Editors: Templar, Jack Vanatis, Orang

Author’s notes: Third chapter release!

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Chapter 11 – Rapid Growth

“Theodore, how goes the analysis?” Bryn enters a small room and asks the craftsman who has black rings around his eyes.

“It’s useless! Useless!!” Theodore says in defeat, his head slumping forward.

“What nonsense are you talking about? It is a simple job.”

“Have a look for yourself!” The craftsman shows an ‘Earthen Blood Flint’ modified bullet to Bryn as he explains each part of it and starts dismantling it. “This red ring is a simple ink. I thought perhaps there was some secret to it, before I found this.”

Theodore takes out the four small crystal shards from the bullet, two brown like dirt, and two red like blood.

“These are what cause the explosion, but I don’t know what the hell they are. The status window names them both ‘Earthen Blood Flint’, yet they are obviously different items. I also have no idea how to produce them!”

“Calm yourself! You are a craftsman with over seventy years of experience, how can you not even have a clue? You could see Regal creating these when you were fixing the wall of his villa, how can you possibly not figure it out?”

“That’s what I thought at first too. But have a look at these two items.”

Theodore brings out several ‘Rock Lizard Scales’ and ‘Rockdust Fragments’ of both low and medium quality and holds them beside the ‘Earthen Blood Flint’.

“How do these turn into this? I know it is compounding these items based on what I saw the young man doing, but no matter what I try, I can’t create anything even remotely similar. I’ve tested and retested my knowledge on the hidden qualities on these items, but can’t understand how they go together. The ‘Rockdust Fragments’ have the hidden quality of Solid, increasing defense and resistances, while the ‘Rock Lizard Scales’ have the hidden qualities of Solid and Earth, the same as the former but being naturally attuned to earth-type alchemy. None of these should be able to form such a product.”

Bryn looks between the two materials with disbelief, unable to imagine what occurred to cause the transformation between the items.

“Could you be missing an additional item?”

“That’s also my conclusion. There must be an additional item used in the process, or a step unrelated to compounding, or perhaps both.”

“I’ll go report to the Lord, I trust you will come up with something soon,” Bryn sighs heavily to himself as he glances at the dismayed craftsman before leaving.

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Far to the west of Greyhorn Townsend, Regal and his squad have arrived at the entrance to the Lost Water Caverns dungeon. The morning sun reflects off the water travelling down the stone around the entrance the light also shining into the eyes, making the squad members momentarily squint as they enter the dungeon. Not far behind them, Regal’s three soulbound beasts, Lande, Lore, and Hades follow.

“Everyone, we have six hundred ‘Earthen Blood Flint’ modified bullets each, so rather than staying on the first or second floor for long periods of time, I want to descend as fast as possible so we can maximize the experience we get,” Regal says calmly as he remains aware of their surroundings.

“We have become stronger since last time and we can fight better as well,” Aqua says proudly, trying to maintain a close distance to Regal, but not too close. “Even with normal bullets, the first floor isn’t a challenge for us at all.”

Veronica keeps obstructing Aqua attempts to get near Regal from time to time and causes her to be unable to stand next to Regal for more than a moment. It appears unintentional, but Aqua squints her eyes suspiciously after several repeats of the same event.

Veronica walks almost shoulder to shoulder with Regal, but does not close that final distance between them. Veronica doesn’t show any emotion about this closeness, but the faint scent of perfume from her causes Regal’s love for her to stir restlessly as they delve deeper.

Regal tries to clear his mind by planning their dungeon attack strategy.
“We will fire a round of ‘Earthen Blood Flint’ modified bullets first before switching over to alchemy. I need to test the bullets against weaker enemies in case there are any problems.”

The squad steadily marches into the depths of the first floor of the dungeon before they find a familiar cavern full of Mud Critters and Rock Lizards.

Following Regal’s hand signals, the five squad members, including Regal, aim their guns at the nearest group of enemies. Regal is the first to fire, his pulling the trigger leading to an explosion centering on one of the Mud Critters, blowing it six feet away while the resultant blast also damages another Mud Critter near it.

Everyone else’s guns fire off instantly afterwards, wrapping the enemy group in explosions and wreaking havoc on them. Veronica’s .48 caliber round with the extra ‘Earthen Blood Flint’ modification has a frightening effect of creating an explosion twice the size of Regal and the others’ weapons. Her bullet is also pinpoint accurate, hitting a Mud Critter directly in the center of the chest, instantly turning it into a corpse and blowing the Mud Critter’s body over thirty feet away.

