Upon entering, we were immediately swallowed up by the darkness of the cave.

Without wasting any time, Aika and I simultaneously dipped our hands into the inventory. I pulled out an oil lamp, and she pulled out a matchstick, quickly helping me light the wick.

The space slowly illuminated, and I could see the shivering faces of Dion and Celeste. I quickly moved the lamp to have a look at the cave. Since we were at the entrance, the space around us was narrow, but we could see that it grew wider further in the dark cavern.

I began to pray that we were the only creatures in it.

Aika immediately took her katana out of her shadow, while Dion pointed his spear forward as we began moving deeper into the cave.

Then suddenly, I froze as I stepped on something crunchy that felt like bone. Lowering my lamp, that was when I could see a human skeleton leaning against the wall with a sword protruding out its chest and pinning it to the rock.

The other three immediately stopped behind me, then Dion gasped, "Holy…"

While we were still looking at it, Celeste spoke in a hushed voice, "It... it doesn't look like they died from a monster, but from a Dominant."

Dion turned to her. "Of course, smart pants. It's obvious. Look at the sword."

"Let's keep moving." I urged as I turned away from the corpse and began walking deeper into the cave.

Though something began to bother me.

…Dominants don't carry conventional weapons because their bonds are their weapons.

Did the person, or people, who did that bring a weapon with them, perhaps in their haversack?

While I was lost in that disquieting thought, we suddenly stumbled out of the narrow passage. It opened up to the inner layer and end of the cave, revealing a large, rounded cavern.

We could immediately see stones arranged in a circle around a makeshift fireplace. Cloths and abandoned pieces of armor lay scattered in places, and the walls were littered with writings.

I immediately heaved a deep sigh of relief, realizing we were the only ones in here.

Since we were all cold from the rain, I quickly went over to the fireplace, poured some oil from the lamp over the pieces of wood, and lit the fire.

"Gah… finally!" Dion dropped to the ground some meters from the fire, while Celeste took a seat on one of the stones and began warming her hands.

With the fireplace now lit, the large rounded cavern was illuminated.

I stood and turned to the side where I could see Aika standing by the wall reading one of the etchings.

I walked over and stood beside her, studying the writings as well. The language spoken in the Lumierian empire, and most of the other empires, was called Kaldor. Ever since arriving in this world, I had been able to speak and read the language as if it were my mother tongue. Since the etchings were clearly written in Kaldor, I assumed that they were left by other Dominants who rested here before us.

Most of the etchings were just simple warnings like:

"Avoid the north-east caves by the river crossing."

"…Do not try taking on a grave-hound unless there are three or more in your party."

My gaze skimmed over some of them, until Aika called my attention.

'Look at this.'~~

I turned to where she was pointing, and I could see an etching that was a bit larger and longer than the others. It read:

"Some time ago, we came across a group of people we could not recognize. They behaved really strangely, wore strange clothes, and spoke a language that we also couldn't understand. From what we observed, they didn't seem to be from the Empire or any that we know of. The only thing we know about this group is that they are incredibly powerful and dangerous. They did not seem to have bonds, but rather used normal weapons. Yet, they have killed many of our Dominants and, if we are not mistaken, they seem to be even stronger than Grade Two. If you come across this warning, avoid them at all costs. And if you make it out of this realm and back to ours, please warn the others about these strange people."

'What?'

While reading the etching, I could feel a chill run down my spine.

Group of dangerous, strange people that killed other dominants?

…Strange.

I had never heard of such people before, not even when I was playing the game.

Who could they be?

My thoughts began to race because there were many things that did not make sense in that warning.

For one, if they did not have bonds, that made them normal humans. But humans were not allowed by the empires to cross the veil as they stood no chance of survival in this world. The only people that were allowed to cross the Veil from our world over to this realm were Dominants who were either Cadets from the different bastions, or Rangers from the various guilds.

Unless they lost their bonds after crossing, that would explain them being without bonds. But even then, without a bond, they would be functionally useless, unable to defend themselves against even a Grade One creature.

But then the warning also said that they seemed to be even stronger than Grade Two.

How was that possible?

Humans couldn't get stronger than grade one due to the inherent limitations of the human body and its inability to handle an evolution to a higher Grade.

If these people were above Grade Two, then, that meant these people were not normal humans.

What were they then?

Were they higher-Grade Dominants who chose to hide their bonds and just preferred using normal weapons?

That would not be a surprise, after all, a normal human can never kill a Dominant. And in order to kill a Grade Two Dominant, one must either be a Grade Two or higher.

Suddenly, the possibility of them being higher-grade Dominants who had evolved while in this world became high in my mind.

From what I know, those above Grade Two couldn't cross the Veil to the First Ring. The reason was simple: the Veil wouldn't let them cross. It acted as a magical filter, simply preventing the passage of those of Grades higher than two into the First Ring. That was why only first-years could journey to the First Ring, while those above Grade Two crossed different Veils and journeyed to the Second or upper Rings depending on their Grade.

However, it was still very possible to have Grade Three Dominants in the First Ring, as the only way a person could be above Grade Two here was if they evolved here. Considering the number of creatures one would kill in the six months they spent in this realm, the presence of such high-level Dominants was not entirely a surprise.

But still, more questions flooded my mind:

Why would they hide their bonds, and why were they using normal weapons?

If they were indeed Dominants, why were they killing their own kind?

Also, the writing said they did not seem to be from the Empire and spoke strange languages. So, where were they from?

What was their goal?

While I was still pondering this, I suddenly remembered the sword pinned to the skeleton at the entrance to this cave and then I snapped my gaze towards that direction.

'That was probably done by one of them.'

I shuddered at the thought.

A few seconds passed, and then I looked to Aika, who had left the wall to sit over in a corner and was now smoking her pipe. Then I asked, 'What do you make of all this, Aika?'~

She took a long drag from her pipe, exhaled a plume of smoke, then replied after a moment. 'I have a feeling that things are about to be way different from the game you remember.'~~

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.