Krrrr…..
Kale pushed opened the Boss Room's door and came out, Fynn followed behind him, Kale silently activated ‹Life Sense› to check if someone was around.
After confirming that no one was around, he got slightly disappointed.
'I thought coming out of Boss Room in a tired state would be an attractive opportunity to pass on, but it seems, they are patient, not some rookie I guess,' Kale wondered as he slowly moved down the tunnel leading to the lower floor.
Once they arrived at the second floor, Kale directly made his way to the Boss Room, before coming to the dungeon, he had 'traded' the maps of all the explored floors of The Poison Crypt from Baron Enan in exchange for Blood & Snake eggs.
Kale chose the safe path to travel and avoided the monster on the way, he was trying to save energy in case the enemy ambushed them. Although he had commanded his Ghost Spirits to move around and keep a watch, they had limitations, like their range, and this world had many things he was completely unaware of, like what if the enemy had the way to hide their presence even from them.
Still, he knew that completely avoiding all the monsters on the way wasn't possible, as expected, soon they met a hurdle, they encountered a group of Poison Bells.
Kale wasn't looking at this monster for the first time, but he still gets a little surprised every time he saw it because Poison Bell was a Plant/Poison-type monster.
It looked like a plant with only one big enclosed yellow flower as head in a big bell-like shape form, green vine-like branches as its hands, and intertwined roots as legs to move.
Poison Bells emits a sweet fragrance to attract the prey, poison them with the tiny spikes on their vines and finally swallow them whole, slowly digesting them in time.
Poison Bells had lower intelligence and are weak monsters so they were easy to defeat but the problem with them was, they travelled in large groups making them troublesome to deal with, without a Fire Mage to burn them down or an Ice Mage to freeze them in spot, it wasn't easy to take care of them.
'Grappling techniques won't be that effective in front of them, it will only consume energy,' Kale thought, he then transmitted a message to Fynn {Hide your aura, I will attract them, you can use blades, end it as fast as possible with the least movement, and don't use any other technique,}
Fynn nodded and obediently followed without any question, he hid his cultivation base, with Poison Bells' intelligence, they were bound to take Kale as a stronger foe and give him priority during the attack.
Fynn made some distance with Kale and flanked from the left, Kale slowly raised his right hand, his Battle Qi surged, then several black strings came out of his sleeve and moved like life-like beings.
'Arachne Thread Controlling Art'
'Let's see how much of it I can use now,' Kale thought, as he prepared to attack but just then, he saw that the whole group of Poison Bells weren't even paying attention to him, they turned and tried to surround Fynn.
Kale reacted, he waved his hand at the closest Poison Bell, the strings shot out at once and bound the Poison Bell before it could move, the Poison Bell fell on the ground and started struggling, the other Poison Bells stopped for a moment, they turned to Kale, Kale was preparing to attack again, but then they again switched their attention to Fynn and started attacking.
'What?' Kale was surprised.
Fynn was surrounded, but he was still in control of the situation, the thing that surprised him most was the Poison Bells behaviour, they were completely ignoring Kale.
'Why it is happening? It was normal before, last time I came here they attacked me without hesitation then, why now? Wait… The only difference, it is related to ‹Nether Venom Body›'s first phase completion? Everything in this dungeon has poison and now me too, are they judging me as one of their own because of that?' Kale's eye brightened then dimmed again 'But then, will it be the same for more other monsters who don't have eyes?'
Kale thought, at the same time, he took out his knives and started attacking them, he was helping Fynn while also testing their limits, to check if they would still ignore him when if he attacks them continuously.
Kale noticed that although most of the Poison Bells ignored him, a few still came forward to fight back.
'I wonder if the effect will increase once I cultivate the ‹Nether Venom Body› further,' Kale guessed after he finished dealing with the monster group.
Kale collected the cores, this time the little snake didn't show much interest to eat them, it had already fallen asleep.
After switching the location Kale tried the same thing with another type of monsters and found out that although the effect was lower compared to Poison Bells, they were indeed not giving him much attention like Fynn.
Both of them carefully moved between the territories of different monsters and finally arrived in front of the Boss Room on the second floor.
"We will camp for tonight and clear it tomorrow," Kale said out of nowhere when Fynn was still preparing himself for the fight.
It was hard to differentiate day and night inside a dungeon but Kale had a clock so he could tell.
Fynn was about to turn, but Kale put down his luggage, he continued "Set up the camp and do it fast,"
Fynn blinked his eyes, setting up a camp in the dungeon wasn't a good idea, much less doing it in front of Boss Room but what could he do, he nodded and started setting up the tent.
While he was setting up the camp, Kale took out a few beast cores, crushed them then sprinkled the debris around, with that the area around contained the faint smell and aura of Poison Bells, unless it was a strong Rare-Grade monster they wouldn't want to entangle with such troublesome opponents, moreover even if they were sure to win they won't fight because Poison Bells' flesh is more like plants, it can't fill their appetite easily.
