"Alright," Zara said, squatting beside the scorched remains of the Minotaur, "who's got dibs on the giant, still-warm chunk of death magic?"
"Call me crazy," Kaito muttered, hands still trembling slightly as he wiped soot from his sleeves, "but maybe we don't touch the part of the monster that revived itself with cult runes?"
Juliet, helmet tucked under one arm, gave a half-smirk as she nudged the broken horn with her boot. "Relax, spell-boy. It's dead for real this time."
Frank stepped up quietly, crouching beside the still-smoking corpse. The air still hummed faintly with spent power, and he felt it like static crawling under his skin. The core was here. Faint, but intact.
"Guys," he said softly. "The monster core survived. I can extract it."
Juliet arched a brow. "You? Not our overly cautious mage?"
"I've… got experience," Frank replied, pulling a small rune scalpel from his trader's pouch. "It shouldn't pose a problem."
Zara tilted her head. "That gear looks upgraded."
Frank didn't look up. "Trade contacts."
"Trade contacts who hand out precision-extraction gear and scrolls that silence abnormal sigils?" Kaito asked, crossing his arms.
The scalpel pulsed briefly, and with a practiced slice, Frank eased the dark crystal core from the beast's chest. It was dense, irregular, and throbbed with faint heat.
He held it up. "We don't want this ending up on the black market."
Juliet studied him for a moment, her expression unreadable. "You're not wrong. You can keep the core. We split the rest."
Zara shrugged. "Fine by me. I'll take a couple bones. They'll fetch well on the hunter board."
"Just the bones?" Kaito asked, raising a brow. "Not the still-charged tusk?"
"I don't sell what I can't carry in heels," Zara replied.
Juliet chuckled, stretching her arms as a faint hiss came from her cracked breastplate. "Frank," she said, her voice quieter now, "you planned ahead. Bought time when we needed it. Held the line."
He stood, sliding the core into a reinforced case. "Did what I had to."
"No," Juliet corrected, "you did more than that. You saved the team."
Frank blinked. "Is that a compliment or a warning?"
She smiled faintly, bruised but not broken. "It's a contact." She tapped a number into her system and flicked it to his HUD. "Juliet Saine. B-Rank Hunter. I don't usually share my network."
Frank caught it, surprised. "You sure?"
"Don't make it weird," she said, turning away. "Just… next time? Maybe you call the shots."
Zara gave him a side-eye as she cleaned her crossbow. "Wow. That sounded like actual trust."
Kaito snorted. "Or the beginning of a crush."
"I heard that," Juliet called back without looking.
Frank just smiled.
As they walked out of the ruined chamber, the dungeon's ambient light faded to normal. The nightmare was over, on paper, anyway.
"This is a B-rank dungeon now. Minimum." Kaito paced in front of the Association desk, hands gesturing wildly. "We're talking resurrection sigils, shadow weapons, mana suppression, abnormal interference, did you even read what I submitted?"
Behind the desk, the clerk, a middle-aged man with thinning hair and an expression carved from paper, didn't even blink. "Your classification stands. Dungeon: E-rank. Status: cleared. Notes: unusual energy spike. Report filed under system fluctuation."
"Fluctuation?!" Kaito exploded. "The boss died, then got back up wielding void energy!"
Frank stood off to the side, arms crossed. He didn't bother arguing. The second he saw the bored look on the clerk's face, he knew what this was. The Association didn't want anomalies, they wanted routine.
Juliet leaned her weight on the desk, still in her cracked armor. "We risked our lives. If that dungeon had been marked properly, someone weaker could've died."
"They didn't," the clerk replied flatly, tapping the console. "Congratulations on a successful clearance. Your reward will be transferred to your account within the hour."
Zara huffed, tossing a copy of the boss's rune signature onto the desk. "Here. Just in case anyone starts bleeding from their eyes next time."
As they walked out of the building, the sunlight felt too clean like the city hadn't noticed they were almost erased.
"I've never seen the Association so checked out," Kaito muttered.
"They don't want trouble," Frank said, scanning his system. "If they log it as an a linked anomaly, they have to investigate it. That's credits and manpower they don't want to spend."
Juliet clicked her tongue. "Cowards in clean uniforms."
