Hostile

After everyone set up camp, we moved out. Magicians set up barriers around our camp site so we wouldn't return back to a destroyed site.

"Pretty exciting, huh?"

For some reason I was grouped with influencer girl. She carried two daggers with her so she was something like an assassin.

"My name is Emma by the way. Thanks for before."

"I am not interested in making friends. Just focus."

"Wow, rude."

She said as she turned to camera. I made a mental note to break that camera mid combat, when she didn't paid attention to it.

"I have to call you something. Do you have a name?"

I didn't said anything.

"Okay, Moody."

I screamed inside. We moved forward. Encountering some monsters on our way, I dispatched them easily. There were bear like creatures with thick hide. If my arrows weren't enchanted with my blood, I would have hard time piercing through. But using Hawkeye to detect weakest part of their fur and blood enchanted arrows made quick work of them.

"Woah, you are pretty good! Are you B rank?"

"Something is wrong."

"Huh?"

"They are very skinny. According to information given to us they shouldn't be this malnourished."

"Maybe they couldn't find enough food? Isn't it very common in nature?"

"Not for those monsters. They are apex predators here."

I felt same harrowing feeling I felt when I first met Wolfgang. Maybe I am just being paranoid. We moved again. Even though dungeon entrance was in a mountain range, actual dungeon we hunted was a forest, below the entrance. If anything like before happened here most hunters wouldn't reach to entrance in time and die.

"We hunted 15 in a day! How are you so good at finding them?"

Plan was hunting in small groups for 2 days then getting together and slaying the boss.

"You know that you don't have to stick so close to me, do you?"

"Shouldn't be together so that we can help each other in case of something goes wrong?"

I facepalmed.

"We should be just around each other. How are we supposed to hunt individually if we are like this?"

"But don't some people hunt in groups?"

"They are formed before this raid. How they are going to share is determined before."

She looked at the monsters killed before.

"You can have 3 of them. You helped."

I was the one actually killed all of them but I still let her.

"So, I should just move?"

Holy shit, she was so awkard.

"Be in shouting distance. You know how to use flares, right?"

"Of course. I am not that dumb!"

"…"

I doubted that. Still, she got away from me while looking back every second. When she was far away relatively far away I stopped wearing mask and visor.

"That's better."

I pulled my sword from it's sheath. It looked like a normal, iron longsword. But when I infused a little mana into it it's blade turned to red and handle grew spikes. I swung it. Wind caused by my swing blew leaves.

"Good."

I started to ran. I widened my vision to detect monsters. Since my vision covered a great area, I had no concern about someone seeing my face. I hunted until sunset. As sun was setting I moved to camp site. While I could see in darkness perfectly fine, it wasn't same for other hunters. So, I had to return. It was also better to rest. I already hunted around 20 not counting the ones I gave to Emma.

"One of them can pay for several thousand dollars. I should find a way to send some money to my family."

Thanks to bag of holding Elizabeth gave to me, I could full bodies of monsters I killed. So I could just sell the entire bodies. Since condition of the bodies were pretty good due my skills, I could get rich easily.

"You can't just get strong, Burak. You need money. You need influence."

That was what Elizabeth told me. According to her Council members were not just individually strong but also had political and economic power.

"Hey, Moody!"

Why can't I just be alone with my thoughts? She ran towards me.

"Things were easier when I was with you! Man, those bears are strong!"

"…"

I couldn't spend time with her for sake of my sanity. I found Jonathan.

"Can we speak for a minute?"

He was surrounded with a lot of people. Normal since he was the captain. As I walked the group he was in someone slammed their elbow to my stomach. Crossbow guy before. He wasn't strong and it didn't hurt but that didn't meant that I would let it slide.

"Sorry about that. Didn't see you there. But you should wait for you turn. We are talking here."

I knew that he did it intentionally.

"No problem. I barely noticed it. I was just going to report that monsters here looked way too skinny. Is it natural?"

I ignored his face reddening.

"Skinny?"

George asked.

"Yes. I researched about this dungeon before coming here. Pictures and information I looked told nothing like that.

"Maybe they are on a diet?"

One guy from group said. Several laughters come from them. Jonathan touched his chin as if thinking. He shrugged.

"Sometimes weaker monsters are pushed around by stronger ones. It is probably that. Thanks for you report."

This answer didn't satisfy me.

"If this didn't happened before, does that mean that there are stronger monsters than usual roaming in this dungeon?"

"This is C ranked dungeon. A S ranked monster won't pop randomly. You don't need to spread fear around people."

George answered. I clenched my fist.

"I am not saying that a S ranked monster will come and kill us all. I am saying that we should be careful."

"We are already careful. What do you think we are? Some kids? We been hunting for 20 years. We already been in higher ranked dungeons."

George's tone became slowly more hostile.