Chapter 27: The Second Test (3)

Raydel and Shane got up and hid behind a tree.

They both craned their heads looking at the sky worriedly. The thing that was moving had an enormous figure. Raydel couldn't tell if it was a bird or what types of monsters because the sky was in complete darkness. He could only estimate that the boss was extremely tall. Each step it took shook the world.

Whenever it growled, it sounded like a siren shrieking.

[Unlock the first obstacle.]

[The remaining time: 9:59 minutes]

Raydel frowned when he saw the message box.

"What does it mean?" He heard Shane say. "What time? That's not the same time as the one-hour limit of the dungeon, right?"

He was right. There were now two message boxes telling two different countdowns. The first box was the time limit they had to take back the hunter cards, with about fifty minutes left. The second box, the just received message box, showed a ten-minute time limit. The two boxes were counting down.

Rumble.

The earth kept rattling horrifyingly. A crack exploded under Raydel's feet.​ He froze and tensed his body, preparing to jump away if the ground split into a bigger rift.

However, the earthquake gradually reduced.

When the ground finally returned to normal, Raydel let out all the breath he had been holding in. He looked at the group of newcomers and saw that they moved from hiding behind the bushes to a tree instead. And when Raydel counted them again, he realized that only three of them remained. He could see from the pale faces and the dirty hands what happened to the other member.

If an earthquake happened and one accidentally fell down a rift, that probably meant failing the test.

"The map." Shane whispered.

Raydel turned to him and suddenly noticed that there was a soft light appearing on the paper.

Shane and Raydel raised the torn map in their hands up and saw glowing lines appearing. When they put the two pieces of paper together, the lines became a small circle that covered several areas. The glowing lines kept flickering as if to give them a hint.

Raydel looked at the new message box again before sensing that the ground beneath his feet was shaking slightly.

"The first obstacle might refer to the earthquake," Raydel said. "And the circle probably tells us all the areas that the earthquake will hit."

Shane stared at the map. A drop of sweat ran across his temple.

"It seems that this is where we are. There's a flickering circle here as well. I guess these are the areas with an earthquake."

"I think so."

"So, once the ten-minute countdown is over, the obstacle will change to something else. And the circle will change to somewhere else?"

Raydel nodded. "I think that's the case."

"Taking back the cards is already hard enough. There are obstacles too?" Shane laughed bitterly.

Thud.

The sound of the boss' footsteps echoed throughout the whole area. Flocks of birds flying away for their lives filled the sky. At the same time, sunlight began to shine at the horizon. When the sun moved out from behind the cloud and shone brightly, lighting everywhere up, the boss that stomped in the dark disappeared.

Now, nothing was moving in the sky.

"The boss is gone," Shane said.

They leaned against the tree; every last drop of their energy drained.

"Red fireworks can attract the monsters while golden fireworks attract the boss, right?" Raydel asked.

"It seems the golden fireworks also chase away the monsters," Shane said. "Look around, there's not even a single monkey anymore. They probably ran away. Or were they scared of the boss?"

"I think that's the real reason."

"Will that make it harder for us to hunt down those monkeys? Now that they ran away, I don't know if we'll be able to complete the mission in time. We only have one card right now," Shane said. And when Raydel opened his mouth, Shane suddenly interrupted, "don't you dare tell me that 'you should take the card.' We'll definitely find another card, okay?"

Raydel blinked. He just had an urge to pull out the card and give it to Shane. But in fact, he would not give away the card that easily because he also wanted to pass the test. However, Raydel met Shane's eyes and saw that he was dead serious about what he said, so he smiled.

"Okay," Raydel said.

Raydel pushed himself up and pointed in a direction.

"Let's go see them."

The group, consisting of two men and a woman, was still hiding behind a tree. They all seemed to be in the working age and looked weary and messy. It was obvious that they were scared when they saw Raydel running toward them. But when he raised his torn map up, one of them showed their map back.

