Chapter 27: Aftermath of the battle

After a short recon, the group of adventurers grouped back up to report their findings. Luckily for them the blizzard was currently rather mild at the moment, making it easier to see and move around.

"Anything?" John asked with a stern expression, he had come up empty in his direction, nothing but open plains without protection. His face was currently drained of blood, and he looked as white as a ghost, out of everyone he suffered the most damage.

But since he was the strongest and the leader, he needed to take the brunt of the attacks resulting in the most injuries. At the moment he had already lost feeling in his shield arm and every breath he took caused him severe pain, some of his ribs were even broken.

"N…nothing on m…my end." Fen replied with difficulty, he was still struggling to catch his breath and his firing hand was covered in cuts resulting in constant dripping of blood but other than that he was the least injured.

"I came up empty as well." Thorin answered with a very deep and gravelly voice much different to his usual academic voice. He received a few blows to his throat and chest altering his voice (think Christian Bales batman voice). He also had a broken nose and a couple cracked ribs.

This just left Jack, they all turned towards the scout with pleading eyes hoping he found something, anything they could use.

Jack felt the pressure that weighed on his results but wasn't worried.

"I found a cave that could fit all of us without issue." Jack responded with determination and the others felt as though they could see the light.

"Good, good let's move quickly, the longer we delay the worse off we'll be." John smiled and felt elated, finally some good news he thought.

The idea that the cave may be occupied never even entered his brain as the group set out with purpose, still leaving a slight blood trail behind them. If Frost hadn't ordered for the rest of his monsters to ignore them, they could have easily followed the blood trail and killed them in their weakened state. But they couldn't really be blamed for that they had just faced a near death experience and were all rather young and inexperienced, it'd be weird if they didn't make mistakes.

The group quickly moved towards the cave, completely ignoring the possibility of encountering another monster.

Shortly the four reached their destination. A massive boulder easily over 15 metres in height and double in width and depth stood imposingly before them and at the bottom was a cave entrance not more than 2 metres in diameter, a perfect shelter.

The group's eyes immediately lit up at the sight, their tense hearts seemed to relax, and a smile came to their faces. Jack had only seen the cave from a distance only seeing the rough geography before he ran back to tell his comrades. The cave was much better than anticipated, easily defendable and completely blocked out the wind and snow. The four of them instinctively looked towards one another before rushing towards the entrance without fear.

Only when they were about the cross the threshold of the cave did John suddenly feel something wrong, a weight was pressing on his heart making him feel uncomfortable.

As he was pondering what the feeling could mean an unpleasant smell entered his nose from the cave's entrance immediately bringing a frown to his face.

Suddenly he realised what the feeling was telling him.

"Shit! Wait!" He shouted loudly towards his teammates who already entered the cave. The smell was unmistakable, a foul odour; a mix of days old sweat, urine, and repulsive body odour… this was a goblin cave.

At John's shout they quickly froze in place, the dangerous feeling that they felt earlier flooded their bodies once again.

John quickly moved to the front with his shield raised as far as he could as he took position in anticipation for an attack.

For a few seconds there was utter silence, their eyes and ears strained to pick up any sign of movement. John still had his shield raised blocking access, but nothing happened. No monsters jumped out to attack or even shout in alarm, the cave was silent and empty.

'Was I overthinking it?' John slowly lowered his shield and relaxed. The group each took a thankful deep breath as they once again lowered their guard and slowly entered the cave.

The smell was only more prominent the deeper they went causing their eyes to water from its intensity. Unfortunately, this cave's advantages trumped the horrible smell.

While this cave is or was definitely a goblin cave it was currently deserted making a fine shelter. Even if the goblins returned, they occupied the defensive advantage so there was nothing to worry about, hell they'd even stand a chance against the four frost wolves with this sort of terrain. Only one wolf would fit through the entrance at a time making it a simple case of taking them out one by one and with John's strength it wouldn't be that hard.

"Fen get a fire going and start making camp, Thorin prepare all the medical supplies we have and boil some of the snow outside for cleaning, Jack you stand guard." John managed to squeeze out a few orders before being filled with intense pain resulting in his body convulsing and his face being drained of colour. The pain was strong enough to make him dizzy causing him to stumble and fall backwards.

"Boss!" All three of them shouted and leaped towards him at the same time, catching him and preventing his head from knocking against the floor.

John passed out. His injuries were severe and the pain immense, now that they'd safely left danger and were making camp his body finally completely relaxed sending all the adrenaline delayed pain towards him at once. The agony was too much and to protect itself, his brain shut down to repair the damage.

The three of them quickly understood what happened, causing them to bite down hard and clench their fists to the point blood escaped in frustration. John had been inflicted with far more injuries than his teammates, far more. They could feel John carrying the pressure throughout the entire fight, many times they'd feel cornered and unable to move but suddenly John would appear before them taking the weight and defending them from danger. They'd be left to stare at his large back as he hollered orders.

