Chapter 4- The start of a nice year (4): meeting in sign language
Lilly looks around carefully while avoiding the gaze of the male student. She spots some rocks on the ground and picks them up slowly.
She taps lightly on Arthur's shoulder.
"Hey…I found some small rocks on the ground…"
Arthur looks at her then looks at the rocks with a septic but interested look.
"Okay, let's talk this through first."
Everyone pays close attention to Arthur's words.
"So, we can't just all run away at the same time. It would make to much sound and there's a chance that we block each other while running.
I think that one of us should throw a rock to the right and the person closer to the left end of the big rock we're hiding behind will run to the left."
Jin-Hu was the one on the right end of the big rock. Following on the left, Arthur, then Lilly and at the left end of the rock…
"You want me to run away first? So I'm just the test subject to se if this dumb plan of y'all works??? No way I'm doing it! You go first!"
"M-me??"
Lilly looks at all of one at a time.
"But, why wouldn't you want to go first?? It's safer!"
"Yeah right if it's safer then why don't YOU go before me?"
The first one to run away was either the luckiest or the guinea pig. The distraction worked for Jin-Hu, but there was no way to know if it could work a second, a third or even a fourth time. Either it works and they get away, or everything goes wrong and everyone dies…
'A 50/50 basically…'
"I don't mind going first…"
Arthur decided to go first to calm down the tension between the two students.
"I'll be last if no one wants to."
Jin-Hu joins his friend to ease the atmosphere.
Lilly and the male student both look at each other. The male student glares at her then rolls his eyes.
Arthur looks at his environment and carefully analyzes it one last time.
He asks Lilly to give a rock to Jin-Hu, the male student and keeps one to herself.
Lilly hands turns to give a rock to Arthur.
While giving it to him, Arthur asks her to give a second one to everyone.
"Huh? But why? Don't we only each need one for a distraction?"
She looks patiently at Arthur while waiting for a response.
"Well, let's say I trow a rock and miss or maybe the mantis doesn't follow the rock perfectly, then it's better to have another one to take you out of a sticky situation."
"Oh, I see. Well now that everything is ready, do we do it?…"
"Yes, the faster we get out of here , the better."
Everyone looks at each other.
Jin-Hu on the right end of the rock, followed by Arthur and Lilly, and on the left end of the rock was the male student.
Arthur and the male student slowly switch places so Arthur can go first.
Holding the rock in his hand, Arthur takes a deep breath. He needed to be careful since he was first, one wrong move and the mantis could notice them all hiding behind the rock.
He waits for the perfect time. The rock starts to become hot in his hand.
Arthur trows the rock over the one they're binding behind.
'Please notice it…please!'
Were the words that all of the 4 students had in mind.
A thud is then heard. The mantis's antenna move in the direction of the sound. The mantis starts to move rapidly to its position.
'Now's the time.'
Arthur gets up and starts to rapidly walk while trying to make the least amount of noise possible.
Arthur made it to the other side of cave like room they were in. It was a giant wall that was out of the vision of the mantis.
He was safe.
'Ugh, I hate this place.'
Arthur looks behind him and sees Lilly and Jin-Hu with a smile…except for the male student of course….
It was now Lilly's turn.
She followed every action done by Arthur and made it over the giant wall.
She was safe.
"I-I don't think I can do this! Go ahead! I'll go after!"
The male student was panicking.
He was making too much noise.
Jin-Hu tried to calm him down and started whispering to him.
"Hey, it's alright. The two person before did just fine I know you'll be able too!"
Even tho Jin-Hu did not like this other student, he was naturally kind, even to those mean to him.
But, there was a real reason why he didn't want the male student to go last.
He didn't want him to freeze or panicked and get noticed by the mantis.
The giant mantis started to get closer and closer.
Arthur made a sign with his hand to tell Jin-Hu and the male student to hurry up.
"Hey, you can do it, when you'll trow that rock and get to Lilly and Arthur, this will be history."