After a single round of bullets, the small group of Mud Critters were blown around like a leaf in the wind and all died. A single Rock Lizard that was nearby also lost half of its health just from the residual blasts of two bullets. Regal quickly fires one more round and kills the Rock Lizard without losing track of the bigger picture of the cavern.

However, compared to their previous tactic of only attracting medium-sized groups one at a time, the amplified sounds from the explosions catch the attention of all the mutant beasts in the cavern. Over a hundred glares of hostility lock onto Regal’s squad as the mutant beasts all rush toward the intruders.

Regal analyses the scenario in front of him and speaks to his squad at the same time, “Continue using ‘Earthen Blood Flint’ modified bullets. Veronica, focus on killing the Rock Lizards. Everyone else, don’t let them get near us.”

Veronica carefully aims with her ‘Deryu Ordinance Rifle’ and snipes a Rock Lizard as it is jumping over a large protruding piece of slate. She kills it in a single shot and knocks it backwards a good distance, despite its heavy body.

Veronica fluidly loads another round into the rifle while the rest of the party’s revolvers repeatedly fire at the incoming swarm of enemies. Some mud critters approach from the sides, but most of the enemies are coming from the front, so the squad has little trouble holding them back. The cavern turns into a warzone as ‘Earthen Blood Flint’ modified bullets blow the mutant beasts away like artillery shells. The mutant beasts only close half the distance to the squad before they are annihilated. Unfortunately, Regal’s three mutant beasts don’t even get a chance to take part.

The squad collects all the items dropped by the mutant beasts, harvesting an extremely large amount in one go.

~ 1 Silver Coin
~ 213 Bronze Coins
~ 52 River Kelp (Low)
~ 13 River Kelp (Medium)
~ 21 Water Stone Fragments
~ 37 Rock Lizard Scales (Medium)
~ 4 Earthen Eyegems (Medium)
~ 35 Amber Flint (Low)
~ 6 Amber Flint (Medium)

“That was easy,” Astore calmly appraises the battle while inspecting his revolver carefully to check if the enormous firepower caused any damage to the weapon.

Regal frowns slightly and replies, “It was easy because they were so weak. The bullets have two weak points. First, they attract far too many mutant beasts. Which is good for fast levelling, but if we are overrun we won’t live long. Second, we can’t shoot them at close range or we will get damaged too.”

“So we need to switch to normal ammunition when they get closer?” Kilde asks, as he silently checks the edge on the combat knife in his hand.

“There is no time. We could perhaps use the ‘Earthen Blood Flint’ modified bullets as a double-edged sword to create distance between us, but once the enemy gets close, we don’t have the time to switch back to ordinary rounds. It is at that point our guns will be absolutely useless and we can only rely on combat knives.”

The squad slowly think over the scenario Regal is discussing and all agree with him.

“What do we do now?” Veronica asks, still standing extremely close to Regal which unwittingly causes him to be distracted.

“We will proceed straight to the stairs down to the next floor. Focus on using alchemy and normal bullets until we leave this floor. Save the others for the stronger mutant beasts below.”

Regal follows the other squad members, as they have travelled down to the second floor while he hasn’t. He also reluctantly makes some distance between himself and Veronica as his heart continues to pound and he can’t think straight.

Taking a few glances at Veronica, Regal notices that when he keeps his distance from her, she forcefully grips on the hem of her clothing. He wonders to himself if perhaps she is unhappy and considers moving closer to her, but decides this is for the greater good and shuts out his crying heart for the first time. Aqua takes this chance to move slightly closer to him, earning her a momentary death glare from Veronica that passes before anyone can notice.

After several heated battles, the squad cuts through the first floor of the Lost Water Caverns dungeon like a hot knife through butter and finally arrive at the entrance to the second floor. A series of damp slate stairs lead the way down to the next level which Regal’s squad carefully descend toward the new area.

“You need to be careful of the Nine-Inch Bee King’s Poison, it has a slight paralytic effect,” Astore explains to Regal, as he is the only person in the squad who hasn’t been on the second floor of the dungeon before. “The Stony Raptors are easy because they will run up and attack in melee, but Hydra Spawn will shoot water jets that are difficult to avoid.”

