Chapter 117 Implication

The shifting of the stones couldn't possibly be the work of the wind.

The high concentration of magical particles in the Misty Forest manifested as a pale gray fog permeating the air, not as extreme natural disasters like hurricanes or rains of fire.

The overall environment was relatively stable; winds of that magnitude were rare.

The best-case scenario was that an ordinary animal living near the cave had passed by, been frightened by the commotion of the squad's battle with the goblins inside, and accidentally triggered the trap.

A slightly worse possibility was that monsters in the forest had been attracted to the vicinity by the scent of blood drifting from within.

But if that were the case, Adeline knew very few monsters—at least on the outskirts of the Misty Forest—could suppress their thirst for flesh long enough to patiently wait at the entrance to ambush them.

As for the worst-case scenario...

That left only one possibility.

People.

"You mean someone might be waiting in ambush outside?" Xia Nan frowned, turning to look at the empty cave entrance ahead.

"I'm not sure." Adeline shook her head slightly, thick blood dripping from the metal One-Handed Hammer hanging at her waist. "But we can't rule out the possibility."

Inwardly, Xia Nan completely agreed.

After all, they were in a dangerous, desolate wilderness; even if it ultimately proved to be a false alarm, they couldn't ignore any potential threats.

Being cautious was never a bad thing.

To the side, Berg stood with his longbow in hand, staring intently at the exit a short distance away. His body was turned slightly, nostrils flaring as if trying to glean information hidden within the faint currents of air flowing into the tunnel.

Abi, on the other hand, appeared far more panicked, fitting his status as a rookie adventurer.

The joy of their unexpected windfall had been instantly washed away. The drastic emotional swing from elation to dread had left him highly on edge.

He asked in an eager panic, "Then what should we do? Just charge straight out?"

Adeline didn't answer immediately.

Instead, she thought it over carefully. After pondering for a moment, she spoke slowly.

"We already checked earlier. The nest has no other exits."

"If we want to leave, this is the only way."

"Maybe we can wait inside for a while?" Berg chimed in with his own idea. "Make the people outside lose their patience and expose themselves?"

"Too passive."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Adeline shot the idea down.

She had clearly already considered such a plan.

"Setting aside how long our supplies can last, the scent of blood spreading through the cave might attract even more troublesome and dangerous monsters."

Berg's suggestion was essentially entrusting their lives entirely to outside factors.

For the vast majority of adventurers, who yearned to hold their fate in their own hands regardless of life or death, it was an unacceptable option.

This was how Adeline saw it.

If there truly were hostile adventurers waiting in ambush outside the cave, ready to launch a surprise attack the moment they emerged, then it essentially boiled down to two scenarios.

First, these adventurers didn't know who they were. They had simply stumbled across this nest during their own expedition and heard the sounds of her squad fighting the goblins inside.

Thus, driven by greed, they wanted to seize the opportunity to make some easy money.

Second, they were adventurers with a clear objective—they had their eyes on her squad and had come specifically for them.

The former was manageable; neither side knew the other's capabilities, leaving a lot of uncertainty.

It might just be a few ordinary adventurers blinded by greed who, upon seeing that her group wouldn't be an easy target, would weigh the pros and cons and back off on their own.

But if it was the latter, they were in trouble.

To target their squad and track them all the way here to block them in...

Adventurers engaged in this sort of business would have clearly investigated their strength thoroughly.

The enemy was in the dark while they were in the light. It was a bad spot.

The only variable in their entire team was probably Xia Nan, who had just joined.

Adeline glanced at Xia Nan, who stood beside her with his blade in hand. Her expression was unreadable, her thoughts hidden.

Stretching out a thick arm, she pulled the worried-looking Abi over and instructed, "Regardless, since they didn't choose to enter the cave directly but waited in ambush outside, it means these people aren't entirely confident they can take us down easily."

"Abi, in a moment, listen to my command. Just—"

If it ultimately proved to be a false alarm, they would only have wasted a bit of time and energy. For adventurers walking on a tightrope, no one would feel embarrassed about fighting invisible enemies for the sake of their lives.

But if things truly were as Adeline expected, reaching the worst-case scenario, then her cautious approach would benefit the entire team, minimizing their casualties to the greatest extent possible.

A gentle breeze swept past, rolling waves of green across the dense canopy as swaying branches rustled.

