Chapter 26: The Second Test (2)

"Wait! How can we find and get our cards back with these many monsters!?"

Once the first person shouted, the rest screamed out in agreement.

"Don't worry. The first card that you'll get from the monsters becomes your name. The cards after that will be counted as your special points. So, you can snatch back any cards you want," the woman from the Hunter Guild answered before pointing outside the tram. "Since the time is limited, there will be clues scattering around in the dungeon to help you. Do your best to get your hands on your card."

She clapped her hands.

"I'll take you all to the 'starting point.'"

"Wait… what starting point…?!"

The air around everyone started to gleam.

Raydel's body also gleamed brightly. He widened his eyes and looked around to see what was happening with the others. Their bodies were gradually fading away. The same thing happened with Raydel's legs. He had to take several deep breaths to calm himself down.

Then, the world burned in blinding white.

When Raydel could see everything again, he found himself standing in a building.

It was now just a structure made of cement. Still, there were necessary appliances for a living left in there including a sofa, a bed, a wardrobe, and a cupboard. They all looked worn out and were covered in dust.

Raydel blinked, confused. When he looked outside, he saw a huge tree with endless branches and leaves so dense it was impossible to see if any living creatures hid in there. But Raydel heard the 'rustling' sound again, which assured him that there must be those monsters outside.

"The starting point?" Raydel mumbled. "She must've sent everyone to different places."

Raydel did not leave the place immediately and explored the area from the spot at which he was standing. It seemed the other rooms were no different than this room. The overall condition was like a building that had not been completed yet. It was likely to be an apartment with multiple stories. Raydel stood there listening to the 'rustling' sound until he was sure that the monsters would not enter the building. Then, he sneaked to the door and peeked outside. In his head echoed what the person from the Hunter Guild said.

"There will be clues scattering around in the dungeon to help you."

Clues… Raydel noticed right away what they were.

The Hunter Guild wanted everyone to know what the clues that could help them were. Next to the room in which Raydel was, at the spiral stairs leading to the ground floor, there was a cupboard. The top drawer shone golden light. It was so obvious that Raydel knew something important must be hidden inside.

A message was shown next to it.

[The owner 0/1]

"Only one person can have this?" Raydel whispered. As he walked down the stairs to the cupboard, he heard the sound of footsteps from his left.

Raydel saw a man, one of the test participants.

The person's eyes went wide when he saw Raydel. He and Raydel looked at the drawer that was gleaming in golden light at the same time. They both read the message next to it one more time and understood right away what the Hunter Guild wanted them to do.

[The owner 0/1]

Raydel sprinted to the drawer!

There were broken appliances lying on the floor along the way, so Raydel threw them at the other person. He cursed at the dust and pieces of wood flying everywhere before using his artifact. It transformed into a wooden bat. He followed Raydel and continuously hit everything in front of him. He finally landed a hit on Raydel's back, sending a sharp pain up his spine.

Still, Raydel managed to get to the drawer first. He yanked it out and searched for whatever it was. At the same time, the other hunter caught up with him.

Each snatched one object of their own.

[The owner 1/1]

Raydel stepped back from the drawer and realized that in his hands were pieces of torn paper while his opponent was holding a… gun?!

Raydel's eyes went as big as a ball. The hunter pointed his gun at Raydel and fired!

Bang!

But the expected thing was a firework instead of a bullet.

"A firework?!" he exclaimed. He took a better look at the gun in his hands and saw that it was really a firework gun. The two of them stood there stunned among the red sparkles of the firework. It shone so bright the light pierced through the windows.

"Why is it a firework…"

Then, they quieted down when they heard a sound.

The rustling sound grew louder and louder.

Raydel turned around and saw that the branches outside were violently shaking as if thousands of people were stomping and heading this way. His heart banged against his chest like a drum because he knew what it meant. As he ran back to the room that he was sent into, he yelled at the other hunter.

"Hide in the cupboard!"

Raydel immediately dashed into the cupboard.

Something flowed into the building the moment he closed the cupboard's doors!

It felt like an army of zombies had broken into the place. Raydel peered through the narrow opening from his hiding place and saw more than twenty monsters leapt into the room. They were huge and had dark gray skin. They swung their muscly arms around breaking everything in the room and the floor into a million pieces!

The growls from their throats sounded like wild tigers.

Raydel noticed that these monsters did not evolve from ordinary monkeys since on their backs were glistening armors that looked extremely tough. They could move and climb fast with four arms. He saw them baring their sharp fangs at each other aggressively.

Some of them had hunter ID cards in their hands, locked behind their deadly claws as strong as a metal cutter.

Raydel held his breath. Then, he heard someone screaming.

"ARRGHH!"

The Local Monkeys found the other hunter hiding in the area. They dragged him down the stairs and snarled at him. The sounds were so terrifying that Raydel had to close his eyes tightly. He did not want to hear the sound of the monkeys tearing the person apart, but he was so close he heard everything clearly.

Even though the person would not die, the shrieking inevitably gave Raydel goosebumps all over his body.

Then, the scream stopped.

