Chapter 4

You see, only priests could use [Holy energy], which was needed for any type of healing skill.

The only way to obtain [Holy energy] was praying to the Light inside a church. However, what made priests even more valuable, was that there were so few of them.

Anissa sighed as she thought of her predicament. With her party, they were supposed to protect these ten people as they mined the blue crystals.

"Hey, leader! Do you think we'll run into any level 3 or 4 monsters?" asked one of the warriors. Despite his class, he was quite thin in stature. That was made up by his height though. He had a long scar on his face, which stretched from the forehead, right through the left eye, to the left cheek. His eye was fine though.

"Glade, have some respect for the party leader!" yelled one of his companions, a burly middle-aged man with long hair. He had dark skin, which made him look fierce.

The man called Glade simply scoffed, before replying, "I never thought I'd live to see the day I would be in a party led by a woman!"

"So, why did you take up the job?" asked the priest. He was actually a young man, in his teens, about the age of sixteen or seventeen.

"The money was good! I mean, the church paid us so much I'm now beginning to wonder why they're always hostile to us warriors in the first place!" Glade replied.

He despised the church, but as much as he hated them, he loved money more than anything else.

"Besides, I don't mind if it means getting to meet such a beautiful woman", he chuckled.

"If you want to be killed by the Sword Saint, you should continue having those thoughts! Hmpf!" the one who snorted was Anissa's guard.

"At this rate, you'll die before you even get to spend that money", Anissa spoke, her eyes wide in disbelief. This was the first time she had heard the knight speaking.

Glade grimaced.

"We're here to do a simple job. Protect these people as they mine the crystals. Once they've completed their tasks, we will leave and return to the church! Whether we meet against level 3 or 4 monsters, it doesn't change what we're here to do!" Anissa declared, trying to sound as heroic.

However, it didn't have the intended effect.

"Let's go inside!" she led the way, as she entered the labyrinth.

The Zuid labyrinth was quite large. Even the upper layer was so large that it would take several months of walking non-stop to go around it. There were many entrances to the labyrinth, and the party was currently standing at one of them.

They had to dismount and leave their horses with the person who was acting as the porter.

With consideration of the miners, they had to walk slowly. The dark-skinned warrior had to use a marking skill, so that they wouldn't get lost. It was like a maze inside the labyrinth. One wrong move, and you'd be lost.

Anissa tried her best to be strong. However, a human being has their own limits.

The crystals were divided into low, medium, high and extreme grade. The reason why they were divided into such, was due to the amount of ki each crystal.

Ki was the name given to the energy that was abundant in this world.

In order to use skills, you needed ki! It was a fundamental energy which most creatures required.

This energy was also used to power various tools, like the lamps in households, for example. It could also be used to forge strong weapons.

"Rumour has it that there are extreme grade crystals at the heart of the Upper level. Do you think that's true?" the person who asked was the young priest.

The question was not directed to anyone in the party, but rather, to the miners. They were usually selected by the church for this job, so they were given more information than the party that was paid to protect them.

The leader of the miners simply shrugged his shoulders. He was a middle-aged man. "There are always rumours flying around everywhere. I wouldn't listen to them if I were you."

The young priest frowned. It seemed like the miners didn't want to talk. What were they afraid of?

As they were walking, they suddenly encountered a mole-rat creature!

"A grey-eared mole rat? It's only at level 1, so there's nothing to fear", Glade suddenly spoke up. "Let me deal with it."

Anissa nodded.

Glade took out his weapon, which was a mace, as he walked forward to meet the creature.

He started swinging the mace, before leaping into the air, and dashing towards the creature!

As if anticipating this move, the creature dodged to the side, and then bared its fangs towards Glade, who was still swinging his mace.

Without wasting much time, Glade struck the ground with his mace!

BAM!! CRACK! CRACK!!

The ground began to shake a bit, followed by cracks!

"You idiot! Do you plan on burying all of us down here?" Glade's counterpart, the dark-skinned warrior, yelled.

Glade, however, paid him no attention. The reason he had attacked using an earth-based skill, was because he wanted to limit the number of places the mole-rat could dodge to. This creature was well known for its agility, after all.

Seeing that there were no other places to run to, the mole-rat jumped towards Glade!

Glade smirked, before smashing the ground once more.

A spear made of earth emerged from the ground, and then proceeded to impale the poor creature! Since it was mid-air, the creature couldn't dodge, and thus, met its demise.

"Are you crazy?? We are underground! Any mistake could cause the corridor to collapse!!" the dark-skinned warrior ran towards him.

"Quit your blabbering, will you? We're still alive, aren't we? And the corridor isn't collapsing!"

"Let's get moving!" Anissa declared, as she started walking.

Everyone turned to follow her, while the person who was marking the route earlier, resumed their duties. From what Anissa had been told, it would only be a matter of time before they reached their destination!

Meanwhile, Kyle had just finished doing his round of exercises. While waiting for his clothes to dry, he decided to do a little recon. He walked out of the cave, and chose another corridor, which was different from the one he had gone into earlier.

He didn't want to run into the mole-rat creature again!

He thought that he was being paranoid. Maybe there were no other creatures inside the cave. So, why not go out and find out?