The male student hesitates then closes his eyes and makes up his mind.
"God damn it!"
He trows his rock.
…
…
The sound of the rock hitting the ground was different than usual. It didn't sound like two rocks clashing…more like two rocks hitting a hard shell.
"H-huh?…"
The giant mantis comes closer and closer.
Lilly looks at the scene horrified.
Arthur has dumbfounded expression on his face.
'Is that guy serious?'
Arthur wanted to yell at the male student but couldn't.
'That guy…did he really trow both of his rocks directly at the mantis??'
"I-I-I-"
The male student did not know what to do. He stand there trembling in disbelief at what he had just done.
The mantis stated to move closer, and closer and closer.
Lilly whispers to Arthur.
"W-what should we do? Can't we help them?"
"…"
Lilly suddenly flashes a desperate smile on her face.
"We each gave each other 2 rocks! Can't we help them by using the 2 rocks you and me have???…"
"I'm sorry, but we can't…it's way to risky. We're way too far away from the them. If we throw our rock, they will probably land even closer to us and them…"
Lilly's smile of desperation slowly falls.
"Oh…oh god…"
She drops to the ground and start to tremble in fear. She hold her hand to her face and starts to breath fast and loudly.
After all, no one wanted to see someone getting ripped limb from limb and eaten in front of them
while being helpless.
The mantis is getting closer and closer-
*Clank!*
Another sound is then heard. The mantis stops on its way and goes to find the source of the sound. The sound was coming from the right.
A round of a rock hitting the ground.
"What are you waiting for? Go! Run, join them!"
Jin-Hu had thrown one of his two rocks to distracted the mantis.
"I-"
"Just go!"
The male student starts to walk rapidly over the wall where Lilly and Arthur are hidden.
The male student made it.
He was safe.
Jin-Hu looks at Arthur with a serious expression then looks at the mantis.
He only had one last rock left for him alone.
He needed to act very carefully.
"Huh?"
Suddenly, a message appeared in front of him.
***
"Hmm…"
*skrrch*
Bloody footsteps sounds fills the room. The walls of the cave are covered in a bluish blood while a gigantic insect type monster's body is completely covering the floor of the room.
"A dungeon between grade C and A, yeah, my ass."
[You have defeated the boss monster of the Dungeon Of the Giant Mantis!]
[{Giant Mantis's eye balls (grade C)}, has been added to your inventory.
{Giant Mantis's antenna (grade C)}, has been added to your inventory.
{Giant Mantis's raptorial leg (grade A)}, has been added to your inventory.]
[The gate is now opened and will disappear in 4 hours.]
Anna Eun-Ha walks with her bloodied feet on the carcass of the giant insect.
"I can't believe the boss was that easy…It gave trash rewards too, I mean, except for the raptorial leg which is ok…maybe I can sell it?"
Anna mostly had cash on her mind.
She spoke loudly to herself.
"Should I kill more insects for the sake of it? I haven't had much fun recently after all."
'…oh wait, I forgot about the students.'
Anna thought multiple times if she should help them. Technically, her job was done. She killed the boss monster, so the gate was now opened.
She did break her contract with director Mitch tho…
"Could I get extra cash by saving them?"
"Eh, maybe I should after all."
She puts her sword in her inventory and ties her blond hair into a ponytail.
'Let's go I guess, I'm bored anyway…'
Anna disappears at incredible speed.
***
[The boss monster or the Dungeon Of the Giant Mantis has been defeated!]
[The gate is now opened and will disappear after 4 hours.]
"Huh?"
'The monster boss got defeated?'
Jin-Hu still hiding behind the rock was surprised.
'How? There are only E grade students in this school? Did the rescue team already come in? But, don't they take a while to prepare??'
"This is so weird…"
Jin-Hu looks over Arthur, Lilly and the male student's direction. They are all staring at there system's message probably as shocked as he was.
