-WATCHFULEYES-

A man wearing a suit stands at the front of the crowd, he beckons for silence.

"On behalf of the System Association, we thank you brave hunters for entering this gate. Before you enter I must inform everyone that B-Rank hunter Wane Hush will be overlooking this raid on the gate. Although he is B-Rank, his job is only to watch over you all and ensure that no one tries to do something that would endanger the group or ruin your chances at clearing the gate. Should you put yourself in danger that would result in injury or death, do not expect him to step in to save you."

It would be pretty easy for the System Association to send a high level hunter to solo a low level gate like this but they tend to send them to supervise instead, allowing lower ranked hunters to increase their levels.

The B-Ranked hunter is tall and well built, his short brown hair is swept up and a sword that looks bigger than him is strapped to his back.

After listening to the man for a few more moments, the front of the crowd begins moving into the gate. From the back of the crowd I can feel the nerves of other hunters around me but Carter next to me is brimming with confidence.

We are the last 2 people to enter the gate. Upon stepping through, my vision darkens. A cave awaits us with tunnels in all directions. The cave itself is pretty spacious, fitting all 20 or so people with plenty of room to spare. The roof must be at least 30 feet tall. The tunnels are quiet despite the large crowd.

A voice from someone at the edge of the crowd grabs the attention of all the hunters in the room. The voice is female but contains a strong authority to it.

"Melee fighters get to the edge of the circle, rangers and mages stay in the middle!"

The voice echoes and people immediately start moving.

"Don't worry too much, just focus on buffing me."

Carter winks before running towards the outer edge of the circle. I concentrate on following him and as he makes it towards the edge I cast Buff.

'Buff activated: +15 defense'

For now I will focus on maintaining the buff and keep an eye on the situation as a whole. I don't want to cast any unnecessary spells that could harm other hunters.

From all the tunnels around the cave short green creatures slowly begin to emerge in large numbers.an arrow flies over the heads of the warriors surrounding me and lodges itself deep in the cheek of one of the goblin like creatures, signaling the start of the fight. The fighters take their stances, prepared to hold off the monsters and protect us.

Looking at Carter, he is fighting with great efficiency, none of his movements are wasted. His fists are surrounded by a thin layer of mana, each hit sending a goblin flying a dozen feet back. 3 goblins fall victim to a kick that sends them tumbling into another small group of goblins, knocking them over.

Carter hasn't been hit yet so the buff is being wasted, let me cancel it and cast another.

'Buff activated: +75 strength'

The layer of mana covering Carter's fist does not change yet his next punch bore a hole straight through the goblin's chest. He doesn't even take a moment to think about what just happened, continuing to swing his fists with the occasional kick mixed in. At this point he must have killed over 20 goblins but with my focus locked on him, I haven't been keeping an eye on the rest of the cave.

There are 3 other mages in the center of the circle next to me, one hurling shards of ice, sweat is becoming visible on his brow meaning he must be starting to run low on mana. Another mage has his hands to the floor, conjuring spikes on the other side of the room. A man in white robes stands closest to me, hands clasped together in what looks like prayer. A yellow light emerges, encasing the room in a warm glow. 

The fatigue on the faces of the warriors lightens as what I can only assume was a healing spell comforts them.

Maintaining my buff on Carter is not taking a lot of mana considering my total mana pool is over 1000 now. I could try firing off a spell or two, I mean right now I look like I'm standing around doing nothing…

A large rumbling can be heard coming from the side of the cave nearest Carter. It steals the attention of most in the cave as the remaining goblins' numbers get thinner and thinner.

What emerges from the cave makes a knot form in my stomach. The creature sports a darker green skin than the other goblins, its nose is long, crooked and twitching as if he is smelling something foul. Its stomach is round like a rich noble in some fantasy world and he has to duck slightly to walk through the tunnel that it's emerging from.

Upon exiting the tunnel the creature stretches its back, clearly relieved to be out of the cramped space. The few remaining goblins scurry back into the caves. With all the attention drawn to this ogre, the warriors move around the group to face it. Our back is exposed to the rest of the tunnels but with all the goblins retreated it seems like it won't matter too much. 