John was far too good for them; he had the ability to become a truly strong adventurer. Even his promotion to D-rank was delayed because he stuck with them otherwise, he'd have made it a couple years ago, maybe even C-rank would have been right around the corner. The three of them had never felt so frustrated and disappointed with themselves as they did right now.

Bang!

After settling John down safely onto the ground Thorin smashed his fist against the cave's wall, drawing blood yet he didn't feel it.

"We need to be better!" He harshly said through his clenched jaw, his eyes were filled with rage and fire as he turned to look at Fen and Jack. He made his vow and was waiting for them.

He wasn't disappointed, their eyes were revealing just as much fire and determination.

"Power," Jack drew his steel dagger and stared deeply into the metal's shine, and he imagined using it to slay foes.

"For John," Fen looked over at their leader lying on the floor, his body trembling as he slept and looking as though a simple breeze could end him.

The three looked at John before nodding towards one another with conviction. They set off to complete John's last orders.

Jack stood guard outside and prepared some rudimentary alarm systems. Fen started to unpack their food, and camping supplies before gently moving John onto a blanket. Thorin started to prepare all their medical supplies, which wasn't much. 

They had no potions only herbs and a few ointments, not enough to properly heal their wounds, especially John's. At best they could only provide some emergency treatment that would allow them to leave the dungeon.

Once Thorin prepared a few herb infused cloths and boiled some water to help clean their wounds his eyes drifted towards the still comatose John.

Perhaps passing out was a blessing of sorts, the herb cloths would illicit a huge amount of pain when applied to such grievous wounds, at least this way he'd be able to sleep through the worst of it.

Meanwhile back in the dungeon's private space

"Is that a lucky coincidence or some act of fate?" Frost rhetorically asked Maya not expecting an answer as he watched the group of adventurers enter the goblin cave.

"Depends on whether you believe in fate or not." Maya easily replied but a small blush appeared on her face as she said the word 'fate'. Her eyes also drifted towards Frost at that moment, but he was oblivious.

The cave they entered was actually a goblin cave and was recently inhabited however its previous occupants were brutally killed in combat several hours ago.

The group of four goblins that the adventurers killed earlier when ambushed were the previous owners so whether it's fate or a lucky coincidence is up to debate.

Unfortunately, since the dungeon menu isn't omnipotent, Frost and Maya couldn't see within the cave, but the map did show that four enemies were inside, represented as four red dots.

Since watching a giant rock was rather boring and knowing that they wouldn't leave anytime soon. Frost closed down the dungeon viewer.

A second later space warped within the first section, near where the large battle started.

Maya and Frost both appeared.

Frost placed his thumb and forefinger into his mouth in the shape of a 'C' before loudly whistling.

In response to his loud whistle several wolf howls sounded off before they moved in his direction.

They were here to inspect the extent of the frost wolves injuries. The dungeon's ambient mana would be able to heal most minor injuries, but major ones would be difficult. For example, if one of the wolves lost a leg, it could close the wound but wouldn't be unable to regrow the limb.

Shortly 4 frost wolves bounded towards him like a bunch of dogs greeting their master, they rushed up and started to rub their heads against him affectionately and occasionally lick him.

"Hahaha stop that tickles." Their rough tongues were incredibly ticklish on his nose.

Luckily, it didn't seem as though there was anything to worry about, some of their wounds had already begun to heal. Even the deepest of cuts and the large gaping hole left by an iron dagger was shrinking in size and beginning to scab over.

At this rate they'll be back to normal in a day or two. Frost was incredibly happy at this sight, replacing even a single frost wolf would be a large expense for him at this moment plus he'd grown rather attached.

"Ok ok ok that's enough all of you down." After finishing his inspection of their wounds, he had them all sit down before him. The wolves happily obeyed and sat in a line waiting patiently but their tails were still wagging from side to side. This garnered a cute chuckle from Maya.

"Right since each of you did so well earlier it's only right that I reward you." Frost smiled widely towards the wolves; he discussed the topic with Maya earlier on what sort of reward would be appreciated most by them. Technically he didn't need to reward them at all but felt that that would be wrong as their master, so he ignored the DP expense and bought something.

At the mention of a reward the wolves' eyes lit up and their tails swished with added strength, sweeping away lots of snow.

(Think of a dog's reaction when you say 'walkies' or treats')

Frost signalled to Maya who at some point was holding a large white container in her hands. At his signal Maya waked towards the antsy frost wolves and opened the box.

The moment the lid was opened a powerful scent of meat escaped causing the wolves to drool.

Mammoth steaks, the dungeon wasn't just able to create monsters, weapons, and rooms it could also create certain foods, in this case four raw mammoth steaks. Sirloins from the D-rank monsters juvenile woolly mammoths costing 15DP a steak.

Each one was easily 3 times the size of a beef sirloin and much heavier.

Without further ado Maya tossed each of the wolves a steak which they easily caught and dug into immediately.