Chapter 247: What are you thinking of doing…?

After resting for some time, Lucian, Jennifer, and Selene finally made their way towards the corpses, intending to remove their cores.

The others remained behind, using the opportunity to recuperate.

Even Ava, who appeared to be in relatively good condition compared to the others, was too fatigued to continue moving around after spending so long on the frontline.

The three of them slowly walked across the battlefield.

The ground was covered in the corpses of the Kobolds they had fought, blood soaking the rocky floor, and the metallic scent still lingered heavily in the air.

Jennifer and Selene’s expressions twisted slightly as they stepped over the corpses, neither of them particularly comfortable with the sight.

Selene, however, kept her expression neutral as she walked beside her son, occasionally glancing towards the corpses to watch her step.

Lucian, on the other hand, didn’t seem bothered at all.

After all, most of the corpses lying around had been killed by him.

"You killed so many of them," Jennifer muttered in disbelief as she looked at the number of corpses, her voice tinged with discomfort as she turned towards Lucian, who still... didn’t seem even a bit fatigued.

"Do you have infinite stamina or something?" she couldn’t help but ask, and in response—

"Something like that," Lucian answered casually, since she wasn’t exactly wrong.

His stamina recovered incredibly quickly, so it wasn’t entirely wrong to say he had infinite energy.

Jennifer shook her head, letting the multiple questions appearing in her head settle for later.

Taking out their weapons, the three of them eventually began removing the cores from the monsters.

After taking them out, they cleaned away the blood with a cloth before carefully placing each core into a bag.

It took a while for them to do the same with so many Kobolds—especially due to the sheer number—but after quite some time—

They arrived before the two most notable bodies left behind.

The Caller and the larger Kobold that had protected it.

Removing the Caller’s core from its chest was relatively easy, but as Jennifer tried to stab the Brute’s chest—

CLANK—!

Her dagger bounced completely off its chest, causing her wrist to tremble slightly from the impact.

She tried again, but—

CLANK—!

The dagger barely managed to leave a mark.

"Let me take care of that."

Lucian spoke, taking out the dagger Selene had previously given to him.

But the moment his dagger stabbed into the monster’s chest—

Shk

It entered, but...

"It’s too hard."

Jennifer narrowed her eyes slightly, noticing the dagger had barely entered more than an inch.

’Its chest is harder compared to the other parts.’

Lucian thought as he looked at the thick scales covering its body.

Still, rather than increasing his stats by removing his Restriction, Lucian simply tightened his grip around the dagger.

His eyes sharpened.

He raised the dagger once again.

Then—

[Muscle Reinforcement]

[Power Strike]

The muscles in his arm suddenly tensed.

Mana coursed through his body, and with a swift stab—

SHK!

The dagger easily sliced into the Brute’s chest, surprising Jennifer, who had previously seen how difficult it had been for Isaac and even Ava to seriously injure this monster during the battle.

But remembering the massacre behind them, she shook her head, trying not to be surprised by this man’s abilities.

Lucian could’ve easily increased his strength, and for some people, using his skills on something this simple might look stupid at first glance.

But Lucian...

He wanted his skills to get better, and for that, he had to use them in critical moments, causing them to grow stronger and his mastery to increase further.

Just because he had gotten these skills from his master didn’t directly make him completely skilled with them.

And because of his higher strength, he hadn’t really needed to use any of them until now, when he was forced to use all his skills to overpower the horde of monsters.

After removing the Brute’s core from its body, Lucian’s eyes narrowed slightly.

He looked at the Brute’s core, and then at the Caller’s.

"Both of them are E-Rank cores," he muttered, making Jennifer nod.

"This means there were two E-Rank monsters inside this dungeon. No wonder it was this hard... there were the two dungeon bosses."

Isaac and the others had already figured out that the Brute was one of the dungeon bosses.

After its death, the entire cave had trembled faintly. The walls had shaken for a few moments, as if the dungeon itself were announcing the death of its strongest monster.

But what they hadn’t expected was the Caller.

They had assumed it was simply another unusual Kobold, a strange one with strange abilities, but none of them had expected it to actually be an E-Rank monster.

An F-Rank dungeon having two E-Rank monsters inside it...

That was something they had never heard of before.

At least, not until now.

Jennifer handed the two cores to Isaac, who frowned slightly for a few seconds before nodding.

"We’ll report this to the Association," he said while continuing to examine the two grey cores in his hand, slightly brighter than the darker and smaller ones of the F-Rank monsters.

He was feeling a bit better right now, at least enough that he didn’t feel like he was going to suddenly collapse and lose consciousness.

Lucian shifted his attention towards the two E-Rank corpses lying nearby.

[Analysing...]

He waited for a few seconds, but then—

[Analysis Failed!]

[The individual is no longer alive.]

Lucian frowned slightly, then glanced towards the other corpse.

[Analysing...]

[Analysis Failed!]

[The individual is no longer alive.]

[Analysis Skill evolution required to pry further.]

’It seems I’ll have to increase my rank for this.’

Lucian thought inwardly, but didn’t dwell on it for long.

His gaze briefly shifted towards Selene.

More specifically... towards her shadow.

After making a faint motion with his fingers, the darkness beneath her feet slowly stirred, moving towards him before settling into his own shadow.

Lucian looked at the others, and seeing them distracted with other things...

"Take all the corpses into your shadow after we go out..." he whispered while standing a few metres away from the group, and hearing his words, the shadow trembled faintly, as if it were nodding.

Lucian’s lips curved into a small smile.

He really felt satisfied taking his dear maid along with him.

She was really helpful... and he was liking her company far too much, more than he would like to admit.

