Vacuus held his sword, his eyes scanning furiously. "What is that? Was it the wind?" But no winds stirred in the crypt. It could only mean one thing: danger.

He held very still and collapsed the essence in his feet, then used it to cover his whole body.

"What is wrong?" Stallus said when she saw that he was in attack mode. Then she saw the grasses moving and she also brought her sword. Others followed their lead.

They were tired and weak, but when faced with danger, all that was forgotten.

Azaroth waited as it got closer, and he tensed because he didn’t know how his body would hold up if it got down to a fight. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Something green jumped out, and his sword flashed forward. Blood splashed, and something hit the ground with a thud. Weak essence rose and settled on him.

"What is that?" Azaroth pointed with his sword at the small monster that was dead in front of him. It was a small monster, covered in green fur.

"Oh, it’s that," Alex began. "They are harmless. They eat poisonous plants. They don’t attack humans."

Stallus sighed and put back her weapon. She really thought she would have to fight again, which would be the worst possible outcome for her at the moment because all she could think about was food.

Azaroth also returned his weapon. He looked down at the creature, then he turned and looked back at the tunnel to confirm if it was blocked. It was.

But the wall didn’t move into the room. So Azaroth figured it must be waiting for them to enter into the other tunnel at the other end before it began to move again.

"We split up and look around this room. Look out for any traps or anything that sounds off," Azaroth said. Then he paused. "We move in two. Stallus, with me."

He didn’t wait for their reply as he drew his sword and began walking in the tall grass. He cut some of them, and he wasn’t surprised to see soft earth beneath. This truly isn’t some illusion, Azaroth thought. It is real.

The grass smelled sweet to his nose, and he shook his head when he remembered what Alex said earlier about the monsters here eating poisonous weeds. The weeds must be poisonous then.

"What are you hoping to find?" Stallus asked. She was beating the grass absently, her eyes roaming.

Azaroth didn’t turn to her as he answered. "I don’t know. Anything."

He didn’t know himself, but he knew something must be here for them. The last one was to teach them how to move silently. Then what is this? What lessons were they supposed to learn now?

His head ached. He plucked up a long grass and tested it with his hand. It was strong enough to use as a rope, so he tied his white hair back with it. His red eyes narrowed as he scanned the room, but it was a spread of green. Nothing else.

"Then what are we waiting for? We should go to the next tunnel," Stallus said.

"This is supposed to be a training," Azaroth insisted.

"Maybe that’s the training. That nothing is here and we should accept it as it is," Stallus said gently.

Azaroth said nothing. His stomach growled, and he swallowed on a dry throat. They must have been walking for around eight hours from what Azaroth could calculate. They need food and water, or they’ll die before their training.

Food. Something came into his mind. They needed food. How do they get it? Azaroth nearly smiled when the answer came to him. The monster he killed earlier. It must be food.

"Call the others," Azaroth told her and began walking to where he killed the small monster.

"Why are you calling us?" Alex asked immediately when they joined him.

Azaroth pointed at the monster he was holding. The monster had only two large legs, but powerful enough to carry it. "This will be our food."

The others looked at him as if he had lost his mind.

"This? Monster? You want us to eat monsters?" Alex asked, tone incredulous.

Azaroth shrugged. "We are hungry, and there’s no food. What other option is there?"

They knew there was none. It was just that eating monster... felt wrong.

"Even if we want to eat it. We don’t know if it is safe to eat or not. Didn’t Alex say it is a monster that eats poison grasses? Besides, we don’t know what we will find in the next room," Stallus asked.

"Does it matter now? The next room is not here. This is the present room we are in. And we won’t know if it’s safe to eat or not until we try eating it."

The others shared a look among themselves.

"Catena, take this and tie it with a long grass, leave space to tie others too," Azaroth threw the monster at the tall boy who caught it easily. Then he looked at all of them with hard eyes. "If all followed me here so you better do as I say. Didn’t you also choose me as leader?"

"At least, kill them. If you don’t eat it later, that’s your problem. More for me then."

They couldn’t argue about that, and Catena quickly went about it. He tied it and left space for more monsters to be tied up.

Alex grimaced. "I just remembered now, we might have a slight problem."

"What is it?" Azaroth asked.

"The monsters are wary of hunters, and because they have no attacking power. What they did have is speed. We can never catch them. Not with our current rank," Alex said.

"Don’t Azaroth just kill one?" Stallus pointed out.

"It’s because of their nature. They send one of them out, usually the weakest, to test how we will react. When Azaroth killed it, it would have released a scent that only then could smell that would put them in the highest alert."

Azaroth sighed. He should have known it wouldn’t be easy.