"You won't betray us, right?" one of them asked carefully.

"We can work together," Shane said and pointed his index finger at himself. "I'm Shane."

Everyone introduced themselves. The group actually consisted of two parties. It seemed only a party could only hold two people at maximum. Joseph and Pit were in the all-men party while Sine and Nina were in the all-women party. The latter now only had one member, Nina, left. Sine accidentally fell down the rift during the earthquake and failed the test.

"You have just one map?" Raydel asked and nodded when they replied. "It's okay. Should we try putting our maps together?"

They placed the pieces of their maps together. Raydel knew that this was not the complete map and that these three pieces of paper were just tiny pieces of the map of the outer area. They still could not picture what the complete map would look like. Raydel sighed. There was nothing they could do now. He put the map in his pocket and took out the firework gun. Joseph also pulled out his golden firework gun for everyone to see.

"I have only one bullet left. We'll keep it for the time we really need it," Raydel said. "In the meantime, we need to find the other pieces of the map. It may tell us where the monkeys go."

"Is it necessary?" Nina asked. "We can just walk into the forest straight to the monkeys."

"They're scared of the boss, so they probably went back to their hiding place."

Nina's jaw dropped. She looked around and immediately realized that the area was in complete silence. There were no traces of the monsters.

"Because we fired the golden fireworks?"

"Yes, the red one attracts them while the golden one probably attracts the boss."

"Then fire the red one now," Nina said. "There are five of us. We can definitely handle the monkeys!"

"I think before we fight, we should find a nice place to enhance our defensive power first," Pit said. "Actually, I walked past a deserted building on the way here. I don't know if the earthquake already destroyed it or not. But I think it's still better than the building you guys had just escaped from, right? We should go there, really. There may be some new hints to find as well."

"What building? Why did I not see it?" Nina asked.

"It's around a few hundred meters from here in that direction. Come, let's hurry up."

With no other choices, Raydel agreed to follow Nina's group. As they wandered through the dungeon toward the building, he kept his back bending forward and always stepped lightly, trying not to make any unnecessary noises as he placed his feet on the leaves on the ground. He was afraid that the monkeys would hear it and attack them, but throughout the way, they found not even a single money. They all just disappeared.

"There." Pit said.

When they finally got past the bushes, they saw the building Pit was talking about.

The building was located in the middle of the forest. Vines had wrapped themselves around the majority of the building. It looked exactly like the first abandoned building with its bare cement structure and broken furniture being the only things remaining. When the group walked into the building, they could hear only their own footsteps. No one was hiding inside. It was empty.

Everyone split up and searched for any clues there might be.

Raydel walked up the stairs to the third floor of the building. He summoned the Plague Doctor out to watch behind his back. Raydel began his search by going through the old drawers while sneaking a glance at the Plague Doctor once in a while. He felt somehow worried when he saw that the boss was standing still, looking out the open door. He accidentally saw the Plague Doctor's face and did not know if it had any negative impacts.

I shouldn't talk about it anymore, Raydel thought because he believed that was what the Plague Doctor wanted.

He went through every single drawer in the room but found nothing. As he was about to leave the room to search other rooms, he touched the Plague Doctor's shoulder to tell him to turn around and look at him.

"Are your health points full now?" Raydel asked. He prepared to use his leadership skills, but the Plague Doctor said nothing. He only shook his head and looked the other way. The changed vibe between them made Raydel tightened his lips. He decided to lightly pat the boss on the shoulders and said.

"You're still my good boy no matter what. Don't worry."

Raydel walked downstairs after finishing the sentence.

He walked into a room unsearched. As he was opening a drawer, he heard Shane's voice, so he ran down the stairs to the ground floor where Shane was at right now.

Nina and her group also gathered here. Shane waved at everyone to look at something. In his hands was an A4 paper. It was not torn like the maps, but a complete, normal piece of paper. There were several lines of letters on it, which excited Raydel.

