Chương 77: Smarter not Harder

"Of course not," Manager Halsey said, trying hard, but failing to keep frustration out of his voice. Knight Edgar Heath and Knight Ross Raiford were both seasoned C Rank Knights and both on the cusp of B Rank. They had spent years honing their skills and earning their place on such an expedition, seeing Damion amongst their group was like a slap in their face. However, Damion had earned his place here, just as they had.

"Knight Wells gets to come along since this was his discovery. Our mission will be to locate the dungeon and secure the area around it. Once that task is completed, we will ascertain the Rank of the dungeon and begin assembling a team for Knight Wells to join, assuming the Dungeon is not too high a Rank." The two knights glared at Damion, but did not offer any further complaints.

The group set off right away, but instead of heading out of the Adventurer Association and renting ground cars, Manager Halsey led the way to the roof where a large air car awaited them. This was Damion's first time seeing an air car and before this, he thought one would look similar to an airplane from his past life. Damion could not have been more wrong.

The vehicle in front of him looked more like a bus than an aircraft, it was as if this world had no care for aerodynamics and simply made this air car a large version of the ground cars Damion had already gotten used to. The roof of the air car was ladened with gear and Damion saw his pack strapped in with the others. Damion climbed into the air car and was surprised to find the cabin was rather roomy, with seats for ten people. Manager Halsey climbed into the front seat while everyone else piled in around Damion.

"If everyone will please take the channeling handle by their seats. We have a full load, and I don't want to tire myself out too much to keep us in the air," Halsey said after everyone took their seats. Damion did as instructed and grabbed the bar next to his seat and began to channel mana into the air car. A moment later the air car shot straight up into the air, leaving Damion nauseated by the sudden vertical movement.

Once they were well above the height of all the buildings in the city, the air car accelerated and headed towards the Benault Forest.

"We'll be over the Benault Forest in a few minutes. Once we get near I'll slow us down," Halsey told them.

"Damion, if you think you see the right place, let me know and I'll set us down."

"Look for a burned patch of ground near the southern end of the forest," Damion told him.

"From there it's around 500 meters to where I placed my marker."

"The burned area isn't your marker?" Mage Twan questioned.

"No, I did that the night before. Some bandits tried to ambush me when I came out of the forest."

"How many?" Knight Heath asked curiously.

"There were four of them." Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"It doesn't look like they caused any trouble for you," another mage, Ellen Hudson, Water affinity Damion recalled, commented.

"I've had run ins with these bandits before. They were looking for a bit of revenge. I doubt any more will throw their lives away to come after me again." Manager Halsey frowned but said nothing. He knew that Damion had previously encountered bandits and those 'bandits' had been members of the Falks Guild. If the guild was targeting Damion for his role in their punishment, then perhaps their punishment had been too light.

"There!" the Earth affinity mage Titus Glint called out, pointing to a large burnt patch of grass along the forest edge. Manager Halsey brought the air car closer to the ground and then flew low for a short minute before landing. Damion guessed they were quite close to the marker he had planted in the ground.

"Alright, everyone out, and grab your gear," Halsey announced, though half of the group was already getting out of the air car. Damion got his pack and looked around for his marker. A dozen meters away, Damion saw it, still standing upright in the ground. The party walked over and Damion took out his compass and headed north.

"Clever of you to head in a single direction but still mark the trees as you passed, in case you got knocked off your line by the trees," Mage Twan said as they moved through the forest.

"It only worked well here because I knew south would take me out of the forest the quickest," Damion answered.

"The cave should be just ahead." Just as Damion indicated, the group found the cave a few meters ahead and went inside. The two knights led the way, followed by Manager Halsey. Damion and Mage Twan followed next with Mage Fletcher behind him and Mage Hudson and Glint bringing up the rear. Once the group reached the pit, the knights signaled for everyone to stop, and Manager Halsey squeezed his way to the front to take a look.

"Just as you said Damion," Halsey called back to him.

"You did slaughter quite a few of them when you found this place," Knight Raiford said sounding impressed by the number of dead Aerico he could see littering the floor of the pit.

"The Aerico are coming into the pit from that small passageway. I count 19 Aerico in the pit already. Let's clear those up and then harvest all the cores," Halsey announced.

"Damion gets to keep the cores from the ones he killed before. That leaves 19 for the rest of us to split from this batch." When Halsey finished speaking, he stretched out his hand and a dozen small fireballs appeared in the air in front of him. A second later the fireballs shot out striking the Aerico and killing half of them in a single moment. Halsey repeated his spell clearing out all the rest of the Aerico.

Once the last one fell, Halsey stepped off the ledge and landed on the floor of the pit several meters down. Damion had never seen someone jump down from such a height so effortlessly and wondered if Halsey had used a spell to cushion his fall. However, a moment later, both Knight Heath and Raiford jumped down after him. Mage Glint squeezed his way forward and looked over the edge and saw Halsey waving for the rest of them to come down.

"Forget that," Mage Glint spat. He then waved his hand at the edge of the pit and the stone seemed to flow like water, reshaping itself into a set of stairs leading down into the pit.

"Don't let their foolish antics rub off on you," Mage Glint said to Damion.

"Even if you are strong enough to not get hurt jumping down that far, you don't know if that floor is solid. You could easily open up a deeper pit from your impact. Work smarter not harder."

"Thank you, Mage Glint," Halsey said, not appreciating that he was essentially being called foolish.

"Shall we collect these beasts' cores?" The entire party set about cutting open the skulls of the Aerico to remove their Demonic Cores. Damion found the task more and more disturbing as they went on. So much of Nerotath still seemed like a video game to Damion, even after 15 years, but this reminded him it was very much real.