2 days passed in the blink of an eye, and they all found themselves waking up to the familiar figure of a crosslegged Lloyd sitting at the cave entrance with his eyes shut tight as he continued to cultivate.
While Lloyd was certain that there was no chance that anyone from his team would have the ability to sense void energy, yet he still chose to cultivate his core, just in case.
While Lloyd loved having a strong body, a stronger core would keep him alive in this dungeon if anything out of his realm of calculations were to occur.
He could feel that his teammates were finally waking up, but he didn't bother opening his eyes or even pause his cultivation.
While none of them complained or even argued with Lloyd after they saw what he did to John, they all knew that a tension was growing between them, one that Lloyd didn't seem to notice, or at least feigned ignorance toward.
It made the nervous and caused their teamwork to be sloppy, yet even then, Lloyd remained a dominant figure on their team, having recovered just a few hours after seeming completely exhausted.
No one argued against Lloyd when he decided they should go further into the dark rocky area even though their faces screamed, 'please no!'
However, they weren't the only ones annoyed by the group's current flow. Lloyd was too. Ever since then, they never seemed to get enough monsters to stick around to do the same thing they had done before, making their fights not only long and tedious but also much less efficient than their first battle against the monsters of these lands.
Another thing that annoyed him was the fact that he had to constantly hold back against monsters so it wouldn't seem suspicious. He could easily one-shot most, if not all, the monsters in these lands, but since he had a team around him that was watching his every move, he was forced to remain passive and not kill as many monsters as he usually would have.
Another contributing factor to his lack of void energy gained in the last two days was the fact that the humans needed way too many breaks. They all ate at breakfast, lunch, and dinner and all slept at least eight hours a day. Sure, it gave Lloyd enough time to cultivate his core, but he was usually done by 2 hours in and had nothing to do other than test out a few runes or practice his swordsmanship or staff combat.
Now that they were entering the third day of this test, Lloyd had decided that the best course of action was to find more monsters of the second commandment and kill them to gain void energy.
Once everyone ate their share of food, they all began moving again toward the mountain range that had once been in the distance but was now only a few hours away.
There was a small valley between the two mountains that they hoped would lead to the other side, and possibly to a side of this planet where it wasn't all dark and cloudy, and a side of the planet where they could actually find new monsters rather than see the same few over and over again.
After hours of walking, they finally reached the V-valley between the two mountains; however, despite their expectations of getting this over and done as quickly as possible, something stood in their way.
Or, to be specific, it was hovering in front of the mountain valley and was staring at Lloyd's team while exuding killing intent.
It had hollow eyes and had an exoskeleton that was remarkably similar to that of an angler fish. The only difference was that the creature before them was most likely an undead, and it was far too huge to have been a normal angler fish in its past life.
"Welp... Looks like we're going to have to kill it." Lloyd sighed while drawing his katana and coating it with a layer of lightning mana.
Bolts of electricity shot out of his blade and scorched the floor around him.
*ROAR*
The creature's roar felt like the screech of a demon who was screaming through its soul and from the depths of hell, creating an echoey, almost torture-filled sound.
"Hey... Can't we just, I don't know, avoid it?" Derek asked as a drop of sweat streaked down his face when he realized how dangerous the monster before them was.
It was in the second commandment, and it had 4 topaz seals, making it much stronger than any monster they had fought before.
"Anglerfish are extremely territorial creatures. Now that it had claimed the area in front of the valley, its land, it became essentially impossible to go through the valley without fighting the monster.
"Derek, stand on the side and take part in the battle whenever you think you are capable of doing the most damage without compromising our mission. Haley, you are doing the same, but you're focusing on mana. The other two will remain on lookout." Lloyd commanded his team, causing them to all get into formation as he pointed his blade toward the monster.
"Let's do this then."
The creature roared again and charged at the group, its speed and agility making it hard to track.
Lloyd and the others quickly moved in to intercept it, with Lloyd in the lead. He slashed at the creature with his katana, but the creature quickly dodged it.
The creature then retaliated by spewing out a stream of dark flames, which Lloyd managed to dodge. However, the creature was far too fast and managed to hit Derek with its tail, sending him flying into the mountain wall.
Lloyd quickly rushed to help him, but the creature was too fast and managed to graze him with its stream of dark flames, which he only just managed to dodge by rolling out of the way.
He then retaliated by slashing at the creature with his katana, but the creature was too quick and managed to dodge it.
Of course, Lloyd wasn't trying at all. Hell, the monster didn't even have his full focus since his eyes remained on someone else the entire time, as Lloyd's suspicions only grew the more time he spent within him.
'Creepy ass smile...' Lloyd shuddered when he saw the grin on Alex's face. He was trying his best to hide it, yet Lloyd felt like every day on his planet was a day closer to Alex losing his shit before attempting to kill all of them.
Flipping back, Lloyd landed a devastating kick that caused it to shoot up to the sky.
Haley quickly weaved several fire spells and shot them at the creature, while Lloyd snapped his fingers to enhance the power of her flames.
The anglerfish found itself swimming within a barrage of explosions that was beginning to eat away at its exoskeleton.
Landing on top of the creature, Lloyd raised his blade into the air before plunging it deep into the monster and releasing several saved-up lightning spells inside it.
The creature's body quickly began to disintegrate and disappear in a puff of smoke, leaving a large pile of bones behind.
Lloyd and his team immediately began to collect them, with Lloyd always keeping an eye on Alex. He was still unsure of what he was up to and wanted to ensure he didn't do anything stupid.
Once they were done collecting and scanning the bones, Lloyd motioned for the group to continue on their way. They had to hurry if they wanted to reach the other side of the mountain before nightfall, not that such a thing mattered in a place where the clouds were always blocking the view of the sun.
The walk through the valley was long and terrifying for almost everyone, including Alex.
The fact that the valley was essentially a one-way road made all team members stay alert the entire time, ensuring that no monster would be nearby and have the chance to surround them by simply blocking two exits.
Hours passed, but the walk remained as stressful as before for everyone other than Lloyd.
After all, Lloyd had been in situations like these before. Hell, the dungeon he had stayed in for more than 3 months had most of their monsters in the half-step second commandment or above when he was just a half-step first commandment.
"Something's wrong." Lloyd stopped the group from proceeding as he used soul sense and mana vision to understand what was happening.
The birds in this area had gone completely silent... Even the crickets and other rodents remained silent, and he could already sense the source.
After all, it was looking at him.
Slowly, a creature with 6 legs, descended with the use of a web string.
Its neck was long, yet its face was that of a human woman, or something like looked like that.
The monster itself was too bloodied and grotesque for Lloyd to properly see what it was, but all he understood from mana vision was that the monster was strong, even to his standards.
With the sound of a snap, its scorpion tail shot toward Lloyd's head and attempted to kill him on the spot.
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