A bald man who looks to be in his 30s rushes at the ogre with his sword in hand. The creature throws its arm forward to catch him but he easily side steps it and swings his sword down attempting to slice off the creature's arm. The blade deflects off the monster's arm. The shock on the hunters face was clear but what was more shocking was when the ogres hand pulled back, grabbing the bald man and crushing him in his grip. Even from the other side of the room I can hear the man's bones crunching.

A few hunters yell towards the creature but to no effect. Everyone seems a bit hesitant to be the next to attack but that's when Carter rushes forward, ducking under the ogre's now bloody hand. He follows the same movement as the swordsman from moments ago, striking at the ogres arm when its extended with his own bare fist but this time there's a clear effect as the punch lands on the creature's extended elbow, breaking the bone inside.

A loud groan of pain can be heard in the cave as the monster holds its arm in agony. A few other hunters have stepped up now, dodging and weaving around the creature's wild swings, throwing light attacks to scratch away at the creature's skin before retreating to a safe distance. Everyone seems to be targeting the ogres joints which seems to be working effectively.

I can't help but feel like this is going too well. I get that someone just died but this is a D-Rank dungeon. The average death count for a D-Rank dungeon is about 5 so to think that a group of mostly E and D-Rank hunters would be able to clear the gate with such ease puts me on edge. 

Something from the tunnel behind the group emits a low growl. No one seems to react to the growl, busy whittling down the ogre on the other side of the room. If something comes out of that tunnel, there will be no warriors to block its coming attack. I will be the first one to be hit if something really does emerge. But why am I worrying? They are beating the boss right now… right?

Focusing my hearing, I listen out for anything else from the tunnel, even taking a few steps towards it to try to get away from the cheers and shouts from the main group behind me. 

Slight foot steps can be heard, getting closer and closer. It won't take long for them to arrive so i dont think there's enough time for the warriors to properly split up so some can finish the ogre while others come help out here.

The footsteps gain in speed and I realize there must be at least 10 or so monsters coming. I raise my hand towards the tunnel, scared of what might be coming. My concentration on the buff I'd been holding on Carter drops and I can only hope that it doesn't affect his fight against the ogre. 

Finally from the void of the opening in front of me a creature emerges. The wolf's wide maw is agape, aiming straight for my face. 

A wolf?! The sudden appearance of a creature that wasn't a snotty green goblin but instead a ferocious beast caught me off guard, breaking my focus. I'm too slow to use my ability.

When the wolf is only a few inches from my face, its momentum is thrown to the side as Carter kicks the wolf with enough force that it smacks into the other side of the cave. The large thud of the wolf's limp body smacking the cave wall draws the attention of some of the other hunters who panic to finish off the ogre so they can help. Some of the long range fighters that haven't been able to be helpful against the ogre turn towards us and raise their weapons to help.

With the wolf no longer encapsulating my vision I can see the rest of what came out of the cave. 4 more wolves, their backs stand at least 4 feet tall. Behind the wolves is another green creature. This one is just as tall as the ogre but is deathly thin. In its hand is a whip which he promptly uses to hit the wolves in front of him, forcing them forward to attack us.

Now I've had a moment to collect thoughts, I raise my hand and unleash a spell.

'Long Range Spell activated: Root'

Vines erupt from the ground and entangle the wolves, holding them in place so they can't move. They struggle against the vines but more and more appear, tangling them until they are completely stationary.

The monster behind them roars, spit flying everywhere. He raises his whip before letting it down on the creatures again, commanding them to break free. They struggle under the weight of the vines but to no avail.

I raise my hand again, pulling mana from my body as if I could imbue the spell with more than required despite it always costing the same.

'Lucky effect triggered. You will receive the desired effect.'

'Long Range Spell activated: Insect Devour'

The floor around the vines begins to crumble, insects no bigger than ants begin climbing the vines and legs of the wolves, tiny holes are burrowed out from the ceiling of the cave releasing some kind of winged insect that descends on the wolves. With no way to move the wolves are devoured by what must be millions of small insects. Within a few seconds they are no more than bone and the vines that once entangled them fall limply to the floor. The bugs scatter in all directions, most returning to the holes they came from buy some running in all directions, down the tunnel and towards the rest of the open cave until it was like they were never there.

