As soon as the druid made that absurd demand, Miri and Anne looked at him as though he was crazy.

  “What?! Are you serious?! No way we’re handing you this rune! We found it first!” Miri snapped.

  “Yes, I am well aware of that. However, that is hardly relevant,” Caleb said. “What matters in this Scavenger Hunt is who is able to take the rune and reach the edge of the barrier. How it is acquired is inconsequential. Of course, if you two insist on holding onto that rune regardless…” He narrowed his eyes. “...then I’m afraid I’m going to have to settle this with the two of you in combat.”

  Miri scoffed. “You and what army?”

  “Oh, there’s no army to speak of. Just me and me alone,” Caleb responded, seemingly almost too relaxed when he revealed that.

  “Really? Well, if that’s the case, then it’s two of us against one of you,” Miri said cheekily. “I’m sure you can already do the math here, can’t you? What makes you think you stand a chance?”

  “That’s because I won’t be the one doing the fighting,” Caleb pointed out before turning his gaze from Miri and Anne to a group of cave slimes nearby. “They will.”

  Then, after pulling a small glass flask out from underneath his robe, Caleb tossed it at the group of slimes. The flask shattered, releasing a cloud of yellow gas which began causing changes to the slimes themselves—imbuing their cores with a yellowish-orange glow and making their movements faster and more erratic. After the slimes had transformed, they began lunging towards the closest living thing—in this case, Miri and Anne—attacking in an almost feral manner.

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  “Anne, watch out!” Miri warned. Fortunately, Anne was able to react in time, putting up a Protective Ward to block the advancement of the slimes, after which Miri quickly retaliated by following up with a cast of a Crescent Arc to push those attacking slimes away. “Anne, are you alright?”

  “Yes, I’m fine,” Anne reassured the mage before turning her gaze back to the druid. “That gas…it is frenzy gas.”

  “You are correct,” Caleb revealed with a confident grin before tossing several more flasks at even more of the cave slimes nearby, releasing clouds of yellow gas and turning them feral. “With these at my arsenal, I don’t even need to fight you two. I can just let the slimes take care of that for me.” Afterwards, he placed the palm of one of his hands flat onto the ground, casting a spell that warped and transfigured the rocky ground around him into a defensive barrier that’s shaped like a dodecahedron made of multi-colored crystals. “I’m just going to sit here and wait patiently while that happens.”

  “Oh no you don’t!” Miri exclaimed before extending her staff outward and casting a spell that targeted the druid directly. “Meteor Impact!”

  With a cast of that spell, a large meteor materialized above Caleb before descending down upon him. However, as soon as it impacted the crystal barrier, the meteor shattered into rocky dust while leaving the barrier pretty much undamaged.

  “What the hell?!” Miri exclaimed with disbelief as she saw that barrier basically took a direct hit from one of her most powerful offensive spells without even getting a single scratch.

  “Miri, watch out!” Anne said as she pulled her redhead companion away from some of the frenzied cave slimes that were about to jump on them with a vicious, savage fury.