Chapter 4. C-Rank vs SSS-Grade.

As Rin fell down the monsters throat, watching as he passed the repeating rings of deep red. Rin took a moment to enjoy the rush of the situation before he sprung into action. He first tried to insert a knife into the side of the monsters throat to slow his descent. But as expected of a high grade monster it barely left a scratch. He clicked his tongue as his chain snuck out from beneath his clothes, wrapping around him defensively as he continued his fall. Then his eyes landed on a small thorn that seemed to be sticking out of the sided of its throat which was probably left by a monster consumed by the beast. He reached out with his chain, managing to wrap it around the thorn and after a moment longer of falling, he was tugged to a stop rather abruptly, winding him. He was now dangling in mid air, held up by the chain wrapped around his arm while he glanced around with extreme interest.

He stared down into the abyss as he caught his breath, "If I keep going down I'll head straight to the stomach…" He mumbled to himself. His eyes lit up with an orangey hue as he applied his monsterology skill without any success. "Odd, it most be above an SS-grade then if my skill won't work. I don't think this is a species we have seen before."

Activating Skill: Monster Researcher (SS-rank.) - This skill gives the user access to an extensive bestiary that increases rapidly as the user studies monsters. This skill covers almost all monster SS rank and lower as long as humans have encountered them. 

He sighed in annoyance before he removed his mask to use his night vision and increasing his sight to look down into its stomach. "Seems like some kind of acid is waiting for me at the bottom." He sniffs the air slightly before recoiling at the smell and fitting his mask back in place. "Seems like this is a stone giant, based on the tough flesh and stony areas. I'm pretty sure that the stomach acid is perchloric acid which should be combustible under the right conditions. It's not a concept that is necessarily new to me so luckily I brought someone along as a part of my regular gear. Just in case." He lets out a low whistle and something crawls out from underneath his shirt. He applies his monsterology skill to the small pink puffy creature that was about the size of a tennis ball with big, bright blue eyes that stared at him.

[Cottonball (Pink) A-grade: This small puffy dungeon creature is a mid-tier monster that spits out highly explosive materials when fed. The Cottonball is incredibly sociable and needs the warmth of another creature to survive so when they are born they bond to the closest creature that radiates heat. It is rumored that the color of the Cottonball is indicative of the bonded person's personality as the Cottonball grows color the longer it spends bonded to the person originally they are born with a white hue.]

The Cottonball coos at Rin, rubbing its cheek against his neck and cuddling into his warmth. "Hey Puffy. I need your help." The monster stares at him inquisitively as Rin rummages through his pockets, eventually pulling out a sunflower seed from a bag around his leg. "Eat up, then spit down there. It'll set off a reaction with the perchloric acid." The little monster blinked at him not really understanding her big marble eyes staring into Rin's soft green pair. "Right, you can't understand." He hands her the seed to munch on before pointing downwards to their target. The Cottonball munched on the seed for a moment before opening its mouth and spitting a purple glowing liquid down into the darkness.

"You see, usually a C-ranker like me or an A-raker like you kiddo would never have a chance of killing something like a SS-grade… but we can get a SS rank to self-destruct by exploding its own stomach acids. But we should probably get moving if we don't want to die with it." He quickly starts climbing back up the chain with his arms as a deep rumbling starts to shake the narrow tunnel. The monsters throat starts to glow with a faint orange hue that keeps getting brighter as it gets closer to Rin. 

He climbs faster as the little monster hides away in his shirt, squeaking in fear as it nuzzles into Rin's collarbone, trembling. He reaches the thorn above him and stands up on top of it, leaning up against the wall as a the rumbling swelled becoming unbearably loud and causing Rin's eyes to widened as he flattened himself against the wall. The rumbling climaxed into a fire ball coming up from the monster's stomach through its throat and skating by Rin before exploding just a few meters above him. The monster and in turn Rin's surroundings, started to shake and crumble leaving gaps in the smooth rocky surface that Rin can use to climb up. He removed his hands from his ears and gritted his teeth and found foot and hand holds, starting to slowly climb up. He didn't expect for the reaction to occur right away and he'd gotten unexpectantly injured from the first explosion.

His ears were ringing and his skin was burned from the heat of the explosion but he kept climbing even though his muscles ached and the gas fumes were making him nauseous. He started to feel his consciousness slip slightly but as he feels himself slip away, the puffy monster trembling by his neck woke him up with a small bite. He shook his head, he brought a hand down and grabbed the mask around his waist, fixing it to his face to filter out the gas slightly which made him feel a bit better. "Where is that damn SS-grade when you need him." He said with a groan. 

"You told me to stay put." Rin glances up, his eyes only half open to see Les glaring down at him from a few feet up, sword lodged into the wall to support him. 

