Chapter 19: He Made It Look Easy

Novice Village — Dungeon Entrance

The elder stood outside the dungeon entrance, staring at the Hell Difficulty portal.

The portal was still glowing.

Three hours had already passed since Lucian and Elena’s party entered, but they still hadn’t returned.

The elder couldn’t help but worry, but there was one thing he was certain about. As long as the portal was still glowing, the elder knew the dungeon hadn’t been cleared yet.

But three hours was a long time compared to Ethan.

Ethan had entered the same dungeon alone and finished it in only one hour and thirty minutes.

At the time, the elder had thought Ethan’s speed was already impressive and that hell difficulty wasn’t that hard.

Now that he had waited three hours for a party of seven to return, the difference seemed even bigger.

"Is the gap really that large?"

He was still thinking about it when a system notification suddenly appeared in front of him.

[Quest Completed: The Elder’s letter]

The elder froze for a moment before reading it again.

Then a smile appeared on his face.

As the person who had issued the quest, he could receive a notification when the quest was completed.

The letter had reached his daughter which meant she was safe.

"Good..."

The elder finally relaxed.

He had been worried about her ever since communication between the two villages had been cut off.

Now he knew that Ethan had reached her.

The elder’s opinion of Ethan also rose again.

Not only had Ethan completed the quest, but he had managed to reach the other village despite the dangers that might happen along the way.

"I hope that boy doesn’t leave anytime soon."

Ethan was much stronger than someone at his level should have been.

If something happened to the other village, having someone like Ethan around could make a big difference.

The elder turned back toward the dungeon entrance.

Now he only had to wait for Lucian and Elena’s party to return safely.

A few minutes later, the portal began to glow again.

Someone was coming out.

Lucian stumbled through first, followed by the rest of the party.

There had been seven of them when they entered but only six returned.

Lucian’s clothes were torn, and blood covered his arms and chest. The others were in similar condition, with some barely able to stand.

Elena was among them.

She was also covered in blood, but she quickly moved toward the injured members of the party and started healing them.

"Stay still. I’ll heal you first."

The elder quickly walked over.

"What happened?"

Lucian didn’t answer right away.

"Where’s the seventh person?"

"He didn’t make it."

The elder’s expression became serious.

"What happened?"

Lucian took a breath.

"We thought we could do it too. Ethan cleared it alone in one and a half hours. There were seven of us, so I thought we’d have no problem."

Lucian clenched his fists.

"But we couldn’t even get through it without losing someone."

He gave a bitter laugh.

"We were wrong."

"The Goblin Way Keeper wasn’t as easy as we thought. And that bastard goblin boss had traps all over the place. Every time we got close, something else would trigger. We spent most of the fight trying to avoid them while looking for a chance to attack."

"We lost one of them because of a trap. We tried to save him, but we couldn’t."

"That bastard made it look so easy..."

...

Meanwhile, Ethan returned to the village with Mira and the guards.

As soon as they entered through the western gate, Mira headed straight for the defense captain. The injured guards Ethan had sent back were already there, and the captain had heard about the attack on the first watchpost.

The captain was standing outside the small building near the gate when Mira approached.

"Captain."

He turned toward her.

"Mira. What happened? The guards said you went to the next watchpost."

"We found out that another watchpost had also stopped reporting."

The captain’s expression changed slightly.

"Another one?"

Mira nodded.

"We went there, but we didn’t stay. We came back because we found out something else."

The captain waited for her to continue.

"Before that, who is he?"

He pointed toward Ethan.

Mira turned toward him.

"He’s from the neighboring village. My father sent him."

She took out the Letter and handed it to the captain.

"He came here to deliver this to me."

The captain checked the Letter before returning it.

"I see."

Mira continued, "On his way here, he was attacked by Laughing Fiends. Sixteen of them."

The captain looked toward Ethan.

"Sixteen?"

"Ethan killed all of them."

The captain stared at him for a moment.

"All sixteen?"

"Yes."

The captain was quiet for a moment before asking, "Were there any more?"

"We don’t know. Ethan only encountered sixteen, but there are probably more out there."

Mira tightened her grip on the Letter.

"Those three groups we sent to the other village probably ran into them too. None of them returned."

The captain’s expression became serious.

"So they were probably killed before they could reach the village."

"That’s what we think."

The captain looked toward the western gate.

"Then we can’t keep sending people out without knowing how many of them are there."

Mira nodded.

"We should warn the village and stop anyone from leaving alone."

"You’re right."

The captain turned toward the guards nearby.

"Get the men ready. Keep both gates guarded. I want extra guards at the western gate, and send people to check the other watchposts. No one leaves the village alone until we know what’s happening."

The guards quickly left to carry out his orders.

The captain then turned toward Ethan.

"Thank you for bringing this information back with Mira."

Ethan shook his head.

"I only happened to be there."

"Even so, we knew something was wrong. We didn’t know there were this many of them, or that they were stopping people from reaching the village."

"We’ll need some time to figure out what’s happening outside. You should stay in the village for now."

Ethan nodded.

"I’ll stay for a while."

"Good. I’ll have someone arrange a place for you to rest."

The captain then looked at Mira.

"And you should get some rest too. You’ve been outside for a while."

Mira nodded.

"Alright."