All twenty members of the dungeon raid assembled outside the gate. There were a variety of different kinds of armor and equipment that everyone had equipped, with little to no sense of synergy, as almost everyone here did not know each other before that day. None of the people here belonged to any major guild.
The highest rank present was a singular C-Rank Hunter who had the responsibility to lead everyone today, with the rest of the members belonging to D-Rank or E-Rank.
Kyoji stared down at the ground as he clutched his chest tightly. He didn't even feel the sharp claws of his gauntlet digging into his skin as he started hyperventilating. This had been occurring for a few days now, but it seemed to increase in intensity as he stood in front of the Gate.
This same thing had happened before a few rare times, and for him, it was not a good sign.
He was not supposed to be a part of this raid, but he had specifically requested the Association to be put in this squad. A feeling pulled him towards this place, as if a part of him long lost was here on the other side of the gate.
And since he was a D-Rank Hunter, he was easily accommodated into this low-rank squad even at the last moment.
He felt a shadow fall on him, which caused him to look up to see one of the hunters, a middle-aged man with concern etched on his face. The man asked him, "Are you fine, boy? Or would you like to stay out of this?"
Kyoji stayed silent for a few moments as he calmed himself down before replying, "*cough* Yes. Yes, I'm fine, Mr. Saburo. Just a last-minute anxiety attack. Haha!"
He passed it off with a wry smile while fixing his light armor and gauntlets and prepared himself, internally praying that nothing unfortunate would happen inside.
Saburo looked at the retreating figure who slowly walked up in front of the gate, a hint of sympathy in his eyes. He was a veteran in this Hunter business, so he was familiar with PTSD and all kinds of trauma that hunters go through.
.
"Fireball!" One of the mages cast a spell which immediately turned one of the goblins into cinders. The mage relaxed a little to catch his breath to prepare another spell, not noticing the small goblin assassin who sneaked up on him. The goblin was about to pounce on the mage when a fist suddenly grabbed the goblin and, with a swift motion, ripped its head off its shoulders.
The mage jumped back a little in surprise, finally noticing the goblin. Kyoji looked at the mage while cleaning the blood off his gauntlets and warned, "Be more careful next time."
He immediately dashed into action to slay more of the monsters, just something to keep his mind busy so as not to think about his bad premonition.
Suddenly, the leader of the raid, a C-Rank ice mage, called everyone together. He was the strongest and also the most experienced among the hunters here, so naturally everyone heeded his commands. All the hunters assembled in front of a corpse of a goblin who had its right half had been smashed to bits by a blunt weapon of some kind, along with the corpse of a small lizard.
'Why did Ichiro call everyone?' Kyoji screamed internally.
"Inspect them carefully," the leader, Ichiro, instructed.
But there was no obvious feature that attracted everyone's attention. It was common for different kinds of monsters to coexist with goblins in a dungeon. It would be more uncommon if goblins were the only monsters in a dungeon. So nobody paid any mind to a goblin that kept a monster lizard as a pet.
"Its eyes!" one of the archers pointed out suddenly. The cold, dead eyes of the goblin had a thin slit as a pupil. It looked more like a snake's eye than a goblin's.
"Is it growing scales?" More inconsistencies also revealed themselves as people started noticing how the filthy skin of the goblin had started growing a few scales in some parts. The scales were almost indistinguishable from the usual dirt or rocks that goblins usually have stuck on their skin, which explained why no one noticed it until now.
"..." Everyone stayed silent about this development. Nobody knew how to react. All these years ago, since the first gate opened until now, the knowledge about monsters has always stayed the same. There has never been any known information of a monster changing or evolving inside the dungeon. So this might be a monumental event in history.
'Should we head back, or should we clear the dungeon?' Ichiro contemplated silently.
If he headed back, he could give the rights of the dungeon to the Association, and he could get a small reward for it.
But... if he cleared it, this squad would be the only group that held the only remaining specimens of monsters showing evolution. And if he could sell those, he was confident that he could become rich enough to live lavishly for the rest of his life.
He was usually not a person motivated by greed, but the opportunity to never have to risk his life again in dungeons attracted him greatly.
Also, the monsters might have shown some signs of evolution, but goblins were still goblins. Evolved or not, they were still extremely weak. And since the ambient mana that he sensed in the dungeon was still the same, he was confident that the Dungeon was still an E-Rank Dungeon.
"Take a 5-minute break! We will clear the rest of the dungeon after this!" he announced.
"Everyone! Try to keep your kills as clean as possible! The more pristine the corpse, the better," Ichiro added before heading over to talk with some of the other hunters on how they should attack the boss battle.
Kyoji sat down on the ground, desperately trying to calm himself, as he felt that something was definitely wrong in this dungeon.
But he couldn't leave the raid. He had to find out the truth behind the source of his premonitions. It didn't matter if his search for the truth killed him.
Suddenly, a tremor traveled through the dungeon. Everyone looked around in confusion, trying to find out the source of the tremors, when a low-pitched hum rang throughout the surroundings. No, it was not a hum—it was a growl of a beast.
Kyoji looked down, as mysteriously, he understood what the growl said-"The vessel is here."
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Give me ideas on what you want to see in this fanfic. Anything works. I have an almost concrete storyline ready for this fanfic, but your ideas will give me a good reference board for if I am ever stuck on any part of the story.
I would be grateful for any kind of ideas. What age the main character will be? Which country does the MC live in? The MC's involvement in the original storyline. What abilities will he have? Which characters will he fight? Anything and everything works. Just provide me with ideas. And I will update this fanfic at the earliest.