When the monsters finished with the hunter and the light from the fireworks vanished, they climbed out of the building through the window. Some of them lingered behind with their noses moving left and right as if trying to find the source of the strange scent. Raydel covered his nose in fear that the monsters would smell his breath.

The monkeys turned around and looked at the cupboard in which he was hiding. They acted like they wanted to check his hiding spot, but bent down and jumped out the window instead.

The building returned to its peaceful state again.

Raydel waited till he was sure that the monsters had all left the place before slowly pushing the cupboard's doors open.

The first thing he saw was a puddle of blood on the stairs. The hunter's body was nowhere to be found. Raydel smelled the scent of blood and felt vomit exploding up his throat. He noticed the firework gun left on the floor. It had no owner because the previous owner probably failed the test already. Raydel walked to it and picked it up.

[The owner 1/1]

Now, Raydel had two objects.

Raydel explored the firework gun first. It had two bullets left. Then, he looked at the pieces of paper he got. The lines on them had Raydel frowning. As he was trying to find the meaning of it, he heard someone walking upstairs.

"...!"

Raydel instantly summoned his dagger. His entire body tensed, preparing to summon the Plague Doctor. Then, he saw who was walking up the stairs.

The hunter immediately raised his hands when he saw that Raydel was holding a dagger. There was a piece of torn paper in his hands.

"I saw the fireworks, so I followed it here… Raydel?"

Raydel frowned and lowered his hands a little.

"Shane?"

He never thought he would find Shane here.

Shane was one of the hunters he met in the Plague Doctor's dungeon. Raydel was quite confused. He dropped his arms but still kept the dagger in his hands, not fully trusting Shane yet.

"You're in the test too?"

"Yes, I want to officially get a rank."

Shane also lowered his arms and gestured to the puddle of blood on the floor.

"I saw someone getting eaten by the monsters here. It seems we'll immediately fail the test if our body can no longer withhold the attacks. That means we need to avoid being 'knocked out' at all costs. A few hits taken and we're out."

Raydel looked at the piece of paper in Shane's hands.

"What did you get?"

"A map."

"A map?"

"You got a map in your hands as well, right?"

Raydel looked at the paper in his hand again. Then, Shane said.

"We need to put our pieces of the map together."

Raydel understood right away when he looked at the lines on the paper more closely.

"That's why we need a firework gun, so we can signal everyone to gather together. Each object can only have one owner. Does that mean we have to collaborate while also competing with each other? We can work together, right?"

As soon as the word 'collaborate' was said, a message box appeared in front of him.

[Create a party?]

[Yes / No]

Raydel looked at Shane. He probably saw the message box as well. They both said nothing for a while.

Without saying anything, Raydel put away his dagger and said, "yes."

[You have successfully created a party.]

[Party members: 2 people]

Raydel frowned when he saw the next sentence.

"Do you get the message that says 'leave the party'?"

"I see it. So, we can leave a party any time we want."

"Then, what does it mean to be in the same party?"

"Maybe we can't hurt each other. Try it."

Shane said and walked to Raydel before putting out his arms. Raydel tightened his lips, wondering why Shane trusted him so much. Was it because they survived the deadly dungeon together? Raydel pulled out his dagger and thought, it's exactly because we have survived the dungeon together that I know Shane is a trustworthy person. Raydel could only hope that he chose the right choice.

Raydel slashed his dagger at Shane's arms.

A transparent shield appeared protecting his arms!

"It realy is. That means we can hurt each other the moment we leave our party."

"Don't press leave," Shane teased with a pleading voice.

He said that because he was worried that Raydel would betray him as well.

"Let's try putting our pieces together," Raydel suggested.

They both became more relaxed and could stand next to each other thanks to being in the same party. They tried to put their paper together and realized that even though they came from the same map, they were not supposed to be connected to each other. From the size of it, they probably needed more than ten pieces of these to complete the whole map.

"We need to use the firework gun to call everyone with the pieces to come to us. But if we use the gun, the monsters will be alerted as well," Raydel said. "And I also think that will mean we can no longer hide. I hid in the cupboard just now, but the monkeys almost found me. If I hide in the same place, I'll definitely get caught."

"Then, we fight with them," Shane proposed. "We should build a barricade. How many monkeys are there?"

"About thirty, I think."

"They must have around two or three cards, I'm sure," Shane said. He poked his head into the other rooms in the building. "We'll use these things to create a barricade and have our back against this wall." Shane slapped one side of the wall. "Then, we'll fire the fireworks to lure the monkeys in through the window. We can deal with the monkeys while we wait for the hunters that notice the fireworks"

This was the chance to kill the monsters as well as taking back the cards with no other hunters there waiting to snatch them away. Judging from the mission that allowed the hunters to collect special points, Raydel also thought that they should have a few cards with themselves first. He nodded, agreeing with Shane's suggestion. Raydel wasted no time. He ran into the room and started dragging the furniture out.

They piled the furniture over one another into a huge barricade like some kind of zombie defending machine. Then, Shane summoned his artifact which transformed into a crossbow. He kneeled down behind the barricade and prepared to aim it at the window and the doors where the monkeys would break through to get into the building.

