At the center of the great forest of Fiora, where the entrance of the famous cave system of the Fairy dungeon was located.
A certain carriage finally arrived after five days of their journey. The carriage stopped a few hundred meters away from the entrance.
"Take care, I will be waiting here," Moriel said as he watched them walking towards the Fairy dungeon.
"We will be back after an hour or two," Clint responded while waving his hand. He was currently wearing his iron chest plate, gauntlet, and leg armor. On his waist was his sword while his iron shield was hanging on his back.
Both Gwen and Amiya were holding their almost identical red wooden staffs, the only difference with the staffs were the precious stones at the peak of the staffs. Amiya's staff has a yellow orb on it, while on Gwen's staff was a red smooth circle orb.
Randall was carrying 4 daggers 2 on both of his waists.
They reached the entrance and what greeted them was the destroyed gate and from the distance was the huge trail at the forest as if something extremely huge crashed on it.
The 4 of them looked at the aftermath with great surprise on their faces.
"When they said the cave system is in a complete mess, this is not what I expected," Clint commented as they walked towards the gate.
They reached the entrance and took a peeked inside, but the burst of the smell coming from the inside instantly took them aback.
Amiya immediately covered her nose. "What is that smell? Are you sure it is a cave and not a sewer?"
Clint walked towards the staircase to lead the group while holding the map of the Fairy dungeon in his hand. "Before we proceed, activate your Mana Sensory skills so we can easily sense the nearby monsters. Be careful and do not wander far away from the group, understood?"
The three nodded in agreement.
The four started to walk down the stone staircase, Gwen activated her Fire magic and created a floating fireball to light up the way. There were numerous cracks and piles of rock spikes on their way that greatly slowed their advancement.
After a few minutes, they reached the end of the staircase. What greeted them was the gigantic open dome located on the third floor.
"Be careful, sharp cliffs are common in here. You do not want to fall on one of them." Clint said as he walked towards one of the passages. "Randall, I need you to scout the area ahead of us, if you sense anything suspicious, let us know, and most importantly, do not go too far from us, so we can back you up immediately."
Randall nodded. "I'm on it."
Randall walked past through them, as he walked his body slowly disappeared due to his skill, Stealth.
As Randall disappeared, Clint directed his gaze to the two left with him. "Let's go."
With the help of the map, they easily reached the third floor without any issues.
The 4 of them examined every part of the third floor while keeping their distance from the monsters around.
Clint took notes of everything that could be reported.
"I scouted around, but I can't find the supposed to be Class S monsters that inhabiting this floor." Randall appeared from the shadow.
"Just like big brother Flint said, there is a good chance that the Fairy wiped them all. This phenomenon is more than enough to serve as a good report to the guild master. but let us just look a little more."
"You need to see this."
Both of them diverted their attention to Amiya's voice coming from the cave chamber near them.
"Amiya, please do not poke it with your staff."
The concerned voice of Gwen made them rush towards the two and check out what was happening. They went inside a huge chamber and found Gwen pulling Amiya while the latter was trying to poke a 1-foot tall white egg using her staff.
Both Randall and Clint scratched their heads as they watched.
Clint approached them. "Base on the appearance of the egg and the Cave wolves' corpses beside them, I think that thing you are poking is a Gaia centipede egg. You should stop doing that before their mother pokes us back."
Gwen pulled Amiya out of the chamber.
"It is the first time I heard you talking about that thing. What it is again? Amiya centipede?"
"It is Gaia centipede, Amiya. And their species has a very bad reputation of extreme vengeance when you harmed their eggs. Due to their skill called tracker, once their eyes are on you, they can always find you wherever you are and will never stop following you, not until either you or the Gaia centipede is already dead." Clint opened his map and checked out the area. "There are only a few places left that we need to look into. And we are good to go after it."
Clint stopped walking when he noticed that the 3 stopped walking and just smiling at him. He looked back at them 3 times before stopping and turning towards them.
His forehead furrowed. "What?"
Randall walked towards him and pat his shoulder several times. "You've done a lot of research again, huh."
"That is a normal thing to do. It is my job to study about our mission rather than diving here nose-first. Besides, I cannot trust any of you to do it."
Randall nodded and pushed him forward. "So, where are we going next, leader?"
Clint scratched his head while walking towards the next location. "This way, the place we are going to has an abundance of very dangerous cliffs, so I need all of you to be extra careful while crossing."
"Follow the leader," Amiya said as she walked with them.
"Please refrain from calling me that, there is no leader in this group. We are all just members of this party."
While behind them, Gwen was watching with a smile on her face.
"You are too clumsy, Amiya. How about I hold your hand while crossing at the cliffs?"
"How about I drop you there myself, Clinton?"