8: The rhomboid boulder and the strange second young master

"Damn it! What is that thing!"

Evil Axe exclaimed, almost throwing the short axe in his hand.

"It's... Wes!" The Young Mistress's lips trembled as she recognized the familiar back of the Second Young Master at a glance.

"Impossible! How did he suddenly turn into that ghostly state?"

Eagle Eye shrieked in disbelief, "Wasn't he normal just a moment ago?!"

"Get back! There's an unknown curse in this cave entrance!"

Shield Mountain immediately thought of a chilling possibility and loudly warned everyone.

Hearing this, everyone's expressions froze, and they hurriedly retreated to the furthest safe distance.

"What should we do, Captain?"

Evil Axe looked at the newly appeared entrance, then turned to look at the direction they were originally headed, asking hesitantly,

"Can we still get the treasure chest?"

Shield Mountain's expression flickered before he gritted his teeth and said, "Yes! You and Eagle Eye follow me; the three of us will advance at full speed."

"White Night, please take the Employer out first, the further from here the better."

"If anything happens, use the adventurers badge as an alarm."

Shield Mountain squeezed a badge pinned to his chest, which was outlined with a few simple runes.

The adventurers badge was another piece of portable equipment provided by the Adventurers Guild, aside from the storage pouch.

Its main function was to be triggered quickly without consumption, providing a simple warning effect to teammates within a certain range wearing the same badge.

Although it had limited uses and was expensive, every member of the squad had one.

After finishing, Shield Mountain turned around to save time, leading Eagle Eye and Evil Axe deeper into the cave.

"Lord Mage..." Seeing three Adventurers leave at once, the Young Mistress felt a sense of unease.

She called out softly, her burning gaze flowing toward Ronan like ripples on water.

Ronan directly ignored her blatant stare; knowing her, she clearly wanted him to save the Second Young Master but didn't dare say it outright.

But even if she didn't say it, Ronan planned to go in and take a look.

Given the current situation, his teammates certainly wouldn't enter this passage, so he had to go alone.

Ronan didn't believe there was a curse like Shield Mountain mentioned; instead, it was more likely that this place contained the secret of the Bear Goblin's power enhancement.

Entering this time was to see what happened to the Second Young Master and to see if he could find the source of the power he sensed.

As for the Young Mistress and the maid, he didn't have time to personally escort them back to the original entrance.

"I'm going inside to investigate; I don't have time to protect you on the way out..."

He decided to let the two of them choose for themselves.

Either they walk back to the entrance together and wait outside for the squad;

Or they wait here for backup, and Shield Mountain's group would take them out on their return journey.

But after hearing this, the Young Mistress chose neither—she wanted to follow Ronan and find the Second Young Master herself.

To this, the maid's opposition was particularly intense.

Ronan was noncommittal, leaving only "Decide for yourselves" before walking into the passage.

The sounds of an argument between the maid and the Young Mistress immediately came from behind him.

"The danger inside is not something we can touch; we should leave this cave as soon as possible!"

"No, I have to find Wes! Wayne is already dead; nothing else can happen to him."

"We can't do anything if we go in! It won't be too late to let the others save the Second Young Master once backup arrives..."

"No, how long will that take? Wes might already be in danger!"

"Stop being so reckless!"

"Amy!"

The argument came to an abrupt halt.

Ronan stopped and looked back, doubting his ears for a moment.

He waited for a while, but seeing that the two didn't catch up, he continued forward with his torch.

Just as well, it saved him from having two burdens for no reason, though Ronan wouldn't necessarily have saved them anyway.

The newly appeared passage was very narrow, only wide enough for one person, but as he went deeper, the ceiling gradually rose until it reached the height of the outer cave.

Ronan's sensation grew stronger, and he could even hear the sound of power being sucked in.

No, that was the sound made by the scene before his eyes.

A giant rhombus-shaped boulder stood at the end of the passage, its surface clinging with a faint glow that slowly dissipated; this was the source Ronan had sensed.

And clinging to the boulder was an unknown four-legged creature.

With the help of the firelight, Ronan saw its appearance clearly.

Its back was hunched, and thick blood vessels were wrapped around its limbs. It was hopping around the boulder, occasionally sticking out a long, thin tongue or sucking at a depression in the rock, completely ignoring his sudden arrival.

Ronan looked at this four-legged creature in shock; from the remnants of clothing on its body, he recognized that this was the Second Young Master himself.

Before he could think about why the Second Young Master had turned into this, the rhombus boulder changed first.

The glow constantly dissipating from the boulder's surface began to float up bit by bit, slowly flying into his body.

[Godhead initial repair in progress... 3.8%]

The notification for the Godhead's repair appeared again; this glow was the source of the special power that enhanced the Bear Goblins.

The glow continued to fly toward Ronan, merging into his body, and the progress of the Godhead's repair was rapidly increasing.

21%... 59%... As time passed, the glow on the surface of the boulder seemed to be fully activated, breaking away from the rock and leaping into the air, converging into a torrent of light points heading straight for Ronan.

He enjoyed the satisfaction of the data rapidly increasing, and even wanted to sit down and focus on waiting for the progress to reach 100% to complete the initial repair of the Godhead.

Just as this thought arose, the mutated Second Young Master, now a four-legged creature, was the first to object.

It originally couldn't do anything about the glow, unable to touch or absorb it, and could only watch anxiously as it dissipated.

But that didn't mean someone else could just absorb all of it at once.

With a leap, its mutated body lunged toward Ronan.

Hum.

A scorching red light instantly illuminated the dark passage, shooting through the four-legged creature's thickest left forelimb and knocking the Second Young Master out of the air.

"Hey, are you still conscious?" Ronan held the torch in front of the four-legged creature and asked.

He wanted to see if the Second Young Master's consciousness was still there.

A roar from the four-legged creature served as the answer.

Ronan shook his head; it seemed the Second Young Master was beyond saving... It turned out that the special power that could enhance Bear Goblins was a mutating poison for ordinary humans.

Just then, a small portion of the glow leaping in the air actually flew toward the wound the Ray had pierced in the four-legged creature.

Countless tiny blood vessels quickly grew in the fist-sized circular wound, intertwining with each other and continuously repairing it.

Ronan acted decisively, firing another "Scorching Ray."

This time, he deliberately increased the attack range, almost shattering more than half of its body.

But immediately, more glow surged toward the four-legged creature, beginning to repair its broken body.

That's the last of the glow... Ronan suddenly felt a pang of regret.

In just a short while, there was very little glow left in the air, and the repair progress had stopped:

[Status: Severely Damaged (Repairing/94%)]

The four-legged creature hadn't absorbed much glow, but its body was becoming increasingly sturdy, and the look in its eyes grew more ferocious.

More and more new blood vessels grew all over its body; at first glance, it looked as if the blood vessels were the main body.

Ronan frowned, feeling deep down that he shouldn't stay any longer.

The thought of sending two more Rays to this four-legged creature was suppressed for now.

The glow had already completely dissipated, and he decided to leave immediately.

He took out his adventurers badge.

He had to inform his teammates that there was a big problem here and they needed to speed up their evacuation.

But at that moment,

The adventurers badge in his hand let out a sharp bang first.