Their turbulent thoughts had barely begun to settle when a detonation—far louder than the earlier ones—burst forth like thunder splitting the earth. A violent tremor rolled through the ground.

  The onlookers nearly jumped three feet high, their hearts skipping a beat.

  As the black smoke dispersed, the ruins emerged once more—only now, a vast, bottomless pit yawned at its center.

  While the locals hesitated about approaching, Little Leaf transformed into a bird, seized Little Mushroom by the collar, and flew straight over.

  “Glenn! Are you down there?” the two girls called from the pit’s edge, their voices echoing downward before fading.

  “I’m fine. Don’t climb down yet—there may be danger. I’m going to take a look around first.”

  Hearing his reply, they let out identical sighs of relief.

  Below—

  Glenn held the second satiation fruit in his hands, ready to eat it if his body went out of control. Transforming briefly into the Tier Seven werewolf form took a great deal of energy. But his body settled down and Glenn was able to avoid eating the powerful fruit.

  Glenn’s emerald eyes glowed faintly as he surveyed the ancient interior, feeling much like he had in his past life the first time he stepped into an underground stronghold in Minecraft—full of unfamiliar wonder.

  He stood in what appeared to be a corridor. Strange moss-like growths clung to the walls, though Glenn knew full well real moss wouldn’t survive in such a place.

  The floor beneath him was paved with dark-red stone, bearing clear traces of recent human activity.

  This must have been the secret base of the three dark mages. How much of the ruin had they explored? Glenn pulled a torch from the wall and lit it with the flame from his wrist-guard.

  The moment its fire bloomed, the other torches along the corridor flared to life as though in response.

  Quite clever… He replaced the torch and strolled deeper into the hall.

  Every so often, an arched wooden door appeared on either side of the passage—none of them locked.

  He pushed open the first. The candles inside sprang alight on their own, revealing dissected animal corpses sprawled across tables, along with scattered tools and abandoned notes.

  Whoever worked here was anything but tidy.

  Glenn scanned the room but found nothing of value and moved on.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The next several chambers were the same—blood-soaked dissection rooms. One, however, was dedicated exclusively to werewolf anatomy.

  Inside lay corpses from Tier One to Tier Three—some in human form, some half-wolf, and some frozen at grotesque stages between the two, as though their transformation had been interrupted at the cost of their lives.

  Glenn found several bottles of refined wolf poison, each labeled meticulously.

  The dark mages had given the substance a name: Werewolf Curse Essence.

  Each bottle listed the tier of the werewolf it had been extracted from.

  Glenn lifted a vial containing Tier-Three Essence and held it up to the light.

  The bottle was filled with pure blackness; one might assume it was ink if not for the faintly perceptible malice within.

  He shook it lightly—and the dead darkness stirred.

  The tar-like essence writhed like living microorganisms, swirling in the glass. With his sharpened hearing, Glenn could even discern innumerable tiny impacts—like microscopic insects hurling themselves at the glass walls.

  How did those dark mages even extract this…? He set the vial down and left the room, continuing deeper.

  He soon arrived at a meeting chamber. A gigantic map hung above the table, surprising him.

  It was a complete map of the Kingdom of Zehn, detailing every region, each name marked with magical symbols whose meaning was unclear.

  A worthwhile find nonetheless—he committed every detail to memory before examining the rest of the room.

  Nothing else caught his interest. He pressed onward.

  By the time Glenn exited the ruin, the sun had already drifted into the afternoon sky.

  Little Leaf and Little Mushroom, chatting idly nearby, spotted him at once and rushed toward him.

  “Glenn, Glenn! What’s down there?” Little Leaf demanded breathlessly.

  “Nothing unusual. Similar to the lab under the magic house,” Glenn replied half-truthfully.

  What the mages had explored was just a typical laboratory—but the untouched parts were another matter entirely.

  Hearing this, the girls’ excitement evaporated.

  Exactly as Glenn intended. Whatever lay in those unexplored depths, even Tier-Four dark mages dared not approach. Dragging the two girls inside would be courting disaster.

  “Honored sir, do you require anything of us?” the male elf asked, bowing with his companions.

  They knew perfectly well they were about to be put to work.

  Glenn nodded with satisfaction. “You’ll come down with me. I’ve already inspected the areas explored by the dark mages—no real danger. Your task is simple: carry out anything of value.”

  Their faces lit with confidence.

  “Leave it to us, sir! We’re experts at this sort of thing!”

  “We won’t miss a single treasure!”

  “You can count on us!”

  Glenn gave them a brief nod, then turned to the girls. “Watch them from above. Make sure no one hides anything. Understood?”

  “That’s too easy!” Little Leaf declared, hands on her hips.

  Little Mushroom nodded solemnly. “We’ll complete the task.”

  With that settled, Glenn leapt back into the pit with the group in tow.

  None of them were below Tier One; the fall posed no danger.

  Once inside, he explained the layout and warned them strictly not to step into any area the mages had not explored.

  They agreed instantly—each valued his life far too highly to take risks.

  After they dispersed, the ruin grew lively with footsteps and clattering. Glenn paid no attention to their methods of transport; that was their concern.

  He strode instead toward the depths where the torchlight no longer reached.

  The noise dwindled behind him. Darkness swallowed everything.

  A barred gate loomed ahead, blocking the path.

  Broken stones littered the floor around it, evidence of a past battle.

  Glenn stepped forward and attempted brute force—only to fail.

  He shifted into a Tier-Five Werewolf and tore the gate apart effortlessly.

  A trace of magical energy lingered—dark-aligned. No doubt the gate had been crafted by the three mages; its age did not match the ancient walls.

  The instant the gate shattered—

  Deep within a circular chamber at the far end of the corridor, countless crimson eyes snapped open all at once.