The pale fog, laden with magical particles, drifted leisurely, muffling the chirping of insects in the woods.

Hidden deep within the thickets was a dark, narrow cave.

A foul stench and a faint scent of blood wafted out from within.

"Swish!"

Accompanied by a shrill whistle that tore through the air, a slender arrow suddenly shot out from the cave.

It was incredibly precise, landing squarely in the small clearing before the tunnel entrance.

The powerful propulsion released by the snapping bowstring drove the sharp arrowhead into the soft mud almost instantly.

And a leather pouch tied to the arrow's shaft burst open upon impact.

It exploded into a massive cloud of brownish-gray dust, enough to blanket the entire cave entrance.

Immediately after, under the cover of the dust, a skinny figure with only a blurred outline visible flew out of the entrance.

It was the corpse of a slightly larger goblin.

It wasn't heavily disguised, but it was enough to distract any potential enemies.

Then, four more figures charged out of the cave almost simultaneously.

They dashed toward four different directions.

"Huff... Huff..."

Gasping for breath, Abi looked tense as he pumped his legs with all his might.

To avoid hindering his sprint, he had already sheathed his single-handed sword.

But he kept the iron-studded wooden shield tightly in his grip, just in case.

His heart pounded violently, his mind entirely blank.

He simply followed Adeline's instructions, running toward the dense forest near the entrance with everything he had.

At the same time, he struggled to spare a sliver of attention for the noises coming from other directions behind him.

There were no shouts, nor any sounds of combat.

'The plan seems to be going smoothly.'

As the lush bushes ahead drew closer, he still didn't sense anything out of the ordinary.

A trace of relief gradually blossomed in Abi's heart.

'The boss must have guessed wrong. There's no ambush.'

The brief thought flashed through his mind.

But just as he was about to slow his pace slightly and turn around to check on his teammates, not far beside him, hidden in the shadows of the thorns and tall grass... Hum— a cold gleam suddenly flashed out.

The sudden attack made Abi's pupils shrink, and he only had time to reflexively raise his shield.

"Clang!"

It was the sharp ring of a metal edge clashing against wood.

Wood fibers splintered, sending sawdust flying.

The lower right corner of the shield, stained with dried blood, instantly caved in.

Abi felt a tremendous force suddenly transmit through his left arm, which was bracing the shield.

It felt as if most of his arm had lost feeling in a split second.

He fell backward, collapsing onto the ground.

Meanwhile, on the other side.

After leaving the cave, Xia Nan had similarly followed the plan, bolting toward the dense forest to the north.

But unlike Abi, just as he was only a few meters away from the thick brush ahead, right on the verge of escaping danger, Xia Nan's expression suddenly froze. As if sensing something, he abruptly stopped in his tracks.

His right hand reached behind his back, and the Decapitating Longsword was instantly drawn, held horizontally in a defensive posture.

Only a few breaths passed.

With a rustling of the bushes, two fully armed adventurers who had been lying in ambush revealed themselves.

"Kid, you're pretty sharp."

"Guess you're a smart one. We'll make you suffer a bit less later."

The two didn't attack. They simply blocked the path from the left and right, as if waiting for someone's orders.

Xia Nan didn't reply.

The iron-gray glint reflecting off the blade mirrored in his pitch-black eyes.

His gaze instinctively swept over the gap between their chest plates and jaws—their vulnerable necks.

"Kegel, it's you!?"

With men stationed all around the exit, Berg, who had run in another direction, had naturally been intercepted as well.

And by pure coincidence, the person blocking his path happened to be the gaunt, gloomy man they had once met at the Adventurers' Association.

He had originally wanted to use his connection as an "old acquaintance" of Berg's to join the party, but their leader, Adeline, hadn't approved of him.

That had caused a rift between him and Berg.

"Hunting Day comes every year. Is it really necessary to go this far, brother?"

Berg glanced toward the rest of the squad and offered a bitter smile.

But Kegel, standing opposite him, just tossed his dagger into the air with a sinister grin on his face.

"Rather than going after strange adventurers whose backgrounds I don't know, I'm definitely a lot more familiar with you."

"It's just business, my 'old friend'."

Knowing there was no room for negotiation, Berg's face immediately turned ashen.