Lucian smiled slightly before walking towards the group, and after taking care of a few things and rehydrating themselves, the squad finally decided to return to their homes.

The Dungeon Boss was dead, something even they hadn’t expected to accomplish.

They hadn’t even entered the dungeon with the intention of killing its Boss in the first place, but simply to gain some experience, kill a couple of monsters, and collect their cores so they could gradually become stronger.

Yet somehow...

They had ended up killing not one, but two E-Rank monsters.

So, with victorious yet exhausted expressions on their faces, the squad, along with Lucian and Selene, began walking out of the dungeon.

The journey back took quite some time, and after everything they had gone through, nobody had the strength to rush anymore, especially not with the injuries they had sustained.

Fortunately, they didn’t encounter any trouble as they took the same route they had followed earlier, using the map Jennifer had made.

The journey back was surprisingly a bit quieter, with Jake and Jennifer occasionally talking in between, exchanging a few words, or even asking multiple questions to Lucian, who dodged most of them.

They didn’t feel bad, since everyone had secrets... and now, they genuinely respected him enough not to ask further.

Behind them...

The shadow beneath Lucian’s feet slowly escaped before moving back into the deeper cave.

’...’

Lucian noticed the movement, but didn’t react, continuing to walk calmly beside Selene.

Within the deeper part of the cave...

Kanna’s form appeared right before the corpses of the fallen Kobolds, and despite the darkness inside the cave, her eyes could easily see their bodies and the blood leaking from them.

She was slightly confused by Lucian’s previous order, asking her to gather all the corpses, but then she suddenly remembered the strange dark energy he had used earlier, when the corpse had been completely swallowed by those strange dark tendrils before vanishing...

As though the body itself had been absorbed into nothingness.

To someone else, it would’ve looked visually similar to her shadows or the Affinity of Darkness, but she knew that wasn’t the case.

That energy... it was similar to that eerie figure...

Shaking her head slightly, her expression turned flat once again, and after a quiet moment...

The shadows surrounding the cave suddenly rippled, and the darkness slowly engulfed all the corpses inside them before quickly moving towards Kanna’s own shadow.

The corpses...

All of them had vanished, completely stored in her shadow.

Only the blood staining the entire cave room remained, but without lingering for even another second, Kanna’s body vanished before—

The darkness quietly settled beneath Lucian’s feet once again, merging with his own shadow as though it had never left.

...

"We’re really grateful to both of you for coming along with us," Isaac said while seated inside the SUC as they drove back to the Association Building.

Outside the windows, the sun was already beginning to set, and the warm orange light fell through the windows of the vehicle, illuminating everyone’s tired faces.

Isaac looked towards Lucian.

"Especially Mr. Lucian. If it weren’t for you, I don’t even know if we would’ve returned in one piece."

His voice was sincere, and he wasn’t exaggerating, as he genuinely wasn’t sure whether they would’ve made it out in one piece if it weren’t for him.

Hearing his words, Lucian briefly glanced towards Isaac.

"Don’t mind it," he muttered before a faint, genuine look appeared on his face.

"Even I learned a few things inside the dungeon."

The moment those words escaped his mouth—

Everyone looked at him strangely.

"What...?"

Isaac stared at him for a few seconds, then his tired eyes narrowed.

"Who are you...?" he asked in ’weariness’.

Lucian’s lips twitched.

"Fucker, I’ll throw you back into that dungeon."

Hearing his words, Isaac’s expression relaxed.

"Hm, now you sound normal."

The temperature inside the vehicle increased slightly as a faint vein appeared over Lucian’s forehead, and Selene, sitting beside him, couldn’t help but chuckle inwardly as she watched her son’s antics.

***

After taking care of everything inside the Association Building, Isaac told both Lucian and Selene to go home, saying that they would take care of the remaining matters.

Isaac even offered to drop them home—however, Lucian denied.

So, eventually, the two left on their own, with Lucian carrying Selene in his arms as they passed through rooftops and buildings, the wind brushing against their faces.

Eventually, they arrived at their hotel.

After entering their rooms, Selene headed towards her own room.

But before she could go in—

"Lucian..."

She suddenly spoke, causing Lucian to turn towards her, his expression slightly... flat, almost as if he were thinking about something serious.

Selene stared at him for a few seconds, then her voice became softer.

"Dear... what are you thinking of doing...?"

Lucian’s eyes widened slightly, and Selene—no, Seraphina—seeing this, removed her mask and looked directly into his eyes.

But after a second, Lucian’s face returned to normal, and he faintly tilted his head, as if genuinely confused by her question.

"What are you saying, Mom?" he asked calmly.

However, he was internally surprised by how easily she had read his mind.

Seeing this, Seraphina sighed internally.

"Whatever you’re going to do, don’t do anything rash."

Her voice was gentle, but there was a trace of concern hidden within it.

After a few seconds, neither of them said anything.

Then Lucian smiled gently.

"Don’t worry."

He raised his hand and softly patted her head.

"I’ll be back in a minute."

Saying that—

His body suddenly dissolved into crimson mist, and in the blink of an eye, her son had vanished before her.

Seraphina’s eyes remained fixed on his crimson eyes, which remained visible until the very end, before slowly disappearing from her sight.

And after standing there for some time...

"Sigh..."

With an exhausted sigh, Seraphina finally entered her room and placed the ma—

"..."

The mask... wasn’t there.

Her expression went slightly blank as she looked at her empty hand.

’He took it, didn’t he...?’

Who else could’ve taken it aside from her cute yet troublesome son?

Seraphina couldn’t help but sigh once again.

Just who knew what he was thinking of doing right now?

Though she had a faint idea.

And although a small part of her felt happy seeing the protectiveness he showed her... she couldn’t help but worry about what he might do.