“Lots of destruction here too, claw marks, fur bits, human blood, scorch marks. Just like those villages we passed by.” The tank of the Black Feather group, Weld said as he lifted up a bloody strip of cloth from the sharp brambles of a nearby bush. “Either these wolves somehow took prisoners or bodies with them, or this cloth was still stuck to one of them and was brushed off here.”

“And even if the people were taken, there isn’t a high chance that they’re alive anymore,” Chimed in Ali, the tall, brown haired thief. “It looks like the path continues up from here. I see broken brush and footprints here. They really didn’t even try to conceal themselves.”

The adventuring group continued on their path. Before long, they spotted the entrance of what appeared to be a cave. The entrance wasn’t particularly wide, enough for a person to walk through. Some noticeable things around the entrance were the large amounts of wolf footprints and broken bushes surrounding the entrance. That and the group of goblins who were filing into the cave one by one, each carrying plants, old items or even live animals. One of the goblins was carrying a struggling weasel in its arms. As the goblins filed into the cave, the last one turned around, spotting the adventurers. With a yelp, the goblins shoved themselves into the cave and seemed to disappear within its depths.

“Y’all see that?” Weld asked. “Goblins controlling wolves? Or was the report mistaken? Should we report back?”

“It could’ve been mistaken if there was a goblin noble or lord among the wolves,” Allen explained. “Those are about the same height as a human, but they often have horns and tails as well, so it’s not likely for them to be mistaken for human. But don’t be a worrywart Weld, with all of us here, even a goblin king may fall against us in combat.”

“But there will be even more goblins if a leader class one is here…”

“And that’s why we have Luna with us here, cheer up Weld! She can take out groups of them at once while Ramey heals us. Remember what we came here for as well.”

With that, Weld and the others were convinced to enter the cave. Setting down their bags near the entrance, Ali kept watch on the cave while Weld donned his heavier plate armor and shield. Ramey summoned another black sparrow and cleaned her stave. Luna the mage pulled her staff from her back, and Ali pulled a shortsword from its sheathe, which seemed to glimmer slightly in the sunlight. A small banded shield adorned his other arm. After nodding at each other. They put on their noticeably smaller packs again and entered the cave, with Weld and Ali leading the way, Luna and Ramey in the center, and Allen following closely behind. A single black sparrow took off from Ramey’s shoulder to fly into the cave further ahead.

As the adventurers finally entered and saw the full expanse of the cave they were in, their eyes widened in surprise. What they had originally thought was going to be a dark cave was in fact a well-lit, forested area teeming with life. Insects could be seen moving around, and the squeaks of bats and chirping of birds could be heard.

“This is…” Luna whispered as she sensed the change in mana, before her eyes widened in shock. “Monster world! Is this a monster world?”

“Is that what that feeling was? I thought it was just a cold wind!” Ramey cried out in response.

The group formed up together with those words, as Weld, Allen and Ali made a loose semi-circle facing the inside of the cave. Monster worlds were dangerous existences which only had one entrance and exit, presumably the cave entrance they had entered. Monster worlds were hostile environments where monsters bred and multiplied, devouring each other before spilling out into the world and wreaking havoc. Due to the strange nature of this phenomena, a monster world could appear anywhere, with pre-existing monsters ranging from the (F) rank all the way up to (B) rank. If this cave really was a monster world, then any number of powerful monsters may be lurking in the area.

Picking up a stone and tossing it outside, Luna confirmed that this was indeed probably a monster world. Although she hadn’t heard of a monster world with stone walls as its barrier, it was reasonable to assume that this was a monster world.

“Okay guys,” Allen called out as he took a few steps deeper into the cave to look into the underbrush. “We should approach with caution if this is a monster world. Who knows, maybe goblins are the weakest type of monster within it.”

Allen and the others immediately trusted Luna’s guess that they had entered a monster world due to her occupation as a mage. Her mana senses were tuned much higher than the rest of them, to the point where she was able to recognize the change in the mana around them. Ramey’s mana sensing was lower even though she could still use magic due to her occupation as a healer, though she could feel a very slight shift in the mana around her. The group began to make their way slowly and carefully through the cave after preparing themselves a bit more.

During this time, Dylan had been carefully observing the adventurer’s actions and listening to them, as they spoke in the common tongue which he had already learned. As soon as the goblins had entered, they had begun crying about humans while scattering into the forest, tossing down the items and organisms which they had brough back. Dylan had mobilized several faster moving animals to finish off an escaped weasel and trash up the plants before absorbing all of the items which had been brought back, including rusted daggers, coins, scraps of cloth, worn down clothes, and other small trinkets. Those had been brought back from the old goblin camp from when the goblins had originally raided people for supplies.

