It was already past noon and the yellow sun that was shining warmly upon the ruined city of the dark evil forest had now turned into a blazing inferno.

The intense white rays of the blazing scorching sun rained down upon the land of the dark evil forest like the breath of hell or a pot of molten lava.

The heat was so devastating that many having succumbed to the rising temperature gave up on their treasure-hunting quest and left this hellish place as soon as they could.

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the ruined city, three sturdy young men could be seen walking around between the rubbles of the destroyed buildings while looking for treasures or anything valuable.

All three of them were dressed in light silver armor. Two of them had a long sword hanging on their waists while the last one was carrying a wooden recurve bow with an arrow quiver filled with arrows on his back.

"Damn it! Why is it so fucking hot today?"Asked Dante with an irritating expression on his face as he was holding tightly onto his round silver shield.

The beads of sweat that were dripping down his face and his body caused his clothes to cling onto him, revealing his muscular body.

He was already mad that he hadn't found any treasure yet, this sudden rising temperature made him even more irritated.

"Tell me about it, I feel like I'm being roasted alive," Hegel added while wiping the sweat off his face with his left hand. At the same time, his right hand tightly gripped the sword's handle on his waist. On his back was a huge leather bag.

Hegel felt as if he was currently in an oven. Even the breezes hitting him felt like the mocking breath of a cruel fire dragon.

"Hey guys, do you think the rumor about the magical beasts running amok and eating people in here is real." Suddenly asked Handal with a worried expression on his face.

Unlike the others, he was more concerned about the rumor of the beasts eating people here rather than the scorching heat or looking for treasures.

Despite being the same age as the others, Handal was more mature and cool-headed than them. He was also a very cautious man.

"Here we go again, you always worry about everything like an old man. You are a too naive man, you believe everything people say." Responded Hegel with an annoying expression on his face.

Even though Dante didn't say anything, one could tell that he agreed with Hegel's remark from his facial expression.

"Don't you see it's just a trick used by those disgusting nobles to hoard all the treasures, leaving nothing for people like us?" He added with an angry tone.

"What about the people we saw running away in fear from here this morning when we first came." Handal calmly asked. Despite this comrades' attitude, Handal didn't get mad. He still retained his calmness.

After two years of adventuring together, he knew how short-tempered his comrades were, especially when things weren't going their way.

He was the cool-headed one so he had to remain calm in this situation. They would thank him again later after saving their asses just like he did many times with his cautiousness.

"They are nothing but a bunch of idiots who fell into the nobles' trap." He hurriedly answered.

"Did you see any of the nobles leaving?" Hegel confidently asked while looking at Handal.

Upon hearing Hegel's question, Handal paused for a second before opening his mouth to say something but ultimately closed it.

He knew that once they believed in something, it was hard to change their mind, not to mention they had little circumstantial evidence this time to back up their claim.

It's better to keep his mouth shut for now while still being on high alert. There's a high possibility of the rumor being true due to how close the Evergreen mountain range was to the dark evil forest.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"I thought so!" Said Hegel as his lips curved upward into a self-satisfied smirk before turning around to continue his treasure hunting.

"Ah! Ah!"

However, before they could even take another step forward, they suddenly heard a terrified cry from the distance.

"Hrm?" Without hesitation, the three of them immediately turned back and looked toward the direction where the terrified scream came from.

Not too far away, they saw a middle-aged man dressed in leather armor and holding a long spear running frantically, seemingly panic-stricken.

Looking at the middle-aged running towards them, the three of them hurriedly drew out their weapons and stood in their battle formation.

They didn't know who or what the middle-aged were running away from. From all they know, this could be a ruse he's using to ambush them and rob them blind. Can't be too careful with those sly bandit bastards.

After all, plenty of people were here to rob other people of their treasures found in the dark evil forest instead of looking for them themselves.

Because they didn't have a spatial magic ring, they had to carry a huge leather bag just like the others. Thus, they became an easy target to those people.

"Run, run, we need to get the hell out of this danm place." Frantically shouted the middle-aged man as he continued running towards the three with all his might while urging them to run away.

"Speak. What is going on? Why are you running away and what was that scream just now?"Said Handal as he stared coldly at the middle-aged man running towards them.

Dante could tell that the middle-aged wasn't a regular mortal. He was at least a low-level bronze rank warrior.

However, a human's level of power was hard to judge at a glance, especially when that person was hiding his status window info. As such, he was fairly cautious when dealing with the middle-aged man.

Unfortunately, the middle-aged man didn't answer as he continued to run with all his might as if his life depended on it.

His eyes were filled with fear and terror, and his mouth was continuously muttering something. Every so often, he would look back in fear, as though in terror of being followed by whatever he was running away from.