Suddenly the only thing remaining in front of me and the remains of these wolves was the tall but thin ogre. It grips the whip with such rage that the handle almost shatters. Before it can even swing the whip, an arrow flies over my shoulder and embeds itself in the creature's thigh.

Carter rushes from the side of the cave where he landed after landing his flying kick on the wolf and engages the ogre head on. The ogre attempts to stop him from getting close, swinging his whip with as much force as he can but Carter bobs and weaves around it, ducking the first swipe of the whip and side stepping the next one. He is locked in a dance with the creature, unable to move forward but the monster unable to land a blow.

'Buff activated: +100 Stamina'

With this sudden boost in stamina, Carter's foot begins to glow with the light of mana, that means he's using one of his abilities so is he going to try to kick the ogre? No he can't get close enough even with the stat boost.

Suddenly the floor around Carter cracks as he uses his kicking ability to kick off the floor, rushing straight toward the ogre. Appearing in the face of the monster so fast that it can't even react, Carter buries his glowing fist into the creature's head, making clean contact with the monster's temple. 

The ogre flies into the wall of the cave making a crater where it leaves and shaking dust from the roof of the cave. 

A window appears in front of me as my status window informs me that the boss has been beaten and the gate will close in 5 minutes. Cheers erupt from the cave, it seems the ogre on the other side of the cave was beaten at about the same time. Some of the warriors didn't even notice that another fight was happening right behind them.

A portal appears in the center of the room, allowing for people to exit the gate, which many did. I waited for a moment, the gate will eject us after 5 minutes, so there is no need to leave early when I can check to see if this ogre dropped anything interesting. Carter stands over the beast, clearly having the same idea as me.

"That was a smart idea, using your skill to kick the floor and get a massive speed boost."

"I wasn't sure if it would work but I'm sure it wouldn't have without that stat boost."

He shoots me a cheeky glance.

"And what about you? That bind spell was cool enough but what was that with the insects? That's not a spell a mage should have is it? That was a skill that controlled a bug, normally monster control skills are for beast tamers and even rarer yet, you controlled insects."

"Yeah it surprised me too, let's just check if he dropped anything cool and get out of here."

With a nod he lowers himself over the ogres corpse, prying the whip out of its hand and gives it to me to inspect while he checks for any other items.

'Beast Tamer's Whip: Any monster hit with this whip will be more subservient to the user.'

This could be worth a decent amount, I doubt either of us will be able to use it though.

"Maybe you can use this instead."

He hands me a book that was attached to the monster's belt. The leather cover feels warm in my hand. I look to the front cover to see the title of the book ,curious as to why a monster would need a book.

A small status window opens up in front of the book.

'Would you like to learn the skill: Summon Wolf'

'Yes or No'

A skill book!? These are worth a ton of money, even ones from a lower ranked gate like this. We can make a fortune if we sell this and the whip, even after splitting the money.

I look to Carter to see what he thinks but he quickly explains that I should use the skill book.

"I couldn't do that, its way too valuable."

He pushes the book back towards me and says,

"You earned it, and if we are going to hunt together don't you think a more consistent skill would be helpful? We can always earn more in the future."

Shocked, I take the book back in my hands and look at the cover once more. Suddenly a large hand appears on my shoulder. The B-Ranked hunter who had joined us for this gate to watch over us smiles down at me.

"You guys have some interesting abilities."

He looks to Carter and nods his head in acknowledgement. Then his gaze turns to me and his face takes on a more sharp gaze.

"You did good kid. That spell you used with the insects though… How did you use it?"

His gaze suddenly turns cold for a moment causing the cave to feel eerily silent. Only the 3 of us remain at this point. The chill disappears just as quickly as it arrived.

"Sorry, it's just that that spell only belongs to one person. If you share his abilities then it could be dangerous."

I turn my head, showing my confusion.

"How about you both come with me back to the System Association headquarters so we can talk about this ina more comfortable setting."

END OF CHAPTER 9