Three wolves as big as me appeared in front of us. Their blue fur was illuminated by the crystals on their backs, highlighting their furious facial expressions.
Crystal Wolves were D-rank monsters, mostly appearing in cave-like dungeons like the one we were in. Their fur had magic resistance properties, and their skills were suited for short-distance combat, so they weren't easy opponents to handle... of course, if one wasn't overpowered.
As soon as the monsters appeared, he signaled us not to engage in the fight. He pointed his unsheathed sword towards the wolves approaching us.
His sword was emitting a blue aura, filling the room with tension... and with untraceable speed, he swiftly decapitated all three monsters in one go.
I was in awe since, even though I knew he was strong, he was much stronger than I had expected. With his skills, he could be in an important position within the Red Knives Guild.
"Porter, handle the bodies," he said, loud enough for me to hear.
I nodded and pulled out my trusted knife, which I carried along with my armor. I got closer to the monster corpses, and despite them being dead, the intimidating feeling wasn't.
I bent down and started cutting the wolves' stomachs through their weak spots while others moved forward. I reached out my hands, and grabbed what it was the most important.
"Oh, what a good Mana Stone," I said.
Mana Stones were essentially the most important reason for dungeon hunting to be one of the best jobs in the world. After much research over many years, people managed to use them as fuel. As fuel, it was considered far better than nuclear energy, having no waste and high conversion efficiency.
I placed the stones in my backpack and ran towards the group so I wouldn't get lost in the maze-like dungeon.
Things went normally, just like they should, and I was happy, despite lacking the energy to show it due to my exhaustion... and this happiness would have lasted if it weren't for what I noticed in the fights.
As we went deeper into the dungeon, I felt that Mark was getting exhausted, far more than he was supposed to be. We hadn't been inside the dungeon for too long, so his exhaustion seemed strange, but I brushed it off, thinking my mind was making assumptions... until.
Slash-! "Ugh, I need healing," said Mark after killing another pack of Crystal Wolves.
"I'm coming," said the healer, who was standing beside me.
As the healer tended to Mark, I walked to the wolf corpses to take their magic stones. I cut their stomachs, and with my agile hands, I extracted their mana stones.
The stones felt bigger than the ones I had collected before. Though it wasn't too much of a difference to be worrisome, I felt like something was wrong with the monsters.
"Hey, Mark, stand up. More monsters are coming," shouted the Archer.
As a porter, I knew being a nuisance in a fighter's job could result in deadly mistakes, so without looking around, I quickly placed the stones in my backpack and dashed to the back row of the team.
The healer ran with me, and Mark stood ready for the fight. Although nobody was saying it, everyone knew that something wasn't right, and my doubt grew stronger.
"M-Mark, something isn't right," said the archer.
"What's happening?" he asked.
"The wolf is red, and bigger than usual."
Ger-! The wolf appeared in front of us with a fearsome aura. Its size was twice that of a typical Crystal Wolf, and its fur was red, unlike the blue color of a normal Crystal Wolf.
"What! What's an Alpha doing here?! Did the boss got out of the room? We aren't here for the boss, but we can handle it," he said with a not-so-pleased expression.
"M-Mark... there are two... two red wolves."
Crystal Alpha Wolves were C-rank monsters at their core, and their appearance in a D-rank dungeon as a boss wasn't something unusual... but a dungeon always had a single boss if it was a boss-type dungeon.
"Oh no," I muttered after realizing the situation.
It wasn't widely known, but as a porter, hearing some information wasn't so far off. In rare cases, so rare that not every Awakener knew its possibility, when assigning ranks to new dungeons, a dungeon's overall mana could decrease for mere minutes, thus decreasing its rank in the evaluation process.
Such things only happened when residents of dungeons would either learn new skills or use a powerful one to the point of fluctuating the existing mana.
Cling-! The archer began to shoot his arrows as soon as both wolves became visible to the party. Mark started preparing to activate his skill, watching the two monsters to see if they would do anything. Among them, there was only one person who wasn't doing anything.
