Chapter 55 – Bullpen Mountain Range

Slash!

Blood splashed on the rocky and already damp floor.

A black Goblin stood in front with multiple long bloody scars all over its body. A long gash across its chest had just formed from the previous attack.

Screech!

The goblin staggered and felt woozy from all its blood loss.

Whack.

In its dizzy spell, it did not notice a staff had already approached it from behind. With a decent connection to the top of its head, the goblin fell face first into the hard and cold floor.

A powder sprinkled down from above it and got inhaled through its broken nose and open mouth.

It twitched for a few seconds and then lay motionless. If it did not move slightly because of its weak breathing, then it would be hard to distinguish it from a corpse.

Corpses of its green-skinned brethren lay strewn all across around this cavern.

A girl with long silky white hair with tiger stripes and cute little feline ears stepped up with her staff to the motionless black goblin. With a sway of her hand, the ring on her finger glowed with dark light and the goblin vanished into thin air.

"With another one caught, it makes the total come up to 13!"

This girl was obviously Luna. Adam and Elaine were standing not too far away, their weapons were still drawn and blood still dripped off of them.

The trio had begun capturing monsters for their Experience Farms since they had already received the cage rings.

Luna had received one of the cage rings while Adam held on to another. They had played a fair game of rock paper scissors to decide who would have the privilege of wearing the rings. Of course, Elaine was still a bit unresigned to her skills in the game but she had no one to complain to.

They had begun their day early and come directly to the dungeon. Spending a good portion of the morning they had been able to capture up to thirteen black mutated goblins.

Their capture process was fairly simple. Beat up the monster till its standing on its last foot and then sprinkle it with some tranquillizing powder (an easy purchase from the apothecary shop). As long as the target was immobile and did not resist too heavily, it could be stored in the cage ring and would be trapped. If it woke up after it was stored, it would not matter at all as it would already be within the rings space and unable to escape.

"That should be good enough for the goblins. We should move on to the Horned Rabbits." Adam adviced.

The girls nodded and the three set off for the second floor.

They spent the rest of the day and even a bit of the afternoon in capturing Two Horned Rabbits.

Their final haul consisted of 13 Black Goblins and 22 Two Horned Rabbits. The rabbits just spawned that many more monsters and encountering a mutated monster at their speed of killing had become very common at this point.

They did not venture further to capture Purple Copper Armadillos. Elaine's armour had been ruined in the fight against the Black Magma Leopard Gecko and as such, she was only in her training gear.

Adam did not feel it necessary to risk it. Especially when they had to fight longer and in close quarters to ensure that they did not kill the monsters and only immobilized them.

He also wanted to wait until he got his new pair of daggers. Alone he could flit about with no care but with the girls, he had to take into consideration protecting the weak-bodied Luna. He did not feel comfortable with just 4 daggers. The strength and sharpness behind the claws of the armadillos were not to be underestimated even if they had been outclassed in levels.

The trio made their way out of the dungeon but did not travel in the direction of the town. This was the last reason why Adam did not pursue the Armadillos. The party still had to go make a trip to scout out Bullpen Mountain range.

The sun loomed overhead and its rays baked the soil beneath. As moisture from the soil continued to evaporate, the scent in the air grew muskier.

At full sprint, the group reached the geyser infested lands within three hours.

The fertile plains soil had given way to a rocky and pebble-filled ground. The temperature rose up the closer the group got to this place.

The ground was pockmarked with holes that had bubbling milky water in them.

It was impossible to count every geyser in this place and they would go off constantly with no set rhythm. Boiling water would shoot into the skies and the spray down like rain that if fell on the skin would instantly burn through.

The was the death zone of geysers that surrounded the Bullpen Mountain Range.

Beyond the scorching air and misty steam one would be able to see the one large mountain and four miniature mountains surrounding it.

"Keep your distance. It's hot!" A few drops had sprayed onto Elaine's shoulder upon her training gear. When she pulled her shirt off a bit to check, her fair skin had spots of red burns.

The group made a round around these mountains to check for an opening in these geysers.

"Well, we most definitely are not walking through it and there are no openings in it either. What now?" Elaine questioned.

"There has to be another way." Luna began searching for something in the surroundings.

Adam and Elaine followed her lead and split off in different directions to begin searching as well.

Around 15 minutes passed in silence with the only sounds being that of the bubbling and shooting of the geysers in the surroundings.

"Found something!" Elaine's voice boomed.

Luna and Adam made their way over quickly.

When they reached, they saw no sign of Elaine.

"That's weird… I'm sure her voice came from here." Adam looked at Luna for an explanation.

"I thought it came from here too." Luna could only shrug and reply.

