Chapter 20: A hero doesn't turn back to evil, does he?
"Eh, another empty cave," Bryce scratched his hair, clicked on his minimap, and marked a cave of trolls with a black dot, then turned around and left it. His party was ahead of him.
They have been searching for more trolls in the forest's heart, mainly going after caves marked on Bryce's minimap, expecting at least three to appear to fight them. There were, of course, still many trolls wandering across the forest just because they woke up and found no buddies around them.
There was no chief, either, so when trolls learned about that, they cried and looked around for the rest. Those kinds of trolls were the main target of the hunters. But Bryce aimed for a few groups of trolls, who have been in slumber even to this day, missing the call of the demon lord.
Bryce found three caves of those trolls on the first day, but the second day proved more difficult; he jokingly thought that trolls became stingy or better at hiding.
Combing empty caves for items was also useless because trolls took their best stuff to their chief, who took the best of it to greet the demon lord. And when Bryce scoured through the caves of the defeated trolls, he found useless stuff, so he didn't bother picking them up.
True, he could take some leather and spears for hunters, but Bryce preferred to stuff his and Gengo's inventories with edible meat and Stasia Flowers instead. Besides, he had those caves marked, so there was no problem at all.
He could mark those caves for hunters back in the village, and if they were bold enough, they would be able to pick those items for themselves. Bryce planned to make such a map as a parting present to the villagers.
"Cheer up, you will find more of them soon. Cough, I think dinner time is just a step behind us, what do you think, Gengo?" Sharla encouraged her friend, then squatted and stroked Gengo's head, asking him the question. To her words, Gengo barked loudly, eager to eat more of the epic-grade food.
Bryce clicked his tongue, replying in an irritated voice, "You two lack that drive of mine."
He'd heard them talking about dinner time for an hour now, and every time it was a step behind. They just wanted to eat, even though they were still full of energy. This slightly disappointed Bryce as he thought Sharla had been thoroughly infected by his madness.
True, she wouldn't be able to get the same quality of food in the future after she parted ways with Bryce and Gengo, and she always could find 'excitement' on her own by improving her skills, but Bryce still felt disappointed and even betrayed, his mood different.
He glanced at them sternly, then decided on the best method.
"You can see my minimap, Gengo. Sniff the meat and lead me to the cave with trolls. If you don't, I won't give you epic meat," Bryce said, his eyes adamant.
The way he glared at them made Sharla swallow back her words, and she swore she heard him saying [You want to argue with me?] just by looking into his eyes, so Sharla shook her head a few times, her ponytail obediently swaying.
Gengo whined, but he knew that kind of a look, so he quickly gave up, sniffed meat, then glanced at the minimap. It was the minimap his owner had, and Gengo didn't even know how to turn it off so it wouldn't obscure the right top of his vision. Well, he was already used to it.
And yet, he never really used it properly. He once took some peeks to find Stasia Flowers, and nothing more.
But persuaded by Bryce's tone, Gengo worked with his senses and minimap; he swore to find a cave with many trolls and eat at least one by himself!
Sharla cheered her dog friend with clenched hands: she balled them so strongly that her hands shivered.
With his nose digging into the ground, Gengo smelled a few wandering trolls, but he ignored them and steered his party away from them, clearly wanting to find a cave full of them instead. He ignored a few empty caves along the way, then, at last, he stopped and hovered his eyes on a small cave.
Already at the feet of the cave, Bryce and his friends could sense a bizarre, cold feeling.
"I have obviously never felt anything like that, have you, Sharla?" Bryce glanced at his friend, who shook her little head. She had absolutely no clue about that kind of coldness, just knowing that it couldn't be natural, all because her holy mana shivered within her veins and heart.
Bryce and Gengo felt the same, so they didn't need her to mention it: Sharla knew it, too.
"Could it be a demon lord? I don't think so," Bryce pondered loudly, his words frightening his friends, then he continued, "Well, it might be a villain. It's worth checking it out, isn't it?"
"It is," Sharla replied weakly, her heart struggling as she wanted to voice an opinion that Bryce wouldn't like. But in the end, she sealed those thoughts, took his side, and looked ahead with clear and fearless eyes.
That kind of her side pleased Bryce, he smiled and took out his sword.
"A hero doesn't turn back to evil, does he?" he smirked.
Sharla elbowed his side, "Now you want to be a hero?"
"It must be so convenient to be a hero whenever you want. Everyone from the Freedom Metropolis will agree with me."
To those words, Sharla couldn't even part her lips or glare at him; he had utterly won that little argument. She focused everything on their surroundings, mainly ahead, preparing a list of skills to use as fast as possible should anything come out from the cave.
But as nothing did, and the coldness seemed to increase, Bryce led the party forward. At the cave's feet, the coldness scratched their skins and froze their clothes, and once inside, the cold breeze gnawed on their flesh; everyone shivered as they kept going forward.
Bryce knew he could counter that with the release of Excalibur, but he patiently waited for the enemy or the cause of such coldness to appear.
Finally, it did, and when Sharla saw it, her face became blue, her eyes widened and rocked from fear, and she froze on the spot. Gengo's fur turned into spikes, and he whined, but even his sound turned into ice, no longer audible. He couldn't turn up to look at his friend.
Bryce remained cool-headed, his heart far from excited as the monster before him was too unique and dangerous. When he saw the state of his friends, he prioritized their safety and encouraged them.
"It's comfortable to be a hero whenever you want, but I, Bryce Lars, will always be your friend and hero," he smirked, a heroic speech that would make even his real mother jealous of his way of words bounced off the cave's interior, and he unleashed the mighty warm and holy power, "Excalibur!"
And that word seemed to reverberate strongly throughout the cave as it shook as though earthquake!
[Undead Chief Troll Lv. 40 HP: ??? MP: ???]
The monster shrieked, the real cause of the earthquake-like effect!