Since they crossed the migration during the night, the spot for the ore was close. They only had to walk for a couple of hours until they reached it.

"I can see something over there!" Nathan said as he got close to the opening inside the mountain. A small cave with metal ores and rocks, but the most valuable was the green stone.

"Look around and try to find it. We don’t know how big it is."

"Hey, do you smell that?" Jacob sniffed around and cleared his nose. There was a faint smell coming from the cave. "Ugh, it is nasty, like rotten food."

"Yeah, you are kind of right, but it is not the end of the world. We can just cover our noses." Before Nathan could climb down, Silas raised a hand.

"Wait, we don't know if it gets worse. You could lose consciousness or maybe die if you get too close. We need to make sure we can breathe down there. We don’t know where the green stone is, so we’re going to have to look ourselves."

"But how?"

"Nora, can you try to show us a safe path?"

"I can certainly try, but I don’t know if it’s going to be effective." She covered the three with her powers and they began to descend.

The opening was small; they had to go down in a line. Nathan in the front in case of an attack and then Jacob in the middle. Thanks to Nora’s power, they could see a faint light making a road across the cave. They had their noses covered, but it was almost meaningless.

If there is a toxic gas here, we don’t have any way to avoid it. There were a lot of types of minerals and ores, but the green stone wasn’t anywhere. He started to think maybe this was the wrong spot.

"Ugh, guys. I don’t want to scare you, but I’m getting dizzy with the smell."

"A little more, partner. We are almost at the end, I think."

"Over there." Silas pointed to a wall where a giant deposit of green stone was resting. It was the only one in the cave. They could make more weapons and maybe armor with it. The problem were the small craters around it. Vapors were coming from inside the earth. This was the source of the smell.

"What should we do, grab it and get away fast?"

"Is our best bet, but I don’t want to get close to that smoke cloud."

Silas was looking around the cave to see if there was any way to get the stone moving, but the size of the stone made it impossible to carry alone. Nathan took a step forward, and an explosion of vapors came out.

"Crap, let’s get back!" The cave was filled with toxic vapors, but Silas had an idea.

"Get back outside, you two. I need to check something." The reaction was too perfect; it wasn’t natural, but more like a creature repelling others from getting close.

He looked at the earth around the craters and used his power. It worked as he expected. It wasn't the earth or some natural phenomenon. It was a giant insect. The craters were holes in its body that allowed the toxic cloud to escape, and the green stone was embedded in its back.

As his back became hard like chitin, he grew a couple of holes too, and his face changed into a weird shape and became hard. It was made this way to filtrate the poison in the air. The insect turned hostile and released more poison. Silas backed away, but he couldn’t get away in time.

"Cof, cof, is too hard to breath." The change to his face made it easier to breathe, but since he was still human, there was a limit to how much he could take. He managed to get outside and dropped to his knees, gasping for fresh air. "Uh, uuuuhhhh."

The others came to his side, but there was nothing they could do but watch. After coughing for two minutes, he got up on his feet and started talking. "It is not natural, it's an insect that is making the toxic poison. I can barely stand it, but we don’t have to go inside. The ore is stuck on his back. We only need to force it outside."

"How are we gonna do that?"

"You have to shoot him with your gun and lure him outside. It only has one ability: making a sticky bomb in its mouth. If we’re careful and kill it from afar, we should be fine."

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After some time to prepare the trap and waiting for the cave to ventilate of the toxic cloud, Jacob went back inside. He had his gun in hand. He only advanced a few meters inside before stopping. The putrid smell was filling his nose and making his eyes tear up. He resisted the urge to gag or cough and aimed at the back of the cave.

Even with his proficient aim and hunting skills, it would be impossible for Jacob to hit a target so far and in such a curved path. He had no good angle, but he wasn’t alone. A yellow light was showing him the path for the bullet to travel. "You’re incredible, Nora. How can you change the direction of a bullet to twist in midair?"

"I’m not sure myself, but I’m only showing you a way. You’re the one who has the ability, Jacob. Your skill with the guns is nothing short of expert. Who taught you?"

"It was my late father. He took me to go hunting in the woods as a hobby. He liked it a lot but wasn’t that into hunting. I did it because it was an excuse to hang out together."

"So, you don’t like to use guns?"

"Oh, don't get it wrong. I didn’t like hunting much, but the feeling of handling a gun was great. I still have my gun back home and practice with cans and old beer bottles. I can feel you don’t like that."

