Hesitation

Terry and Rebecca looked around and found some traces that ended in some large bushes. It seemed that Terry's guess was right, but when he confirmed that, he couldn't help but wonder… How exactly could the giants leave the underground without leaving any traces behind?

"They don't look smart or skilled enough to build things like secret doors or entrances…" Terry said.

"Now that you mentioned it…" Rebecca said while frowning. "Maybe among them, they have mages that can open and seal the entrances."

That was a possibility, but Terry was already thinking about why they would live underground… did they have some sort of predator hunting them? Terry and Rebecca have only found some big insects so far.

"They definitely came from here, but there are no signs of doors or anything the like," Rebecca said. "I also have been thinking, we killed a bunch of them in the last week, but never mind corpses, I didn't even see traces of blood."

"It is impossible to be sure since everything looks the same, but maybe we have been teleported to different areas of the same world," Terry said. "In any case, I guess I will buy a hammer… and smash the entrances of those places with all my might."

That was what Terry thought, but then he recalled something. He looked around for a moment and then checked the nearest trees. All of them seemed normal at first glance, but then his hand passed through a tree, and then he felt something on the other side draining his mana.

When Terry approached his face, he saw that the tree was basically hollow, and it had a magic stone that made some chains move once it absorbed his energy. The bush began to move, and then a staircase was revealed.

"... I still can't believe that the giants made this," Rebecca said. "How did you guess that?"

"I didn't imagine this exactly. I just recalled that humans are also trained to create things using magic stones as a resource," Terry explained. "They seem all big and stupid, but we are only facing the warrior types, so maybe things underground are different."

Rebecca nodded. Even goblins were split into many groups, after all. It wouldn't have been weird if, over the years, one or other of them had mutated or changed to a different type of creature.

Terry and Rebecca went down the stairs and then noticed that the interior was quite dark. Still, they found another magic stone on the side of the wall to close the entrance from inside. Rebecca returned to look for a stick and then grabbed some old pieces of rag that she had and created a torch.

"I hope that this won't reveal our approach," Rebecca said.

"It is better than falling for a trap," Terry shrugged.

Fortunately, the group didn't have to walk for long in the tunnel. There weren't any signs of traps either, so they didn't have to stop. After five minutes, they found the end of the tunnel, and Terry realized that it was pretty small considering their size…

Terry asked Rebecca to stay away from the entrance with the torch, and he approached the end of the tunnel, only to see many of those in the distance. There was a large area ahead with several giants living in a village. It seemed like a natural cave, but the size was just too big… the ceiling was fifty meters above, and the area of the village was located in an underground dome that was five hundred meters long and wide.

"This isn't what I was expecting…" Terry thought.

The village had some small houses, but only a few of them, and Terry was pretty sure they were only being used to store food and other things. He saw several beds made of straw and other plants around… the giants were either resting or mumbling something to each other. It was weird since Terry finally could see some giant women, but not kids. He didn't find anyone that looked different from the usual giants either…

Terry returned and explained to Rebecca what he saw. He could count around one hundred giants… it was a small number. They definitely hunted a lot more than those every day… but since they appeared all over the world, it made sense that they wouldn't decrease the numbers of all camps.

"One hundred of them?" Rebecca asked. "I don't think that a direct confrontation is a wise idea here."

"We can't face them in the tunnels, and luring all of them to outside won't work since they live underground already to stay hidden, and this will be their best place to fight us," Terry explained. "We don't have much of a choice, and we have to fight them there until we find the leader of the village… it is annoying since we will have to bring their head to outside."

"That is true, but you didn't find the leader?" Rebecca asked. "Maybe they stand out in other ways…"

The idea of bringing the head of the monster back to Earth didn't bother Terry since those fuckers would invade if they had the chance. They had to get rid of them before they tried to destroy the world again. Still, fighting without thinking was Terry's style…

"Extinguish the torch. We will observe them for a while," Terry said. "Once we find their leader, we will wait for the right moment to attack."

"Okay, I wasn't expecting that the conquest of a dungeon would be like this, but I guess it is fine," Rebecca said. "It only means that we don't have to be stupid murder hobos to survive in these chaotic times."

"Agreed," Terry nodded.

While Terry said that, he still thought that if he had the chance, he would decimate all the monsters. There was no need to be sorry for them. They were a part of a much larger problem, and when the problem was too big, the smaller ones had to be dealt with as swiftly as possible…