You have slain an F-ranked electrosaur.

[You have ascended to Level 22.]

[+10 has been added to speed stat for slaying a beast with Volt Lord title.]

[You have gained 80 biomass.]

With the monster now dead, I deactivated my mana sight skill, and soon the world returned to normal.

I then lowered the earth wall around Alazar and the others.

"Where is it? Did you kill it?" he eagerly asked as he scanned the room for any signs of the monster.

"Don’t worry, I killed it," I assured them, which caused relief to wash over their panicked faces.

"Thank Mr. Monster for protecting us," one of the twins said, bowing her head, while tightly clutching onto the hem of her skirt. It was the girl, Aria who looked as if she couldn’t be older than five years old.

"Thank you for protecting us" Her twin brother nervously stepped up next.

[2 skill points have been used to increase telepathy to level 2. You can now communicate telepathically with 4 persons at once.

"No problem. I’m glad you two are safe," I replied.

The two were temporarily startled when they suddenly heard my voice inside their heads. After a second though, their eyes began to glow as if they were looking at a shiny new toy.

Having that taken care of, I then turned my attention to where the monster was clawing at aggressively when we arrived.

In the corner there was a small crack in the ground. Large enough for someone to squeeze through it.

Curious, I skittered over to the opening on the other side of the room and peeked inside to see what the beast was so desperately clawing at.

Inside the small space lay a white-haired girl tightly wedged in between. Her body was arched in an L shape with her rear facing my direction. Her horns were tightly wedged, which caused her to be stuck. It was the same girl I released.

She turned around slighty, and a bright pink blush stretched across her face in a straight line.

"Eeek!"

The sight was quite comical, especially since tears were accumulating in her eyes and her face was bright red.

She seemed more embarrassed than afraid. She then began to fight more desperately to free herself.

"Just stay still I’ll get you out." I assured her.

She looked dumbfounded the moment I spoke and visibly shrank a little.

I channeled my mana into the rocks of the cave to perform the earth-control spell.

It felt as if I were pushing against an unmovable boulder. I knew that even if I tried for a whole day I wouldn’t be able to shift the entire wall. The force required was just too much and unfortunately my earth magic wasn’t strong enough.

There was a huge difference between manipulating the surface of the earth and shifting the structure of an entire cave, even by an inch.

The best I could do now was smoothen the surface of the wall so she could force herself through more easily.

The jagged surface of the wall was what was keeping her horn stuck. I could smoothen the wall by forcing these jagged edges to lie flat.

With the walls on both sides of her less jagged, she slowly began to wiggle herself out until she paused and looked back at me, who was still standing behind her.

"I know you’re just a monster, but... could you turn away?"

At her request, I turned around as she vigorously moved her body side to side to escape until she finally plopped out.

"Kali!"

"Big sis."

Immediately the children ran towards her and embraced her in a hug.

"Alazar, Hal, Ala, Aries, Aria." Kali fell to her knees and embraced them even as she was nearly knocked to the ground in the process.

After their tearful reunion, Alazar explained everything that happened about how I saved them and led them to her.

After hearing all that, she approached me and curtly bowed her head.

"I don’t know why a dungeon monster is helping us, but thank you. And thank you for saving me from those adventurers."

"I’m happy to help, but we shouldn’t stay here any longer. It’s no longer safe."

She nodded a bit solemnly. I’m guessing the thought of having to travel through the monster-infested land with the children frightened her.

"Don’t worry, I’ll accompany you to make sure nothing happens."

Her face brightened.

"Thank you umm..."

"You can call me Apex," I said.

A monster giving a human name would sound strange. Plus I wasn’t planning to reveal that I was a player to anyone.

This body made it perfect for me to lurk in the shadows and operate in ways a regular human body couldn’t.

Even though I was this far into the dungeon, my antennae could still feel the air current coming in from the exit, so I knew exactly where to go in this maze of a dungeon.

Quickly and cautiously we made our way out the dungeon. After about two hours of walking with minimal breaks in between we finally reached the exit but it wasn’t what we were expecting.

As we stepped out of the dungeon, we saw the earth beneath the forest floor move as if something were moving just beneath the surface.

Instinctively, I prepared to attack in case anything were to pop out from beneath the ground, but whatever it was seemed to be moving away from us.

Instead, it was heading towards another creature. It was a massive bullfrog that must’ve been 4 feet in height. Its entire body was as big as a hippo.

"This creature must be one of Lily’s monsters."

The frog was innocently sitting in the wetland beside the dungeon, blissfully unaware of the creature beneath it.

Then when the frog least expected it, a 2-meter-long worm exploded from the soil and attached itself to the frog.

That worm... it’s the same as the ones I saw outside the forest.

If I remember correctly, that worm is supposed to be a D-ranked monster!

The frog hopped and thrashed around as it tried to get the worm off it, but the worm was latched on too tightly, and soon the frog’s strength began to fade.

The frog’s bright green color began to fade and turn gray. And at the same time the worm’s body began to expand.

Is the worm draining its blood?

The frog’s skin began to wrinkle as all the blood was drained out of its body until the creature resembled an empty husk!

"Run." I communicated sharply to the others.

Kali picked up the twins in both arms without hesitation and took off sprinting with Alazar, Hal, and Ala sprinting closely behind them.

As they escaped, I slowed down my pace to stay behind them to cover their retreat.

An F or an E ranked beast I could handle, but a D ranked monster was simply out of my league.

Though it was only one rank apart from mine, there was a huge gap between each rank.

A D-ranked beast was twice, if not 3 times, stronger than an E-ranked monster like me.

This matchup was suicide, and escape was my best option for now.

We bolted through the forest until we were brought to a stop by an even more disturbing sight.

The entire forest before us was slowly withering away. The ground itself had turned a dark shade of red, and the trees and grass had turned ashen in this part of the forest.

This decay spread out for miles and the only place that had a sliver of green was behind us where the worm was.

This must’ve been caused by the forest nymph’s, death. This forest represented her body, and because she had died, it made sense why it was withering away.

This must’ve been what caused the worms to appear within the forest.

"Apex!"

Kali shouted, dragging me out of my thoughts.

Looking around, I finally realized what happened. There were movements in the soil around us.

I quickly activated my mana sight to get a clearer picture of my surroundings.

All around us were bright blue energy signatures, representing the core of the monsters that surrounded us in the soil beneath our feet!