Chapter 305 Severed Pincer, Continuing Deeper

Whoosh—

The deep, cold wind from the dark hells carried a heavy, scorched stench of sulfur.

The scorching heat in the air had yet to dissipate, and the distinct fishy stench of aquatic creatures surged from the churning aftermath of the mud pit.

A layer of shattered, heavy carapace floated on the surface of the mud like broken glass, faint scorch marks visible along its edges.

Large patches of the luminescent moss on the cave walls had been scorched away; the few faint rays of light it still managed to emit illuminated a massive severed pincer, angled into the ground by the wall like a tombstone.

Abi stood frozen in place.

A lingering daze remained deep in his eyes.

The surging power within his body receded like the tide, leaving behind only the faintest embers. The dark red flames of the Nine Hells rapidly vanished from the surface of his skin.

He subconsciously reached out, weakly grasping at the empty air.

It was as if he wanted to hold onto this rapidly fading power that did not belong to him.

But it was in vain.

Only a few breaths had passed since the battle ended.

In that short time, he had fallen from being a powerhouse who could "run rampant" through the Underdark, easily crush Class Holders, and treat the dangers of the Misty Forest as nothing.

He had once again become the lowest, most pathetic piece of trash adventurer—the kind whose boasts in the tavern went ignored, and who would immediately get robbed of whatever meager coin he managed to win at the casino.

Abi did not speak.

But an indescribable reluctance, a sense of loss, and a thirst for power had already filled his heart to the brim, brought on by the repeated coiling of Purgatory's dark flames.

The dangerous monster that Lord Saloyan had called an "Armored Lurker"—a creature that looked cobbled together like a giant lobster—had been repelled.

More accurately, it had been repelled by Lord Saloyan, who had temporarily borrowed his body.

To Abi, there was not much difference.

During the battle, his consciousness had not faded.

Because of this, his senses, temporarily enhanced by the dark red flames, allowed him to clearly feel every ounce of power that burst forth from his originally weak and meager body under Lord Saloyan's control.

The terrifying strength that was enough to twist the strongest adventurer he knew into a pretzel, the surging flames that caused even the mud to burn to ash—for the first time, Abi realized that he could be this strong. He realized he wasn't doomed to spend his entire life huddled in a crude, filthy little room like a bedbug, just waiting to die as a bottom-tier adventurer.

He could do it.

And he should do it.

Someone who has seen the light can hardly bear the pitch black of the night.

After the power receded and he regained control of his body, the accompanying weakness and the intense contrast nearly drove Abi mad.

He dreamed of claiming that previous power as his own, even if the price was—

"Whoosh."

A cold wind suddenly blew past from the depths of the cave, making his body shudder.

'No, I can't. I can't do this. It's not time yet. Just wait a little longer, wait a little longer—'

He incoherently reassured himself in his heart.

He suspended that final step, the one that would cross his bottom line, in midair.

At the same time.

Saloyan, whose mental projection was attached to the broken mirror tucked closely against Abi's chest, sensed the young adventurer's thoughts and thought it a pity.

He had been just a tiny bit away from being able to harvest this soul and bring it back to hell in the safest, most regulation-compliant manner.

He was in no rush.

Patience was one of the few excellent virtues possessed by devils.

The train heading to hell had already started moving; there was no room to turn back.

An ignorant youth who had tasted power was just like the worst magic addict—there was absolutely no possibility of him turning back.

It was merely a matter of giving him one more push forward.

Of course, a soul of such relatively average quality could only be considered a bonus to his harvest; it was not the reason he had projected his consciousness into the Material Plane.

His main objective was the core of the massive Goblin Lair, hidden deep within one of the branching paths of the Underdark right before him.

It was just that the journey here had been a bit too tortuous.

Saloyan was nowhere near as relaxed as he appeared to be in front of Abi.

As a devil noble of the Nine Hells, even if he was only a Baron, his strength was absolutely beyond the imagination of those bottom-tier adventurers who waged battles of wits and courage against goblins in the Misty Forest.

If this had been in front of his physical body in Purgatory, a trivial little Armored Lurker would not have even required him to lift a finger; the devils under his command could have easily torn it to shreds.

But right now, what was attached to Abi was merely a partial projection of Saloyan's consciousness in the Material Plane. High-level techniques like concealing auras and evading danger might still be effective, but describing his actual combat strength as "not even a tenth remaining" would be generous.

He could perhaps use his own magical expertise to draw a little power from his true body in Purgatory to temporarily empower Abi's body, but the amount was extremely limited.

