Advanced scouts were sent to the caves. They were instructed to keep a certain safety margin and see what they could discover without taking unnecessary risks. These were direct orders from Luna. Anybody who was reported to be too rash and ended up endangering their fellow soldiers needlessly would be severely punished.
It was because of rules like this that made the soldiers feel that Luna truly cared for their well-being. In almost all of the battles, he never used the excuse of "if I die, we lose our currency" or anything like that to leave them to shoulder all the risks. Something which a lot of leaders would usually do.
***
Inside the caves, a squad of soldiers who were specially trained for reconnaissance missions was carefully exploring Palje Cave. The caves were absolutely gorgeous. After reaching a certain depth, luminescent crystals were forming everywhere. Even bioluminescent creatures were appearing as if to adapt to the cave environment. Unfortunately, their beauty only doomed them to be easily spotted by other predators. They would hide within the crystals, which were incredibly sturdy. A soldier swung at it with his Itak Tagalog to retrieve a piece, only to find out that all he was getting was barely a scratch and his arm hurting.
"What the hell, why is it so tough?!" He complained. In the first place, he was part of this mission due to him already being level 45.
"Well, you tried to mine it with a sword, idiot." His friends teased him as they laughed.
"Still, it's pretty tough. But I should have tried the gentle approach first." He was mature enough to admit that it was a pretty dumb mistake.
"Let me see if we can get a description from it." Walking towards a cluster of crystals, he reached out to it. As soon as he tapped it, the tiny, bioluminescent critters that were hiding in the crystal scampered away. A description popped up.
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Used to upgrade walls and gives them the
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Seeing as the word
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An ability gained by upgrading using
Effective for illumination at night.
Can trigger Active skill:
Trigger a burst of the Luminous' highest potential to incapacitate opponents. Directly kills opponents lower than level 30.
Harmful effects do not affect allies.
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"This.. this is an amazing discovery!" After reading the description, he sent in a contact request to one of the higher-ups, which sent in a communication request to Luna as well.
Just as they were celebrating their find, they heard the sound of something being dragged, coming from deeper into the cave.
The squad captain signaled for his men to stay quiet and hide.
Soon a small creature came into view, it was dragging a child's corpse with it. The child's belly had been ripped open, and the creature was munching on his intestines. His lifeless eyes were open wide, with obvious signs of torture before he died.
"Duwende!"*
*munch munch munch*
Even though everybody was used to killing zombies both the ones from the void, infected humans, and even actual humans themselves, seeing a child who apparently went through a great deal of torture only to have his corpse dragged around and be devoured slowly, still made their stomachs turn a bit.
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"Hrm?!" As soon as the Duwende passed by their hiding place, it noticed something weird. It turned to look behind him, only to see the squad captain sending a blade straight towards his neck. The Duwende raised the little kid to use him as a shield, but unfortunately for it, the little kid's body to a level 45 was like paper. It did nothing to stop the blade, it cut through the unfortunate boy's body and didn't slow down until it lopped the Duwende's head off. It's ugly head, which reminded them of a Goblin,
Knowing that he needed to report this right away, he did so promptly. He also gave them a quick reminder. "Warn the team in Biana cave as well! We only managed to kill it quickly because we caught if off-guard, but I can tell, these critters are fast and strong. Equivalent to at least a level 40."
***
Luna was already headed to the caves. As soon as he heard the news he sped up even more. "Elder Aran, please head to the Biana cave. They're going to need your help."
"I'm on my way, Lord Luna." Elder Aran replied. He was much closer to Biana, so he ended up getting there earlier than Luna arrived at Palje cave. Not wasting any time, they would each head inside the moment they got to their respective locations.
"Thank you. I'll send Maxene to help you as well."
***
Maxene who had just managed to catch a giant Crab with Sura was pretty unwilling to leave without being able to eat it.
"Mr. Soldier! Guard my crab! Kill anyone who tries to steal it! I have to go do an errand!" After ordering some of the soldiers stationed nearby, she left with Sura. The group of men stared at each other before surrounding the giant Crab.
"Everyone, guard it with your lives! We have to give Lady Maxene a good impression. Maybe she'll assign us really strong mutant beasts to be our partners." One of them shouted. To them, personally, this was their most important mission yet.
***
Soon, Sura got to the Palje cave entrance, and Maxene reached the Biana entrance as well. They were told that Luna and Elder Aran already entered first to meet up with the reconnaissance teams.
As soon as they caught up with each team, they proceeded to move forward with even more caution than before. The deeper they went, the more
As they kept walking, Luna suddenly stopped. He communicated telepathically to his team, "I hear footsteps going this way. Everybody stay still and minimize your breathing."
Everybody stood as still as possible.
Just then, a few figures appeared in front of them. The group came from the other side of the wall. Apparently, there was another pathway that paralleled the one they were on. Luna who was initially prepared to ambush the group stopped.
"Elder Aran? Max?" He said.
The group turned around immediately.
"Father! Mother!" Maxene happily greeted.
The soldiers on Luna's side greeted Maxene and Elder Aran and the soldiers on Elder Aran's side greeted him and Sura. It seemed that both the Palje and Biana Cave dungeon eventually converged into this spot.
But the moment Max made noise, the ground started to shake, and huge mounds popped up from the open space in front of them. Duwendes started to pop out and ran towards them, clawing at them with their sharp claws.
Fortunately, with Luna, Sura, Maxene, and Elder Aran here, they made short work of them. It was like when an over-leveled character entered a dungeon that didn't scale them down.
"These monsters are around 40 to 45 and they give really good EXP. Don't be shy, kill as much as you can." Luna told the soldiers behind them.
"Ah, yes, our apologies!" Due to how big the Sovereign Nation currently was, not everybody got a chance to personally see these four in combat. The reason why the soldiers didn't fight right away was that of how shocked they were.
Sura coming from the Asura race was understandable. Everybody knows the legends of that race.
Elder Aran was the leader of the Elven race's survivors, and the Elves were gifted. That made it acceptable as well.
Maxene, as the
But Luna, he was a human being was he not?!
"Then why does he seem like he's more formidable than these three?!" The other two squads discussed with each other telepathically as they fought.
With every swing of his Guandao, he would kill several Duwendes and the wind generated by his swings would launch sand towards the ones running towards his direction. It was a massacre.
This massacre lasted for more than an hour before the Duwende's finally stopped running forward. By this time, Luna had already reached level 55, Maxene reached 56, Elder Aran was infinitely closer to level 66. The EXP wasn't shared with the soldiers, but even they managed to hit level 47.
"So much EXP in just an hour." One soldier commented.
"Yeah, but these monsters are really strong. Damn near cut my neck off. If we were by ourselves, we would have been the ones massacred." another one replied.
"No wonder Lord Luna's trying to get as many advantages as he can for this next phase. If the monsters would be as strong as these Duwendes, then we would all die a miserable death."
"Yeah, remind me to smack anyone who questions him ever again." One said as he sat on the ground. The fight just now obviously tired them out as they were using every ounce of strength they had.
Just then a voice rang out from the pathway that was on the other side of the area.
"That you would dare to invade an Engkanto's** territory. You sure have guts."