Chapter 5- The start of a nice year (5): A way out
…
"He's a boy. He is a boy? He's…boy. Boy? Boy…"
Miriam was muttering words to herself.
Time went by while me and her followed Suroko. Honestly, he said that we should follow the number 2 ranker, but I was doubting this idea…
I mean, if she was at the gate then that's cool, but what if she was running around killing random monsters?
This would be a waste of time and energy if that was the case.
I didn't think really much about who this number 2 was. I don't really care about rankers, popular or not. Most of them are assholes anyway. But, we do talk about them at school and basically everywhere so I knew wich were the strongest in the world.
There's not one, but multiple lists of the strongest rankers from different categories. I mean, putting the world's best healer against the world's physically strongest ranker is not what I would call fair.
So, I'm not sure but I think there's 4 lists…
One for the strongest in general. Most of them have attacking skills and specialisations.
One for the best healers.
One for the best tankers.
And finally one for the best supports. For exemple people with speed boosting skills and shit.
…
Suroko suddenly stops in his tracks.
Miriam and me both look at him.
"Hm?"
He raises his index finger to his mouth basically telling us to stop talking.
Me and Miriam nod.
He then looks at me and starts making sign language.
"(Look, on the ground. There's traces of blood.)"
I took a step forward and heard a cracking sound.
I looked under my feet and noticed I just stepped on a spine.
"(Look. Over there.)"
He points somewhere in front of us.
Me and Miriam quickly notice.
She whispers.
"T-there's a giant insect over there!…"
"Not just insects."
I see hiding behind a rock my best friend Jin-Hu.
Kind of close to his position, I see my brother with 2 other students.
My brother glances our way and notice us.
He waves and starts to point at Jin-Hu and the giant insect.
He then makes a weird sign pointing back and forth between us and him.
I made a 'I have absolutely no fucking idea what you're trying to say' kind of sign wich he quickly understood because he looked angry.
Apparently Suroko understood this mess and made a thumbs up sign to Arthur.
"(Just follow me…)"
Me and Miriam looked at each other in confusion and we then followed Suroko.
We joined my brother and I quikly realized how big of a mess their situation was.
My brother whispered extremely close to my ear that they had no way to distract the giant insect thing.
"But, we have to help him. One way or another."
"And how so?"
"I could distract it by running around it"
He looked at me very weirdly.
"Are you suicidle or something??"
"Just wanna save my best friend."
I knew that Arthur thought I was right. But, I also agreed with my Brit brother because we can't risk getting caught by the dungeon management and I don't know what company.
Meanwhile Miriam is speaking with Lilly
"Um, hi…Can I ask you a question?"
"Yes?"
"H-How did you guys distract the insect?"
"We…threw rocks…"
"Oh…"
Miriam then comes over to me and Arthur.
"Can't we just help the person over there by doing what you guys did to distract the insect?"
Arthur looks closely at Miriam.
"No, the mantis got used to hearing the rock hitting the ground. It doesn't react to it anymore because it think it's normal…"
Arthur glances at Jin-Hu and then looks back at Miriam.
"…wich is why Jin-Hu can't currently able to escape."
We all started to look at each other having no idea what to do.
Suddenly the male student that didn't say a single word started to speak.
"I mean I could use my ability."
We all look at him with the most confused and shocked looks.
"What? I said I can help."
Arthur gets angry.
"So you're telling me that during this WHOLE time you could have helped, but you just decided to not say anything."
"I don't know I'm just a E rank hunter buddy."
"You-…ugh I won't even bother… Anyway, what does that ability of yours does?"
"I can make small holograms."
"…"
"…"
I interrupt this weird silence.
"Arthur, that's actually a really fucking good ability for our situation."
"Yes I know and stop swearing so much."
Lilly looks at the male student.
"Why didn't you say that earlier??"
"…"
"…"
"Okay…"
The male student prepared his ability. I was kinda worried because E rank abilities are extremely weak…well no shit. E ranks don't fit in the hunter system since they aren't healers, tankers, supports and aren't physically strong enough. Their powers are completely different from normal hunters and are useless against danger. Because of this, they're overlooked by basically everyone-
"Ems, you here?"
"Uh- yeah."
Arthur looks at Jin-Hu who clearly has had enough and makes a thumbs up sign.
