Chimaera's Conquest: The Legend Of The Devourer-Chapter 242: A Hunter’s World (1)

[You have entered a dungeon.]

[Main Quest: Save the Weeping forest from getting consumed. Time limit: A week.]

"A quest dungeon," Adrian shrugged as the team entered the dungeon the guild had chosen for them. "No wonder it had a limit on how many people could enter."

Unlike a regular dungeon, where the hunters would have to enter and kill their way to the boss, defeat it, and return, the Quest dungeons were different.

Instead of having a boss monster, they had a scenario. As long as the hunters fulfilled that scenario for a given time limit, they would clear the dungeon.

Unfortunately, there was a problem with such dungeons. Once inside, there was no escape, and the only way to leave was to clear it. Besides, since one would only learn about the scenario once inside, there was no way to prepare for it beforehand.

Thankfully, Adrian and the girls didn’t have to worry, as they had survived plenty of such dungeons. The problem was the other four hunters accompanying them.

The dungeon could only be accessed by a group of ten. That’s why, apart from the six on Adrian’s team, the baldy and his sister from the last night, along with two healers, accompanied them.

It was a volatile team since Lucas had been side-eyeing them since the moment they entered the dungeon. Even his intentions were clear to all. The baldy was clearly upset about last night’s events and probably wanted revenge.

Adrian and the girls already knew it, and so did Fenris, who growled at Lucas whenever he looked at them.

"Weeping forest," Sophia scoffed, witnessing the non-stop rain drenching the forest. "A perfect name for a place like this."

While the others didn’t look happy with the rain, A’Mila, on the other hand, was the happiest she had been in a while. It wasn’t a surprise as the forest was her natural habitat, and there wasn’t much left in Miami for her to enjoy.

"This is better than that place you call the zoo," A’Mila squeaked loudly as she expertly climbed a tree in one go.

Obviously, Lucas, Felicia and the rest didn’t understand a word she said as she couldn’t speak English. But they didn’t say anything, probably taken aback by A’Mila’s agility.

"Alright, people, let’s form teams and decide the roles," Adrian snapped his fingers to get everyone’s attention. "Amelia-"

"I’ll go look for a spot to camp," the half-elf replied, as it had been her role in every expedition they undertook.

"I’ll help her," Vesper said, flashing a smile.

"That’s one thing out of the way," Adrian said, turning towards A’Mila and Seraphina. "You two scavenge for food. A’Mila’s experience and Seraphina’s knowledge would be perfect for the job."

"On it!" the two replied, and off they went, leaving Adrian and Sophia with the rest of them.

Adrian needed to figure out what to do with Lucas. Felicia seemed more reasonable to deal with than him, but he knew it was probably an act for him to drop the guard around her.

As for the healers, they seem chill. Probably because it was their first time in the dungeon, and they wanted to leave a good impression on Adrian.

"The rest of you can go and scout-" Adrian was about to give them their instruction when Lucas decided to interrupt.

"Lady Sophia can be with us," he said, boldly walking towards Sophia. "I don’t care what you do."

Unfortunately for him, he underestimated Fenris’s loyalty towards Sophia, and she jumped in between the two, growling fiercely like never before.

"Captain," Felicia mumbled. "You should get your pet in control-"

"How about you get your bitch in control first?" Adrian retorted, bringing out Hydra’s Fang.

"You called me a bitch-"

"My bad. How about Hyena? I’ve heard they enjoy rolling in their vomit, something you two have in common." fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

Adrian’s witty remark made everyone chuckle. Even Felicia couldn’t help but laugh but stopped because she didn’t want to offend Lucas.

"You think you got a smart mouth?"

"...dude, stop embarrassing yourself," Adrian sighed, rolling his eyes. "Wasn’t last night enough for you? I saw some memes on our way over, which were hilarious. Of course, you won’t find it funny."

"Enough!"

Lucas was seething with rage. But even then, he knew there wasn’t much he could do about Adrian. He might love to act out, but after last night, he knew Adrian wasn’t someone he could mess with head-on.

