Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

Upon reaching the cave's entrance, Kaizen and the guild members were struck by the surrounding landscape. The place was so desolate that they could feel the cold, damp air on their skin. The musty smell was strong, and a constant sound of water droplets echoed off the rocky walls. The entrance to the cave was covered with moss and other plants, indicating that the place had not been explored for a long time.

Kaizen and the members of the Metal Dragons entered the cave carefully and quietly, for the group they had formed for this exploration was not very large, precisely because it required a high level of coordination, and the entrance to the Secret Garden was a narrow place. According to Korgrak, if they made too much noise, they might attract several hordes of monsters at once.

The group basically consisted of Salles, a loyal heavy-bladed swordsman of the guild; Jeewok, a very talented but also very proud swift swordsman; Anfrid, a mage expert in plants and Salles' wife; and Korgrak, a mysterious noblewoman. Finally, there was Kaizen, who stayed in the back with Korgrak and Anfrid to protect them.

Entering the cave cautiously, using Anfrid's staff to light the way, they soon found a narrow passage that snaked through the cave, past sharp rocks and stalactites hanging from the ceiling. This passage was so unnatural that it had stones that formed a path.

Everyone formed a line and followed the narrow passage until they came to smooth, damp walls with small puddles of water in various places.

Suddenly, they heard a high-pitched, shrill sound echoing off the cave walls. It was a sound familiar to players who had explored places like this before: monsters were approaching from where they came, from the entrance. If everyone continued to stand still in this narrow area, the rear would be attacked and could not rely on the help of the vanguard.

"I'm going to pick up the pace, guys, just follow me!" shouted Salles to the others, his voice echoing for a moment to all the other players behind him.

Everyone followed Salles' pace as he advanced through the narrow passage. The shrill screams of a horde of monsters were quickly following them, and since they didn't care about each other, they pushed to get to the players as quickly as possible. As soon as Salles felt the volume of water his boots stepped in increase a bit, he knew he was nearing the end of this passage, so he kept running.

Meanwhile, Kaizen looked back and saw a horde of Kobolds approaching quickly. He knew that there probably wouldn't be time to reach the end of this passage in time, and he also knew that it was his responsibility to protect Anfrid and Korgrak, so he decided to stay behind and slow the kobolds down while the others continued to advance.

When they finally reached the end of the narrow passage, they found a large open cave with several sharp rocks scattered on the floor, but also with some sunlight coming through a hole. The lighting in the rest of the cave was dim, illuminating only the facade of an ancient building carved into the rocks of the cave, but the light from Anfrid's staff was more than enough to show everyone that there was now one person missing: Kaizen.

"Where is he?" Salles asked with raised eyebrows.

Anfrid's eyes widened. "I saw him right behind me just before we left." She said.

At that moment, everyone looked at the narrow passage they had just passed through and also noticed that the sounds of the monsters' screams had completely stopped.

Inside the passage, shortly after Klaus stopped to face the Kobols, they quickly caught up with him, but unlike everyone else, there was no unfavorable ground for him. He blocked the monsters' attacks with <Telekinesis>, creating an invisible wall against which they piled up. At first, it was a piece of cake to stop them, but soon the number of creatures increased considerably, and in Rise Online, Kobolds were not such weak creatures, they were mutant level, so even a high-level Kobold could get into trouble if he decided to fight many of them at once.

So when Kaizen felt that things might get out of hand, he came up with a very amusing idea. At the same time that Kaizen deactivated the ability that was holding back the Kobolds, he snapped his fingers with his right hand, creating a fireball with <Free Flame Manipulation>.

The Kobolds barely had time to rejoice at the end of the barrier before they were immediately hit by a fireball so hot that it incinerated them.

[You have killed a Kobold. You have gained +1200 XP].

[You have killed a Kobold. You have gained +1200 XP].

[You have killed a Kobold. You have gained +1200 XP].

[You have killed a Kobold. You have gained +1200 XP].

He received several notifications, but with the kobolds defeated, Kaizen didn't waste much time in this cramped, claustrophobic place, so he moved on to meet up with the guild members further ahead. He quickened his pace, lighting a small fire to light his way.

When Kaizen finally emerged from the narrow passageway, the members of the Metal Dragons Guild were relieved, but they soon noticed that in addition to Kaizen's calm expression, his hair was slicked back and his face had a bit of black soot on it, probably from the heat explosion.

The wizard Anfrid, with her docile and concerned expression, was the first to speak.

"Kaizen, are you okay? What happened to your face?" She asked.

And the way she asked it so innocently, accompanied by the most sincere reaction of confusion Kaizen had ever seen, had everyone laughing nonstop.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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