A Field Trip

...another dungeon portal.

I shook my head. I should have known everything won't go smoothly.

Are dungeon portal's this common? I don't think it can be created in the same area twice in a month...

I'll have to look it up.

As I waded through the throngs of children swarming around me, the ones who found the portal turned to look back at me.

"Good morning mister!"

"Is this what the hunters call a dungeon?"

"It looks so weird..."

They started to whisper to each other as I stepped close, holding Dollmaker close to me, and touched the portal...

*Ting*

-------------------------------------------------------------

[The Misunderstood Massacre] - [S] Tier

Occupants that can enter: 4

Would you like to enter?

-------------------------------------------------------------

...this time the dungeon is not [?] tier. Was that a unique dungeon?

On the Internet, it is said that there many [S] tier dungeons and above. Although they rarely spawn, the majority of hunters can't clear them at all, so they can only watch hopelessly as the number of those dungeons continued to rise more and more.

That is why so many dungeons still remained unclear, because they are dungeons that the vast majority of the hunter's population can't clear. Only those who are [S] or [SS] rank can only hope to clear them, and there are only so many.

To this day, there only exists three [SS] tier hunters, with one of them ranking up a few weeks ago. There were also the angels, but no one truly knows their rank. Many assume they were [SS] rank, or even higher.

Still, it is possible that some people are hiding their true ranks....

But that is not the point. With this dungeon portal here, there are really only two options: to let it be, or to clear it.

...

I looked to the children, who were still waiting for me to say something.

"...there are only two choices I can give you: to leave it be, or to clear the dungeon. Move to the left if you want to clear it, and move to the right if you want to leave it be."

A minute later, all the children has moved to their desire choice...which is to the left. All of them.

"Why do you all want to clear the dungeon?" I asked them, perplexed by their decision.

They all looked at each other shyly, and one of them spoke out, saying-

"Well, isn't it exciting to go to new places? And even if we did go, we can't really die. Also, we're still in the sanctuary if we go through the portal still, right?"

I attempted to argue, only to stop. I'm not their parent or owner, and even if they did go, they can't really die or feel pain. There really is nothing to lose if I let them go, as long as they returned to the sanctuary.

Why should I stop them then?

I gave them my assent, and they all became elated, whispering to each other excitedly.

Five minutes later, all of the children gathered outside, surrounding the dungeon portal and me. Seemed a few stragglers were still inside the orphanage.

"..."

They really did want to go. I guess a little excitement isn't too bad for them.

As long as we don't leave the sanctuary, unless need be.

When they all gathered, I waved them to the portal, giving my permission, but they all looked at me with exasperation.

"Hmm? What's wrong?"

A girl answered me.

"Mister, you see, apparently only 'hunters' can go through the portal. If they have a companion, or a tamed monster, the hunter must be alongside them when they enter, and so..."

That child pressed her index fingers together, laughing awkwardly.

...so if they do want to go into the dungeon, I must go with them?

Wait, if what she said was true then...could I not bring all 5000 of them into the dungeon?

My face distorted at the thought.

It can't be...but...?

If I can, then that means I can steamroll almost every dungeons. Assuming if the tasks were that simple. The dungeons could probably give more harder tasks than usual to balance the dungeon world.

"Alright, children, it's time we go on a field trip."

They all cheered excitedly.

And so I mentally said yes, and in a flash of light, the portal pulled me in.

...

Darkness surrounded me, once mroe, but instead of being alone, all 5000 were with me. Dollmaker shifted in my arms to get comfortable.

And we waited...until words suddenly appeared in the darkness, letting us all see the details.

*Ting*

===============================

-------------------------------------------------------------

[The Massacre] - [A] Tier

Occupants: 1/6 (+5000)

Description: End the cause of the massacre on the innocent civilians, during-

-------------------------------------------------------------

===============================

All of a sudden, the words playing across the screen suddenly stopped.

The children seemed to hold their breath in at the sight, even though they can't really breathe. I only waited for the screen to move on.

After a few minutes did the screen suddenly changed.

-------------------------------------------------------------

[Adjusting the world....balancing...]

[Difficulty has increased...]

[Finishing last minute adjustments...]

-------------------------------------------------------------

So the dungeon did try to balance the world...

Interesting.

We didn't wait long, as seconds later-

*Ting*

The screen changed once more, going back to the task screen. I noticed it had a few changes to it.

===============================

-------------------------------------------------------------

[The Misunderstood Massacre] - [S+] Tier

Occupants: 1/6 (+5000)

New Description: A festival in Japan, Kamakura, Japan. It is filled with food and laughter, but it will come to a abupt stop when a massacre happens. Your task is to protect a certain family from being killed during this time.

Optional Task: Protect as many innocent civilians as you can.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Teleporting hunter...

===============================

And then we were blinked out of existence...

Only to appear in an entirely new area.

...