At the same time, at the very front directly facing the cave entrance, which was theoretically the most dangerous position, Adeline tightly gripped her hammer.

Three adventurers, similarly clad in Fine armor, stood before her.

One of them, a man who looked like the leader, was grinning at her, revealing a mouth full of rotten teeth.

"B-boss, what do we do now?"

Abi crawled and stumbled his way over, still lugging his damaged wooden shield. He cut a sorry figure as he arrived behind Adeline, his pale face dripping with sweat brought on by terror and pain.

Signaling him with her eyes not to make any rash moves, Adeline glanced at Berg and Kegel on the other side of the clearing.

She then looked forward at "Gap-Toothed" Bennett.

In her heart, she had roughly pieced together the cause and effect of this whole mess.

She had rejected the man named "Kegel" from joining the squad, leading him to fall out with Berg, which in turn extended his grudge to their entire team.

As a supposed friend of Berg's, he had learned the true depths of their squad's strength from him over drinks. After joining Gap-Toothed's party by some stroke of chance, Kegel had naturally chosen them as a target.

Right now, there were six visible enemies.

But on their side, even counting herself, there were only four.

Moreover, Abi was a rookie with barely any experience fighting people.

It was a complete disadvantage.

But the fact that they hadn't attacked right away meant the other side had reservations.

"Just spit it out. What do you want?"

"Haha! As expected of 'Greenblood', you're straightforward enough!" Gap-Toothed laughed heartily. "I like your personality. You don't dawdle around like a bitch."

His fiercely glinting eyes shifted, sweeping over Berg and the others before pausing on Xia Nan's chainmail, which was visibly a Fine item at a single glance.

He raised an index finger and drawled, "Two-thirds of your loot, and have your little brother hand over all his gear. Do that, and I'll let you off the hook today."

'Bullshit!'

Adeline couldn't help but curse inwardly upon hearing his demand.

She was all too familiar with Gap-Toothed's personality and methods.

He wasn't making a direct move right now because she had detected the ambush, ruining his surprise attack.

In a six-on-four, fight-to-the-death scenario, he was afraid she would drag a few of them down with her in a frontal clash. That was why he was pretending to be generous and willing to let them go.

The moment she agreed and had her squad strip off their armor and weapons, the other side would inevitably turn on them in a heartbeat.

'I need to think of something!'

Her mind raced, her palms slick with sweat against the hammer's haft.

She instinctively scanned her surroundings, searching for a possible opening.

'Where? Where is the chance?'

'If I don't care about getting hurt, I should be able to temporarily hold off the two in front. That leaves four enemies...'

'Berg's main expertise is ranged combat. If someone gets in close, he probably won't last long.'

'And Abi is a rookie with practically no experience fighting adventurers. He's no match for these guys.'

'Xia Nan—'

As Adeline pondered, she unconsciously made eye contact with Xia Nan to the side.

Strangely enough, though she had merely been thinking of a way out and hadn't packed any extra meaning into her gaze, the other party seemed to have understood some non-existent hint.

He gave an imperceptible nod.

Then, he walked straight toward her.

His footsteps were slow and steady.

It made him look entirely devoid of any aggressiveness, even with a longsword in his hand.

As a result, both "Gap-Toothed" Bennett and Adeline herself assumed he was just like Abi, coming over to discuss their next move with her.

Gap-Toothed even called out to advise him, "Kid, talk some sense into your boss."

"You can always make money later, but you only have one life!"

Adeline knew in her heart that agreeing to Bennett's conditions was tantamount to jumping into a pit of fire.

Stripped of their gear, they would be left with no way out but death.

But with Gap-Toothed standing right in front of them, she couldn't well say that to Xia Nan's face.

She just tried to stop him with her eyes as much as possible, signaling him not to come over and that she would figure out a solution herself.

His steps didn't stop.

One step, two steps...

Seeing that Xia Nan still didn't seem to understand her intent, Adeline couldn't help but look a bit anxious.

Throwing caution to the wind, she turned around and opened her mouth to shout.

But right at that moment, within her line of sight, the figure who had been walking over at a slow, leisurely pace... abruptly blurred into a smear!

He vanished from where he stood in the blink of an eye.

A whistling gale whipped past her cheek, carrying a sharp, explosive howl like a wolf's roar.

From behind, the heavy, sluggish sound of a blade biting into flesh rang out.