"Okay…here I go."
"Everyone, get ready to run."
The annoying guy prepares his ability.
[ The Grade E hunter {Brad Anderson} uses the Grade E skill {Small hologram LV.2}]
His hands start to shine purple. A line going from his hands reach the mantis and a dog with glowing purple eyes appear.
We all look at each other.
The hologram dog barks at the giant insect. It turns around rapidly and lunges at the dog.
We all make a run for it. Jin-Hu si with us now.
I look around and see that the mantis is still trying to attack the fake dog.
…
…
"Hah..uh…are we okay now? Can we please take a break???"
"Yeah I think so."
Arthur responds to the annoying kid and we just stare awkwardly at each other for some time before Melody decides to speak.
"So… what do we do now…?"
Arthur answers her question.
"For now, I guess we can just walk…I-I don't know if you guys have noticed, but we encountered zero monsters while running a-and I'm seeing a lot of blood on the ground."
Everyone looked under their feet when he said that and there was in fact a lot of blood.
"( We could walk forward for now )."
Suroko points the way.
Lilly asks a question.
"I'm sorry, but I don't know sign language…"
I answer her.
"He's saying that we could walk forward for now. I think he's right, we can't do shit anyway for now."
We all start to walk.
Something is on my mind and I feel like I really need to ask the male student.
"Hey, so. When you used your skill earlier I saw your name and it's…Brad…Anderson???"
"Yeah. What boutta it??
Everyone had the same thought in mind.
'That is the most stereotype "annoying guy" name I have every heard.'
***
"Hm. Found the gate."
Anna Eun-ha had killed most of the monsters in the dungeon and helped students get away safely…well, she did not really care about their lives, more avout the rewards she was going to get for saving them.
'Every E grade monster I killed gave me 50 gold, D grade monster gave me 100 and C grade monsters gave me 200. I killed 231 E grade monsters, 127 D grade and 58 C grade.
In total, that gives me 35 850 gold.'
'Fucking useless.'
'I can't even buy a good quality A grade or S grade potion with this.'
A handful of people were with her now and were, for some reason, waiting for her to tell them that they could get out.
"The gate's open. Get out. Now."
The student start to run towards the gate.
'Ugh, finally. Now lets see if there's anyone still alive in here.'
[ The Grade S hunter {Anna Eun-Ha} uses the Grade A skill {Eagle eyes LV.76}]
Eun-Ha's eyes shine a bright and beautiful scarlet red. She's scans the area and suddenly, she spots seven red silhouettes.
'Hm. Seven more people to get out. For fuck's sake.'
She presses her foot on the ground and runs at high speed towards the remaining people.
***
We've been walking for some minutes and everyone is already starting to get impatient.
I go over to my brother and whisper to him.
"Hey, can't you just… find the gate? You know?"
"Uh… right now? Are you crazy? We just need to encounter the rescue team and avoid the monsters. "
"Okay, just lead the way."
As I start to look in front of me he pulls my shirt lightly.
"By the way, what happened to your leg?"
I look down and notice my left leg is red, blue and green and some big pimple had grew on it. Guess no one noticed because they were too concerned about… basically everything going on right now.
"Eh, nothing much. It's chill."
"If you say so. But, you should still fix it before they see it and get traumatized please."
"Kay."
I fix my leg while paying attention to the others. Hopefully they didn't notice.
The moment I stare forward a blond girl pops up in front of me from nowhere. I hit my head against hers.
"Ouch! What the-"
"…"
She catches me by the waist and stares at my face before making me stand up. She straightens herself and starts to speak.
"Follow me. I'll show you the way out."
"Uh? And how exactly do you know the way out?"
She looks at me as if I was the dumbest person on earth.
"Do you… really have no idea who I am?"
"…?"
I awkwardly look at her and then turn my back to the others. They all look at me with weed expressions. My brother sighs and starts to follow the blonde girl.
Everyone then starts to follow.
As we walk, I look closely at the girl's face…Apparently, she was popular? I looked at her with even more attention.
Red eyes.
Blonde and long hair.
Quite a tall girl with pale skin.
That reminded me of the traits of a vampire…
Wait-? A vampire…? I then remembered my conversation with Arthur.
'So she's… the second ranker? Anna Eun-Ha?'
