An old man rubbed his beard with a deep frown on his face. "Hmm, this is not yet over… There is something...weird going on here!"
"What makes you say that, Bishop Argoch?" Rayner asked, holding his torch high so his master could see better.
Instead of answering, the Bishop turned to his other apprentice, "Renna, what can you tell us?"
"Hmm, let's see… The King was way stronger than its peers, which is quite unusual. There should be a gradual increase in strength according to age among monsters…"
"Good… What else?"
Renna Castri looked walked around the place and carried her lantern at the side, observing the place. After thinking about it for a while, she spoke, "This place must have been something special… For the King to reside here, it can't be a simple place, however, I can't find anything too out of place…"
"That's true, master!" Trevor interjected, "This place is completely barren, with the exception of these three doors. But this room is completely empty, while the rest can't be opened."
The group stood in the room with the three doors in the Phoenix Temple. This place was the reason for this massive expedition more than the Minecrawler King itself. If it was just the beast that was the problem, they could simply call for reinforcements from the royal palace or maybe from the Phoenix Knights…
But ancient structures often held long-forgotten treasures and knowledge from the past, making it extremely valuable for mages. Nobody would want to share such treasures.
"You are both mostly correct! But did you think where the beasts came from? Just the King is not enough to reproduce and make such an army! There also has to be a Queen!"
"Oh, that's right! We haven't seen any signs of the Queen or her eggs!" Trevor expressed his thoughts out loud.
"So where is the Queen? Is she behind one of these doors?" Renna questioned doubtfully.
The Bishop shook his head and pointed at the floor, "Not anymore, I'm afraid, look!"
The youngsters bent down and brought light closer to the floor to see better. "Is… Is that, blood?"
"Indeed it is… My guess is that her nest is behind that door and that someone fought the Queen in secret…" Bishop Argoch explained calmly.
"If you put your hand here, you can feel the heat coming from behind the door. The Minecrawler King's Crystal has a few streaks of the Fire Element mixed in between, meaning it was evolving into a fiery being." The Bishop took out the Crystal and showed it to his apprentices, taking the time to expand their knowledge.
"The Queen of this species is usually stronger than the King, meaning she was at least in the first Gold Ranks… Whoever fought it clearly suffered severe injuries, but it was not enough to kill him!"
"What kind of person can fight a Gold Rank monster without anyone noticing?!" Renna gasped at the thought.
"Well, can't we somehow go inside and take a look?" Rayner asked.
"Impossible!" The Bishop shook his head in regret, "I have tried, but my magic can't even touch these walls or doors. These runes all over the place are probably reinforcing runes, although I'm not too sure… Maybe if we get rune masters to examine it we could get some clearer answers, but it is highly unlikely."
"Is it really so difficult, master?"
"I'm afraid so… Ancient magic was somehow different from ours now, and we are stuck in these relatively low ranks… Even our strongest magic spells pale in comparison with the world-altering capabilities of the past."
"But master," Trevor protested, "Back then it was the High Elves who controlled the world, it's not fair to compare ourselves to them…"
"No, even the High Elves that are the descendants of those from before the Great War are much weaker than they used to be. The only ones that remained relatively strong are the Dwarves. But they hid away from the world in their mountains. Rumors say that they are able to forge weapons and armor from pure Mana, but those are probably just exaggerations."
"Divine weapons capable of slaying even gods apparently… Anyway, I have never seen a Dwarf or their weapons in my life, so I can't be sure…" Bishop Argoch rubbed the surface of the giant door and quietly sighed. There was nothing he could do to open them and see what secrets lay behind.
***
"Gerald! You are back!" Kerius shouted excitedly when he saw his friend coming back. "You missed a huge battle! You can't even imagine the size of that monster, it was huge!"
The guy kept shouting and waving his hands around to illustrate the battle with the Minecrawler King and his underlings.
Hearing the commotion, the rest also came and excitedly told their part of the story, how they battled with the beasts, and how brave they were in a fight.
Gerald just smiled and laughed with them, not caring to mention he was also there.
Having made so much money in a short amount of time, the Iron Hawks and Silver Phantom were ecstatic! The amount they received in just over a week was more than a few months of normal work for them.
"Let's drink, friends! Nobody is leaving this place sober tonight!" They brought a full barrel of beer and lit up a fire, roasting up the meat they received.
Gerald also roasted some of the Queen's heart and joined in on the celebration.
The expedition was slowly coming to an end. The last battle took out about a thousand Minecrawlers at once and the wealth gathered by everybody was quite substantial. Now only a few stragglers remained hidden deep in the tunnels, so it was slowly time for warriors to leave.
"We'll stay here for another day or two to rest and then we'll return to Geldern, are you coming with us?" Kerius and Derrick asked Gerald the next day.
"No… I think I'll return to Auralba soon, my friends are probably worried already."
Having discarded his mangled metal hand, Gerald gave off a weak and unthreatening appearance. Maybe that's the reason the guys asked him to join them, or maybe it was because they considered him a friend and wanted to travel together. Either way, Gerald had other plans.
"Hey!" A soft shout entered his ears, it was Elly. "I said my goodbyes to the guys already, so we can leave whenever you want," she said with an excited smile, showing her pearly white teeth.
"Ah, already? That was fast… Did anyone have anything to say against it?" He almost forgot about accepting her as his student. It was something he just said casually back then…
"Not at all!" She smiled while holding her Light Staff near her chest, "They all wished me well and even gave me a few small gifts! They are great people."
"Oh?" Gerald squinted his eyes and then smiled back, "That's good! Leaving on friendly terms is always good!"
"So, where are we going?" Elly asked.
"Auralba."
"Auralba? Isn't that quite far away?" she gasped.
"Not at all, just two to three hundred kilom- Oh shit!" Gerald suddenly realized something…
"What's wrong?"
"Aish... It's nothing. Don't worry about it…" He waved it off casually, but inside he was screaming, 'Fuck! I forgot we can't just fly back! How did I miss this?! This is so annoying… God damn it!'
His mood soured and he almost wanted to pout like a child.
But then, taking a deep breath, he slowly calmed down and accepted the reality. 'It's okay, it's not that bad, right? It's just a week of walking, no big deal, right…? Fuck me...'
"Sigh… Okay then, it's best if we depart now if you are ready…"
"Already? Oh, okay…" Elly, like him, had a Space Pouch on her hip, making it clear that she did not come from a poor family. At least he knew she would not be a burden in a monetary sense.
After saying his goodbyes, Gerald oriented himself according to a map and chose a road that led to Auralba. They had a long road ahead of them, so he didn't want to waste any more time.