Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

 However, this also sparked Alfred’s curiosity about Sean’s true motives for coming here. Even if Alfred was slow mentally, he knew that the point of this trip was not just a simple test of his abilities as Sean had claimed. Moreover, Alfred was not stupid, so he was well aware of this.

 Still, since Sean did not want to disclose his reasons, Alfred would not venture to ask about it. He understood his current position as just a member of the mercenary team.

 Inside the tunnel, Alfred took the position at the front, Cecilia was in the middle of the formation with an illumination spell over her head, and Sean was bringing up the rear. In truth, to Sean and Alfred, it did not make a difference who was taking the front or back position, because the tunnel was only wide enough to move in two directions, so either side could become the front or back.

 This arrangement did help to simplify things, however, regarding Cecilia, as her safety was undoubtedly maximized in this formation.

 Unless they reached a possible fork in the road.

 “Which way should we go now?” Alfred looked toward the four paths spread out in front of him, asking without turning to look back.

 He was on extremely high alert.

 “Which way is the wind coming from?” Sean responded with a question.

 “From the left and this tunnel in the middle.” Alfred took a moment to silently feel the air before he answered.

 “Then just pick one of the paths no wind is coming from and head down that way,” Sean replied very casually.

 “What?” Alfred’s expression was one of incredulity. They were obviously in a maze-like formation of underground tunnels. How could anyone be so blasé about navigating the area?

 Sean thought that Alfred was asking for confirmation because he had not heard him clearly, so he continued by repeating himself, “You can just pick one of the paths no wind is coming from and head down that way. We’re aiming to head somewhere deeper underground, so going towards the source of the wind is only going to bring us back to the surface.”

 “Wait a moment, commander…” Alfred had a solemn and serious expression as he asked, “Do you know what you’re doing, sir?”

 “Of course I know,” Sean said in reply, “my goal is to head into the deepest part of this crypt.”

 Alfred was already feeling the urge to facepalm. “No, what I mean to say is… Do you mean to say you have no idea how to get there, sir?”

 “Absolutely! No,” Sean replied matter-of-factly. “If I knew the way, I’d be walking up in front, and I wouldn’t let you take the lead.”

 “That’s what I’m trying to say. Why did you put me up in front?!” Alfred realized at that point that not only had his blood not yet run cold, but he was still very youthful, feeling like he would go mad from anger.

 “Well, it’s so I can measure your abilities,” Sean’s presumptuous expression did not change as he continued to explain. “If we meet any sudden unforeseen circumstances, you’ll be able to deal with it better than I can with your rich experience, am I right? It’s obvious if you think about it.”

 “Pft,” Cecilia let out a very unkind laugh out of the blue.

 Alfred was dumbfounded as he began to fill with doubts. What on earth could have bewitched him last night to make him agree to Sean’s dubious offer to join his team? As a commander of the team, was it not vital to thoughtfully plan out every operation? Why did Sean seem to do things so carelessly as a commander, without setting out any kind of logical and serious plans?

 However, on this point, one could not blame Sean.

 Sean was certainly aware that the “Bavarian Armguards schematic drawings” were in the deepest recesses of this crypt and that one could enter at rank three to get their hands on the first set of schematic drawings for a legendary artifact. However, on the forums back then, the naughty brat who was happily flaunting this news did not share the full records of his progress. He only wanted to show off his trophy, and even the directions he gave for the entrance to the crypt were impossible to follow.

 Sean had only gotten this far because some other players in the game who had way too much time on their hands had followed this lead and come to explore the crypt. These players then started a new thread with proper details of the entrance coordinates and some other information about the underground tunnels. When Sean was browsing through the forum, he had cursorily skimmed through these posts, and he barely remembered some of the contents. That was the limit of his knowledge, so he couldn’t have committed the entire map of the crypt to memory.

 He only remembered one key tip: head towards the direction no wind is coming from.

 “This is an absolute farce!” Alfred was a very principled man who knew when to draw the line, and it was because of these qualities that he always had a very rigorous style of doing things. “This is an underground maze! Without conducting a careful investigation and understanding the full context of the site, it is not sensible to just rashly head deeper, because nobody knows what kinds of situations we will encounter down there. You must be aware that any of these underground passages could very possibly be connected to the underground dungeon!”

