Chapter 15: A Monster
Chapter 15: A Monster
Eliyah walked out of the portal, wounded by the numerous firebolts launched by Gubzo.
Cough—
Her other party members were asleep just outside the mine that housed the gate to the portal. However, the continuous cough echoing throughout prompted them to check on her. There, they found Eliyah, leaning on the walls for support.
"Eliyah!?" Confused and concerned, Jasper, an assassin-type Hunter, rushed towards her.
Just looking at the blood stains around her pink lips and her broken arm, he couldn't contain himself.
A female wearing armor similar to Eliyah's, named Ellen, strode over quickly as she saw Jasper supporting her.
She was an E rank.
"Eliyah? Why are you... bleeding?"
It was a genuine question. Eliyah might not have been the strongest, but as a phenomenal E-rank awakened 'Valkyrie,' her strength surpassed that of her peers and neared that of a D-rank.
She was pretty strong. Moreover, compared to an F-rank dungeon—an abandoned goblin cave—there was virtually no chance she should have been injured.
Even if she had gone blind and simply raided the place carelessly, she could have wiped all of them out within five minutes. So the state in which she was, was not only surprising but also confusing and astonishing.
Another male member, the last to stand up, did so instantly upon seeing Eliyah approach, battered.
"What the heck happened?" he asked, genuinely worried and surprised. His reasoning was the same as Ellen's. His eyes were wide and ears open for answers.
Jasper helped Eliyah lie down on an unopened sleeping bag and covered her with a blanket. Her armor was so cracked it could fall off at any moment.
"Healing magic…" Jasper muttered, then yelled, "Where the fuck is Gilbert!"
He was about to rush inside and drag Gilbert out, but Eliyah, mustering her little remaining strength, caught hold of Jasper's left hand, stopping him.
"Eliyah?"
Eliyah simply stared for a second before uttering the words that left everyone speechless, "He's dead."
"…"
"…"
"…"
They were stunned, their minds momentarily shutting down.
Everyone knew Gilbert was a wonderful friend and a cowardly mage... but he never failed to work hard.
His mother had recently been hospitalized and was in a coma. His little sister was in high school. His kid brother, the youngest, was still in kindergarten, and his grandfather, who had Alzheimer's disease, would barely remember him...
After his father had run off with another woman following an affair, Gilbert took care of them all. Though just an F-rank mage, he never gave up.
They had ventured into several dungeons together, from D to E ranks, and he would often get injured. However, those injuries gave him experience, and that experience helped him level up.
For an F-rank, he was quite formidable...
They never would have left him alone in a dungeon if they hadn't believed it to be an 'F-rank'.
'The Fallen One's Goblin Cave'—the name displayed as hovering text, just like any other dungeon, when they discovered this portal one random night while mining mana stones from this abandoned mine.
The rank was also displayed...
[Rank: ???]
Now, it wasn't mentioned what rank it was because usually, every dungeon would display some letter like S, A, B, C, D, or E.
Only unique dungeons displayed '???' and for such dungeons, there was a device called a Manameter which could measure the amount of magic contained within these unique dungeons and indicate their rank.
Unique dungeons didn't necessarily mean the monsters inside would be incredibly strong. It just meant that to clear the dungeon, the requirements would be different and higher rewards would be given...
When they used the device to measure, it showed that the magic power contained within would barely amount to a 'Lv.5' F-rank's mana... which was extremely low.
A Lv.5 F-rank was almost like a normal human...
That was the only and probably the biggest reason why they decided to explore it before handing it over to major guilds and government.
If it had been of a higher rank, they could have made money just by selling it, but since it was low, they decided to see what a unique dungeon felt like... because they had never been in one.
"Just goblins? Fuck. I expected something better," Jasper remarked as he spotted the goblins who tried to jump on them when they first entered.
"Don't underestimate them. This is a unique dungeon so they might be strong," Gilbert had cautioned, only to see his friends finish off all the goblins in less than a minute.
It was as if they were cleaning up after a simple chore. Not a big deal...
"Nothing special," Eliyah waved her hand, but then Gilbert reasoned, "Then it should have shown at least F-rank... but it showed question marks, which means something should be different."
They realized this soon after exiting it.
Usually, when someone kills a boss monster or all the monsters within a cave, they receive a notification that they have cleared the dungeon.
Moreover, there would be signs of the dungeon closing.
But even after exiting the dungeon, they found no changes.
Curious, they simply entered once again and were pleasantly surprised to find the same goblins, back again...
Butchering them up was quite easy, and for those who were mid-leveled but of higher ranks, it was nothing but quite an easy job. They didn't gain levels either.
But for Gilbert, it would be nice experience.
The first time, he cleared it pretty easily.
But then...
He was killed brutally by Gubzo.
"I shouldn't have let him go alone," Eliyah's eyes welled up as tears streamed down her face.
"I shouldn't have..."
Jasper grew angry.
"A fucking goblin did this!?"
She didn't reply.
"I'm gonna fucking kill that motherfucker!" he exclaimed, about to charge, but Eliyah screamed yet again...
...her words almost paralyzed the man.
"NO!"
She paused for a second before uttering those words, which made Jasper question, not once, not twice, but several hundred times, his decision of entering...
"There's a MONSTER in there."