A disease that killed 80% of the population, human evolution, alien constructs that came from the sky, and tens of thousands of Abyssal Pits that suddenly opened all over the world. All these unreal things made Viktor wonder if he truly only stayed inside the bunker for two years and did not exit into a different world instead.
What stood before him right now was a broken stone gate standing about ten meters tall. Viktor have heard about this before and knew a little about these Abyssal Pits that began appearing roughly six months ago, releasing numerous different abyss creatures to the world.
They had not taken a step past the gate, yet Viktor could feel a strange heat emitted from whatever was inside. The heat could not be considered unbearable as it was only slightly hotter than warm, but it gave him a sense of discomfort.
As they walked through the enormous stone gate, Viktor's sight was immediately greeted by large cave chambers. They mostly looked the same, but some of them had a thin flow of bright hot lava at their corners while others did not.
While Viktor was observing the place, a shout from one of the Templar knights attracted his attention.
"Here, this way!"
In the direction of the Templar knight were corpses of about a dozen critters and hellhounds. Blood was still freshly flowing from the corpses as it created a trail, so they were definitely killed recently.
If Viktor guessed right, this was most likely the work of the witch the Templars mentioned.
Seeing this, the Templars immediately understood. The group quickly followed Captain Landin, who stood in the front with his sword and shield ready.
Although Viktor did not really know about this place, he understood that the risk of being in this place was not low, and the captain's wariness confirmed this. Thus, unwilling to endanger his companions, he told Barry and Kosta to stay close to Eva while Jessie, Boris, and Torri would help the others fight.
Elena, the scribe, noticed that although Viktor and his companions seemed ready to fight, they were using normal weapons and even firearms. After thinking about it for a moment, she opened up her storage ring and offered them to take any tier 1 weapon they wanted.
This surprised Viktor. He did not expect that Elena, out of everyone, would offer them weapons for free. He was not exactly thrilled having to accept something from her, but considering how his companions' safety was on the line, he reluctantly allowed them to take from her. After all, it was his fault since he took all their tier 1 weapons.
Boris took two daggers that were almost 50 centimeters long while Torri chose a crossbow. Still, despite having gotten tier 1 weapons, the two chose to use their silencer-equipped high-caliber firearms as their main weapons and only brought the tier one weapons as a precaution.
As for Eva, Barry, and Kosta, all three of them chose tier 1 short swords, the easiest weapon available to use.
After making sure that everyone was prepared, all 17 of them moved following Captain Landin's path to track the witch.
In a situation like this where the group must follow a path, encounters with abyss creatures were inevitable. Even so, Viktor still reminded the Djinn to warn him of any incoming creatures.
However the Djinn anwer with disturbing news
<Unfortunately, there seems to be something blocking my sensor here. I can only sense a few hundred meters away. Though, if you must know, there are a few dozens of them ahead.>
"Darn it, this is just great," Viktor cursed under his breath. It seems that things would not go his way no matter what he did or where he went.
After a few minutes of following the path, the group finally encountered a few dozen hellhounds. As soon as those flaming dogs smelled their presence, they instantly ran toward them at full speed with their mouths opened.
"Stand your ground!" Captain Landin immediately shouted. Fortunately, the captain was always ready for any fight, allowing them to react in time and avoid unnecessary casualties.
Right after the captain gave his order, the Templars swiftly gathered and went into formation, allowing them to fend off and eliminate the incoming hounds at a considerable speed.
Swish! Splatt!!
Even though there were a few dozen of them, at the end of the day, they were only hellhounds. They had no chance of breaking through the Templars' formation, and instead, they were quickly cut and turned into corpses.
"Let's go!"
Although these 8 templars were only at the high stage of the earth realm, they were all well-trained and extremely skilled in the way of the sword. Added with their impeccable teamwork, they were like an impenetrable wall. None of the hellhounds could pass through them to the point that Viktor and his team, who were behind the line, were unable to really contribute.
The same thing happened two more times. This made Viktor start to wonder, why would the Templars need them at all when they could take care of everything just fine?
It was beneficial for him as he would still get half of the loots regardless of his contribution, but he was not so naive to think that things would be so easy.
Not long after, a warning from the Djinn finally came.
<Enemies are coming from behind!>
Yes, this was it. The Templars knew they needed people to watch their backs as they took care of the enemies in front of them. With the incoming enemies from behind, it was finally time for Viktor and his companions to join the battle.
Viktor and Jessie stood at the front while the others covered them from behind. Without wasting any time, he quickly pulled his tier 2 ax and shield, ready to fight.
"Arrrghhh!!"'
Swish! Splatt!!
Even without using [Metal Fusion], Viktor was still strong enough and fast enough to deal with multiple hellhounds at once. The girl next to him was even more impressive. He got to witness her real self as she fought in unison with her double poles that were simultaneously sparking with lighting and multiple different spells.
When the number of enemies was too many for her to handle, Jessie would throw those grenade-like metal balls, stunning the incoming creatures and giving her time to retaliate.
The two bodyguards, Torri and Boris, also effectively thinned up the number of enemies. Although their feat was not so impressive compared to the girl next to him, they managed to at least heavily wound the incoming abyss creatures with bursts of caliber bullets.
Tratatatatata tratatatat—
As the battle went on and Viktor killed numerous abyss creatures, a notification finally came into his mind.
[You have received 1 point of spirit force.]
The notification filled him with more excitement, causing him to move faster and fiercer to kill more of them. Sadly, no matter how many more abyss creatures he killed, he would not get any more stats points from them. Well, they could still give him lots of spirit stones, at the very least.
Actually, now that he thought about it, this deal with the Templars was very sweet. Not only did they have a stronger fighting force, but all the creatures that Viktor killed would not drop any spirit stones. Instead, whatever energy was left from the creatures would be absorbed directly into his body. Since he would still receive half the total loots, he would certainly receive more gains.
This meant the more abyss creatures they encountered, the more he would be benefited.
After three hours of journeying into the deep, Landin stopped the group as they arrived in front of a cliff facing a dark deep ravine.
"The track stops here!" said Landin, allowing the others to know what was going on.
This quickly made them feel unsettled.
"Does this mean that the witch fell?" Elena asked.
"Most probably."
The two argued about their next course of action for a while. As for Viktor, although he somewhat wished that they would encounter more abyss creatures to get more stones, he would still choose safety over it.
Captain Landin walked around the edges for a while to make sure, but it appeared that nothing was found after half an hour.
"We should just report that the witch has died," the captain concluded.
It was a disappointing situation for them, but at the same time, Viktor could see that some of the knights were secretly relieved.
With the captain's words, it seemed that the search was coming to an end. The Templars turned back and were preparing themselves to return when all of a sudden, the Djinn gave him another warning.
<Abyss creatures incoming.>
There was only one path where enemies could come at them from. Sure enough, a few moments after, a horde of abyss creatures entered their sight.
In front of them were hundreds of abyss creatures, and behind them was a ravine.
"This doesn't look good!"
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