Nobody spoke for a moment after Marcus finished.
They stared at the bodies—or tried to avoid doing so.
"Pale stalkers," Nia had guessed.
Marcus still hadn't replied. He crouched by the nearest body, the one with the cleanest wound, studying the cut and the positions of the others like he was testing a theory before speaking.
"Marcus," Ares prompted.
"It wasn't a monster," Marcus said. The group took this in. "Then a hunter?" Ares asked.
"Most definitely, but—" Marcus paused. "For as long as I've been a hunter, I've never seen a kill like this. The evidence is there, but at the same time, it feels inhuman."
"You mean the way the deaths occurred," Ares said, and Marcus nodded. "It's likely a Serial-killing hunter."
"Most serial-killing hunters either leave others with stab wounds to let them die, or they cut their heads off. This is similar, but it feels more erratic."
"Is that so?" Henry asked.
"Yes." Marcus stood. "The way these people were killed felt like the killer wanted to take his time, but couldn't. And it just shows how strong they are, being able to kill so many in such a short time."
The silence that followed felt different from before.
"Another participant," Venia said.
"Seven bodies," Ares said. "That means they were a group. Same size as ours."
"Or they ran into a group," Jones suggested.
Nobody clarified which was worse. Things are just getting more and more tense. Ares frowned.
"Should we just leave and stop this?" The thought crossed his mind, and he could tell it was on the others minds too.
;But if we go back, what would they do to us?' Another worry followed. Would returning mean they were seen as failures? And then what?
Still, this was the life of a hunter: hunt, survive, escape danger, try not to die, and make money off it. How could he accept that everything he'd endured was for nothing? Could he really go back to his old life without seeing this through?
His mind went to the promise he made with Riley.
He swallowed hard—too many thoughts, no time to sort them. 'I'm sorry, Riley, I will come back, but not after I've gotten what I came here for.'
"We need to keep moving," Ares said, resolute.
"I'd agree with that," Henry replied, striding past everyone and heading deeper.
It was the first time he'd agreed with Ares without adding a qualifier, despite their last conversation.
Ares moved forward, with Nia following without hesitation, and Marcus joining in.
Jones and Sylvie exchanged a glance, weighing their options, before deciding to move as well.
"What am I getting myself into?" Venia muttered as she followed.
They quickened their pace despite the lingering fatigue.
Jones shifted his shield to guard more of his left side,
Venia kept her hands near her pistols without drawing them,
Sylvie fiddled with her bow while walking and nearly tripped a few times,
Ares gripped his sword like it was part of him,
And Marcus kept his usual sharp smile while holding his daggers, ready to strike.
Nia and Henry, unarmed, walked on—one uneasy, the other carefree.
The tunnel stretched on, long and precise, utterly indifferent to its travelers.
"Nia, did you check how far it is to the second floor?" Ares asked.
She thought for a moment before answering, "Not really. I went a bit further after seeing those dead bodies, but I never reached the second floor."
'Great, still unknown.' They continued at a steady pace, cautious at first, but gradually relaxing.
...
"How long is this tunnel?"
They had been moving for about three hours, by their best guess, and not even counting the time spent fighting the pale stalkers.
It wasn't all bad, though—the mana seeping through the dungeon walls let them refill their reserves, ready for battle, which they wanted to avoid at all costs, though it did nothing for the fatigue and blisters from all the walking.
"Marcus, are National Classification Dungeons always this long?" Ares asked Marcus.
"National Class Dungeons are long, but not this long. This is the first time I've seen one like this," Marcus replied.
"So there's no telling how long we'll be here." Ares cracked his knuckles.
They continued on...until something appeared in the distance.
"Light. It's light."
Relief washed over them at the thought of escaping the darkness.
"Wait," Ares said, halting. "What Now!", Sylie argued.
"We go slowly. We don't know what we're walking into. Be careful and slow."
"Great, what's next? A massive wolf or something?" Sylvie was frustrated. She didn't want to fight, but she had no choice. If she ever got the option again, she'd definitely pass.
Slowly and cautiously, they made their way to the light from the left side of a hole. Ares was leading the front as the acting leader of this group should. When they got closer, he poled his head to peek.
His eyes widened in shock as he cursed, "Shit!" He muttered.
"What's happening?"
"What's going on?"
"Why did you say shit?"
"Stop cursing and tell us what's going on."
SHHHH.
All requests ceased as he shushed them.
"We have a problem. Pale Stalkers." The name sent a chill through everyone.
Venia, standing closest to Ares, swallowed hard. "How many?"
"I don't know, but they're bigger than the ones we fought before."
"Oh shit," Sylvie muttered under her breath, horror in her tone. There was no way they could take them on—not even close.
Ares peeked out again. The place looked like a massive circular hub from a sci-fi command ship, large enough to hold the vessel itself. The walls were riddled with countless holes, and the open space stretched wide enough to host five arena battles at once without interference.
