Martial Online.

Ambrose landed on top of the nearby mountain hill, which gave a good view of the village and was a rather safe place as the only way to get there was via climbing.

He lowered Bella to the ground and said, "You can wait here."

"Mm." Bella nodded and then watched as he soared away into the sky.

She then crouched and squinted her eyes as she tried to catch a glimpse of the village.

'There are really players living underground there?' She wondered.

Atop the village, Ambrose looked down like a god looking down at humans.

'I doubt they can just blindly attack from underground.' He thought. 'There must be someone keeping an eye on me, communicating with the players in the underground lair about my whereabouts.'

At that moment, his eyes landed on the strange hut, shaped like an outdoor restroom, with a small entrance that seemed to be the only way in or out.

Ambrose grabbed his wooden sword, descended towards the ground like a bird who had its wings cut off, and then smashed his sword down on the hut.

Smash!

The hut exploded, and the debris scattered everywhere.

In the place of the destroyed hut, a dirty-faced player was hunched over, coughing up blood and rubbing his head. He stood over a small hatch that seemed to lead somewhere underground.

Ambrose stuffed his wooden sword into the dirty-faced player's mouth and kicked him off his feet, making him crash to the ground.

"Ngh!" The dirty-faced player quickly grabbed some invisible strings that were scattered across the destroyed hut and tugged on them powerfully.

He activated some hidden traps, causing the nearby windows to shatter as arrows flew towards Ambrose with deadly speed.

Ambrose wasn't ready for some hidden traps, but after a half-second of surprise, he quickly grabbed the dirty-faced player by his hair and used him as a shield to block the arrows.

However, in the midst of the arrow attacks, the dirty-faced player turned into pixels after his health plummeted to zero. He got quite injured by Ambrose's attack, and his level didn't seem too high to survive long.

Ambrose quickly slammed his foot on the ground, destroyed the ground below, and sent pieces of mud, rock, and dust flying into the air.

Most of them blocked the arrows for Ambrose, but a few managed to go through and flew straight at him.

However, Ambrose then swung his wooden sword and deflected the few remaining arrows. He barely managed to guard himself from the attack.

At that moment, several steel spears poked through the ground, catching Ambrose off guard again.

Ambrose leaped into the air, barely avoiding the steel spears. However, it looked like he had accidentally activated another round of traps as another hundred arrows burst through the buildings.

"Basic Slash!" Ambrose screamed and sent Inner Power-infused attack down to the arrows.

The golden Basic Slash shot through the air, blasted the arrows into pieces, and struck the ground with a powerful force.

"Aaah…"

Ambrose perked up his ears as he could swear that he heard some screams from the underground. It seemed like his deduction was correct, and there were indeed people living in the underground!

"Open sesame!" Ambrose landed on the ground and slashed through the dirt and debris with his wooden sword.

He didn't feel like he had cut through anything super solid, but instead as if he had cut through some wood.

It was just as expected.

Below the real ground, there was a layer of wood that seemed to act as a ceiling for the underground players.

However, now that he had cut through it, debris and dirt poured inside the underground lair.

'How did they build something like this?' Ambrose wondered. 'Did they have some special item to do that? I need to find out, as this sounds like it could be very useful.'

Ambrose jumped down into the hole and crashed through the wooden 'ceiling.'

Crack, smash!

As he landed on the underground lair, he looked around the dimly lit space that looked like just a cave in the underground, with tents, sleeping mats, and campfires strewn about.

There was a disgusting stench in the air, and he could hear the faint sound of groaning and shuffling coming from the shadows.

'How can anyone live in this mess?' Ambrose grimaced, and then he saw several players appearing from the shadows. They were all covered in dirt, and their eyes were bloodshot.

However, their weaponry seemed solid, with steel spears, swords, and shields.

"Y-you shouldn't have come here…" A bushy-bearded man, who looked rather old, or maybe it was because of the dirt on his face, spoke in a low, menacing tone.

"And why is that?" Ambrose asked, his voice steady and confident.

"In the darkness, we, the Children of the Earth, are invincible." The man said with a rough voice and suddenly kicked the dirt off the ground, splashing it across the campfire's, killing their light.

A black, impenetrable darkness swallowed the underground lair.

It was impossible for Ambrose to see anyone; however, he knew these so-called 'Children of the Earth' could see him better than in daylight.

Their eyes had gotten used to the darkness, while his hadn't.

"A mere trick." Ambrose's sword-wielding arm's muscles tensed and swelled like a coiled spring.

"Mortal Style, Life Extinguisher!" 

Like a bolt of lightning, the sword flashed through the air and created an explosion that swallowed the darkness with a ball of inferno.

Boom—the wooden ceiling shattered and sent dirt and debris flying everywhere. The well-built huts above the ground collapsed and sank into the hole in the ground, filling the underground lair with a sea of burning rubble.

Ambrose watched as notifications filled his vision. He killed them all with that one attack.

He then quickly flew out of the destroyed underground lair and hovered high in the air as he watched the village slowly destroy itself.

After a short moment of watching, Ambrose flew back to the small mountain hill, where he had dropped off Bella, and saw her looking at him as he was flying back.

After landing next to her, he could see that she looked rather relieved. She must've realized, after all the notifications, that everything went smoothly.

"Did you level up?" Ambrose asked with a smile.

"I did." Bella nodded with a smile, but then her expression changed slightly, and she raised one finger. "Uhm, can I fight the next creature we find?"

"What?" Ambrose's expression turned conflicted. "If you get hit in the vital areas, even I might not be able to save you."

"I know, but I didn't really want to come here just to watch you fight for me." Bella fidgeted with her fingers and said, "I also want to learn to fight."

"Hmm…" Ambrose's expression changed, and he asked. "How many stat points do you have?"

"70," Bella said.

"Assign half of them to Vitality." Ambrose said. "Then you can fight the next one. Only if the creatures we find aren't too dangerous."

"All right!" Bella quickly did as he told her and added 35 points to Vitality. Her HP was now at 55.

"Done!"

"Good, here." Ambrose grabbed the brown pouches, which the deceased players dropped, and handed half of them to her. "They might've been living underground, but they were wealthy."

"Most likely money they had gotten by killing players."

"Mm." Bella accepted only because she saw that he gave half. If he wanted to give more, she would have refused.

"Well, let's go find a creature to be your opponent." Ambrose looked down at the Crow Forest and thought about moving towards the entrance.

There might be creatures that wouldn't be too dangerous.