Back to the village

"Just how much do we have until we get there?" Will complained. They already have been walking for about one day continuously, so they didn't feel any better than the time they were inside the dungeon, not being able to sleep.

Ashley, which was aided by Anna's magic, was looking around the place from a vantage point, up in the trees. She was a lot faster than the group so she was gathering information about their surroundings. Anna felt her hastily approaching as it was her magic that was supporting her, so she was able to pinpoint her by an indescribable feeling.

She didn't think much of it, maybe she was heading back here so that she can tell them about a strong beast that was around them as she did quite a bit before.

Ashley landed in front of the group where Max was situated. She had a pale face, a day of gathering info and using the trees as her footing was exhausting at her level.

"We are here! I know the place! We are around the outer edges of the forest!" She said excitingly at Max, her eyes were once again filled with energy one which spread around to everyone.

"Then let's go!" Max also being filled with a strange rush of energy commanded everyone, but nobody cared as everyone wanted home at the same level. It didn't matter if they were the ones who entered the dungeon or the ones that felt helpless outside of the dungeon, they wanted the same thing.

They didn't care about their formation anymore, once Ashley dashed, showing the way for everyone, they followed her blindly. They entered a small clearing in the forest, which felt weird as such a clearing was strange to be found anywhere. Everyone from Max's team knew where this place was. They began to rush even faster, now confident about it, the team of five was leading the way through the forest at a quick pace.

Dodging trees once again as they left the clearing, their pace didn't slow down. Their anticipation grow as the bright light that was in front of them became more closer.

*Swoosh*

Ashley was the first one who broke through the final layer of trees which the forest had to offer. As she looked in front of her she could see a familiar sight, the relatively tall wooden village walls greeted her, and soon after her everyone was.

Some of them let out cries of relief, while others cried of joy. Not a lot of them thought they would be able to also get back home in one piece.

No one was killed under Ashley's careful examination of their surroundings, she was a miracle. She was undetected to even some High-Grade Beasts which would've most probably killed at least a bunch of their group before even being able to understand what was happening.

They reached the village gates, where someone was waiting for them.

Max felt the veins on his head expand as he saw Eric with a happy expression looking at them all. Some didn't even care anymore, though left alone by him they were still able to get back but for some of the others, especially the ones that fought in the dungeon, they wanted to grab this muscular old man and strangle him.

"Everyone! I know that you might hate me but.." Eric looked at everyone, the ones that didn't care about him anymore were entering the village while there were the other ones that were staring enraged at Eric.

Eric had a keen eye so he noticed it almost instantly. Someone was missing.

He looked at everyone, and numbered them again. 18... 'No!' His face changed to one of sadness. 'Did one die?' Eric, not smiling anymore was almost shedding tears, his face began changing colors as his eyes grew a shiny tint on them.

He looked down, feeling ashamed. "I'm sorry.." He truly felt ashamed. He watched them while they were outside of the dungeon, and once he saw the first people coming out of it the next day he began heading back, not knowing that Jericho died. He knew that people were unconscious on the backs of their teammates but he didn't think that any died. It was classified as a Low-Tier Dungeon and even the unconscious children like Max didn't look hurt, or at least didn't have serious injuries so he headed back without worry, getting ready to congratulate and reward the ones which fought inside the dungeon.

"What truly happened?" Eric with red eyes said, he had streams of tears going down his old face, his attitude took a 180 degree turn.

Everyone began pitying him as he saw him being worse than them at the time of it happening. They began explaining and as they got to the weird shadow creature Eric exclaimed.

"Shadow creature!? Are you guys sure?" Eric looked at them. There was no way a shadow creature was inside an undead dungeon, they were a completely other thing than undead, and a lot harder to deal with than what the nine kids- no, Weapon Masters told him right now.

"In my years of dungeon explorations this was never a case, one deemed impossible" Eric looked at them while thinking ".. the only way is that it was a mutated Ghoul, there is just no other way."

Not understanding what Eric was blabbering about they didn't understand how serious the situation was. A Ghoul was strong for sure, but a mutated one, especially with such mutated characteristics would be at least two times as strong as a normal one.

Eric looked at them awe-struck. He began thinking about something before checking his body for something while saying.

"Alright guys you go inside, I have to talk with someone. I will give you a reward later, the ones I prepared are underwhelming."

He turned around swiftly dodging the other classmates of Max and the others as he made his way inside the village. The group began walking inside as well.

The sun faded from the horizon and the moon began to rise, it was dawn and as Max almost reached for the handle to his house the door swung open, a seemingly angered man stared at Max before shouting.

"Inside! NOW!" The man demanded, Max couldn't say anything about it. And as Max got inside the house he greeted the man.

"Hello dad..."