9 Soul Devour

The man standing in the front spoke, seeming to be the leader of the dungeon's hunting team. On his left hand, there were three blue-stringed bracelets that hung, each having an identical look to the others.

Finn, who had arrived before them, took the lead and extended his arm, and the man wrapped the bracelet around his wrist, connecting both ends together, before moving to Rhea, where he did the same thing.

After connecting the ends of the last string bracelet on Dale's hand, he finally explained the use of the string bracelets.

He raised his hand, revealing three other string bracelets that were wrapped around his wrist. "These are string bracelets laced with Soul Energy."

"If anything happens to you while you're inside the dungeon, one of these bracelets that I'm wearing will snap by itself. If that happens, I'll immediately request assistance from the base. But since you're only entering there to scout, as long as you pay attention, there shouldn't be any need for that." The leader of the hunting team stepped aside for them to enter as he finished his explanation, not wanting to speak another word.

Finn walked inside the unknown dungeon, accompanied by Dale, who trailed a few feet behind him and had an indifferent expression that displayed his experience.

Rhea also entered, but not before looking around, as she took notice of a familiar woman discreetly following her, observing every move she made without trying to reveal her presence to her or anyone else.

For a split second, a smile spread across Rhea's face, but her face quickly returned to normal as if nothing had happened.

****

'Did she notice my presence?' The woman wondered, having the memory of Rhea smiling at her repeatedly flash through her mind.

Even though it looked as if she had noticed her presence, she didn't consider the possibility of that being the case. Instead, she considered it nothing more than her imagination.

There was not even a shred of magic inside her body, and for some reason she saw through her stealth? That wasn't possible, especially when she had trained in the arts of stealth for dozens of years, whereas Rhea had just started to walk on the path of strength.

Either way, she still felt intrigued by why Gabriel had commanded her to observe her. She felt there was some deeper meaning to this other than determining if she was an enemy or an ally that she couldn't place her finger on. The more she watched, the more intrigued she felt.

'From what I've seen, there isn't anything that I could consider noteworthy about her other than her beauty, but I'm certain Gabriel isn't a person that would be persuaded by someone's beauty. There's got to be something about her that isn't easily noticeable. I'll continue observing until I find out...'

She sneaked inside the cave's structured dungeon, blending directly into the surrounding shadows.

****

Unknown dungeons were dungeons that were usually newly formed and hadn't been explored yet. As they haven't been explored by other humans, nothing is known about them, along with the hidden dangers they had.

That's why the main role of the reconnaissance team was to explore the dungeons, search for monsters, and gather information about the inside of the dungeon.

Through the information they gained, an attack team fit for the dungeon would be formed that possessed the necessary strength and firepower to clear the dungeon. That's how things usually went, but there were a few exceptions where things turned out differently.

One such exception was happening now...

"It looks like this is the last of the kobolds in this outer zone of the mine." Finn said, killing off the last of the kobolds with a single heavy impact to the kobold's head.

Dane, who hadn't spoken much since they had entered, finally voiced his thoughts: "Why don't we take this dungeon for ourselves?"

"Huh?" Finn's eyes widened slightly as he turned to Dale. He wasn't wrong! They could clear the dungeon, as even though they weren't the hunting team, the reconnaissance team was still made up of hunters with combat abilities.

Normally, if the reconnaissance team deemed the dungeon easy to handle, they would clear it right away, but that was only when they were certain it held no danger to their lives.

He was only surprised because this was only the outer zone, where the kobolds were weak and could be killed with ease, not the inner or core zone! Why would Dale suddenly make this suggestion?

"Are you joking? We have just entered, but do you want us to take this dungeon for ourselves? Do you not realize the potential danger that comes with the inner and core zones? There are only two of us and one bitch! What are we able to do with a team like this?"

"If it was a group of five, we would at least have a chance, but we don't. How do you expect us to survive if we try to clear this dungeon?"

Dale walked over to Finn, placing his left hand on his shoulder. "Alright, calm down. Do you think I wouldn't say this without having a plan? We've been inside and out of dungeons for this long, and you still doubt me? I know it sounds absurd, but before deciding, I suggest you listen to my plan."

"Fine." Finn agreed, as he noticed Rhea. "Rhea! Shouldn't you be collecting the soul cores? Why are you still standing here? You should be glad I didn't force you to fight; otherwise, you would've already been dead. Can't you at least do a simple job and collect them?"

'Though his hatred is unwarranted, it also helps me.'

Rhea walked over to the body of the kobold and unsheathed the knife from her thigh that Dale had given her on the way to the dungeon. She placed the tip of the knife above the kobold's heart and exerted a small amount of pressure on the knife.

The knife slowly and delicately passed through the heart of the kobold, making sure no blood was spilled and the soul core wasn't damaged or destroyed.

Using the knife as leverage, she pulled the soul core out with her other hand. The soul core was of low quality, the same quality as the ones she had retrieved before. This was expected since ordinary kobolds were weak monsters and soul cores were rare among them.

She clenched her fist tightly, hiding the small soul core in her right hand while using [Sleight of Hand], acting as if she had instead stored the soul core inside the storage ring around her finger. The dim glow of the soul core dimmed even more. It was as if all the soul energy inside the core was being sucked dry.

Soon, all the energy that was inside the soul core was drained as the soul core turned to dust, leaving no traces of its former self behind.

A screen opened up before her as she revealed a faint smile. She had achieved one of her main objectives for joining the reconnaissance team.

[Kobold's Soul Core (Lvl. 2)—Devoured!]

[SP +2]

[Innate ability unlocked: Soul Devour]

'SP? Is that what this system calls Soul Energy? For something created by the chaos goddess, this is certainly useful, but as useful as it is, the chaos goddess is still among my enemies. Does she not consider me a threat enough to have willingly given me this second chance? Am I really that insignificant in her eyes?' As she thought, another screen opened up, revealing a few changes in her stats.

[User: Rhea]

[Race: Human]

[Class: Divine Thief, Hunter]

[Level: 4]

[85/400 EXP]

[HP: 10/10]

[SP: 2/2]

[Strength: 2]

[Agility: 2]

[Stamina: 2]

[Constitution: 1]

[Innate Abilities: Sleight of Hand, Soul Devour]

Seeing the changes to her status screen, Rhea felt relieved. She didn't show it, but she also felt a slight happiness in her heart as her strength was improving. As a bonus, her prostitution class was replaced by her new hunter class.

She closed her system and returned her focus back to the soul cores. Wanting to increase her soul energy, she collected all the soul cores, but as she didn't want to raise any suspicion, she didn't devour all of them, leaving half inside the storage ring.

As she stored and devoured the soul cores, the conversation was still going on between Finn and Dale, where Dale told Finn of his plans and the reasons behind his thoughts. Fortunately, it wasn't too difficult to persuade Finn.

It only took a little persuasion and mentioning what profits he could gain for him to agree. On the other hand, Rhea heard their conversation, not speaking at all, and even if she did, she had no say in this conversation, where her opinion would likely fall on deaf ears.