Yarra’s Adventure Notes

Chapter 27 - 27 19 The Abnormal Wolf Den_1

?27: Chapter 19: The Abnormal Wolf Den_1 27: Chapter 19: The Abnormal Wolf Den_1 (Happy holidays everyone, two updates done, please add to your collections and recommend, your support is my greatest motivation)

A beam of light suddenly appeared at the edge of a dark cave.

There was no sound of footsteps, falling rocks, or even the rustle of clothing, yet the hazy light was slowly moving in the darkness.

Alone, Pannis moved in the narrow cave passage without making any noise.

He moved very cautiously, his pace was not fast.

Any suspicious sound or smell would force him to stop and observe carefully.

As he neared the end of the passage, his already slow pace had almost descended to a crawl.

With every step he took, he was applying all his senses to their utmost, collecting all the available information around him.

“Phew.” Pannis finally stepped out of the passage and arrived at a cave filled with white bones.

It was a medium-sized cave, not very tall– with the help of the light from his helmet, one could see the stalactites hanging from the cave ceiling.

The cave was not perfectly circular, the space on the right was extensive, while the left side was rather narrow.

On the left, there were six entrances leading to other directions, whereas the floor on the right side was covered with white bones – Bony piles of all sizes and shapes had amassed into an almost three-meter-high Bone Mountain at a mild angle.

Pannis took a glance around the bone-filled cave, devoid of any living creature, pulled a palm-sized crystal out from his backpack, activated his Aggression on the tip of his fingers, lightly knocked twice, the faint sound of knocking was clearly audible in the quiet cave.

After the knock, he put the crystal back into his bag.

Pannis then bent over, laying himself close to the ground to crawl about, carefully collecting the smells in the air.

After a while, rustling sounds echoed from the tunnel behind him.

However, Pannis did not pay it any heed, maintaining his crawling posture without looking back.

When Catherine entered the scene she saw Pannis crawling on the ground.

She was not surprised, joined by three other women in the cave, she quickly approached Pannis, squatted down, and whispered, “Did the pack of wolves leave?”

Pannis didn’t respond, he continued to crawl around, sniffing the air intermittently.

He only looked up when he was sure, lowering his voice he said, “They left two to three days ago, following their usual habits, it takes at least ten days for the wolves to hunt; for now, we should be safe.

But considering the unusual disturbance caused by the Cave Dwellers, it’s better to be cautious, we should hurry.”

“Alright, should we leave now?”

“Not so fast.” Pannis stopped Catherine, scanning throughout the entire cave, “Let’s first have a careful check.

We are close to Flame River, a possible location for research.

We must remain cautious.

By the way, did you all apply the smell-concealing potion?”

“Don’t worry, every one of us applied it thoroughly.” Catherine nodded.

“That’s good.

But, still, it needs to be strengthened.” Pannis pulled out a vial of potion, evenly and carefully applied it on his clothes and skin.

He then sprinkled a bag of medicinal powder over himself and headed towards the pile of bones, “I’ll go explore a little.

Please wait here and don’t get too close.”

Under watch of the four ladies, Pannis approached Bone Mountain.

Step by step along the edge, fitfully scanning the ground beneath the light cast by his helmet, afraid of missing any detail.

Whenever he found anything strange, he would lower his head to the ground, smell, listen, and even tasted it a couple of times, not minding the dirt on the floor.

“There’s nothing underground.” Pannis proclaimed after activating his Aggression to knock on the ground one last time and listened carefully.

He then shouted softly, “The walls have been searched in the past, with no abnormalities, I’ll go check the ceiling now.”

“Be careful.” Catherine warned with concern.

“Relax, I won’t leave you four stranded here, stuck due to the loss of an explorer.” Pannis replied curtly without looking back.

He walked to the wall of the cave, clambering up the wall with his hands and feet like a spider.

Before long, he had positioned himself upside down on the ceiling.

Even in this position, Pannis showed no sign of falling.

He meticulously scrutinised every inch of the ceiling, leaving no stone or stalactite unchecked.

In the end, he reluctantly leaped down, shaking his head as he walked back to the four ladies, “Let’s go, we should be able to rule this place out.

At least within my capabilities, I was not able to find an entrance here.”

Catherine showed no disappointment, she stayed cheerful, “That’s normal.

If it was that easy to find an entrance, I would be surprised and disappointed.

Onward to the next one.”

“This way.” Pannis was the first to walk to the biggest of the six entrances, “Up ahead is the Flame River, we could rest there for a while.”

“Rachel, how are you doing?” Catherine asked with concern, “Lina just treated your fracture, but you can’t strain it for at least four to five days.

Is that going to be a problem?”

