143 Chapter 15: Hunters, Red Gate

Tae arrived with Long and Susu in tow, and she followed behind Tae as they were led in by Long. Who saw the look on the new A-rank recruit who Is going to be the party's leaders.

He looked annoyed since he was doing a C-rank which is way below his rank, he was in charge of one B-rank, Eight C-rank, Four D-rank and now two E-rankers.

Despite being forced Long was excited he only had a hunch about Tae and his wife Peony, but it seems like he was right. He wanted to recruit the two of them.

Tae looked at the raiding party in disappointment. He was not impressed with them. Although the gate was C-rank and the party was overall strong, it would be too easy, and wouldn't show Susu that dose of reality he wanted her to see.

The raid had finished introducing themselves and then stepped into the gate upon the party-leaders order. Tae was about a quarter into the gate when he saw Long cheering at him.

"Senior Long call the Hunter's Association for backup!" Tae yelled as he was pulled in forcefully by the gate. As it began to crackle and forcibly changed color into an ominous red.

Long stood in shock as he watched the whole scene before him, man his lock today was undoubtedly the worst.

"I should call the guild master" he said out loud Afterall a red gate appeared and from a C-rank gate no less.

Within minutes S-rank guild master Tao Baekho appeared looking worried.

Red gates where terrifying as it is, they more than often appeared in high ranking gates. Instead of the standard gates that take out to small and confined dungeons. These are entirely different worlds with their environments. Once a red gate solidifies, no one can leave or enter until the boss is taken out or a dungeon break occurs.

"Was this not a C-rank gate?" Baekho questioned Long

"It was the association confirmed it," he said

"Then this isn't good," he swore loudly in front of his subordinates.

"Ah! Miss Sun" Long said when he spotted Peony's approach. Baekho and the rest were stunned at beautiful women.

"What happened," she wrote.

"You see ma'am your husband got trapped in the red gate."

"On behalf of the Tao Hunter's guild I apologize, May I know your husband's name," Baekho said to Peony who frowned at him but was nonetheless calm.

"Ah! Sir, her husband, isn't part of the Tao guild" Long said

"He isn't?"

"No, he is someone I have been trying to recruit along with Mrs. Sun."

"Someone you were trying to recruit then what Rank are they"

"…." Long face turned somewhat red "E-rank," he said

Tae looked around with curiosity 'So this is a red Gate' he thought as looked around the landscape covered in snow. They seemed to be in an opened in a forest as the trees stacked with snow threatening to fall.

Only a few hunters that where calm is was the party leader, the female B-ranker, and Tae himself. As the other hunter's started to freak out about how the gate is gone.

After he was done observing the surrounding areas his eyes meet the party leader who had also been surveilling the surroundings.

"…"

"…"

The two stared at each other in silence until his attention was taken away but the pulling of his shirt by Susu who was somewhat nervous.

"Something…went wrong right?' she was afraid, as her confidence from earlier was nowhere to be seen.

Suddenly, Tae hand shot in front of her face as he caught the arrow that was apparently going to pierce though her.

Susu screamed instantly as the arrow was close to her eyes. As she was now full on hiding behind Tae her face was incredibly white.

The party was being shot at by the enemies hidden in the trees. These were the humanoid enemies known as the snow elf's who enjoyed hunting Humans from the trees.

'Their targets were not random; it seems' Tae thought 'They purposely targeted the weakest members of the party.' Tae crushed the arrow in his hand provoking the laughing pale elf's.

One of the elf's slid a finger under his throat n a gesture that said: "I'll kill you myself."

And just like that they quickly left only taking the life of the one-party member.

After a few minutes, the party leader the A-ranked Cheol Kin spoke in a condescending manner, that nobody dared to complain to. "I'm sure some of you noticed, but this is a red gate now. That means until we are all dead or a dungeon break occurs no one is coming back for us.

Many of the hunters groaned n defeat. Some of the ignorant ones had hoped for a rescue and the fact that no one would help crushed their spirits

Cheol continued "If we stay here, we will freeze to death or get ambushed. I will go clear this dungeon so we can leave. Who's with me?". Cheol looked somewhat dependable in the first place so may hunters stood before him.

"I'll go."

"Me too please."

"let's leave here alive."

"I'll help as well."

However, Cheol shoved one of the hunters who approached him. Despite holding he ended up hurting the unfortunate man who was a drunk hunter holding his chest in pain.

"Not you," Cheol said "Nor you, you, you and you" he pointed at the other hunters including Tae and Susu he pointed at five hunters in total.

"Unfortunately, we cannot take you with us."

"What?" One hunter said.

"A day in here is an hour in the outside world. Worst case scenario, it'll take months before either we take down the boss or a dungeon break occurs. With that in mind, we can't babysit.

"What do you mean by babysitting?"

The three hunters that would be excluded tried to protest, but in the end, they were silenced by Cheol's fierce glare.

"Don't feel bad. All you have to do is survive until we take down the boss" Cheol said with false kindness.

"Still…"

The hunters excluded looked leadingly, but no one of them stepped forward. They instead looked away, except one.

Tae glance at Susu who was even paler since the group was being split up.

"Don't worry so much" he patted the young girls head trying to get her to calm down.

"Excuse me" the female B-ranker raised her hand after watching Tae.

"we can go from here to there, right?"

"…If you want."

Without any hesitation, she walked over to Tae's side making Cheol look back and forth between them before he finally snorted "well, looks like we have one slot opened we'll take one more from your end."

"m-me!" the man who was shoved earlier quickly ran over to Cheol's side.

'that women are weird' Cheol thought as the women kept glancing at Tae. Tae in return gave the women a suspicious gaze.

"That man Cheol Kin didn't see the arrow coming, but you did. That didn't seem ordinary for and E-rank" she commented quietly

Peony watches the red gate intensely in a chair that was pulled out for her by the guild members.

"In the end, its just a theory isn't it," Baekho said after Long gave in a brief explanation of Tae and his wife. Peony was listening to them, but she was more interested in the fluctuations of the gate.

"Yes, Sir" Long said dejectedly

"Then the person we have to place our hopes on is the A-ranked Cheol Ki.n"

Long was somewhat frustrated at how he couldn't correctly explain in words that his boss could understand. The husband and Wife team where not ordinary.

"There should be no problem with that,t" said a new voice. He was Joo Hyun and Long's rival who recruited Cheol first. The made gave Long a mocking look. "Cheol's test scores were top notch and didn't lack compared to our main raiding parties.

Long expression hardened but his rival insulting looking didn't make him mad enough to argue with him. As they all turned their heads to the gate.