To deal with someone like him, he would need Felicia’s help. But even then, he’d need to have Adrian drop his guard, which he wouldn’t do as long as they were together.

"We’ll explore the right side of the forest," Lucas announced, walking past them. "You can do whatever you want, or better yet, go fuck yourselves."

Adrian thought of another witty remark, but Sophia had enough and acted first. She secretly used wind magic to knock Lucas off his feet. He fell headfirst into the mud with a loud splash.

Lucas glared at Adrian with fury, only for Sophia to flip him off. Lucas and the rest were taken aback by this, as they didn’t expect an idol like Sophia to do such a vulgar thing.

"..."

Lucas looked defeated and walked off without speaking another word. Felicia and the healers hesitantly followed him.

"You beat me to it, Sophia." Adrian chuckled, shaking his head. "I didn’t think you had it in you."

"Sometimes, actions speak louder than words." Sophia winked, wrapping her arms around Adrian’s neck. "Besides, you have that effect on people."

"So, I’m the bad influence now?"

"Were you ever good?" Sophia lusciously whispered in his ears before planting a quick kiss on his lips. "Come on, we got work to do."

Adrian looked at her as she walked away and scratched the back of his head, "How did I ever get so lucky?"

<Because of me, of course.>

Adrian couldn’t see Lucina, but if he could, she’d probably be doing a hair flip right about now.

***

Gathering information regarding the dungeon was important. A single line of quest info would give them little information about what they needed to do, but it wasn’t enough.

"Protect the forest from being consumed," Adrian mumbled, sitting atop a tree and gazing around. "But protect from whom? So far, I haven’t seen any monsters around either, which is strange even for a quest dungeon."

"Adrian! I found something!" Sophia’s voice echoed, prompting Adrian to jump off and get to her.

"What is it... what the hell?"

Adrian was expecting to see anything but the corpse of a healer who had departed along with Lucas and the rest. However, it was strange. Lucas’s group were in the opposite direction, far from the spot where they found the healer’s corpse.

It was only logically possible for the healer to end up there if they had teleportation ability. But Adrian had already asked them about their skills, and teleportation magic wasn’t one of them.

’Moreover, even if they had teleported here, it wouldn’t have gone unnoticed by Fenris. First the lack of monsters and now this... something is off about this dungeon.’

But then something else happened that got Adrian’s attention.

[The ???’s Egg licks its lips in anticipation of chaos.]

"What?"

It was the last thing Adrian expected to happen, and he rushed to check the egg, only for it to start shaking in his hands.

[The ???’s egg smiles at the User.]

However, the egg wasn’t the only one behaving weirdly as Fenris suddenly began barking at... nothing.

"What the hell is happening here?"

Even Sophia was baffled when, suddenly, a loud explosion shook the entire forest. A moment later, a massive blue mushroom cloud rose in the air.

[Weeping Forest’s consumption has begun.]

[Current Progress: 1.2%]

"I don’t like this..." Sophia mumbled, channelling her wind magic to detect any hostile presence around. But there was nothing.

"Let’s find the rest," Adrian replied, placing the egg back in his inventory and climbing on Fenris’s back.

Sophia followed suit, jumping behind him. However, they didn’t need to go far when they found another corpse... it was Lucas. But unlike the healer, his corpse was in a much more gruesome state.

His chest had been ripped open, and all his internal organs had been turned into a mush. They didn’t have to look further to find another corpse. It belonged to the other healer in a similar condition as Lucas’s body.

"...fuck, what the hell is going on here?" Adrian wondered.

"Where is Felicia?" Sophia pointed out. "She was with them!"

Instead of replying, Adrian pointed out the broken armour. It was the one Felicia had worn. However, they only found her armour, not her, which meant two things.

Either the thing which had attacked them left nothing behind, or it had taken her with it. Neither case looked good for her well-being. But Adrian couldn’t care less about her.

Lucas was an S-rank hunter like Amelia and Vesper. If something so terrible could happen to a tank like Lucas, then there was no saying what would happen to them.

"...go faster, Fenris. We need to find them."