Raydel aimed his firework gun at the window. He held his breath and fired.

Bang!

In the blink of an eye, the branches outside the window heavily trembled.

The fireworks sparkled beautifully. Red light showered the whole tree, eliminating all traces of bright sunlight. The light also shone through the window into the building, dyeing the area scarlet. Raydel gasped when more than ten monsters jumped out of the leaves.

The moment the first monkey landed on the floor inside, Raydel concentrated and summoned the Plague Doctor to slash at it!

The boss suddenly appeared and stabbed his dagger right in the center of the monster's chest!

Shane's eyes widened as he heard the sound 'shluk.'

"The doctor…?" He swallowed hard and immediately asked Raydel, "he's on our side?"

"Yes."

"Nice," Shane said and aimed his crossbow at the monsters, "we have someone to attract the monsters now."

Just like Shane said, the Plague Doctor completely distracted all the monkeys from them. At first, they charged at the people sitting with their backs against the wall, but after they saw a prey standing right in front of them, they brutally assaulted him. The only thing keeping the Plague Doctor alive was Raydel who was concentrating and kept changing the positions of the Plague Doctor.

A bead of sweat streamed across his temple. Raydel frowned till his head hurt. At the same time, he searched for a space where he can put the Plague Doctor at. But then, he realized that his entire body tensed like a bow that was drawn almost past its breaking point. In that moment he let his mind slip, the monkeys buried their claws deep in the Plague Doctor's flank!

"...!"

Deep red blood flowed out of the wound. Even though the Plague Doctor did not stagger or react like he was in pain, Raydel, as his owner, felt the unbearable pain instead. He gritted his teeth and thought.

Should I summon Cthulhu now?

The tentacles could obliterate all these monsters in a single blow, he was sure. But his energy would be used up as well.

Raydel clenched his fists. Then, a golden light exploded outside the window!

Shane and he were startled. Even the monkeys froze when they saw the golden light. All eyes looked outside the window and saw that the sky had already turned into the complete blackness of night. The golden light… the golden fireworks reached its highest point before exploding with a thunderous roar!

The monkeys screamed and ran out of the room.

"Wait, that one has a card!" Shane yelled.

Raydel ordered the Plague Doctor to grab the monkey with a card instantly. It struggled to get out of the Plague Doctor's grasp and hit his face. It yanked the Doctor's mask out with its claws!

Once it had the mask, it eventually got itself out of the grasp.

Raydel cursed. He leapt forward over the barricade and used 'the Tears of Heaven' that Han bought him.

It transformed into a whip and wrapped itself around the monkey immediately!

"Drag it back!" Shane said and rushed in to help Raydel pull the whip. It was like a tug of war between them and the monkey that used everything it had to escape. But the whip was durable and tough enough. In no time, the monkey was pulled back into the room. Raydel instantly summoned his dagger and stabbed right into the monster's heart!

"...!"

It screamed and spit blood at Raydel. His face twisted because of the nasty smell. Shane ran in to help him. He shot his crossbow at the center of its forehead and made it explode into nothing!

The mask of the Plague Doctor fell on the ground.

Raydel bent down to pick it up and return it to the Plague Doctor. But when he looked up and saw the Plague Doctor's face, he was startled.

Raydel felt strangely uncomfortable. He felt as if he saw something he should not see. He looked away, feeling afraid to meet the eyes that were staring at him. Raydel handed the Plague Doctor the mask and busied himself with searching the room for extra hunter cards. But he found only one card, the one from the monkey that they had just killed.

Suddenly, Raydel noticed the blood on the floor and remembered that the Plague Doctor was hurt.

He forced himself to look at him again and complimented him softly.

"Good job…"

The Plague Doctor did not say anything. He just turned around and slowly put on his mask. But with that angle, Shane who was watching could also see the face as well.

"..." Shane was stunned for a moment when he saw the Plague Doctor's face. He sneaked a glance at Raydel like he wanted to ask something but said nothing. It became a short awkward moment. Shane waited until the Plague Doctor finished putting on his mask and asked Raydel.

"Anyone coming?"

Raydel looked outside the window and saw four people kneeling behind some bushes. They looked up and waved at him after noticing him. Raydel waved back and realized they had a golden firework gun.

"Was that your fireworks?" Raydel asked.

They nodded.

But why do they have a different color of fireworks? Raydel thought. And it also scared those monkeys away…

Raydel was still in his mind when a severe earthquake struck the area. The whole building trembled while cracks started to appear from the corner of the room. Then, the ground on which Raydel was standing instantly crumbled down.

Raydel's eyes widened. He hastily sent the Plague Doctor back into the coin's realm and dragged Shane out of the building with him. All the surroundings collapsed as they ran for their lives. The earth still shook as it was trying to split into two parts. Raydel believed he saw the ground split in half outside the building.

"Jump!" Raydel screamed.

Shane and he leapt over the rift.

"...!"

The two almost fell into the pit. Once they got something to cling onto, they hurriedly crawled away from the rift.

The sky suddenly turned into the black of night again.

This time, a message box floated in front of Raydel.

[You have successfully awoken the boss.]

Something was moving in the sky.