Daniel frowned as he looked at the scene before him. He had been walking for nearly half an hour. Even though he was only walking, his pace was far faster than that of ordinary people.
And now, after half an hour, he had come across such a strange sight. Trees were broken, traces of swords and magic were visible.
More importantly, there was blood on some of the tree trunks. There had probably been more blood, but because of the endless rainfall inside this dungeon, it had been washed away and disappeared.
He raised his guard and moved forward carefully. First, he examined the sword marks and traces of magic. It was obvious this was the work of Awakened.
"So they were here, and it seems they even clashed with each other." Daniel muttered, placing his hand on the sword marks.
For a moment, he felt as though an electric current had passed through his body. He did not feel pain, so without fear, he kept his hand on the sword marks.
"There’s still mana. Without a doubt, the attack came from a Rank A, and most likely a Peak Rank A."
Sword marks remaining was one thing, but mana lingering in those marks was another.
If it was the first case, then even a Rank B could have left such marks. But the second case could only be created by a powerful Rank A.
He had already glanced through the list of participants in this dungeon raid. According to his knowledge, among the Rank A participants, only two were capable of such a strike.
William Rigar and Diana. The first was the eldest son of Kaelos, currently the leader of the Sairon Blade guild.
The second was a girl known as the greatest prodigy of the nation, ranked first in all the new generation rankings... well, except for one.
And as far as he knew, these sword marks most likely belonged to William Reigar, since that man was a swordsman.
"Judging from the type of these sword marks, it seems a major battle happened here. At the very least, he was forced to use a lot of power." Daniel reasoned, then turned his gaze to the broken trees.
The trees had clearly been shattered and torn apart either by sword strikes or magic. The remaining traces showed it had been done with skill.
Which meant the breaking of the trees was entirely the work of Awakened, not monsters. Yet this made him frown.
After all, in battles it was usually monsters that acted recklessly and attacked everything. It didn’t make sense for Awakened to cut trees apart like this.
Still, it wasn’t anything too strange. Maybe they had been forced to because of the type of monsters... or a thousand other reasons.
He walked toward the traces of blood, examined them, then summoned his first Fallen, Vorak.
The ground beneath him turned bloody, and a massive beast with a body resembling a tiger emerged from the blood.
"Greetings, my Lord." Vorak bowed with respect.
"Check this blood. It’s human." Daniel nodded, pointing at the remaining traces.
Vorak wasted no time and began sniffing it.
"My Lord, this is indeed human blood."
"Then track it." He gave the order, and at the same time cast a glance at his first Fallen.
Vorak held a special place in his heart. After all, he was his very first Fallen. It had been a long time since he had last relied on this one.
Yet now, seeing him again after all this time, he could tell that Vorak had not only grown larger and more imposing, but his power had also increased tremendously.
At this point, his strength was at Rank A, not far from Mid Rank A. All of his Fallen grew stronger as he did.
The Fallen nodded, signaling his Lord to mount his back. Daniel did not refuse and climbed onto Vorak, who immediately dashed forward at high speed.
Yet after they left and went far away, a shadow suddenly appeared at the site. The shadow had no face, and indifferently watched them depart.
"Another human unaffected." the shadow murmured to itself, though it was unclear what it meant.
It cast a cold gaze around, and before long all the broken trees returned to their original state. The traces of blood, swords, and magic vanished completely.
The shadow nodded in satisfaction, then disappeared, as if it had never been there.
Meanwhile, Vorak was running at full speed, following the owner of that blood trail. The rain grew harsher and more violent, drops of water hitting their bodies rapidly.
However, before they became fully drenched, Daniel used mana to create a protective layer around them.
"I feel like breathing is becoming harder." He muttered, as if realizing something.
He could feel the air here was extremely heavy, oppressively so. If an ordinary human were here, they would already be dead.
But he didn’t dwell on it, since it didn’t affect him much.
Vorak kept running. After an hour, the storm finally eased a little, though the rain still fell.
The wind howled, carrying with it cries and wails filled with fear. The roar of the ocean sounded more terrifying, as if it might swallow the entire island at any moment.
"My Lord, the owner of this blood is here. But there are other things with him. Things that are not human." Vorak finally stopped.
Hearing this, Daniel wasn’t particularly surprised. He had expected to encounter monsters.
He looked ahead. It resembled a shelter, seemingly formed from earth, like the remains of a landslide.
If not for Vorak telling him there were other things besides a human inside, he would have thought it was man-made.
From where he stood, he couldn’t see much. Trees and branches blocked his view. And he was wary of advancing further, worried that he might suddenly be ambushed.
He didn’t want to attack until he had confirmed the enemy’s strength. He tried to peer through the branches, but realized the shelter-like place had been covered with rocks, making it impossible to see inside.
"He’s inside?"
"Yes, my Lord."
The ground beneath Daniel turned bloody once more, and another of his Fallen appeared.
"Greetings, my Lord." Elarion bowed respectfully.
"I want you to go there and see what’s inside." Daniel said, looking at his Fallen, who had the best skills in stealth and concealment.