Chapter 225: Dungeon Filled With Mid-Rank Species Monsters

"Yes. I took some injuries, but I already healed from them," he replied.

Petra seemed satisfied with his answer and rested her head against his shoulder while the group continued through the flooded forest. Alex kept a calm expression, but he remained vigilant as he looked around and checked on his teammates.

Emma, Joseph, and Petra were clearly in the worst condition, which made sense considering what they had gone through. Emma and Joseph had been the only ones capable of properly fighting from the raft, while Petra had been forced to continuously use her Faith to heal everyone.

Yulia could also fight, but her abilities were mostly useful at close range, so she had not been able to contribute much while they were surrounded by monsters in the water. Because of that, she was still in relatively good condition, while Sarah appeared to be doing the best out of everyone and was currently leading the group.

Frank was the most surprising. The big man had always carried himself with a kind expression, but right now, he looked as though he were grieving. His face was mostly blank, yet his eyes looked like they were about to cry.

Alex noticed it but did not say anything. A dreadful thought had already appeared in his mind. Was Frank’s daughter safe? Alex hoped she was. He hoped Frank had returned to the Land of Origin after securing his daughter, rather than because he was trying to escape Earth after he was unable to live in the world where something happened to his daughter.

Alex had already seen many deaths since the apocalypse started. He would not say that those deaths had no effect on him, but after seeing so many corpses back on Earth, something inside him had become somewhat numb to them.

It was strange because he had started thinking that perhaps he was becoming better at dealing with death. However, imagining that the daughter of someone he knew might have died made his heart clench in a way he had not expected.

Why did he feel this way? Was it because it reminded him once again of how close death was? Or was he becoming more worried about his own parents after everything that had happened?

There was also another possibility that bothered him. What would happen if the portal above the high school was suddenly breached from within and powerful monsters managed to come out like what happened in Washington?

Alex calmed his mind and pushed those thoughts aside. There was no reason to jump to conclusions about Frank’s daughter, as Frank might simply be reacting to all the deaths he had witnessed.

As for the portal, he would have to deal with that problem eventually. He needed to connect it to another portal so that nobody else could use it to reach the Earth, but that was something he would have to think about after location the blue cross in the Hell Difficulty.

While Alex was thinking about these things, he suddenly realized something and immediately checked his Mark of Origin. There were only five units of Origin Energy remaining.

’I should have gained some Origin Energy from clearing that Sunken Vault dungeon where the Level 19 Kraken was.But I didn’t gain anything.’

Alex frowned as he thought about it. He had not noticed the problem earlier because he had been too focused on reaching the surface, finding his teammates, and recovering from the battle. However, now that he had time to think about it, the situation did not make sense. He had not cleared the dungeon.

The problem was that Alex had not seen any other monster inside the Sunken Vault. Until now, every dungeon he had encountered had been cleared after killing its boss monster, so why had that not happened this time?

Was there another type of dungeon? Maybe the condition to complete that dungeon was not to kill the boss, but doing something else?

Or...

Was the Kraken he had killed not the boss?

A theory slowly formed in Alex’s mind. The Kraken might have only been a guard, which meant there could be another path somewhere beneath the hole where he had fought the creature, possibly leading deeper into the dungeon.

The theory sounded possible, but it was also terrifying. From everything Alex had observed so far, the boss of a dungeon was always the strongest monster inside it and remained close to the center, where the Origin Energy was thickest.

The farther a monster was from the dungeon’s center, the weaker it generally became, likely due to hierarchy where strong monsters occupied better locations in the dungeon. If the Kraken had truly been a guard, then according to that theory, it should have been one of the weaker monsters in the dungeon.

Yet it had been a Level 19 Mid-rank Species. How powerful would the monsters deeper inside be if the dungeon really continued beyond that point, and what rank would the actual boss monster possess?

Alex realized how close to death he had been. If he had found the path deeper into the dungeon and entered it, or if the monsters from inside had emerged to help the Kraken, he might never have returned. His heart began beating faster as he thought about it. He was tense, yet at the same time, he felt excited by the possibility of discovering something stronger.

Alex did not want to die, but the thought of encountering monsters far beyond anything he had fought before filled him with a strange sense of anticipation. For now, he suppressed those thoughts and focused on the situation around him.

"There is a cave ahead. Let’s move into it," Alex said after locating an opening through Mana Sense.

The group changed direction and slowly made their way toward the cave. Everyone was exhausted, and even Alex could feel the strain from the battle because he had used more than sixty percent of his mana while fighting the Kraken and then returning to his teammates.

They needed somewhere safe to recover. The group entered the cave, and a notification immediately appeared before Alex.

[Badger’s Burrow dungeon entered.]

Everyone became tense. The timing was terrible because they had barely survived the previous battle, most of them were injured or exhausted, and even Alex had not fully recovered from his fight with the Kraken.

Emma tightened her grip around her bow as she looked deeper into the cave. "The dungeon name sounds like there are badgers inside."

Sarah glanced toward Alex before asking, "Are they dangerous?"

"Yes. Alex and I were attacked by a Baby Badger before, and it was a Mid-rank Species," Emma replied. She paused for a moment before continuing, "If a baby was already a Mid-rank Species, then..."

Emma did not finish her sentence, but she did not need to. Everyone understood what she meant. If the baby was already a Mid-rank Species, then there was a high chance that the older ones were Mid-rank Species as well. Moreover, they would probably have higher levels, which meant that entering the dungeon could be extremely dangerous for their current group.

..

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