Chapter 19 - A premonition of death

It had been a full three months since the adventuring party had left Daceli to dive into the [Labyrinth]. Though clearly exhausted and looking worse for wear, spirits were high. They had shattered the expectations of the rebellion's top brass, and had reached the 40th floor. Along the way, hordes of monsters between the F and C rank had been tamed. The universal understanding of taming was that forcibly tamed monsters could only be up to two ranks below the tamer. Any higher and there was a serious chance of the monster breaking free of the tamer's control. However, voluntarily tamed or contracted monsters could be of any rank.

These adventurers had neither the time nor the capacity to enter into such relationships with monsters. Rather, they were attempting to rally the largest possible force in the shortest possible time. As a result, there were over two hundred monsters currently forcibly tamed by them, scattered in the earlier floors waiting for the command to come forth when the time was right.

Sitting in a large open area, the twenty adventurers laughed and joked among themselves. It was supper time, right before they were off to rest. As seasoned adventurers, they of course had a sentry rotation, and the first shift was right about to begin.

"Ain't a bad haul, huh? We got a damn good amount of monsters just waiting."

Sitting around a fire, the B-ranked adventurer Meric guffawed loudly and clinked his mug with his longtime friend, the leader of this expedition, the A-ranked Velpho. Hearing his friend's classic hearty laughter, Velpho smiled wryly. They'd started out as F-ranked adventurers from the same small village in Daceli. It had been ravaged by famine, then shortly after by thugs controlled by the region's nobles. Velpho and Meric had been away gathering firewood and hunting at the time, and came back to find their village burning, the people scattered and bleeding, most of the women and children missing.

It had been a long journey, but the two had set off from their village the very next day, vowing revenge and seeking strength. Things happened left and right, and and over the next twenty years, the two grew strong enough to be recognised as top-tier adventurers in the capital city of Rodania. However, the embers of their vengeance were slowly fading. They came to know of the strength of the empire, boasting a full squadron of S-ranked elites. They knew better than anyone else just how far away S rank was from A rank. Although it was just one letter, there was a reason that S came after A. S-rankers were truly monstrous in strength. A single S-ranker could easily eliminate a whole party of A-rankers. That was just how unbelievable the difference in strength was.

Just as they were on the verge of foregoing their revenge, the [Nocturne] Martis appeared in front of them. He had done his due diligence, discovering that these two adventurers hailed from a ruined village that had the mark of the Empire's hand in it. Believing that they must have at least some amount of dissatisfaction, he approached them and asked, in a roundabout way, if they would like to join hands in seeking revenge.

The two, seeing the light of hope not completely snuffed out yet, jumped at the chance. This was an opportunity they would not soon give up. Having others that believed in the same thing was a godsend for the two men who had almost completely given up. A few months later, here they ended up.

"We've still gotta get out of here, Meric. Don't lose your alertness, okay?"

Velpho smiled warmly at his friend, remembering the times that Meric had relaxed too early and gotten them into numerous scrapes. While those times were long gone in the flow of time, back when they were still low-ranked adventurers, those would always be fond memories for the both of them.

Meric, embarrassed, turned his head and scratched his cheek.

"Ehehe, Vel, don't look at me like that. We were just kids, right? I'm much more experienced now, ya know??"

"Of course, of course. We did everything together after all."

"Say...when all of this is over and done, you wanna-"

Meric's voice cut off, his internal alarms blaring. Velpho as well stood up abruptly, inciting the whole camp to turn their heads towards him. However, not long after, they too stared off into the distance, the sense of tension rising.

"What the hell is this bloodlust..."

Meric mumbled under his breath. Velpho internally agreed. From the single exit to the open chamber that they were sitting in, an overwhelming bloodlust was emanating. It was so thick that it was almost as if the chamber itself was raining blood. In fact, the lower-ranked adventurers even felt as though there was a hand clenched around their hearts, ready to rip them out. In their minds, there was a sense that they were defenceless little lambs, being stared upon by a hungry monster, about to be devoured.

The tension kept climbing. While it didn't seem as though the sense of bloodlust was getting any nearer, it as probably only a matter of time until it did. Velphos audibly gulped. He expanded his [Detection] range and found a presence some ways away from the exit, presumably the one responsible.

