CHAPTER 173: THE CURTAIN RISES.

A few dozen minutes later.

The group stopped at a clean spot amidst the dungeon tunnels where a stream of fresh water was flowing through and into a few holes.

Keliot clapped his hands as everyone turned towards him.

"Alright, guys. Let’s take a quick rest here. Have your rations and do your stuff, and oh...", he turned to Felix who was letting down the still unconscious boy.

"Don’t stray away and leave the group at any cost. Especially you, Felix."

The boy nodded as he scratched his head, a sigh escaping his lips as he just wanted to do that.

’Well, that’s too bad. Just gotta sit here then, huh? Let’s take this time to look at my status and skills....’

Felix got busy as he took out a jerky from his shoulder strap bag and nibbled on it while sitting beside the sleeping Steve, the rest of the group settled down.

Their portion of the patrolling group had separated from the main group about three hours ago, before which they had spent another three hours patrolling together and mapping out the tunnels.

So they had been going about without proper food and rest for more than six hours now, making them very lethargic and hungry.

As for the group of traitors?

They had been on the run for more hours than that, getting hungry, exhausted, and being forced to keep a careful distance from the six guilds’ pursuers while constantly hiding along the way.

Now, even though the patrolling party and the traitors’ group had joined forces, there was little sense of camaraderie between them.

Distrust lingered heavily in the air as neither side fully understood the other’s motives, nor were they willing to lower their guard.

The only one who had some grasp of both sides’ thoughts and intentions made no effort to ease the tension.

He was far too absorbed in something else, carefully calculating his skill points and double-checking that the system’s display was accurate.

’There I killed four of those big Grablurs, then on the way back I also put down some of the Rank 2. So it should be around....’, Felix used his fingers to do the math as he stared at the status screen in front of him.

[--Status--]

[Name: Felix]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 14]

[Sex: Male]

[Mage Cultivation: Rank 0]

[Warrior Cultivation: Rank 1]

[Talent: ★★ ]

[State: A Superhuman body with partially pure veins.]

[Skills: Silent Steps, Flashback, Earth Swimming, Ratio Technique, Parabolic Hearing, Earth Spikes, Agility Burst, Cursed Domain, Equanimity, Quicksand, Dust Blast, Terra Drain, Map, Inspect, Enhanced Brain, Battlefield Awareness, Sinkhole, Superhuman Physique, Mirage Clones.]

[Skill Points: 6470]

’Hmm, that seems about right.’, Felix nodded inwardly, as the skill points and everything were as he had expected.

’How far are we from the main base? I can’t wait to have a full meal...’, he then looked beside him. ’There’s also this guy....’

Shaking his head, Felix opened the map skill to find where they currently were as he had been keeping proper track of their patrolling journey.

’Oh? What’s this we have here?’

A grin tugged at his lips as he noticed the mark he’d placed on the map during last night’s dungeon raid appearing close to their current position.

’Isn’t this the spot where I saw a large number of red dots together?’, he thought about it. ’They’re not here anymore, but maybe they’re close by.... I have to keep a watch in case we get anywhere near them.’

Felix looked at the exhausted and starving people in his group and mused.

’They aren’t in the best condition to fight, so avoiding the swarm is the best option, even if that makes me sad....’

Skill points were good, but putting the people around him in danger for his selfish reasons wasn’t good.

’Why don’t I think about some new skills to create now...’

Felix then started imagining as he relaxed on his spot along with Steve who was unconscious, Eric who was reading a book, and Roven who had gone meditating seriously.

Behind them, the patrolling team members took turns to watch their surroundings, while most from the traitors’ group were resting for the first time in a while.

*****

The tunnel where Felix and his group had clashed with the Grablurs was strewn with monster corpses, its walls and floor scarred and wrecked from their attacks.

Amidst the rubble and mess, a group of people wildly turned the place into a more terrible scene as they flipped over all the corpses and even some rocks.

"They aren’t here.... not anymore.", a grunt informed after they had searched everywhere around the place.