We were all teleported to what seems to be... a mountain covered with trees. It was night, and afar in the distance, I saw a city. It seems to be modern times, since I saw skyscrapers and lamp poles.

Even closer to us, however, was a festival. People seemed to be bustling about, having fun and eating food.

"Wow!"

"What is this place? I never seen anything like it!"

"Is this the festival mentioned in the task description?"

The children looked around with surprise and curiosity. They never have been to a festival before, huh? Seeing as there was no screaming or anything, I guess the massacre hasn't happened yet...

"Ok, you all, go and explore the festival. Make sure to be careful as well, it seemed as if the person who will commit a massacre here will be quite powerful. So be wary."

"Really?!"

"We can have fun?!"

""Yay!""

The children, in their white robes and garments, started to run towards the festival from the mountains in a mass group...causing quite a stir among the humans looking at them in surprise.

It didn't help that they were all white, and looked foreign to.

...whatever, they can take care of themselves from weak threats like humans.

Dollmaker tugged at my sleeve, pointing to the festival.

...We should start looking around then.

...

Walking around, for at least half an hour in this festive festival...its actually quite relaxing, minus the humans. Dollmaker also seemed to enjoy it to...althought he seemed wary of everyone around him.

I know how he felt, poor child. No matter where we go, it seems as if we'll always meet bad people. The only place truly safe is the sanctuary we have built together.

Also...I feel like I knew this place before. Not in my last life, no, but in my first life, where I watch anime a lot. I didn't personally visit this place, no...but I've seen it before. From an anime?

Anyways, it seemed as if everything was going normally, that nothing would happen today...but it wouldn't. I can feel it in the air, and Dollmaker can to, because he tugged at my sleeve.

I looked at him curiously. I know he can sense and speak to the children from a distance away. It seemed like one of the children found something...unnatural in this environment.

We began walking towards the source...until the Dollmaker started to tug my sleeve rather quickly.

I narrowed my eyes, rushing towards the source as fast as I can.

*-----------------------------------------------------------*

One of the orphans, a boy that looks to be about six, was walking around, looking at the humans walking around, laughing and eating. It feels surreal to be in human contact, and even even though this was suppose to be a happy festival, he can't help but feel wariness towards them.

One out of the many could be capable of such cruel and unspeakable acts...it's disgusting. Such vermin should be extinguished off the face of the world.

As I walked through the crowd, with the humans giving me weird looks, I spotted...an anomaly.

It was a pale skinned, red haired girl.

She was wearing white buttoned up polo, and was hiding in a bush. She looked to be about six or seven, and had two weird appearances unlike the humans here. One of the two weird thing was that she had two feline look horns sticking on the side of her head. The other weird thing, that was even more weirder than the horns, was the transparent arms floating around her.

The humans didn't seem to see the arms, so it can be assumed that it is invisible. Still though, it still looks unnatural to me, I sent out a warning to the Dollmaker, who responded, saying that he's coming with Mister.

I began to walk towards her, approaching her in a steady pace.

It'll be fifteen seconds until we make contact, which should be fine...but then all of a sudden, killing intent started to emit off of her.

Stunned, I turned to the source that made her seem to be angered, and saw only two seven year old children. The boy looked to be hugging the girl to comfort her.

I began running towards her, in fear that she would lash out, hurting those in the surroundings as well.

She did.

*-----------------------------------------------------------*

As we got closer, we heard a *clang* sound, and saw a child flew over our heads, landing into a toy stall next to us.

People around the crash starting to scream and panic. The child looked to be fine, getting up seconds later, and ran back with other children appearing behind him.

Walking closer, we saw the source of it all...a pinkish-red haired girl with cat like horns pointing upwards above her ears.

Transparent arms seemed to be extending from her, destroying the surroundings. She was screaming in a rage, trying to get to the two children near her.

Looking around, there seemed to be no casualties, but some appeared to be injured. The reason why they haven't died yet was because the orphans were blocking the telekinetic arms from getting closer to the civilians with their bodies.

As they aren't really humans, and with their [S] tier body, they seemed to be able to hold her back...yet not get close enough as there were too many arms hovering around the source. At least nineteen or twenty of those arms.

They were quite limited as well, because using their skill would hurt the civilians, which is not ideal according to the optional task...

Even now some of the orphans are pulling some of the civilians out of the way, but they'll still be harmed if the range of that girl's telekinesis is bigger than expected.

But in the end it will not matter, because not even half of the children has arrived yet. Dollmaker just informed me that they were already coming here as fast as possible.

With this amount of support, the girl would be tired out in terms of stamina, and will go down without killing anyone...was what I thought, until I saw the arms seemed to 'harden' becoming even more powerful.

She raised one of those arms...and slashed it at one of the orphans, a girl, close to her. The girl was not able to dodge in time...was cut in half, right down the middle.

I exploded right then and there.