04 | Corrupted Entities

Lumina's group was Group 4 and his fellow members were perfect. To his standard, that is. He had been paired with people whom he was familiar with. The first was his closest friend, Kim Dooshik, who was an A-Rank Hunter with three incredibly useful Special Skills.

The first was [Sharpshooting]. Kim Dooshik, standing at a six feet height with his slightly muscular frame, was holding his magic bow which he created himself using his second Special Skill, [Master Inventor]. It was a rare skill for Hunters. People with such a skill didn't even need to be Hunters. They could survive and live lavishly by just inventing weapons for other Hunters to use.

His last Special Skill was [Amazing Intuition]. It was one that made Lumina slightly envious of Kim Dooshik. Lumina himself wasn't very bright. His Intelligence Stats were 45% currently, and sadly below average. His Intelligence Stats almost never increased, but it did decrease though. Whenever he learned something new, his Intelligence Stats declined.

It was a phenomenon Lumina could never understand. So he tried his best in stopping himself from learning new things so his Intelligence Stats would stop declining. But it was hard. He was a student, his sole purpose was to learn.

"It's better we break up from the people gathered here and move on to other areas in the floor to raise our points up, then take care of the Boss ourselves when we have enough points." Kim Dooshik spoke up after Dean Ravi's message ended.

Lumina nodded in agreement. Kim Dooshik was almost never wrong. The rest of the group also knew this so they were in alignment with his suggestion. Elsa Salazar, the third member of Group 4, was a B-Rank Hunter with ice-related Special Skills and weapons.

With her Ice Spikes, she could swiftly and efficiently get rid of low-grade monsters. Whereas, Dexter Sebastian, the last member of Group 4, could slice the monsters with his powerful sword technique. Though he was an A-Rank Hunter, Lumina wasn't really familiar with Dexter's Special Skills, but he knew his weapon play was beyond sufficient for both offense and defense.

And so, Group 4 set off deeper into the floor which was like a giant cave with glistening stalagmites and stalactites, dripping water. Fortunately for the first years, the floor had a normal temperature. Lumina expected all different kinds of locations to come up in the Tower, so he was wearing a suit which could withstand extreme cold, extreme heat, and also low and high gravity areas.

"It's been a while now and we still haven't seen any monsters," Elsa said, after a few minutes of walking.

Lumina saw Kim Dooshik mockingly mouthing her words behind her back and he chuckled a little, calling attention to himself. Elsa whipped her head in his direction with her fierce gaze.

"What?"

"You seem like you're in a hurry. Don't you remember what Dean Ravi said? It doesn't necessarily matter how long we spend to clear the Tower." Lumina said.

If glares could kill, Lumina would be buried six feet under because the kind of glare he received from Elsa after speaking those words were the murderous kind.

"Don't you remember he said the first bunch to clear the Tower would receive extra points?" Elsa countered.

Lumina wanted to say they could gain even more extra points from killing high-grade monsters but he held his tongue since he knew arguing with Elsa was like arguing with a rock. She never listened to anyone and preferred to do things her way.

Seeing that Lumina wasn't saying anything, Elsa took pride in herself for getting the Almighty S-Rank Hunter to shut up. She was about to give herself a pat on the back when she heard;

"Um… guys?"

Everyone turned to Dexter. His face was crumpled up as he pointed above them. Elsa, Kim Dooshik, and Lumina slowly looked up to see what Dexter was pointing at, and they beheld a colony of sleeping corrupted bats.

It was easy to differentiate between an ordinary entity and a corrupted one. Their bodies grew twice their original size and they were discolored, having a mix of red, brown, and blue patches all over them. If the bats were awake, you would see their red, bloody eyes along with their foaming mouths. [Corruption] turned beings into the ugliest and vicious things.

There were almost three hundred sleeping corrupted bats above Group 4 and the group knew that taking them out would surely deplete their stamina and resources, but they needed the points. The bats were corrupted entities; killing one was worth three points in a Tower.

Lumina recognized their potential but they were too many to begin their hunt with. So he lifted a finger to his mouth and shushed his group, gesturing that they shouldn't make noise.

"Let's quietly leave this area and—"

Elsa didn't bother to listen to the rest of Lumina's words as she shot three Ice Spikes at the sleeping corrupted bats hanging above. They were frozen in an ice capsule for a few seconds before they got purified and exploded. The action was so loud that it woke the entire colony. Loud screeching sounds were heard as the corrupted bats flapped their wings and formed a cloud all over the area.

Lumina tsked as he drew out his magic sword from his scabbard. It was a weapon that was customized just for him by Kim Dooshik over a year ago. It was a sword whose sharpness of the blade depended on the magic power of the user. Lumina imbued magic power into the blade and it shone transparent blue while emitting dense white fumes.

He activated his deadly sword technique and swung the blade, cutting down five corrupted bats at a time. Since they were corrupted entities, the way they died was different from the way regular monsters died.

A dark mist eluded the five dead corrupted bats and clustered together. Lumina didn't allow the dark mist to form into something else before he sliced through it, and his sword absorbed it. Only special Hunter weapons could cut through corrupted mist and absorb [Corruption]. In Lumina's hand was a really good weapon.

