"Hey, when can I leave?"
A feminine voice of a teenage girl reverberated in the room.
The silhouette in front of her did not respond to her question and remained quiet.
Seeing this, Meona pouted and wore an irate expression.
"Hey, let me out here!"
Meona shouted in an annoyed tone.
When her father called her to his office, she knew what they were about to discuss, so she did everything she could to convince her father to let her fight but the latter denied her persuasion.
Incensed, she barged out of the office and pretended to comply with his words but she secretly planned to sneak out to fight off the dungeon outbreak along with the rest of the adventurers.
Alas, her father knew what was going on in her mind and ordered one of his knights to knock her out and put her in one of the safety shelters just right under the town hall's basement
And to top it all off, someone was keeping an eye on her at all times.
Meona stared at the shadowy figure with a frown, as the town lord's daughter, she was confident that she knew every single one of her father's knights and subordinates, or at the very least, she should have seen their faces at least once.
Meona had a very good memory when it comes to memorizing the faces of the people she met, but the person in front of her, she had never seen this person before, not once.
She didn't think too deeply about it though, she guessed that this person was someone that was hired recently by her father.
From the silhouette's figure, she could tell that it was a woman, strangely enough, she gave off a mysterious aura but for some reason, the blood inside her reacted whenever she would gaze at her.
Like some sort of distant relative, these feeling was familiar yet unfamiliar.
But she didn't let this get to her and shouted once more to get her out of here.
After getting no response from the mysterious woman, Meona frowned even further and had a good look at her surroundings.
She was surrounded by walls made up of reinforced metal made to withstand the attacks of an expert rank champion.
She shifted her gaze once more and saw a tunnel that leads outside of town in case of an emergency but it was currently closed off with a lock on the handle.
She plopped down on the ground, crossed her arms, and pouted, her current made her look like an adorable child throwing a tantrum, however, the mysterious woman still wore a stoic face and didn't even react.
Meona closed her eyes and was thinking of ways in getting out of this room, suddenly, an idea popped up in her head.
She grinned mischievously and a cunning glint flashed through her eyes.
Meanwhile, on the other side of town...
"Fire!"
A loud commanding voice echoed around which prompted the mages and archers to launch their attacks at the monsters banging on the barrier in front of them.
A good number of monsters fell, but some quickly got back up and continued to bang on the walls as if their lives depended on it.
"Sir Gerald, the mages had exhausted their mana reserves, it's going to take a while for them to recover."
One of the knights respectfully said while staring at the blonde man in front of him.
He wore silver-colored armor all over his body with a sword on his waist, the knight could feel that the sword was not ordinary just by the aura that it was emitting.
It was an expert-ranked magic weapon.
The man in front of the knight was the son of the town lord, Gerald Kiply, a first-class expert rank champion, his facial features were vaguely similar to his father.
He took the role as the one to lead the various champions in this area, while the guild master and the others were leading to defend the town from the north gate, where the necromancer and the guild master were battling.
They were defending the south gate.
Listening to the knight's words, Gerald nodded and looked behind him to see various mages sitting down and meditating.
'Useless piece of sh*ts.'
Gerald cursed in his mind.
"I understand, tell the archers to keep firing, dwindle their numbers as much as possible."
Gerald said while not even bothering to glance at the knight.
The knight respectfully bowed and left.
"I don't know what father was thinking, evacuating the citizens and even activating the defensive formation, does he think our town is that weak that it can't even handle a dungeon outbreak from a fourth-grade dungeon and an attack from a monster den?"
Gerald said as he wore a confused expression, he was not informed that this was all caused due to the machinations of a hostile master-ranked champion, hence, he could not understand the decisions made to protect the town.
He squinted his eyes and his vision peered through the barrier and looked at the army of goblins and trolls trying to smash the barrier, there were a couple of expert-ranked irregular monsters but other than that, they weren't much of a threat.
'This is too easy, they can't even break through the barrier.'
Gerald thought as he gazed at the adventurers and knights gathered around, using any long-ranged attacks in their arsenal to attack the monsters from the outside.
'This is a good way to earn merit, with this, my succession to become the town lord will become much smoother.'
Gerald smiled and just as he was about to announce a command, the ground trembled.
"This aura..."
Sweat dripped down Gerald's face when he sensed a powerful aura behind the army of goblins and trolls.
It wasn't just him that sensed this, the powerful people among the adventurers and knights picked up on this aura as well.
"This magic power, don't tell me... a master-ranked monster?"
Golg, who was one of the adventurers stationed in the south gates muttered.
His words were pretty much heard by everyone and some were stunned at this revelation.
"Rooooar."
A deep and deafening roar reached everyone's ears, they all turned their heads to look and saw a giant rock golem making its way closer to the barrier.
Its footsteps alone caused the ground to tremble, and the goblins and trolls cleared a path to avoid getting stomped by this monster's large foot.
"What the hell is that?"
This question rang inside everyone's minds as they stared at this monstrosity that gave off a powerful aura.
Chills ran down their spine as the monster kept inching closer and closer.
The strongest among the group of knights and adventurers here were only expert rank champions, with no master rank present to offset the monster's powerful presence, everyone here felt goosebumps just by staring at this monster.
Gerald gulped down a mouthful of saliva, however, he snapped out of his daze and shouted some words at the group of knights and adventurers around him.
"There is no need to be afraid, with the town's protective array covering for us, even if that monster is a master rank, there is no way that it could break through this barrier."
Gerald was confident that the barrier surrounding the town would be able to halt the rock golem's advance.
Hearing Gerald's words, everyone sighed in relief, they completely forgot the barrier's existence for a moment because the monster's aura had terrified them.
"Sir Gerald is right, there is no need to be afraid, everyone, concentrate your attacks on the golem, the person to land the killing blow will be heavily rewarded, I guarantee it as the vice-captain of the town's knight division."
One of the knights standing beside Gerald shouted, he was the strongest champion present, a super-first class expert, he shouted those words to encourage everyone to attack.
The words of the vice-captain of the knights made everyone present tremble in excitement, the previous fear that they felt instantly vanished, and what replaced it was anticipation.
"Oh, holy one..."
"Grant me..."
"Thou shall..."
The various champions had already begun chanting, and the mana in the surroundings moved in an irregular pattern with so many champions rousing up their magical power in preparation to attack.
"Hey, what is that thing on that rock golem's arms? Is that a metal glove?"
A sharp-eyed adventurer said with an inquisitive look after noticing a metal object latched unto the golem's arms.
With his words, some people squinted their eyes and moved their gaze to the rock golem's right arm.
"You're right, what is that thing?"
Golg said after taking a look.
"Who cares? If you don't want the reward and just stand there like an idiot then get the f*ck out of here, that reward is mine."
An arrogant adventurer said with greed in his eyes.
His words earned hostile looks from several adventurers around him but the arrogant adventurer ignored them and began chanting.
However, something unbelievable happened that made everyone's jaws drop to the floor.
After the rock golem got closer to the protective barrier, the object latched in his right arm started glowing, a transparent film covered its figure as the monster slowly walked forward.
The rock golem was now only an inch away from the barrier, the champions here expected that the barrier will block the rock golem's entry and will have no choice but to stop.
Contrary to everyone's expectations, not only did the rock golem not pause his steps, the barrier suddenly parted to open a doorway and let the rock monster through without any obstructions.
Silence___
Everyone present was silent as they stared at the rock golem in shock.
"We're f*cked."
Golg uttered in dismay.