Second Dungeon

Musashi Hirata was a little surprised when his Master asked him about Shadow Fang. But then he realized what kind of group Shadow Fang was. He was dispatched to kill Heero but failed. It was not weird if Shadow Fang sent their men to assassinate Heero again.

"Did they send another assassin?" Hirata replied with a question.

After all, it was almost two months since he became Heero's disciple. Heero never asked him about Shadow Fang before, only until now. It was as if his Master never put Shadow Fang in his eyes.

And now, his Master suddenly asked him about Shadow Fang after coming back from the honeymoon trip. The only possibility was that Shadow Fang launched another assassination that caused his Master came back earlier.

"Hmm, I am not sure…" Heero's words trailed off as he unlocked his smartwatch and showed a picture of the mummified assassin, he killed last night.

"Do you know them?"

Musashi Hirata had his head closer to get a clear look at the picture. The picture stunned him for a moment. He did not immediately give his reply, but he unlocked his smartwatch. After a while, the same picture appeared on his smartwatch.

The picture two mummified men that are only left with bone and skin. The difference was the picture was taken from a different angle. After making sure both pictures showed the same corpses, Hirata scanned the two black corpses carefully.

"Ah, they are Twins!" Hirata exclaimed after identifying the corpse, then he mumbled in a low voice, "No wonder…"

He got the picture from the Star Web, an exclusive forum for heroes and rankers. Early in the morning, Ranker Alliance and Hero League posted the same thread about the discoveries of the strange corpses.

Both giant forces could not recognize the corpses, they posted the picture on Star Web intending to identify the corpse. The heroes and rankers might recognize the two corpses. However, the answer was negative as no heroes and rankers recognized the corpse.

Hirata felt familiar with the face at first, but he could not recall who they were. With the clues from Heero, he finally recognized the two corpses. The two corpses were Twins of Shadow Fang, an ace of Shadow Fang.

"Do you know them?" Heero asked in a solemn tone as his look turned serious.

It was a rare sight to see his Master turned serious like this. Hirata straightened his back and explained about Twins.

"Yes, they are Twins from Shadow Fang, but I don't know much about them. We are not close and I only met them a few times…" he did not know much about the Twins as a frown formed on his clean forehead.

Hirata shook his head as he did not know anything about the Twins, he even did not know the Twins' real name. But one thing for sure, the Twins were stronger than him. At least, they were stronger than him before Heero took him in.

"Master, it was you who killed them?"

"Hmm, I killed them last night," Now he was sure Shadow Fang harbored a Specter after Hirata confirmed the two assassins were from Shadow Fang.

"Then what about their bodies? Why do their bodies turn like that?" Hirata asked. This was the thing he was curious about the most. How do the Twins turn out like that? He wondered if it was his Master's doing while thinking he shuddered involuntarily as he thinks about the time, he tried to kill his Master.

'If I am not from Musashi Clan, I might be turned like that…'

"No, it's because they are Specter Followers…" Here, Heero stopped as he saw Hirata's reaction he was confused, then Heero asked, "Do you perhaps not know what a Specter is?"

Musashi Hirata blinked his eyes a few times and shook his head. This was the first time he heard the term Specter.

"Ghost?" He blurted out in confusion.

Heero did not explain further and opened his smartwatch. He tapped the browser icon and typed "specter". Soon, various kinds of results appeared, a game, a movie, a game character, and even cartoonist ghost pictures.

This quick search gave Heero an understanding that the people on Earth did not know about Specter. Heero looked up and Hirata was still confused with Specter and Specter Follower.

"Specter is an undead… No, they are zombies, a zombie who could use Ki, Specter…" Heero explained Specter to Hirata.

Yes, the undead or people on Earth called them zombies. On Dramonia, when people died, not only did their bodies decay, but the Ki inside their bodies also decay. Different from the bodies, the Ki would clot into a small sphere. This small sphere is called Specter Core.

This Specter Core would generate Dark Ki into the decayed body and gave birth to a species called Specter. That was why when people die, the priest must perform a ritual for the dead. This ritual extracted the Ki from the dead. So, there would be no Specter born from the dead.

"So, the zombie can also use Ki?" Hirata was shocked at this fact. Ki itself was new to him and now he heard zombies also could utilize Ki. It certainly shocked him. If it was true, then Humanity was left behind by the zombies as they could not use Ki.

"What about Specter Follower?"

Heero continued with his explanation, telling his disciples everything about Specter and Specter Follower.

"Damn!" Hirata slammed the table as his heart thumped fearfully after Heero finished with his explanation.

Hirata's action certainly puzzled Heero, so he asked, "What's wrong?"

"Master! Meeting you is the luckiest day in my life, thank you, Master, thank you~"

Heero was bewildered by his youngest disciple. Why did he suddenly turn like this? But then, the doubt was cleared with a story from Hirata.

Musashi Hirata is the second son of the current Musashi Clan Head, Musashi Kenzan who is also the current Emperor Class Hero - Rank 4. As the main descendant of the Musashi Clan, he lived to meet the family's expectations.

