Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Chuck was the head of the Sea God's guild branch located in the city of Mountmend. Though their branch was not very renowned within the Sea God's guild they were still a branch of one of the top five guilds across the whole kingdom of Ellesmere.

Hence they still had quite a few skilled adventures even in this backwater place. A month ago, the main guild informed them of the arrival of Godwin and Raven, the two legendary figures of their guild and the talk of their everyday conversation. After all, those two were just too famous and being from the same guild; of course, they all felt proud.

At that time, Chuck was quite excited by the news, thinking that he would be able to meet with the figures that their entire guild held in high regard and possibly even get to exchange some pointers with them. An opportunity to cross swords with them wasn't something you come across every day.

Although he didn't want to brag but he was pretty skilled with the sword and given the chance, he would be able to raise his skills through their exchange. Chuck knew that if he could glimpse at their superior techniques, he would have benefitted tremendously.

However, his hopes didn't come to fruition. The monsters started breaking out of the forest towards the city of Mountmend. Monsters breaking out of the Ghastly Winding Forest was nothing new for the city of Mountmend, but this time it was reported by the soldiers stationed near the borders that the movement of the monsters coming out of the forest was rather unusual.

Seizing the opportunity when Godwin and Raven arrived at the city of Mountmend, the city lord Alfred immediately requested a meeting. The request was to explore the Ghastly Winding Forest and investigate the reason behind the mass outbreak of monsters.

The main guild sent Godwin and Raven to the city of Mountmend for another reason, therefore it became Chuck's responsibility to carry out the request. Although he was quite annoyed by how sudden the request was, he was in no position to reject it.

Chuck couldn't help but sigh when he thought about missing the opportunity of duking it out with Godwin and Raven to sharpen his skills. It is rumoured that their skill has reached a point where even the top brass of their main guild were no match for them.

"Cheer up captain. The circumstances were so that it couldn't be helped, there is no point dwelling on it" said a beautiful girl twenty or so years in age. She was wearing a white dress that augmented her lithe figure and had a beautiful face that could captivate hundreds of thousands of men.

Pink lips and bright eyes made her seem to be quite cheerful. Her name was Lina, she was the vice leader of this party and a level 325 [Sage].

[Sage] is the higher class of [Wizard] and only those who can raise their levels and skill high enough, can achieve this class.

Chuck couldn't help but laugh helplessly and cheer up with her energetic voice. "Yeah, you are right I cannot get distracted at this moment". Currently, he was leading a team of twenty-five people into exploring the Ghastly Winding Forest.

Although he said he can't get distracted, he was already familiar with this part of the forest and knew the topography very well as well as where all the powerful monsters resided. It wasn't his first time delving into the forest.

After all, every adventurer residing in the City of Mountmend, relies on hunting monsters in the Ghastly Winding Forest to earn money for their living. Every part of a monster is useful, be it their meat, hide, fangs or claws, each has its own uses. Some are used in forging and enhancing weapons, while others are used in alchemy or could be sold to the merchants for a good price.

The mission to hunt down monsters help in culling down their numbers and keep the city safe and at the same time earns them a good amount of money.

For Chuck and his teammates, it was just business like any other day. Their goal was to investigate any strange happening inside the forest and report it back to the guild. Although the mission sounds easy, its grade was unknown.

Adventurers use grades to identify the difficulty of the mission. Various factors affect the difficulty of the mission such as the political, economical condition of the area or the danger level of the monsters residing in the area.

The grades start from [F] and go all the way to [S+]. An F grade mission was the easiest and in the same manner, the S+ was the hardest. That being said, in a backwater place such as their city of Mountemend which was at the corner of the central continent and borders the demon continent, [B] was the highest grade.

If there is an adventurer or team of adventurers that could handle a grade more than [B], they would mostly choose to operate near the central area or the capital city of the kingdom. The commission that they could there, was many times more compared to the remote and border regions.

An [Unknown] grade mission was only assigned when the grade of the mission is not known or could vary depending on the situation inside. Though their current mission was an [Unknown] grade, the fact that the unusual occurrence was happening inside the Ghastly Winding Forest was enough to warrant it a high-grade mission.

Even after searching the eastern part of the forest for a while, they did not find anything unusual. They had come to hunt in this forest many times before but they never chose to delve deeper towards the west side of the forest as they were all aware of strong monsters residing inside.

Those adventurers that let greed get into their heads and delve deeper into the forest never came back alive. The Ghastly Winding Forest is located in the demon continent and borders the central continent, therefore not only strong monsters but even demons could rarely be seen sometimes roaming the forest.

Just when Chuck's party was preparing to delve deeper into the forest, Chuck who was leading in front, raised his hand and stopped their march. All the team members were veteran adventurers and immediately became alert, searching the surroundings while covering each others back.

Grrrrrrrr….Kriiieeeekkk…Grooowwwl.

A ferocious aura came from inside the forest and three pairs of crimson eyes stared at them with bloodlust. Chuck immediately commanded, "Get in formation. Do not allow any monsters to slip into the backlines. Warriors raise your shield we will mow them down".

The warriors immediately took out their shields and took their stance defending the backlines.

SHHHAAAAA...

Before the monsters even reached them, a bloodthirsty and frenzied aura filled with killing intent hit the entire group.

Some of them gulped anxiously and raised their weapon trying to fight off the aura that was pressuring them. "Mere tricks will not work on us. Let the light shine upon all of you [Lions Heart]"

Lina shouted before casting her Light magic. A curtain of white light fell on all of the twenty-five people from the sky above and removed the effect of the bloodthirsty aura that hit them earlier. Light Magic, a novice tier magic and one of the four rare forms of mana alongside Time, Space, and dark.

The monsters that were releasing a ferocious aura finally revealed themselves. Looking at their forms, the team was dumbstruck while Chuck knitted his brows.

There was no need to use analysis on the monsters as he already knew what they were. Chimaeras, they are a type of monster that has features of other monsters in their body.

They are generally insentient and are ruled by their instinct or by the orders of their controller. Chuck did not expect to see a chimera here, much less three of them at once. The guild generally identifies them as Strong class monsters but some of them even have the potential to reach Elite, Super, or even the Disaster class.

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Race:- Dark Marrow Tiger-python.

Level:- 289

Skills:- Dark Magic Mastery, Berserk, Blood Miasma, Enhanced Claws, Strong Jaws, Blunt Damage Resistance, Cut Resistance, Regeneration, Intimidation, Pain Resistance

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Race:- Falcon Wing Bull-Ox

Level:- 281

Skills:- Wind Magic Mastery, Earth Magic Mastry, Berserk, Head Charge, Enhanced Defence, Blunt damge Resistance, Cut resistance, Regeneration, Intimidation, Pain Resistance.

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Race:- Elephant Snout Wild Boar

Level:- 290

Skills:- Fire Magic Mastery, Fire Charge, Roar, Berserk, Enhanced Agility, Blunt Damage resistance, Cut Resistance, Regeneration, intimidation, Pain resistance.