Arthur then rapidly looks at Jin-Hu and points him the giant mantis behind him.
'Oh, yeah. The system's message almost made me forget about that…'
Even tho the boss monster was defeated, the lower grade monsters inside the dungeon were still present.
Jin-Hu was quickly reminded that he only had one rock left to escape.
'There's no time to loose…4 hours seems like a lot of time to exit the dungeon, but it's barley just enough.'
He needed to act quick.
The rock in his hand had became hot due to the sweat of his hand.
He looked back and forth, glancing between the rock in his hand and the giant mentis.
He holds his breath.
'Please please please work.'
He trows the rock on the opposite side of the wall where the others are hidden and waits for the mentis to fall for the trick.
…
…
…5 secondes goes by.
Then 10, then 20, then a whole minute passes.
Lilly and the male student look at each other. Each second that passes make them more anxious. Yes, this was what Arthur feared.
"Skrrkh…"
The monster does not notice the rock that Jin-Hu threw.
Everyone kept glancing at each other wondering why did the mantis not react this and more importantly, what now? Should they just leave while one of them is still hiding behind some big rock?
Everything had always been silent, but not as much as this time.
***
"Sooooooo."
"…"
"What now?"
Me and Miriam had walked and walked and WALKED for so long we were starting to get mentally unstable.
Miriam starts to speak.
"But, I don't get it… we heard a scream and we walked towards it wanting to help…W-where is everyone? Did they all die?…"
She's very stressed so I try my best to calm her down.
"Don't worry, maybe they got away before we came here?"
"I mean- yeah… Considering we've been walking in circles for quite some time now…"
"Wait- for real????"
"…"
I can sense Miriam judging my sense of orientation.
*crack!*
We both hear something at the same time.
*tap* *tap* tap*
We hear footsteps coming from behind us.
We turn around, but we can't see anything because of how dark it it.
*tap* *tap* *TAP*
The footsteps are getting louder.
"Huh?"
Suddenly a short girl appears in front of us. She's quite pretty. Small face, fierce but cute pinkish eyes and long cream color hair tied in a pony tail.
Miriam holds her hand to her mouth in worry.
"Oh my god…are you okay??"
The girl was covered in blood. Head to toe.
"…"
She doesn't respond. She's probably traumatized from what she's seen…
I try to talk to her in a friendly manner.
"My name is Emy, nice to meet you. What's your name?"
"…"
No response.
Then suddenly she starts making signs with her hands.
I quickly understand.
"Oh sorry I didn't know you couldn't speak, my bad."
When I was little, I learned sign language with my brother in case I had to talk to someone with a disability or if I myself became disabled.
I made a fine choice.
She speaks in sign language.
"(My name is Suroko)."
I respond
"What happened to you?"
"(A giant insect like monster came and started chasing us…but then, the number 2 hunter appeared and killed it)."
"Oh, the vampire lady? But, why are you covered in blood??."
He sights.
"(She cut the monster throat in half while I was right under it…)."
"Oh."
Miriam looks at me and Suroko and then talks.
"W-what is she saying? Is she okay?"
"Yes, don't worry she's fine."
But more importantly, the number 2 hunter was here? Here??? In this dungeon??? Isn't it a bit too early? I thought those "rescue teams" took ages…
Miriam comes over to me.
"W-we should keep walking. Maybe we could find other people."
"Right."
We take one step and Suroko pokes my back.
"Hm?"
"(I think I know where the exit or other students might be)."
"Huh?"
"(The hunter was running somewhere after we got the notification that the boss got defeated. Maybe she's trying to get to the gate or she's saving other people)."
It took me a minute to perfectly understand her signs, but when I did, I nodded and told Miriam to follow her.
We start following Suroko and she suddenly turns to me and starts talking in sign language.
"(By the way, I am a boy)."
"…"
"…"
"Well, very sorry about that."
HE turns around and continues walking. Miriam asks me what Suroko said, but I just respond that I'll tell her later.