Sword God in a World of Magic
chapter-255

The team continued going forward into the next tunnel to get to their next prey, but coming here had already been worth it.

On the surface, the team often needed hours of scouting and watching to find an Initial General Stage beast that wasn't already busy fighting something else or being hunted by a more powerful beast.

But down here, they had already found a valuable beast in a couple of minutes.

Of course, the tradeoff was the danger and the initial investment needed for being able to hunt here.

On the surface, there were more humans than beasts, but down in the Caves, there were more beasts than humans.

And the best part?

There were no Trash Birds down here!

After walking for another five minutes, everyone stopped, but this time, it wasn't due to Elver.

"Early General Stage beast," Shang said from behind them.

The team turned around in surprise. "I don't feel anything," Elver said. "How can you tell? Your Ice Affinity should be useless in terms of scouting down here."

Sarah looked with furrowed brows at Shang while Astor only scratched the back of his head in uncertainty.

"Can't you smell it?" Shang asked.

Elver moved his nose around in the air to see if he could smell something. "Not really," he said.

"Doesn't it sting a little?" Shang asked.

"Well, sure, but isn't that because of the decomposing corpses?" Elver asked.

"Then why didn't you smell that earlier?" Shang asked.

"Ehm," Elver tried to say something, but he didn't really know what to say.

"What are you trying to say?" Sarah asked Shang.

"Adult Swamp Millipede," Shang said.

This surprised the team.

An adult Swamp Millipede?

Here?

Sarah furrowed her brows.

They had jumped off the eastern end of Warrior's Paradise and had flown for over ten kilometers. Then, they had entered the caves and had walked further east.

The Empress Cobra Zone should only be a couple of kilometers further to the east.

It wasn't too unreasonable for a stray Swamp Millipede to come here.

"Elver, you scout ahead, but be careful," Sarah said. "Only confirm if the Swamp Millipede is there or not. Don't engage. Don't risk your life."

Elver didn't like this task at all, but he begrudgingly complied.

He was the best person for the job since he could feel the changes in the air with his Affinity. He wasn't able to feel the other kinds of Mana, but he could certainly feel it when some kind of poison or corrosive gas was in the surroundings.

Elver slowly and carefully went ahead.

Then, a couple of minutes of silence passed.

BANG!

Everyone heard the sound of a distant explosion, and they readied themselves for battle.

However, over the next two seconds, they didn't hear another loud sound, which made them relax.

If Elver had been spotted, they would hear the heavy beast chase him.

A couple seconds later, Elver returned.

His face was white, but a wide grin could be seen on his face.

In his hands, he carried some sludge which calmly sizzled.

Sarah nodded and put the sludge into her Space Ring.

Then, she took out the map and marked the cave in front of them on it.

"Good job bringing back proof," Sarah said. "That should give us another 400 gold."

"Man, I almost thought I died when I retrieved the sludge," Elver said with a sigh. Then, he turned to Shang. "Honestly, if you didn't tell me that there was an adult Swamp Millipede, I wouldn't have noticed it."

"The thing was buried into one of the walls, and the only sign of it being there was a big black spot. I would have totally overlooked that part."

Elver scratched the back of his head. "I wanted to go back, but then I thought it would be a waste to just leave like that. Information and proof of Swamp Millipedes are worth 400 gold. So, I went ahead and scooped out a part of the soil."

"But then, the huge thing poked its head out and looked around. It probably felt something," Elver said with some shivers.

"How did you manage to escape?" Astor asked, captivated by the story.

"I clung to the wall above it," Elver said nervously. "I was betting on it not looking up."

Then, Elver smiled excitedly. "And I bet correctly!"

"Nice job!" Astor said, hitting Elver's shoulder.

"No," Sarah said with narrowed eyes. "That was not a nice job."

Astor and Elver looked at Sarah with raised eyebrows.

"You went into a dangerous situation alone against an opponent above our class. For what? For 400 gold?" Sarah said, repressed anger in her voice.

At that point, Sarah summoned the sludge Elver had handed over.

And threw it against the wall.

"Hey, hey!" Elver shouted in panic as he looked at the destroyed sludge.

"I won't accept something like this!" Sarah said with a cold voice and narrowed eyes. "Your lives are worth more than 400 gold, and I will not encourage nor condone putting your life at risk for that!"

"Sarah, you didn't need to destroy it," Astor said with a frown.

"Yes, I did need to do that," Sarah said, not backing down. "If I accept this now, you won't learn! What about the next time? You see something that's worth some gold, and I'm not there to stop you. You know that you shouldn't risk it, but you want the gold. So what if I get angry? Just do it anyway and get the gold."

"The only way I can stop you from doing something this stupid again in the future is to nullify the reward! Not even you would take a risk if there were zero rewards!" Sarah nearly shouted.

Elver gritted his teeth. "I almost gave my life for that, and you just destroy it?!" he shouted angrily.

"Exactly that is the problem! You almost gave your life for that!" Sarah shouted with a cold and imposing voice.

Elver didn't seem calm at all right now. "I risk my life, and you step on the thing I risked my life for like it's worthless! How could you do something like that?! I thought we were friends!"

"I am your leader, not your friend!" Sarah shouted.

Silence.

Astor looked with discomfort at the two, while Elver seemed ready to explode in anger.

"My job is to ensure your survival," Sarah said with a calmer voice. "I will not allow nor reward such needless risks in my team."

Then, Sarah took her things and readied herself. "Now, we will continue on the hunt. For this hunt, I am still the leader, and you will follow what I say. If you have a problem with my leadership, you may talk to me after we are back in Warrior's Paradise. This is not a safe place for this discussion."

Shang could hear Elver's teeth grind on each other from several meters away.

Astor put his hand on Elver's shoulder and slowly shook his head.

Elver's body shook, but then he jerked away from Astor and walked forward.

"Let's go," he said quietly with a very noticeable angry tinge to his voice.

Astor sighed as Sarah nodded.

Then, Sarah turned to Shang. "Well done finding the Swamp Millipede."

Shang only nodded.

Shang hadn't actually smelled the Swamp Millipede. After all, he wasn't some superhuman nor a dog.

He had simply found it by feeling its Darkness Mana.

And a moment later, the team continued walking down a different tunnel.