For instance, that Armored Lurker from just now, which had a Challenge Rating of around 4, had pushed him close to his limits.

Being able to heavily injure it and seemingly repel it with ease was primarily due to the advantage of his Purgatory flames.

"Turn back," Saloyan said softly to Abi, his magnetic, hoarse male voice carrying an unconcealable trace of exhaustion. "The incorrect options have mostly been eliminated."

"Since this path is a dead end—we'll just take another."

"Yes, Lord Saloyan."

Abi nodded repeatedly and turned obediently like a marionette, walking toward the entrance of the cave.

Behind him, fragments of the Armored Lurker's carapace bobbed slowly on the surface of the mud, and the massive severed pincer leaned quietly against the stone wall.

Misty Forest, the border zone between the outskirts and the core.

The entrance to what was once a Petrification Lizard Lair.

The Oathkeeper Blackwood party carefully inspected the surrounding traces, preparing to venture deeper into the cave.

Compared to before, the entire party looked significantly more battered.

Traces of dried mud could be seen on their leather boots, armor, hair, and even their cheeks.

Clearly, the strength of that "Armored Lurker" had exceeded what they were capable of handling.

Fortunately, just as the battle was reaching a fever pitch, the creature suddenly retreated for some unknown reason, allowing the party to preserve their fighting strength.

The only one injured was the dwarf Thordin, who had been smashed deep into the mud pit after using a Taunt-type combat technique.

However, his sturdy physique—a racial trait—along with the soft, viscous mud beneath his feet, had mitigated the damage he took to some extent.

After the battle ended, he downed half a bottle of Healing Potion, and his injuries were mostly healed.

His combat effectiveness was at about ninety percent of his peak condition. For his role as a frontline meat shield primarily tasked with pinning down enemies, this was entirely sufficient.

The group thus continued forward with their mission.

As for the Armored Lurker's unexpected retreat, the party's captain, Margaret, had a vague guess.

Having worked as an adventurer for many years, she had at least some understanding of the monsters that roamed this continent.

Armored Lurkers were rare, and even the adventurers in the taverns rarely discussed their existence.

But she still knew a bit of information about this type of monster.

It was not a product of the natural evolution of creatures on the Aifala Continent.

The birth of the Armored Lurker traced back to antiquity, to an ancient empire ruled by some sort of aberrant evil entity.

And they were the most devout servants of those rulers, used to harvest precious resources from the oceans and continents.

After a blank period of history unknown to the world, that ancient empire was destroyed by the gods, and the masters of the Armored Lurkers suffered a devastating blow.

The Armored Lurkers themselves, however, survived thanks to the extreme adaptability designed into them upon their creation. They gradually multiplied and spread across the continent as ordinary creatures.

They possessed high intelligence, nearly reaching the level of sentient beings. Perhaps due to their physical structure, they could not produce sounds that ordinary humans could understand, but they could comprehend certain languages, including Deep Speech and Common.

Margaret was thankful that their current environment was the boundless, lush Misty Forest, rather than some ancient ruin hidden deep at the bottom of the sea.

Otherwise, an Armored Lurker appearing near the latter would highly likely be a guardian of the ruin, and it absolutely would not have let them leave so easily.

"Captain, we're just about done inspecting."

The sound of her teammate's report brought Margaret back to reality.

"I'm sure this is the Petrification Lizard cave mentioned in the mission intel," the dwarf Thordin said in a muffled voice as he squeezed out from the nearby bushes, two layers of bandages wrapped around his right shoulder.

"I followed the tracks on the ground and found the remains of the Petrification Lizard in the woods next to here. But all the meat on it had already been picked clean by the wild beasts in the forest. There were barely any bones left, and the ones that were there were pitted and chewed up. They wouldn't fetch much coin even if we brought them back."

As he spoke, a look of regret appeared on Thordin's rugged face.

He had just consumed half a bottle of Healing Potion to treat his injuries. If he could have brought back a few Petrification Lizard bones, he might have been able to recoup some of his losses.

But after all, it had been dead for many days. In an environment like the Misty Forest where decay happened incredibly fast, compounded by those ravenous small beasts, it was hard to say if they would even find any useful materials.

Hearing this, Margaret nodded in understanding.

She then turned her head and looked toward the Rogue, Goldensand, who had also finished his inspection.

After exchanging a glance and seeing him give a slight nod, she finally opened her mouth and waved to the group.

"Form up. Prepare to enter."

"Don't get careless. Even though the Petrification Lizard is dead, so many days have passed. Who knows if something else has moved into the cave."

"Everyone, be careful!"