"It's not a map but… information about something," Shane said. "It looks like some information about the dungeon. It talks about monsters. There are four tribes of the Local Monkeys. They live in different areas which are shown in the map. It also says that no matter what happens, all four tribes will gather at a place one time."

Shane flipped the paper.

"The place where all the monkeys will come together is also on the map and… time. It says, 'when only twenty-five minutes remain, they will gather round the place.' How much time do we have left?"

"Now, we have less than fifty minutes," Joseph said. "So, we have to find where the Local Monkeys live? But we'll only know where from the complete map. How will someone possibly do that in time?!"

"Wait, and who is this?" Nina interrupted.

Everyone turned to look at the Plague Doctor who had just come down from upstairs. When they saw his black clothes and the mask with a beak, they quieted down anxiously. Raydel swallowed hard and rushed toward the Plague Doctor. He placed his hand on the boss' chest to show the rest that they could trust him.

"He's the boss I summoned," Raydel said. Then, he held the Plague Doctor's hand and led him to stand next to him, not even realizing that the Plague Doctor was trying to give him something.

Nina frowned and then crossed her arms.

"A boss-summoning hunter?" she whispered. "Then, there are six of us! Let's use the red fireworks now. We don't have to find all the pieces of the map. We won't make it in time, I'm sure. Use the red fireworks now, so we can snatch the hunter cards back from those monkeys."

"I agree," Joseph said. "Our group has many people. We need to find all those cards now."

"Okay," Raydel said and pulled out the firework gun. "Then, everyone please step…"

Bang!

Raydel had not even fired yet when they all heard the sound 'bang' thundered from a direction.

Everyone immediately turned to the direction and saw that, not far away from this building, there were red fireworks exploding majestically in the sky. At the same time, the earth that had been calm for a while began to shake. The first obstacle came back one more time, and cracks instantly appeared on the building.

"Go!" Nina started running before everyone else.

Raydel pulled the Plague Doctor's hand, so he knew he needed to follow him. Then, the entire group ran through the forest, heading straight to the area of that red fireworks. They pushed through some bushes and arrived at a neighborhood in no time. Several one-storey buildings were situated across the area. They were all dilapidated as if deserted for many years.

"The fireworks are there!"

However, all they found at the scene was the firework gun left on the floor and not a single human.

Everyone looked around in confusion. Not only did they find no humans, they also found no monkeys there as well. The earthquake had just stopped and the rifts had just disappeared.

"Could it be that the people who fired the fireworks are already defeated by the monkeys?" Pit asked.

"I think they probably fell down the rifts," Shane said. "We found no monkeys both on the way here and in this area. Raydel, can we try our fireworks? At least, we could find out whether it can still be used to attract the Local Monkeys."

Raydel nodded and fired the fireworks.

The fireworks shot high up in the sky and exploded before falling down in colorful sparkles. In the silence that followed, they noticed no movements from the forest and the surrounding area. There were no monkeys at all.

"Is it because the boss has already appeared, so the other monsters are too scared to even show their faces? Seriously?" Nina asked with a husky voice.

Joseph pulled at his hair.

"Do we really need to find all the pieces of the map?" he asked hopelessly. "Forget it. We already failed! Nina, you shouldn't have used the golden fireworks!"

"What? Why is it my fault? You told me you wanted to help these two, so you asked me to fire it!"

"Are you saying that it's my fault?!"

"Calm down," Raydel dissuaded them from arguing. "I think the Hunter Guild must know that the hunters won't be able to find all the missing pieces in the time given. So, there's probably another way for us to find out where the monkeys are."

"And what is it?!" Nina asked before stomping her feet angrily. "And what is it that your boss has been trying to give you? Tell him to stop already. It's so annoying!"

Raydel raised his brows and looked behind him. He saw the Plague Doctor standing there. The boss clenched his fist and handed something to him.

