"Let me deal with this one," Aiden said to Laela as he walked slowly toward the last demon, with the sword made of light magic floating beside him.
The demon, who was shaking with fear at this point, dropped from the back of its monster, let his whip fall to the ground, and started running in the opposite direction.
The Kragbul tried to rush toward Aiden to drive its large horn through him; but the sword of light floating at Aiden’s side immediately rushed toward the incoming beast and pierced right through its head, effectively killing it.
Laela turned her head away slightly at the sight of the slaughter.
The demon kept running, almost stumbling on its feet, and Aiden didn’t exactly feel like chasing after it.
He reached the point where the demon had left its extensive whip and picked it up.
He grabbed the end of the whip, made it spin a bit in the air, then lunged his hand forward so that the long whip extended all the way and clutched the demon tightly by the neck.
"Get over here!" Aiden screamed while pulling his hand backward with enough force to drag the demon back toward him.
The creature landed and crashed backward as intended, seemingly trying to struggle to get the whip off its neck.
Aiden placed his foot on the body of the struggling demon and asked, "Are you the one leading this place?"
He asked this because to bring an end to the dungeon, the boss had to be killed, just like any other dungeon.
If this demon was the boss, he would kill it right here and now to end the quest. But if it wasn’t, then he would make it lead them right to their boss.
He had no intention of toiling through this wasteland until he finally found the boss; that was exactly why he didn’t kill it immediately until this confirmation was done.
"No, no, no," the demon answered repeatedly as it fidgeted with fear.
Aiden smiled deviously and took a squat so that the demon would see his face more closely when he said, "You’re going to take me to the one leading this place, or I’ll send you off to join the rest of your friends. Am I clear?"
"Y-yes," the demon said while nodding repeatedly.
"Good!" Aiden said before placing his left hand on the body of the beast and using the spell "Immobilis."
The demon stopped moving at all, as if it had frozen on the spot. Aiden had cast this spell so that it wouldn’t make another attempt to escape.
Then he turned back toward Laela, who had just stood there and watched, nothing short of amazed.
He looked around to see that the beasts had been drained of their mana and their skins had grown so lean, while the dead demons were also disintegrating slowly. That was how you knew a demon was truly dead.
"That was impressive," Aiden said with a smile toward Laela.
Laela replied, "You’re even more impressive, but why keep the last one?"
"Because it’s going to take us to the boss," Aiden said with a grin on his face.
...
Meanwhile, in the real world, it was sundown. This was because time was dilated in the real world and moved a lot faster compared to the Dynamic dungeon Aiden and Laela were in.
The duo had only spent roughly over an hour in the dungeon, but about ten hours had passed in real-world time.
Kayden, Arianna, and Elena were back from their own mission a while ago, and Katherine was beginning to get worried.
She had at different points in time come out of her chambers to ask if Aiden and Laela were back, but each time the mages sitting in the main room shook their heads.
Arianna had been contemplating what was truly going on, and Kayden at some point had said to himself, "Why is that idiot taking so much time?"
About six more hours in and they both hadn’t reported back, that was when Katherine lost it.
Katherine stepped out of her chambers and called out, "Piers!"
"Yes, Captain!" he said, rushing back into the main room. He had been outside and on the lookout for both of them the whole time.
"Take me to Shinjin’s Pass now," she commanded.
Piers nodded quickly and moved forward while pulling out his own map neatly folded in his pocket.
He placed the map on a table close by, marked out and memorized the position of Shinjin’s Pass on the map.
Then he came and stood beside the captain while placing his hand on her shoulder. He called out, "Transport!" and instantly they both warped out of sight.
It didn’t matter if that was the hundredth time Piers had used his transport magic; anytime the mages of Ravens Grave saw it, it felt like something amazing.
Piers and Captain Katherine reappeared at the entrance of Shinjin’s Pass, and they both started walking further into the canyon, even though it was dark at the moment.
Katherine wanted to be at least sure of the situation. If the dungeon’s outer structure wasn’t standing anymore, then it meant it had been cleared.
And if it was still standing, then only two things were possible, either they had died in that dungeon or they had never gone there in the first place.
She was almost sure it couldn’t be death at the hands of a D-ranked dungeon, but it had to be ruled out regardless.
This was because she always felt like no matter how strong or powerful your technique was, the experience in the field could always bring a different type of challenge that even a powerful magic blast could not save you from.
...
Meanwhile, Aiden and Laela were being guided by the demon toward what it called their "Nest."
Aiden tied the whip tightly around its body and then held the end part of it, while the creature walked in front of them, leading the way.
They were in a question-and-answer scenario; Aiden did the talking, and it did the answering.