Chapter 8: Impromptu Rescue

The man stumbles inside the Bureau. His face is covered in blood, his clothes are ripped, and his left hand is pointing in the wrong direction. 

A slew of people run to him, trying to help him. As some nurses try to load him up on a stretcher, he grabs a worker by the arm.

"Please, my Team are still down there."

As the worker tries to get out of his grip, Armando puts his hand on the man's.

"Where are they ?" he asks calmly.

"Third floor, zone C. We're just E ranks, man."

This zone is known for not having strong monsters; even a Team of E ranks shouldn't have any trouble there, but what if... 

Silver and Armando look at each other in a slight panic: a Dungeon Glitch ! They most probably found themselves against forces they couldn't beat, and one fled to get help.

"We'll get them." assures Armando before he rushes out, followed shortly by his team.

"Why did he go here instead of asking for help at Floor Zero ?" asks Lin.

"He probably used a Return Stone, most of them have their return point set at the Bureau." answers Armando.

"But we won't be able to get in the Dungeon." argues Sarah. "We can't go lower than Floor 2 without a mission order."

Suddenly Silver feels his phone vibrating in his pocket. He takes it out; curious. A smile forms on his face when he reads the notification.

"We have a justification. I've just been assigned an urgent mission: go to Floor 3, zone C and save a Team there."

"How ?" asks Sarah, confused.

"He's a small celebrity in the Bureau, so when they saw him bolt out of there, they probably immediately created a request and gave it to him." reasons Armando.

"Weird, I don't have anything." remarks V as she checks her phone.

"Well, you're not as popular as Silver." sarcastically says Lin.

"Aw."

After a few minutes, they arrive at Floor 0. The process is fast, and in an instant they are inside the Dungeon.

Silver takes a deep breath as he enters Floor 1. The last time he was in the Dungeon, it was not a great experience. But at the same time, it was also when he became a Dungeonaut, so...

The group slows down; now they are in dangerous territory, and they have to navigate towards the rescue zone.

Each floor of the Dungeon is cut in multiple zones, and some can only be reached by taking the precise route to them.

"So, for 3C, we need to take the stairs at 1C and 2D." explains Armando.

The whole group nods and starts to go towards their goal. But while the navigation of the first floor is pretty easy, given the large number of Dungeonauts there, the second floor poses way more problems.

Almost as soon as they arrive there, a swarm of insect monsters rushes them. Immediately the Team takes a combat formation, ready to fight.

V takes the front, Lin only being slightly behind her while Armando goes to the side. Finally, Sarah stays at the back, starting to accumulate Mana in her hands. As for Silver, he stays behind, not wanting to break the formation.

V extends her hand as it starts to get engulfed by a gold looking substance while Lin takes out a sword from who knows where. After reciting a short spell, the sword lights on fire.

The insects started to shriek at the view of fire, but Armando used this distraction to rush at full speed towards the swarm and take down one of the monsters.

The rest of them stated to screech before attacking en masse. V's substance takes the form of a shield as she tanks attacks while Lin is going all out, cutting one bug after the other.

The swarm of Rascal Insects started to dwindle but still posed an opposition: as E+ rank they are easily killed, but their sheer number was what was posing the most trouble.

Silver started to think about what he could do and how to do it without disturbing the formation. As he was thinking, he saw an insect about to attack Armando in his dead angle. Quick, no time to think !

As Silver sprinted, he imbued his body with Mana, immediately feeling himself faster and lighter. He wanted to reel in the feeling, but he had to focus.

But no matter how fast he was, he wouldn't be there in time to stop the attack, so he jumps forward as hard as he can.

The liftoff causes a loud sound. Just as Armando started to trun around to see what's going on, he saw the insect. It's too late for him to evade; maybe he can parry the imminent attack.

Just as he starts to brace himself, Silver appears in his vision. Speeding like a bullet, he hits the insect with an incredible force, exploding it midair. Armando continues to look at Silver as he crashes into the ground, but he didn't crash. As Silver approaches the ground, he tucks his chin in and rolls on his back.

Well, if he did it one, why not more ? With those thoughts, Silver starts to sprint again and jumps into another insect and then another.

"The hell is he doing ?" exclaims Lin, unable to contain himself.

"Helping us in his way." responds V.

After a few minutes and some more human missiles, the group finally manages to vanquish their enemies.

Silver wipes of the sweat and dirt he has on himself before Armando taps him in the back.

"Unique offence, I like that. And thanks for the save."

"No problem; I couldn't just stay back the whole fight."

After taking a few seconds to breathe, the group continues their trip. The more they advance, the more the Dungeon looks like an underground cave: the ground and walls are covered in moss, water is running in small flows almost everywhere, and the roof is covered in stalactites.

As they approach the stairs, the group steel themselves. With the Dungeon Glitch, they could come across any type of monster. 

As they descend, SIlevr starts to think: Who built those stairs ? They were not made by Dungeonauts since there are stairs on unexplored floors. So are they natural ? Maybe. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing about this place.

Finally arriving at Foor 3, Zone C, they don't immediately see any trace of fights. Maybe they are a little further ? But this zone is pretty big and bustling with life. Well, normally.

"There are no monsters here." remarks Sarah. "Not even the harmless ones. What's happening ?"

It was in fact weird that there was nothing there. The normal sound of Dungeon wildlife was replaced by silence, only broken by the sound of running water.

"V, tell me where our targets are." commanded Armando.

V executes herself, concentrating her Mana in her eyes. After a few seconds of looking around, she points in a direction.

"The only humans aura are over there, about 150 m away." she announces.

"Monsters ?" asks Lin.

"We're too far for me to see, but most probably."

As the Team walks around in the plains of the Zone, dread starts to set in. The absence of normal sounds starts to affect them. After a minute, they're stopped by V.

"Hide, quickly !"

Everyone jumps behind some rocks, observing the situation. Nothing yet, but...

"Gargaruahfga."

Monster sounds, almost sounding like language. Silver peeks over his rock and is horrified to see a monster approaching.

A large head, pointed ears, no nose, a small human body, four fingers, and greenish skin: goblins, a D- rank monster.

But what is it doing here ? They should only appear on Floor 5 at least, and this Zone has no connection to the deeper levels, so how ? A Dungeon Glitch is the only option.

Rare, my ass thought Silver as he recalled KNYght's explanations. Soon the goblin turned away, and the group could advance cautiously.

Soon, they arrived at the location the Dungeonauts needing to be rescued were, and they were not alone; at least 3 other Teams were there. Silver turned to V, and she nodded, signaling that they were still alive.

Looking back up, Silver observed the scene: 4 goblins and—oh no, for real ? A large monster was sitting next to the prisoners.

Tall, even sitting down, with bulging muscles and also four fingered hands. It's face is monstrous, with lips going to each of his pointy, short ears. It also had no nose, two fully black eyes, and a horn on it's forehead.

"For real ?" murmurs Armando. "A Gobhorn ? What's a D+ monster doing here ?"

The tension immediately jumped; such a powerful monster was not to be taken lightly, and it made sense why the Zone was lacking in other monsters: they all fled before an Alpha predator like it.

"We need to strategize." says Lin.

"You're right. We should-"

But before Armando could finish his sentence, a rock was sent flying, destroying their cover. As the Team gets back up, they see the goblins screeching while the Gobhorn slowly gets up, picking another rock and preparing to throw it. 

The fight is on