Chapter 215 First Challenge

After stopping in front of the entrance to the cave taken over by scorpions, Lothur and Annaliese got off their horse and looked around.

p That was a mining site of a family from the village they had passed earlier, a critical outpost taken over months ago.

The two of them realized this when they noticed some structures outside of that cave, where there were resting places, some storage of debris, and small wooden huts.

Those structures were covered with dust and cobwebs, and there were only a few fingerprints, probably made by the mercenaries who had passed there before them.

At the same time, the power source that illuminated the interior of that cave seemed to be malfunctioning in some way, as the lamps in the formations glowed and went out from time to time.

"So, that's the place?" Lothur muttered as he looked at the surroundings, as the curiosity about what he had seen inside that area sharpened his senses.

'What was that? Are there people in this place?' He doubtfully wondered since he had not seen the inside of that cave with clearness.

His visual ability had its limits, of course. He could see through objects, but the further away such a thing was from him, the less detailed and more 'opaque' such a thing became.

As such, apart from human silhouettes, Lothur had not seen much else and could not help but wonder what was inside that place.

It could be humans, dolls with formations on their bodies, or other things. He had no way of knowing.

Annaliese then asked, stepping forward. "Shall we go inside?"

"I'll go ahead, Anna." He took one of her hands in one hand while the other already held his ax.

"But... Lothur, isn't it better that I do this? I'm still stronger than you..." She softly commented, not wanting to mess with his confidence but also concerned for his safety.

Lothur smiled upon hearing this and looked her in the eye. "I recently reached 8th Transformation, Anna."

"What?" She asked in surprise, shocked at such sudden information. "How? You had just advanced to the 6th Transformation a few days ago..."

"Well, remember when I wanted you to punish me, and you beat me up?" He laughed. "I can get stronger when I recover. So, your mother helped me a little the night before..."

"That..."

She looked at him with wide eyes. "Are you serious? What a challenging skill!"

"Hmm, but don't tell anyone." He seriously said but without showing any distrust of her in his gaze.

She clenched one of her fists and said to him. "I would never talk about your secrets with others, not even with my family!"

He smiled at her and then listened. "But how strong are you? Because I am not simply at the 8th Transformation. I'm already halfway through the 9th!"

"Hmm, I know. I must be a little weaker than you, but my defenses are stronger. So, I guess I'd better take the lead..."

"I also have the Skull Soul Bone skill. So, I can notice problems more easily."

Hearing this from him, she nodded in agreement and allowed him to go ahead of her without worrying about this matter anymore.

With that, the two soon began walking through the long entrance to that cave, where lamps flashed from time to time, revealing the path ahead.

As they followed this path, the smell of wet earth intensified, along with the odor of rotting flesh.

"Looks like there's something dead in front of us," Annaliese commented in a low voice as her nose twitched.

"Hmm, not just something dead." Lothur noticed the noises coming from in front of them, a place where the tunnel they were in ended in a large area, similar to a crypt.

Along with the noises, he soon saw the silhouette of some scorpions, each as large as human children, eating what appeared to be the body of a bear.

"Anna..."

"I know, I get it." She commented before he finished, already in a fighting stance, getting ready to start cleaning this place up.

The moment Lothur had spoken, one of the scorpions there looked in their direction and turned around, indicating that it was already inevitable for them to get out of there without a fight.

Since there were several of them in the vicinity, Lothur could not help but prepare himself for the situation he had longed for.

That would be a more challenging fight than the one he had against that spider weeks ago, and he could still obtain training items!

So, when one of the scorpions started running towards them, Lothur took the lead and jumped into the air with the ax in his hands above his head.

With this movement on both sides, in the blink of an eye, dozens of scorpions began climbing the walls of that cave, coming from above, from the sides, and from below.

Annaliese moved as well, using her techniques without hesitation, already aiming at her opponents' weak points while watching out for their dangerous stings.

As Annaliese aimed at the head of one of the first opponents in her range, Lothur struck a blow with his ax, splitting the body of his first opponent in half.

[Scorpion of the Finn Mountain]

[Cultivation: level 5]

[STR: 12.9] [CON: 12.1] [DEX: 11.5] [AGI: 12.3]

Seeing the status of his next opponent, Lothur quickly dodged an agile attack from that scorpion, who tried to take him by surprise with a stinging blow.

But as Lothur had already noticed that enemy, he moved to sever that poison-inoculating part of his opponent without difficulty.

Swooish!

With that, he soon killed half a dozen insects, constantly having to dodge his opponents' stinging blows and also the vicious claws of those beings.

Not only did they rely on a potent paralyzing poison, but they had very sharp legs, capable of cutting through trees without difficulty.

Because of this, even though they were much stronger than their opponents, Lothur and Annaliese had to work hard with this first round of opponents.

They had to constantly move from one side of the cramped space to the other, running so much that they had sweated considerably in these first 30 minutes of exploration.

At the same time, their attacks had to be precise to eliminate enemies as soon as possible and avoid surprise hits.

So, they both faced quite a challenge in this place, finally realizing why this place had been infested with scorpions for months.

"Hah... Those beings are truly good at fighting together..." Annaliese said amidst her agitated breathing while having her hands on her knees, with her tongue out.

Lothur nodded in agreement and said in a less exhausted tone than Annaliese's. "I almost got poisoned twice, even considering our difference in strength..."

Lothur was weaker than Annaliese overall, but his constitution was much better than hers. Because of this, even though he had worked even harder than she had, he seemed less tired in this instant.

He crouched down next to one of the many scorpion corpses and asked. "Have you been stung by any of them?"

"No, I'm fine." She said.

"Good, but I'll prepare an antidote if we have to face more of them. Is that okay with you?" He asked as he began his action.

"Hmm, I need to rest for a few more moments before we continue, so it's okay to delay a bit." She sat on the ground as she took from her spatial ring a recovery potion.

As far as they knew, this cave had three levels, and this was only the first and smallest of them all. So, they still had a journey ahead of them, with many challenges!

...