. Both of them chatted for a while and decided to sleep one at a time, the other keeping guard of the camp, just in case the Wards didn’t work. Though Aldon insisted that he would stand guard for the first half of the night, Celes adamantly demanded that he rest first since he had battled with the Tavropithikos earlier.

Resigning to Celes’ demands, Aldon smiled, waved goodnight to her, and entered his tent. He entered his sleeping bag and comfortably entered the dreamland.

***

After a few hours, Celes entered Aldon’s tent and started to gently shake him, intending to wake him up. He gradually woke up and stretched comfortably, indicating that he had a good sleep. He quickly went outside his tent to stand guard.

Instead of sleeping in her tent, Celes made herself comfortable inside Aldon’s sleeping bag and slowly drifted into sleep. Aldon didn’t think too deeply into it as he thought that she was so tired that she couldn’t be bothered to spend any energy to go to her tent.

Aldon sat on a nearby log and found that the night was extremely cold, as he rubbed his palms together to warm himself. He stood guard, vigilantly observing any disturbances.

***

After a few more hours, just when the sun was about to rise and, Aldon had gotten up from the log to wake Celes up, he noticed a slight fog forming around their surroundings. He didn’t dismiss it as a phenomenon of nature as he observed his surroundings carefully.

As the fog slowly started to thicken, Aldon caught a glimpse of a thin shadow prancing around their tents. Alarmed that he hadn’t noticed it till now, Aldon quickly summoned Alastair and shouted, “Intruders! Prepare for confrontation!”

Celes suddenly woke up from her sleep due to Aldon’s shout and rushed out of the tent brandishing her weapons, ready for battle.

Seeing Aldon and Celes armed and vigilant, the thin shadow vanished into the thicket of the fog as its sinister, high-pitched cackle resounded around them. The cackle sent shivers down both of their spines as they gripped their weapons tightly, feeling a sense of uneasiness.

***(Footnote)***

[1] Flash-casting: Flash-casting is a Technique to cast any Spell instantly, without the requirement of gathering surrounding Mana and constructing the Spell tediously. When a caster completely masters a particular Spell, the method of Flash-casting it is automatically conveyed to the caster’s mind. Flash-casting is associated with each individual Spells. The caster would have to master each of them in order to Flash-cast them.