Chapter 223 - Changes

"It's great to see you, Cyril. I never thought that the Association has been hiding an S-Rank Awakened all this time. If not for the Outbreak, I guess you will be hidden from the public's eyes for several more years."

Grant said with an enthusiastic smile as they shake their hands.

There are seven members of the man's team as they all introduced themselves to Cyril.

"We've been told about your exploits during the outbreak. I'm very excited to start this exploration~"

A young man who is even shorter than Cyril said with his eyes full of expectation. His name is Michael and he is the team's scout.

Cyril can see the man's Phantom Thief's Cloak draped over his shoulders. It is a Rank-B Artifact known for its incredible stealth capabilities even during the day.

"Let's get along, Cyril. Just call me Hannah…"

A red-haired lady said as she closely observes Cyril. Hannah appears to be quite malnourished as she was too thin for her height. She even looks pale like she's about to pass out.

However, since no one is pointing this out, Cyril didn't mention anything and just accepted it.

'Eh?'

Cyril then noticed that Hannah has several vampire items in her. The robe, the necklace, rings, and even the book she's holding.

They are definitely items that were left behind by a Vampire Noble. As for them being items left by the Vampire Prince, it is quite impossible since those items were taken by Asta's team and shared between the other S-Ranks.

"Oh~ You noticed my new Artifacts? I'm still getting used to them since it's quite new. Even the people from the Saint Torido Clan barely had any experience using the Vampire's Artifacts." Hannah said as she caressed the ring on her left hand.

"Well, I'm sure it's not effective to use the Vampire Items against the Vampires so they're not using them." Jessy, a man in his forties, said as he joined the conversation.

His main equipment is a large shield that is like a door and a couple of short swords on his waist as his secondary weapons.

Jessy is only a C-Rank Awakened and Cyril could tell that because he recognizes that most of his Artifacts are only Rank-C, especially the Dwarven Mystic Shield he's using.

The three others in their team are all wearing black masks and black robes like they are assassins. They just kept their silence and waited for the exploration to start.

Cyril didn't bother them at all since he knows that they are exuding a strong Aura. It wouldn't be surprising if they are all A-Rank awakened.

After their short introductions and discussion about the High-Class Arcane World, they finally decided to do final inventory checks to complete their preparations.

"Holy Artifact or Item is a must. Everyone must bring them and you all should at least have 5 Aura Recovery Potions with you aside from the healing potions." Grant said as he checked Cyril and Laura's items.

Seeing that everything has been prepared, they all entered the Crystal Room and triggered the entrance Crystal.

This Arcane World can only accept 15 Awakened inside. There are only a total of nine Awakened entering and the other spots are left for possible rescuers if necessary.

Anyway, the Arcane World has been explored numerous times already and the only remaining spot is the Tomb where the final boss is hiding which is probably a Mummy Lord or something worst.

"This place is too gloomy…"

Laura said seeing the orange sky and murky river surrounding them.

They seem to be in a middle of a large patch of land where there are only barren mountains and murky rivers at the center.

"The Tomb is at the end of this deep river… Let's go."

Grant said as he took the lead.

Right now, they can probably encounter some Murlocs around but they are not the real problem since they have killed many of them already.

Even if some of them appear, it will only be a group of three or four Murlocs and they can easily deal with them.

The real issue is that if they stayed here for a long time, the poison in the river can slowly affect their body. On the other hand, if they leave the river immediately, the poison they inhaled will just dissipate and not cause any harm at all.

As a matter of fact, they didn't even bring antidotes with them since they know that the simple use of Aura to cover their entire body will do the trick.

Even if they get poisoned, a healing potion is more than enough to detoxify their body.

"Look at that rock formation… That's the place we can use to reconnect to the Crystal and get out of here. Remember that spot and if you find any other similar rock formation, just tell us about it."

Grant said as he pointed out a rock formation not too far from them. They have been traveling for about half an hour now and this is the first "safe zone" they found.

They continued traveling for another hour and found two more safe zones before they arrived in front of a thick jungle.

"There is a barrier here… We can break this thing with our Artifacts but it can repair itself within 24 hours. The problem here is that there is another barrier inside and that's where we are stuck."

"I see… Mind telling us what monsters we'll find after breaking this first barrier?" Cyril asked as he held his Conqueror Staff.

To be honest, the Staff's Beast Control can't be used against undead creatures due to obvious reasons. However, the Domain is still very useful since he could grasp the surrounding area and ensure that they won't get ambushed at all. Especially the Murlocs who can easily hide as long as there is a body of water nearby.

"All of them are undead beings… but the strongest is the Whippers. They are slim undead beings who seem like a mummy at first but they are using strings to fight like some kind of assassin."

Grant explained as he ordered the others to break open the first barrier.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

They are using Jessy's shield to ram the barrier and he continued doing this for five whole minutes before the barrier was destroyed.

He then drank a bottle of Aura Recovery Potion and entered the path he just created.

"It's a bit darker here…" Laura commented as soon as they entered the forest.

Several glowing mushrooms are giving them some light but that is obviously not enough to guide them deeper into the forest.

"Ember Trail…"

Michael, the scout of the Phantom Troupe, activated one of his Artifact's abilities and created a path made of blue embers.

Everyone remained silent and just followed the trail while making sure that no enemies can get closer to them…

"Hmm… Twelve Zombie Dogs ahead." Michael suddenly said as everyone gets ready.

Graahh! Graahh!

The Zombie Dogs smelled their scent as they started making noises…

Soon, the twelve dogs surrounded their small team and pounced at them at the same time!

"Come to me!"

Jessy shouted as the shield glowed with red color and taunted all the zombie dogs to attack him instead!

Cyril and Laura didn't have to attack at all as the others easily finished them off after Jessy successfully activated his taunt.

'As expected of the Phantom Troupe, they are doing a lot better than I expected.' Cyril mused but Jessy just revealed another problem.

"I can only use that Taunting Skill after ten more minutes. So if we encountered another group of them again, we'll have to rely on our formation to take them on."

"Don't worry, the next group of Zombie Dogs only has seven of them… We can do this. Eh—The Whippers are here… There are two of them and they are coming really fast." Michael said as he pulled out his dagger.

Cyril also activated his domain so he can have a better grasp of these Whippers they are talking about.

After all, he had never met them before or even seen them online.

As soon as his Domain covered the Whippers, he realized that they are indeed tall and slim humanoid creatures who are covered with strings around their bodies. It wasn't just that, they are even using those strings to move faster within the jungle as if they are using some spider web.

***

While Cyril and the others are inside the Arcane World, the outside world turned into chaos again.

Another batch of Entrance Crystals reached their limit and ended up triggering an Outbreak!

It happened all around the world with a total of seventeen outbreaks!

However, this time, they are all just low-class Arcane Worlds and they are easy to put out as long as there is a group of high-rank Awakened in the vicinity.

Nevertheless, this news made everyone nervous again since everything happened in just less than 12 hours.