Cirix words echoed through the chamber.

Zyra was stunned upon hearing her student’s words.

"W-What are you...?"

Valen immediately took the stone from her.

"You said ’us.’ What do you mean by that?"

"Didn’t you say only one monster attacked you?"

Cirix answered with her usual calm voice.

"Indeed. Only one monster attacked me."

"But there are more..."

After Zyra calmed down she took back the stone from Valen and asked Cirix.

"How many are there exactly?"

"I don’t know..."

"Can you tell us anything else that might help us?"

There was a short silence.

"It won’t allow me to."

Cirix’s voice remained calm.

"But I will pray for you all to survive when I die."

The connection suddenly disappeared.

Zyra stared at the mana stone with a mixture of anger and sadness, she was still in shock but she manage to hide it so the other goblins won’t get effected much.

Aluna walked toward the center of the chamber.

"We should investigate."

Zyra nodded.

"Agreed, let’s go inside the tunnel the fourth team went into."

"Let’s first make a plane first" Valen commented before the three of them start talking.

Qasim found something on the ground so he picked it up.

It looked like a normal mana cristal.

The crystal was transparent, with the familiar shape of a mana cristals.

But there was no mana inside it.

"This is weird..."

Mana cristals were created when mana gathered under extreme conditions and condensed into a crystal.

At least, that was what he knew.

"So how can a mana stone exist without mana?"

He frowned.

He wanted to ask Levia, but his teacher was as shocked as him.

She wanted to run some test on it but the three leaders finished their plans and ordered them to move backwards towards the tunnel, so she decided to think about it later.

They walked through the same path.

The deeper they went, the quieter the dungeon became.

Eventually, they reached the chamber.

The first thing that hit them was the nasty smell.

Blood, flesh and other things that was impossible to describe.

They saw the bodies of the dead goblins were scattered across the chamber.

Some had been split in half.

Others were missing limbs.

Their deaths had been horrible.

But all of them had one thing in common.

Their throats were gone.

Their eyes were gone.

The monsters had taken them.

Zyra slowly stepped forward.

She looked at the bodies.

Then she dropped onto one knee.

"I’ll kill them all..."

She whispered those words to herself.

But everyone could feel the anger coming from her.

Even through her helmet makes her expression not obvious.

The pressure she released was so heavy that even Qasim felt it.

Everyone else wore the same shocked expression.

But Valen was looking for something else.

Or rather...

For something that wasn’t there.

"It’s not here..."

Valen’s voice was quiet.

"The monster is not here... I am afreid it’s going to awake the other monsters."

"It’s just a theory but maybe I am correct."

Everyone heard him and start imagining the situation which made their faces goes pale.

Zyra immediately stepped forward.

"Then we need to kill them all."

She clenched her fist.

"C’mon. There is no time to waste."

"No."

Valen’s voice stopped her.

Zyra looked at him.

"It’s already too late."

He looked at the tunnels.

"Rushing in now won’t help us."

"It’s better to slow down and focus on creating the best possible formation."

Zyra remained silent.

Her anger was barely being held back.

But after a few seconds, she lowered her head and took a deep breath.

"I’m sorry."

She looked at Valen.

"You’re right."

Together, the three leaders began creating the best formation they could under the circumstances.

After discussing everything, they reached the same conclusion.

Their goal was simple.

Stay alive and find a way to escape, and killing monsters will help them achieving this goal.

They also had to assume that the monsters they were about to encounter could possess power somewhere close to a Hilal-Awal.

In this group only Zyra and Valen were Hilal-Awal, so there best fighter is the third step, Tarbi-awal Aluna.

Eventually, they started moving again.

They continued through the tunnels until they encountered another split.

Three tunnels.

Valen sighed.

"How much of the dungeon have you explored?"

Zyra glanced at him.

"I know it’s a secret."

"And I know you’re not allowed to tell specific information to a human."

"But..."

Valen looked serious.

"Any piece of information could help us here."

Zyra remained silent for a moment.

She looked at Valen.

Then at Aluna.

Finally, she spoke.

"The dungeon we control is called the Time Caves."

Qasim listened carefully.

"The reason we explore it so often is because of the time paradox effect that happens here."

The group went to the middle tunnel as she explains.

"Last year, one of my coworkers went with his team to explore the dungeon, just like we’re doing now."

"They said they didn’t find much."

"Most of the tunnels were dead ends."

"So they decided to return."

Zyra’s expression became serious.

"But what they found when they returned was unbelievable."

"They were fifty years in the past."

Everyone became silent.

"They were immediately caught by the army and taken for investigation."

"When my coworker told them he was from the future, nobody believed him."

"They accused him of having bad intentions and trying to harm the kingdom."

"So they decided to kill him and his entire team."

"But he managed to escape."

"He lived in a small village and built a new life there."

"He stayed there until he became old."

"Until last year when he suddenly appeared in front of me right after his younger self disappeared."

"He told me some extremely important secrets that nobody should know except us."

"That’s how I knew it was really him."

"There are more stories like this."

"Some people travel to the future."

"Some travel to the past."

"Some are still stuck somewhere inside."

Zyra looked around the tunnels.

"This place isn’t fixed."

Aluna and Valen both looked shocked.

Valen immediately turned toward her.

"So your kingdom basically sent us into a fucking time loop?"

Zyra shook her head.

"Not exactly."

"We already discovered that the time paradox only begins after passing through a certain number of chambers."

She held up her fingers.

"So far, we’ve passed through two."

"And five is the limit."

Zyra looked at him and the others.

"And I don’t have to explain that this conversation doesn’t leave this dungeon."

Aluna nodded.

"Of course."

They continued walking.

Eventually, they reached the end of the tunnel.

Everyone prepared themselves.

But nothing happened.

There was no monster.

It was simply another normal chamber.

Then—

A strange noise echoed through the chamber.

Everyone stopped.

The sound came from somewhere deeper inside the dungeon.

Nobody spoke.

They simply listened.

Something was coming.

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