Upon hearing the words of the young lady wearing a robe, Dylan had asked to nobody in particular what a Monster World was, and was surprised when he received an explanation from Clikchia.

According to Clikchia, Monster Worlds were existences similar to Dungeons which contained only one entrance. The entrance itself also served as an exit, but couldn’t be easily identified if one were in or outside of the monster world. Monster Worlds appeared randomly anywhere in the world, and contained a plethora of resources, monsters, and even civilized races. Similarly to Dungeons, Monster Worlds had a core, and if the core of the Monster World was destroyed or taken out, the Monster World would collapse in on itself and die, killing everything within it. From either the outside or inside, Monster World entrances or exits couldn’t be found without the help of someone who could sense changes in mana in their surroundings. This could lead to bad things happening if someone who couldn’t sense mana got trapped within a monster world.

The borders of a monster world were indefinite, but there was always a barrier preventing anything from coming out, whether it be a layer of mist which one couldn’t press through, or what appeared to be an infinitely deep chasm which stretched for miles across. Most of the time, a Monster Worlds entrance is located away from any barriers, and also mimics the environment of the outside world to prevent prey which has entered it from noticing a visible change in their environments. One could enter or exit the monster world through its entrance/exit from any direction, which could lead to creatures within it accidentally escaping or someone accidentally entering it.

After absorbing the information, Dylan had asked about the differences between a Monster World and a Dungeon, as well as why he was being mistaken for a Monster World. This to which Clikchia had explained that Monster Worlds contained environments which were incredibly realistic and mimicked the outside world. Creatures within Monster Worlds acted freely and naturally, while creatures within a Dungeon could act within the extent of their orders. Monster Worlds did not control the organisms within them, so their cores were often left unprotected. This could lead to a monster or civilized creature who had originated from the Monster World destroying its core and collapsing the monster world, killing everything within. Additionally, organisms within a Monster World needed sustenance to survive, and thus acted naturally upon their instincts. Dungeon creatures on the other hand did not need to eat, drink or sleep, as their bodies ran on mana provided by the Dungeon. Lastly, Dungeons took up space in the real world while Monster Worlds existed in subspaces, with their entrances appearing in the real world only.

After explaining to that extent, Clikchia told Dylan he’d leave the rest to Dylan’s imagination and stopped responding.

Then I’ll just conclude that Dungeons are better than Monster Worlds! Dylan ‘smirked’ to himself, content with being the better of the two. He was still curious about other things regarding the Monster Worlds, yet Clikchia’s explanation covered everything he needed to know at the moment. They must’ve been confused because of my beautiful forest and naturalistic environment hehe! I can’t wait for them to see more! Ah, wait.

Dylan gave an order to Kuraura and Grotho to come to his core to defend him, and sent an order to Maynard, Calphas and Aron to remain within the breeding cave they were living in for the time being. He decided to pull the stronger creatures deeper into his forest to prepare. Although he didn’t want to reveal all of his trump cards, keeping them near his core may be useful in the event that they sought to destroy his core.

Show me your power, humans! A wide smile stretched upon Dylan’s ‘face’.

KUPA!

Another one of Ramey’s summoned black sparrows were killed by one of the large bats which had started to ambush them. Snatched away, the sparrows were easy pickings for the much larger bats. Other than that, few creatures confronted them.

There were the giant centipedes which were easily crushed on their way, the large beetles which flew away after spraying irritating acids at them, and the large mantis which quickly ambushed them and disappeared into the underbrush. Simply put, none of the creatures could threaten them, so they had become a lot more relaxed.

Suddenly detecting a noise, their thief Ali signaled a stop before he scouted out. He returned with news of a river with a strange bridge crossing it, so the group continued on, and after a short time they finally found the bridge along with a large river which flowed smoothly through. Fish darted about within and the bridge itself looked fairly stable. It resembled a large slab of stone crossing the width of the river. Through the clearer water, Ali spotted a stone almost in the shape of a pillar propping the bridge up. Marking their environments, they decided to cross the river. If this was a monster world, then it would have a core. The monster world’s core should be located and hidden for the safety of the monster world and the adventurers who would be venturing inside. The Black Feather adventurer team had already decided to report this monster world to the guild master in order to claim a reward. As long as the monster core was located and moved to a protected spot within it, the monster world could be considered stable to harvest resources from.