I'm a Immortal Tavernkeeper, But My S-Rank Daughter Doesn't Know That!

When Victor realized that he wouldn’t be able to advance as quickly as he would have liked, he began to act cautiously in order to eliminate as many enemies as possible on the way between him and the cave.

After killing the cleric, Victor found the group’s archer who had become a zombie and, like his fellow cleric, the archer was quickly killed after a sword split his skull.

The afternoon was just beginning over the mountainside, but the sky was dark, indicating that the cloudy sky Victor saw in the morning was nothing.

A storm was approaching, which also indicated that Victor would have little time if he wanted to try Elban’s theory about daylight, because perhaps Victor wouldn’t even have the light itself in a few minutes.

Even so, Victor continued to work cautiously, his steps carefully planned to avoid making any noise that might attract more zombies.

The terrain was slightly uneven, full of rocks and bushes that offered both shelter and obstacles.

Victor moved like a shadow in that end of the woods, his mind on alert for any movement or sound that might indicate the presence of more undead creatures.

Unlike living people, Victor couldn’t sense the presence of the undead with the Den, so he had to compensate by using his normal senses.

Between zombies and skeletoids, he counted at least three more enemies in his path.

The strategy formed clearly in his mind: eliminate these undead one by one, silently and without alerting the rest who were nearby, so that he could finally clear his way to the cave

The first monster of the last three was the warrior from the zombie hunter group. He was dragging his claymore along the ground, his body already in an advanced state of decomposition and with many bites, which was strange, because it had probably only been a few hours since the group entered the forest.

’He’s big. He probably resisted the bites and the zombification curse the longest.’ Victor concluded.

He sneaked up from behind and, with one swift movement, slashed its neck. The zombie went down without a sound, because Victor held it by the armor so as not to make a fuss.

The second was a skeletoid of a mage, recognizable because, although it had no skin, it still had long gnawed robes and a broken staff in its hands.

Victor crept through the shadows of the trees, silently approaching the zombie. With a precise blow, he struck the heart that was still beating in its chest, extinguishing any spark of magic that might have remained in that almost completely decomposed body.

The third and final enemy, a large skeleton with rusty armor, was the most difficult to face, because killing a skeletoid was different from killing a zombie, you had to go through the skeleton’s heart, which with armor protecting it wasn’t easy. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

So when Victor tried, he didn’t succeed at first. The clash of his sword emitted a loud clang and he had to face this enemy head-on.

The skeleton’s movements were disorganized and unpredictable, but Victor knew the art of dodging and precision. He dodged the zombie’s clumsy blows and easily found a gap in the monster’s defense, which had no concept of combat.

Unlike zombies, skeletoids didn’t have the ability to grow stronger when confronted with a human, perhaps because they had no brains left to give them a spark of consciousness.

The logic of the necromantic spells that made these creatures return from the dead was complicated to understand at first, but over time the hunters got used to it.

Victor then approached the skeletoid and stuck his sword into the skeleton’s armor through a normal hole in the armor under the left arm, which, because it had no muscles, made the hole much larger than for an ordinary warrior.

With the three enemies down, Victor was finally able to head towards the cave.

As he approached the cave entrance, he noticed ancient runes carved into the surrounding rocks. They were symbols of protection and warning that indicated that this place was not just a simple cave, but a feared place.

"The locals probably created quite a fear of this cave after the battle between Elban and the demon Gravisk."

Without further ado, Victor entered the cave, his breath mingling with the mystery.

The light inside the cave was dim, but it was natural, because some of the walls were covered in a glowing moss and some plants that hung from the ceiling.

In a cavernous place with so much life, there was obviously water, and the sound of water droplets echoed throughout the room.

So, although Elban had made it seem in his conversation with Victor that the cave would be full of monsters, Victor felt alone in this place, except for the strong evil presence he felt in his soul, pulsating from the bottom of the cave like a beating heart.

*Thump-thump*

Victor could almost hear the sound of the Gravisk demon’s heartbeat, and the vibration of this throbbing seemed to become more frequent by the second. Time was running out.

The evil presence, which intensified with every step, sent shivers down Victor’s spine.

As he advanced, Victor noticed that the runes on the walls were becoming more frequent and elaborate. Elban was the one who had broken Gravisk’s old seal in the past and when he made the seal again, he probably turned the whole cave into Gravisk’s prison without realizing it.

Further on, Victor finally reached the large underground chamber at the bottom of the cave. The dim light from the mosses revealed an ancient altar, and in this place runes were present on the walls from floor to ceiling, but even that didn’t seem to be enough to stop Gravisk.

In the center of the altar, there was a black sword emanating a dark energy that seemed almost tangible, and it was from this sword that the thudding sound came.

"That must be Elban’s sword and also the main part of Gravisk’s seal." muttered Victor to himself

And once again Victor heard a loud thud, but it was the last one, because when this sound stopped, Gravisk’s voice came to Victor once again.

"Ohh! My liberator has finally arrived~" Gravisk said ironically.