"Thanks…," Raydel whispered. His brows were tied to each other when he took what the Plague Doctor gave him. It was a piece of paper crumpled up into a ball. He unfolded it. The information inside had his eyes widened immediately.

"A clue?" he exclaimed. "You found a clue in the building? Great job!"

[The Plague Doctor is happy.]

His leadership skills started working again, and it made Raydel relieved. The atmosphere between the boss and him began to return to what it used to be. Raydel focused on the information on the paper. He quickly read everything and felt his heart racing as he took in all the new clues. He turned left and right, trying to find the direction that the paper talked about.

"That way." Raydel pointed. "There's a mini dungeon there. The prize for clearing it is 'the Data Simulator.' If we defeat the dungeon, we'll be able to use the simulator to create the complete map."

"What are we waiting for then? Let's go!" Nina said.

"Wait," Raydel stopped her, "the dungeon…"

The dungeon was infested with traps.

That was what the paper said.

The mini dungeon hid in the overgrown forest. Throughout their entire journey, Raydel's team had to cut endless branches and vines that got in their way to get to the mini dungeon. They could only see an entrance door to the dungeon made of dark gray bricks. It stood alone in the middle of the dense forest. Whatever was beyond the door was hidden behind complete darkness, so they could not see anything.

On the way to the dungeon, another earthquake struck. Raydel's team had to start running because the ground split up into several rifts that chased after the team. They did not even have the time to prepare themselves and were forced to leapt into the mini dungeon to escape from the earthquake.

They got inside, but there was not a sound to be heard.

The mini dungeon looked just like dungeons in games. It was an ancient ruin in a dim-lit cave. Tiny candles were placed along the pathway to tell them which way to go. The air was cold, the temperature below zero. Raydel had to immediately hug himself. He could see steam coming out of his nose when he exhaled.

"When you say the dungeon is filled with traps, what kind of traps are we talking about?" Pit asked.

"I don't know. But we should be careful…"

A shadow dashed past the wall!

Everyone froze, shocked. Then, Nina swallowed and whispered, "the monkeys? Are the Local Monkeys also here?"

Everyone sneaked deeper into the dungeon. They saw a huge cave and a ruin of a sanctuary. The bricks were jet black with traces of weeds. Raydel looked around the area and saw some monsters patrolling around. They were the Local Monkeys.

The difference was their meager bodies and aggressive expressions.

[Monster: The Starving Local Monkeys]

[Level: 70]

"What!" Joseph complained softly, "level seventy?!"

"Shut up," Nina scolded.

"You shut up."

"You're rude. We're not that close, remember?"

"What is the condition to clear the dungeon?" Shane interrupted. Then, a message box appeared in front of everyone.

[The condition to clear the dungeon: Get to the last room.]

"It's not killing the boss," Shane whispered. "Then, can we sneak around to the room?"

"I think we can do that. We just need to get to that room and use the Data Simulator, right?" Raydel said. "Then, I'll go. I'm the smallest one in the group. If we all go together, the monsters may hear us."

The rest looked relieved that they did not have to go while Shane made a worried face.

"Raydel," he lowered his voice, "let me go with you."

"It's okay. You can wait here," Raydel refused. Then, he turned his back to everyone. He, after making sure the rest could not see what he was doing, pulled out the firework gun and the hunter card and gave it to Shane. "Can you take care of these things for me?"

Still, their action made Joseph stare at them with suspicion. He did not see what Raydel gave Shane, but he thought, did these two already have the cards? The man with a pale face swallowed and acted like he was looking the other way. His entire body trembled anxiously.

"You're so…" Shane looked as if he wanted to scold Raydel, but he sighed and hid the card carefully. "Can you take him?"

Shane gestured toward the Plague Doctor.

"Yes."

"Okay, I'll wait here then."

Shane hit Raydel's shoulders to remind him to stay vigilant. The boy took a deep breath and signaled at the Plague Doctor to follow him before sneaking into the dungeon.

