The dungeons were important to everybody and there were two reasons for that.
First was the fact that adventurers and soldiers could go inside and have a nearly endless supply of monsters to fight and hone their skills against.
The second reason was that dungeons usually had rare metals and minerals inside of them that adventurers would gather before selling them off to the adventurers guild. The monsters inside the dungeons would also sometimes leave small mana cores behind which could be used to power up many things.
The monsters inside the dungeon would disappear after dying, but not immediately.
Their blood and bodies would slowly get digested in the dungeon, and only the mana core would be left in the end.
One could try to leave with a body of a monster, but it was incredibly difficult to do so since the dungeons themselves would try to block you. Storing bodies inside spatial rings was also impossible since the dungeon forbade it.
Using the spatial ring to store your items or even the metals and minerals was fine, but the dungeon would prohibit any storing of monsters and would block the attempt by using a small spatial disruption that could sometimes even damage the spatial ring, leading to nobody daring to try and store corpses since they were less valuable compared to a spatial ring.
Lyle thought for a bit before making a slight adjustment to their original plans.
Instead of going directly to Orsvald, he was going to take Adam to a dungeon as it would only take them a couple of hours to conquer one before continuing on their way.
It would be a good experience for Adam, and Lyle was wondering if the monsters that could be found inside the dungeons would also give soul power like the others.
Linston was a smaller city compared to Olswan, but the military presence there was higher, plus the number of adventurers inside the city was huge.
Hell, there were barely any civilians inside the city as about 80% of its population was made up of adventurers, mercenaries, and soldiers.
The city was incredibly important to the empire thanks to being relatively close to the capital and having 8 dungeons close to it.
The dungeons were all normal dungeons, and the most difficult dungeon around was one that required a party to have Silver Knights in them in order to be able to conquer them. Each of the dungeons had different monsters, but about 6 of them only had 1 species inside of them, while the two bigger and more dangerous ones had more.
The one that needed a party of Silver Knights was particularly dangerous because there was a possibility for a Golden Core monster to appear, even with the monster being the absolute weakest that it could possibly be in the Golden Core, without a team of Silver Knights fighting it, the party would be decimated.
Adam and Lyle would only go to one of the lesser dungeons where the monsters were not that powerful.
Lyle didn't mind even if the monsters gave no soul power as the main reason he was going to the dungeon wasn't in order to get stronger, but to train Adam a bit more before they arrived at Orsvald.
The trip to Linston would take about two days, and from Linston to Orsvald, it would take about a day.
The caravan they were able to join was a fairly powerful one as a Silver Knight was actually in command of it.
The knight was quite respectful to Lyle as he and the others had heard how the royal soldiers and even the commander that took over the castle were respectful to the Khilman, signifying that he was definitely a powerful individual that they shouldn't even dream of crossing.
Having a Silver Knight escorting them meant that there should be no problems along the way. The knight and the members of the caravan, however, had a different opinion as they believed that with Lyle, whom they believed to be a powerful Khilman that was at least a Golden Knight, they would have nothing to fear.
The first day of their trip went well, there had been a couple of smaller monster groups that attacked them, but after the Silver Knight unleashed his aura, all of them froze in place as the other guards and mercenaries slaughtered them.
Lyle of course didn't participate in the battle as he was still disguised as a Khilman and he needed to continue posing as someone that was more powerful than the Silver Knight.
Adam on the other hand was allowed to go and fight with the others, and so he did.
Upon seeing his weapon, the guards and mercenaries were a bit surprised.
Battle gloves were not really a popular choice to use, mostly thanks to not giving any reach advantage to the user.
Of course, once a battle glove wielder was able to get close to his opponent, he could unleash a flurry of attacks and decimate the enemy, but that would only happen if he was able to get close.
Upon seeing how Adam was pretty much blasting away enemies that were of a similar level to him, the guards, mercenaries, and even the Silver Knight all nodded to themselves.
His ability was the main reason for his choice of weapon.
The powerful mana blasts that Adam was able to do very frequently might not have incredible power, but they could be used numerous times, and the guards also knew that this was probably not the only thing that Adam could do.
The second day of the trip started quite uneventfully. The caravan was passing through another forest by using a dirt road until Lyle suddenly stared into the distance.
"Blood, a lot of it." Lyle suddenly said as the Silver Knight suddenly stared at him in confusion.
"Sir?"
"I can sense blood in the distance, a battle has been fought, and quite a large one at that," Lyle said with a serious expression as the knight suddenly stopped the caravan.
"You stay here, me and Adam will take a look, I owe you at least that much for this trip," Lyle told the knight who gratefully nodded at him.
Lyle called over Adam before disappearing into the forest.
They had traveled for about one and a half days and were getting quite close to the city now, for a battle to have taken place here was more than weird.
"Adam, move slowly, don't forget what I taught you, erase your presence and make no sound."
"Yes," Adam said before looking at Lyle.
"What has happened, I sense blood."
"Yes, me as well, and by the smell, I would say that tens of people had died, there is either a large number of enemies close by or one powerful monster that decided to go out and make chaos," Lyle said to Adam, whilst having completely different thoughts.
'Sorry, but you guys will probably not survive, I don't have any hopes of defeating that thing, and neither do you.'
Suddenly a loud roar echoed through the forest as shouts and screams were heard behind Adam and Lyle.
The young man immediately turned around and was about to run back before getting grabbed by Lyle.
"Stop, don't you sense how powerful that thing is, we will only run to our deaths!"
"But sir, we … they … they will die!"
"Yes, they will, but so will we, that's why we are going to use the time we have received to get out of here and survive, there are probably Golden Knights that will be coming here soon to take care of that monster."
Lyle quickly took off his disguise before moving forward with Adam.
"You, you sensed that monster, didn't you?" Adam asked Lyle with a heavy breath as the latter glanced back at him.
"I sensed the blood that was on it, that's what allowed me to get an estimate of its size, if it was weaker, then the Silver Knight would have been able to kill it, which meant that we would be able to return and join the caravan, but that roar was enough to make my very soul shake, it's without a doubt Tier III, which means that survival is impossible for them."
Adam kept quiet as they continued forward, slowly getting to the city.
Along the way, Lyle used his dagger to cut Adam's hair and dyed it black. If any member of the caravan was to somehow survive and get to the city, they would be unable to recognize the two of them.
"Remember Adam, even though being a good person and helping others is nice, you should never do it simply for the sake of goodness, otherwise you will die a useless death."
"Had we been stronger, then I might have stayed with them and helped them with defeating the monster, but we are weak, and we can't risk our lives for people we just met."
"I know that you must be feeling guilty right now, and perhaps anger and hatred towards me, but that will eventually pass, losing your life, however, wouldn't."
"I understand, sir."
Lyle simply nodded at Adam before continuing forward.
In about 10 hours, they were finally able to see the gates of the city. The two simply glanced at each other before walking toward it.