The Divine Wolf.. Or? - Chapter 184

The Moonlit Caves was a dungeon that was actually bit different compared to the other dungeons Ark had been to before. Unlike a dungeon with different levels, the Moonlit Caves was essentially a cave system, with each cave having different levels of difficulty. It wasn’t like you needed to beat a certain level to be able to advance to the next one or something. If you were strong enough, you could just go straight into the hardest cave without even looking back.

But at the moment, there was no way for Ark and the rest of them to be able to beat the hardest cave. They were simply too low level. At the same time, that was also kind of the point, and half of the reason why they had chosen to stay in this city. They could make use of the lower-level caves to level up and then proceed to challenge the high-level caves. At the end of it all, Ark wasn’t sure which level he would reach, or maybe if he would even evolve, but either way, he was sure to get even stronger. That was his goal after all.

After asking around for a bit, they were able to choose a cave that was suitable for their ability. The cave they had chosen had a large plaque next to it with the number 4, indicating the difficulty of the monsters inside. After they had asked around for a while, they had ascertained that the average level of the monsters in this cave was around level 130. It wasn’t like they had reached level 130 themselves, but with the powers they currently had, defeating someone that was level 130 wouldn’t be that difficult, especially not if they helped each other out.

Since they were going into a cave that had a rather high difficulty with a child, plenty of people stepped forward to persuade them and warn them of the dangers inside. Since he didn’t want to be bothered, Ark made use of his mana to emit a stifling amount of pressure from his body, scaring away most people that were trying to warn them. These people weren’t stupid, this group of 4 was obviously strong, whether they went into the cave or not was none of their business. Since no one was bothering them anymore, they quickly went into the cave.

There were some guards stationed outside each cave just in case, but they didn’t stop anyone from entering, they were only there to make sure that no monsters came out of the dungeon. The inside of the cave was damp and cold, and with no sources of light, it was incredibly dark as well. Ark could see well even if it was dark, but the same could not be said about Thufrat and the rest, so Ark conjured up a ball of blue flame, which not only took care of the darkness but also drove away the cold.

Just like that, their exploration of the cave became much smoother. Normally, monsters would definitely approach them after seeing the bright flame in the darkness, but after gathering some information outside of the dungeon, Ark knew that wasn’t going to happen. This was a dungeon after all, and it was far from an ordinary cave system. Like most other dungeons, each level was different from the rest, and they all had their own peculiarities, if anything, the caves weren’t the actual dungeon!

The cave they were currently in actually lead to a forest full of undead, whilst another cave might lead to a jungle full of exotic and venomous monsters. One of the caves actually leads to a large lake, where you had to venture underwater to fight monsters, naturally, almost no one chose to hunt monsters in that particular cave, since it would restrict their battle power severely. This forest was a nice place to explore for them with their current set of skills, as undead were usually weaker to magic compared to physical attacks, and their team was a bit skewed towards the magic power side of things.

What caught their team of 4 a little off-guard though was the fact that they saw a large door in front of them after walking for a while. The surprise vanished as quickly as it appeared though, sure, no one had told them that there would be a door but were the people obliged to tell them every single little detail about the place? Of course not! The fact that there was a door here was probably common sense as well.

After pressing on the door, Ark noticed that it didn’t budge, so he increased his strength greatly, close to his body’s limits without infusing it with mana. Since it still didn’t budge, he wasn’t going to keep pushing it like a dumbass, instead, he tried to infuse the door with mana, upon which an interesting scene appeared almost instantly. The pale blue mana streamed through his hand, and then entered the large door, lighting up multiple intricate mana circles as it passed them before the door suddenly opened.

Ark guessed that this process was to keep ordinary people from entering the dungeon since they would only throw away their lives inside. What he didn’t know, was that these magic circles actually checked his strength, before allowing him entry. This was something a lot, but not all dungeons did. If he were to go to cave nr 10 with his current strength, he wouldn’t be let inside. The door would simply reject him. These doors with mana circles embedded in them were actually a sign of them being cleared and were left behind by strong people to keep other adventurers from throwing away their lives.

The whole process was actually quite breathtaking to look at in the dark cave, and Ark would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little captivated by it. As he glanced at the rest of his party members, he could easily see the sparkle in Ephine’s eyes, which gave him a bit of an idea, maybe he could recreate something even better later? As the idea came to his mind, his mood almost immediately became a little better.

Atar and Thufrat were as uninterested as ever, and were both just eager to start exploring the dungeon instead, what could possibly be interesting about a door? Since they all knew what lay beyond the door, they all raised their awareness to the max, before continuing forward. Even if they knew they could beat enemies that were over level 130, being careless would only lead to their deaths, and it wasn’t something they were willing to be.

In front of them, a scene similar to something out of a scary movie could be seen. Endless black trees filled their vision as the black forest came into their vision. Dead trees without even a single leaf filled the entirety of the forest, with a thick mist clinging close to the ground. The mist didn’t obstruct their vision forward, but there was no way for them to tell where they were putting their feet.

Eerie howls could be heard in the distance, and the faint of hearts would probably be shivering in their boots as they heard them…