The Lost Man

At Ryth's command, they attacked the monsters at the same time. Llyod used his taunt skill, and when the monsters attentions turned towards him, the team attacked their respected targets.

Rain of arrows rained down on the monsters. At one area, there was an arrow with speedlight, piercing through the head of one of the monsters, receiving critical hits. In another area, there were monsters who got stabbed and sliced swiftly. It can be seen closely that it had been done by the new ebony daggers wielded by Woodgard.

The monsters all died in an instant.

Once done, all the elves retrieved their still useable arrows from the dead monsters. One of them turned to Ryth and said, "Mr. Myrad, we are ready to go."

"Good, but first, I have to tell you that my commands are absolute. This is for your own safety, so listen to everything I say!"

"Yes, sir!" They shouted in unison.

Ryth nodded his head, satisfied by their answer and then said to Daedalus. "Scan the dungeon now, Daedalus!"

"Got it!" Daedalus activated his scanning skill, the eye let a blue beam gushed out to their surroundings. The minimap now show where the enemies are, including the dungeon's paths and many other things, until Ryth found a yellow dot in the floor level between second and first.

"Hmm… Seems like I found your missing friend, Mr. Woodgard." Said Ryth to Woodgard.

Woodgard and the other elves were surprised. It seems like the blue light that was scanning their surroundings were one of the human's skills. Looks like it helps to scan the area for threats and people. That skill is too OP!

"Okay, move!"

They went inside the dungeon, the first floor was only filled with level 10 - 15 monsters, so it was a piece of cake for the team to go through the first floor. Also, after Ryth told Daedalus to check the mana flow of these monsters, he only found little traces of miasma.

"It seems that these monsters aren't affected by the miasma as bad as the monsters that had attacked the village." Ryth said.

"Yes, we think so too. When we got here 3 days ago, we found that the monsters in second floor were much stronger. Actually, the monsters that had attacked the village earlier was those same monsters we spotted in the second floor," Woodgard informed Ryth.

"I see..." Ryth nodded his head and signaled to his team to proceed deeper.

They took down the monsters very quickly and have already arrived at the stairs that will led to the second floor.

"Ryth, you should stop in the middle of the stairs and check the wall on the left side. I will scan it, I think there is a secret passageway to where the missing man is." Said Daedalus.

"Mhm, I think we should save him first. But what do you think about it? Should we come in together or let some of the men guard outside since the area might be cramped."

"I think for now, it's better to proceed together. I can spot all of the traps anyway, so it should not be a problem."

"Okay, then." Ryth nodded.

They walked towards the stairs and stopped at the spot where Daedalus had mentioned. Daedalus scanned the area with his skill and then instructed Ryth to press a brick on his right side. Suddenly, sounds of walls being moved could be heard and the wall in front of them opened.

The elves looked confused, wondering as to how Ryth knows about the secret passageway. And after the wall had opened, they were even more surprised. They did not expect that this exist in this dungeon.

"What's wrong guys? Lets go in!" Ryth said.

Llyod and Hill could only smiled in bemusement. They could understand how the elves are feeling now. They were the same before and now, they are already accustomed to their Lord's skills. Especially when it comes to dungeons.

Inside the dungeon, Ryth could walk wherever he wanted to as if he knew about the place like his own backyard! Even before he found the [Eye of Daedalus], Ryth found a secret passageway that led to the secret mechanism room. This proved that his knowledge about dungeon was nothing but vast!

They quickly followed behind Ryth and then after some time, they arrived in front of a door.

"Scan it, Daedalus."

"Easy."

He scanned it and after a second, Daedalus said. "You can open it now, nothing's inside except the missing man."

Ryth nodded and pushed open the door.

Inside the room, there were a lot of jail rooms. It seems that this room is used to trap people inside. And in one of the jails, there is a dark elf, who is trying to break out with his weapon. But it was useless. The jail doesn't even had a scratch.

"Dang it!"

The dark elf then hears a noise of a door being pushed. He turned around and saw the door in front of him opened. He immediately made a fighting stance. But then he was surprised when he saw Woodgard behind the man who had opened the door. He shouted in happiness. "Woodgard! Everyone!"

He ran forward to give a great friendly smack on Woodgard's back and said, "Hey, hey! Did you guys come to save me? Didn't think that you all would manage to find me here. And I can't even make a scratch at this door!"