Regal takes a more passive role as the squad loads the ‘Earthen Blood Flint’ modified bullets’ and move deeper into the second floor of the dungeon. As Regal is taking a supportive role, he alternates merging his consciousness with Lande, Lore, and Hades to not only scout in areas the squad can’t see, but to also raise his proficiency in ‘Soul Authority’.

Water drips from the ceiling frequently, making the squad members turn their heads when they hear the sound. Always staying alert in case there is a mutant beast sneaking up on them, but each time it is never anything but dripping water.

Regal eyes six Stony Raptors wandering in the wide passage with three Nine-Inch Bee Kings next to them as the squad stops and prepares their weapons. They first use alchemy, Veronica using a cage of wind to restrain them and Regal using the Tier 2 Divine Art ‘Thunder Cage’ to temporarily trap them. Astore and Aqua summon large alchemy constructs of ice and earth to take the initial role in damaging them while Regal, Kilde, and Veronica aim their weapons and follow up with explosive bullets.

The group of enemies don’t even have a chance to counterattack as they quickly die from the instant barrage, but the loud noises attract more enemies as twice the number of mutant beasts charge toward them from afar.

The squad saves their mana after that and rely on the destructive bullets to tear the beasts apart before they can get close. A Hydra Spawn, a fat serpent like creature with two heads forms an alchemy formula in one of its mouths and fires off a single water jet, damaging Astore before he can evade. Astore instinctively retaliates with the Tier 4 Divine Art ‘Piercing Earth Spikes’, impaling the Hydra Spawn from the ground before finishing it off with his revolver.

Regal quickly picks up the dropped items and inspects them as he does. He also strips the skin and meat off most of the beasts both for food and to sell when they return to town.

~ 78 Bronze Coins
~ 2 Poison Stingers (Low)
~ 1 Poison Stinger (Medium)
~ 15 Stony Eyes (Low)
~ 2 Brown Bones (Medium)
~ 1 Hydra Scale (Poor)
~ Stone Clawblade

The ‘Hydra Scale’ which is a rare drop despite it being of poor quality and it arouses Regal’s interest as to whether it also has the hidden quality of Array, which can automatically align elements of tinctures to aid in fusion. The Stone Clawblade is another rare drop which came from one of the Stony Raptors. It is longer than the squad’s current Jagged Severing Blades and is classified as a sword rather than a combat knife. It also has a higher damage and required stats to equip, but it is difficult to use so not even Kilde, whose talent lies in martial skills, considers using it.

The loot from the recent mutant beasts are shared between everyone, with Regal keeping the crafting materials and the coins mainly going to the others. The squad heads deeper into the second floor and continues battling against the three types of enemies on the second floor in search of the passage to the third floor.

Regal takes full command over the squad once he understands the mutant beasts as well as the other members, using his knowledge to improve their group tactics and understanding of the beasts. His greatest shock comes from the Stony Raptors when they release an inborn talent to petrify their targets. Regal became the victim of the unique attack when one got close, but it was only a slight stiffness of the skin like an overcharged Tier 1 Divine Art ‘Stone Skin’ and vanished as soon as the group killed the Stony Raptor. This is an effect the Stony Raptors use to prevent their targets from running away, but unfortunately for them, Regal’s squad has the ‘Earthen Blood Flint’ modified bullets and would kill them before they could get close enough to use their unique attack.

“We found it,” Regal exhales heavily with relief after half a day of searching for the stairs down. “Our new bullets allow us to comfortably hunt on the third floor, but I want to push for the fourth. We need to level up faster and get stronger skills.”

Despite only hunting for half a day, Regal has nearly reached level 16 while Aqua, Astore, Kilde, and Veronica have successfully reached level 17 and are halfway to the next level up. This is the result of them being able to hunt mutant beasts with a much higher level than themselves, all thanks to Regal’s new bullets.

“From here, I will have Lande, Lore, and Hades scout ahead and attract the mutant beasts back to us. This way the explosive rounds won’t attract every enemy nearby, if they did we would be in trouble.”

“Understood.” Each squad member responds to Regal as they place their faith in him as the leader.

The squad descends to the third floor but rather than proceeding deeper, set up camp at the base of the stairs where mutant beasts don’t venture, a rare safe zone in the dungeons.

As Regal’s mutant beasts won’t have the chance to kill the higher level mutant beasts to level up and he doesn’t want them to die while attracting the beasts back to the group. He begrudgingly takes out all the iron he had planned for Aqua to sell so she could get more ‘Amber Flints’ and gives it to them to eat and grow.

