The direction Cody was taking him was further and further away from the crowd. There, Miles saw a small opening in the ice wall. He could see that the opening was man-made and only big enough for a person to fit barely. Miles doubted Zall would fit there.

‘Why would they bother with such a thing?’ Miles pondered as he came before the opening. From the opening, he couldn’t see anything. For some reason, the hole was taking curves, and the end of it couldn’t be seen. ‘That is strange.’

Miles felt something was wrong. ‘Is it a trap? Although it seems like it, there are many people outside of the cave, and at the first sign of trouble, they would swarm to this place. I also have the means to escape if it is a trap.’

“Let’s enter,” Cody said and walked into the opening. Miles was hesitant for a second, so he opened the heat vision to take a peek inside. But because of the thick icy walls, he couldn’t even see Cody who had just entered, let alone the inside. He switched to elemental vision, but the result was the same. The ice element was covering and blocking what was lying behind it.

“I should be able to escape if something goes wrong,” Miles muttered silently and entered the opening. He took turns several times on a twisting path, and only after taking the 15th turn did he arrive in the dim cave. There, he saw Cody was talking with five people. He looked at them but failed to recognize any of them.

When he entered, the five looked at him. For a second, Miles felt hostility, but he shrugged it off as his imagination, but he still had his guard up. He walked to the side of Cody and waited.

“Shouldn’t you remove your armor to show your goodwill now that we are working together?“ One at the lead said. Miles looked at the person. He wasn’t tall nor short, his face was average too. Everything about him was as normal as it could be. He was the type of person one wouldn’t remember after meeting.

Miles didn’t answer the question but looked around. The cave wasn’t big at all, so he could see every part of it, but he still felt something was amiss.

“We are talking to you, Marooner. Don’t think you are a hot-shit!” Another one shouted with rage.

“Strange indeed,” Miles said silently.

“What is so strange?” The one in the lead asked.

“Cody, didn’t you tell me you haven’t mentioned my name?” Miles asked Cody.

“I didn’t, I swear. I just told them I have a strong friend who can help.” Cody defended himself.

“Then why haven't they shown any reaction when I first entered?” Miles asked. “At first, I thought they didn’t recognize me. It is normal, after all, I am not that famous. But that one called me with my name which only means they do recognize me but still haven’t shown any strong reaction upon my arrival. So the most possible explanation would be that they were expecting me.”

“It was them who approached you and wanted to team up with you right?” Miles asked again while he was still watching the five. After he asked the question, five finally showed emotion could be interpreted as panic.

“Yes! They came to me and asked me to bring a strong hunter. If I could, we could team up with them and they would let us take the orb from the ice dragon.” Cody answered hastily then realized. “They lured you here through me.”

“Yes. It is okay. It is not your fault.” Miles nodded. “You were only a chatterbox so they used you.”

“This is a trap, we should run away. You should run away!” Cody said in panic but Miles shook his head calmly.

“Hmm. Ever since we entered this cave, we fell into their trap. I am sure the entrance and the only exit is already blocked, so entering that narrow path is worse than fighting over here.” Miles said and fished out two orbs. One of them melted with a small gesture of him and covered his body with a red cape with purple motifs. He let the armor open slightly and stored the second orb near his arm. It looked like a bump under his armor.

“You can come out now, I have no intention to rush out,” Miles said loudly. The cave walls behind the five crumbled down and more than twenty people walked out. Miles recognized most of them to be Tian Ling and Mihr Orril’s men. There were even some with Starve Cleric outfits.

“Haha! What would your grandfathers think, Tian and Orril? You are getting in the same bed with Starve Cleric.” Miles grinned underneath his armor and looked at the opening. There he saw four people walking in. At the lead, there was a Starve Cleric girl with Eloise Holmes?

“Eloise Holmes! Now that is strange.” Miles wasn’t expecting her to be here. She was Olivier’s older sister and was more talented than her brother. Although she was still in Grace-Rank, similar to Quinn it was because her superpower was a bit peculiar, making it much harder for her to level up to Form-Rank.

Olivier’s superpower was the fireball. Simple and destructive. His sister, Eloise, on the other hand, had a rarer form of the fire element, Life Fire. It was a long shot but in a nutshell, she was the warmness of the sun giving life to Earth. Like Xavic, she couldn’t use her superpowers to hurt monsters but her healing attribute was making up for it.

She was the prodigy of the Holmes family and the most talented one. She was bad news, no questions there.

“Hello, Marooner!” She smiled brightly and greeted Miles. Her eyes were like a pair of sun, warming the inside of the cave. Her bright pinkish-red hairs were falling on her shoulders like a waterfall made of flames. She was wearing purplish-blue light armor and great hateful posture, wanting nothing but destroying Miles.

“Welp, me and my curiosity. When will I ever learn?”

*****

Dear reader! People who read couple of chapters leaves 1 or 2 start ratings, dropping the rank of the novel even further while you my dear readers don't rate the novel at all. Please help this poor author by spending short few minutes of yours and review this novel!!!