Chapter 2 The Hunter or the Prey

Jack stood as steady as a rock, and the kobolds that dared to come close were smashed out of the room as his round shield swung.

"O fire elemental tossed in flames, heed my call ..."

Catherine ducked behind Jack, her fingers haunted with a fiery red shimmer, dancing through the air in a burst, sketching out a miniature magic formation.

"... Primary Fireball!"

A fist-sized fireball flew out of the magical formation, trailing an orange-red tail flame, and crashed apart in the chest of a kobold.

The flames instantly seared the skin, painfully sending the kobold rolling all over the place, briefly incapacitated.

Ian bellowed, fearless in his Courage Boosted state, and swung his Crossed Sword to meet his foe.

However, his strength was clearly not enough to allow him to fight one against many, and after a few rounds of exchanges, the originally shiny silver armor was already littered with dents and tears, and it was only a matter of time before he fell.

"Uncle, go help Ian!" Catherine was very anxious, and as a mage who specialized in gaining magic, her output ability was really limited.

"Okay! Ian, I'll help too!"

Hearing Jack's voice, Ian, who was already in a bitter fight, tightened his heart, subconsciously protected his head, and dodged to the side.

The fear of being painfully struck by the shield flooded Ian's mind, nearly breaking the Courage Boost status early.

"Shield Throw!"

It wasn't clear if Jack's recovery ability was too good or if Catherine's primary healing magic did the trick.

For once, Jack, whose back injury had healed, was no longer affected in any way.

He took a big step forward, lifted his arm, and swung it violently.

The small round shield spun and knocked over the first kobold and then bounced off the flaming kobold's head in a forceful interplay, finally forming a triangular pirouette and returning steadily to Jack's hand.

Ian, who was shielding his head and ducking, might not have seen it clearly, but Catherine was dumbfounded.

Even if she wasn't a warcaster, Catherine could see what an exaggerated share of proficiency lay behind this old, outdated shield throw!

Ian seized the opportunity and swung his sword downward in a low sweep, a round of hazy sword light exploding from his cross sword.

The kobold who was knocked down by the shield didn't even have time to get up before he was cut down by the blade of the sword, and immediately blood spurted wildly, and his head was scattered.

The Flame Goblin, who was the biggest threat, was stunned by Jack's flying shield and couldn't wake up for a while.

The adventurers' morale was boosted by defeating three enemies in one fell swoop.

As he was about to ride out the attack, a ferocious roar suddenly came from the middle of one of the tunnels.

Immediately afterward, there was a sound of dull footsteps rapidly approaching this place.

The kobolds were so shocked that they couldn't even save the fainting and collapsed leader, and each of them fled towards a tunnel.

Before the two team members could react, Jack had already shouldered the Flame Goblin and darted away toward the path he came from.

"Don't freeze! There's a big one coming this time!"

Ian and Catherine hurriedly followed, running frantically through the intricate tunnels.

Though the three were already trying hard to escape, the movement behind them was getting closer and closer, and something in the darkness seemed to be singularly focused on them.

"Why is it only chasing us? I, I can't run anymore ..."

Kathryn gasped for air; physical strength was not an advantage for the Lawgiver.

"Cancel the illumination spell," Jack warned before throwing the torch in his hand hard at the other end of the tunnel as he passed a fork in the road.

Without the light brought by the illumination spells and torches, the tunnel was suddenly plunged into darkness.

Amidst the darkness, markings with fluorescent lights showed up on the walls, keeping the adventurers from getting lost in their flight.

It turns out that the paint Jack used to mark the route earlier actually has a fluorescent effect!

The unknown monsters seemed to be drawn away from their attention by the light of the torches.

The darkness chased their footsteps away until they disappeared.

Leaning against the stone wall, Ian gulped down a mouthful of stamina recovery potion and couldn't help but sigh with emotion, "This dungeon is worthy of being the most dangerous area in the Lapus Mountains; we didn't even go very deep before we encountered a monster of that level. If it wasn't for the fact that you left a mark in advance, Uncle, this time, it would have been really dangerous."