There's no way that some S-ranked monster is here right? No way, right? Wait, what the hell??

As he prayed that it wasn't some S-ranked monster that found its way into the 40th floor, he streamlined his detection and tried to analyse the sense of the presence in the hallway. What he found thoroughly shocked him. It wasn't an S-ranked monster. In fact, it wasn't even an A-ranked monster. The strength of the presence was clearly around the upper echelons of B rank, and it was a strength at which he was certain that he himself could fight one-on-one with.

Sensing the danger, the shadows around the chamber shifted, the many Nocturne that made up the rebellion's secret service melted out and held their weapons in trepidation. However, it was for naught. As if it was a lie, the bloodlust suddenly faded completely as if it had never existed.

Velphos stood, frozen in place, cold sweat beading down the side of his face.

"What the hell...was that?"

He muttered, catching the attention of Mercis. Mercis looked up at the sheet-white face of his friend. Catching the expression of confusion and consternation, and with his own heart filled with fear and turmoil, he murmured "Vel, what happened? Do you know what that was?"

Brought back to reality, Velphos relaxed his body slightly, then sat back down, slumping. He smiled weakly, ordering his thoughts for a moment, before opening his mouth, "I...have no idea exactly what that was. But..."

Velphos paused, his brows furrowing deeply as he wondered if he was mistaken. Looking back up at Mercis, whose eyes were urging him on, he resumed, "But, that presence seemed to be around B-rank."

Mercis' eyes widened as though he had just been shot.

"B-B rank you say? But how the hell could it have such an intense bloodlust? Enough to make even you and I so terrified?"

"I don't know. That's why I'm so confused. We need to report this to the adventurer's guild and prevent anyone below A rank from coming to floor 40. I don't know if it's some new monster or one that's been hidden away for a long time, but there's no way in hell an ordinary B-ranker can beat something like that."

Like a dream forgotten at the moment of awakening, the light and energetic mood that existed had vanished into thin air. What replaced it was a morose, tense atmosphere, alert for the slightest disturbance. Velphos sighed. It looked as though the party wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight.

The next day, they decided to set off, heading back up to the surface. The past three months had taken a mental toll on everyone, and a burning desire to see the sun was born. Leaving the chamber, and heading towards the teleportation array, they were stopped in their tracks. There was no other reason than the fact that there was blood everywhere. Monster blood, to be sure, but it looked like a massacre had taken place.

"What--" a whisper leaked out from the crowd.

"Everyone, check your tamed monsters!" Mercis bellowed.

Hastily, every member of the party activated their skill and checked their monsters. As expected, every monster that had been tamed on the 40th floor had been erased from their tamer lists. While monsters respawned in [Labyrinths], they would respawn in their original state, that is, before they were tamed. All the effort they had made to tame these strong monsters had been for naught.

Suddenly, someone yelped, "M-Mercis-sama, the monsters on the 39th floor are being wiped out now too!"

"Mine too!"

"Same here!"

"What's happening?"

Mercis looked over at Velphos, whose eyes were shaded, his brows deeply furrowed. Velphos then slowly opened his mouth, "Everyone, the priority right now is to stay safe and wait for the monsters on this floor to respawn. We're going to capture them in the opposite direction. Right now, there seems to be someone or some monster clearing out the [Labyrinth] on their way up. Let's stay out of the way and work backwards. I don't want us to bump into whichever existence it is that can slay these monsters so quickly and silently."

Velphos' words caused a shiver to go through the crowd. Certainly, they had not heard anything the previous night. These chambers and corridors were very permeable to sound, and any sound that came from less than 3-400m away would be transmitted to them. Yet, here they were, not even a hundred metres away from the chamber entrance, and the slain monsters who had not been here the day before now lay scattered and bloody, killed without a single sound.

Not wanting to further rile up the crowd, Mercis whispered, "hey, Vel, do you think we're dealing with something like an <Assassin>? Only someone like that would be able to do this, don't you think?"

"You're right, but I've never heard of an <Assassin> who can so cleanly and quietly kill so many monsters in such a short time, even taking into account the rank difference between the killer and the monsters."

"You think it's the one from last night?"

"It's gotta be, right?"

The two men shared a pained smile, then retreated to the chamber where the rest of the party had already disappeared into.