"Look Toby, I don't think this is a good idea, the receptionist at the adventurers guild said the Obion Cave wasn't safe for E-ranked or lower adventurers at the moment." the yellow-haired, with black spots all over it, demi-human leopard girl stated as she firmly placed her foot on the ground. Toby, a snow white-haired demi human dog, turned to face her with a smug grin.

"Pfft, that was days ago, whatever it was must be gone by now," Toby remarked.

"Jazzy's right, this doesn't seem like a good idea." the shortest person in the group, a purple-haired and purple-feathered armed harpy girl stated. The blacked hair boy, whose shoulders the harpy girl was standing on, nodded his head in agreement with her. Toby sighed as his arms slumped, in response to the group's reluctance. The sound of crunching gravel caught Jazzy's attention and she spotted Zalroth, as Minia was still repairing his white sun tattoo. She quickly pointed out Zalroth to the group before the four of them hurried over to him. Zalroth came to a stop as the four kids quickly rushed over to him.

"Hello there, is there something I can help you with?" Zalroth asked as the children were talking amongst themselves. Zalroth tilted and waited until the kids stopped talking.

"You're the guy right?" Toby confidently asked. Toby's question confused Zalroth, making him tilt his head even further.

"The... guy?" Zalroth asked as he scratched the back of his left ear.

"Yeah, a guy at the adventurers guild mentioned a silver-haired kitsune took down his unprofessional party members with ease, that's you right?" Jazzy stated. Zalroth chuckled a little at Jazzy's statement.

"Yeah, that was me.". Zalroth rubbed the back of his head. The kids' eyes excitedly looked up at Zalroth.

"You must be a pretty strong adventurer to be able to defeat three adventurers by yourself." the harpy girl chirpily said.

"I'm not exactly an adventurer but I am certainly strong.". The four kids excitedly looked at each other before looking back at Zalroth.

"Could we ask a favour of the two of you?" Toby asked. Zalroth thought about it and his face cringed as Minia finished repairing the tattoo.

"I suppose it has something to do with the cave?" Minia nonchalantly asked as she dispelled her magic circle ring and laid back on Zalroth's tails. The children nodded their heads.

"Yeah, normally we go in there to complete a material collection quest but recently adventurers ranked E and lower aren't allowed in there for some reason," Jazzy explained. Zalroth nodded his head.

"So you want me to protect you while you're collecting the materials for your quest?". The children informed him that was the case. Zalroth wondered to himself if was ok for him to bring the kids into the cave, given the sudden raise in adventurer rank.

"Come on Zalroth, It would be beneficial for us to work together with them since they probably have a better idea of the cave's layout," Minia remarked. Zalroth looked back at Minia and quietly sighed to himself.

"Before I make a decision can you introduce yourselves?" Zalroth requested.

"Sure, I'm Toby, she's Jazzy, he's Axel and she's Milly," Toby said as he pointed at himself, Jazzy, the black-haired boy and the purple-haired harpy in that order. Toby also mentioned that they were all T-ranked adventurers, given they were too young to take the application exam. Zalroth sighed.

"Alright, lead the way," Zalroth said as he started to walk into the cave. The children adventurer high-fived each other before hurrying a head of Zalroth.

Meanwhile, on Callie's airship, Sera along with some other scientists were working in a large laboratory, with an assortment of beeps, boops and bubbling emanating from the various equipment. Sera picked up one of the vials from a vial rack and looked inside it. The sound of the lab's entrance opening made Sera look over and spotted Prima, Yumi and Lulu entering.

"Hey miss Sera," Prima cheerfully said as the trio of girls walked over to Sera.

"Hello Prima, how can I help you today?" a tired Sera asked as she placed the vial back in the rack.

"Well... Zulvestus... Zulkest...Kul... the Zu told us to bring Lulu here so you could remove the crestia thingy." Prima explained while nudging Lulu closer to Sera. Sera swivelled on her chair and inspected the enslavement crestia on Lulu's neck.

"I can see why..." Sera remarked. Sera placed her index finger on the crest and transferred some of her mana into it. Cracks quickly formed all over the crest before it exploded into a cloud of magic dust. Lulu slowly placed her hands on her neck and slightly squeezed it. Prima and Yumi stared at Lulu's neck with a mix of amazement and confusion.

"I thought it would have taken longer..." Yumi mentioned.

"It would of if it was anybody else," Sera stated before swivelling her chair back towards her desk. The trio tilted their heads in unison and stared at Sera until she noticed they were looking at her while Lulu was scratching her neck.

"It's my unique azure ability Curse Removal... which allows me to instantly remove curses and things like that," Sera explained while yawning as she returned to her work. Lulu profusely thanked Sera before the three of them started to make their way out of the room. Sera called out to Lulu, who was still scratching her neck, making her stop walking.

"Try not to scratch your neck so much it's not good for your skin," Sera stated.