"I'm over here you two!" Elaine's voice echoed as if she was screaming from inside a box.

Following her voice, they came up to a spot of land that seemed to be pushed aside.

A wooden almost dilapidated open bulkhead door came into view. The door had been made into a depression on this rocky ground and with the pebbles covering it, it would have been impossible to spot.

Elaine pulled herself up and then got out of the hole in the ground. Her feet were soaking wet up to her knees.

"How did you find this place?" Luna asked her.

"I was just walking around and then stepped on it. The wood made a creaking sound when I stepped over it so I checked it and voila!" The girl explained how she made her discovery.

"Elaine really does have good luck," Adam said with surprise evident on his face.

"What do you mean luck? I'm a genius!" She smirked.

"Sister, haven't you just been eating more? Why else would the wood creak when you stepped on it?" Luna poked her belly from the side.

"Agreed!" Adam also looked at her belly and nodded.

"Have I really?! I haven't put on weight! Stop teasing me." She fell for it and checked her belly before getting furious and sending two light punches at the top of their heads.

The two laughed and accepted the punch.

"Okay, okay. Enough playing around. Elaine did find this place after all. Good job." He patted and played with her ears. He had really gotten into the habit of messing with their soft and fluffy ears lately. "So what's inside?"

"Mmmmm, It's a narrow corridor. It's flooded and the water reaches my knee but it isn't as hot. We can safely walk through it." Still enjoying the sensation of Adam playing with her hair and ears, she pointed out her findings.

Luna looked on from the side with envy and said: "Let's go in then, stop wasting time."

"Hehe, no. I'm gonna enjoy this a bit more. That's what you get for teasing your sister." She stuck her tongue out at Luna and rubbed her head on Adam's hand.

"Mumumu, not fair." Even the usually calm Luna showed extreme emotion at this. She pouted and began sulking.

"Haha stop fighting. Come here." He pulled Luna in closer by the hand and patted her head as well. A moment of bliss occurred in this land of boiling rain.

The trio jumped into the bulkhead once everything settled down. The hole was around 7 feet deep so it wasn't too steep a drop and it was easy to climb back up.

With a splash, the three's feet landed in warm water. It was hot but not hot enough to be an inconvenience.

The tunnel was narrow after the opening so they had to walk in a line. Adam stepped forth while Elaine and Luna followed in that order.

No lights or fire could be lit in this corridor that had water constantly dripping from the ceiling. Adam felt around with his hands as he followed this winding corridor. The girls behind him were holding onto the shirt of the one ahead of them completely trusting the lead.

It was hard to keep track of time but Adam estimated that it had been around ten minutes when they came upon a dead end.

Adam felt all around him and only wet and slightly mossy rock could be felt. He then thought back to how they had entered and put his hands up. Sure enough, when his hands touched the roof he felt wood.

His first push was not able to open the door. Something heavy seemed to be resting on it and a rod seemed to be holding the two doors in place.

Feeling around the door in the dark, Adam felt a metallic and rusted primitive sliding lock on this door. There was a knob that protruded and he took hold of it. Using it, he pulled the thing to the left and unlocked the door.

He called Elaine up to the front with him. The corridor had opened up in the end just like at the start so they had space.

With their powers combined they pushed up again and this time with a slow creak the wooden doors began cracking apart. A low rumble was heard and something rolled off the door before it opened.

They all climbed out of the dark hole and took in a fresh breath of air after exiting that stuffy environment.

Adam looked back and saw a decently sized rock that had rolled off to the side of the bulkhead and the raging geysers.

"We made it across!" Luna exclaimed as she happily clapt her hands.

"Yeah but it's getting late." Elaine was looking up at the sun on the horizon, which was beginning to take on an orange hue.

"Hmm, we need to go back soon. we should not linger." He pointed to the nearest small mountain and said: "Pass me your ring, Luna. Ill go deposit our first haul of monsters on that mountain."

Taking the ring Adam sprinted to the mountain. These mountains had all been mined and cave entrances were many on these mountains. Adam picked a cave at random and first deposited the Black Goblins.

They had awoken by this time but all of them were severely injured. None of them was in any shape to pursue after the quick-footed Adam.

Then walking over to another cave he deposited the Two-Horned Rabbits from his ring.

"Let us head back. We have a long walk back." He came back panting to the bottom of the mountain where the girls had been waiting for him.

"We should set aside a day to come and explore these mountains before we fill it up with monsters." Luna voiced her thoughts.

"Yup. I think so too. Let's do it earlier rather than later. How about we come here early tomorrow?" He suggested. They conversed as they walked back toward the bulkhead door in the ground.

The girls jumped in first and Adam followed. Closing shut and locking the bulkhead from the inside.