Chapter 109: The Cave within a Cave

BONUS CHAPTER for reaching 100PS! Next goal is 500PS or 50GT XD.

Thank you for everyone's support! 

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"And what made you think we'll do it?" Ryu asked.

"We could also fight if you want. Though these two would be dead if you chose that option. So that'll be two against four." Vein's fingers tightly held Jane's hair, and the latter groaned from the pain.

"S-sis. .. ," Theodore sobbed.

Ryu and Kai were in a severe predicament. If ever Jane and Theodore died, it's just the two of them facing four Rank-A mercenaries.

Whatever they chose, becoming cannon fodder had the highest chance for them to live and escape.

Ryu looked at Jane, her face was calm, but her chin was crumbling like she was about to cry at any moment. Was she acting bravely for Theodore? The whole time, her sight never left her little brother.

Ryu couldn't understand what it felt like to have a sibling. If Theodore wasn't held captive with a dagger stuck in his neck, Jane might have a chance at escaping. 

His gaze then shot to Seraphina. Her attention was on the ground, and she didn't make any eye contact. She didn't betray them. Not really. She already belonged to Griffin Wings in the first place. Her loyalty lies to them. But her deflecting sides so quickly still bothered him nonetheless.

He couldn't help but think if she was involved with this somehow.

"How are we sure that you'll let us go after we've done all that you've ask?" asked Ryu.

Every attention focused on Ryu, and Thall smiled. "A good question."

Vein looked over the Eitherbells and said without a care, "That depends. Maybe after we find our companions or maybe after we escape this place. Who knows?"

"Does it matter," Masha butt in, "You guys don't have a choice. You're dead either way. Nyahaha!"

Masha was right. It was either they die now or take their chances and die later as cannon fodders.

Kia loosened his stance, and he signaled Ryu to do the same. "What do you want us to do?" he sighed, resigning to his fate.

Without as much as a change in Vein's expression, he stabbed the dagger in Jane's shoulder. Masha did the same with Theodore, and both of them cried from the sudden pain.

"W-what are you doing?!" Kai was about to summon his weapon while Ryu's claws inched from his hands.

"Relax," Veins said, wiping off the blood from his dagger. "I just inject them with my poison. With it, they needed my antidote every hour, or they'd die. This is to make sure that you don't stab us in the back or run away."

Vein then twirled his dagger in his hands. "So, who's next?"

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Kai rubbed his shoulder from where the dagger stabbed him. It wasn't painful now, but he felt the poison cursing in his veins. Even with a healer like Theodore with a rare affinity to light, he couldn't get rid of the poison. The least he could do was closed and heal the stab wound.

Vein's poison was really something else.

Kai heaved another heavy sigh. "What shitty luck." Adding to that, they were suddenly transported into a dry cave. He was wet and sticky all over, and his stomach was already complaining from his wet feet.

"You there, less complaining and pick up the pace," said Masha as she mapped the layout of the place.

Kai grumbled. Easy for them since they weren't the vanguard. Vein's group remained at the back while Kai was at the very front, and Ryu followed behind him as they explored the cave that Ryu found.

Worried for traps, Kai was going at a slow pace, but his luck was good so far. They haven't stumble upon traps nor beast. .. yet.

Meanwhile, at the side, Ryu was still inspecting the poison in his body. Ferris said he was immune to poison, but he didn't know if he was immune to all poisons. But one thing he did know. .. he felt no changes. He didn't even felt the poison flowing in his veins.

Was that normal? 

Ryu had to wait for the effects after an hour and see if he was really immune to it or not.

"What is this place?" Thall whistled as he roamed his eyes. It was like a cave within a cave, and he couldn't believe that something this big could fit under another pothole. 

The glowing crystals stuck on the rocky walls were ordinary glowing crystals, not Either Crystals. But the jewels, precious stones, and magical herbs sprouting in the cave were abundant.

Too bad that Vein, Thall, and Masha weren't interested in such stuff. They were aiming for something more. Artifacts, rare spells and skill scrolls, and god-tier items. Not Jewels and stones and magical herbs that would just add inventory in their traveler's ring.

"If only we aren't with them," Kai lamented. His heart was bleeding for the second time that they couldn't harvest the riches before them. What a waste!

This sucks! Kai cursed in his head. And what was more suck was that he's taking the lead of a possible dangerous cave or, worse, a possible resting place of the Leviathan.

There were occasional creatures and beasts along the way, but nothing the group could handle. Most of them were weak and wouldn't attack as they scurried away from their group.

But when they reached an area where light seemed to bounce in all directions from the tiny gaps of the high rocky ceiling of the cave, everyone stopped.

Ryu took a sweep. There were many corals in the place, so many that he didn't know where to step. And it was not just any corals. It was littered with sharp spikes and long thorns.

"Now what?" Kai sighed. Should he just freeze everything and walked over on ice?

"Hmm? Could we walk over this thing?" Thall asked nobody.

If the place had water, they could just swim over it. But now that they were in drylands, they didn't know how to proceed. The area they were in was vast, stretching as much as the eyes could see, and it was nothing but corals with protruding sharp needles and spikes on its ground and the rocky hills and mountains.

"Let's just smash right through them!" Masha suggested.

Jane chuckled. "Are you really a hunter? Or your sister's fame carried you all the way to Rank-A?"

Masha swung her fist. "What did you say?"

Jane placed a hand over her waist. "Can't you see that these corals are alive?"

Ignoring the bickering of the two women, Ryu inspected the corals. Upon closer look, he found a creature camouflaging as a coral. Like a piece of moving coral, its coloration and scale pattern matched the nearby reefs, urchins, anemones, and other sea plant forms. 

The creature had a long snout stretching out from its narrow face, and arrays of spike and sharp jagged protrusions lined its back. And when it noticed Ryu starring at it, it opened its mouth, and its spikes rattled like it was giving out a warning.

But Ryu's attention was drawn to its mouth. Its saw-like teeth form multiple ridges. Its needle-like talons sprung from its fins and stringer filled with tiny barbs curved at the end of its slender tail.

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