I looked around to see any opportunity, and when I found one, I ran and dragged Sean, the rich kid, from the front row to the back of the formation.
"Are you insane?! What are you doing standing there?" I asked with frustration.
"What? Is something wrong?" he said, clueless about the impending danger/
At first, I wanted to question his sanity, but after thinking for a bit, I understood him. He wasn't experienced at all, and being beside a high ranker made him feel quite confident and protected… but that wasn't the case anymore.
Mark had used most of his skills in the fight, thinking that the party could help him later on, so all of them were under cooldown. Also, the party wasn't mentally prepared for seeing two C-rank monsters in the middle of the dungeon.
"We've got to move. Now," I said as soon as I saw the fight between the wolves and others start.
"No, what are you saying? You want me to depart from the party? Is it some sort of test to see if I could be a good awakener?" he said, as clueless as he seemed.
"If we don't go back now, we might turn into a liability. I've got experience in these situations—trust me."
"No, again, I won't com-!"
"I NEED HEAL!" shouted Mark, stopping Sean's speech.
After seeing the situation of the fight, Sean stopped and looked over the situation. The healer was trying his hardest to heal the damaged Mark, and Mark was handling two boss-level monsters at once.
I took Sean's hand and started running with as much force as I could muster. Although Sean was an awakener and had enough strength to stop me, he unconsciously ran after me.
We were running away from the fight scene, and thankfully, I had memorized all the paths we took, so getting outside of the dungeon shouldn't be that hard... it shouldn't.
Sean stopped after a while of running and said, "We should go back. Mark is a strong awakener, so he probably killed the monsters by now."
He seemed to genuinely believe that statement, but I replied, "You might be right, but there's a chance that we would be a problem if we return. We should go outside and ask for help."
"No. If my father finds out about this, he would kill me."
"Then choose. Do you want to die by monsters or by your father?"
"How dare yo-!" he got cut off once again, but it wasn't by me nor another person... it was something much worse.
A Crystal Wolf appeared from a corner as if it was waiting for us. The party must have missed it, which it wasn't unlikely.
"Ugh, I knew we should have stayed with the team," said Sean, and started running back to the team... or so he thought.
"Don't go that way! It's the wrong path!" I shouted, but he didn't listen and continued running.
I turned and saw the Crystal Wolf looking at me angrily, waiting to get its revenge for the other wolves. We were looking into each other's eyes, waiting for one to act... and of course, I wasn't going to let the wolf take it.
I quickly unequipped my backpack and opened it. The wolf dashed towards me, but I narrowly dodged it.
From the backpack, I searched and took out a small ball wrapped in newspaper, giving it an insecure feeling. I threw the ball in front of the wolf with as much strength as I had.
The ball exploded and created a small cloud of dark mist around the wolf. The wolf started whimpering, with its eyes closed, and began to walk back.
The ball was something I personally made, exclusively for monsters with sensitive noses. It contained pepper, gunpowder, and a lot of other things.
I took the time and went in the direction that Sean went. Since the party missed a Crystal Wolf, the chance of missing another one wasn't unlikely, so I didn't want him to encounter one.
After a long run, I stopped at a room with no more passages. There was a cliff at the very end of the room, with a depth I couldn't see from where I was standing. I saw Sean standing with an angry expression on his face.
"You. You know where we are. Take me to the party now!" he commanded.
"I won't. Do you know what's at stake here?! Risking now wont do a thing," I said, trying my hardest to intimidate him.
"So be it. I won't come with you. I can just take the corpses and join the group," he replied.
"Ugh, you moron," I said in exhaustion. I didn't want him to go there and decrease the already low chance of their success.
I was going to talk to him once again, but when I looked up, I saw something a little different. His face was pale as if he saw a ghost in front of him. I looked to the room's entrance and saw the Crystal Wolf I had powdered before.
The wolf was limping around with its eyes closed, and its nose sniffing... yet its ears were changing direction towards the sound, something I had completely forgotten about.