There among the mountain of corpses, was a couple of monsters that had died after a hideous wound was opened on their chest. Revealed from inside their wound, was something that was sparkling with a bright rubellite light.
"Core Stones…" Dalton was amazed, not because he had seen a core stone for the first time but because of the number of monsters that had formed the core stones. That mountain of corpses had around forty ape demons out of which core stones had formed inside the bodies of at least ten of them.
Not to mention these core stones were all of very good quality and filled with fire elemental power. If sold in the market, it would fetch quite a price.
What was going on? A core stone only formed in one out of hundreds of monsters and that monster had to be quite intelligent and with the potential to undergo further evolution. It was not easy for a monster to form core stones, which is why the prices of core stones in the market are quite high since one usually needed to defeat hundreds of monsters or a powerful one, to get a core stone.
However, the scene had turned this preconception of everyone in their heads.
"Are you telling me, all of these monsters had the potential to further evolve?" Dalton muttered under his breath. The Fire Demon Ape could already be classified as a super class monster with some of them being around level 400 but if they further evolved wouldn't they perhaps just reach the disaster class?
Good Heavens!! The moment this thought occurred to Dalton, he couldn't help but feel like he was struck by a lightning bolt. He was more clearer than anyone in this expedition force as to how unusual this dungeon was. Yet even he couldn't help but feel like he had greatly underestimated this dungeon at this moment.
He had this bad premonition assault his heart but before he could delve into this feeling, it disappeared like some kind of an afterthought.
The Sea god's trident guild harvested the core stones from the monsters before moving forward. They had only started walking for a short while when the team that they had sent forward to scout their surroundings returned with some startling news.
A few kilometres ahead of them, the path which branched to the left, a small colony of Fire demon Ape was spotted. According to the scouts, they seemed to be guarding a huge exquisite looking treasure chest.
? "What should we do… Sir Dalton?" the team asked. Dalton contemplated for a while, with his experience he could clearly see that it was some form of a trap set up by the master of this dungeon. The cheese was the treasure chest.
Knowing that should they let themselves fall for such an obvious trap? Or should they avoid it? The treasure chest, however, is always filled with riches and are something that all the adventurer desired.
"Let us first go and check it out. If the number of the monsters isn't too much for us to handle alone, we will try to finish them off. If not we will walk around them". Dalton explained his plans.
The allure of a treasure chest might be irresistible to other ordinary guilds; however, their Sea god's trident guild wasn't your ordinary guild, it was one of the top five guilds of this kingdom. Their eyes weren't blinded by greed to the point of jumping into a situation recklessly.
If they found the situation wasn't worth the struggle they would just manoeuvre around the place. Though that may be the case, they were after all adventurers too and it is in the blood of the adventurers to seek romance and thrill.
And what better excited them than a treasure chest filled with the possibility of riches? Dalton was sure that many of the guild members of his, were thinking in the same line.
If it's too much hassle, they would simply ignore it but if it was being given in silver splatter they wouldn't hesitate to grab it. All of them were here to seek treasure after all, but the treasure that they had their eyes on couldn't be compared with the ones that could be found inside these treasure chests.
Or so they thought, but who would have expected, the things that were inside that treasure chest, would blow their mind completely once the news of what was inside was revealed?
After Dalton and his team followed the scout's instructions and turned left from the path that diverged into two ahead... they arrived at a wide open plot of space.
"There," the scouts pointed out. Though even without that, everybody could see it clearly.
There at the centre of this place, placed atop a peculiar looking rock formation, was an exquisite looking treasure chest which overflowed with vast mystical energy that could be felt even from here.
Just by basking in that aura, one could tell that the quality of contents inside that treasure chest was by no means ordinary. Everyone's eyes glossed with an indescribable light the moment they spotted the treasure chest.
Though that may be the case, reaching the treasure chest wasn't going to be easy either since quite a lot of monster was guarding it. At a glance, there seemed to be more than hundreds of Fire Demon Ape surrounding the treasure chest.
Dalton noted their numbers. Currently, their guild was hiding near a fork in the rift that led to this place.
"It looks like the monsters haven't noticed us," one of the scouts with an assassin class said after observing. Since the monsters were only guarding the vicinity of the treasure chest and didn't stray far from it, they would have to fight the monsters if they wanted the treasure chest.
Plus the enemy hasn't noticed them giving them the initiative of attacking first. But the problem was their number.
"Sir Dalton can't we just break open the chest with a ranged attack and see what's inside it?" an adventure suggested. He was a little hesitant to attack a whole colony of fire demon apes if they can just see what was inside the treasure chest by breaking it from a distance.
"That won't do… that treasure chest is no ordinary treasure chest, it's a high grade one. Even if you attack from a distance, it wouldn't even dent it" attacking the treasure chest was a bad idea after all what would you do if the things inside also gets destroyed if you used too powerful an attack?
From what they could tell from the ambient aura leaking out of that treasure chest, its content was definitely not ordinary. If by chance they damaged the treasure, they would have no place to regret it later. Hence that adventurer's suggestion was quickly shut down.
"Then will we just ignore the treasure?"…
"There is no reason for us to do so. A treasure chest guaranteed to be filled with rich rewards is right in front of us, how could we as adventurers just walk away from it despite knowing that?"…
"What is Sir Dalton implying?" the members of the sea god's trident guild asked.
Dalton smiled turned towards them and said ostentatiously "We attack them. There is no reason for us to walk away from the treasure. Although the number of the enemy might appear intimidating, our numbers are clearly greater than theirs".
"We just need to stall them for long enough for mages to fire their powerful spells. Those who agree with me, ready your weapons, we are going to go hunt some fire demon apes".
The number of the monsters was in the hundreds. In comparison, the adventurers of the Sea god's trident numbered around a hundred and ninety. Clearly, they have the numerical advantage here. Not only that, but their levels were also much higher than the monsters.
The Fire demon ape may be a super class monster with the potential of evolving even further; however, each and every member of the primary team of the sea god's trident was above levels 400 and 450.
They all can solo one fire demon ape each and if they worked together, it would be even faster to finish them off. Be that may, fighting a super class monster and one that is a new species was very dangerous.
Many people might end up getting injured which is why, Dalton gave them a choice. He wasn't going to bring those that didn't agree with the idea forcefully and he was fine with them staying behind and watching their backs.
Perhaps his intention got through to his team, surprisingly there was no one who wanted to stay behind. After hearing Dalton's words, they were each filled with vigour and itching to fight.
On his mark, the group spread out and slowly encircled the monsters. The mages started chanting and with them firing off the first rounds of magic, the battle started.
ROAARRR… the fire demon apes who were taken in by surprise, roared in anger. A few who were cluttered together quickly fell to the bombardment of magic. Nevertheless, they were monsters after all, their instincts triggered and they quickly dodged the other incoming magic attacks.
Using this opportunity when they were disorganised, Dalton led the warrior and assailed the monsters.
"[Ten-Ton Hammer Blast]" he brandished his [A] tier hammer and sent any fire demon ape that came attacking him.
"Warriors use your taunt to keep the attention of the monsters on you. Assassins finish off the ones that stray away, do not let them approach the backlines" Dalton handed commands from the frontlines at the same time as he continued to mow down one monster after another.
A top guild was truly different from an ordinary guild, just from their movement, one could see that they were highly coordinated and had many years of coordination and trust under their belt.
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