"I already told you my opinion on guns. Let’s start this ambush."

Jacob took a stance and aimed at the wall. All his practice told him it was going to just end up hitting a wall, but the yellow path was marking the perfect way. He shot three times without hesitation, and defying all laws, the bullets changed direction following Nora’s power.

The insect could feel the disturbance in the air, and it sent more poison to deter the intruder. The bullets didn't care; the poison had no effect on them, and they shattered the hard body. It made a noise and moved back, releasing more toxic gas. The cave was going to be filled again.

He couldn’t waste time and shot in rapid succession. Bang, bang, bang, one after the other, the bullets rained down on the insect. A dozen shots, all of which pieced its body and made it bleed. The insect went mad with pain. It released more poison, but it was meaningless. Its only option before dying was to escape.

The cave began to shake as the insect charged to the exit with his body. "It’s coming!" Jacob screamed while running out to the mountain. He made sure to jump at the entrance.

Once Jacob was out, Silas used the skill. [Sticky vomit] He made a substance and shot it at the last spot. The whole entrance was covered with it. He used the insect's own skill against him.

The creature moved its body with force, but its legs got caught in the sticky vomit. It was only half way out of the cave when Jacob fired another volley. As its face was torn by the bullets, he writhed in pain, but it shot its own sticky vomit at the small man.

Jacob tried to run away, but the ball was too fast. It was about to hit him.

"Not so fast!" Nathan jumped in front of him and blocked it with his shield by making a pose. The ball of vomit exploded before reaching him and covered both Jacob and Nathan. "I didn’t know it could explode early, Silas?"

"Me neither." A cloud of poison rose from the cave. The insect was unleashing another wave of toxic gas. It didn’t hold back in the slightest. Still struggling to free its legs, it unleashed all its poison to kill them.

Silas backed down and spit more sticky vomit to keep him in place, but the cloud was too big to see well. "Keep shooting at him; we need to kill it now or it’s going to escape!" He couldn't do anything more. It all depended on Jacob and Nora.

Guided by the light of her partner, Jacob shot a volley at the massive cloud of poison. He heard the sounds of pain from the creature, but it was still alive.

"Keep shooting! Don’t stop until we can see the body!" Following Silas’s command, he emptied the gun and then summoned it again. He didn’t stop pulling the trigger until he was out of bullets and then again.

He kept shooting until they couldn’t hear the shrieks of pain any longer. He waited for a moment, and then the insect ran from the left. "Still kicking, how tough are you?" He saw that it no longer had some of its legs, but his speed was still superior.

Dragging his body with only two legs, it was getting further and further away. Jacob was trapped by the vomit. It would take too long to free his legs. This was the last chance. He had Nora's support, but the bullets were missing. It was too far away.

The yellow trail changed directions, and it was aimed at Nathan. Instinctively, he knew what to do. "Nathan, raise your shield!"

"What? Why?"

"Just do it, I need you to look at the insect!"

"Fine, is not like I’m being attacked." He grabbed the shield and put it high over his head. The trail was passing through the shield.

Jacob took a deep breath and aimed. A single shot guided by Nora passed across the shield, but instead of bouncing back on it, the bullet began to shine. It was covered in sparkling lights. It gained momentum and managed to reach the insect in a couple of seconds.

The hard body was like gelatin against the power of this bullet. An attack born of three different abilities combined. The insect was no more. It flew in pieces everywhere, and the minerals too.

The three of them were shocked at the power of the attack, but Silas was mesmerized by the possibility. How? I get Jacob and Nora, but what did Nathan do? Does his shield do more than defense, or is he getting stronger? No, all of us are growing stronger. The words of the System came back to his mind. Were they really grinding in this world to gain more power and face the Ouroboros?

He felt the same thing back when he discovered his first MMO. The chance to experience new things he couldn't do in the real world.

"What the hell, you guys saw what my shield did, right? Did I unlock a secret power? hahaha." Nathan's laugh brought him back to the present. They went to the corpse of the insect and looked at the green stone.

"We’re going to have to carry between all of us, partner."

"Can we make it on time with this?"

"I can ask the animals back in the migration for some help."

They had obtained one of the two items for the fight. Silas was a bit more relaxed after seeing this team's abilities and the last attack. The only thing to do now was to return and hope the other team made it back safely.

Even if they can’t get the staff, this is good enough.