Chapter 630 – Making Trouble For Adventurers.

“I do not like this. It is too quiet. Are you sure we should be here?”

The man asked, gripping a dagger in each hand.

“Your party leader accepted the quest. If you run now, the Stronghold Master will punish all of you.”

The older man replied. A large wolf trotted beside him. Both men, along with the rest of their companions, wore cloth tied over their mouths. At first glance, it made them look like bandits, but they were adventurers with a single task. They had to discover what had happened in this area.

“Yeah, yeah…”

The man rolled his eyes and then added a further comment.

“By the way… This cloth reeks. Can we do anything about that?”

“Shut your trap!”

Another man finally lost his patience and shouted. He was the armored figure leading the party. His head snapped toward the rogue in a sharp motion, and his eyes widened with irritation.

“You have been complaining since we arrived, Heister. Be quiet, and you will not inhale the solution. Do not be foolish enough to remove the cloth, or the poison will disable you.”

“Aye aye, captain!”

Heister offered a mocking salute to the party leader and the group continued forward. The deeper they walked into the forest, the heavier the silence became. No birds, no small critters, not even the usual carnivorous plants appeared.

“This path… just how many drachinids moved together, and why?”

They followed a single trail that stretched ahead in a straight line. At first, they passed only a few bent or trampled trees. Before long, however, they realized that many smaller tracks merged into this one. It looked as if a swarm of monsters had joined together to form a much larger path while pursuing something.

“It doesn’t look like they were being chased. It seems they were the ones doing the chasing?”

“But what were they after, and why is there nothing here, Mr. Jergen?”

The armored man asked as the group stepped into a clearing. Wide swaths of destruction suggested a massive stampede, yet the center of the clearing contained nothing but bare, flattened earth.

“The trail ends here. The tracks stop as well. This is strange. Where did they all go?”

Jergen the hunter looked around with his one good eye, then ordered his wolf to sniff the area.

“This makes no sense. Could something have devoured all those lesser dragons, or did they go somewhere else?”

He muttered while the other four adventurers spread out to investigate. Every track pointed to this place, and judging by the signs, the monsters had simply vanished without retreating in any direction. The others searched the torn earth in widening circles, but Jergen kept staring at the center of the clearing as if expecting the ground itself to speak.

“Tracks leading in, no tracks leading out.”

The armored man crossed his arms.

“So either they flew away or they vanished. Could it have been a teleportation trap?”

“They did not fly, nor was it a trap.”

Volyn, the mage, tapped the butt of his staff against a half-buried root and closed his eyes.

“Someone tried to hide it, but they did not manage to erase the traces fully. Doing such a thing in a hurry must have been difficult.”

For a moment, the old man paused and then nodded.

“Only a true master could have done this. We need to be careful.”

“Didn’t erase traces of what? A true master? What are you talking about, old man?”

Heister frowned in confusion, and the others looked to the mage with growing curiosity. None of them had found anything that revealed what had happened here, but if Volyn sensed something, then there had to be a reason.

“Was it magic?”

Culdor asked, and Volyn nodded.

“Indeed. Powerful magic was used here.”

“What kind of magic, and for what purpose?”

The hunter with the eyepatch leaned toward him, eager for an answer.

“The purpose is to hide something.”

As soon as the words left Volyn’s mouth, he stepped forward and raised his staff. Without offering any explanation, he began to chant while moving one hand in a series of intricate gestures. Mana gathered around him in a slow rising swirl, and soon the entire area began to glow orange.

“Volyn is casting an earth spell. You had better get out of there.”

Syl, perched on top of a tall tree, shouted to the rest of the group. The mage did not seem to care if his party members were caught in the spell or simply expected them to move aside in time.

“You had better hurry, Mr. Hunter. Old Volyn does not care if you end up buried alive.”

Heister’s voice rang out from the distance as the rogue sprinted forward. The ground began to rumble and shift, forcing Jergen and his wolf to leap aside.

“Volyn, warn people before you start tearing up the ground. We have a guest with us.”

Culdor barked from afar as he saw the hunter tumble aside, his wolf whining at the trembling soil. The mage did not respond. He continued chanting with growing intensity, eyes half closed and lips moving faster and faster. Mana condensed around his staff and he drove it into the earth like a spear. The clearing fell silent for a brief moment, then the ground began to move.

“Brace yourselves.”

Culdor shouted, though it hardly mattered. The entire clearing shifted as glowing cracks spread outward. The earth shook and split open, slowly revealing the hidden secret the mage had sensed.

“Those are lesser dragons.”

Jergen stared in shock as the ground parted to reveal the buried carcasses below. There were not one or two but at least twenty, all damaged and burned by something.

“What could kill so many?”

Syl whispered as she dropped from her branch and landed without a sound. The others looked around with growing fear. They were an experienced group of tier-three adventurers, yet none of them imagined they could defeat so many creatures at once.

“I hope whoever did this is not still here.”

Heister muttered as he scanned the surroundings. Syl did the same, her bow already drawn with an arrow ready to fly. The only one who seemed calm was the old mage. After uncovering several drachinid bodies, he walked up to one and began to examine it.

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“This was not done with a weapon. It was a spell.”

He studied the dead plant-like creature. Its body was torn apart and scorched by what could only have been explosive fire magic.

“More magic at work?”

Jergen moved closer to inspect the remains. He could not sense mana, yet he knew the damage was not from any ordinary tool or weapon.

“Whoever did this removed all the mana stones, but they did not finish processing the bodies. Perhaps they were interrupted or noticed our approach.”

The hunter pointed out that many of the corpses had been partially harvested but then covered up and abandoned.

“But how would they know we were coming? A spell like this would take time.”

“That is a very good question, Mr. Heister.”

Jergen replied and then started looking around. The adventurers swallowed hard as the realization settled in. Their eyes swept across the clearing. Whoever had done this might have known they were coming long before they entered the forest.

“There is something here. Syl, now.”

Volyn’s eyes snapped open as he pointed upward with his staff. Syl did not hesitate. She fired her arrow into what looked like empty air. The shot was empowered by a skill and flew at tremendous speed before striking something hidden.

“What is that thing?”

To everyone’s surprise, the arrow struck something and sent it crashing to the ground. It turned out to be a metallic object shaped like a dodecahedron, covered in strange patterns on each face. One side held what looked like a glass orb, but before they could examine it more closely, the runes on its surface began to glow brightly.