Nothing was in front of them. As far as their eyes could see, there were only humid cave walls. Apart from a flickering torch on every five meters of the cave wall, the one-way straight passage had no source of light.


    It was almost pitch-ck.


    Hiro and the others looked at each other with confusion. As if they couldmunicate with their eyes, they nodded and took out their weapons, full of vignce.


    Dominic and the members of Immortal Knights’ main party walked in the very front row followed by the others. As for Hiro, he intentionally slowed down his steps so he would be at the very back.


    ‘This is strange.’ he telepathically began speaking to Spyro. ‘The boss usually appears a second after the boss area notification.’


    The baby dragon was sitting on Hiro’s shoulder, also observing their surroundings with Hiro.


    ‘Be careful, it might be a trap,’ Alice replied in the dragon’s childish voice, suspicious of everything she saw.


    The group continued to walk forward while breathing in as little as possible. The previous urrence with the centipedes caused them to be wary of even the air in the area.


    The further they walked, the colder the air in the passage became. Even Hiro, who had twoyers of costumes on, was shivering.


    “Where’s the boss?” A mage with the username ckJack already seemed impatient.


    After walking until their legs felt sore, the people in the front row suddenly halted their steps.


    “Don’t you guys think something’s off?” Val asked while rubbing his hands to create heat.


    Hiro’s brows furrowed as he once again checked his surroundings. He also felt suspicious. The passage was straight, yet they couldn’t seem to reach the boss room.


    “I have to confirm something,” Hiro said as he walked past Dominic and the others.


    “What are you nning to do?” Dominic looked at Hiro a little skeptically. Even after walking three meters past him, the young man still didn’t stop.


    “Please let me do this. And all of you, please stay here for a while.”


    Right after Hiro said those words, he immediately ran forward.


    “Is he always like that?” Draco, who didn’t know anything, asked the three who had been together like a teenage gang the whole time.


    “Hm?” Jacob didn’t know how to respond.


    “If he’s already that strange, he probably knows something,” Noah said with a sigh.


    Meanwhile…


    Hiro kept running without reducing his speed. He had already put his greatsword onto his back and only focused on running. He was going so fast that Spyro had to tightly grip his shoulder so it wouldn’t be thrown off.


    “What are you doing!?”


    Hiro ignored Spyro and kept running.


    After walking with them for over 15 minutes without getting anywhere, Hiro already started to feel suspicious of the passageway.


    And his suspicion was proven. A distance in front of him now was none other than the raid party he left just several minutes ago.


    Hearing the sound of footsteps behind them, the raid group warily turned around. However, their vignt look turned into disbelief when they saw that it was Hiro.


    ‘I knew it.’


    Hiro looked toward the raid group and regted his breathing before exining.


    “Who knows what’s going on, but it looks like we’ve been walking around the same ce.”


    “What?”


    “No way!”


    “How did you do that!? You just…” Draco pointed at the two different sides with bewilderment.


    “See? I told you he knows something.” Noah threw a proud expression at Draco, whom Hiro astonished along with the other members of Immortal Knights.


    …


    Now that they knew about the cheap trick, they decided not to move the same way. This time, they scattered to check the ceiling, wall, and even the ground in the cave, hoping that one of them would find a clue.


    “How did you realize it?” Noah approached Hiro, who was checking the wall of the passage. Hiro rubbed its surface, but it was no use.


    “It was easy. You just need to pay attention to your surroundings, Noah.”


    Noah snorted when he heard this. Hiro’s response sounded sarcastic and simultaneously mocked him for rarely paying attention to his surroundings.


    “Ahhh… it’s warm.”


    Hiro nced at Noah, who suddenly let out a moan-like sound. He furrowed his brows.


    Noah was standing right in front of a flickering torch on the wall, intentionally leaning to it with his face and palms close to the fire for warmth.


    “What are you doing?” Hiro frowned. “Can’t you just create a fire with your magic?”


    He also moved closer to the torch for warmth.


    Hiro was already shivering from the cold. His hair even felt as if it was freezing because of how low the temperature was, yet it still felt as if it was getting colder the longer they stayed there.


    “My magic is currently out of control, you know? I even burned my hand when I was practicingst time.” Noah stretched out his left hand for Hiro to look at. It was red with burn scars.


    Hiro looked at the burn with a little puzzlement. For him to burn himself like that, what the hell did he do in practice?


    “Aahhh… it’s so warm.”


    Once again, Noah, let out a moan-like sound that caused Hiro to shiver on the spot.


    “Stop making that weird sound, you sound disgusting.”


    Noah looked at Hiro with annoyance. Unexpectedly, his hand suddenly grabbed Hiro’s wrist raised near the flickering torch fire.


    “Here. I’ll show you how to get the perfect warmth from the fire!”


    Hiro was startled, but he didn’t resist. He allowed Noah to position his hands to the fire on the torch.


    He just found out that at the perfect distance, the level of warmth he would get from the fire would be incredibly different. When his hands were finally positioned at the perfect distance, he felt a warmth that seemed to slowly move from his fingertips to his entire stiff body.


    “How is it? Feels good, doesn’t it?” Noah felt satisfied when he saw Hiro’s amazed expression.


    Cara, who caught Noah and Hiro’s act across them, kicked Jacob’s leg and signaled to the two with her chin. Jacob initially looked at her with a confused look, but his eyes widened when he saw what she was signaling to.


    “Are you serious!? Right in front of my shield!?” He couldn’t stay quiet.


    Hiro immediately flung Noah’s hands still holding his wrist. His physical strength, which was far above Noah’s, caused Noah to stagger and reflexively hold on to the torch in front of him.


    Crack!


    The torch wood moved downward like a lever. All of a sudden, the ground Noah and Hiro were standing on glitched and disappeared.