Chapter 75: [75] We Are Not Alone
At first, all Ark had was a hunch.
A secret cave at the bottom of a mountain, with a pathway leading from a wyvern’s nest...
Considering that dozens of players had disappeared while hunting wyvern eggs, there was a high chance that this cave was linked to their disappearance.
But up until now, all Ark had was a hunch. The dog tags had more than confirmed that hunch. They were not alone.
"Dog tags?" Sazan bent down to properly observe them. "I think... I know some of these people. What the fuck?"
Olivia frowned as she stared at them. "But what is down here that is strong enough to kill iron-ranked players?"
Iron ranks were two whole ranks above them. Needless to say, they were not easy to defeat, let alone kill.
"I have no idea. But whatever it was, it looks like we will be running into them soon enough..." Ark glanced at the party. "Does anyone have a bag?"
Esau stared at the dog tags with an uneasy expression in his eyes. Then he cursed before pulling out a sac from his pocket.
It was an empty sac of rations that they had finished earlier.
Ark grabbed the bloodied dog tags and placed them in the bag, before storing them in his inventory.
"Let’s go. It’s better we run into it than it runs into us. If we’re lucky, maybe we won’t encounter it..."
The standard procedure when encountering a monster that was potentially several times stronger than you was to contact the association.
But maybe in a bid to make the game more realistic, the call system of Eden did not work for players this far out of the city.
The party left the room, following the only corridor that led out of the cave.
Since it was now clear that they were not alone, they had gone into formation.
Ark and Sazan were in front, Olivia and Thalia were in the middle, while Esau was at the back of the group.
Normally, the formation looked foolish.
Sazan and Esau had tried to kill them by using them as bait, and considering the severity of the situation, there was no guarantee that they would not make another attempt on their lives.
But they did not know that Ark knew about their plans, and his intention was to keep it that way.
Still, to prevent any unfortunate accidents, Sumo was paying close attention to him from the shadows.
His instructions were clear: any single attempt at treachery, and he would be cut down before he knew what had hit him.
As they moved through the dark cave, their footsteps were uncomfortably loud. Each step sent an echo that bounced across the walls before returning to their ears. As a result of this, every attempt at stealth was practically wasted.
Because of those of them without night vision, Thalia conjured a little ball of light that hovered over them.
"Ark." Olivia briefly stepped closer to him. "What do you think... did that?" she asked, glancing back the way they had come.
Ark shrugged. "I have no idea. Goblin? Ghouls? It could have been anything..."
Somehow, Olivia felt Ark was not being entirely honest with her. He was not exactly lying, but it was as though he knew a little more than he let on.
"But surely, a goblin is not enough to take out an iron rank, right?" Esau sounded concerned. He had been jittery ever since they saw the pile of dog tags.
"Not alone..." Ark said dryly.
"But if it’s a whole swarm of them..." Olivia continued his sentence, remembering their experience in the tower.
Esau swallowed, his grip on his daggers tightening. "This is why I hate missions with suspiciously high rewards."
After that, the group proceeded mostly in silence. A few times, one of them would ask a question which would lead to a longer conversation.
And although silence would have been better, the discussions helped to alleviate the tension, even if a little bit.
Besides, it was not like they were doing a good job about being stealthy anyway.
They had been walking for quite some time when Ark abruptly raised a hand to stop the group, his eyes locked on the wall in front of them.
"What is the matter? We should be moving, not stopping—" Esau was speaking when Ark shot him a glare.
"Be quiet."
A few seconds passed by in complete silence, with Ark staring intensely at the wall in front of them.
The longer they waited, the more jittery Sazan became, and when it was as though he could not handle waiting any longer, Ark suddenly spoke.
"Olivia, did you see that?"
They all turned to Olivia, whose face had gone pale.
"I did..."
"..."
"What is it? What the fuck did you guys see?" Sazan suddenly yelled, frustrated by the deafening silence.
Ark pointed at the wall in front of them. "That wall, it moved..."
"..."
"What?" Esau frowned as though it was the most ridiculous thing he had heard. "What do you mean it moved??"
"If you guys want to wait here and get eaten by whatever horrid monster is in this cave, then fine by me!" He stormed away from the party, marching towards the wall.
Ark waited.
Why would he stop him when he was exactly what he needed in this situation? Someone to act as bait, someone to draw out whatever was hiding in that wall.
Sazan stopped after walking a few steps forward. "Come on, Thalia, Esau, let’s go!"
Thalia averted her gaze, not moving a single inch from the group. Even Esau, whom he had expected to join him, stood still.
"Fine, suit yourself." He hissed, before storming off.
"Sazan, don’t be rash! What if they did see something?" Esau cautioned.
"See what? A moving wall?! Yeah, like I am going to believe—"
Just as Sazan reached the wall, the room quaked. It was a quiet rumble, but it was more than enough to cause everyone to grow still.
And then out of nowhere, the wall beside him came alive.
In the space of a few seconds, the rocks shifted as though they were part of a puzzle, causing echoes to reverberate across the room as the very wall rearranged itself.
And then the wall stepped out, revealing its true form.
Ark chuckled in his mind. ’So that is what it was?’
A rock golem.
The golem stared at Sazan with its single, glowing blue eye, and Sazan had to raise his head all the way just to meet its gaze.
"Shit! The wall... it actually moved?" He squeaked.
’Well, no shit, Sherlock!’
The monster’s body groaned as it lifted its massive fist into the air, just before bringing it down upon his head—
BANG!
The ground where he had been shattered as the golem’s fist pounded into it, causing a net of cracks to spread through the floor.
But just in the last second, Ark had managed to pull Sazan away with his steel webs.
’You’re not dying yet...’ Ark still had use for him.
"Sazan, are you alright?" Thalia rushed towards him and knelt down beside him.
But Sazan did not reply. He was breathing heavily as he checked himself, trying to figure out if he was missing any body parts. "Thank goodness..."
And then a notification flashed in front of them.
[Threat detected! Rock Golems, Level 15 x 3!]
’Level fifteen monsters on a two-star mission?’ Ark thought as he stared at the screen.
He was still at level six, and Olivia was likely even lower. The only times they had fought monsters that high in level was when they were fighting boss monsters...
’I guess leaving this cave will be a little more difficult than I thought...’
Still, it was good practice. They were sure to run into higher-levelled monsters eventually.
Eden was not the type of game where you only ran into monsters at your level. Here, you could even accidentally run into a monster at the level 100s.
Needless to say, your death was more than assured...
Ark suddenly paused when he noticed something he had not paid attention to earlier.
’Wait, three?!’
Why did the system list three golems when there was only one in front of him—
And then he heard another rumble.
Only that this time, it was from right above them...