A tiny spark of flame left Ronin's mouth the moment he finished the hand seals and shot straight down into the darkness below.
Vanessa's figure slowly materialized behind him.
She stared at his back for a second, then spoke the only thought in her head.
"You call this infiltration?"
Ronin's real body appeared behind her. "Yeah. I spotted some anomalies, so the plan changed a little. Just watch."
While he spoke, the small fireball slipped past the still-burning monster corpses and landed deep in the lower level. The instant it touched the ground, a far more violent wave of fire exploded outward from it.
In a single breath the flames swallowed every visible part of the space below.
When the fire reached the stairs, an earthen wall rose from the steps and blocked it from spreading upward.
But before the wall sealed the passage, Ronin's Sharingan caught the moment every monster touched by the fire ignited at once.
His guess had been right.
Vanessa couldn't see past the wall. She glanced at him, confused.
"We should head back up," Ronin said, already turning away. "Come back later. By then the bodies down there should be burned out."
He offered no further explanation.
That only made Vanessa more suspicious.
Before they left the building, one of Ronin's shadow clones carried the corpse of a velociraptor-like monster out with them.
Muir and the others looked surprised when the pair returned so quickly.
The time they had been gone didn't suggest any deep exploration of the lower level. Was the space down there that small?
And why was Ronin's clone hauling a monster corpse?
The clone dropped the body heavily in front of the group.
"Vanessa and I didn't push too deep," Ronin said. "Before we even reached the lower level I noticed something off, so we cut the exploration short."
At the same time the clone finished another set of seals and, without giving anyone a chance to ask questions, spat a Fire Style: Great Fireball straight onto the corpse.
The massive fireball scattered almost immediately, but the monster's body caught fire with shocking intensity.
Even Vanessa, who had come out with Ronin, realized something was wrong the moment she saw it.
"This corpse… burns way too easily," Maschur said, voicing what everyone was thinking.
"Yeah," Ronin nodded.
He had noticed it during the shadow clone's earlier attack with Fire Dragon Bullet. These monsters burned extremely well.
Especially the first one that had collapsed right in front of him. After being roasted by the intense heat, its body hadn't looked like a normal human corpse at all. It had looked more like burning charcoal.
Ronin had even pulled off his gas mask on purpose. The smell wasn't the stench of burning human flesh. It carried the sharp, acrid scent of plant matter that hadn't fully combusted.
He had also noticed how effective Fire Style was against them.
Once these monsters caught fire, they didn't go out easily. It felt more like lighting a row of torches.
That was why he had gone for the wider-range Great Fire Annihilation. All he had to do now was wait.
If they actually went back underground, the temperature after this "stew" would probably be unbearable for anyone.
He explained his reasoning to the group.
They watched the corpse burn and accepted his words, though they still looked stunned.
"If these monsters really share traits with plants," Muir said, already thinking ahead, "then their existence is definitely something unknown."
He was already considering whether they should leave the ruins and call in experts from the Hunter Association.
A discovery this big could easily push a professional Hunter up to one-star status.
"We finish the exploration first," Muir decided after a short pause. "Once word about these monsters gets out, V5 and the Association will probably lock this place down. After that, digging up anything else will be nearly impossible."
All they could do now was wait.
One hour later, Ronin led the team back to the underground entrance.
When they pulled the stone slab aside, a wave of blistering heat rolled up to meet them.
"This temperature… we're not getting down there anytime soon," Muir said, resigned.
"I've got a quick way to cool it off," Ronin replied.
The method was simple—flood the lower level with Water Style. Water had high specific heat, so it would pull away a huge amount of the heat.
It would also mess up whatever was down there, but that hardly mattered anymore. The fire had already done plenty of damage.
Even though most of them had seen Ronin fight at Heaven's Arena, they were still surprised that he could convert his aura into water-nature energy.
A torrent of water poured from Ronin's mouth and surged into the space below.
The scorching heat was quickly carried away. The temperature didn't drop to comfortable levels, but it was low enough for the squad to enter safely.
Now that they knew the monsters' weakness, the golem's weapons had changed too.
The Gatling gun was gone. In its place was a flamethrower.
Ronin took his usual spot in the middle of the formation. The golem took point and led them underground.
Powerful flashlights lit up the entire space.
The flood of water had not only cooled the area but had also pushed the charred monster corpses deeper into the level. As far as they could see, nothing was still alive.
What they did find, deeper in, was a passage leading farther down.
Following it brought them to a large metal door.
Carved across its surface were figures in long robes kneeling in worship before a tree-like plant that resembled a banyan. Round fruits hung from its branches.
At the points where the fruits had split open, small versions of the monsters they had been fighting were crawling out.
Everyone stared at the carvings in stunned silence.
They hadn't expected Ronin's guess to be this accurate. The monsters living in the building really were connected to plants.
They were literally born from them.
But Ronin's attention had locked onto one corner of the carving.
There, among various bottles and jars, someone was clearly conducting experiments.
A name from the Dark Continent surfaced in his mind.
The alchemy plant—Merion.
Was the tree-like plant shown on this door one of the Dark Continent's alchemy products?
Another thought followed right behind it.
Was the real thing waiting on the other side of this door?