Galen stood as steady as a rock, and between the swings of his round shield, any kobolds that dared to approach were smashed out.
"O fire elemental that tosses in flames, please listen to my call ..."
Diana hid behind Galen, her fingers that were haunted with a fiery red shimmering light danced in the air for a while, sketching out a miniature magic formation.
"... Elementary Fireball Spell!"
A fist-sized fireball flew out from the magic formation, trailing an orange-red trailing flame, and crashed and dispersed into the chest of a kobold.
The flames instantly seared the skin, and the kobold rolled all over the ground in pain, briefly losing its ability to fight.
Ivo bellowed, fearless in his Courage Boosted state, and swung his Crossed Sword to meet the enemy.
However, his strength was clearly not enough to allow him to fight one against many, and after a few rounds of exchanges, his originally shiny silver armor was already strewn with dents and breaks, and it was only a matter of time before he fell.
"Uncle, go help Ivo!" Diana was very anxious, as a mage who specialized in gain magic, her output ability was really limited.
"Alright! Ivo-chan, I'll come help too!"
Hearing Galen's voice, Ivo, who was already caught up in a bitter battle, tightened his heart and subconsciously shielded his head and dodged to the side.
The fear of being painfully struck by the shield surged into Ivo's heart, and he almost broke his Courage Boost status early.
"Shield Throw!"
It wasn't known if Galen's recovery ability was too outstanding or if Diana's primary healing magic had done the trick.
This time, Galen, whose back injury had already healed, was no longer affected in any way.
He took a big step forward and swung his arm violently.
The small round shield spun and knocked over the first kobold, and then bounced off the flaming kobold's head under the interaction of force, finally forming a triangular pirouette and steadily returning to Galen's hand.
Ivo, who was shielding his head and dodging, might not have seen it clearly, but Diana was already dumbfounded.
Even if she wasn't a warcaster, Diana could see what kind of exaggerated proficiency was hidden behind this old-fashioned, outdated shield throw!
Seizing the opportunity, Ivo swung his sword low and swept downward, a round of hazy sword light exploding from his cross sword.
The kobold who was knocked down by the shield didn't even have time to get up before he was struck by the blade of the sword, and immediately his blood spurted wildly and his body was split apart.
The Flame Goblin, who posed the greatest threat, was stunned by Galen's flying shield and could not wake up for a while.
The adventurers' morale was greatly boosted as they defeated the three enemies in one fell swoop.
As they were about to pursue their attack, a fierce roar suddenly came from a certain tunnel.
Then there was a sound of muffled footsteps, rapidly approaching towards this place.
The kobolds were so shocked that they didn't even have time to save their fainting leader, and each of them fled to a tunnel.
Before the two team members could react, Galen had already shouldered the Flame Goblin and fled towards the path they came from.
"Don't freeze! The one coming this time is a big guy!"
Ivo and Diana hurriedly followed, fleeing frantically through the intricate tunnels.
Although the three of them were already trying hard to escape, the movement behind them was getting closer and closer, and something in the darkness seemed to be solely focused on them.
"Why is it only chasing us? I, I can't run anymore ..."
Diana panted heavily, physical strength was not an advantage for a mage.
"Cancel the illumination spell." Galen warned, before throwing the torch in his hand hard at the other end of the tunnel as he passed a fork in the road.
Without the Lighting Spell and the light brought by the torch, the tunnel was suddenly plunged into pitch black.
Amidst the darkness, markings with fluorescent light appeared on the walls, allowing the adventurers not to lose their way in the process of fleeing for their lives.
It turned out that the paint that Galen had used to mark the route earlier actually had a fluorescent effect!
The unknown monsters seemed to be attracted away from their attention by the light of the torches.
The sound of footsteps chasing them in the darkness faded away, until they disappeared.
Leaning against the stone wall, Ivo gulped down a mouthful of Strength Recovery Potion and couldn't help but sigh with emotion, "This dungeon is worthy of being the most dangerous area in the Lapus Mountains, we didn't even go too deep before we encountered monsters of that level.