In truth, they didn't need her reminder. The few people in the party knew to be careful; they were even more vigilant than usual.

After all, they had just suffered an attack from an Armored Lurker and were nearly wiped out.

If not for the fact that there were no other wounded in the party besides the dwarf, and that the mission itself was purely investigative, the group would have long since made a tactical retreat back to Rivervale Town.

Joshua, the Spellcaster positioned in the middle of the formation under everyone's protection, had a slightly weaker mentality. At this moment, he had already prepared defensive and escape spells.

Looking at his pale face and completely tense body, one could guess that at the slightest sign of trouble, he would panic-cast a spell.

This forced Margaret and Goldensand, who were positioned at the rear, to keep an eye on the kid's condition while guarding against danger, lest he spontaneously combust and take them out halfway before they even ran into a monster.

However, the two of them didn't have any complaints about this. Even Goldensand, who was always sharp-tongued, didn't complain much.

After all, before recruiting him into the party, they had already prepared themselves for this.

With their average Class Level and party composition, unless they had known each other beforehand or made a prior arrangement, it was basically impossible to find a reliable Spellcaster teammate with rich adventuring experience.

Joshua was already the highest-level mage they could find who was willing to join them. While enjoying the convenience of magic in battle and daily life, this was also the consequence they had to bear for bringing a Level 1 mage into the team.

Fortunately, there were no ambushes in this tunnel leading to the Petrification Lizard Lair.

The group of four advanced slowly and successfully arrived at the mission location.

What entered their sight was a massive lair bearing numerous traces of the Petrification Lizard's habitation, the ground littered with shattered statues.

The group had a clear division of labor. First, they conducted a general inspection to confirm that no dangerous monster was acting like a turtledove seizing a magpie's nest, and only then did they begin a detailed search.

Of course, though it was called a collective search, the person doing most of the actual work was the Rogue named "Goldensand".

He seemed to possess some sort of acute Perception-type combat technique. He swiped his right hand across his eyes, and those irises, which already bore the unique sharpness of a Rogue, abruptly gained a flickering, pitch-black luster.

It was like a special filter made of shadow particles. As his gaze lightly swept across the lair, he keenly caught onto an anomaly.

"This is..."

Goldensand suddenly stepped forward twice, stopping at the deepest part of the cave by the entrance to an inconspicuous tunnel leading further down.

The tip of his nose twitched as if he were sniffing some long-faded stench of burnt sulfur in the air, his eyes staring straight into the dark, lightless depths of the tunnel.

He stared for a long while.

Only then did he give a slight nod of confirmation and turn to look at Margaret and the others, who were waiting quietly behind him.

"There is indeed a distinct residue of negative energy. Judging by its characteristics, it's highly likely to be from a devil of hell, but I can't be certain."

"The energy disturbance occurred about four to five days ago. Considering the instability of negative energy particles, there's a chance of misjudgment, but it's absolutely been a while since this suspected devil entered the tunnel."

"What we need to note is that the intensity of this residual negative energy is lower than we previously expected. It's highly probable that it isn't the physical body of the evil entity; a projection is much more likely."

Goldensand merely stated his findings without finishing his thought, but Margaret naturally understood what he meant.

The mission the Association had given them was an "investigation."

However, that didn't mean they just needed to take a stroll around the Petrification Lizard Lair at the commissioned location to consider the task complete.

That would be far too easy.

They had to definitively confirm the existence of that evil entity from the abyss or Purgatory and remove the word "suspected" from the mission intel for it to count as a success.

As for just haphazardly throwing together a fake report to fool them... The Association had been developing for many years. It wasn't as if there hadn't been adventurers who tried to play smart, but their ends were rarely ever good.

Regarding this point, not only Margaret, but the rest of the party also understood it perfectly well.

Therefore, they would rather give up halfway and head straight back than submit a false report to swindle the bounty.

"So, Captain... are we going in?"

Looking at the pitch-black cave entrance ahead, Joshua subconsciously swallowed hard and asked cautiously.

Margaret didn't answer. Her eyes stared fixedly into the deep pitch-black in front of them. The fluorescence from the fungal colonies on the walls only illuminated half her face, leaving the rest veiled in shadow.

The danger was certainly real, but the sunk costs also had to be considered.

Before anything else, one first had to realize that they were not employees of some company or guild, but true adventurers who made a living off Association missions—people whose constant companion was death.

Weighing the pros and cons.

After a long time, Margaret's crisp and decisive voice faintly echoed in the dead, silent air of the lair.

"Everyone, get ready."

"We are... continuing deeper."