"The traitors are far stronger than we expected. They handed this entire horde of Grablurs on their own, even took down four of the Rank 4s.", Kaine frowned as he glanced around the place.

"Or did they already encounter the people from the two guilds? That’s bad news."

A red-haired man walked over to him while taking a bite out of an apple as he glanced at the Grablur’s disgusting corpses.

"That’s good news to me, Kaine. Better to have them gathered in one place, saves us the trouble of hunting each one down when the battle begins."

Kaine looked speechlessly at the unhinged man who started picking at his teeth for the apple bits.

"Sir Ragnar....", Kaine was about to say something, but he shook his head and refrained from arguing with the person in front of him.

"We should hurry up. Their group shouldn’t be too far from us."

Kaine ordered the grunts beside him to halt their tasks and prepare to move out. He also instructed them to summon back the scattered teams that had split from the main force to widen their coverage.

"It doesn’t matter if they’ve already linked up with the two guilds...," Kaine muttered with quiet confidence.

"We’ve got a strong army at our back."

Ragnar smirked, glancing over his shoulder at the strong fighters assembled behind them.

After the previous clash with the two guilds where only Timor and another Rank 3 executive survived and another of their group that entirely fell prey to a huge swarm of monsters, the six guilds’ alliance decided to send only one large group to find the traitors.

It was to reduce their casualties as dividing their people into small groups would only put them in danger in this unknown dungeon.

So now, this large group of people consisted of 14 Rank 3 fighters, more than 50 Rank 2 fighters and a large number of the Rank 1s.

Compared to them, Felix’s small patrol group and the traitors group together had only 3 Rank 3 fighters, fewer than 10 Rank 2 fighters and some another 10 Rank 1 fighters.

"Come on, guys. It’s hunting time!"

Ragnar shouted at the people from his guild who were among the group, making them grin wildly as a sharp gleam flashed in their eyes.

They said the Mad Wolves rose to become the largest guild in Edenmont City because of their unmatched talent for hunting.

The cruel twist, however, was that their prey was never monsters, it was the guild members of their rivals, stalked and cut down like beasts in the wild.

As their entire force moved forward with the only purpose to find the traitors and bring down their swords on them, a worse procession was taking place outside the dungeon.

*****

At the Ryeagon Family Castle.

Night had fallen and most people of the city were deep asleep.

Except, this wasn’t the case for a hidden passageway within the castle where a stream of cloaked figures silently filled the place.

At the front stood three figures, along with Duke Theodore, who looked at the gloomy crowd with a calm look on his face, despite the sharp increase in his heartbeat.

’Where the hell did they bring out all of these people from?’, Theodore couldn’t help but wonder as he winced inwardly.

"Have you prepared all the things we asked for?", Edgar, the man standing in the middle among the three figures asked.

"Yes, my men have already sent it all inside the portal.", Theodore answered as he bit his lips.

Although it hadn’t been part of their original deal, when suddenly pressed for a large supply of food rations, tents, artifacts, and other resources, Theodore could do nothing but force himself to agree.

"Good.", Edgar nodded as he smiled at the man.

"Don’t worry. Our organisation remembers every contribution of yours, and we also abide by the rules of every deal we make. You can trust us with that."

"I’m not worried at all. The Ryeagon family always looks out for the people of Edenmont City, so we’re just doing what we should.", Theodore replied quickly, his thoughts completely different from his speech.

’Just get it over with. I don’t like being on this side of blackmail...’

After a few minutes when all of the people of the dark guilds had entered the passageway, Edgar nodded at the man beside him.

Cedric moved first, opening the door before them as a blue portal came into view.

"Go on now, let’s start the party!", he grinned widely as everyone stepped forward and entered the portal one by one.

As Theodore watched them make their way into the dungeon, he reassured himself in his mind.

’This is for the city and our family... I’m making the right choice. It has to be.’

Unfortunately, he couldn’t be certain it was the right choice, and only time would reveal the answer.

But for now, he could only wait. And hope it was... the right choice.