Asher knew that he couldn't waste any more time. He needed to go all out and Amelia was a problem, so he decided to send them out after their first kill.
"Get ready. I'll bait one here," Asher said as he moved deeper into the cave. The cave wasn't straight, which resulted in multiple blind spots where someone could hide. Asher was using his mana to coat his feet, allowing him to move quickly and nullify the sounds he made.
He saw a rock eater alone, munching on rocks, but luring it would also attract the attention of the other rock eaters. He needed to lure the rock eater without alerting nearby monsters.
"Whoooooo," Asher took a deep breath and quickly dashed past the rock eater.
The rock eater saw Asher and immediately became alert. It turned to see him standing in front of it, sword touching the ground, with crimson red eyes staring down at the monster. Asher released his intense killing intent, intimidating the rock eater.
The monster was overwhelmed by Asher's presence and decided to retreat from the way Asher had come. Rock eaters had low intelligence and only acted on instinct, which was telling them to run away.
"Will he be fine?" Lucas asked Amelia.
"I don't know, but he has a safety device, so even if he encounters anything beyond his level, he'll be fine. But he could still get injured," Amelia explained to Lucas. They were waiting for Asher to lure a rock eater back to their location.
"Wait, I see a monster! Look there!" Livia pointed at a rock eater running towards them.
"Get ready, guys. Try to defeat it," Amelia immediately took a proper stance, and the twins also got ready.
"Lucas, I'll try to stop it," Livia took her greatsword and approached the rock eater. Although she was scared, she wanted to help Lucas and bear his burdens with him. Her determination overcame her fear.
The rock eater used its claws against Livia as she approached. She dodged to the right and made a wide swing with her sword, but it was slow enough for the rock eater to dodge it.
"GRRRRRRRRRRRGGHHH," the rock eater growled as drool dripped from its sharp teeth. It was angry at Livia for stopping its escape, and Asher's killing intent had triggered its beastly instincts.
"Fireball," Lucas completed his chant and a small ball of fire shot out, burning part of the rock eater's shoulder. It turned to look at Lucas.
Taking advantage of the distracted rock eater, Livia used her sword to make a cut on its leg. Blue blood poured out as she took a chunk of flesh. Lucas cast another fireball, making the rock eater retreat from Livia.
"With this spell, I implore: Grant Strength," Amelia started a chant and Livia felt her strength double.
"Thank you, Sis!" Livia shouted and made another swing at the growling rock eater. Her speed was the same, but every swing was doing significant damage to the monster. Lucas was casting fireballs, but he was tired and felt like he was almost out of mana.
"Livia, this is the last one I can throw," Lucas said as another fireball landed on the rock eater, who was now covered in wounds and burn marks. However, it was still afraid to return to the cave, feeling threatened by Asher.
Livia was breathing heavily, having used a lot of her stamina to dodge the Rockeater. She swung her weapon in a wide slash and made a cut in the creature's gut, causing it to fall to the ground with a thud. She had finally defeated the Rockeater, but immediately fell, feeling tired.
"Livia!" Amelia rushed to support her, picking her up.
"Lucas, I did it!" Livia muttered, too tired to stand. The adrenaline rush from earlier was gone.
"I can see," Lucas replied, smiling, despite being tired himself.
clap**clap
Asher appeared and the three of them turned to face him. "Well done," he said, and Lucas was happy to receive praise from Asher.
"Amelia, take them out of the dungeon as they can't fight anymore. Tell Emmy that I will explore the dungeon further," Asher said to Amelia.
"But you might get injured. I can come with you-" Amelia started to say, but Asher interrupted her.
"It would be a waste of the training I did last month," he said with his indifferent face, and then he left the group.
"Okay, fine," Amelia said, frustrated but deciding not to pursue the matter further. She activated her safety bracelet, and Emmy and some other guards arrived a few seconds later.
"Emmy, can you help take the twins out?" Amelia asked Emmy.
"What about the Young Master?" Emmy asked, looking around for Asher.
"He said he wants to explore more," Amelia replied, feeling a bit angry but deciding to let it go.
"Okay," Emmy nodded, and picked up Livia, while another guard helped Lucas. They then exited through the portal.
Meanwhile, Asher was standing in front of multiple Rockeaters, as the commotion had caused several of them to come out from the depths of the cave.
"GRrrgrghhhrgg"
"RGRgrgrhrr"
"Time for some fun," Asher cracked his neck, as he faced the multiple black-furred monsters with huge claws coming towards him.
He took a deep breath and used his movements to avoid the first two Rockeaters and cut the limbs of the one on his left. He didn't stop and dodged every claw attack of the Rockeaters. He wasn't using mana to strengthen his body because he didn't want to waste it too soon.
"GRRRRGGgrrhgg" a Rockeater roared as he jumped towards him. Asher had already swung towards his left, leaving his back open. He sensed the Rockeater behind him and he concentrated on his sword.
"Phantom Slash," he muttered as his sword turned midway through his slash, penetrating the heart of the Rockeater that had just pounced on him. He had replicated a downgraded version of Nathan's Phantom Swing, but it was enough for an F-Rank monster.
His eyes were sharp as he dodged multiple Rockeaters. He needed to make sure he was always out of range of their claws, which were sharp enough to pierce rocks. He could only block at most two Rockeaters at the same time.
*slash*
His sword easily penetrated their bodies, creating large cuts. His sword was smeared with the blue blood from the Rockeaters as he detached the limbs of the Rockeaters, taking away their only weapon. He was fighting Rockeaters from all directions, and his sword was moving fast as he killed many of them.
Fighting like this required focus as he was dodging and reading the movements of the Rockeaters at the same time. Slowing down would only make him an easier target for the group to attack. He finally used mana to dodge their attacks and sliced the head of the nearest Rockeater.
Only two Rockeaters were left, and Asher quickly dashed and cut them in half with a wide arc of his slash. He swung his sword to remove the blue blood on it, but didn't bother cleaning himself as he would clear more caves after this one.
"Let's use my ability on this one," he thought, as these Rockeaters were mid F-Rank monsters and he was sure their strength was a bit higher than his. He crouched and touched the chest of the Rockeater he killed.
"Absorb," he said, as a reddish mana enveloped his hand and the Rockeater. He felt his strength increasing.
<Host has absorbed Strength +1>
He saw the notification and smirked. After the notification, the red mana around the dead body was gone.
"So, I can only get this much?" he wondered, as the reddish mana was now gone. He put his hands on another Rockeater.
"Absorb," he tried it once more.
[ Warning! Ability under cooldown: 59:47 ]
"So I can only get this much from these monsters," he realized. He knew because of the cooldown period, he should time this ability for when he fought the boss of the dungeon.
After his experiment, he moved to the end of the cave, killing a few more Rockeaters. This dungeon had multiple caves, but he was only after the mana stone cave where the boss was. Although he would still clear other caves to test his swordmanship, they were not his goals.
The glowing stones in the caves were low-quality mana stones, and the mana inside them wasn't enough to sell them as mana stones. This was why Emmy and Amelia didn't react much when they entered the dungeon. Only Asher knew that this dungeon was a gold mine, and he intended to capitalize on it.
Asher exited the cave and gazed upon the ten additional entrances in sight. He knew that one of them was the cave he was searching for, but he could only enter and determine which one it was.
"Let's quickly find the boss," Asher stepped into another cave as he muttered those words.
