19. A wild boss appeared…
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Aiden stared at the now busy cave entrance, unable to decide what to do about it.

'No one will know what I had promised Levi.' Aiden reasoned, 'neither will they know that I have found Owen.' He knew very well that nobody would know about him, yet he couldn't give up. He had a seed of hesitation somewhere in his heart.

If it were before, he would jump out and attack, but now all he did was sigh while thinking about the pros and cons of his options.

'Let's wait and see first of all. I don't think they're going to eat him as soon as they catch him. If they did that then ... 'Aiden didn't want to think about it and began to observe the situation.

'They could communicate with each other, despite their brutal appearance. Could it be... ESS, can you analyze those words?'

[The beast's language is derived from the old 'Eseugutrop' language.]

'So, in the past, they were human. No wonder they're so well organised. Not only did they guard the door entrance with a melee fighter, but the dart blower hid in the shadows as well.'

This discovery made him even more careful. Fighting an intelligent beast is harder than fighting a hundred mindless beasts. Before making a move, he had to be sure of his success.

Even though he couldn't hear them, they watched their actions closely. After a little more yelling, two of them stayed at the entrance, while three moved in the direction Aiden had dragged the body.

'Looks like you don't have anymore dart-blower.' A confident smile appeared on his face, 'With their speed, I won't have any trouble taking care of them.'

Still, Aiden waited long enough. After making sure there weren't double-headed dart-blowers hiding, he moved in. He took care of the three with relative ease, before attacking the two at the entrance. Again, it ended in silence.

Aiden didn't pull the bodies away this time but used them as a bait. He waited patiently to see if there was any more to come out or not.

One hour had passed, however, there was no movement. 'Should I go in there?' Aiden had no idea where the horde of them was inside or not.

'I won't know if I don't enter.' Even if he wanted to keep his promise, he also had to save his own life. 'Let's just try one thing. If anything unexpected happens, then...'

Aiden looked around. There was darkness around him, yet not the one he was looking for. It took him a few moments before he closed in.

As Aiden reached the mouth of the cave, no beast could be seen. There was no red outline inside the dark cave. There was nothing else besides occasional moaning, groaning and crying.

Yet as soon as he stepped inside the cave, his leg gave away. Something squeezed his heart so hard that he could almost die. By instinct, his body jumped out of the cave.

'What was it?' While he was gulping for large lungs full of air, he thought. However, the ESS did not have an answer. For a moment, he felt like a little mouse, and a giant snake was waiting to kill.

'Should I be running? 'He couldn't hide his hesitation, he still decided against it. 'If things go wrong, I'm going to...'

He wasn't sure he could run away, but he stepped inside. However, he didn't feel it again. 'Did I have imagined it?' He wasn't sure, 'let's not get careless.'

As he continued to walk forward, the cry was getting stronger, so was the stench of blood. Yet, none of the red outlines had appeared.

'Could it be behind the wall?' Before he could understand the reason Aiden stumbled. Although the outside was grey like the dawn, the situation inside the cave was dark.

Even if his eyes were used to the darkness, he still missed that leg. He was quick to attack, but he found the body had no head, and the stench of rotting was strong.

'It's not just a day or two.' Aiden was sure that it had died a long time ago. And the hive-like holes on his bulged belly were proof of that. The small, finger-sized worms were coming out and going in from one hole to another.

The sight was not pleasant to see, and Aiden decided to move on. Soon enough, the path was divided. One of them went into the empty room while the other led further down.

'This may be the room of the guards. They're smarter than I thought they were. They must have been human before.' While Aiden took the other road, the system provided him with an answer.

[Chaos ore radiation can have an impact on the human body. These beasts are proof of radiation mutation.]

'Didn't Conmet have Chaos ore in it?'

[The amount of this is only 1%. Chaos ore is also a catalyst for the creation of a 'Tredecon' particle. More commonly referred to as 'Mana']

'This is one of the reasons for the Apocalypse, then? It couldn't have been the only reason, maybe...' Aiden wanted to ask, but he stopped as he appeared in front of another fork road. And this time, the room wasn't empty.

