Chapter 8 [Cave Of Tranquility]

Alph looked at the cautious group, trying to make himself look as fierce as possible.

When he was lazily waiting for dinner he had suddenly felt the orc engaging in battle and he had been observing from the start.

The axe wielding brute, the small and frail looking priestess, the witch with voluptuous body, the shadowy assassin and the sharpshooter at the back.

He could see all of them with the grimoir's aerial view, being able to locate the hidden enemies, it was like a cheat.

However the orc was outnumbered and outmatched but Alph had decided to let it fight in order to figure out the group's strength.

The group was strong and he might not be able to defeat them even with both of his slaves working together.

However he had still decided to meet them on his own accord because there was a great probability that the group might enter the cave and if they did, they would face off sooner or later.

He felt that it was better to make an impactful entrance, maybe he could use it to negotiate and avoid conflict.

After all, these were the first human beings he had met after coming to this world, fighting and quite possibly dying by their hands was the last thing he wanted.

Now, by the looks of it he might have actually succeed in his plan.

The group were thoroughly shocked and were greatly overestimating the young man in front of them.

Why? Because of the young Draylion beside him.

Draylions lived in groups of family members ranging from as little as 4 to as many as 20.

Not only that, Draylions were extremely protective towards their family member and would lay down their lives in order to avenge if any of them were killed or captured.

For this reason there was a saying among the adventurers and hunters, if you want to hunt a Draylion prepare to hunt ten.

The young man in front of them had not only, most likely, killed off a group of Draylions but had also successfully captured and tamed one.

One should know that Draylions were very difficult to tame due to their extreme personality, they would rather die.

"May I ask who you are?" After calculating the pros and cons, Kane came to the conclusion that conflict should be avoided if possible.

If his guess was right the young man was probably tier 3 beast tamer or at least an apprentice of a tier 4 beast tamer.

Beast tamers were a rare breed and they were very sought after, hence a tier 3 beast tamer was considered an equal of a gold ranked adventurer while Kane and the rest were only silver ranks.

"Hmm? Aren't you the one's who should introduce yourself first? Why did you attack my pet?" Alph was relieved that his act was working and decided to continue it.

He folded his arms casually as he demanded.

"Ah! We are a group of adventurers. We were just passing by and saw the strange orc. We thought it was a mutated orc and so we decided to kill it, we didn't know it was a tamed pet" Kane explained truthfully but hid some details.

"I see, it doesn't matter. It's just an orc after all' He eased his expression, as if it was something trivial to him.

Kane and the group were even more shocked and relieved that the man in front of them didn't seem aggressive, such a powerful intelligent orc wasn't even worth mentioning to him!

Although it wasn't hard for them to kill it with their combined effort, taming it was infinitely harder.

"So, are you really sure you were just passing by?" Alph asked because he found it weird.

Till now he had been using the orc to explore the forest daily and he had yet to find any signs of human settlement or traces of human activity.

It could be thus concluded that the forest was truly huge and the cave was located deep inside it, in a place with almost no human activity so he couldn't accept the "Just passing by" excuse unless he was a fool.

"Uhm" Kane hesitated, he knew it wouldn't be of any use to try to dodge anymore.

If the young man in front of them was also someone who knew about the cave or a greedy person in general he could only risk his life and fight it out with him.

Kane and the group had been searching for the Cave Of Tranquility for such a long time so of course there was something valuable to gain from it.

In fact, Kane had been searching for it since way before he had even met the group members.

At that time he was just a teenager, his father had died of illness and left behind a letter and his research about the Cave Of Tranquility.

Long ago the Cave Of Tranquility was a local legend, known throughout the towns and cities around the great forest of Lumina.

It was said that long ago an ancient high elf who had passed through the great forest had built a cave and left behind treasures and artifacts for those who could find it.

There used to be many adventurers and treasure hunters who would venture into the seemingly endless forest, which was as big as a continent, in search of the legendary cave.

However as time went by, the people started regarding it as a mere myth after countless expeditions lost their lives in the forest without even finding a hint of the cave.

But when almost everyone had labelled it as fabricated folklore Kane's ancestors, the Phayls, refused to give up because they were in possession of an ancient map, a scroll entailing the location of the cave and the method of unsealing the treasure inside it.

The Phayls were a family of adventurers and were very esperienced and knowledgeable, however the map was written in ancient elven language which made it almost impossible for them to understand it.

Nonetheless his ancestors spent their entire lives researching it and after generations of effort, a lot of the map had been decoded.

Kane's father was also unable to find the cave but his experiences had paved the way for Kane.

Now, in this era where the Cave Of Tranquility had been completely forgotten and could only be found in collections of old myths and legends Kane had fulfilled his ancestor's mission.

But now that he had finally succeeded he was faced with a situation where he might loose it all, including his life.

"Don't misunderstand, I have no intentions of meddling in your affairs. I'm just here to train my body and soul" Seeing that Kane had suddenly become tensed again Alph waved his hand.

It didn't matter to him what they were after because right now his biggest concern was to escape this damn forest.

Not to mention that he might not be able to win against them unless he cancelled Dane's character development, which would be a huge loss.

"Let's start things over, I'm Alph Quint, a traveler" Alph vaguely introduced himself to appear mysterious.

"I'm Kane Phayl an adventurer and these are my friends and fellow adventurers" Kane was very thankful that Alph didn't seem to know about the legend, he didn't appear to be hostile either.

"I'm Raiden!" As someone who didn't think too much, Raiden hadn't noticed the short moment of tension between Alph and Kane.

"Mokuzen" True to his nature, Mokuzen was still cautious and wary of Alph.

"Riri, you can call me witch if you like" With a flirtatious smile, Riri winked at Alph.

"I-I'm S-Saila!" Stuttering, Saila squeezed out her name with some difficulty but there was a mysterious glint in her eyes that she hid by facing the ground.

*A smart and calculative leader type, a brute and simple warrior type, a cautious and silent assassin* Alph looked at the three men and mentally noted their characteristics and personalities.

*On the other hand, a flirtatious witch, literally! And a cute and innocent priestess! Damn these men are lucky!* Alph, as a man, wasn't blind to beauties but he had a good self control.

He only casually glanced at them and stopped himself from staring, especially Riri with her.... Uhm.

Now that the initial introductions were out of the way, Alph had established his attitude towards the adventurers.

Kane however was still perplexed.

He was afraid that the young beast tamer might also be after the Elven Treasure, or worse yet might have already obtained them.

Seeing Kane struggling to make his next move, Riri rolled her eyes at him.

"You said you were here to train your body and soul right? So you aren't after the Elven Treasures?" She got directly to the point, leaving Kane befuddled.

"Ah so is that what you are worries about? Haha no, I'm not after any treasures" Alph, finally understanding why Kane had been acting so strange, casually commented.

His first priority was to learn about this world and to get out of the forest, he didn't care about any Elven Treasures.