Dragon Master: The SSS-Ranked School Belle Asked Me To Contract Her

Aurora and Veer moved towards Rain as Jonathan followed them. He was also curious if she had really found a cave. If Veer's hypothesis was correct, they could save a lot of time.

Seeing Veer approach, Rain pointed at a corner of the wall and said, "Behind it is a small cave, probably about two meters in depth after a certain distance."

"Thanks for the help."

Saying that, Veer touched the wall and muttered, "Mana Pulse!"

In the next second, the rocks trembled and cracked. Then, some of them began to fall while others Veer simply destroyed with precision. A smile formed on his face as he saw the other side.

It was empty and dark, but it was a cave nonetheless. It was narrow at the start, but he was sure it got wider after some distance, just as Rain had described.

He turned around and said, "You can see for yourself."

Jonathan nodded, deciding he didn't need to inspect further. He said, "Very well then, we'll follow your plan and use the underground caves in that hill to reach the tomb. But the problem is the unknown."

Veer felt a chill hearing the word "unknown" but quickly masked it. Pretending to be nonchalant, he shrugged. "As I said, you have the options and need to choose. My group will try our luck in the caves."

Jonathan didn't answer immediately, thinking about it for a minute before speaking. "Fine! We'll also follow your plan. It's better if we all stick together."

"Very well then, there's no point in delaying any further, so we should set off immediately," Aurora said.

"Yes, but let's make some things clear first," Jonathan interjected. "The loot will be distributed based on contribution, and we can back off if we feel your judgments are wrong."

"Sure!"

"Good! Then, we all except Amelia follow the Assassin class, so we can't fight directly," Jonathan sighed. "That's why we had trouble fighting that Magical Creature earlier. So, I'll have to ask you to be the vanguard."

"Leave all of that to me," Veer said confidently. "I'm a tank and a good one at that. You just need to find the right opportunities to kill anything that stands in our path."

"I have no problem with that."

Seeing that they had come to an agreement, the two groups spent more time discussing their abilities and how they could assist each other better in battles.

Of course, they kept their main skills and techniques a secret, especially their Aspects, as those were the most crucial abilities. One of the reasons Aurora was so dangerous was because her Aspect allowed her to deal True Damage. Likewise, they all wanted to keep their Aspects hidden.

Then, they set off towards the hill in the distance. Though calling it a hill would be an understatement, as it was part of a towering mountain range. It only looked small in comparison to the vast forest.

They encountered more and more Magical Creatures the deeper they ventured into the Floating Island. However, these creatures were still manageable for the group. The strongest they faced was the same Fifth Child of Deep, which they killed properly this time.

Having a marksman helped immensely, as Aurora blasted it apart from the inside out with a single arrow. However, she kept her power in check to avoid revealing too much.

By the time the sun dipped below the horizon, the group had completed a quarter of their journey. Traveling at night wasn't safe for them. Even though they had Assassins, they weren't strong enough to handle the deadly predators that roamed after dark. Find more chapters on My Virtual Library Empire

So, the group decided to set up a small camp in one of the caves they found. Following Veer's earlier suggestion, they had begun to pay closer attention to the caves and found many scattered throughout the forest.

They easily discovered two caves side by side and chose them for their camp. However, no one trusted the others enough to sleep soundly.

As Veer roasted boar meat, he asked, "How much would you two like?"

"I'll take that whole portion," Rain said, her eyes gleaming with greed as she stared at the roasting meat. She swallowed hard and quickly wiped the drool from her mouth before looking away.

"Hmm, I've noticed that your appetite has grown," Veer remarked. "I guess your Aspect is already affecting you."

"But I didn't have this problem before," Rain muttered, shooting occasional glances at the meat.

"It's because you had no clue about your Aspect and never used it," Veer explained, tossing the entire portion to Rain, who quickly began devouring it.

He prepared another portion, much smaller than the previous one, and added, "But now that you've used your Aspect to devour such a powerful foe, your hunger has increased."

"Boss..." Rain paused her eating and looked at her meal with sad eyes. "Will my hunger just keep growing?"

"Hard to say, but probably, yeah," Veer nodded. "But you don't need to worry about it. There's more than enough food in this world. Even if you eat all the time, it wouldn't run out. I'll help you with that."

"These side effects are crazy," Aurora said as she stuffed her meal into her mouth. "And here I am, not even knowing what my side effects are."

"Those are the problematic ones. Just be careful," Veer warned, taking a bite of his dinner. "What do we do with them, though? Do you think they'll try to assassinate us?"

"I highly doubt it. They have a Seer and likely know enough about our strength. They wouldn't be foolish enough to try that now," Aurora replied, shaking her head. "Still, we'll keep watch in turns just to be safe."

"I'll go first," Rain volunteered. "I need to digest all of this anyway."

"Sure!"

The other two had no problem with that and began chatting about lighter topics. They avoided discussing the Tomb, knowing that once they reached it, there would likely be no rest for a long time.

After some time, they went to sleep, leaving Rain to stand guard.