Lande and Lore, the Mutant Stone Beasts, excitably gorge on the massive amount of iron ore without restraint while Hades, the Firestone Lizard, shows no desire to even try to consume any of it. Regal takes an interest in this and realizes that Hades probably needs fire-based material to grow. But he doesn’t have anything like that, so instead Regal takes out large piles of meat he has stockpiled in his inventory and offers that, which Hades does eats contently.

Regal receives the delight of Lande and Lore levelling up multiple times, each reaching level 22 in the end, while Hades only reaches level 18 from eating the large pile of meat. Regal can tell that the growth of his beasts is definitely related to the quality of food he can give them.

A strange feeling suddenly overwhelms Regal before he is wracked with an intense mix of both pain and pleasure, but mostly pain. The sudden onslaught causes him to drop to the ground in the squad’s campsite and his face twists in pain, his consciousness turning hazy.

It doesn’t take long before he notices that this is a sensation unwittingly transmitted from Lande and Lore, who have both crouched down and are shivering all over. The link between their souls and Regal’s forces them to both endure the same perception during moments of heavy turmoil.

‘What happened?! Did they eat too much iron ore and got sick?’ Regal can only speak to himself in his mind as his jaw is clenched up in agony.

Veronica is the first to notice this and rushes over to Regal, shortly followed by the rest of the squad.

“Regal, what’s wrong? Are you okay? Is it poison?” Veronica hastily says in a fluster, taking out an antidote and forcing Regal to drink it.

The others look concerned and Aqua tries to help Regal, but Veronica dominates Regal’s care and doesn’t allow anyone else to help. It is true that there is nothing that the others can do that Veronica can’t, but she displays a possessiveness that shocks everyone, even Astore and Kilde who are usually emotionally mute.

Regal can also see this through his wavering eyesight and feels his heart stir with warmth. At the same time, he is greatly shocked, because Veronica is showing such a strong emotional response, unlike what any Soulless typically would show.

Regal’s thoughts are chaotic as he can’t understand the situation around him, but soon his consciousness turns dark and he feels like he is sinking into a bottomless abyss of pain.

After what seems to be an eternity yet also a fleeting moment, the pain vanishes and Regal opens his eyes.

“Are you okay?” Veronica asks while sitting beside him.

“Yeah, I’m fine. How long was I like this?”

“Twelve minutes.”

Regal inspects Veronica closely, but very little is given away by her expression. He clearly remembers her burst of emotion when he was wrecked with pain earlier. Veronica’s thoughts shift occasionally into things she can’t understand, leading to a building confusion and pain in her mind.

Aqua, Astore, and Kilde come over when they hear Veronica and Regal talking, but stop halfway and stare off to the side in confusion and fear. Regal notices this and following their line of sight is taken aback at first, but quickly regains his composure.

Lande and Lore, the two Mutant Stone Beasts who were responsible for the unbearable pain they shared with Regal, have changed drastically. They slimmed down slightly but have still grown one size larger. On the top of their head, neck and body are a covered by a layer of deep grey iron plates, each overlapping the next.

The shock in this is that all the squad members recognize them. They are no longer Mutant Stone Beasts, but Iron Mountain Wolves. Iron Mountain Wolves aren’t classified as mutant beasts, but as monsters instead.

Regal senses them through their connection and can tell that they are no longer level 22, but have instantly grown to level 24. Their speed, strength, defense, and stamina are no longer comparable to what they were before. It is a massive qualitative increase that separates a monster from mutant beasts and makes them much stronger compared to mutant beasts of the same level. Monsters are also usually solitary creatures, but right now there are two together.

Lande and Lore are now strong enough that they could easily survive on the fourth floor of Lost Water Caverns, which solidifies Regal’s intentions to quickly pass through the third floor and proceed to the fourth for leveling.

“It’s okay, they’re Lande and Lore,” Regal carefully explains to the squad the situation, and that him collapsing in pain was a result of the mutant beasts evolving.

“But why did they evolve? Can mutant beasts evolve?” Aqua asks in confusion, but calms down after Regal recounts his experience.

