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  That night, we regathered with Stole, Darwin and Doror in the middle of the city.

  “Watch yer step.” Doror said, leading the way.

  Skaris and Stole sniffed the air and looked at each other, than at the rest of us humans who didn’t share their sense of smell. They both grimaced like tasting something sour. Well, technically, I probably had a [Smell] stat just as good as them. But this acrid scent wasn’t something I recognized.

  It was Doror who answered my silent question. “This place is littered with traps. If ye value yer limbs, step where I step and don’t stray.”

  When I think of the middle of the city, there’s a few choice words that comes to mind; especially due to my MSS background. Marketplace, central market, town square and the like. What I want to say is that when I think the center of a city, even in a dying smithy city full of dwarves like this one, I expect the hustle and bustle. The constant stereo chatter of people that serves as background noise, the warmth of human bodies densely packed together.

  Here…

  The nearest house was more than a football field away and the distance in between was filled with iron-spiked walls. There was no multiple path, no birds singing and bathing in the fountains, no market vendors yelling out the prices of their wares. Since we were underground the absence of wind was a given and it was an eerie hollow silence that seemed to fill the air.

  And that wasn’t all.

  There were trees.

  And hanging from the branches of these trees were countless [Fruit of Clear Mind].

  Hundreds of them.

  And on this island… the more trees there were around a lair, the stronger the monster was likely to be.

  Steeling my resolve once more, I followed Doror.

  Doror’s steps were slow and careful but sure. He stepped around the spike walls, his eyes never leaving the ground.

  This wasn’t a central square or even a marketplace.

  It was a prison.

  “...You don’t trust the monster.” I broke the silence with my thoughts.

  Doror answered without looking back. “What fool would?”

  “You did.” I said quietly. “To quietly lap up your sacrifices and never stray. Yet…” I gestured all around us. “This place is a prison.”

  Doror didn’t answer for a long time.

  “The monster is nothing more than a defensive measure. A beast kept in a cage meant to keep other beasts away. But…” He carefully stepped over something that looked like an iron box with a lever, turning back to make sure all of us saw the trap.

  “Only a fool would believe this could keep the beast at bay if it really meant to get out.” It was a seemingly innocent sentence that wasn’t out of place in this situation.

  But the hidden offer behind his words wasn't lost on me.

  He didn’t believe in us.

  The Dwarf was scared of this monster.

  And as a result, he was offering us a way out.

  There was no need to address his concerns. I’d already made my decision. And it wasn’t something that I decided on impulse either.

  What are the things that I can do? How can I do them? Are there things that I can do differently? How can I change this situation? What makes me special in this particular situation, to be able to help the dwarves?

  …And why I wanted to help them.

  Those are the questions that I asked myself before arriving at this decision.

  “...Just lead us to the lair.” I took a breath. “And we’ll take care of the rest.”

  Once more, the absence of sound filled the air.

  And then we were there.

  A giant door studded into the ground itself, like one of those metallic doors you see lined up on the ground next to restaurants. Except bigger. It was about twelve feet wide and twelve feet long, a perfect 2-dimensional cube set into the ground.

  Another defense meant to hinder the monster if it decided to prowl among the city.

  Even from looking at it, I could tell. This stone wouldn’t really stop a monster. None of these defensive measures really could. Even a grade-7 monster could break through it, if the monster kept at it. Like the traps, like the iron-spike walls, they were just there to buy time. Just detriments, not a real form of defense.

  A Master Smith wasn’t a master trapper. They made armor and weapons. Not walls and monster cages.

  Doror walked over to the side and stepped on a pressure plate.

  And with a hiss, the door began to slide open.

  Stairs that descended even deeper into the earth greeted us. I peered over the edge but couldn’t see where the stairs ended. They just spiraled down and down, fading away into the darkness deep within. It had nothing to do with my [Darkvision]. My eyes simply couldn’t make out the sheer distance between myself and wherever the spiraling staircase ended.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “There are no monsters besides the Boss-class one we’re hunting,” I said. “Now’s the last time to check your gear. Everyone eat a [Fruit of Clear Mind]. We’re descending in ten minutes.”

  As the familiar rustling of equipment being sharpened and cleaned filled the space around me, I heard Stol’e footsteps approaching me.

  “Mister…” Stole said, coming up next to me. I saw her eyes dart to the others before she shook her head, like a highschooler shaking off nervousness before Prom night, and standing in front of me at attention. “I think we should leave Darwin here.”

  “We can’t.” I said without missing a beat.

  “He can barely heal.” She said in a whisper, almost like she was afraid of letting Darwin hear her. She gazed off to the side.

  I followed her gaze and saw Darwin standing sheepishly, staring into the staircase. He was shaking his head with wide eyes, backing away from the dark hole in the ground. If the darkness itself wasn’t enough, the sheer height of the staircase and the depth of it was enough to induce acrophobia in him.

