[Detecting the Influence of the Goddess of the Hunt]

[...Overwriting the Influence of the Goddess of the Hunt]

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"..."

[...]

[...]

[Success… Influence of Tranquility is now canceled]

Van stared at the words that were floating in front of him. Influence of Tranquility? Was that the thing that was making the monsters docile? Van quickly put his guard up as his eyes scanned the area.

This time, the area of the Portal was not an open field, instead, it was similar to the first-ever Portal that Van had entered. But unlike the cave of the arachnes, the cavern they were in right now was extremely spacious, with the ceiling almost reaching around 20 meters, Van surmised.

Van continued to scan if there were any monsters coming to attack them, but even after a few seconds, the cavern remained quiet.

"Lamias… quite a tricky opponent," one of the Silver-ranked Explorers spoke, "It's a good thing that none of them seem to be attacking us."

"Hm," Adia nodded her head in agreement, "Let's just get this over with. I don't like being inside dark places too much."

Although Adia said that, her eyes still scanned the vicinity. Her parents might be here, or at least their corpses. When Charlotte destroyed the Portal earlier, Adia was a bit on edge at first as her parents might have been inside, but after a few seconds of the Portal being gone, there was no sign of 2 corpses being brought out.

She was still on the lookout for her parents, but when they clear this Portal, they will be teleported outside anyway. When they discovered that the monsters around the Darkzone, even the ones inside the Portal, weren't attacking anyone, the hope of her parents being alive was lit up inside her.

What if the monsters have been like this when they entered all those years ago? Could it be possible that they were alive somewhere? But if that was the case, then why didn't they return?

Numerous thoughts were circling around Adia's head, but after a few seconds, he shook her head off of them.

"Let's go," she then gestured to the others, "The Objective should be deeper into the cavern, be careful not to antagonize any monsters that we see, we don't want them ganking us from behind."

"Alright." The rest of the group nodded. Their only Gold-rank Explorer, Kamia, summoned 3 fireballs, floating in front of them to light their way. Van had already seen her casting some sort of wind earlier. Does that mean she had two Elements?

Impressive, he thought. Aside from Angela, this was probably only the 2nd time that he has seen someone using more than one element. Of course, it was probably to be expected for someone like a Gold-rank.

"Adia, we should be more careful," Van said as he followed the rest, "I think the monsters here are not as peaceful as the ones outside… we should probably kill anything we see."

"No," Adia quickly shook her head, "Why do you insist on killing everything? The monsters we have seen so far have all been peaceful. Even the colossal Stymph have left us alone… I do not want any more troubles than we can handle."

"That's--"

"!!!"

Van then quickly turned around as he heard a noise behind him, only to see a part of the camera crew entering the Portal, "What… are they doing?"

"They will be coming with us," Adia let out a small sigh, "Sadly, that was part of the deal we had."

Adia then looked at the host, Eli, and warned him not to do anything stupid and only stay behind them at all costs.

"I still think we should kill every creature we see," Van insisted, "I have a Skill that can detect if the monsters are aggressive or not."

"...Really?" Adia furrowed her eyebrows at Van's statement, "Why didn't you say so earlier? Keep your eyes peeled, everyone! It would seem that our hands will actually be full!"

Hearing Adia's words, the 3 Silver-ranked members of the Royal Team tightened their grips on their weapons. The 3 fireballs that led their way also brightened up, illuminating their path even further.

Van let out a short but deep sigh as the team put up their guards. He didn't actually think that his line would work... good thing it did, he thought.

30 minutes. The group continued to trek the caverns for 30 minutes but not even a single monster blocked their path. Could it be that they were actually still peaceful… and were just sleeping somewhere deep into the cave?

The camera crew as well was already starting to get bored and was just pointing their cameras towards Princess Adia and Van. The two seemed to not be talking as much anymore ever since they argued earlier. It was such a shame that they weren't able to capture their argument as they were on another truck.

But finally, after a few more minutes of just silence, the group had finally encountered their first monster.

Van squinted his eyes as he focused his attention on the monster in front of them. The monster's slithering movements whispered into his ears as it slowly wriggled its lower body, which reminded Van of snakes… but extremely thicker and bigger than normal as the upper half of the monster's body was that of a human.

But unlike with the arachnes', the human part of the lamia's body was not that… attractive. Its face could still pass as a human, yes. But one glance and one could still make it out to be a monster.

"It's… it doesn't seem to be attacking?" One of the Silver-ranked slowly stepped forward, lifting his large shield in front of him.

"Van, you said they were already hostile? Why isn't this one attacking us?" Adia knotted her eyebrows as she looked at Van.

"...I don't know," Van said as he focused his attention towards the monster. He was trying to hear if it was saying anything, but he could only hear whispers he could barely make out.

"Be careful," Adia then said towards the Enhancer-type that was approaching the lamia, "If there are any signs of it attacking, immediately retreat back to us."

The Silver-ranked Explorer nodded as he tightened his grip on his shield, the sword on his other hand pointed towards the silent lamia.

"..." The enhancer was very careful with his steps, only stopping with each of the lamia's breaths. The others that were watching also had their weapons ready to go at any time, but even as the enhancer got close to the lamia, his sword almost touching its body, the lamia had no sign of even fighting back or being on guard.

With his sword on the reach of the lamia, the silver-ranked explorer could not help but let out a short sigh as he let go of his guard. He then turned around to look at the group, shaking his head in disappointment.

"It's not attacking us," the man said, "I saw its eyes looking at me earlier, and it just looked away."

Lamias were categorized as one of the smarter monsters, capable of using weapons and such. Maybe the fact that the monster didn't hold a weapon in the first place was already a sign that they were still docile.

Adia, who heard the man's words, slightly glanced towards Van before gesturing to the man to come back to them.

"Good thing you were wrong, Va-an," Adia let out a long and deep sigh, "Let's leave the monster for now, we don't want it to--"

"Gah!"

Before Adia could even finish her words, a scream entered her ears. She quickly looked towards the direction of the shout, only to see the Silver-ranked Explorer now kneeling on the damp ground, a spear stabbed through his chest.

"Kreeeee!"

And without even warning, the lamia that remained quiet throughout the whole scenario started to roar, its call almost like a whistle that threatened to deafen one's ear.

"Kree--"

The lamia was about to scream again, but before it could do so, its head suddenly disappeared.

"W… what?"

One of the media crew quickly panned his camera, only stopping as his lens captured where the head was not at-- on Van's hand, who was now suddenly behind the lamia.

"...More are coming," Van said as he nonchalantly dropped the lamia's head to the ground. He then slowly walked towards the silver-ranked explorer, whose breaths were already starting to fade as his painful gasp for air littered his body.

"Can I borrow your artifacts, mister?" Van politely said as he proceeded to grab the man's sword from his hand. The man, however, did not let go of his sword.

"...I can get the spear, but then you'd probably bleed out if I pulled it out from you."

As soon as the man heard Van's words, he quickly let go of his sword, even offering Van the shield that was on his other hand.

Adia's mouth was slightly opened as she watched Van take a sword from a defenseless man. If the situation was any different, then she would have probably been arguing with him right now. But seeing as there were hissing sounds whispering into their ears in all directions, the only thing in Adia's mind right now was to survive.

"It was a trap," she sighed, "We're not going to protect you, is that clear?"

"No problem," Eli waved his hand towards the Princess, "Treat us as if we don't exist."

"Alright," Adia nodded as she clasped her fists together, causing a clap of thunder to ripple through the cavern, "Everyone…

...Get ready to rumble!"