 “I know all this,” Sean responded in an equally serious manner, nodding solemnly. “Regarding these underground passages, I’ve done my due diligence. They do not link up to the underground dungeon, so you don’t need to worry about bumping into Mitauros and his Tauren lackeys. Of course, you also won’t encounter any of the higher rank existences in the underground dungeon.”

 “What, then, can we expect to encounter.” Alfred’s facial muscles began to twitch as he asked, “my dear commander?”

 “Demonic Ground Spiders, Man-faced Spiders, or some other strange creatures, I suppose,” Sean replied nonchalantly. “These enemies can all be easily dealt with, but the only difficulty is that they come in large numbers.”

 “Commander, I must insist. Until we can get a clear picture of what we are heading into, the best course of action is to leave this place.” Alfred took in a deep breath, quelling the growing agitation inside of him. “It’s not too late to come back and explore this place again after we have gathered enough information about these underground tunnels.”

 “It’s fine. I know how we should proceed.” Sean waved away his concerns.

 “In that case, commander, you can point me in the direction we should go.”

 “Head towards where there is no wind.”

 Alfred stared hard at Sean, his veins bulging in anger.

 If he could, Alfred wanted to send a punch flying into Sean’s face.

 “It’s fine.” Cecilia noticed that Alfred was infuriated, and laughed lightly, “Sean won’t do something if it’s meaningless or he’s not confident about it. Although it may seem like he can be very unreliable, the truth is that before starting every operation, he makes sure his preparations are perfect.”

 “That would be great if it were true.” Alfred looked at Cecilia with a mellowed gaze. “It must have been really hard for you to follow a commander like him.”

 Cecilia only smiled and shook her head, not providing any other response to this remark. Her situation was different from Alfred’s. After all, the serious Alfred had been persuaded to join their team only after meeting with Sean for the first time. In contrast, Sean had saved Cecilia’s life, and their shared experiences over the past two months had allowed her to develop a very strong bond of dependence and trust with Sean. Of course, this was impossible for Alfred to comprehend.

 “I knew he had a Lolita complex.” As he observed Alfred, Sean muttered softly to himself, “The guy who thought he was just a doting father is a real idiot.”

 “Sean does not pick fights unless he knows he can win.” Unaware of what Sean was whispering to himself, Cecilia only gave Alfred a long, hard stare, firmly repeating herself.

 “I do hope so.” Alfred looked towards Sean, but his expression was still one of distaste.

 A commander who was too reckless and carefree was not a good thing for members of a mercenary team. Alfred felt like he could already foresee the various kinds of problems this team would face in the coming days.

 “Indeed.” Sean completely ignored the look on Alfred’s face as he nodded to himself. “Earlier, when you went to buy a push dagger, Cecilia and I also went to stock up on some food supplies, enough to last us ten days… However, quite unfortunately, we only could get some simple dry field rations. After all, the Demonic Ground Spiders are very sensitive to the smell of meat products.”

 Alfred studied Sean earnestly and understood from the look in his eyes that Sean was not saying this as a joke. In other words, what Sean was trying to say was that unless they could find what he was looking for in this place in the next ten days, they would need to spend the whole time in these underground tunnels. Alfred sighed deeply, as though he had resigned himself to this fate, as he started to accept deep down Cecilia’s encouraging statement that “Sean was always prepared.”

 It was at that moment, however, that there were slight tremors running through the ground. A frantic rustling noise could be heard coming one after the other, and the chilling noise would make anyone’s blood freeze.

 Almost at the same time, Alfred, Cecilia, and Sean entered a combat-ready state. Their three pairs of eyes looked towards the left tunnel at once, which was where the wind was coming from. Soon after their gaze was fixed on the tunnel, they saw countless red specks of light lighting up in the darkness of the crypt. Each red light was coming from the six o’clock position on the ground, and the field of countless red dots was a horrific sight to the onlookers.

 It was obvious without even thinking that these red lights were coming from the spider-like creatures in the crypt. However, they didn’t know if they were about to face Demonic Ground Spiders or Man-faced Spiders.

 It was also at this time that Alfred would discover that neither Sean nor Cecilia were as weak as he imagined.