[You have purified five Corrupted entities.]

[You have gained 15 points.]

Those messages popped in front of Lumina's face but he swatted them away as he went ahead to cut down more corrupted bats and purify them.

Kim Dooshik was busy taking out the corrupted bats with his magic bow whose arrows were imbued with magic power that could purify corrupted entities by contact. Dexter's sword couldn't purify corrupted entities but he was still able to kill the bats while both Kim Dooshik and Lumina took care of the dark mists of [Corruption] and purified them.

Elsa was only a B-Rank Hunter but her choice of weapon, Ice Spikes, were incredibly powerful. They were able to purify corrupted entities within two seconds of being trapped in an ice capsule. Elsa's Ice Spikes were making the loudest noises during the battle because of the explosion which occurred after a corrupted entity got purified.

After a while, the number of corrupted bats dwindled down to less than ten till it got to zero. When there were no longer any corrupted bats to purify, Group 4 took a break and ensured to drink their large stock of Purification Potions as a precaution.

The thing about battling corrupted entities was that a Hunter was to always be at alert. Even if just a speck of corrupted blood was to land on them, they could transform into corrupted entities within a week. The only way to ensure that wouldn't happen was to drink a vial of Purification Potion which was imbued with the same elements that purified corrupted entities.

After the members of Group 4 had wiped themselves down and drank their Purification Potions, they began addressing the issue on ground. Kim Dooshik addressed the issue on ground to be specific.

"Are you crazy?" he asked Elsa with a rage-filled voice.

The female B-Rank Hunter was oblivious to the fact that she was incredibly annoying and posed as a pest to the rest of the members in Group 4.

"No."

"Then why would you do that? As a Hunter, we aren't supposed to tangle with corrupted entities unless absolutely necessary!" Kim Dooshik spoke at the top of his lungs.

He was right. That work was left to Inquisitors. Most Inquisitors were immune to [Corruption] because of their rigorous training or natural born talent. Hunters were easily the most liable order of humans who could get corrupted.

It was a law that Hunters weren't to battle with corrupted entities unless necessary. This was to keep Hunters safe. But that didn't mean Hunters couldn't take on corrupted entities if they truly wanted to. It was just a precaution measure for those who were susceptible to [Corruption].

"And so what? It's not like any of us are going to get corrupted or like we couldn't handle them," Elsa gestured to the corpses of bats on the ground before she continued speaking, "Look, we got rid of all of them and I'm sure you have over a hundred points now. It would've been stupid of us to leave the corrupted bats and hunted monsters for one point each.

"You all should be thanking me for igniting the battle, not rebuking me. I did a good thing here today and you all should deal with it." Elsa's chest heaved up and down rapidly after she finished speaking with her loud and aggressive voice.

Though Kim Dooshik was still angry at Elsa's actions, he couldn't argue with the fact that his points had increased to such a high number within an hour.

"But don't try pulling something like this again." He pointed at the B-Rank Hunter.

Instead of recognizing her mistake and accepting his words, Elsa scoffed. "Like hell I won't. If we ever come across a group of corrupted entities, I'm still going to do the same thing. Over and over again."

Both Dexter and Lumina, who were watching the spat between Kim Dooshik and Elsa at a distance, facepalmed themselves after Elsa's last words. Kim Dooshik made a strange noise while strangling the air after hearing Elsa's words.

He began thinking of the consequences of killing a fellow student inside the Tower and if he could endure them. Lumina put a stop to that train of thought as he stepped forward and addressed the group.

"Let's all calm down. Elsa, it was not nice of you to go igniting a fight after the rest of us agreed to move on and—"

"No, after you agreed to move on. You basically did the same thing I did — making a decision for the group without asking anyone first. Did you ask either me, Dexter or Kim Dooshik if any of us wanted to take on the bats?" Elsa attacked Lumina with her words.

Lumina was surprised by her words and took a step back. She was technically right. He hadn't asked any of them if they wanted to fight the bats before he shushed them and gestured for them to move on. He made a… mistake. That weighed down on him heavily as he shifted his gaze to the ground and both of his hands began trembling.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think of that. I should've asked you guys if you wanted to—"

"No, no, no. You don't get to turn this all on Lum. Even if he didn't say anything, Dexter and I would still have wanted to move on without attacking the corrupted bats. That's just the common sense of a Hunter which you seem to lack." Kim Dooshik fired at Elsa.

She gasped at his words. "Why you…"

"Alright, alright. That's enough. We've established the fact that we might not all get along perfectly with each other. Let's not waste any more time if we truly want to achieve move points and take on the Boss of this floor." Dexter said.

The rest of Group 4 acknowledged the sense in his words and shrugged. Dexter smiled. He was good at bringing people together and taking charge. It was a talent of his.

"Kim Dooshik, what area should we take on next?" he asked the brains of Group 4, and Kim Dooshik began saying something with that amazing intuition of his.

Kim Dooshik announced that the group should head north, since that was the point of a floor most Bosses liked to reside in. As Group 4 headed north on the floor, Dexter couldn't help but scratch the back of his neck all the way since it felt unusually sore and itchy to him.

Strange…