The fire was quickly set up, Kale cooked the food himself, for the first time in this life, he was cooking meat as the food, the meat belonged to Tri Horned Rabbits, the second floor had a high population of Tri Horned Rabbits, although their body contained poison, it could be removed with potions, many adventures didn't do it because it was like wasting money, after all, they could catch other edible beasts outside the dungeon.
Kale soon finished cooking, he didn't make the food too tastier, because he was inside the dungeon, he was confident in himself but didn't want Fynn to relax and let his guard down due to the taste of food alone.
The food he prepared was meat soup with veggies, it was easy to digest and had enough calories to last a day while fighting, Just as the food was about to be served, Kale's eyes twitched, he then looked to the side and saw three humanoid silhouettes approaching.
Fynn also noticed, he reached out his hand and grabbed the blade hilt.
"There, friend relax, we mean no harm," A soft mellow voice of a woman came from afar.
The three silhouettes came into light, Kale raised his brows, all three of them were women, the leading one was a tall woman wielding a long sword on her back, the woman had silky black hairs and slim figure, her skin was pale as snow, her long legs stood out the most, her charming brown eyes were looking at Kale, as she smiled.
The two followed behind were walking together, both of them had a similar appearance and the left one was supporting the right one as they walked.
Both the girls were short, their hair was only shoulder length, they seemed young teenagers but their well-developed body told a completely different tale.
The two women didn't have the typical human ears, they were slightly longer and curved backwards, their skin was slightly tan, shining like it was coated with oil, coupled with their short heights, it showed the traits of their dwarf race.
Although the three women differed from each other, they were all beauties, they had soft and tender skin that was in contrast to a fighter. Their clothes weren't revealing but due to the texture of clothes, it showed their curves clearly.
Furthermore, due to the location, where the adventurers have to be on guard all the time and build up stress, the three beauties were quite a sight.
Their attire consisted of light armour, which showed that they all had Martial Artist or a hybrid Martial Artist as their main class, Martial Artists have more refined bodies that's why it is not only highly durable but also makes the practitioner look more beautiful.
'A honey trap? I am disappointed,' Kale inwardly thought, still on the surface, his eyes were wandering around quite hastily.
In fact, he wasn't even using his eyes to observe them, the other four-person didn't know but the whole camp was surrounded by numerous Ghost Spirits, they all shared a part of their sense with Kale, he was observing the three woman from all side to figure out their hidden details.
'The tall one is wearing metallic gloves, if it was for holding the sword then she could have used fingerless gloves but she didn't, hmmm… There is a high chance she isn't a swordsman at all and is just acting like that to let our guard down, the people that hide their fingers and hands are mostly those that use poison and hidden weapons like needles because it leaves scars on their skins when not used carefully,' Kale thought, he also focused on the two girls behind, then he switched his attention to Fynn.
He saw Fynn staring at the tall woman without blinking, the woman noticed his gaze and brightly smiled at him, Fynn's eyelids flickered and he quickly looked away in embarrassment.
Kale's face turned dark.
'This damn idiot took the bait, how could I actually miss such a thing, this fellow is actually inexperienced in such a thing,' Kale inwardly sighed.
He knew the three women were likely the assassins, It took a single glance for him to figure out that the reason, the three woman's appearance varied was to test the taste and fetish of him and Fynn.
Kale was calm but Fynn gave away, it was now easy to guess, who would be Fynn's opponent if a fight broke out.
'Relax Kale… The tall woman is at Elemental Mortal Stage anywayhe should fightight her, the other two are in the same stage as me, though their levels are probably higher, the mastermind behind this group purposely sent the ones who were around our levels to further let our guard down,' Kale concluded.
"Who are you and what do you want?" Kale said seemly trying to act tough while his eyes peeked at her chest from time to time.
Fynn also looked at him and his expression became weird, he had enough information on Kale to know that he doesn't care about his opponent's age or gender when killing.
Or else, the beautiful woman beside the bandit boss won't have been used as bait for the Blood & Bone Snake.
The three women noticed his expression and reacted differently, the injured woman looked away in shame, the other one supporting her gave a light snort and stared back, while the tall woman acting as a leader looked like she didn't notice his gaze ogling at their bodies.
"Fellow adventurers don't be that cautious, I am Elza and these two sisters are Xara and Zalie, both of them are my trusted companions, we are new to this region, we hastily barged into the dungeon in overconfidence, as a result, one of my companions got injured and even slightly poisoned," Elza said with a worried expression as he glanced at the bandaged leg of the supported woman behind her, then continued "We want to leave but it won't be easy for us to make it out with an injured companion, so we're looking for a place to rest and wait for help, we caught on the smell of the food you were making and came here.
Friends if you don't mind, can we rest here together with you, we will be sure to repay the favour after we go out, we can also be of help to you during the time we stay here once my companion is cured,"
By the end of the sentence, Elza's tone seemed to be filled with pain, her eyes were slightly teary and she looked like she was ready to beg.