The Mage

The monster in front of them had an unusual charm. Its form was akin to a fox the size of a Maine Coon cat with a body as gray as a rock. It had a tail shaped like a branch with a low-rank fern on it, spreading to cover the back of its body.

Ding!

[You have unlocked a New monster information.]

[Fern the Mythical Fox (Level 20)]

[Race: Beast]

"How beautiful!" Liberty exclaimed.

"Beautiful indeed!" Jacob said in agreement.

In the meantime, Hiro, who felt that they had no time to play around, had pulled out his sword and pointed it toward the fox's direction.

"Sword Combo Skill," Hiro was waiting for his skill to activate when all of a sudden, Liberty turned her head and looked at him in annoyance.

"Hiro, are you seriously going to kill this innocent creature!?"

"We need the four-leaf clover from the creature, we have no other choice."

He couldn't believe that Liberty and Jacob were using their bodies to protect the monster from his sword.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Bro."

"There's another way, let me try it."

Hiro didn't understand what Liberty meant by another way. He couldn't imagine another way to get the monster's drop item aside from killing it.

Nevertheless, he still gave Liberty a chance out of curiosity.

Liberty crouched and crawled. Hiro didn't expect that a girl could behave like that. However, what surprised him more was when she suddenly made sounds in a strange language from her mouth, as if that was the language used by the fox and they were communicating two-way.

[Beast Whisperer]

"Such a thing exists?" Hiro couldn't believe it when the skill name appeared on his HUD.

"Interesting… Do I also have a special skill like that? Demon Whisperer?"

"Sssh!" Liberty looked at Hiro with annoyance.

What happened the next second made his jaw drop.

Ding!

[Your party member Liberty obtained 3x Fern Four-Leaf Clovers.]

"What the heck!?"

After the epic moment, the three of them went to find the NPC who could give them the skill they needed, Fred. Nobody had to be killed, and it was thanks to Liberty the Beast Whisperer.

And NPC Abby's words were right. After giving the Fern Four-Leaf Clover, NPC Fred gave them the Heat Resistance skill in the form of untradable scrolls, which they immediately used upon receiving.

[You have unlocked a new skill [Heat Resistance] - Level 1]

[Heat Resistance is a protection spell for the body to be resistant against high temperature. Cost: 100 AP]

[Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and concentrate for 1.5s to activate the skill.]

The three tried to do it simultaneously, and Hiro succeeded first. His concentration was truly unshakable.

His heart rate increased when the skill was activated. His body gradually became warm, and when he opened his eyes, Hiro could see his body covered in a thin red aura.

"Cool, I feel like a mini Saiyan."

After repeating the process a few times, Liberty and Jacob finally succeeded. The two were emitting the same aura as Hiro.

"Holy shit, my body's glowing!" Jacob shouted in amazement.

"I feel strange, will I be okay?" Liberty seemed somewhat uncomfortable with the aura.

[You have sent a party invitation to Jacob.]

[Jacob joined the party.]

"Let's go back to the cave."

The three ran back to the [Hidden Cave] dungeon.

As soon as they arrived in front of the dungeon, the three of them touched the invisible barrier together with the Heat Resistance skill active following Hiro's cue.

At that moment, the barrier cracked and broke.

Crack!

They could now enter the dark cave.

The moment they entered the dungeon area, they could immediately feel the air turn warm. Fortunately, the Heat Resistance skill protected their body from the extreme heat in the cave.

None of them realized that their path was constantly heading down toward the Earth's core.

"Liberty, can you take out your magic staff?"

Liberty nodded and took out her Lantern Master Staff. Hiro only needed the light from the fireflies in the magic staff.

Despite owning a powerful legendary weapon, Liberty didn't like it very much. She explained that the sounds of explosions and beating of the weapon almost caused her heart to stop multiple times.

Hiro had no words to say about it. The girl was indeed unique.

The three walked while keeping their guards up, constantly looking out for surprise attacks. Jacob and Liberty were scrambling and squeezing Hiro, who was walking at the forefront.

"Ouch! Jacob, you stepped on my foot!" Liberty complained.

"Sorry, this is just too scary."

Hiro remained focused. He felt strange. According to the GPS system he had, the distance between the mouth of the cave and their current location was about 500 meters already, yet they still hadn't encountered any monsters so far.

'There's no way the dungeon is actually empty, right?'

Slick!

"Ew! What is that!?" Liberty reflexively grabbed Hiro's hand when her foot accidentally stepped on a thick green liquid on the ground.

"Is that monster blood? Libe, raise your magic staff higher."

As he expected, several round spider-like monster carcasses with a diameter of about half a meter were around where they were standing.

"What are those!?" Liberty instantly jumped onto Hiro's back and Jacob hid behind the girl.

"Someone's already gotten in."

'The owner of that mystic tome…'

Hiro checked the monster's carcass with his HUD system and got the information about when the monster was defeated.

[7 hours ago]

"Damn it!"

In LSO, monsters in dungeons will not turn into crystal shards or pixels and disappear upon being defeated if the dungeon boss has not been defeated, unlike ordinary monsters that are usually defeated to grind outside dungeons.

Hiro stood back up and told his party members to run faster into the cave. Even though Hiro was sure that someone had already gotten there before them, the dungeon monsters hadn't been defeated yet, so he still had hope.

"Stop! Over there!"

Liberty raised her magic staff toward the direction Hiro pointed, and they were surprised when they saw someone sitting alone while leaning on the cave wall. The person returned their gazes with a smirk on his face.

"An elf?" Liberty recognized the shape of the person's ears.

In the meantime, Hiro hurriedly approached the player ahead of them. From a closer distance, he could see his face clearly. He had black hair and extremely pale skin. Even though it wasn't very apparent, Hiro was sure that the man was part Asian.

'Seems to be an Asian-Caucasian mixed-race.'

"What are you doing here…?"

[Level 19. Noah. Mage. World Balancer]

"Noah?"

"Some not-so-stupid people finally managed to enter this place. I've been waiting for you guys for over eight hours."

Hiro frowned when he heard Noah's words. What an arrogant man.

Noah stood up to return Hiro's intimidating gaze. The smirk on his face didn't change one bit.

"NightFall, huh? What an odd name. I'll allow you to enter my party to fight the boss."

"..."

"You… what?" Liberty clearly didn't like the new guy's attitude.

"Ah, you brought your girlfriend? Tsk tsk tsk. You're kidding me, right?"

Hiro's eyes looked toward Noah's waist. A legendary weapon in the form of a thick book was sitting there.

'Damn it! This guy really has it,' Hiro enviously thought.

"We don't need you," Hiro said.

"Tch. I'm the greatest wizard in the world. You'll regret it. Besides, you can't enter the boss area with just three people."

"What? Again?"

Hiro ignored the arrogant player that seemed to be the same age as him to approach another cave not far from where he was. He then put his right hand on the mouth of the cave and a notification appeared in front of him.

[Hidden Cave Boss, (Raid Boss), a minimum of 4 players is required to enter.]

"..."

"Damn it!"