Episode 5: Link (5)

As the two men witnessed the sight of the boss monster appearing before them, Jace immediately shot out a bullet at the giant fish. Right at that moment, the monster in turn let out an ear-piercing scream, leaping straight at them in the next second.

"Ribbit...!!" The boss roared.

"W-What's this... A fish frog??" Stunned by the monster's appearance, Landon raised his brow in confusion. "What the heck am I supposed to see here??"

"Hey, don't get distracted," Jace stated, soon sliding to the side. "Move it."

"...!!" Hearing the black-haired man's call out, Landon coughed, quickly composing himself as he swayed to the side, barely dodging the boss' charge. "M-My bad...! His appearance took me by surprise!"

The boss monster before the two hunters looked to be a combination of a catfish and a frog. Although the monster had fish-like traits all throughout its body, its shape was reminiscent of that of a frog. A fish frog? It was a monster unlike any other that the blonde-haired man had seen.

"Ribbit..." Landing on the ground without issue, the monster turned around, now facing the loudmouth Landon. "Ribbit!"

In the next second, the fish frog began opening its mouth, lashing out its tongue at him. However, Landon easily dodged the attack, soon returning fire right after.

"Don't be too intimidated by its appearance. The boss is pretty much nothing," Jace lazily explained, shooting out a few bullets over to the monster. "So I don't think there's any issue."

"Well, that's reassuring!" Landon shouted out as he slid to the side, dodging the persistent charge from the giant fish frog. "But you seem to have left out the fact that this guy's aggressive as hell and won't give me a break!"

"I don't think that's a problem?" Jace blinked, shooting out another row of bullets at the creature. "We just have to kill it."

"Well, that's easier said than done!" he cried out.

"Ribbit!!" Following up with another roar, the fish frog switched its target over towards Jace. In the next second, it leapt straight to him, soon revealing its claws at the young man.

"...!" Taking notice of the attack, Jace swayed to the side, quickly shooting out a bullet to its face in retaliation.

"What?? It has claws too??" Landon screamed.

"I guess I should also mention it can spit out poison?" Jace added.

"Excuse me what?" Stopping mid-way in his attacks, Landon dumbfoundedly turned to look at the monster who had stopped in its tracks. "It has poison???"

"Ribbit..." Seemingly sucking the air around it, the monster's face began puffing up. At that moment, an orb of poison was spat out by the fish frog over towards the blonde-haired man.

"Huh?!" Unable to comprehend the situation, Landon's eyes opened wide in shock. Suddenly, he felt a forceful pull from his collar as he was pulled out of the poison's attack range.

"Landon..." Jace helplessly uttered, letting go of the blonde-haired man's collar. "You chose this dungeon without knowing anything about the boss?"

"Well, I did my research!" Landon flusteredly cried out. "But that stupid article never mentioned anything about this!"

"I guess that's to be expected," Jace shrugged. "But, luckily for you, there are no more surprises to be found out from it." Calmly pointing his gun at the fish frog once again, he continued. "So, let's end that guy's misery now."

...

[ You have defeated the dungeon's boss (Amphibian Fish Beast)! ]

[ You have levelled up to level 7! ]

[ 10 Hunter Points have been obtained. ]

[ You are one of the highest contributors to the raid! ]

[ Affirming achievements in the raid... ]

1. Jace

2. Landon

[ You have received an additional bonus due to your ranking! ]

[ You received 4 extra Hunter Points! ]

[ "Challenger of the Soul Oracle" Title Bonus: You received 2 additional Hunter Points! ]

[ You have obtained (Amphibian Scales) 3x ]

[ You have obtained (Fish Claws) 4x ]

...

After a few more rounds of fire, the fish frog monster finally gave in, falling down onto the ground, unmoving.

"T-That sure was something..." Landon stared at the monster's corpse in confusion. "What the hell was that boss all about? A frog with scales, claws and poison? To add to that, it had insane strength and speed?? I can probably see why hunters dub this one of the hardest known F-ranked dungeons now..."

"Eh... It was a pretty simple boss to me," Jace shrugged in reply, walking up towards the fallen beast. "I told you, this guy is nothing."

"What do you mean this guy is nothing??" Landon cried out. "Sure, I guess you could say we defeated that guy like it was nothing, but what about it was simple??"

"It's attack patterns? That guy only knew how to leap and shoot out poison. Pretty predictable to me," Jace yawned, picking up the mana core from the fish frog's body. "This dungeon is pretty easy overall. Just brute forcing it works."

"Jee... You make it sound like F-ranked dungeons are no problem for you..." Landon scratched his head. "To be honest, I didn't expect to finish this dungeon so soon. It's only been like what, 45 minutes? The article I read said that the average F-ranked party needed around 2 hours to complete this..."

"I mean, you're a B-ranker who just started out, right?" he asked. "Wouldn't the norm be different for you then? Besides, they were just aquatic monsters on land. There's really not much to say about it..."

"No, no, no, you're looking at it wrong here!" Landon cried out. "If anything, that insane clear time was thanks to you! Heck, your skills are seriously no joke! I knew it was doable with just us, but I didn't think we'd rock it just like that! It was really amazing!"

"...just what are you on about this time?" Jace raised his brow in confusion.

"I mean, you were calling yourself useless before, but this is by no means useless!" he explained. "You clearly have good judgement and good accuracy. Not only that, you can fight really well. So, I'm seriously confused. How the hell are you not a Marksman??"

"Because I'm a Synergist...?" he blinked.

"Ugh. You know what I mean!" Landon grumbled. "Even outside of that point, your rank is also confusing here! If you can perform this well, then you shouldn't have been an F-rank!"

"Does that really matter?" Jace scratched his head. "At the end of the day, as long as I can dungeon, that's pretty much it. My rank doesn't really matter in all of this."

"But it does?? You can't do higher-rank dungeons as an F-ranker!" he cried out.

It was common sense to think that F-ranked hunters could only do F-ranked dungeons or something that was near their rank. It was too much to think that they could pull their own weight in an S-ranked dungeon, let alone something the level of C. As such, the title of F-rank is by itself, something that is often looked down upon in the hunter community.

"Like I said... It doesn't really matter," he shrugged. "For now at least."

"Huh???" Landon frowned.

"In any case, since we're done here, can I go now?" Jace asked.

"No!" he rejected. "We're not done yet!"

"...ugh. What is it now?" The young man furrowed his brow.

"Well, this is just the start of the day. It's not only just this dungeon we gotta do!" Landon stated.

"Huh?" Jace blinked in confusion. "...don't tell me. You're gonna drag me into another dungeon??"