I am the Demon King of the Dungeon!

The task registration went more smoothly than expected.

The staff member took the mission order, glanced at the client's name, then looked up and saw the top-tier black iron badge on Arthas's waist. He repeated, "Escort mission, from Graystone Town to Holy City, estimated journey time seven days. Client is Cole Graystone, reward ten gold coins, five already prepaid."

She placed a sheepskin contract on the counter.

"Please sign."

"Seven days, ten gold coins..." Renn hesitated as he looked at the mission information.

The currency among monsters is magic crystals, while humans use round coins made from copper, silver, and gold ores.

A magic crystal is equivalent to one gold coin; one gold coin is equivalent to ten silver coins or one hundred copper coins, enough to stay three nights in an ordinary inn and eat five steak meals.

A bronze adventurer can earn at least fifty gold coins a month, which is one of the reasons why Renn hesitated.

This escort mission yielded neither money nor much adventurer experience.

Arthas didn't care about anything else; all he wanted to do now was find the three people who had given him the Vivre Card. He picked up a quill pen and signed "Dick Reynolds".

Oris also signed her name.

Seeing this, Raine stopped arguing and signed the document, treating it as accompanying Arthas on his first mission.

People say that handwriting reveals personality. Raine's flowing handwriting contrasts sharply with Arthas's neat handwriting, while Oris's handwriting is round and somewhat cute.

Arthas noticed that Raine hadn't written his last name on the form, and the staff didn't say anything more about it.

He secretly kept a watchful eye on things.

……

The three arrived at the blacksmith's shop.

Cole was already standing at the door, dressed in a clean linen shirt, his hair neatly combed, looking much more energetic than he had been in the early morning. He saw Arthas and the other two approaching and nodded slightly.

"Are you King Ren?"

"That's right! I'm Captain Renn!" Renn patted his chest and introduced, "This is Oris, this is Dick, we'll escort you safely to Holy Radiance City."

Cole's gaze lingered on Raine for a moment, then looked at Oris, and finally landed on Arthas.

"Dick Reynolds."

"Yes, yes, he's Dick." Ryan glanced around and asked, "What about the gift?"

Cole turned and went into the blacksmith's shop, picked up a heavy burlap bundle, and put it on the ground.

Raine stepped forward, picked up the burlap bundle, and asked, "Is this what's to be sent to Holy Radiance City?"

"Yes. Farm tools." Cole said without changing his expression, "The order from the blacksmith guild in Holy Radiance City was just completed yesterday, and I need to deliver it quickly."

Arthas knew that there were not only tools inside, but also the Dragon Fang sword, because he could tell from the subtle scratches on the blade that the sword had been polished for at least several years.

Cole valued that sword highly.

"Let's go!"

Raine hoisted the burlap bundle onto his shoulder, turned, and headed toward the town entrance. All he wanted now was to finish the quest as quickly as possible and then take Arthas to raid other dungeons.

When the four walked out of the east gate of Graystone Town, the sun was already high in the sky. There were many adventurers returning home outside the town. They had gone out to carry out missions before dawn and were now going back to town for a meal.

The dirt road stretches between golden wheat fields on both sides, and low hills can be seen on the distant horizon.

Cole walked in the middle of the group, carrying nothing on his shoulders, his steps light and quick. He would occasionally look up at the sky, as if savoring the long-awaited moment of being out and about.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself," Oris asked. "How long has it been since you left Graystone Town?"

"Three years," Cole replied. "Ever since Father disappeared, all the work at the blacksmith shop has fallen on my shoulders; I haven't been able to leave at all."

"Then how will you get away this time?"

"Because some things can't be delayed any longer."

Arthas understood the implication in Kol's words: the other man believed he could repair the sword.

Raine walked ahead, humming a tune again. This time it wasn't the goblin's welcome song, but a new one, with a jumbled melody and indistinct lyrics.

"What are you singing?" Olis nudged Ryan with her shoulder, stopping him. "Stop singing."

"My own composition, 'The Adventurer's Song'!"

"It sounds awful."

"You haven't finished listening yet!"

"Listening to the first three notes is enough."

"Your taste is terrible." Raine was turned to Arthas. "Dick, what do you think?"

Arthas thought for a moment.

"The pacing is alright."

"See! Dick said it's alright!"

"He's just being polite," Olis said expressionlessly. "If he can't even sing the lyrics clearly, who's going to listen?"

Upon hearing this, Arthas recalled the past; when he was a child, he had a great liking for a certain "braised egg" pop star.

After walking for about two hours, the wheat field first turned into wasteland, and then the wasteland turned into sparse woods, with the branches of the trees on both sides intertwined and reaching towards the sky.

"This place is called 'Wind Whisperer's Forest'," Raine said, unusually earnest. "It is said that an elf used to live here, but the elf disappeared, and some low-level monsters wander around here now."

Arthas narrowed his eyes. He sensed a magical fluctuation about fifty paces ahead. It didn't seem like a demon, but rather like an object imbued with magic.

trap?

"Don't move."

Arthas stopped Rennes.

"What's wrong?"

Renn's feet froze in mid-air, too afraid to land.

Arthas casually picked up a dead branch from the roadside and threw it into a slightly raised, round patch of dirt ahead.

The moment the dead branch hit the ground, the ground suddenly collapsed.

A deep pit appeared in the middle of the road, with a diameter of about half a meter and a depth of more than two meters. Several sharpened wooden stakes stood at the bottom of the pit, gleaming pale in the sunlight.

Hunting traps.

"This..." Renn gasped, retracting his foot that had been dangling in mid-air. "How could there be a trap in the Windwhisperer's Forest?"

"These traps..." Oris crouched down, carefully examining the cross-section of the pit wall, and deduced, "They're not aimed at monsters, but at humans..."

Before he finished speaking, a low growl came from the depths of the woods ahead.

"What's that sound?" Renn gripped the hilt of his sword, slowed his pace, and scanned the bushes ahead.

Oris's hand was already on the bowstring, and the arrow was silently drawn from the quiver at her waist.

Cole instinctively leaned towards Arthas, his eyes warily fixed on the slightly swaying bushes ahead.

The bushes suddenly exploded!

It wasn't a monster; it was a person who rushed out.

A blood-soaked man stumbled out of the bushes, his clothes torn in several places, his left arm hanging limply at his side, and his right hand still clutching a broken sword. He saw Arthas and his companions, paused for a moment, and then knelt down with a thud.

"Help, help me..."

Ryan rushed over to help the man up, demanding, "Who are you? What happened?"

"There's an ambush... the caravan is ahead..."

The man raised his hand, trembling, and pointed into the depths of the woods. In the direction he was pointing, wisps of black smoke could be seen rising from the treetops, and a burnt smell wafted through the air.

"How many of you are there?" Oris asked calmly. "Were you attacked by monsters?"

"Everything...everything's gone..." The man's voice seemed to be forced out from deep in his throat. "No, it wasn't a monster! Ah! It was a monster, people were taken away..."

Before he could finish speaking, his eyes rolled back and he fainted.