'Damn'
She did look strong tho. Something about her vibe, her cold eyes and her posture made her seem fierce. And uh… of course the scythe she was carrying looked like a rare item.
…
…
…
We walked for a long time. The way the second ranker walked and choose paths was so quick that it was like she knew the place by hearth.
'Probably a skill…' I thought.
After a while, we all noticed a green light in the distance.
Brad was the first to speak.
"Is that the exit gate?"
"Seems like it…"
Lilly, Brad and the rest seemed extremely relieved.
As we got closer to the gate, I started to notice weird writings on the dungeon's walls.
'Occide eam.' And 'Debet mori.' Was written over and over the closer we got to the exit. The number 2 ranker seemed to not care at all, so I assumed that it must be common to see these in dungeons.
At the gate the ranker looked at us.
"Go. Now."
Brad was the first one to run inside the exit gate, not caring about how cold and harsh miss number 2's tone was.
Lilly followed, Miriam followed, Arthur followed and…
When Suroko passed the ranker, she glared at him for a long time. I thought that was pretty weird, but I shrugged it off. After all, it was common knowledge that the strongests had THAT kind of attitude.
I exit the dungeon.
Outside, there were police cars and ambulances everywhere. The rescue team was there too, but we literally never fucking saw them inside.
I saw the second ranker exit some time after me. She quickly got followed and circled by the press.
The police gave us some water and blankets.
The rescue team then went inside the completed dungeon.
One hour later. They exited with multiple bodies…all where wearing our school's uniform… I felt my stomach twist thinking about the families of the victims.
…
…
…
…
After some while, they let us go…
In the distance I went over to talk to the students I had met.
"Hey…uh- are you guys doing okay-?"
"O-Oh! E-Emy was it? Yes everything is fine…thanks for asking…"
Melody responded to me first. All of the others probably had no idea what to say.
"Ems!"
I heard Jin-Hu's voice and quickly felt better.
"Is everything fine dude?"
"Yeah, I think…?"
…I didn't know what to say. What could I say after all? I thought for some seconds which felt like hours and finally spoke.
"Wanna…come play video games or chill at my house…?"
"…uh you know what? Sure."
Haa… the tension in the air had somehow gotten lighter.
Arthur and Jin-Hu follow me as we left the scene.
***
'Tsk, so annoying.'
With the press and the paparazzi all around Anna Eun-Ha, she was extremely annoyed. Not only because of them, but because of the whole situation she was in.
She had gotten so little rewards from the dungeon that she felt pissed at everything.
A member of the rescue team walks towards Anna Eun-Ha.
"Miss Eun-Ha, we have prepared a taxi for you."
"Hm. Alright."
He comes closer to her and whispers.
"Do not forget the deal. You must split your rewards with us."
'I'll give you every trashy reward if you want.' Is what she wanted to say.
But, she refrained herself from speaking every while being pissed.
As she walked towards the taxi which was hidden so the press could not notice, she heard a voice call her.
"Oh my~ Isn't it Korea's second ranker? Anna Eun-Ha? It is such a pleasure to meet you."
The woman who spoke with a soft voice was an unknown hunter named Beatrice. However, Anna was extremely wary of her. She had a bad feeling and her gut kept telling her 'watch out'.
She knew pretty well who she was. Even tho Beatrice was unknown to the public, she was very well known to the strong hunters as she was an important member of the Holy guild. The guild with the most power in Korea.
"It is my pleasure to meet you, Beatrice from the Holy guild."
"It seems you know me huh~?"
"Indeed."
Beatrice was smiling the whole time. A creepy smile.
Anna felt a malicious aura in the air.
"So, what do you need from me?"
"Oh? Why so defensive Eun-Ha?"
Still smiling, Beatrice noticed the tension.
"Haa, I just wanted to speak business with you over a nice cup of coffee."
"…"
"Okay, let's speak."
Anna Eun-Ha found it troublesome, annoying and time consuming to speak with Beatrice about a matter that will probably be about the Holy guild. However, she had to in case it was important matter.
Anna and Beatrice both got in the taxi. The smiling woman asked the taxi to go to a particular coffee shop which was owned by the Holy guild.
This alerted Anna Eun-Ha that the matter might be important or secret since she wanted to speak in a place looked upon by the Holy guild.
The car starts and they make their way to the coffee shop.