John felt worried "Mike you're saying that your familiar healed you to the point that you don't have any signs or scars that it ever happened? Mollie have you ever heard of a heal like that" Mollie took a second to think "I haven't, most of the heals that I've seen have saved lives but wounds like the one you're describing wouldn't be something the healers I've seen could deal with, also I've seen some people healed after and they still had chunks or extremities missing, never like this, though I can't even see where you were a bit" John picks up the drenched equipment "looks like it also replenished your blood supply because I don't see you walking around otherwise" Mike looked at the clothes "were going to have to keep this a secret, I don't want Lilly to worry and pull us out of this dungeon" John dropped the equipment "you're going to have to be more careful out there because it looks like you found a warerat, this dungeon must have a higher level dungeon boss than expected... you have to be careful because it's dangerous and if you do defeat it then the dungeon will begin to close. You have to make sure you or your servants stay away from it until we are ready to leave this dungeon, the only good thing about this dungeon is the reproduction rate of the giant rats, so we could potentially keep this going for ever, if we stay away from the dungeon boss" mike put on a t-shirt "well that sounds great and all but now we have to be careful, and you two have to be ready to bail out of the dungeon if it shows up, I'm going to have rocky stay here with bonny, if at any time you see them act strange you need to drop everything and exit the dungeon, otherwise we are going to need to dismantle them off site" Mollies face lit up "that's a great idea, in fact i thought of it and have been looking at a couple places one of which is near the Gremi Guild" mike ears twitched slightly "you mean Lillys guild, that sounds perfect, but how much is that going to cost us? will we be able to afford it?" Mollie took out her tablet "with a 4 person party we could apply for this grant and the ARA would pay for it, all we need to do is apply and if we are accepted, we would have to sign a contract to basically enlist our party's services in case of dungeon breaks or other dungeon or monster related emergencies" John looked at the corpses that the summons were currently bringing in "Guys I don't think we should do that just yet, transportation and waste disposal cost can get expensive, we are neither producing enough quantity or quality to justify those expenses, we are working with monsters that don't make enough money with just the dismantled supplies, plus there's only 3 of us" Molly looks at mike "I could get peter to sign up as a party member..." john was confused "who is peter?" Mike and Mollie explain to John that Peter made equipment out of the previous materials dismantled by John. he was worried that he hadn't told such important information earlier but also understood that he had been working hard and hadn't stuck his head out from dismantling monsters except for this conversation "well sounds like everything is pretty much set"
Mike decided to continue exploring the dungeon and asked Mollie to get him camping supplies for a week and to have fresh supplies weekly, after receiving the supplies he set out on his own, john and Mollie expected him to return quickly so they didn't even say goodbye. They only looked at his back as he walked away surrounded by the familiars that surrounded him. After 3 days they started to notice that he wasn't coming back soon, so Mollie prepared more supplies just in case he needed them.
in the outside world, Lilly turned towards the TV in the guild as the news anchor reported breaking news. the appearance of portals that were classified as S rank since the measuring devices couldn't accurately read their strength. some portals were in the middle of nowhere, others were above historical monuments like pyramids, and the appearance of these portals worried Lilly. Lilly knew that the strongest dungeons were only A rank and even then, the strongest awakened had to team up to handle them safely, so finding portals that possibly even the strongest awakened couldn't handle even after teaming up made everyone nervous, especially those that understood the difficulties of the dungeons and the loss that came with them. the world's governments were on edge, and they all elevated their threat level. the world was expecting hunters to handle this new crisis, and the governments were getting ready to recruit their best hunters to attempt the dungeon runs.