"Listen if you don't stop and talk now, I'll shoot you on the spot," Handal said coldly who was a few meters away from them at the moment as he pointed his nock wooden recurve bow at the middle-aged man.

Seeing the murderous intent in Handal's eyes as well as the other two, the middle-aged didn't dare to take another as he immediately stopped and shouted." Don't shoot, I'll talk. I'll talk"

"My friends, do you know how terrible the last six hours have been for me? They've, they've been like a terrible, terrible nightmare. I should have listened to big brother and leave this damn place when I had the chance." The middle-aged man's eyes were beginning to fill with tears at this moment as he dropped to the ground and kneeled with a desolate expression on his face.

Listening to this Dante and the others couldn't help but frown. At the same time, they began immediately began to listen closely.

"Yesterday, my wife and I along with my big brother and a couple of friends formed a party to enter the dark evil forest and try our luck."

"To people like us, this was our best shot to become rich and changed our lives. It was supposed to be a safe and easy trip, but we didn't expect...…."

"Ohh god, I should have listened to my big brother." The middle-aged man's entire body was trembling and bursting with tears.

"On.....on the first day, we were lucky and found a few treasures and even one spatial magic ring. They were enough to let us live a fairly comfortable life for three years or so without working."

"However, seeing how easy it was, we didn't go back home. We decided to spend the night in the dark evil forest and continued looking for treasure like many of the others the next day."

"On the second day, this was when our nightmare began. Though we didn't see it with our own eyes and was a little far away, we heard the rumors about magical beasts eating people in the dark evil forest."

"After hearing that news, my big brother whose wife just gave birth advised us to leave the dark evil forest along with the group of people that were leaving."

"However, we didn't listen to him and refused to leave. He did his best to convince us but we wanted more. We let our greed get the best of us. In the end, my big brother left by himself and followed the other people that were leaving."

"With my big brother gone, there were seven of us left. My wife and I and five other people with low-level bronze rank strength. While my wife was a regular mortal, I was a mid-level Bronze rank warrior."

"With our strength, as long as we didn't encounter a powerful Silver Rank enemy, we should be fine, there shouldn't have been any danger. But who would've thought…that we would encounter a terrifying monster."

"Monster?" Hegel frowned upon hearing that.

"Yes, a terrifying monster. The first time we encountered it, it immediately ambushed us, killing one of my good friends and dragging him away." Said the middle-aged man with a frightened expression on his face.

"I was furious because this monster was simply too fast. We couldn't even feel his presence, let alone tell what it looked like. Only after hearing our friend's miserable cries did we know that we were under attack. And then, seeing the blood on the ground, we realized that our friend was most likely dead."

"At the time, we all believed the monster was only able to attack from ambush and didn't dare to face us directly. Clearly, it wasn't that strong. In our fury, we even thought about killing it to gain vengeance. But at first, we couldn't find the monster. We only find the few bones that were left of my good friend. It devoured him completely in a matter of minutes."

The middle-aged man took a deep breath, calming his agitated heart before continuing. "But that very hour, shortly after we gave up looking for the monster, It came again." As he spoke, the lone eye of the man opened wide. Clearly, he was very nervous.

"This time, like the previous time, that monster ambushed and carried off one of our friends. But this time, it carried my friends only a few dozen meters away before beginning to eat him. Right in front of our very eyes, that damn monster began eating our dear friend."

"What did this monster look like?" Handal immediately asked.

"It looked like a panther whose body was almost totally pitch black but had scales instead of furs."

"It had six legs and bone spurs protruding on his back. Its tail was split into dozens of tentacles-like tails. Its eyes were red like the blood moon and looked extremely scary to look at." Described the middle-aged man while trembling uncontrollably.

"Totally pitch black body with scale and six legs. I've never heard of that kind of magic beast before." Answered Handal with a suspicious expression on his face.

He might not be very skill full like the others but he was very knowledgeable and fairly experienced, especially when it came to magic beasts as he made his lively hood hunting them along with the other two.

"Me too, I've never heard of such magic beasts. Are you sure he's not lying" Asked Dante who seemed to be the leader of the group?

Even Hegel was beginning to frown. He, too, had never heard of such a creature. There were several types of panther-type magical beasts, but one which was entirely pitch-black and covered with dense scale and had six legs along with bones spurs protruding on his back was totally unheard of.

Generally speaking, creatures that one had never heard of must not be underestimated.

"Of course, I'm not lying. That evil monster decided to eat the meat on the face and the legs of our friend right in front of us, one large bite at a time. It was as if he was taunting us or wanted to scare us and enrage us." Answered the middle-aged man with an enraged expression on his face.

"What the hell? What an evil and devious monster!" Handal blurted out upon hearing the words of the middle-aged man, he could tell that he wasn't lying from his expression. If he was, then he was a damn good actor.