"O-o kay, I will," Lulu said. Lulu hurried after Prima and Yumi as they were waiting for her before they all made their way to the café.

They eventually arrived at the cafe, which in contrast to the high-tech metallic walls of the airship looked like it was pulled straight from the streets of Tokyo, and Lulu looked confused at the cut-out of a chibi-looking angel character in a maid outfit.

"What is this?" a confused Lulu inquired while turning to Prima. Prima placed the tip of her index finger on the side of her head and pretended to drill her head as she tried to recall something.

"I think mama said it was something called a maid café, apparently it's very popular in the place she's from," Prima explained. Lulu and Yumi were both intrigued by Prima's explanation before Yumi hurried in with Prima and Lulu following shortly after her.

A few minutes later inside the cave, Zalroth walked through the multiple-coloured crystal abundant and unnaturally curving illuminated tunnels, with the kid adventurers walking ahead of him. A small glowing orb flew over Milly's head and she leaned her head backwards to follow it. As the small orb floated around Zalroth, Milly noticed he was looking around.

"What are you looking for?" Milly asked. Zalroth shifted his gaze over to Milly and lowered his head.

"I sensed a high mana signature nearby," Zalroth replied. Milly tilted her head as she thought about what it could be.

"Well, I remember the adventurer guild's receptionists mentioned there are some really large mana crystals at the bottom of the cave, they even said it might be dangerous for ill-prepared adventurers," Milly explained. Zalroth placed his hand on his chin and thought over Milly's explanation.

"I see... do you think that has something to do with the cave's sudden rise in adventurer rank?". Milly shrugged and mentioned she had no clue since she's never seen a large mana crystal in the cave before. Zalroth continued to ponder as the group came to an abrupt stop at the edge of a small ravine. Toby looked over the edge and into the ravine, with a flowing river at the bottom. Axel and Milly inspected the broken posts with burned rope hanging out of them.

"The bridge's been burned to pieces," Milly mentioned. Axel poked one of the posts, and it instantly crumble under the pressure of his finger. Jazzy crossed her arms and wondered what to do.

"Do you guys need to get across?" Zalroth asked.

"Yeah, our usual gathering spot is over there," Toby said while pointing over to a passage that lead to a large cavern. Zalroth nodded his head and walked over to the spot inbetween the two wooden posts. He created an orange magic circle in his right hand before crouching onto one knee and placing the magic circle on the ground. Zalroth quickly jumped over the ravine and placed another magic circle on the other side. The children intriguingly watched as stone spikes shot up from both of the magic circles and moved towards each other. The spikes merged together and the stone morphed into a bridge. The children intriguingly inspected the bridge as they crossed over it.

"Why'd you make two earth magic circles?" Minia asked telepathically.

"For stability purposes but why did you have to ask telepathically?" Zalroth asked.

"I can't have myself looking like an idiot in front of children." Minia pouted telepathically as she slouched back into Zalroth's tails and crossed her arms. Zallroth was about to say something but decided against it before walking after the children, who had gone on ahead of them.

Deep within the cave, a group of bulky stone golem were ruthlessly mining the stone around a cluster of large orange mana crystals, that reached the ceiling of the cavern, as a super pale woman with spiky snow-white hair that has glowing dark purple tips. She was wearing a large black hooded fur coat with a purple fur trim around the hood and cuffs, a darksteel breastplate, darksteel wrist guards, dark steel leg guards, black fur boots and a one-piece dark purple under armour spandex.

"What a tedious endeavour, Xinia would have been a better choice for this operation but no she had to go lollygagging with a bunch of slave trading bandits." The woman complained as she brushed her sharp-looking fringe over her left eye revealing her right eye was a pure black dot with a glowing dark purple five-pointed wind spinner in it. The woman glanced at her hands as the glowing dark purple tattoo that covered both her index and middle finger and flowed down the back of her hands glowed brighter. A small golden anthro cat golem with glowing cyan eyes caught the attention of the woman as he hurried over to her.

"Lady Zinvalia, all of the earth mana crystals have been fully extracted and the rest will be ready to be transported in about an hour." the cat golem explained as he checked over his clipboard.

"And what of the status on the large mana crystal, Vok?" Zinvalia inquired. Vok scratched the top of his head as he formulated a response.

"Well, maybe an additional twenty to twenty-five minutes, give or take.". Zinvalia scoffed making Vok flinch.

"Is that all..." Zinvalia asked before suddenly darting her eyes upwards.

"Is something wrong, my lady?" Vok nervously asked as he clung to his clipboard. Zinvalia glared up to the ceiling with a ticked-off expression, which only made Vok more nervous.

"It appears a group of people have entered the cave... and even after I went to the trouble of spreading rumours of monsters being in the cave, what a hassle," Zinvalia complained. The shadow below Zinvalia rapidly increased in size as a large six eyes stone golem dire wolf with six stone snakes for tails emerged from it. The dire wolf slammed its front paw into the ground and charged out of the cavern.