Episode 5: Link (4)

The morning sun shone down onto the quiet streets of Aurelis. There, a black-haired man could be seen making his way through the empty roads as his footsteps stopped in front of a tall building, filled to the brim with barricade tapes.

"Lazy Eyes, over here!" As the young man scanned the area, he took notice of a blonde-haired man waving to him at the front of the building. "You came early, huh?"

"...Landon..." Walking up towards the man, Jace tiredly glared at him. "Just what's wrong with your scheduling?"

"Eh? What do you mean?" Landon blinked in turn. "What's wrong with it?"

"What do you mean what's wrong with it? Who in their right mind would want to go into a dungeon at five in the morning?" Jace was left speechless at the man before him. "You told me you bought exclusive rights to the dungeon, so we can do it at any time. Yet... We're here before even the sun is up."

From yesterday until now, Jace had experienced the absurd timing of Landon. At six, the man arrived at his house, wanting an explanation of his kit. Then, after it was all dealt with, Landon soon invited him to take on another dungeon the very next day.

"Ehh! Didn't I tell you?" he grinned. "The earlier the better!"

"That... You do realize I'm not a morning person, right?" Jace helplessly replied.

"It's not gonna kill us!" he laughed. "We'll be fine. If we can't duo the dungeon, we'll just leave before the one-hour mark. No problemo!"

"The dungeon isn't the problem here..." Jace scratched his head.

"Haha, I knew you'd accept the challenge of taking on the hardest F-ranked dungeon with me!" Landon smirked. "Let's show this Lakeside Dungeon whose boss!"

"Hey, don't twist my words like that..." Jace sighed. "Hah. Whatever... The dungeon is simple enough. Let's just get this over with."

"Before we go in, you're prepared, right?" Landon asked. "Where's your dungeon gear?"

"Don't need it," he stated. "My pistol is all I need."

"...oh, really?" The blonde-haired man blinked. "Well, if you say so! Let's go in!"

Standing before the two men was an office building. Within it, was a gate that had randomly popped in a few days ago. Ever since The Great Awakening, dungeon entrances would appear at random places. Whether it be in buildings, caves, the wilderness or even in residential areas, there were no fixed areas for dungeons to manifest in.

As such, to ensure the safety of the civilians, hunters throughout the world would immediately respond to the dungeon before it was too late. In most cases, once a dungeon boss is defeated, the gate would disappear, allowing the area to be safe again.

And so, without any delay, the two men began taking a step forward into the swirling blue gate. In the next moment, the area around them faded out as they were now greeted by the sight of an open grassy field. There, a lake could be spotted in the middle of the area.

"Alrighty then. Let the duo dungeon run begin!" Landon shouted out, raising his arms high up into the sky. "Say, Lazy Eyes. You're not gonna hold back this time, right, right?"

"I mean... I do what I can, not that I'm holding back..." Jace shrugged, soon activating [ Soul Channeler ]. At that moment, a thin invisible thread connected him to Landon. "...that should do it."

"Ah... It's that feeling again..." Landon thought to himself. "Is this also the effects of Soul Linkage?"

"No," he shook his head. "It's another skill. Whenever I deal damage, a portion of said damage will be converted into a heal, healing both of us. That's about it, really."

"Oh. It's that simple, huh?" Landon nodded his head. "Well then, let's do our best!" In the next second, the blonde-haired man began rushing into the dungeon.

"...jeez. Rushing in like that... Do you have no fear?" Scratching his head in helplessness, Jace sighed. "Well, whatever... Aquatic monsters on land are pretty much the easiest type of monsters to deal with."

...

The sounds of gunshots could be heard ringing out through the grassy plains. There, it could be noted that Landon and Jace were busily shooting out bullet after bullet over towards the aquatic monsters crawling towards them on land.

Though outnumbered by the countless monsters in the vicinity, their numbers proved nothing in the face of Landon's barrage of bullets. Although he missed every so often, Jace's bullets struck at the enemies whenever Landon missed, backing him up.

Despite there not being a Sentinel in the party to draw the mob's attention, Landon and Jace were as aggressive as they could be, clearing through wave after wave of monsters whilst receiving the attacks from them head-on.

After all, the duo had the advantage of a healer who could simultaneously attack and heal. Although on paper the heal was minuscule due to it only being 40% of the damage dealt, Jace's constant stream of attacks nulled it, allowing the two of them to remain healthy as they dealt with the monsters.

As such, after just a few rounds of bullets, the aquatic monsters in the area were all cleaned up.

[ You have levelled up to level 6! ]

[ 10 Hunter Points have been obtained. ]

...

"Phew... We're on a roll today!" Landon shouted out. "Those monsters are nothing!"

"Uhuh..." Jace tiredly nodded his head. "To be fair, those aquatic monsters are pretty simple in their attack patterns. So, there wasn't much to worry about anyways since we're not going to fight them underwater."

Although the dungeon mostly had aquatic-based monsters, the dungeon had nothing to do with underwater fights. Most, if not all of the fights happen on land, which places the monsters at a disadvantage. However, those guys wouldn't know that as they have fish for brains.

"Huh, are they that simple?" Landon thought to himself. "Why's this the hardest dungeon then?"

"No clue," he shrugged. "Anyhow, the boss should be coming soon."

"Eh? Have we already defeated that many monsters to alert the boss??"

"I guess so..." Jace lazily replied, soon pointing his pistol at the lake in front of him. "It's not over until the boss is defeated."

Rippling waves could be seen at the surface of the lake. Suddenly, the waves began to tremble violently. In the next second, a giant fish leapt out of the lake, landing on the ground in anger.

"Ribbit..." The giant monster glared at the two men with sharp teeth.

"Ah... The boss!" Landon cried out.