The Girl
More goblins came.
Aria was prepared to take care of them, so she cooperated with Dianthe to maneuver around the goblins in stealth.
Once she took down one goblin, Dianthe would take care of the rest so that they couldn't scream.
In just mere minutes, the goblin chasers were taken down.
[Level D Little Goblin
[Level D Little Goblin
[Level D Little Goblin
The EXP points piled up.
Since it was only goblins, not much points were obtained for her current level. The goblins averaged at around level 30 and above, which thankfully gave her a good amount of points for the weak monsters they were.
With her exemplary hearing, Aria was able to detect more goblin noises. It was located far within the dungeon, passing through the narrow paths and into the inner dungeon.
The rest of the pack was still there, inside the cave.
Those are the ones who hadn't been disturbed.
It wasn't like she had no time.
Aria looked at the girl she just saved.
She looked particularly young. 16 to 17 years old. A teenager.
"...What is this? The gate was masked in a thin mist, but you can't even handle a small goblin pack. What were you planning?" Aria questioned the girl who was lying on the ground in tears.
"Did you overestimate your abilities? Sealing magicians are usually supports. They're not supposed to battle alone. Being swarmed by goblins like this, if I didn't come in time, you would've been.. ruined."
She couldn't understand why the girl did what she did.
Not even her clothes showed her readiness to battle. She wore nothing but a simple pink blouse and a checkered skirt. There was no preparations at all.
Although, she couldn't say much about that aspect because she also jumped in here without preparation. Only, she was much more confident about her abilities.
"T-the gate sucked me in when I was in the process of sealing it... I, I didn't mean to enter!" The girl, still in fear, trembled when she saw Aria approach her.
The reason had to do with her activities.
She was part of a dungeon broker team. Although her team was small, she had done the deed a couple times, so she was quite familiar with it. Especially since her sealing ability was quite exceptional, she was able to hide dungeons in a fast speed.
The moment they discovered a dungeon that no one had laid their eyes on, she would use her ability to keep it undercover for the time being as they created a schedule to raid these dungeons and disperse the traces before anyone could find out.
They would sometimes sell it, but they also had a fighting team. When the team needed materials, they masked their trails by sending two teams.
One to a real dungeon, one to the masked dungeon. That way, their acquisition of materials could be explained.
The monopolization of a dungeon gate was illegal. Ever since the gates appeared, this crime had climbed its way up to the highest degree.
Even a mass murderer would be dealt with lighter than dungeon brokers.
That was how much the world had changed.
Aria looked like a strong Hunter to her. A high ranker. Someone who would get her in trouble once the incident was reported to the Association.
The young girl started to panic.
She looked no older than a high school student.
In truth, Aria didn't even possess a Hunter card, let alone be a high-ranked Hunter.
But the girl didn't know this.
"...Well, it seems like this 'sucking in' phenomenon didn't include you as a willing participant. Isn't that the case?" Aria looked at the dungeon gate that disappeared not long after she entered it.
The gate had a slight delay from when it was entered to when it began to close.
It was to purposely let teams go in. The team should be ready to rush into the gate and start the subjugation.
However, since the girl was allegedly brought into the dungeon without entering through the gate, it could be categorized differently.
Then again, that was just an assumption.
Who knew if this girl was someone like Yoo Jin, who planned to abuse the unnatural law of 'when half of the party dies, the gate opens momentarily'?
It was a strange law. If the dungeons were made to cause chaos and destruction onto the world, just like the monsters she had in her time, why would the gate give them time to escape?
To instill the practice of betrayal?
To nurture them into stronger beings?
To give them despair and anguish over fallen comrades?
It was really strange.
"You're alone? You're sure of it?" Aria ruffled her hair, cleaning [Halvargg] with Dianthe's water magic.
The girl nodded furiously.
"If I discover a fresh corpse inside, you will be killed along with the monsters." Aria decided to make a compromise.
She hated betrayals, especially after the thing with Azef.
She gave her the benefit of the doubt. Innocent until proven guilty.
The moment she found a key evidence, the woman would lose her life.
She hated traitors.
They were despicable.
To another Hunter, this situation might be completely the girl's fault.
However, Aria herself had done quite a lot of blasphemous actions. To her, this 'dungeon monopoly' thing didn't really matter.
After all, she herself subjugated a dungeon outside of the Association's permission.
"W-wait!" The girl called out to Aria, who was already planning to leave for the deeper parts of the dungeon.
Aria lowered her gaze.
This could mean two things.
One, she was scared or didn't want to be left alone.
Two, she was indeed a traitor and there were things that she didn't want Aria to discover inside the dungeon.
Aria put her hand on [Halvargg]'s handle and waited for the girl to say her words.
Waiting to see which theory was correct, and deciding the course of actions she'll take at that time.