Zara sighed, stretching. "Let them ignore it. You saw that thing's power. The deeper we go, the less they can hide."
Juliet stopped just outside the building, eyes turning toward Frank.
"You headed back?" she asked.
He nodded. "Got to resupply. Probably clean my gear and recalibrate."
She studied him for a moment. "Then we'll call it. For now." She hesitated, then gave a half-smile. "You know, you make a weirdly good frontliner."
Frank raised an eyebrow. "Weirdly?"
"Unnaturally calm, oddly prepared, and just paranoid enough to survive," she said, then paused. "That's rare."
He gave a short nod. "Thanks. For letting me call that last play."
Juliet shrugged. "You earned it."
Kaito waved lazily. "Try not to drown in loot orders."
Frank blinked. "What?"
Zara chuckled. "You don't check your market updates mid-battle?"
"Kind of busy not dying."
"Well," she said, already walking, "you might want to log in before it explodes."
The door shut behind him with a soft click. He tossed his cracked gear into the corner bin and dropped onto his couch.
A breath. Then another.
He opened his system.
[Trader Terminal: Active]
→ Notifications: 51 New Orders
→ Incoming Messages: 34
→ Market Status: Trending – Top 5 Equipment Trader (Underground Tag Active)
Frank blinked, sat up straighter.
"Fifty-one… overnight?"
The interface scrolled with requests. Energy drinks,Noodles and Tomatoes. People wanted him and Needed him.
He stared at the screen, exhausted, scraped, but alive and Then he smiled.
"Looks like business is good."
***
Drip... drip...
The sound of water echoed down the obsidian walls like a steady heartbeat in the blackness.
The chamber was vast but suffocating, its edges lost in flickering violet flame. Each torch burned low in carved skull sconces, casting warping shadows across a floor etched in blood sigils and broken runes.
A dozen hooded figures knelt in a perfect circle around a raised obsidian platform, their heads bowed, faces hidden. The air buzzed with tension.
At the center, he stood.
The leader.
Cloaked in a tattered robe of midnight silk and tarnished relics, his presence bled command. His face was hidden behind a horned mask, smooth obsidian carved with a single glowing rune that never blinked.
One of the kneeling cultists finally dared to speak.
"The Minotaur. It has fallen."
A long silence followed. Then…
"Who?" the leader asked, voice gravel and mist. "Who interfered?"
Another voice responded from the far edge of the circle, this one clearer, more measured. The speaker wore rings shaped like twisted stars.
"A team. Four hunters. The anomaly wasn't triggered by the girl, nor the storm-born mage."
The Head of the Faction cult turned slowly. "Hunters?."
"Yes," the second cultist replied. "they survived and intervened."
"Who are this hunters?"
"they are... unknown."
"That is unacceptable," the leader hissed. "I thought we put the dungeon on monitoring."
"The dungeon wasn't meant to awaken, so we didn't assign anyone" another whispered, her voice shaking. "The rite was only partially complete."
"Silence." The leader's voice sliced the air like a blade. "Partial or not, it was a test. And now the world knows."
He stepped toward the center of the altar, boots echoing. "We offered the world silence. We offered it balance. A way to design. And what does it give in return?"
None dared answer.
The Head spread his arms, his voice rising.
"Chaos. Blind, arrogant defiance. Hunters are playing heroes like they belong there. Pawns are stepping out of line."
He slammed his hand onto the center of the map, an ancient, carved stone slab covered in shifting runes. It flared with sickly red light. Dungeon sites lit up one by one, pulsing like open wounds across the continent.
"They fear death, so they chase power. They fear imbalance, so they cling to false order. They don't understand that the system is a sacrifice. It is a necessary pain."
The second cultist stepped forward. "What of those Hunters?"
"Watch them," the leader said.
"But sir…" one of them protested.
But another member held his mouth. "Sir, why?"
"Because they havn't chosen a side."
The others stirred slightly at that.
The leader turned slowly, voice softening but gaining weight. "they will be offered the same chance as all others. When the choice comes and when their powers are not enough. What will they offer? their loyalty? or morality? Or their silence?"
A final pause.
Then his fingers curled against the stone.
"Advance the lord's plan."
He turned toward the glowing map, and as the violet torches hissed lower, the nearest dungeon mark ignited with crimson flame.
"Let the next awakening begin."