p”Finally cut him off, what was he? A powerful devil or something?” Cain sat on a stone to catch his breath.

“Do you think he really is Silver? That’s kind of hard to believe.” Isbert approached Cain.

“Doubt it, if he was the real deal, he would have proved it by playing with your power instead of just talking. This was most likely just a devil from the lower layers trying to see us into something.” Devils were known for manipulating and misleading people.

“But what if what he said was true?”

“It isn’t and can’t be, it simply impossible. All of what he said is a clear fabricated manipulation. Could’ve called names, and spat facts if he was genuine. All he was trying to do is crack the bonds between us, that’s the last thing we want to happen.” Cain replied with an angry face, he couldn’t believe that a lowly devil had managed to catch his mana signal and do them like this.

“You..must be right. Better forget all we heard.” Isbert said standing up.

“Yeah, let’s go.” Cain stood as well, they need to find Bela’s daughter before she lose it in here.

‘That being said, food for thought.’ Cain set his second brain to think about what he had just heard just in case.

The best way to get out of a situation like this is to take the middle ground. Don’t take everything at face value but don’t completely ignore the warning.

Cain could clearly feel lately that the world has been off, a lot of things happened rather quickly and took many turns that he didn’t expect.

Counting by the time of his previous life, they are progressing fast, but for some reason, he seemed slow compared to others.

“Time to go.”

..

The cavern was dark, hot, and full of acid dripping from the ceiling. Cain started feeling magic around him and he could sense a lot of monsters lurking around.

He stopped in his place with a sore face, “Snake pit, now that thing is a snake.”

From the dark shadows, a monster appeared. A long worm-like cylindrical body with a bald human head and no eyes. And behind it, a lot more.

Hundreds of slimy worm-like monster crawled from the walls as if it was rotten piece of flesh. Those are sinners who became like this from isolation.

They still looked like soul worms but bigger. Which meant they die as much or even kill. Taking into account that this was hell, they could have been here for tens and probably hundreds of years.

“What are those things?” Isbert cried pulling her sword.

“Hell’s monsters, let’s kill them and keep pushing ahead. I can sense some cold magic.” He said pulling his sword as well.

“Behind them, we’re not running away?” She exclaimed.

“I can’t even use big spells or the cave might collapse, our swords are the best weapons now,” Cain said as he took the front.

“Stop joking, what about your mental attacks?”

“With those numbers? Impossible, there is a reason I only used it on the giants.” Cain leaped ahead, swinging his blade at one of the monsters cutting its head.

Without slowing down, he chained another swing with [Blade Dance] and sliced another.

Isbert joined as well, [Cold Blade] she swung her sword at one of the worms, unlike Cain, she wasn’t able to behead it. But her magic froze almost instantly.

“They still have bones, they are like a single long neck. Try to kit between their segments.” Cain killed another one with a clean hit.

“Got it, they are a bit weak, and slow as well,” Isbert said as she froze another one to death.

“They never got the chance to grow strong, they won’t even give us a decent amount of Exp,” Cain said as they both started killing blindly.

..

Back on the surface, the girls got inside the mansion Cain prepared to get some rest.

The moment they passed through the gate and felt the cold breeze, they could understand how exhausted they were.

Selena started stretching her back while Alice and Hati headed inside. Mary stopped to take off the armor she was wearing while Gracie headed to get the bath ready with Ellie.

Hati, Sofia, Zaleria, and Nemmoxon walked in slowly basking in the refreshing air.

After a few minutes, Gracie came back. The bath is ready.

Happily, everyone went in to take a bath to wash off their exhaustion.

“I know it’s not my place to say this but, shouldn’t we give Hati a chance?” Mary said sitting inside the hot tub.

“By a chance what do you mean?” Sofia glared at her.

“To be a wife, what else could it be?” She replied.

“Why bring that now?” Alice asked.

“More is better-nya!” Selena seemed to agree, but that was her long-standing opinion, and no one expected anything else.

“Could I explain what I think?” Mary said looking at Alice.

All the girls nodded except Zaleria who was enjoying the hot water.

“We’re falling behind, holding him down. Remember the last fight with the dragon?” Mary said with a passive face.

“I was knocked immediately-nya..” Selena’s ears dropped.

“I couldn’t heal him alone,” Alice mumbled.

“And? Your point is..” Sofia glared at her.

“We’re already operating outside the guild’s norms. We better start creating a team formation to fight more efficiently.” Mary smiled, “Sofia would be the damage dealer with Selena and Zaleria, Alice the healer, Hati the tanker, and Gracie the scout and assassin. When Isbert returns she will be magic support. I will take care of information legal matters while Marina is our supervisor.”

“What about me?” Nemmoxon looked at her, “Of course, you will be supporting Cain directly in case he needed anything.” Mary replied.

“So you’re saying to get everyone to marry Cain and get done with the subject? Count me out.” Zaleria said from the sideline.

“Can I say something?” Ellie lifted her hand.

“Sure.”

“Isn’t it strange? The way you’re thinking?” Ellie said with a worried face.

“I can understand Selena’s reasoning, but for the rest, how could you agree?” Ellie’s eyes started glowing red, “Wouldn’t you want to keep Master to yourselves?”

Mary giggled, “Of course, we would like to, but we can’t.”

“How? Why are you all agreeing to share him like this as if it was nothing? Aren’t you all acting strange?”

After staring at Ellie blankly for a few seconds, Mary sighed. “Damn it, he made contact. Guess this is a dud again.. and vampires are extremely resistant to mental influence.” She scratched her hair with an annoyed expression.

“FUCK! RUN AWAY!” Zaleria screamed throwing a fiery punch at her.

CLANG! It all happened in a flash, the girls didn’t even have the time to comprehend what happened. Zaleria’s torn body was stuck to the wall as a massive metallic creature almost filled the whole bath.

“Guess, another Restart.” The creature spoke as the girls stared at it terrified.historical

..

“Is this the ravine they talked about-nya?” Selena stood beside Cain, staring down the massive crack.

“I do sense some cold magic from down there, it isn’t much, but it’s something.” Isbert tried to sound like an expert. In reality, she felt nothing.

“Should we fly you down there?” Sofia asked with an excited smile on her face. Finally, she might be able to give Cain a ride.

“Do we have to jump down there? Can’t we take a short rest before?” Mary grabbed Ellie’s shoulder before she could sit on the rock.

“It’s hot, be careful.” She said with a smile.

“What do you say? Wait for me here, or come along?” Cain looked behind at the girls.

“We all go down, can’t just let you go alone,” Alice said with a smile.

“The place might be dangerous for Ellie and Mary. Someone needs to stay here to protect them.”

“Then what..” Mary cut Hati off before she could finish talking.

“We’re all going together, it’s safer that way.” Mary approached Cain.

“It’s dangerous down there?” He said.

“That’s exactly why we all should go together, Bela’s daughter might be injured so you need to take Alice. But you can’t leave us here without a healer so we go together.” Mary stared at Cain with a smile.

“Guess you’re right, we move together.” Cain gave up, he did prefer to keep an eye on them after all.

As Cain nodded in agreement, Mary patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, it will be fine.” She said.