“This chamber is already cleared,” I said, frowning.

We had come up on the tail of another group. And the only groups down here were beastkin. Demons wouldn’t fight other monsters as far as I knew, since checking the directions the demon I had killed came from revealed chambers with monsters in them.

Ozy let me know he knew which way they had gone and their route. If this were the Eldarin continent, I would have avoided the other team. That would have been the polite thing to do.

But the beastkin were complete and utter savages in my mind. They also had strong sensory skills. They might detect that we were behind them and attacked us first. This was why adventurers didn’t fight each other in the dungeon normally. Since it drove everyone else to attack first, since surprise and being the attacker would give the more aggressive party an advantage.

“Beastkin?” Lanner asked.

Another sign that he didn’t have experience, he was confirming everything with me. It wasn’t bad, but it showed that he didn’t have confidence in his own judgements.

“Yes. The monsters all look like they were killed in melee, not with spell skills. That is a clear sign that it was beastkin that cleared this chamber. Ozy knows which way they went.”

“Are we going after them?”

“What do you think we should do?” I asked back, curious to see what he would say.

“We should attack. Being on the defensive against a larger group is a bad idea, and they would attack us first without hesitation.”

I nodded. “That was my thinking. Unlike adventurers from the Eldarin continent, beastkin are incredibly hostile to everyone else. They don’t have the traditions I have explained to you.”

“So, we fight?”

“Yes,”

It wasn’t my preferred choice, but the beastkin were on our path towards the next layer. They were also going towards the passage.

“I will sneak ahead; Ozy will remain with you. Once he moves up to attack, you join him. Don’t hold back. It is better to kill thinking opponents quickly, rather than risk them turning the tables on you.”

Lanner nodded nervously, but I could tell he was mentally ready for such a fight.

With a sword, I followed the beastkin down the tunnel. I saw that they’d temporarily disabled the trap, not fully disarmed it. I disabled it so Lanner wouldn’t die trying to catch up.

Moving on, the following room was vacant. Ozy left to follow the beastkin, and Lanner followed along as well.

Ozy pointed me towards the next tunnel, which was towards the passage, and I went down it alone, once again.

This time I heard fighting ahead. I saw eight beastkin battling humanoid cows as I snuck up. They all looked like they fought at close range and were not very strong.

I waited for Ozy and Lanner to come forward. The beastkin were fast at killing the monsters.

Ozy reached me, and Lanner was seconds behind.

I rushed forward. “Lightning Beam. Lightning Beam.”

“Ahhh!”

“Our rear!”

I cut through the neck of one of the beastkin that had its body locked up and continued to advance.

Ozy had circled around and was flying at one from behind. One beastkin rushed me. I parried their blow and struck forward with my fist.

“Soul Strike!”

They screamed and collapsed. I could feel pressure from using my soul as a weapon, but I was used to such things.

There was an explosion. Lanner had rushed in and rapidly used his wands. He killed one beastkin and forced two to dodge.

I stepped forward and knocked the blade aside that the beastkin had brought up. Their grip was weak as their soul was a mess from my last attack.

“Soul Strike.” I cut them down without hesitation.

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Four of the beastkin were dead or critically wounded; they would be dead in seconds. Ozy was dealing with one, one was stuck fighting monsters so couldn’t break away, and two had retreated once Lanner had unleashed a barrage of spell skills at them.

I quickly moved at one of these fleeing beastkin. They brought up their spears to block, but I knew what they were trying to do. I moved under the spear, pushing it to the side with my offhand and stabbing forward with my blade.

“Soul Strike!”

They let out a scream and collapsed as the tip of the blade grazed them. While soul skills were touch-based, they were devastating if they connected. Unless one had Soul Resistance, there was no defense, and they struck directly at a person’s stats and skills.

“Soul Strike!”

There were two left, and they had run off into another tunnel, hoping to escape. I didn’t pursue it . Running through tunnels and into monster-filled chambers was a death sentence.

I killed the remaining monsters easily with Ozy. Checking the beastkin supplies, they had packs, but no spatial storage. I moved their food into my spatial storage along with their metal weapons.

Having any kind of metal in the dungeon would be useful. There were also a lot of red monster cores as well. They had clearly been in the dungeon for several months.

“That was intense,” Lanner said, and I nodded.

“Fighting against thinking beings is always a different experience than fighting monsters,” I replied.

“Are we going to chase them?”