Rachel, since that morning, chose to follow the adventure team instead of staying at the place where they had rested the previous night to nurse her injuries.

Since then, she had kept herself in the dark, keeping her head low in contemplation, her face occasionally betrayed a lost expression.

She only shook herself awake from her thoughts when Catherine asked, “No issues.

I can still move around normally even though I can’t exert force.

I’m a gunner, even if I can’t exert force with my legs, it wouldn’t affect my combat power.

So, no need to worry.”

“Where is your gun?

I saw your backpack was dashed off.

Do you still have your weapon?” The young women of the adventure team were unfamiliar with gunners, but Pannis, who had encountered various kinds of adventurers, was quite familiar with them.

He turned his head at the entrance and asked her, “You should only have the short gun left, right?”

“Yes, two of them.” Rachel pulls out a small crystal gun from a compartment on the right side of her leather armor.

She opens a window to the array on the right side of the gun handle, looks inside, and then closes it again: “It can still fire thirty more times.”

“These fire crystal energy bullets?” Pannis frowns, “Isn’t there any that shoot physical bullets?”

Rachel extracts another identical small crystal gun from her boot, once again checks the right side window of the handle, then counts the bullets in the left side of the ammunition chamber: “This one can fire thirty-six times, but it only has ten physical bullets.”

“What about the firepower?”

Rachel lowers her head, answering embarrassingly: “It would be lethal to Bronze Rank magical creatures, but it would have no effect on Silver Rank ones.”

Pannis frowns, thinking for a moment, then takes out a small leather bag from his backpack and hands it to Rachel: “Here, use this first, a crystal gun of the Silver Rank, perfectly suited for your strength.

Although it cannot penetrate the defense of Gold Rank enemies, it could at least protect you here.

This gun can be manually set to fire either crystal energy or physical bullets.”

Rachel’s eyes light up.

She opens the leather bag and swiftly assembles the parts inside, putting together a half-meter long crystal energy rifle.

Making a quick count of the specialized crystal energy bullets, she sighs regretfully: “Shame there are only three, I’ll have to conserve them.”

“It’s okay.” Vivian, nonchalantly reducing her regret, says: “I’ll cut a few more for you when we rest at night.

Even though I dare not perform crystal synthesis in this environment, simple cutting can be easily done, and I even brought my tools.”

“I’m too grateful for your help.” Rachel bows in gratitude, then activates the gun’s array using Aggression: “Perfect, it perfectly matches my Silver Rank Aggression.”

“Let’s get going.” Pannis leads the way into the passage: “Next, we head for the Flame River.”

Catherine bringing up the rear of the team, looks curiously at Pannis’s back: “You actually prepared something like the Crystal Gun?”

“I’ve used it before when I’ve had to stand in as a gunner, as long as the Aggression rank matches, it can be fired.” Pannis leading the way while scouting ahead, replies off-handedly.

“Archer, Crystal Gunner, Surveyor.” Catherine gives a meaningful smile: “Are you really only a Silver Rank professional as you seem.”

“Didn’t you see for yourself?

Believe in your own eyes.” Pannis replies nonchalantly.

No one speaks up after that.

In silence, the five of them move along the long passage for around ten minutes, then Pannis points ahead, “We’ll reach the Flame River after turning that corner, you should be feeling the heat by now.”

“Yes.” Lina, maintaining her noble attitude even while marching, walks following court etiquette: “Can we use ice-attribute crystals now?”

“Absolutely not.” Pannis quickly interrupts: “Never use ice-attribute crystals or ice magic around the Flame River, it’ll create a huge problem.”

Vivian quietly sticks her tongue out, putting the already extracted ice-attribute crystal back into her bag whilst wiping sweat off her face.

“Shh, be quiet.” Suddenly, Pannis stops in his tracks, seriously waves his hand in the air to smell: “That was close.

We can talk now, but keep your voices down.”

“Have the wolves returned?” Catherine lowers her voice.

“Yes, luckily we left early.” Pannis continues marching, commenting puzzledly: “This whole thing is strange, both the Cave Dwellers and the wolves have been disrupted.”

“When we encountered the Cave Dwellers, Nicole had mentioned traces of psychic magic, it must be man-made.” Mentioning the deceased teammate, Rachel’s voice remains harsh.

“It doesn’t make sense to disturb things this way.” Pannis dislikes the unclear situation: ” Everyone, be wary.

We’re lucky to have left before the wolves returned and concealed our scents so they didn’t notice us.

They show no sign of heading this direction.”

“Wooo.” As they turn the corner onto an N-shaped bend, Vivian sees the landscape before her and can’t help but cry out: “No wonder ice-attribute energy can’t be used.

Although I’ve heard so much about them, I’ve never seen these creatures before.

Fire Elements, how fascinating.”