After thinking for a while about their next move, Angus and Jayna decided to go back to their previous location for the time being. However, before they could go back, Angus detected many ferocious beasts scattered along the way.
Unlike when they first come into this place, the surrounding area is crowded with ferocious beasts. Fortunately, their location is still located at the outskirts of the beast territory, which means only low-grade beasts living in this area.
This also means that various kinds of beasts live in this place. They often fight one with the others. All of this beast is quite aggressive and always attacks anything on sight except their kin.
Taking this opportunity, Angus decides to teach Jayna to erase her presence to avoid any unnecessary battles. Jayna already learned [Arctic Heart] that keeping her emotions calm is one of the prerequisites to erasing one's presence.
She also learns the basic stealth move but to completely erase her presence and become one with nature is a different matter. Erasing one presence and becoming one with nature could only be done after practicing and experiencing with their own body.
So, it will take some time for her to do this thing perfectly. Because of this, they may attract many beasts along the way if they go back to their original place now. So, they decide to explore the cave for the time being until Jayna could become better at stealth.
Like Angus expected, the rock wall is sort of a door to the other side after observing it more. However, he didn't find any hidden mechanism to open the door except the swirl pattern.
Based on his knowledge, this kind of thing means to hide something dangerous or sealing something. So, this kind of 'door' is not supposed to be opened. Although there is a chance that something inside could kill them, both of them still decide to explore it.
Angus wants to know more about swirl patterns. As for Jayna, her eyes already shone brightly when Angus mentioned this treasure hunt. Apparently, Jayna is interested in the treasure hunt.
After scrutiny for a few hours, both of them couldn't find a way to open the door wall. During this time, they notice that there is no sun in this part of the area.
Since they arrived in this dimension, they always found a gray cloud in the sky. It is not dim or dark but also not too bright.
The weather itself also seems to lack a concept of day or night since it stays cloudy with the same brightness all day long. Angus guesses that this could happen because this is not the natural world and an artificial world that was somehow created by something or someone.
Because of this, some of the physics laws don't work in this dimension. Erasing his unnecessary thought, Angus returned to focus on the door in front of him.
Finally, they decide to break the wall by force. *Bam* [Dynamic punch] as Angus hits the wall hard. But, the wall could withstand his attack and leave without any scratch.
'Such a strong wall. Do I need to use [World Punch]? But, the backlash is too big for my current body. Even in my previous life, I almost died after using it once.' thought Angus while looking at the wall.
Jayna didn't want to leave behind and also sent various attacks towards the wall [Flame Sword] [Sword Art - Crimson Slash] [Sword Art - Hundred Slash].
Looking at the flurry attack, Angus feels Jayna pour all her frustration into the wall. At this moment, he saw that her attack managed to chip a part of the wall. The chipped part is located at the middle part of the phoenix picture.
Noticing this, "Jayna, stop. I think I found a clue. Let me try one more time." said Angus.
"Huft… When I finally found an eternal sandbag. Well, help yourself." replied Jayna.
'Eternal sandbag?? Err..' thought Angus inwardly before ignoring Jayna's remark.
After Jayna backs away, Angus gathers some mana in his hand [Iron Fist]. Then, he jumps and punches the middle part of the phoenix creature. All Angus's strength and body weight gather at his fist [Focus Punch].
As soon as the punch touched the wall, the wall cracked as it shattered like glass. Behind the wall, they see nothing but a road towards the deeper part of the cave.
"As I thought, the middle part is the weak part. Perhaps it is also the key part. Anyway, let's get going." said Angus.
"Alright, treasure hunt time!!" said Jayna excitedly.
Angus couldn't help but be happy looking at Jayna's behavior. Entering the destroyed wall, they walk along the dark path with the help of the magical lamp.
After walking for a few hours, they arrive at the cave interior, changing from the natural cave wall to a tunnel made of brick. The brick itself is tough and could withstand various of Angus's attacks. It is also made of unknown material.
Along the way, he found a lot of deadly traps. Fortunately, with the help of Angus [Mana Echolocation] and Draven's phasing ability, they could dismantle the trap safely. Since there is no light inside the tunnel, Draven could easily phase to anywhere inside this tunnel.
Finally, after another few hours walking along the tunnel, they arrive at the vast room. Inside the room is a long bridge. On both sides of the bridge are dark, enormous ravines. Angus threw the stone into the ravine but couldn't hear anything even after a while.
It is like the ravine itself is a bottomless hole. Looking at the bridge and remembering all the traps they encounter along the way, Angus decides to test the bridge using various stones. But, all of them didn't react to anything.
The bridge itself is kind of weird since he couldn't see the end of the bridge even after trying to see the path with [Mana Eye] and a magical lamp.
Left with no choice, Angus shot a [Firebolt] towards the bridge end. As the [Firebolt] travels, the poisoned arrows are fired from the wall. Unlike the trap arrow before, the poisoned arrow force is powerful and fast, which could easily destroy the bridge.
After a while, the rain of poisoned arrows stops and leaves a holed, tattered bridge behind.
Seeing this, 'What the hell!! Even I will die being rained by those poisoned arrows.' thought Angus.
Besides the rained arrow, Angus also could see the other side is some kind of tunnel. Similar to the one they are coming from.
"Draven, could you disable all the arrow traps on the wall?" asked Angus telepathically.
"Hmm.. I could. But, it will take a lot of time to disable all of them." replied Draven telepathically.
"Alright, do it. We have some time to waste." said Angus.
"It seems it will take some time for Draven to disable all of this arrow trap." said Angus to Jayna.
"Then, Let's rest here first. According to our normal time. It should be night now." said Jayna.
"Yeah, let's do that. We don't know what is going to be waiting for us at the end of this." said Angus while taking out his sleeping bag.
As Jayna and Angus are resting, their friend has their adventure and difficulty. Axel is still unconscious on the calm river and almost killed by another ferocious beast that approaches him.
However, at the last moment, a small shiny light came towards the beast. Suddenly, the beast was cut into pieces by a sharp wind blade from out of nowhere.
The small shiny light keeps looking at the unconscious Axel and flying around it. After some time, many small shiny lights gather around Axel before bringing him into an unknown location.
In the meantime, Ian finally managed to run away from the low-grade ferocious beast trying to eat them by leading them to a few monsters nearby. The moment the beast and monster find each other, they immediately fight each other.
Using this opportunity, Ian finally managed to run away from them. But, just as he walked back to search for some direction and the others, he saw a huge lion similar to the one they saw before it cast [Meteorite shower].
Before Ian could run away, he got suppressed with a monstrous aura from the lion. Ian couldn't help but kneel on the ground and couldn't breathe properly.
After a while, a voice came into his mind. "You are not a beast or monster? Why are you here?" said the unknown voice that seemed to be coming from the lion.
At the same time, Millie and Mia got cornered by various kinds of monsters. Both of the two girls' condition was already bad because of the [Meteorite Shower]. Now, Millie needs to fend off all the monsters by herself while keeping Mia safe.
At this moment, Mia opens her eyes and looks at their current situation. "It's okay, Millie. *Cough* You need to survive. *Cough* Run, protect yourself" said Mia while coughing blood.
"No… I will not leave you behind." replied Millie frantically.
But, Mia already falls back unconscious. During this time, the exhausted Millie's mind became chaotic and screamed around. *ARRGGHHH* An invisible wave coming towards the surrounding area.
Suddenly, everything that the invisible wave touches dies and leaves the two girls in the middle of dying land surrounded by monster corpses. Far away from them, a black hoodie person is looking in Millie's direction.