If it wasn't for the fact that you left a mark in advance, Uncle, this time it would have been really dangerous."
Galen just laughed, neither modestly nor taking credit for himself.
By the light of the torch that Galen had rekindled, the Legal Sister also took out a bottle of Primary Strength Potion from her traveling bag to replenish the physical energy that she had consumed during her escape just now.
Diana drank most of the potion before the soreness in her calves and chest tightness and shortness of breath eased.
"Ajussi, don't you drink stamina potions?"
She looked over at Galen, intending to say thank you but unable to pull her face, so she had to find a topic to try to ease the previous embarrassment.
Gaelen shook his head and admonished, "No need, I still have plenty of stamina. You young people shouldn't rely too much on potions either, exercising a good body is the right way to go."
"I think uncle you can't afford it ...," Diana was still as snarky as before.
However, her hand reached into her traveling bag and took out a bottle of Primary Strength Potion and tossed it to Galen.
"You're all old, what kind of face do you still have to hold on to? Quickly drink it, if it wasn't for the fact that there's still some way to go before the exit of the underground palace, I wouldn't care about you."
On the other side, Ivo said, "Uncle O'Shield, how did you manage to remain unaffected when facing the Goblin Squad's Fear Aura before? If you're willing to pass it on, I can use three hundred silver coins to buy this know-how."
As a swordsman of noble birth, Ivo could not tolerate himself showing that cowardly look again.
"Three hundred silver coins?" Galen's eyes lit up, "It's actually not that complicated, if you've faced the dragon's pressure directly, this level of fear aura can naturally be resisted."
Diana rolled her eyes, "Although you do have a bit of strength, Uncle, but bragging about something like this is more or less tied to reality."
From Ivo's expression, it was clear that he didn't quite believe it either.
Galen shrugged his shoulders, it seemed that these three hundred silver coins, would not fall into his pocket.
...
The three of them walked and rested for another half a quarter of an hour or so, and the light of a fire was already visible at the end of the tunnel in front of them.
On both sides of the stone wall, there are many more traces of artificial reinforcement.
This place was close to the exit of the underground palace.
"A living Flame Goblin is much more valuable than a corpse."
Seeing that the exit was in sight, Diana's heartstrings, which had always been taut since she encountered danger, finally relaxed quite a bit.
Even the pace of her small leather boots seemed to have become much lighter.
"Oh? It seems like you guys had a good harvest."
An unfamiliar man's voice suddenly rang out from behind the several people.
The voice was as cold as a snake, startling Ivo's pupils to shrink, frightening Diana's hairs on the back of her neck to instantly explode, and the three of them subconsciously turned their heads to look.
"You are Ivo, Diana and Galen, right?"
By the light of the torches, it could be seen that this was a man in light armor, with a black visor covering most of his face.
The pair of revealed eyes stared dead at Galen and the others, a greedy and dangerous light flickering in its eyes.
In the tunnel at the other end, a woman in the same costume as the masked man came out, and she sneered, "Tsk, tsk, tsk, three lower level adventurers. We've been squatting at the Adventurer's Guild for quite a long time in order to pick out quality prey like you guys."
Ivo's face became a bit ugly as he explained to Galen, "There are some people who are adventurers on the surface but do robberies behind their backs, they are called looters. Assisting the Adventurer's Guild in solving these assholes is likewise an important source of obtaining bounties."
"Eliminating robbers actually provides bounties? It's also right, after all, in the era when I was adventuring, bandits wouldn't dare to be so rampant." Galen stroked the scars on his small round shield, "The cost of repairing your equipment will just be earned from you."
The male looter looked like he heard some kind of joke, "We're solid intermediate level adventurers, what kind of big talk is a waste ... like you spouting!"
At the same time the last half sentence came out of his mouth, the masked man had already raised his left arm.
In his hand was a small crossbow that had already been fully strung, shooting a sinister arrow quenched with toxin towards Ivo.