  But I couldn’t grant Stole’s request.

  “He comes with us.” I kept my tone firm.

  She tried one more time. “He won’t even be able to descend the staircase.” Her voice gained a touch of frustration. “He’s of no help.”

  I turned to her slowly.

  “Stole, we can’t leave him here.” I said finally.

  “Why not?”

  “What will happen if we die?” I said softly, voicing the answers and questions that she already knew. “The Dwarves won’t take care of him. Even if they do, you don’t think they’ll have a way to track Darwin somehow? Zenom and the Priests? If we die here, then they’ll find this place. And if they do…”

  “Sssslavesss for the empire.” Skaris said from a distance.

  “But-”

  My voice became firm. “Stole, I made the final call on whether to bring Darwin with us. Temporary or not, he's with us now."

  I had made the choice for the party, yes, but Stole had been a big part of that decision making. “You knew what would happen if he came with us. We're not on a picnic here, where people can come and go as they please. Darwin is no exception. He comes with the party."

  I didn’t look until she walked away.

  “Mr. Lock, that could’ve been handled better.” Aurora was the first to approach, having cleaned her armor and readied her weapon.

  I saw her in armor from head to toe, including the winged helmet which she employed only in the most dangerous of her hunts. Her lance had the water-type [Weapon Mod] clasped to the tip as well.

  Off to the side, around twenty feet from us was Stole. She was trying to help Darwin get into some light armor over his priestly robes.

  “She can hear us, you know.” I said dryly.

  Aurora shrugged one shoulder. “Only if she’s not trapped in her own head, regretting her actions.” Her eyes trailed my line of sight, seeing Stole. Her voice was low when she spoke, “I know what you’re trying to teach her. I simply think it could’ve been handled better.”

  “And what am I trying to teach her?”

  “...That there are consequences to actions.”

  I smiled bitterly.

  “Close.” I looked down the stairs. “She’s scared.”

  “Explain please.”

  It was my turn to shrug. “We’re going into a Monster’s Lair. Unlike normal, I haven’t told you what the monster is. What specific abilities it might have and all of you guys are nervous because of it. Because now, all of you guys are walking into this blind.” I turned to face her. “Just like normal adventurers.”

  “...But we are all used to it.” Aurora whispered.

  “Yes. You’re all used to the nervousness and fear of the unknown. But an adventurer doesn’t stop walking forward because of it. After all, the fact that our lives are on the line doesn’t change whether we know the monster’s identity or not.” I pointed to Stole. “For her, it’s the first time that she’s walking into a monster’s lair willingly. Blind. Without me to tell her about the Monster’s identity.”

  “I thought she hunted a few monsters even before meeting us. Wasn’t she a solo adventurer?”

  “A hunter-tracker who relied on ambush and stalking to find out more about her prey.” I explained, “It’s completely new territory for her. And she’s choking.” I shook my head. “It’s a new experience for her and she needs to face it. Or she’ll never be comfortable leading from the front.”

  “It doesn’t have to be today.”

  “It does.” I argued again. “You already know, I plan to bring the Dwarves back. I can’t have Stole acting like a child any longer. We both know what will happen once Zenom and the other adventurers see the Dwarves.”

  The adventurers would be drawn to the Dwarves like moths to the flame. Zenom too, will only want to use them. Contrary to what everyone thinks, it wouldn’t be difficult to bring the Dwarves onboard.

  The real issue would be fending off the hyenas and jackals that only want to use them.

  “They’ll want to manipulate her. Use her to get close to you… or the Dwarves.”

  “Not just her. All of you.” And I eyed her. “I finally figured out what was up between you and Kyrian.”

  I initially thought it had been a romantic fling between them. But the more I thought, the less it made sense. The air between them had been more tense than flowery. And there was only one reason that there would be tension between Kyrian and Aurora.

  Trust.

  I can’t say to exactly what happened between them. But something must’ve happened where the relationship between the two got strained. And the lack of trust between party members was just as deadly as Stole’s inability to commit due to fear.

  But much harder to repair.

  Aurora looked away, refusing to meet my gaze. “It was nothing.”

  It wasn’t nothing. But she didn’t look like she wanted to discuss it.

  “...I won’t pry.” I put a hand on her shoulder, finally seeing the others approach, armed to the teeth. “But just let me know, if you need any help after this, you can always come to me.”

  Because it’s the party leader’s responsibility to bear the weight of their relationship, holding us together until everything was ok again.

  If only I had learned this earlier.

  “Mr. Lock, the thought of failing this raid isn’t even on your mind, is it?” Aurora asked with her usual straight face.

  “Of course not.” Finally, all of us were ready.

