牛奶色隔壁有夫之妇

The best place to hide was always a cave. Dark enough for anyone to stay hidden, and usually made people think twice before going inside, making it the perfect place.

Well, if Arthur had the option of getting a more comfy place, he would, but they searched throughout the forest, and the only decent place they found were caves, so they picked one.

Liz feared going in, so Arthur and Lucas had to go first, explore it, and get rid of any danger that may lurk inside.

"Could a powerful beast be inside this place?" Lucas asked as both of them went inside the normal-looking cave.

Arthur could already tell from kilometers that there was nothing inside the cave, only bugs and that\'s it, but he could not tell that directly.

"Probably not. If something dangerous was around, then the villagers would have reported a few attacks."

"That is true, but maybe they are not only working with the kidnapper, but also with the beasts. Who knows, one of them might communicate with them!"

"Don\'t you think that\'s too much?"

"Yeah, I think I went too far on this. Also, what is the chance of these torches dying on the way?"

They prepared two torches to explore the cave more easily, but the question Lucas had been one Arthur did not even think about. For him, the torch was just for appearance, as his dragon eyes could see clearly inside the cave.

"Stop thinking about bad things and try to be positive. We are already covered in shit with this task, so being negative will not help at all."

Lucas did not answer, but based on the face he showed, Arthur was sure he understood the message. They kept going and searched every inch of the cave. There was nothing inside.

It was a narrow place, and it even got two different tunnels one could take. That was good in case someone found their place.

They went back to get Liz, and this time, Arthur used some spells to make the interior of the cave brighter, making the torches useless.

"How many spells do you know? Are you a freak?"

"I know an infinite number of spells. Yes, I am a freak. Some call me a dragon among men."

"A dragon among men? You went from awesome and handsome to a legendary dragon in a twenty-four-hour span. What a legend." Liz said, chuckling at Arthur\'s statement, not taking it to the heart.

Now they had a temporary base for their adventurers, and Arthur believed no one would come looking for them inside that cave. First, not that close to the village, and they went deep inside the cave, and almost no one would do the same.

Arthur was confident in watching the move of every villager without them noticing him, but he was not that confident with Liz and Lucas, as they did not know any stealth spells. So, he took a risk and implanted the knowledge of the Invisibility spell into their minds.

Not everyone could do such a thing, and if Liz and Lucas were rank 1 mages, for example, they would instantly conclude that Arthur was not a simple character. But they weren\'t rank 1 mages, so for them that act was not something rare.

"Thanks, bro! I\'ll start practicing, so give me a few tips!" Lucas said.

They both went to practice the Invisibility spell right after Arthur put the knowledge into their heads, and with the help of that, they got good with the spell in just half an hour.

Of course, they weren\'t using a high tier of Invisibility spell, but it was enough for them to hide from weak enemies below the ninth circle. Arthur was not sure about what was the level of strength his enemies had, but they should not be that strong, or else stronger mages would have gone there to wipe them.

"You two are ready? Now, we all know these attacks happened during the night, and that perhaps is the only truthful thing these villagers told us. So, we will sleep and rest during the day, and stay the entire night awake, spying on them."

"We will part ways. Each one of us will be in charge of an unfamiliar area of the village, and share information throughout secret marks."

"Secret marks? What are those?"

Arthur then explained about the secret marks that allowed mages to send mental messages, and he marked them with his own imprint, which was the drawing of a dragon.

That way, he could send the two messages, and they could send him messages too. Of course, one had to first record the message, send it, and then the other had to listen when it had the time. It was not as if they were hearing each other\'s thoughts and were in constant talk. It was more like an instant carrier pigeon.

"Now we are ready. Let\'s go find out the truth."

They all nodded, and then left the cave, already using their invisibility spell to not draw any attention. Each one of them went to a distinct part of the village, and Arthur handled the area where that guard lived.

He watched every single villager of that area, and it was clear they were hiding something. Now that they were supposedly gone, all the villagers did not have the sad faces from before, but were living their lives just like normal, and even the guard whose sister went missing was walking around with smiles, as if nothing happened.

"Did his sister truly went missing? I don\'t know, but I have a feeling this guy lived alone all along." Arthur thought.

The reason for him to think that way was because he spied through the window of the man\'s house, and did not see over one bed! Arthur did the same to all windows, taking full advantage of his invisibility spell, and there was nothing!

So the first person who met them. The person who toured the village was not telling the truth. What else could they be hiding?

After long hours of boredom, Arthur returned to the cave to meet up with Lucas and Liz, who also got nothing from the first night of watch.

"Don\'t be discouraged. This is the first night, and for them we left the village only some hours ago. Let\'s keep going!" Arthur said to Lucas and Liz, who were so tired they looked like did not even listen, falling asleep right after arriving at the cave.

Arthur was not feeling like sleeping, so he spent a few more hours training, taking usage of every second to increase his essence conversion, aiming to reach a greater power in the future.

When Lucas and Liz woke up, he was pretending to be asleep to avoid them of asking questions. He was already showing a lot of his prowess.

"Bro, wake up! Eat, or else you will pass out during the night watch!" Lucas said.

With an extraordinary acting skill, Arthur pretended to wake up, surprised to see he was late.

"Did I oversleep? I am sorry."

"No problem. Here, take this! Lucas got ourselves some meat!"

Arthur accepted the food and ate like a madman. After that, it was already night-time again, so they left the cave, going toward the same locations.

But this time, something happened during the night.