Gerald's face scrunched up, giving him the 'Are you serious?' look. "What kind of nonsense are you spouting? If you attack me, I'll seriously break your face, even if you are my friend!" he warned.

Tabbris hesitated, but before he could make a decision, pained cries and screams were heard. Both men quickly focused on the source of the sound.

From a dark corner, a few Orcs emerged and were currently attacking the wounded at the other side of the cavern.

"Damn it!" Tabbris howled and immediately rushed to their aid, completely forgetting about the Pixie and Gerald.

"Are those even real?" Gerald asked doubtfully and looked at his captured Pixie.

"Aaaargh!" a retreating man screamed when a stone spell pierced his leg. He tumbled to the floor with the beast right behind him.

"Yup, they are real," Gerald realized and quickly ran to help. But... he only had one hand, and that one was already preoccupied, so he jumped and performed a fly-kick on the Orc's chest.

"T-thanks!" the man said and quickly limped away.

"You are welcome! Hey, wait!" Gerald called him. "You got rope by any chance?"

The man looked at him for a second, and then took a coil of rope from his pouch. He tossed it with a confused "Here!" and continued with his escape.

After tossing the Pixie to the ground, Gerald gave it a few more punches for a good measure and then bound it tightly to a thick stalagmite.

Finally having a free hand, he took the Toothpick he had tied to his back and entered the fight.

A group of Orcs engaged in battle with the few human warriors that were still struggling, with Tabbris as the vanguard. He was the strongest and best geared among them, yet still, he struggled against the beings with superior strength.

"Damn animals! Die!" Clad in Mythril armor and wielding a Mythril longsword, Tabbris fought like mad. He was striking, deflecting, and stabbing multiple times every second, and his breathing and heartbeat were quickly becoming irregular under pressure.

"Having a rough time?" Gerald teased while he stabbed the Orc Tabbris was fighting in the back.

"Damn it, Gerald! Shouldn't you be resting? You look terrible!" the latter answered back, but extremely glad to get some help.

"I got bored, so I decided to see how you are doing. I guess it's good that I came, haha!"

Gerald casually continued the conversation whilst avoiding spells and weapon strikes from the enraged enemies. He couldn't use just brute strength to win because his magic was still inactive, so he was forced to fight more gracefully.

Clang, pang, stab!

Tabbris was engaged in wild swordplay with his opponent from the front, while Gerald was sneakily and accurately thrusting his long and thick weapon from the back, resulting in painful moans and grunts from the Orc. [Lmao, wtf did I write here ;D]

With the help of a few extra warriors, they made short work of the few Orcs remaining. Fifteen minutes later it was already almost over.

The beast lay strewn on the floor, dead. The last one of them was an Orc Warrior Elite who was already at his limit and was surrounded by a dozen human fighters.

"Die!" Gerald shouted and tossed the Toothpick at full power.

Bang!

The Orc was pinned to the wall by the force and breathed its last.

"Yeowch! Damn it, I think I tore my peck!" Gerald screamed and his face contorted in pain. "I lost myself momentarily and used too much strength… Ow!"

Pat!

"Here," Tabbris patted him on the back and handed him a potion. "Hopefully it's finally over. Phew!" He sighed, sat on the ground, and took off his helmet. "I can't do this anymore! This is my worst loss of life to date, I'm even questioning my leadership skills…"

He turned to Gerald, expecting to hear some comforting words, but the latter just stared into nothing while furrowing his brows.

"Gerald?" He called. There was no response. "Gerald?!" He called again, this time much louder.

"Come with me," Gerald finally reacted, though his expression spoke of his heavy mood. He didn't even bother looking back and simply walked to where the last batch of Orcs came from.

Tabbris scrambled to his feet and quickly followed. He had never seen Gerald so serious before and was worried about what might have caused it.

They soon arrived at another open space, only this one showed signs of recent expansion, and they could even see some primitive digging tools.

"Oh, no!" Tabbris cried after taking a look at a nearby wall. "What is this?!"

Gerald also came by and lifted his head to look. They were standing at the foot of a twenty-meter wall from which a giant crystal-like mass was being excavated. Tabbris took his lantern and lifted it as high as he could.

"Is that an Ogre?"

"Seems like it."

Inside the crystal-like seethrough substance, an Ogre was seemingly asleep. Gerald came close and gently rubbed the surface of the crystal.

"Hmm, Is this some sort of a stasis crystal? Or is it perhaps like the chrysalis insects make to evolve?" There were many such crystals. Some were small, others were large. Gerald took a walk along the wall and observed the beings inside them.

"Hmm, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Orcs… There are quite a few of them. Shamans, Elite Warriors, an ugly uh… lizard-thingy? Damn, this place is like a museum!"

After a while, he found a few dozen broken crystals, and it was quite clear that whatever used to be inside was long gone. In fact, many of these crystals were broken, or still mostly encased in stone and hidden from sight. Someone was excavating them recently!

Gerald picked up a few bits and pieces of stone and observed them closely. He frowned, "This was freshly broken, a few days ago at most I would say."

"What is this place?" Tabbris gasped. "Why are these monsters here?! And so many of them!"

"Hmm," Gerald rubbed his chin and speculated, "If I remember correctly, no matter how many of these monsters are killed, they always come back, right?"

"Yes, so?"

"I was just thinking…" Gerald said. "What if, and I emphasize if… What if the entire region is filled with pockets like these, where these monsters are in stasis inside these crystals? It would explain how they can always come back no matter how many we slay."

"That's horrible!" Tabbris exclaimed in horror and looked at all the monsters trapped inside. "Are you telling me all of these can wake up?!"

"I'm just speculating, man. Try to break one," Gerald urged.