Lilly grabbed her phone and sent out a group text for an emergency meeting, and she walked into the meeting room. She waited in silence as the guild members. the Guild members entered one by one and all sat down, the last to enter and sit down was Chance Holden (A rank, Job: Paladin), to his right was Lily Gonzalez (C rank, Job: Archer), Quentin Jones (B rank, Job: knight), Helena Ritter (C rank, Job: Elemental Mage), on the left side Cody Kerr (B rank, Job: Swordsman) and Mary Prolix (C rank, Job: Enchanter). Everyone was worried about the next words to come from their guild leader so they waited in silence "we shouldn't worry yet, the ARA is searching for the a team to enter the new dungeons but this is a large country so there are many guilds to choose from, I suspect that they will be looking for guilds with multiple A ranks" Lilly looked relieved "I'll ask Liv if there's any news on the parties their going to be forming" Mary looked anxious "I spoke with a friend of mine in the military, it looks like there was already an expedition that went into one of them in another country, there's been no word on how it went but it doesn't looks good so far" Chance grabbed at his chin "what country?" Mary just shrugged, "he didn't say... what he did say was that the military was thinking about enlisting registered awakened by draft... he let me know because he remembered I was in Las Vegas which is close to one of the portals found in the grand canyon, it's not for sure that they are going to explore it yet but since its one that isn't in a highly populated area. they might end up drafting from here" Everyone around the table looked worried, chances hand dropped from his chin "Even if it happens there are at least a dozen guilds larger than ours" Quentin looked at him "But only half a dozen with higher than B rank awakened and from those we would be the most disposable" Lily exchanged a glance with each other "Chance did you get Liv's message?" Chance sighed "yes I got it.... Everyone, we got a message from our contact in the ARA, the message only asked... is Lilith home?... This is the agreed phrase to warn the other to be careful... unfortunately, I agree with Quentin, so my order is... go see your families. You're all fired. " Everyone was quiet. Lilly and Quentin start to laugh "I'm sorry babe, but if you think you are alone, you're dumber than I thought" Quentin stops laughing "Our lives have been on the line every time we enter a dungeon, this will be no different boss" the rest of them laughed and Chance smiled at the fact that they were willing to follow him even in such a dangerous situation "guess we'll wait and see how this turns out".
days later Mike was still in the dungeon losing and making more familiars as they tore through nests, mike felt himself getting stronger the longer his servants fought, to him the feeling of his energy being boosted with every kill the servants made was like sipping coffee. Mike noticed that he felt less need to rest while the servants were on consecutive hunts. Two days without any rest, Mike climbed into a freshly cleared nest and saw the bodies. He could hear a voice whisper all around him. Mike turned to look at the voice, but it kept disappearing every time he turned to look at it, this wasn't the only time this happened, but he noticed it had been getting stronger, Mike was worried at first. worried that he was losing his mind, but after a while, the worry was replaced by curiosity about what the voice was attempting to say. Behind Mike dark smoke accumulated, he could feel the hairs on his arms erect and the shiver leading up to the back of his head, mike continued to feel the cold on his back until he turned around and finally saw the cloud of dark smoke similar, the color reminded him of the darkness that the servants become when they rest. out of the shadow like smoke, a skull was barely visible yet within it, the jaw opened wide, and a yawning sound could be heard "They are coming... they'll destroy it all. Their foul stench is getting stronger... there isn't enough energy here... come to me, hurry, and be careful of their false light..." The skull and smoke dissipated into nothing and disappeared. Mike did not know what was going on but he felt a familiarity coming from it, he did not fear it as he did not fear his powers, it felt like a warning but Mike couldn't help but think that it could be a trap.
Mike exited the nest only to find his new supplies with a yellow post attached to the size with duct tape with a simple message S.O.S. He immediately left for camp to find out what the SOS was for. When he arrived, Mollie and John were there with Peter, all of them working together and overwhelmed by the number of monster corpses. The moment Mollie saw him she dropped what she was doing and ran over "Mike your back..." Mike was worried. "What happened? Is everything ok here?" Mollie looked worried and replied, "We are okay, but there's been a lot of new strong portals that have shown up around the world." Mike's surprise and confusion were noticeable. "And why is that worth an SOS-worthy message?" "We just found out something on the news and thought you might want to know. The news says they are possibly S-rank Dungeons and that they are sending in an expedition team... the team is from the Gremi guild." Mike's eyes widened, and he yelled. "Where are they?" this surprised everyone, and John spoke over mollies silence "They already entered the portal at the Grand Canyon. " Mike dropped his things and ran out of the dungeon.
mike searched online for information on the portal, but it seems that other than those found in the middle of cities or around monuments the locations where kept secret by the respective governments, mike drove to the grand canyon and reached the tourist entrance which was empty, when he got there he saw people closing up the shops and a written announcement "Grand canyon tours have been canceled" mike heard a male voice from behind "you need to go home, we are closed for the next couple days" mike turned around "how do I get down into the canyon" the native American man looked at him in confusion "I don't think you understand, we are closed and the canyon is tribal territory so you're not going anywhere, we have enough with your government invading our land we don't want anyone else down there either" mike took out 3 hundred from his wallet and gave it to the man "this is just for you to point out which way they are" the man takes the money out of mikes hands and points south west "that way a few miles, its hidden inside cliff ruins... you'll never get close though the whole area is taken over by the military" the man was distracted momentarily by the money and when he turned to look at mike again he realized he stood there alone as the sun was setting.