Chapter 22: 22: Deep Cave Mysteries…

Within the dark cave was a single woman, walking further into the pitch-black darkness as her footsteps echoed throughout. The cave, although expansive enough to allow easy movement for a large band of ogres, was still small enough that it felt a little invasive. Walking through the cave, the woman, Kaitlyn, kept walking with a night-vision spell active until the cave opened up into a large cavern. 

Looking around, inspecting the meager structures they built to live in, Kaitlyn couldn’t help but wonder, where were the rest of them from? True, the cavern was expansive, but it didn’t explain the 70-ish ogres that rushed out from the cave earlier. 

Slicing a diving venomous bat out of the air into two pieces, Kaitlyn continued her trek forward, delving deeper into the cave. As the cave sloped downward, Kaitlyn’s pace slowed to maintain stability, a slight nuisance, but nothing beyond a slight challenge. 

Glad that there were no forking paths in the cave, Kaitlyn let out a sigh of relief as the cave leveled out once more. However, that sigh of relief soon was caught in the back of her throat as she froze at the sight in front of her. 

Erasing her presence with a spell in the blink of an eye, Kaitlyn hid behind a rock that jutted out of the wall, peeking out to observe the scene in front of her. 

Lumbering ogres. Clattering skeletons. Twitching centipedes. A myriad of monsters roamed around, their eyes empty, soulless. The expansive area the monsters were in differed from the cave, dilapidated stone walls, all scratched, half-destroyed, but still revealing intricate artistic designs, reminiscent of an ancient culture. Beyond that, her night-vision spell was no longer needed, as small ghostly flames floated in the air, illuminating the chamber in an eerie blueish green glow.  

“That... that’s definitely not natural...”

One of her swords now clenched in her hand, ready at a moment's notice, Kaitlyn moved a little closer, trying to get a little more information on this unnatural... enclave. However, before long, she froze, hearing a deep, guttural voice murmur, “Go... Join... the others...”

Hiding back behind the jutting-out rock, Kaitlyn watched, mystified, as a group of ogres regained life in their eyes, lurching out of the area, beginning to advance towards where Kaitlyn was hiding. 

Recasting her night-vision spell, Kaitlyn backed away, rushing back up the path she had descended from, leaping from outcropping to outcropping to accelerate her progress. In the midst of her escape from the caverns deep underground, Kaitlyn categorized the information she had learned about the underground cave, getting ready to report it to the guild when they returned. 

Back into the sunlight, Kaitlyn shielded her eyes for a second, letting them adjust to the light before running over to the busy A.C.A. 

“You all need to grab your weapons, now.” Kaitlyn called out as she ran over, a little out of breath after extricating herself from the cave, “There’s another group of about 10 ogres coming up, so get your weapons and be ready for battle.”

Waiting for them to drop the tools they were using to collect the ogre ears, Kaitlyn explained, her words fast to get out as much information as possible, “I saw something akin to a dungeon, but not quite down there. However, a deep voice called out ‘go, join the others’. Then, a group of ogres actually left the little area, seemingly regaining life in their eyes and began ascending, I assume to ‘join’ the other ogres that we just massacred.” 

A stern expression now coating his face, a contrast from the joking he had been doing just a moment prior while cutting off ogre ears, Oliver inquired, “Do you know who’s controlling them and what their purpose is?”

Watching Kaitlyn shake her head, Oliver reassured, “No worries, but I assume we should report this to the guild, right?”

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“Definitely,” Kaitlyn agreed, pulling out her swords and turning as she heard the sound of thudding footsteps, “Let’s talk later. It’ll be a good opportunity anyway, for you all to learn about guild procedures when we report it.”

The ogres, now having seen the piles of their dead brethren piled up outside the cave, massacred, ran out, roaring as they saw the adventures that slaughtered the group they were supposed to join up with. 

“They’re kinda stupid...” Damien murmured, whispering to a nodding Josephine. 

Getting hushed by Oliver, Damien apologized before running off to the side, ready to continue his earlier tactics. 

Meanwhile, Kaitlyn, having drawn the attention of half the ogre group, six, correcting her earlier estimate now that she had taken a moment to actually count, rushed off to the side to exterminate the ogres. 

Waiting for these six to peel away from the rest of the ogres, letting the otherworlders kill the rest for some training, Kaitlyn, deciding to forgo any supporting spells like earlier, lept into the fray. 

Pure slaughter.

The ogres, still thinking they could crush this small insignificant being before them with ease, were massacred within moments as Kaitlyn leapt around, using a combination of physical sword slices and mana blades that were jettisoned from her swords. 

A black whirlwind, Kaitlyn came to a stop, flicking her swords to get the blood off of them before sheathing them. Seconds later, the ogre bodies fell, each with deep wounds on their chest and neck, marking their untimely deaths. 

Looking over at the otherworlders, Kaitlyn watched as they felled their fourth ogre, taking some mental notes on how to help them improve. Satisfied that they would be able to kill the ogres without any danger, Kaitlyn turned back towards the bodies of the ogres she had felled, inspecting them to see if there were any markings on them. 

Crinkling her nose as she leaned closer to have a more detailed look, Kaitlyn’s brows furrows as she found them to be normal as could be. Deciding to be safe however, Kaitlyn carved off a piece an ogre to give to the monster experts back at the guild. 

Her nose suffering immensely just with her holding the hunk of ogre flesh in her hand, Kaitlyn found the sack that they had brought with them. This sack, although important, a tool critical to the success of a quest such as this, was always tossed to the wayside by whoever was carrying it at the time to allow them to participate and contribute to the battle. 

Putting the chunk of flesh into the bag with the numerous ears already in the bag, Kaitlyn turned back towards the group, watching them launch one final offensive to fell the final ogre.