However, he failed to meet those expectations. First in Musashi Clan's history, a descendant from the main clan that failed to master Musashi Clan Sword Technique. Musashi Hirata was labeled as a failure, the disgrace of the Musashi Clan.

If not for him being Musashi Kenzan's son, he would be kicked out of the clan already. In reality, it was not that he failed to master the sword technique, it was just that his sword technique was mediocre. Compared to his father, his big brother, and his predecessor from the main clan, Hirata was a failure of the main clan.

At the lowest point of his life, Shadow Fang's leader appeared before him. This man offered something that he could not refuse and Hirata still remember clearly this man's words, "Follow me and I will bestow you a power that you craved for,"

Of course, the old Musashi Hirata did not accept the offer directly. Instead, he fought this man. His thought at that time was to catch Shadow Fang's leader and gained his father's recognition.

But Musashi Hirata three years ago was no match for Shadow Fang's leader. He lost in a crushing defeat and after the fight, Shadow Fang's leader convinced Musashi Hirata to join Shadow Fang after the battle.

The deal was that Hirata had to make a big contribution to Shadow Fang, then he would get the power he wanted. That was why he became a ranker and also an assassin for Shadow Fang.

In the first year as an assassin, Hirata's sword technique was polished to a certain extent. Despite still far from his genius big brother, he realized his sword technique was growing by the days as an assassin.

A few months ago, Shadow Fang's leader promised him the power he promised. Before that, he had to complete his last mission and it was assassinating Heero.

Based on what his Master told him about Shadow Fang and Specter Follower. Hirata was sure the power Shadow Fang's leader promised him was to be a Specter Follower. It could make him strong, but at the same time, he would turn into a monster just like the Twins.

That was why he said that meeting Heero was the luckiest day in his life. If his last mission target was not Heero, he might be a Specter Follower now. At this thought, Hirata's body shuddered involuntarily with the Twins' corpse's image appearing in his head.

Heero nodded understandingly at his disciple's action, "Then do you know where Shadow Fang's base is? We have to kill this Specter before more seed spread out."

It was not that he wanted to be a hero or the like, but he had to do this. If the Specter had infiltrated the city, then chaos was bound to happen. He did not want that chaos spread to the north, at least, he wanted to clean the Shadow Fang's existence in the north.

He did not want that the Specter or the Specter Follower suddenly appeared in his district. For now, the district was safe. After a quick patrol, he found the people in the district were all normal.

At Heero's question, Musashi Hirata shook his head with a helpless smile, "Shadow Fang has many hideouts, but I don't know Shadow Fang's main base. We keep moving from place to place and I believe that the hideout I know must be emptied already,"

"Then, we have a lot of work…" Heero let out a sigh, "What about Zhou Yi, I don't see him at the district. I thought he is with you,"

"Master, did he not tell you that he performs his first mission as Gold Class hero?" Musashi Hirata asked in a surprised tone.

Heero shook his head in response.

*** ***

In the Northwest of Star City, Ence Fort

Ence Fort was about 127 miles away from Star City in the northwest and it was located in the middle of the desert. The usual deserted Ence Fort now was bustling with activity.

Usually, there would be no heroes or rankers visiting this place with its extreme temperature. At noon, the temperature could reach sixty to seventy degrees Celsius. At night, the temperature would drop to almost zero. Such an extreme place, no one would visit this Ence Fort.

However, today, Ence Fort was filled with people and these people were heroes sent by the Hero League. The Hero League sent such a big group because of the appearance of the second dungeon.

Right in front of the west gate of Ence Fort, there was a massive gate. It was similar to the dungeon in the northeast, but it was twice in size and the gate was made of black stone.

The Hero League suspected this gate was a dungeon and sent an expedition team over. Musashi Naizen who just recovered from the poison led the team; Huo Liang Xun also participated in the expedition team.

Two Emperor Class heroes, a hundred and twenty-one Gold Class heroes, and three hundred Silver Class heroes were dispatched to secure the dungeon.

Sun Zhou Yi was amongst the Gold Class heroes and the expedition team just arrived two hours ago. Currently, they were taking a break from the long trip and making a preparation to enter the dungeon, making sure the incident of the first dungeon was not repeated.

After a two hours break, Sun Zhou Yi was curious about the place called the dungeon and walked to the west gate. He wanted to see what the dungeon gate looked like.

On the west gate, ten guards were placed, six on the top and four below. These ten guards were from a military with assault rifles in their hands and a sword on their waist.

The four guards below recognized the famous Sun Zhou Yi. They respectfully nod as they opened the door to the outside. Sun Zhou Yi returned with a nod and went out.

As soon as he stepped out of the fort, a massive gate greeted him. A gate that was similar to a door made of black stone came into his sight. Nine meters wide and twenty-one meters tall, beyond the gate, was not desert, but darkness.

Looking at this massive gate, an uneasy feeling emerged inside him.