Chapter 244: Why is this dungeon so damn hard?!

Seeing the monsters ignore them and move past them, they instinctively turned around and...

Their expressions froze, and their eyes widened.

The sound they had been hearing...

They finally understood what it was.

The sickening sounds of Lucian’s blade tearing through the flesh of the incoming monsters before him.

Schk! Schk!

...Schk! Schk! Schk—

Schk!

Lucian’s body twisted efficiently as he moved between the monsters, grabbing a lunging Kobold by the head before piercing his blade straight into its skull.

Pulling the sword back, Lucian swung it towards them, causing multiple gashes across the other creatures.

"Kii—Kraahh!"

"RRAAaakh—!"

"Kreh... Krehh—!"

Their broken voices echoed throughout the cave, but each scream was quickly silenced, one after another.

The blade didn’t stop coming, and neither did the man wielding it.

He had already killed nearly 40 Kobolds just earlier, and right now...

More than a hundred were suddenly coming towards him.

The amount...

It was enormous.

Far beyond what any normal F-Ranker should have been able to handle.

Even an E-Ranker would have struggled against such a horde.

But...

Not for him.

Jake, Ella, and Selene, along with Jennifer, couldn’t keep their eyes away from the man—couldn’t stop looking as he fought against the entire horde as if they were nothing more than a handful.

There were multiple times when the Kobolds managed to land their attacks, and they could see that he was hurting as well... but even so...

He didn’t stop.

"Isaac!"

Lucian’s voice suddenly echoed through the cave, causing Isaac to flinch.

"What the fuck are you doing there?!"

Lucian’s eyes snapped towards the man, who stood there frozen, his face completely bewildered.

And seeing this... Lucian’s expression twisted slightly.

"Fucker, stop looking at me like you’re some woman falling in love...!"

Twitch.

Everyone’s lips twitched simultaneously, and at the same time, everyone finally broke out of their reverie.

Isaac’s face darkened, and ignoring Lucian’s words, he cursed himself for fooling around right now.

’He’s right. We have to think of some way to get out of here.’

Now that the Kobolds were focusing almost entirely on Lucian, Isaac finally had some breathing room.

His mind began working again.

His gaze swept across the cave entrance, and despite them already killing more than fifty, there were even more than that inside the cave, perhaps even around a hundred.

And yet...

The monsters weren’t stopping from coming.

It was as if...

"Every Kobold... inside the cave has come in our direction at the same time."

His exhausted eyes sharpened, and after calming down, he couldn’t help but sense something.

Something strange.

A strange voice, the same as that of a Kobold’s... but it had been echoing throughout the cave for quite some time.

"Kuckk...Kreeee~ kraaa..."

Isaac slowly turned his head, and his eyes widened as he noticed that the voice wasn’t coming from anywhere else...

But from the same opening they had come through a while ago.

Grabbing the torch attached to his waist, Isaac raised it in front of him and pointed its light towards the darkness ahead.

And within that darkness—

His eyes immediately landed on another Kobold.

This one was different from the others.

It was rather large in size, its body covered in numerous scars that crossed over its body. Its brown scales were noticeably thicker, giving its body a much more rugged appearance.

In its hand was a large machete, the heavy blade dragging against the rocky ground and producing a rough sound.

Just by looking at it, anyone could tell it was clearly stronger than the others.

Much stronger.

But rather than focusing on it...

Isaac’s eyes slowly rose.

And there, sitting on the larger Kobold’s shoulder, was another figure.

The moment Isaac saw it—

His expression changed.

"So this is the bastard that’s been calling them here."

It was the same Kobold who had escaped from them at the start, the one with the scar across its face.

The Kobold’s lips were twisted into a wide grin, and its strange, buzzing voice continued to echo through the cave.

And as it spoke, the surrounding Kobolds continued moving, every single one of its brethren moving towards only one place.

Towards the most dangerous human among them.

"Everyone!"

Isaac immediately gathered everyone’s attention.

He briefly explained to them about the Kobold and the reason the monsters seemed to be after them so much... since most Kobolds would normally retreat once they realised they were facing opponents they couldn’t easily defeat.

The moment everyone understood what was happening, their expressions became serious.

"Jessica! Shoot that one!"

The moment those words escaped, Jessica aimed at the Kobold sitting on top of the larger monster.

Her eyes narrowed, her breathing slowed as everything around her seemed to disappear, her focus solely on her target.

BANG!

The bullet sliced through the air at terrifying speed, travelling towards it in less than a second.

But just before it could reach its head—

The Kobold’s eyes widened.

Its body suddenly blurred as it jumped from the giant’s shoulders, twisting mid-air before landing safely onto a rock nearby.

"Shit!"

Jake cursed aloud.

"Now what?"

He really felt like they were genuinely at a disadvantage right now, and for a moment, he couldn’t help but wonder just one thing.

"Why is this dungeon so damn hard?!"

They had already explored multiple F-Rank dungeons before, and sure, some had been dangerous, but none of them were like this.

They had even entered an E-Rank dungeon once with a much larger squad, and that team had included higher-ranked Awakeners.

Compared to that—

This was supposed to be an F-Rank dungeon, yet somehow, it was making them struggle more than they had in an E-Rank one.

Jake’s lips twitched nervously.

"This isn’t our last dungeon exploration, right...?"

Jennifer bonked his head with the back of her gun.

"Ow!"

"Stop saying stupid things."

She clicked her tongue in irritation.

"Lucian is fighting alone, so we’ll have to take care of that troublesome Kobold."

Meanwhile, the look on Isaac’s face remained grim.

He wanted all of them to go and fight against that caller Kobold.

But he couldn’t, as there were still more than thirty monsters gathered around the opening, guarding the caller Kobold, along with the bigger, heavily scarred one.

Isaac gritted his teeth.

"Mr. Lucian! Can you please hold them for some time? We’ll try to kill that Kobold that’s been causing all of this!"

Isaac spoke loudly, his voice tinged with guilt.

He didn’t like asking Lucian to do all the difficult work again.

The man had already been fighting almost completely alone for a long time, and now—

They were asking him to hold back the entire group once more.

Isaac’s fingers tightened around his axe.

But he had no other choice.

Just as he was thinking this—

"You just need space to kill that one, right?"

Lucian’s voice suddenly reached his ears.

"Y... Ye—"

"Then I’ll help you."

The moment he heard those words—

Shiiinnnngggg~~~~

The blade in Lucian’s hand immediately began shimmering with a strange blue light, slowly enveloping the blade completely before condensing into a thin, razor-sharp layer around its edge.

And once again...

The tide of the battle began shifting in their favour.