15 Stranded?

"Calm the fuck down and maintain the formation!" Evelyn yelled at the panicking hunters.

If you aren´t going into gates every day then you won´t enter a red gate very often. For the whole group, this was the first time.

The hunters collected themselves and followed behind Evelyn.

'Page 7, Magic book'

The grimoire floated from Mark´s hand on its own. Its pages started turning without the need to even touch the book. He just had to move his left hand for the grimoire to move. This was one of many improvements Mark wrote.

"What is going on?" Mark asked Arthur.

"You´ve never heard of red gates?"

"No?"

"Really? I thought that everyone knew about them. It´s the basic stuff a hunter must know."

"That´s nice and all but what are they?"

"To put it simply, when you enter a red gate you can´t come out until the boss is killed. There´s also this strange thing about time. When a day passes here only an hour passes on Earth."

"Honestly, that doesn´t sound too bad."

"What do you mean it doesn´t sound too bad, bitch? I don´t wanna die yet."

"Silence in the back!" shouted the raid leader.

The group walked through the forest step by step, watching the bushes with an unparalleled focus in case a monster decided to ambush them.

Hearing the water gushing in the distance Evelyn decided that will be their destination. Freshwater was a precious resource in an unknown environment. With caution, she led the group towards the sounds.

After a few minutes, they arrived next to a stream. However, there was a strange being awaiting their arrival.

"Arthur, what is that thing?" Evelyn asked.

A horse was watching them from the river with its lower half submerged in the water. It looked beautiful, with glistening black hair and blue glowing eyes.

Several magic circles appeared in front of Arthur´s eyes revealing a description of the creature. "Ew" was the only thing he could muster after reading the text.

Mark watched the magic circles intrigued.

"What?" asked Evelyn.

"Don´t touch it. Don´t go near it. It will drown you and after that, it´ll eat you." Explained Arthur with a disgusted look.

"What is it then?" Evelyn asked once again.

"It´s... I´m not sure how to say it. Kel-pie? Kel-pee? Whatever it´s called it´s using illusions to disguise itself, lure you in, and eat you."

There is this rule of thumb for hunters. Every monster above C-rank should display at least a basic level of intelligence.

From Evelyn´s body language the Kelpie understood that its trap had failed so it resorted to a bit more primitive way to get its food.

It jumped out of the water and at that moment the illusion was dispelled, revealing its disgusting appearance. Mouth full of sharp disfigured teeth, mane covered with moss, and the once beautiful glistening coat turned into rough patches of dark green hair.

The Kelpie ran towards the raid leader with its eyes bloodshot and jaws wide open. Saliva was dripping from its mouth.

Evelyn leaned back grabbing the halberd firmly with both of her hands and swung it horizontally at the monster. With one fell swoop, the creature was decapitated. The halberd cut through its flesh as if it was butter.

"We have food for a few days with this. Set up shelters next to the river using the nearby trees" Evelyn commanded. "Also don´t forget to mind your surroundings. There could be another monster sneaking around in the bushes."

The hunters just stood around not sure what to do. When the leader says maintain formation, support from the back, or heal the tanks they know how to react. They have experience in those situations. Nobody taught them how to make a primitive shelter.

Seeing this Evelyn started giving out instructions. "Fighters and tanks cut down some straight trees and branches. Magicians and support types bring here some small branches and leaves. Lucas, watch over them in case a monster appears. And you..." she pointed at Mark. "Do whatever you want. If you don´t want to die then stay close to the team and help them out."

Everyone ran to do their assigned task with Evelyn staying at the campsite to dismember the kelpie. Seeing the dark essence stone Mark´s eyes shone in delight.

'This is a B-rank gate. I can rewrite all my spells with the stones here. The jump in effectiveness from D-rank will be huge. However, with all my spells it will take at least 4 essence stones.'

Asking the raid leader for the stones didn´t sound like a good idea to Mark. Especially with her temperament, he´d probably get a can of whoop-ass instead of the essence stone.

He decided to follow the hunters foraging for resources.

The two tanks were men built like bulldozers. They picked up the cut-down trees as if they were nothing. There was also another fighter with two one-handed axes. He was chopping the wood as if there was no tomorrow. Lucas just watched the team with his hands crossed like a guard of some kind.

Next to the bunch of muscly men were the support types. There was Mark, Arthur, and two other mages. The first one was a short-haired woman wearing a cape, while the second mage was another burly man who wore some light armor and held a large wooden staff. Mark was quite tall himself but this guy was towering over him.

The four of them were on the ground collecting leaves. Seeing that they had nothing to carry the leaves in Mark took off his hoodie. Then he tied the sleeves and the hood so nothing could fall out.

"You can put it in here." said Mark.

The burly man took a look at the hoodie and asked. "Are you sure? It will get dirty."

"It´s fine. If I wasn´t prepared to get dirty would I even be a hunter?"

"Then don´t mind if I do." said Arthur, throwing a bunch of leaves inside.

"Alright then." the burly man then gently put in some leaves.

"I´ll also join in on the fun." said the short-haired woman with a smile and stuffed the hoodie with more leaves.

"What are your names?" Mark asked.

'Jesus, I don´t know how to talk to strangers at all.'