  Taking a deep breath, I said, “Ok then, let’s descend.”

  Finally, the hunt was on.

  Needless to say, it was dark. The whole place was shaped like a silo, spiraling staircase lining the sides. One look off to the side or worse, wrong step at the wrong time and that person would dive off into the nether without a foothold –for the walls were paved clean. Briefly I wondered how the dwarves managed to carve all this and realized that would be impossible.

  The monster had to have done this.

  And I was able to identify the monster’s identity from that fact alone.

  But I dared not voice it, because if we fought the monster here on this staircase, it’d be suicide.

  Second… the scent of blood was overwhelming.

  Even Kyrian and Aurora could smell it.

  The situation only got worse. Within the first hour, we found that I was the only one who could see. No one else had the [Darkvision] feature. Even with their superior senses, it required a supernatural ability to see in the dark. In that aspect, Cores trumped racial bonuses in more ways than one. Or in my case, the orc racial trait that I inherited from Arrosh: the Crow totem. But I didn’t even have the time to admire how much of a cheat character I was becoming.

  Because by the second hour of descending the staircase, we could hear it.

  A strange scraping sound that bounced off of the walls.

  It brought memories to me. The scratching sound of insect monster’s carapace that scraped along the cave… the same pitch that my bones made when Coum scratched my shin-bones with a metal razor.

  Pushing away the memory, I continued to descend.

  I stood in the front, tied at the waist by a rope. The rope trailed behind me, tied to Stole who wasn’t too far back. Aurora was third, with Kyrian and Darwin behind her. Skaris brought up the rear with a torch, which was barely enough to light up the way.

  There was no special field here.

  Just pitch black darkness and the suffocating smell of blood. The scraping of… something.

  By the fifth four, they were joined by whispers.

  Those whispers bounced off of the walls, surrounding us. Within them, I could barely make out the words.

  ‘Fresh’

  ‘Young’

  ‘Girl’

  ‘Hunger’

  ‘Flesh’

  ‘Bone’

  ‘Hunger’

  Over and over and over again.

  Already, the mental attack was starting.

  ? [???] casts [Vile Whispers] ?

  Darwin began to whimper and we took half an hour to keep him silent. In the end, we blocked his ears with earplugs.

  Even I felt the effects of it.

  I became more jumpy. Panicked and anxious. There was a definite thumping in my ears and I had to question this decision. I had walked into this blind, both metaphorically and literally.

  And with the same control that I used to separate myself from the pain, I separated myself from the mental attacks. These didn’t hurt me physically, nor was it a debuff. It was a simple aura-type ability that increased the effects of mental debuffs. But to think that this was what it felt like in real life…

  Stole’s breathing came faster and faster behind me. At last, she reached out and grabbed ahold of the back of my armor. She tugged twice, a signal to slow down. Looking back, it wasn’t just her but everyone was sweating and it wasn’t from physical exertion.

  This monster, just by getting into its lair… it’s presence was overwhelming us.

  A Boss-class that we hadn’t encountered yet.

  Not like the weakened Cheon-ma which we finished off.

  Swallowing, I redistributed the [Fruit of Clear Mind]. Emboldened one more, we continued.

  By the sixth hour, we reached the bottom.

  And I saw it.

  Thankfully, it had its back to me. It was a little under ten feet tall, though it was an estimate because the monster was crouched onto its three legs. The skin clung to its muscles and bones like a starving homeless man and I saw the clear pronounced bulbous protrusions sticking out along its back. Six arms adorned its shoulders, each of them hanging loose –all but one. One of them held a sculptor’s chisel and was scraping at the wall.

  Smoothing it.

  Making a staircase.

  Like a maddened artisan, this creature was continuing to dig.

  And slowly it turned.

  All three heads looked at us.

  Eyes that were distinctly asian in nature –slightly catlike and more narrow than wide. Vertical slits in its pupils. Teeth that looked exactly like ours.

  Smooth dark-navy blue skin that glistened with sweat. It’s hair neatly braided into a bun on top of its three heads. And to top off the likeness to us humans, it wore something similar to a Sari –despite being distinctly male.

  And with a perfectly normal voice, the monster spoke to us.

  “You have brought the sacrifice?”

  [Samsoogook (三首國)], a monster closely resembling its counterpart from Chinese Mythology.

  And a legitimate Grade-5 Boss class.

  Full HP. No [Exhaustion] tick.

  Just my party versus the monster.

  It cocked its head, all three appendages mirroring the gesture. There was a wrongness to the creature that just rubbed against my mind and I fought not to look away. One opening and it would attack. It repeated the line in the same exact tone and the same exact voice –like it was following a script.

  “You have brought the sacrifice?”

  And then it blurred into movement.

  And I was ready.

  The Raid began.