The pair of us continued our trek, following the direction the bandits had gone. I was no tracker, but I thankfully didn’t have to be one to be able to follow them. They were subtle about their movements. Perhaps, given the progression of the war, they were bolder about their movements. Ultimately, we ended up at a cave entrance. Using my sense life, I could detect a few bandits who were still high enough in the cave system I could detect them, but ultimately, it didn’t do too well underground, just as I found out in the keep.

“So, the Silvthril is in there?” Garnet asked, her eyes bright with excitement.

I nodded. “It seems like that is where they are hiding.”

“Then let’s go!” She took a step forward, and I just managed to catch her arm before she walked right in on the group of bandits.

“They were enough to knock out that entire shipment which probably included armed guards. There are only two of us!” I growled at her.

“Huh? Aren’t you like a really strong hero though?”

While she looked at me with a cute expression and seemed serious when she said that, I wouldn’t let it make me happy and forget the risk. I shook my head and didn’t let her attitude affect me.

“I may have grown lately, but we don’t know how large or how powerful this bandit group is. If we just attack without a plan, then it won’t matter how strong I am.”

“Fine..” She sighed. “Then, what is the plan?”

“Hmm.. if they’re living in a cave, it probably means that they have lots of lights in there. The area is closed off, so it’s too bad we can’t just fill it with some kind of poisonous gas.”

“Gas.. that’s not very adventurous at all!”

“Aren’t I the adventurer in the group. I’m rank C, I’ll have you know.”

“Is that high?”

“Um.. sure.”

If she didn’t know that C was barely acceptable as an adventurer, then I wasn’t going to tell her. Had we not left to deal with Lord Reign and try to infiltrate the bandits, then I might have been rank A by now.

“What about miasma?”

“While miasma here is very thin on the surface, I think I recall you mentioned that it doesn’t affect you much?”historical

The dungeon wasn’t devoid of miasma, but it tended to linger in patches. In the villages, there wasn’t that much, but in castles and underground areas, it could build up. During certain days, you could see tendrils of it in the forest, sort of like fog except black. The people in the dungeon seemed to be used to it and immune to it. As for Garnet, I was curious if she was willfully ignoring it or if she had a general reason.

“I’m.. um.. immune to miasma.” She explained tightly.

“A species trait?”

“Something like that.” She responded, but she seemed like she didn’t want to talk about it. “I mean, the miasma should affect them, can you put miasma into the cave.”

“Miasma?”

It wasn’t like I couldn’t. I was a dark priest and demonic knight. Either one could manipulate miasma. I could make miasma with one of my dark priest abilities as freely as Shao could. I could convert mana into miasma and vice versa now. It was then that I started to realize the possibility. If I filled the cave with miasma, it’d become difficult for them to see. It never got thick enough in the dungeons I had been in, but supposedly, it could get thick enough you couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of you. There was a way we could blind the bandits!