“I didn’t know either. Perhaps mutant beasts evolving are the source of monsters,” Regal pieces together what information he has to come up with a reasonable explanation. “There must be conditions for a mutant beast to evolve. Lande and Lore ate an enormous quantity of iron ore to grow and become stronger, and it appears that is what stimulated this change. I don’t understand the rules behind it so there may be other ways as well.”

The last Iron Mountain Wolf was spotted fifty years ago, it was a level 72 monster that was three times the current size of Lande and Lore. The monster caused untold destruction to several communities before a guild from Grand Theore was able to defeat it.

“Let’s not worry about this for now. I’m sorry for worrying everyone, but everything is fine now. Get some rest and we will aim for the fourth floor as soon as possible.”

Everyone quietly heads off to sleep after that, with Lande, Lore, and Hades alternating the role of guards while the squad sleeps. Regal feels his connection with Lande and Lore has become more stable, stray thoughts becoming less common and the burden on his consciousness lessening as a result. Regal can tell he should now be able to contract 3 more beasts, rather than just two as it was before.

Another improvement is that Lande and Lore’s thoughts have become more intelligent, allowing them to understand Regal’s commands better and carry out complex commands that they wouldn’t have been able to before.

While Regal is still mulling over the nature of mutant beasts’ evolution, he doesn’t realize the extremely low success rate of it. Tamers have learned of their beasts growing from eating, but have deemed it dangerous as sometimes when overdoing it, their beasts ‘fall sick’ and die. If it wasn’t for Regal sharing the pain and lessening the burden on Lande and Lore, the two beasts’ success rate for evolving would have been less than one percent.

Even while sharing the burden with Regal, their chances of success were only twenty percent. For both to survive was an instance of monumental luck.

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Regal and the others wake up about eight hours later. Day and night within the dungeon are mixed together as there is no visible difference, the third floor has aquamarine stones embedded in the walls which gave off a faint blue radiance at all times. The squad members can only gauge what time it is by their internal body clocks.

After the small campsite was cleaned up and everyone had eaten some roasted Hydra Spawn meat, they set off into the depths of the dungeon. The third floor has mutant beasts between level 20 and 25. These were a stronger Hydra Spawn which has three heads and would fire up to two water jets at a time, and Cold Acid Snakes.

The Cold Acid Snakes are the more troublesome of the two. The Hydra Spawn are as big as a person, but the Cold Acid Snakes are only half the size of a person’s leg. Despite being much smaller and weaker than the former, they are extremely numerous and move very quickly, making them difficult to hit with bullets. They also often hide in small pools of water and ambush hunters when they come near. This leads to the third floor of the Lost Water Dungeon being nicknamed the Snake Lair, and using strong, wide area effect alchemy being the recommended response to the Snake Lair.

Thankfully, Regal’s squad has the ‘Earthen Blood Flint’ modified bullets, which easily counters the snakes. The squad passes through the third floor at a fast pace with Lande and Lore running around extremely quickly and attracting the mutant beasts into large groups for the squad to fire upon. The ‘Earthen Blood Flint’ modified bullets no longer kill the enemies in a single direct hit, but Regal’s monsters learn and attract groups of appropriate size for the squad.

Mostly due to luck and Regal’s mapping skills, the squad finds the passage down to the fourth floor much faster than Regal predicted. Regal also reaches level 17 from the higher leveled mutant beasts while the others are level 18.

Descending into the fourth floor, the temperature begins to rise. The squad passes through a thin fog layer as they step onto the new floor.

“We need to be careful from here,” Regal cautiously says. “Not only will the fog limit our vision and hinder us using the ‘Earthen Blood Flint’ modified bullets, but the mutant beasts will be stronger once again and even harder to kill.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to stay on the third floor then? We were killing the Cold Acid Snakes really fast,” Kilde asks, pointing out what he believes to be the most efficient way.

“No, higher level mutant beasts give experience incomparable to those. Even if we kill them at half the speed, we will still be getting more than twice as much experience in the same time.”

“Understood,” Astore nods and agrees first, followed by the rest.

The fourth floor has four headed Hydra Spawn, which can shoot out two water jets and a single fireball at the same time; Firebats, a large bat like creature with a wingspan of nine feet, razor sharp claws, and the ability to set itself on fire; and finally the elusive Fallen Hunters.

The Fallen Hunter is a specter with the shape of an Immortalis but with elongated limbs. They are extremely weak, but are immune to physical damage and difficult to spot in the fog. They are often referred to as fog demons due to their natural advantage in this environment.

