Special Chapter XIII - Stone Door (part 2)

A tap landed on his right arm's armor, and the captain turned to face me. I handed a bottle of magic energy drink to him, and he took it.

"Congratulations. You have exceeded my expectations, but you exerted nearly all of your entire magic energy. Right now, you are probably quite dry, so drink up."

I began walking forward, leaving the captain and everyone else. While the captain was being crowded by everyone, I ignored them and continued walking down the cave.

"Captain, captain! You have to teach me how to do that!!"

The captain is currently the most popular person in our group. To be able to throw a punch like that, as well as defeating that demon from before, he was very looked upon by the others.

"Hehehe!! Don't worry, I'll teach you guys later when we are back!"

"Captain! Does that mean you can take on a level 1?"

"I'm very certain I can!"

The captain laughed after answering the question given by one of his knights. Though, I'm not exactly sure if he can, but let's see how later. After all, he exerted that much magic energy in one shot. There is no way that Prym guy wouldn't notice.

They will be coming, very soon. Just like how I wanted it.

Everyone else behind me followed, but they were still happily talking. The path to the underground lair had been opened, and the cave's size is about eight meters in diameter. 

It's quite big… Something huge is probably living here.

Or dying here. Cough.

The group slowly entered the lair's hall, which kept on going downwards. When the group enters, Gajah looks behind and wonders why I'm still standing in the middle of the path.

"Rile?"

I ignored his call, and lifted my right hand towards the entrance before spawning multiple fireballs. The fireballs stroke the surface of the cave, creating a slight avalanche to cover up the whole entrance.

As a result, the room is completely dark now. I bet from the outside, it's all just a bunch of rocks stacking on top of another at the side of a cliff.

"What!?"

"Why did you close it!?"

Gajah and Belmar asked me, but I simply turned around and continued walking. I walked towards them while they were still staring at me confused.

"Don't worry, it's just to ward off some bad luck. Besides, the captain can just punch a hole again when we are done, right?"

I kept on walking and led the way, leaving the confused captain and the others. Everyone else was still wordless, so they followed me without saying anything.

The path down isn't very steep. At the very least, it wasn't enough to get anyone to slip and slide down. Unless one has the balancing abilities of a toddler, no one can slip up and fall down here.

Plus, the path is not that deep down. After a minute of walking down, we arrived in a large hall with stone walls on the sides and the ceilings. The floor is still dirt, and the cave was lit pretty brightly thanks to the light crystals on the walls. 

Thanks to these crystals, we can see the entirety of this cave.

The top of the cave looks like a dome, with a large shining crystal in the middle. The shape of the room looked to be a circle, but there is an expansion at the end of the room, a path to another spot of the cave.

But there is another thing to this cave. The stench is so much heavier than before.

"Oh my god, the stench is the worst here."

Gajah mumbled as he covered his nose with the cloth from before. Everyone else is also the same, nobody can stand the stench at all.

Luckily, I had worn a cloth inside the mask before coming here since I was already aware of the evil stench. But even with a cloth covering my nose, I can still smell the deadly stench.

All of the sudden, at the other side of the room where the path to the other room is located, a loud sound of barks and screams can be heard.

Gajah noticed this, and turned to the captain.

"Could it be...?"

"Yes."

The captain lifted his large sword from his back and held it with a stance to attack. Everyone else is also unsheathing their weapons, preparing for battle.

"They are coming."

The first to show up from that path is a pack of undead demon wolves. There are around six, and they are running straight towards us. None of them looked friendly, and they seemed to be the type that won't run to the stick if we throw one away.

In fact, those are the type that will rip off your flesh and eat your skin for sport. Totally not recommended for petting!

"Demonized beasts have their own weakness. Slice their necks off their bodies, and they won't regenerate."

I shouted to the others, and everyone nodded before dashing forward. In only ten seconds, six undead demon wolves are down. Since none of them had demon mode on, it was quite easy to defeat. Even Gajah had no problem in taking them down.

Both Gajah and the captain are using large swords, so the two are combining their attacks, one after another. They smacked their hands after killing three demon wolves from working together.

"There's more!"

Belmar shouted as he pointed at the horde of undead demon beasts coming from the entrance in front of us.

"There might be no end to this… We have to push forward!"

The captain shouted to the others as he slashed an undead demonized bear's head away. 

One by one the undead beasts are going down. Not just beasts, undead humans are also starting to show up. But they don't look as horrible as the demon we fought outside. They are just simple zombies.

The group was able to move to the next entrance. When the wave of undead stopped, we went down the path again, towards an even larger room.

This room was twice as large, and the light crystals are twice as huge as the one previously. At the end of the room is another entrance to another level of the cave. 

But right in the middle of the room, stood a single person

It's him. The undead conjurer.

"Y-You!"

Gajah stepped forward to face the conjurer, but the captain held his shoulder. Gajah turned to look at the captain, and he could see the frightened face of the captain.

Oh, captain… Now that you have tasted the ability of magic energy, you are able to sense pressures much more clearly.

The captain was right to stay put. This man... the conjurer, had a really powerful pressure. Though it wasn't as powerful as those Rank 1 rankers, there is something else about him that made me wary of him.

Something… is under his feet.

"Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen! To my secret lair!"

The conjurer spoke loudly at us. He is wearing a black robe with tons of golden ornaments decorating it. He was wearing the hood when we first came into the room, but when he spoke, he took off the hood and showed his face.

From the looks of it, he seemed to be an old man around his mid-forties. The hair on his face was trimmed carefully, making him look like some sort of noble.

"I have been expecting you... Wait, you guys aren't from Veldon!"

The conjurer studied us right after we entered the room. But after seeing the armour worn by the knights, he can tell we are not from Veldon.

"That's right. We are from the rebellion group! The group which… You! Stained the name!"

Gajah shouted at the conjurer. I can feel all of his rage poured out on him, but the conjurer only laughed at that.

"Ah… yes, indeed. I stained the name of the rebels. But it was all for a good cause! We both wanted the kingdom to die, so… Let's say we just joined forces!"

"We will never join hands with a monster like you!"

Gajah seemed to be really worked up about this. A lot of his friends were murdered by the kingdom because of this conjurer. The kingdom declared war with the rebellion group precisely because they thought the conjurer was on the rebellion's side. 

But the truth is, the conjurer was never even close to being related to the rebellion group led by Gajah. He was just his own man, fighting a kingdom without caring about what happens to the rebellion.

The conjurer let out a deep sigh. He opened his eyes at us again, and this time we can feel the pressure focused on us.

"That's a shame... I was thinking of getting more puppets from you guys."

Gajah's ears exploded from hearing that. His grip on his blade became even tighter as he took a step forward.

"For you to... Play around with death that easily..."

I will never forgive you--"

"Gajah!!"

Feeling a sudden heavy pat on his shoulder, Gajah snapped out of his insanity. He turned towards the source, and found the captain staring at him with an intense glare.

"Calm down."

Hearing the captain said that simple sentence, Gajah bit his lips. Blood came out from his lips, but he wiped it with his hand and lifted his sword up. 

Seeing that Gajah has come back to his senses, the captain chuckled before taking a stance as well. Behind him, everyone else is already prepared, including me.

The captain grinned as he stared at the conjurer, standing all by himself in the middle of the room. The captain's body began to glow, as his body got enchanted with energy.

Oh? He's a natural.

"Now, then… Let's kick his ass!"