The sight outside his car shocked Ben. He saw pools of blood and patches of flesh scattered around the car. They weren't there before he fell asleep, so it must've happened while he was sleeping.
Ben immediately got back in his car to check the video that he recorded with a lacrima camera while he was asleep. It should've captured the moment this happened.
The recorded video was playing at normal speed. So Ben slowed it down otherwise it would've taken hours to find the cause. He finally found what he was looking for after spending 5 minutes adjusting it.
When the video is played, Ben could see that the beasts were trying to attack the car's shields. But they weren't successful, so they started to fight each other because this was easier than attacking the car's shields.
The infighting wasn't the issue, it's what happened after that. Some big centipede-like creatures with human faces came out of the ground and attacked the beasts.
They killed the beasts and started to devour them. The centipede-like creatures even tried to break the car's shields. But they failed, so they tunneled underground again.
"Those beasts were strong, so those centipedes must be a lot stronger to kill them that quickly. I never thought that the danger on this island was buried deep below it." Ben said.
Ben was now a lot warier of the threats on this island. He wasn't able to sense the creatures that lived deep underground. He doesn't know how strong they are or their numbers and that's really dangerous.
"I can't continue this job with Bella. It's too dangerous for her to stay with me." Ben decided while looking at the sleeping Bella.
Ben then called Marc who was on the battleship and informed him of the situation. Marc understood and reported it to the ship's captain. They agree to take Bella away from the island, so Ben could explore it freely.
Bella protested after Ben told her to leave the island after she woke up. But when she watched what happened on the video, she became silent. It was too dangerous for her to stay on the island and she would just prevent Ben from doing his job.
They headed back to the beach. They waited for a few minutes before the ship arrived. Bella flew towards the ship with a sad expression on her face, so Ben promised to take her on a vacation after this job is completed. She cheered up a little and then the ship sailed away from the island.
He was alone now, so Ben could explore this island without anything to worry about. He got in his car and resumed his exploration of the island. Ben activates the car's basic defense system while he explored, in case of a sudden attack from these underground creatures.
The exploration of the surface was faster now and Ben finished it after 5 hours. There are some places that he had marked. Those locations are caves that might lead him to the creatures' dens.
It's still daytime now, so Ben immediately started to explore the caves after he ate. If those creatures are active at night, then the best time to find them is during the day. Although he didn't know for sure if all of them aren't active during the day.
Ben entered the first cave which was rather big. This was the biggest cave he found and he chose it. If he needed to fight, then the best place to do it is in the biggest cave because he would have more room.
He illuminated the cave with his Light Magic orb. The cave went down rather steeply, so Ben needed to walk slowly. He used a stick to help him walk down the steep ground.
Ben didn't sense anything even after he went deep enough. But he also hasn't seen the end of this cave even after walking for an hour. This cave was a lot deeper than he thought.
"No wonder I wasn't able to feel those creatures from the surface. They live too deep underground." Ben stated.
A half hour later, he finally sensed something. He slowed down and found a hole that went straight down. There are many magical sources that he sensed from the hole. This hole seemed to lead to a big underground chamber.
Ben used his magic sense to determine how many creatures there are and he was stunned. There was 1 high level S-Class creature, 2 low level S-Class, 17 B-Class and hundreds of E-Class. The difference between their strength was big, but their number is very high.
"What a drag." Ben said, massaging his temples.
Ben can just leave now after discovering this threat. These creatures were enough to label this a forbidden island. 3 S-Class creatures alone were enough to make this place dangerous, even for S-Class mages.
However, Ben couldn't leave this island even if he wanted too. His presence was detected by these creatures and they're moving towards him now. He wasn't able to run because the distance to the surface was too far away.
"Damn, I need to fight even if I'm at a disadvantage." Ben gritted his teeth.
Suddenly, the ground Ben was standing on collapsed and he fell into the big, underground chamber below. The ground was thick, so it wouldn't collapse even with Ben's weight.
"They used Earth Magic to make me fall. Do all of them use Earth Magic, or just one of them?" Ben pondered while balancing his body in mid-air.
Ben landed on the ground with strong force and dented the ground a little. He looked up and found out he had fallen 50 meters. He looked around and tried to size the room up, but it was too dark, so he couldn't find the walls.
All of the underground creatures looked at him from the darkness. Ben also looked at them and was ready for any sudden attack. But they didn't move a muscle.
Suddenly, Ben heard a creepy woman's voice.
"A human. It's been a long time since I last saw one."
Ben looked to the left where the voice was coming from. He increased the size of his light orb to illuminate more of the area. But suddenly, his light orb was enveloped by a dark color and the room was now pitch black.
"Sorry about that, human. But we don't like a bright place, a dark place is the best." The creepy woman's voice said.
"You can speak human language. Who are you?" Ben asked.
"Hi hi hi hi, is it important for you to know who I am? Even if you know who I am, it won't change a thing. Ah, I remember the taste of human meat that I ate 100 years ago. It makes my mouth water just imagining it." The creature said with an excited, but creepy voice.
"Human? Did humans live on this island in the past?" Ben asked.
"No, it was a human woman that got stranded on this island. I found her lying dead with some open wounds. I was just a small centipede at that time, so finding defenseless prey made me very happy. I took a lick of her blood and it was the most delicious thing that I've ever tasted."
"I didn't wait and immediately devoured her body. I couldn't finish her all at once because she was too big for me, so I took her to my den. I ate her day after day and left nothing behind, even the bones. Since I ate her, I grew bigger and bigger. I also felt power coursing through my body. I felt magic power enter my body."
"After that, I started to get stronger and stronger. Until eventually, I became the strongest thing on this island. All of that was because of human meat. That's why I'm very happy to see you here, human." The creature said excitedly.
Ben listened to the creature's story and he can guess that a mutation occurred after it ate the human corpse. That corpse was probably a mage, so this thing got some magic power after eating the mage's corpse.
He had no idea how it could happen, but it wasn't impossible. So now, this thing was excited to find Ben here. She wants to eat him too and gain more power like she did after eating the mage's corpse.
"In your dreams, bitch." Ben smirked.