"Easy, Tregnar, we will get you out from here."

Tregnar realized something and asked, "Who are these humans? Why are you guys with them?"

"These are our guests who had helped us a lot when the monsters attacked our village yesterday. The team leader is the young man here, Mr. Ryth Myrad, the one with heavy armor is Mr. Llyod, and the archer with black hoodie is Mr. Hill. They are good people, Tregnar." Woodgard explained.

"I see, I thank you for helping my village survived the attack." Tregnar slightly bowed his head and continued, "I think you can only open the cage with its key. The key is on the dungeon boss."

"How did you know about the key?"

"Look at there." Tregnar pointed at the walls beside the door. There was a writing.

'I will make you my experiment material for later, you can't get out from the prison unless you have the key. But the key is with me, you can do nothing about it, HAHA!'

"What's with this creepy writings?" Ryth asked and continued, "You have met with the boss before?"

"No, I lost my conciousness before I could meet with the boss. And when I woke up, I found myself inside this jail. But sometimes I could hear his laughter from below me. So I think it's in the lower level, and since it can move freely inside this dungeon, I make a deduction that it's the dungeon boss." Replied Tregnar.

"Your deduction might be right. And it can talk in our language as well, looks like he is indeed the mastermind behind all of the monsters attacks occurrence." Woodgard put his index finger and thumb on his chin as he said.

"What's with this dungeon boss? an S?" Said Ryth to Daedalus.

"Ku ku ku! This is the first time I've encountered such situation as well, this will be interesting!"

"What? The boss is an S and you are an M?" Ryth put his right hand's palm on his forehead.

"No, I'm just feeling a bit excited to experience something I haven't! Ku ku ku!"

Ryth sighed and said to Tregnar. "Okay we will go forward to the lowest level to defeat the boss. According to my map, this dungeon has 4 level of floors, you just need to wait here."

"Can you guys really do it? Seems like the dungeon boss is really weirdly unique."

"Yes, I believe we can do it." Ryth said firmly.

"You can rest assured, with him and his team here, we can clear this dungeon." Woodgard added to convince Tregnar.

"Alright, but safety comes first. You guys don't act recklessly."

"Yes, don't worry." Woodgard and the elves nodded their heads.

Just as Woodgard wanted to walk towards the door, Ryth said. "Wait, we don't need to go back and go through all the troubles."

The elves, Woodgard and even Tregnar were surprised at his words. And one of the elves asked, "Mr. Myrad, did you find something like a shortcut?"

Ryth nodded as he looked around. "Well, just think. If the boss can write that creepy writings over there and wanted to make Tregnar as his experiment material, and if it really reside in the lowest level of the dungeon which is the fourth floor. Won't it be too troublesome for it to go through all of the floor one by one?"

Woodgard and Hill came to a realization and said in unison. "Another secret passageway..."

"Correct." Ryth smiled.

Although he already scanned it before, but he wanted to make the elves trust him more by giving them an explaination and show them that they would benefit from befriending him. That's why he say all these to them.

Ryth walked towards the corner of the room and told Daedalus to scan the floor.

"There is indeed a passage here. A mechanism is installed here. I can break it in a minute." Daedalus said confidently.

"Break it, then."

Daedalus requested a permission to use Ryth's both hands and started doing his job.

"What is he doing?" asked one of the elves.

"He's trying to open its mechanism. Looks like it may be a problem for him since he is just a swordman. He might have many useful skills such as the scan skill and mana tracer skill. But breaking a mechanism isn't a simple jo-"

Just as Woodgard wanted to finish his sentences, the floor opened.

"Ding!"

"Oof, I opened it too hard." Said Ryth while scratching his head.

The elves, Woodgard and Tregnar were dumbfounded that their jaws dropped.

What the heck?!

This is a mechanism! He is only a swordman! How did he managed to open the mechanism?

Hill and Llyod heaved a long breath as they smiled bitterly and said. "Come on guys, we have to go."

The elves and Woodgard came back to the reality and nodded their heads.

"Okay, Tregnar, wait here, we will be back once we have defeated the boss." Said Ryth.

"Ah! Yes, okay..." Tregnar replied awkwardly.

"Evil being, here we comes!" Thought Ryth to himself.