However, only a few seconds had passed when Raydel heard someone cursing from behind.

"Hey, you!!"

"Give it to me!!"

Raydel turned around and saw that Joseph was trying to take the hunter card from Shane.

They both were wrestling on the floor. Joseph got on Shane's body and yanked his shirt collar. He clenched his fist and punched Shane's cheek without a second thought. The sound 'phluck' had Nina and Pit frozen like a rock. No one dared to get in between the two, so Raydel had to rush back there.

But Joseph had already taken the card from Shane. He got up and ran back to the dungeon entrance.

"You…!" Raydel shouted.

Suddenly, the ground that had always been even pushed up and crushed Joseph into the ceiling!

"No!"

Nina covered her face, her whole-body trembling.

"Is he dead? That's blood, right?! God! Oh my God…"

Raydel stood still witnessing the scene. He swallowed hard and shook his head.

"Those are dirt and weeds. He just failed the test, not die…"

Then, a message box appeared in front of him.

[Met the secret condition: 'Betray your team.']

[Unlock the obstacle: Activate all traps.]

"Traps," Raydel murmured. He raced to Shane and dragged him up. "Run!"

The ground where Joseph used to stand on collapsed down, revealing the river filled with metal poles beneath. Judging from the height, Raydel was confident that if someone fell down, the person would definitely die. The traps were chasing right after them while the dungeon was transforming itself into an embodiment of traps.

The monsters roared. They had found them.

Raydel was about to run, but Nina grabbed his collar.

"Wait! The hunter card! It's still there!" she screamed.

"There's no time to get it now!"

"Do you want to fail the test? It's not easy to find one of those! Order your boss to go get it for you! Have him jump into the trap!!"

Raydel pushed her hands out.

"I will never risk losing him!" he shouted. That's an A-rank boss. It's not like he was easy to get!

He didn't know what was so pleasant about what he said, but the Plague Doctor seemed pleased by it. The second he had him go back into the coin because of his desire to protect him and his worry that the Plague Doctor might not make it out alive with those traps, he noticed a message box describing the boss' feeling.

[The Plague Doctor respects you as his owner even more.]

Raydel frowned before starting running.

The group ran through the dim light of the cave into the dungeon. They could hear the sounds of traps activating from all directions and the sounds of monsters that were now aware of the intruders. The monkeys were chasing after them. Some swung themselves from places to places while some ran straight right after them. They all bared their fangs and growled in a way that sent coldness throughout Raydel's entire body. His face was suddenly distorted as something slashed past him, leaving behind a trace of blood on his arm!

"Shit," Raydel cursed. There was a trap that shot out daggers.

He held his arm and felt warm liquid on his hand. Still, he persisted and continued running. The dungeon had transformed into its totally new appearance. Everything was collapsing and changed into huge traps. The walls kept squeezing in while the ceilings became sharp metal poles swiftly falling down. The exit was about one hundred meters away from them.

"Arghh!"

Pit screamed. One of the Starving Local Monkeys grabbed a hold of him. Raydel quickly used 'the Tears of Heavens,' a whip that flew to Pit and wrapped itself around him. Raydel tried to pull him back, but because Pit was frightened and grasped at everything he could, the whip was yanked out of Raydel's hands instead.

"Ah." Raydel was about to jump to catch the whip.

"We won't make it!" Nina cried as she pushed him aside. She controlled 'the Tears of Heaven' but did not try to pull Pit away from the starving monkeys with it. Instead, she summoned it to herself and led everyone into the next room. She did not even turn around to check on Shane and Raydel even when she was already safe.

Crack!

Raydel could not stand listening to the sound of Pit being crushed by the rocks.

He didn't die. He told himself. No one died in the Hunter Guild's dungeon.

But everything looked so realistic.