“No. That is asking for trouble. If they try to come after us, Danger Sense will warn us. That they fled in direct combat means they will struggle. I doubt they are skilled enough in stealth skills either.”

There was a chance I was wrong, but the risk of pursuit was far greater than the risk of not pursuing them. That was why I didn’t bother.

“It was easier than I thought.”

It was his first time taking the life of another thinking creature.

“It is. But that is the power you have as an adventurer. The ability to deal out life and death. While I didn’t want to fight the beastkin, if they had ambushed us, the fight would have gone differently.”

“I know. It just…seems…I don’t know what to say.”

“Wasteful is the right word. But if anything is to blame, it is their culture and hostility towards others. If they didn’t want to be targeted, they shouldn’t be hostile to others.”

It wasn’t something to celebrate either. After clearing out the chamber, I gathered the beastkin corpses into a pile and burnt them. It wasn’t much, but it was a more dignified end than being left behind for the dungeon to reclaim.

“Hopefully, your souls find peace,” I said quietly as they burned. “We are moving to another chamber.”

I didn’t want to stay in a chamber with burnt corpses. Better to put a couple of chambers distance between us and the two surviving beastkin as well.

Once we cleared another two chambers and settled down for the night, Lanner had a question. “What will happen to those two beastkin that ran away?”

“They will either run into a trap if there is one in the tunnel they ran into and die, or they will have to face monsters in another chamber. It is unlikely they will leave the dungeon with just two of them. But that might happen; you never know.”

“That seems horrible.”

“There are no rules or laws down here, only what we make for ourselves. Anyone else, I would have avoided or talked with, but beastkin makes that impossible.”

“We are still descending?”

“Yes, down to the 11^th layer. The fighting will be more intense, but you are getting quicker at recharging your wands.”

“My skill is increasing.”

I hadn’t taken the Wand Combat skill, so all I could do was trust his words.

“That’s a good thing. You did a good job in that last fight. I know it’s hard to hit targets at mid-range once they are moving.”

“The downside of a wand when you aren’t fighting a monster rushing at you.”

That’s why wands have become less popular. They had limited growth, were single-use, and could not hit an enemy with higher stats. Their oppressiveness and killing ability in a brief battle were still overwhelming.

“If you could recharge them quickly, then you would be set.”

“I know,” he said with a touch of annoyance.

I said nothing more. That frustration would only help him. That frustration was necessary to push forward if one wanted to become a legend. You couldn’t be happy with how you were; you had to strive for more.

A shame that the beastkin weren’t carrying skill books or anything of true value. Also, it is a shame I couldn’t get back to the gnomes to trade the metal I had gotten from them. At best, they would be curiosities to sell once I got home to raise some quick funds. I had traded all my gold to the gnomes.

Mana Metal Creation was a Tier 5 skill. The gnomes probably had one or two gnomes who could use the skill. I knew that was the main reason they had given me knowledge of the skill. It was clearly the legacy of a powerful gnome in the past.

But I wasn’t upset or concerned that they had tricked me. The knowledge of a Tier 5 skill was incredibly valuable. Far more than the gold and other items I had given them. I also couldn’t afford to waste Mana in the dungeon. That would be far too risky.

That’s why I could train spell skills outside of combat. Losing Mana was too great compared to the risk. If I had Mana to spare, then I should go deeper into the dungeon, not train spell skills outside of combat.

The beastkin didn’t look like they were from the Fox Clan, which meant were probably in a section of the dungeon connected to the entrance of one of the other beastkin clans. I had stayed with them for a while, but not long enough to tell the differences between them easily.

I could see the difference in the color of their fur and major physical differences. But the angle of their ears, snout, mouth, eyes, were all features that showed the clan the beastkin came from.

It didn’t matter that much anyway, in my mind. The beastkin and the portions of the surface they controlled were hostile to me. Even the Fox Clan and Whiteclaw were too dangerous to visit again. If I went back, I would probably never leave.

The demon I had faced was incredibly difficult to defeat. I didn’t want to face a second one unless I was a lot stronger. There was a good chance that the demon I faced was weaker than other demons. Being present near such a faraway settlement didn’t seem like a prime location for a demon if it was hunting beastkin.

The more prosperous Cat Clan would seem like a better target. That meant that the demon was on the weaker side, since I doubted there was a huge power disparity between the beastkin clans. Maybe a handful of legends and double the population, but I doubted the gap was bigger than that.

A lot of guesswork, but it all meant that the surface was far too dangerous for me.

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