Jack just smiled, neither humbling himself a few times nor taking credit for it.

By the light of Jack's rekindled torch, the legal job girl also took out a bottle of Primary Stamina Potion from her traveling bag to replenish the physical energy that she had consumed during her escape just now.

Catherine was able to drink most of the potion before the soreness in her calves and the tightness in her chest subsided.

"Ajussi, don't you drink stamina potions?"

She looked over at Jack, intent on thanking him but unable to pull it off, so she had to find a topic of conversation to try and ease the awkwardness of earlier.

Jack shook his head and admonished, "No need; I still have plenty of stamina. You young people shouldn't rely too much on potions either; working out a good body is the way to go."

"I guess you can't afford it, Uncle ..." Catherine remained as snarky as before.

Instead, her hand reached into her traveling bag, removed a bottle of Primary Stamina Potion, and tossed it to Jack.

"You're a handful of years old; what's the point of holding on to your face? Drink up; if it wasn't for the fact that there's still a way to go before the exit of the underground palace, I wouldn't care about you."

Ian, on the other side, said, "Uncle O'Shield, how did you manage to remain unaffected when facing the Goblin Squad's Fear Aura earlier? If you are willing to pass it on, I can buy this know-how for three hundred silver coins."

As a swordsman of noble birth, Ian could not tolerate himself showing that cowardly look again.

"Three hundred silver coins?" Jack's eyes lit up, "It's not really complicated; if you've faced the dragon's pressure head-on, this level of fear aura can naturally be resisted."

Catherine rolled her eyes, "Although you do have a bit of strength, Uncle, bragging about something like this is more or less tied to reality."

From the look on Ian's face, it was clear that he didn't quite believe it either.

Jack shrugged; it seemed that the three hundred silver coins would not land in his pocket.

...

The three walked and rested for half a quarter of an hour or so, and at the end of the tunnel in front of them was a visible fire.

The stone walls on both sides also showed many more signs of human reinforcement.

This place is close to the exit of the underground palace.

"A living flaming kobold is much more valuable than a corpse."

Seeing the exit in sight, Catherine's heartstrings, which had always been tense since her encounter with danger, finally relaxed considerably.

Even the step on the little leather boots seemed to become much lighter.

"Oh? Looks like you guys had a pretty good haul."

An unfamiliar man's voice suddenly rang out from behind several people.

The voice was as cold as a snake, startling Ian's pupils to shrink, frightening Catherine's hairs on the back of her neck to instantly explode, and the three of them subconsciously turned their heads to look.

"You're Ian, Catherine, and Jack, right?"

By the light of the torches, it could be seen that it was a man in light armor, with a black visor covering most of his face.

The pair of revealed eyes stared at Jack and the others dead in the face, greedy and dangerous light flickering in their eyes.

At the other end of the tunnel, a woman in the same costume as the masked man came out, and she sneered, "Tsk, tsk, tsk, three lower level adventurers. We've been squatting at the Adventurer's Guild for quite some time in order to pick out quality prey like you guys."

Ian's face became a bit ugly as he explained to Jack, "There are some people who are adventurers on the surface but do robberies behind their backs; they are known as looters. Assisting the Adventurer's Guild in solving these assholes is likewise an important source of obtaining bounties."

"Eliminating bandits actually offers a bounty? That's right; after all, bandits wouldn't have dared to be so rampant back in the days of my adventures." Jack stroked the scars on his small round shield, "The cost of repairing the equipment will be well earned from you."

The male looter looked like he heard some kind of joke, "We are real intermediate-level adventurers; what kind of big talk is nonsense like you ...!"

The masked man had raised his left arm at the same time the last half of the sentence came out of his mouth.

In his hand was a small crossbow, already fully strung, and he fired a sinister arrow quenched with toxin at Ian.