CHAPTER 23

Michael after 5 minutes of briefing had finally finished his explanation.

"Well thats it for the explanation and as pointed by the list read out by Sophia , kindly take your positions , the raid is about to start."

Soon the party was on its way to clear the dungeon and surprisingly with a sound plan.

Although they were in a wedge formation , it was little bit loose , because this was not a war. The wedge formation was just a way to provide a general position to the members.

Actually in practice , it was loose , meaning the members were standing at positions comfortable to them and at the same time at positions which would give them to efficiently beat the demons.

Karthikeyan stood at the extreme right of the middle alongside another combatant.

The combatant was "E" talent , but still was strong because he had a combat ability.

Talents were just a mean to be used to become strong. What really mattered were levels and skills.

Michael was himself only "C" talent and Sophia was "B".

No one in his party was "A" talent or above.

Karthikeyan as soon as he came to the dungeon , assessed everyone's talents and skills.

There was no one here that could potentially cause him danger , but there were indeed some psychopathic people present. He mentally calculated who he had to avoid and with who he could be at ease.

After 10 minutes of walking , they finally came in contact with 6 demons who were collecting some berries in a open field that was in the middle of nowhere.

The dungeons didn't have rigid environment and it was quite spread out.

Also ,they were the first people to raid this dungeon so there were no maps of this dungeon yet.

"Kill 5 demons and capture one demon alive . We could find use in him by asking information about the demon village."

No one waited for any more commands. Everyone in the vanguard were in attack.

The demons startled by the sound quickly dropped their work and took their own swords.

All the 6 demons were level 9.

*Clank * The metals struck against each other.

Michael was using a longsword and from the way he moved the sword , It could be seen that he was skilled with swords.

The demon itself was not weak either. But being put up against a fight with a level 12 knight who specialised in swords , the demon couldn't hold on for long.

Michael who blocked a hit from the demon's cutlass quickly counterattacked with a horizontal slash aimed at its heart. The demon with its final bit of strength tackled it and maintained some distance.

The fight then lasted for 3 more minutes with Michael not compromising his fighting position again hinting his expertise in swords. Soon the demon fell.

Some of the people in the back clapped their hands because Michael after the fight was not a bit scratched. Even though he was higher levelled ,it was not that the demon was weak.

In fact its defence was one point higher than Michael.

Soon taking the rewards dropped by the 5 demons they took the 6th demon as hostage and questioned him.

Sophia led the questioning as she was very skilled in these matters. She once worked as a negotiator for a big company and was very successful.

After 10 minutes of questioning , it was revealed that the demon didn't know that much itself other than the route to the village. It said that the village was big and it contained at least 1000 demons according to what he had seen. They had been deployed here 5 months ago and had already formed a village that was big.

He and his associates were sent 10 days before as scouts to survey the areas that were still unknown to them.

Karthikeyan pondered for a bit. Even though he knew this , he was still a bit shocked.

Each dungeon raid lasted 2 months. So one could expect that the demons would form settlements in these 2 months which in itself was a ridiculous conclusion but comes from the logic that dungeons would be made at the same time it opens.

Actually in reality dungeons opened a bit earlier than that. Mostly settlements ranged from being 5 to even 2 years.

The logic behind it was still under scrutiny.

Soon the demon was hypnotised by a E rank talent person who had skill associated with hypnosis. This was done so as to ensure that once they reached the village they could gain a little more information and possible avoid traps.

Soon all the minor injuries in the party were healed and soon they were on their way that the demon pointed out to be the route to the village.

Soon they reached a river that flowed up from the hill and seemed to flow continuously.

Michael surveyed in all directions. Seeing that the plains still extended endlessly on the other side , he consoled with Sophia and others and decided to head towards the hill where they could then soon the reach the village.

5 hours later---

Somewhere in the middle of a forest

"Status?" a hoarse voice sounded out from the walkie talkie.

A cloaked man standing on top of a tree hidden took the walkie talkie and began to explain his situation.

"Boss ,we got a situation"

"Explain"

"There are 10 demons here , all level 9s and 10s. They seem to be camping out here , probably resting. They don't seem to be aware of humans infiltration."

"They seem strong?"

"They seem experienced but not necessarily powerful" The man who was a scout and himself about level 10 replied.

"Hmm" The boss was a veteran soldier and was himself level 13 reaching level 14. Top 1 percent of the world. If it would have been yesterday he would have been the strongest. But alas now it was almost 16 according to certain sources. The rate with which people were levelling up especially the gifted were terrifying.

Especially with the 1 hour 10 days conversion this was bound to happen.

"Boss , you have any plan?"

"Our mobility is constrained. Too many minor injuries here. Just keep an eye on them and update the status at crucial time."

"Understood"

The walkie talkie sounded dead.

---

*Krkkk* a goblin demon which was quite short let out a shriek before it fell to the ground dead.

"That seems about it" Michael remarked after casually piercing the goblin while it was distracted fighting other members of the party.

The party once it reached the middle of the hills met with a 20 party demons who all seemed to be scouts.

"Just how many scouts are they expending ? and they all seem to be near level 7 and 8 , near our team's average." Sophia said

"Thats probably why its a higher levelled dungeon" Michael replied.

" And as long as there are no injuries " Michael continued " its fine I guess... for now"

While Michael and Sophia were contemplating about the team safety and the future advancements , Karthikeyan was thinking about how e could further hunt these demons without anyone noticing.

He was level 10 and probably in the top 10 of this team , so if he stayed idle and didn't kill ny demons , he would sound an alarm.

So until now he had killed 4 demons. All goblins that he encountered here. He had also gained 1000 exp .

[EXPERIENCE BAR ] [ 3500 / 20000 ]

This wasn't the phase with which he wanted to level up but still it was something and let out a satisfied sigh.