“Veronica, shoot down any Firebats you spot. Astore and Aqua, be aware of the surroundings and remember that using alchemy on any Fallen Hunters takes precedence.”

Regal merges his senses with Lande in order to be able to scope further than he can see in the fog, relying on the Iron Mountain Wolf’s natural affinity with the earth to sense further than eyes can see.

The first to attack is a pair of Fallen Hunters, which slipped through the keen senses of Regal’s beast and attack Lore. Surprisingly, the Fallen Hunter’s sharp claw-like fingers can’t penetrate its defense and the specters attack becomes useless.

Lande and Lore come back with several mutant beasts in tow, upon which the squad fires relentlessly at with both alchemy and ‘Earthen Blood Flint’ modified bullets. The explosive bullets are useless on the fog demons, but the blast still does temporarily blow the fog away from the specters and allow Aqua and Astore to easily hit them with alchemy.

The four-headed Hydra Spawn prove the most difficult for Regal’s squad with their variety of attacks. Veronica does an excellent job of shooting down the Firebats, but it still takes her three direct hits to kill a single one.

The mutant beasts are around ten levels higher than Regal and his squad, so the hunters receive a serious amount of damage from every attack by the mutant beasts. The squad’s equipment is well below par to hunt on the fourth floor of Lost Water Caverns, their alchemy does hardly any damage to anything other than the vulnerable Fallen Hunters, and their guns have insufficient damage. They would need to have level 20+ guns and skills in order to consider hunting here under normal circumstances.

Thankfully the ‘Earthen Blood Flint’ modified bullets explosively increase their attack, and Lande and Lore use their naturally resistive bodies to protect the squad from many of the Hydra Spawns’ long ranged attacks.

Despite that, the squad still takes much more damage than they would have on the higher floors and their food and health-restoring items plummet at a rapid pace.

Half a day later, Regal and his squad have leveled up rapidly, everyone climbing all the way to level 21. They even collect enough coins to be equivalent to several gold, and a large quantity of materials that can be used for crafting or selling. There may even be some collection requests at the local Hunters’ Association they could instantly complete, both for gold and getting closer to raising their association rank.

Everyone has a quantitative increase to their abilities and skills after levelling up. Regal’s was the most substantial as he had farther to go, increasing his health and mana by 90 just from levelling. He also allocated the 27 free stat points between both his intelligence and dexterity, the former increasing his maximum mana more to allow him to soul bind higher levelled mutant beasts, the latter helping him be more artful and precise when crafting.

“That’s enough for today, we’re going back to the community now to rest,” Regal commands with an authoritative tone. “I will be working with the crafters for three more days starting tomorrow, and will also be training my crafting skills. Everyone else go to the markets and find a level 20 martial or alchemy skill that suits you best to learn and practice. I want us to all be stronger the next time we enter this dungeon and be able to hunt more.”

The squad begins to move toward the stairs that ascend to the third floor by following the map Regal has been making all this time when the he pauses with a frown. Everyone stops with Regal and looks at him curiously when he squints back into the fog pondering something seriously.

“Once we return and I get the chance, I will announce that we got too overconfident in descending into the dungeon and both Lande and Lore died so we could get away. If anyone asks about it, that is what happened.”

Aqua and Veronica seem the slightly confused while Astore and Kilde nonchalantly nod, but they all accept the cover story without question. At the same time, Regal commands Lande and Lore to stay in the fourth floor of Lost Water Caverns. They are to continue hunting the mutant beasts and grow stronger while Regal isn’t here. If they sense a hunter passing through or hunting on this floor, they are to hide in the fog and use all methods to ensure they aren’t seen.

Regal does this not because he doesn’t want others to know the secret of his mutant beasts evolving, but because he doesn’t want anyone in Greyhorn Townsend thinking he is growing too fast. If they truly are hiding secrets and Piora was taken away in some plot, they would be aware of everything about Regal’s squad. A single level 70 Iron Mountain Wolf would be enough to flatten their entire community. Their bullets and alchemy wouldn’t be able to penetrate its defense, so they wouldn’t allow such a threat to grow near them if they were aware.

Just as planned, Regal and his squad arrived back at Greyhorn Townsend late at night with weary expressions. When the guards curiously asked what happened, to which Regal adopted a façade of depression as he recounts how they were overconfident and went too deep in the dungeon. As a result, two of their mutant beasts were lost so they could escape the battle.

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