"So why didn't you?" Rin said, a small smile underneath his mask. He let out a long sigh and reached a hand out to him. "You gonna help me. Pretty boy?" Rin asked, emphasizing his last two words.

"Pretty boy?" Les responded, a slight scowl on his face but he still reached out his arm and pulled him up. 

Rin groaned as he was pulled, grabbing onto Les for support. "Yeah, you fucking high rankers are always good looking." Instead of being placed next to him as he thought he would be, Les threw him over his shoulder. "Hey! Hey! What are you doing?!" 

"Shut up, you won't be able to get out of here by yourself. A C-ranker stands no chance against the heat from a SS-grade monster." He starts climbing back out as the walls start to crumble around them. A large rock tips out from above them hurling straight towards them but before it can make contact with them, it explodes. Les glances at the person on his shoulder and the small monster that was with him.

"You handle the climbing, we'll get rid of any of the rocks coming your way." Rin yells, his eyes scanning the space above them.

Les's gaze was fixed on the small monster on Rin's shoulder, a glimmer of curiosity in his eyes. "...How weird." Les states.

"Shut up and climb." Rin states, shifting himself slightly so that he was in a more comfortable position. Les rolls his eyes but does as he says, hurriedly scaling his way up. "When we get out of here, we need to head straight for the gate. The monster makes up the ground of the dungeon and considering that I just killed it, the dungeon will start to crumble." 

Les nods, "Right, I don't think I can help you run too much further though. I can feel my wounds starting to re-open." Rin lightly applied his healing skill again while keeping an eye out for incoming debris. "Why is your healing skill so weak?" Les mumbled, irritated. 

"Do you not want it?" Silence only followed after that as the monster's mouth came into view . "Almost there." Rin reassured him while feeding the Cottonball another seed. Suddenly the gaping mouth started to close above them, "Shit." Rin mumbled.

"At this rate we're going to get trapped." Les snapped, gritting his teeth and trying to climb faster. 

Rin stared at the slowly closing mouth, he had an idea but he was debating whether he valued his honor or his life more. "Damn… Do you think you can throw me?"

"Throw you?" Les asked, not turning to look at Rin as he was still hurriedly climbing up. 

Rin nodded and pointed to one of the ledges at the top. "Up there. I can stop it from closing long enough for you to climb out." 

"You sure?"

"Positive." 

Rin placed the Cottonball on Les's shoulder to keep her out of danger before Les grabbed Rin by his waist and flung him upwards with all his might before going back to rapidly climbing. As Rin was flung upwards, he activated his agility ability. He steps through the air, using his skill to propel himself upwards a trail of blue footprints following him. His feet land lightly on the ground by the creature's mouth. He hooks some chains to the creature's teeth before running back, hooking them around his arms and pulling at the chains to make them taunt. The mouth continues to slowly close until the chains tighten and the monster creaks as it struggles to close its jaw without any success. 

Les scoffs slightly at him, Rin was full of surprises. It was a wonder that he was only assigned to rescue missions. "Hurry the hell up! I can't stop it for too long and those chains are only A-rank. I don't want them broken!" Rin yelled down at him. 

"Got it." Les scaled the rest of the way up with relative ease and Rin released the chains with a huff of fatigue once Les was cleared. Les took a moment to dust himself down as Rin took the Cottonball off of Les and nuzzled it against his face and cooed at her, telling that she did a great job. Les stares at him a moment, a certain glint in his eyes as he looks at the person spinning around and cooing at the monster as if it were his own child. After a moment, Rin let her rest underneath his shirt as he turned to Les. 

"We need to go." Rin stated, glancing around the area that was starting to crumble as rocks fell down and trees got their roots pulled out.

"Can you find the way out?" Les asked, glancing at the person worriedly. 

Rin nodded taking out his map, "The ground shouldn't shift anymore so I know my way out now." 

"I'll follow your lead." Les stated. 

Rin gives him a confused look as he flicks his hand, his chain unwrapped from around the area before moving to wrap around his arm. The ground rumbled underneath them prompting them to move. Rin took the lead running through the maze of rocks and trees, weaving through him as if he had done it hundreds of times. Occasionally, a stray tree of rock would fall into their path but Rin would make quick work of it by crushing it with his chains or by using his agility skill to climb over the object and then using his chains to pull Les up with him. After a few minutes they arrived at the gate exit just as the ground crumbled beneath them. Rin used his chains to wrap around Les and fling him through the portal before using his agility skill to make the last couple of paces. 

Unlike Les who landed lying in an awkward position on the ground, Rin landed on his feet, his posture smooth as he dusted himself off and readjusted his gear taking a breath of the fresh, non-dungeon air.