Chapter 65: old friends
Her brown eyes looked at lazy heat trails drifting up from the water, she heard crunching sound behind her, she turned her oval face with purple hair to look
"You really destroyed this place" the man was wearing a navy blue suit, he had a square face with a sharp jawline and silkly hair
"Hello Mr Pryer, why would the Association send you here?" Luna greeted Mr Pryer
"You can call me Nate, I came here because of an old friend but when I arrived you were gone" the black ground crunched as Nate walked to Luna
"The Association told me that symbol is fake" Luna looked up at Nate
"It was genuine but let put that aside for now, did you find it?" Nate spoke as he looked at the steam coming from the lake
"No it moved the portal here tricking me into entering" Luna watched Nate take out a teleportation scroll from his pouch
"we have two days to find" he grabbed Luna arm "after that we are supposed to attack this world leaders" he tore the scroll
They reappeared outside the green portal "we should head into the forest" Luna spoke as she pulled her hand away
Nate looked at the burned land with a few black stumps that remained "No, we will go back the slope"
Luna glared at him "why"
"You said it tricked you into entering the portal, that means it was close by watching you" he looked back at the slope "the smartest thing it can do after trapping you is going in the direction opposite from you"
He walked go the slope "and if you wrong?" Luna looked at his broad back but Nate did not answer he just kept walking
'Criminal' she followed him
********
Vice smiled as he looked at the dungeon map 'the rat domain is empty but the goblin dungeon has multiple red dots'
"Growl"
The hyena stopped running and growled at the sand 'is it another lizard'
"Puff"
It hopped out of the sand and ran the hyena growled waiting Vice to tell it to chase
'That mouse seems to be heading in same direction as us' he let the hyena chase the mouse
The hyena ran past sun bleached bones and a few animal burrows Vice narrowed his eyes as looked at the mouse
'It leading us somewhere' Vice pulled the reins stopping the hyena as the mouse climbed down the steep canyon wall
Vice looked around, he saw a few cacti 'if there's no trap why did lead me here?' he climbed off the hyena
He put a hobgoblin body in front of it and looked down the canyon 'the town is down there somewhere'
Vice took out the map 'the town is east from me' he crouched down and looked at the rivine then he heard footsteps and voices
"Thats him" Vice looked behing him, the hyena growled but Vice patted it on the head it went back to eating
The mouse hid behind the brown ratman "Gordon is that a new friend?" Vice spoke
Gordon nodded and walked back into the hole, Vice followed him the light became darker as he went deeper
He touched the rough dirt wall as he walked on the uneven ground following the sound of Gordon footsteps
He crouched down the deeper he walked then he saw the place get brighter as they entered a cave with other ratman, no one smile as Vice entered
"where is my dagger?" Vice sat on the dirt
Gordon gave Vice his dagger then the cave went back to being silent while Vice looked at the dungeon system
'Only the rats leveled up' he looked at everyone in the cave
"In the past I know we have never gotten along but I'm willing to be the bigger person and listen to your problems" Everyone stayed quite
"Lets talk about what we want and see if we can help each other" he looked at Valeria "you'll go first"
"..."
She open her mouth and shut it hesitating but Vice waiter for her
"I want you to discuss your decisions with us we are not mindless puppets we have lives we.." Vice nodded as he waited for her to finish
After a while "you want transparency about the things that might affect your lives?" Vice looked at Valeria and she nodded
"Thats easy" he looked at Jones "its your turn"
"I want strength" Jones spoke
"strength to do what?" he spoke
"I want enough strength to defeat the bats,nagas and humans" Jones clenched his jaw while Scarlet nodded
Vice looked at Lucas "its your turn"
"The same thing as Valeria" Lucas spoke, Vice looked at Freya "its your turn" a dusty wind found its way into the cave everyone shut their eyes waiting for the dust to clear out
"I want everyone to be safe and live peacefully" Freya spoke, he turned to Scarlet "it's your turn"
"I want the same thing as Jones" she spoke
Vice put the map on the cave's uneven ground "everything you all want can be done and our first step is destroying this goblin village"
'This will be useful training for the day they face the Association' he pointed to the village on the map
"This is to make everyone strong enough to enter the middle region" Vice smiled
"Everyone is not strong enough to kill the goblins" Valeria spoke
"I know we will cause an avalanche on the village then the few that remains will be wounded and easy to kill" Vice stood up "we will do it tonight, tomorrow will move to another village until we reach the city"
"Why do we need to kill that many?" Freya asked
"If you want safety you need to be strong enough to defend yourself" a green portal appeared behind Vice "only by killing this many will you gain enough strength to defend yourself"
Vice stepped into the portal then his eyes widen as he looked at the dungeon
The soil was black ashes everywhere he looked he could not find a single tree the rivers we boiling the dungeon had been completed changed