Chapter 146: Such Unlucky Young People
The afternoon had settled over the forest in a thick, warm quiet.
Ken moved at the front of the group, reading the terrain ahead with calm and practiced eyes, picking the clearest routes between the trees without needing to think too hard about it. Marina stayed just beside him, her silver hair catching occasional breaks of light through the canopy. The rest followed in a loose formation behind them.
Noah walked near the middle of the group, his spear held loosely at his side.
He wasn’t fully present in the walk.
His mind had drifted to Damien’s group. Specifically to where they might be right now, how deep into the forest they had gone, whether anything had happened yet or was about to.
He knew this kind of trip was exactly the sort of setting where things went sideways in the story. One day of hunting practice in a forest outside a city. It practically announced itself.
The question was timing. If something was going to happen, it was either already happening or it was building toward tomorrow.
Neither option made him feel particularly relaxed.
He was still turning it over when Mary’s voice broke the quiet.
"Has anyone else noticed we haven’t encountered a single monster in a while?"
Marina slowed slightly and looked around at the surrounding trees without stopping entirely.
Ken nodded beside her. "You’re right. I chose this direction specifically because the trees are denser here and the larger root systems usually mean more nesting activity." he scanned the undergrowth with a slight frown. "But there’s nothing. Not even tracks."
"True...that’s why agree with Ken...usually monsters are present in dense places like this, its easy to hide here and blend in nature." Marina said who have more knowledge about forest.
"Could just be a dry patch," Ophelia said from behind them, her voice unbothered. "We’ll find something further in. Give it a little more time."
"Or we change direction," Mary said, straightforward about it.
"Let’s give it a bit longer first," Ophelia replied. She didn’t want to go somewhere else after coming so deep inside this side.
"Well, if you say so." Mary didn’t argue and just nodded.
The group continued forward, the conversation trailing off again into the sounds of the forest around them, leaves shifting overhead, the occasional creak of a heavy branch, birds somewhere far above that had no interest in what was happening at ground level.
Noah’s eyes moved across the trees out of habit.
Then he stopped walking.
A few meters to the side of their path, half swallowed by dense undergrowth and the shadow of an enormous tree that had grown at an angle and spread its canopy low, was an opening in the rock face.
He narrowed his eyes and then saw it clearly. It was a cave.
Not large from the outside, the entrance was narrow enough that you would miss it completely if you weren’t looking in exactly the right direction at exactly the right moment. But it was there, dark and clearly going deeper than the entrance suggested.
"Hey." Noah kept his voice level. "Look at that."
The group turned.
Ken’s eyes found the cave opening and sharpened with immediate interest. He walked a few steps closer, studying it from a short distance.
Ken thought for a while.
"Could be something living in there," he said. "Caves that size usually connect to larger spaces further in. If there’s a strong monster denning inside, that would explain why the surrounding area has been quiet, everything else keeps its distance."
Ophelia crossed her arms and looked at the entrance, then at the group. "Then we go in and check. Better than walking around an empty forest."
She just wanted to have good fight. She glanced at Noah for a moment. he was thinking about something very deeply.
"Agreed," Marina said.
Noah nodded along with them, his expression giving nothing away.
The group started toward the cave entrance, picking their way through the undergrowth.
Noah slowed his pace deliberately, letting the others pull slightly ahead.
He reached into his storage ring and pulled out his smartphone, stepping to the side of a wide trunk to block the screen from view out of habit. He pulled up Damien’s contact and pressed call.
There was nothing. No connection tone. No dial. Just silence where a signal should have been.
He tried again.
Same result.
He lowered the phone and looked at the bracelet on his wrist. The small device sat there perfectly innocuous, tracking positions, displaying team information.
And almost certainly broadcasting a jamming signal that killed any outside communication in the area. He had wondered about that from the moment Morgana handed them out but had hoped he was wrong.
He wasn’t.
’Dammit! this is problematic. I need to be more cautious. This place gives me creep.’ Noah though while going there.
Now he was feeling uncomfortable. Which meant that whatever was in that forest right now, whatever was happening or building toward happening, there was no way to reach Damien or anyone else in another group to check on them. No quick message. They couldn’t communicate with other students for teachers.
He put the phone away.
’Of course,’ he thought flatly.
He gripped his spear with slightly more deliberate firmness, feeling the weight of it settle properly into his palm, and followed his group toward the cave entrance.
Whatever was inside, they were about to find out.
---
High above the cave entrance, half hidden in the thick tangle of branches where the old tree leaned its heaviest limbs, a cloaked figure crouched without moving.
His vertical eyes tracked the group of six students picking their way through the undergrowth below, watching each of them step over roots and push past low hanging branches toward the cave entrance with the quiet.
He watched the pale haired one at the back pocket something.
The demon’s lips curved slowly.
"Well," he murmured to himself, his voice barely above a breath. "These children walked straight to the cave on their own."
He watched the last of them disappear into the undergrowth near the entrance.
A low chuckle rose in his chest.
"Such unlucky young people."
He shifted his weight slightly on the branch, completely unbothered, and kept his eyes on the cave entrance for a moment longer.
Then he reached into his cloak and produced a small dark stone. A communication crystal and closed his fingers around it.
The leader needed to know.
More sacrifices had just delivered themselves.
