Adam walked calmly forward along the narrow paths among the lava lakes. Risha followed him with a frown.
She was annoyed at the way Adam treated her, but he had a right to be, for she was no prize either. But, what pissed her off the most was that there was nothing she could do about it.
'Tsk...' she inwardly hissed. 'First, he practically killed , now he's saving ... Why, out of all the people at the Lower Ring, did this happen to ?'
Now and then, at the Lower Ring, the Light Phantoms would descend, it was a rare but not unique event. This ti, Risha was lucky and was almost the first to encounter a new Light Phantom.
But... That Phantom turned out to be Adam.
Risha shook her head rembering how easily Adam had defeated her, on both occasions. 'From what I know, the Phantoms at the Upper Ring are weak! Most of them! Then... Why isn't he like that? And, why does a K3-Phantom want to face Wilfred? That person, far from his level...'
Completely imrsed in thinking and complaining about her failure, Risha didn't notice Adam stop, so she crashed into his back.
She fell down gritting her teeth and looking at him. "Hey! Why the fuck did you slow down!"
"I don't see the point in going any further."
"What?"
Adam crossed his arms over his chest, nodding his head thoughtfully.
"We've been walking forward for ten minutes now. I've noticed a few monsters following us, but after ten or twenty seconds, they've been moving away. They're either afraid or they realize they don't stand a chance against ."
"Against us!" Risha exclaid pointing at him. "Don't forget that I'm a Phantom too! I'm strong too!"
Adam shrugged.
"Sure, it's just as you say."
Then, he turned away looking at the wandering shadows near the surface of the lakes. The path they were following was nestled between two lava lakes large enough to hide dozens of monsters.
A few eyes, a long tail, and a sharp fin from so creature showed up amongst the bubbling bubbles, but it didn't go anywhere further than that.
'Hmm...' Adam reflected. 'I rember my days as a K0 and K1 Phantom, monsters were a lot more reckless back then. Not all of them attacked in a blind rage, but they were either attacked or feared.
'But...'
Adam looked around, constantly sensing the auras of other creatures that were disappearing as quickly as they ca.
'The Red Threat Monsters are different. They're like humans, no... not even all humans act like that... right?'
He waved his hand.
'They observe you from afar, assessing your aura and movents. After that, it takes them less than a minute to make a decision. Considering I recently killed an S3 monster in one punch... Well, no one as strong or weaker than a lizard would attack . Not all humans are so patient and cautious. That's impressive.'
It seed that this was good news for Adam. Thanks to the high intelligence of the Red Threat monsters, Adam and Risha were not attacked by weak monsters.
This left Adam with only two options for possible opponents - S4 and S5 monsters.
However, finding them proved to be a difficult task.
'Damn, I expected that at the Cave Grid, there were monsters and Phantoms everywhere in the heat of battle. But...' Adam glanced around. 'For hundreds of ters ahead, there's nothing here, just emptiness and lava. There are quite a few monsters, but they hide and run away. In the ten minutes we've been here we haven't seen a single Phantom.'
Well, Adam was a stranger to the Lower Ring, so Risha had to know a lot more.
"Hey," Adam jerked his head. "Where are the rest of the Phantoms? Are we the only ones who decided to hunt the Red Threat monsters today?"
"Argh?" Risha frowned scratching the back of her head. "Haven't you been listening to my brother? The lower you go down the fewer Phantoms and more monsters. At the White and Green Zones, there's a shitload of Phantoms, a lot of monsters too, but they're constantly being hunted. I an, we're a K3-Phantoms. We're much fewer than the K0, K1, and K2 ones. On the zone for K4-Phantoms, things are even more empty.
"There are definitely Phantoms on the other floors of the Red Zone or even here, they're just far away. I an, the foundation of the Cave Grid is as big as the Lower Ring. This area has the highest density of Phantoms and monsters. So hunt alone, and so hunt in squads. Just like at the Dead Lands. I'm sure I'm not the one to explain that to you."
Her last words made Adam think. He had fought at the Dead Lands against the Dark Phantoms, but how common was that?
Curiously, Adam raised an eyebrow. "How often do you go to the Dead Lands? I know it's pretty easy to get there from the Lower Ring."
Risha shrugged nonchalantly.
"Yeah, it's done through the far mines of the Peaceful Zone extending beyond the walls. How many tis have I been there? Well, a few tis. But, I'm not interested in it. Those were missions ordered by my superiors. Missions for the Red Bears mbers, you know?"
In response, Adam only nodded slightly. He didn't know what Risha was doing at the Dead Lands.
Was she fighting against monsters? Or maybe she was one of the Dark Phantoms who attacked the Light Phantom squads?
It took ti and desire to figure it out.
Adam had neither of those things.
His eyes grew deeper as he bit his lip about to ask Risha sothing.
Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.
At the sa mont, a quiet but powerful aura resounded in the distance.
A shiver ran through Risha's body, while Adam turned around, confused. He never encountered such an aura before, it took him a mont to realize what was happening.
"Oh... I see..." the corners of his lips went up. "There's no battle going on and it's not a threat. Are we being invited to a fight, or maybe it even wants to talk?"
Before Risha could react, Adam waved a hand beckoning her.
"Hurry up, I don't like to keep others waiting."
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