It was filled with almost 20 to 30 blue outlines, and there was a green one in the middle of it. And he can see the face of Owen. His face was dirty, his eyes full of hopelessness as he sat there.

[Chaos Ore has been identified.]

Aiden did not expect the room to be lit. The crystal-like stone was spreading the light. But Aiden was more concerned about the two beasts in the room.  They were feeding on a dead body.

Aiden attacked without giving them an opportunity. After fighting a lot of them, Aiden took care of him with a very precise movement.

Those who were present were amazed, did not know how to react. Aiden didn't have time to take care of them, either. To be precise, he wanted to take some of the ore but he resisted the urge.

All this time, Owen was sitting on his face with an empty look. He didn't even notice that the beasts had been killed. Only when Aiden pulled him out, he cried in pain.

"Is your hand broken? "Owen gave a confused gaze to Aiden's question. "If you don't want to die, come along with me."

Owen jumped up and followed him. Aiden had taken another look at the path. After he confirmed, they ran. Owen was following. And there were two more behind them.

Most of the others were shocked for a moment before their survival instinct gained momentum. And the entire room broke into chaos.

*GRRRrrrrr*

By the time he reached the empty room, the whole cave shook with a thunderous roar.

"Don't dare slow down," Aiden shouted, seeing that Owen lagged. "Just run away. If they come, I'm going to take care of them."

Even if Aiden had said that he had never stopped or gone back to fight. By the time they reached the mouth of the cave, the screams had filled the caves.

'ESS, Show me the route to the pod.' Before ESS could answer, the shorter man from the back said, "We're supposed to run to the white root city."

Aiden didn't even think about it, and he followed the green footsteps. To his surprise, they followed him, too. Looking at Aiden, who was glaring at them, the shorter man spoke again, "These mutants are very vengeful."

"They will kill us all as soon as they find us. It's better to follow you than to go the other way. With you, I'd have a better chance of survival if they attacked us."

It was just as the man had said. They were chasing them. But it was only one beast from what Aiden could hear.

"Run. Don't stop." Aiden shouted, shocking the other three who followed him.

"What?"

"What happened?" At the same time, both Owen and the short man asked.

"Don't stop if you don't want to die," Aiden growled.

By this time, others could hear that something was charging at them through the forest. The closer it was, the more shook the earth.

The other two men did not hesitate as soon as they could see what was going on. Owen was hesitant, but he was still following them.

'Why would you like to make yourself a hero?'

'No, I just keep my promise to Levi.'

'Isn't life more important than a promise?.'

[The ESS can not understand the command of the host.]

Aiden nearly laughed out loud. 'Didn't you say that you understand human emotion?' But in the next instance, his relaxed feeling vanished.

*Boom*

If Aiden hadn't moved in the last moment, the giant club would have smashed him into a paste of meat.

[Weapon: Macuahuitl

Type: Sword/Club

Comment: Avoid at all cost.]

'Even if you don't say that, I'm not meant to get hurt.' Aiden frowned, looking at the fearful weapon. The weapon looked like a club, but there were sharp stones on the edges.

However, he was more worried about the wielder than the weapon.

[Name: Four-Arms

Grade: B

Element: None.

Feature: Four hands, Superhuman strength. High dexterity, High speed, Cannibal.

Weakness: Unknown

Comment: Run if you don't want to die.

]

Aiden wanted to run, yet he didn't even get the chance. He jumped to the left to escape the blow, but Macuahuitl also moved sideways.

[Skill [Wind Burst] activated. Mana used:2. Remaining Mana: 3]

He jumped up to escape the next attack, which he had expected to be a kick. However, he had underestimated the beast.

Four-arms reached out his vice-like hand and grabbed his leg quickly before throwing him into the tree.

The attack was quick and Aiden didn't expect it to happen. He slammed into the tree before he could understand what had happened. He coughed some blood, but he could spit it out. The beast appeared in front of him.

Four-hand raised his weapon above his head to bring it down on Aiden's neck. Aiden's head, on the other hand, was still hazy because of the previous attack.

He could not see clearly, nor could he move, and the weapon was too close...

*Boom*

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