At the center were the Pale Stalkers—close to a hundred, maybe more.
'What are they doing?' Ares narrowed his eyes, trying to make sense of it. He caught sight of one stalker standing atop something, lifting its head for just a moment, its mouth smeared with crimson. Then it bent back down.
'They're eating something,' he realized, and he didn't keep that grim detail to himself.
"They're eating something," he said, still watching the pale stalkers.
"They're eating… what are they eating?" Nia asked, echoing Sylvie's question.
"I don't know, but I don't want to find out," Ares replied.
"Isn't this better for us? Since they're eating, they're distracted. Isn't there a tunnel we can pass through?" Jones said with a stern expression.
"Yeah, but which one? There are a lot of them."
"Oh, hell," he muttered.
"I believe that must be the Boss's nest," Marcus said, drawing everyone's attention. "And what they're eating must be the boss of the first floor."
"The boss? How could pale stalkers easily defeat a boss?" Venia asked.
"I don't know, maybe it was their massive numbers—" Marcus began, but couldn't finish.
"Or maybe other participants defeated the boss and just left it there," came Henry's voice from the back. Ares nodded at his reasoning.
"I believe that as well.
But—
There are no signs of them fighting the boss."
"Maybe it was a quick battle. They either had great teamwork or someone incredibly strong with them."
"Either way, talking isn't going to get us to the second floor. We clearly can't move on without getting past these monsters unnoticed."
"I think I can help with that," Venia said, drawing the group's attention.
"And how, if I may ask?" Henry inquired. The black-haired woman replied, "With my stealth ability."
...
....
"I don't like this," Sylvie whispered, her expression a mix of embarrassment and annoyance.
"Just hold on."
"I am holding, just as you're holding onto my shoulders," she muttered, her hands gripping Ares' shoulders, while Nia held hers from behind, followed by Marcus, Henry, and Jones. Venia led the way at the front.
"How long will your stealth skill last?" Ares whispered as they crept halfway around the boss's nest, sticking to the wall on the right.
"Until my mana runs out, but with you all supplying me mana, we might actually make it through undetected."
Venia's skills as a gunsman hunter weren't limited to handling firearms or creating mana bullets.
Like snipers who rely on stealth to take out targets, her class granted her the ability to remain unseen by enemies within a certain range. She could slip past foes from afar without being detected and even conceal others' presence through physical contact.
However, the drawback was that it consumed far more mana than creating mana bullets—and that was just for one person. A group of their size wouldn't last a minute.
By maintaining direct contact to pass mana along the chain, as they were doing now, the duration of the skill could be extended.
"We're halfway there. I can see a giant tunnel up ahead," Venia said.
"And I'm guessing that must be the tunnel we're—"
GRRR.
The growl froze the group in their tracks.
It came from behind. Jones turned to see a pale stalker staring right at him, its guttural rumble echoing.
"Easy there, easy," he said, as if calming an aggressive dog—but this was no dog, and it didn't obey humans.
SSSSHHHRRRIIIEEEEKKK.
"GAH!"
The roar was so loud it made Jones flinch.
He yanked his shield from his back and smashed it into the pale stalker's head, slamming it against the wall. The force was brutal enough to crush its skull, and its body slumped to the ground.
"Jones, you've doomed us all," Sylvie muttered in a panic.
"You idiot-brained fool," Henry cursed.
"What have you done, Jones?" Ares demanded.
"What?" Jones asked, then suddenly realized his hands were no longer on Henry's shoulder.
Then, multiple shrieks erupted in the distance. Jones saw a horde—hundreds of pale stalkers—charging toward them.
"I messed up," Jones admitted. "You think!" Sylvie snapped.
"RUN!"
They bolted. Venia dropped her stealth, pistols blazing with mana bullets as it hit a few rushing targets.
"Save your mana! We can still make it to the tunnel," Ares shouted. "And what's stopping them from following us in?" Venia shot back.
Ares had a plan. "Henry!"
"I know, and I'm on it—just not yet," he said, as if he understood Ares' intentions. Ares didn't argue; he saw no need to with how cooperative Henry had been.
The closer they got to the wide tunnel, the closer the pale stalkers came. Sylvie even had Jones carry her like before, firing conjured mana arrows that left explosion after explosion in their wake.
Still, their numbers didn't seem to dwindle.
They reached the tunnel, and Ares shouted, "NOW!"
With a massive fireball already formed in his hand, he hurled it at the ceiling. The blast brought rocks crashing down, sealing the entrance and blocking the pale stalkers from getting inside.
"We're finally safe," Ares said, as everyone collapsed to catch their breath.
"My old age is kicking in now," Marcus joked.
"No jokes, please," Sylvie panted, lying on the ground, drained from conjuring so many bows.
"We survived," Jones said.
"No thanks to you," Ares replied.