"Raydel!" Shane yelled before wrapping his arm around Raydel's waist. Then, the two leapt through the door into the next room. They fell on the hard stone floor and cried out loud because of the pain.

Thud!

"...!"

Behind them, the ceilings in the room they had just escaped from crashed into the floor.

Raydel and Shane coughed because of all the dust in the air. They crawled away from the weight of the collapse in the other room. The two were trying to stand up when they heard the scream of Nina.

In this room, she was confronting a Starving Local Monkey.

The monster must have survived the traps judging from the dirt and dust on its body. One of its four arms was missing, blood gushing out of the wound looking horrible. Combined with its barbarous face, they could not think of anything more terrifying.

It bared their fangs and charged at Nina who leapt the other way.

Nina crashed into the floor with a loud bang. She choked on her own saliva as she tried to drag herself away from the monster. Raydel who finally got to his feet summoned the Plague Doctor, but he was suddenly bound by a whip before he could do anything.

"?!"

It was Nina who used 'the Tears of Heaven.' She flicked her hands and threw Raydel at the monster instead with the whip!

The Plague Doctor leapt in and grabbed Raydel. He used all his power to cut the whip with his dagger. It consumed almost all of Raydel's energy, leaving him exhausted. The Plague Doctor put him on the floor after he cut through the whip while Shane rushed in to grab Raydel and lead him away from the monster!

"Don't look back!" Shane said.

The Starving Local Monkey shifted its focus back to Nina. As soon as Raydel got out of the room, he heard Nina scream at the top of her lungs.

The scream slowly disappeared the deeper they ran into the dungeon.

After a while, Raydel felt he could not run even one step more. He begged Shane to stop running.

They both panted. Raydel dropped to the floor. His whole body was covered in huge beads of sweat. A person stepped in and stopped before him. When he looked up, he saw the Plague Doctor that was looking down at him.

[Additional translation of The Plague Doctor's words.]

['Master, don't be too kind.']

Raydel was speechless.

"Was I too kind?" Raydel asked Shane softly. "I helped her because we're a team."

"It's good that you tried to help her. But in a test like this, not everyone will pass, Raydel. We need to accept the fact," Shane said, heaving. "We don't have to help everyone, especially the ones that tried to get you eaten instead of themselves. We should focus on the survival of ourselves first."

"Okay."

Shane stood with arms akimbo and looked around.

"We should be in the last room now."

"The Data Simulator's probably there," Raydel said.

Shane helped Raydel stand up. He gradually walked to the Data Simulator located at the deepest end of the room. He sat down in front of the tool and pulled out his map. Shane also handed him another piece of the map.

"We don't have the pieces from Nina's team, but I think the simulator will be able to complete the map," Raydel said.

He pressed it open, and a hologram was illuminated. When Raydel placed the pieces of paper at the center, they started floating as if in space. Then, the hologram began filling in the missing parts of the map.

Raydel could feel his heart pumping. He blinked as he read the map.

"We need to remember the map, right?" Shane asked as he kneeled down next to him. "Okay, I'll remember some parts of it."

The map of the dungeon was quite large. Several areas had glowing lines indicating the earthquake. Raydel scanned the map to find the hiding place of the monkeys. It turned out that each of the four tribes lived in a specific cardinal direction, including a sanctuary in the north, a neighborhood in the east, and rural areas in the south and west.

"Where will the four tribes get together?" Shane asked.

Raydel dragged his finger along the hologram.

"Here," he said, "right in the center of the dungeon."

"This place is…"

Raydel nodded, his other hand still holding on to his bleeding arm.

"All four tribes of the Local Monkeys will come together at the supermarket at the center of the dungeon. This is the only source of food for the monsters. Shane, if we fire the firework gun there, we may be able to lure in every monkey in the dungeon. A lot of them must have the hunter cards. There'll be enough for us to pass the test for sure."

"But…"

"Yes, but others may already know this information as well. And they may be heading to the supermarket just like us."