The name was Seneos , 26 years old and Rank F Hunter. A random citizen with the lowest hunter rank and a strange name. He had gotten that rank by bribing a friend of his who worked for an institution called Korea's Hunter Guild.
Not many countries had a hunter guild, simply because not many countries could or would control their hunters. But in the end, even with such a low rank, Seneos was still nothing more than a random citizen.
Life was for a lack of better words...
"Incredibly shitty ! My life is so bad I wonder If I can even call it a life !" Had said the young adult who planted his head on the counter of the bar he used as stress relief. It was a small bar and in the ever expanding city that was Seoul, almost no one knew about it. It had become something of an HQ for low rank hunters because the drinks were cheap and it was close to the Hunter's Guild.
Then again given the salaries of low ranks hunters, they shouldn't even be spending the little money they had in drinks. However one didn't come back from a dungeon with an easy mind, unless they were actually trained. The people like him, they weren't trained at all.
It must have been why he had decided, on that fateful day, to act as a porter for a high ranked team. The pay was much better than what he would get from cleaning a low rank dungeon and he would finally get a chance to see just how the high ranked hunters were in real life. Everyone wanted to see them, they were celebrities or at least most of them were.
As such, when the day came, he was quite excited. Not only the Guild had trusted him with this task which meant they trusted him and so he would've a chance to get promoted after he finished the job, but he was also told that the dungeon was pretty much finished.
Seriously, such a high paid job and he only had to stand behind the hunters while they killed the boss. The risks were pretty much non-existent since the hunters would only be fighting the boss, so no random monsters could get behind his back and stab him. He actually heard that a porter got killed this way a few weeks ago.
Truly the job was dangerous, but not in this case. He couldn't be more pumped up. So he arrived at the entrance of the dungeon earlier than the team and waited like his feet were stabbed in the concrete.
After a few hours, Seneos had heard the heavy noises of motorcycles and was shocked to find out the people riding them were the members of the high ranked team. Usually those people would have personal drivers and would move around in priceless vehicles...Those guys had just arrived with the most random bikes he had ever seen. Hell even he could buy one of those if he stopped drinking for a few months.
This was...Bizarre. Maybe they were much more humble than the majority of high ranked hunters. The team looked quite unusual too. Normally a team taking on a dungeon boss would have at least a tank, a damage dealer, a healer and a support hunter who could debuff the boss or buff his teammates. This team had no support and had only one tank for two damage dealers and three healers.
' Well...I guess the three healers could make the tank virtually invincible if they are good enough. Those damage dealers look like mages so I guess they have some support skills too...It will be alright.' Seneos had thought at the time.
Everything would be completely fine. Most of them were B ranks and the tank was A+ Rank, the dungeon was of an unknown rank but that team had already cleaned it thoroughly. None of them looked even remotely fazed even though they had finished cleaning said dungeon a few days before. So basically, it couldn't be that dangerous a place to be in.
And the interior looked quite nice too. At least Seneos thought so as the team progressed through the dungeon and he followed them.
The dungeon was what the hunters from all around the world called a World-Type. To sum it up, instead of being just one place, the dungeon was an entire world. A small world of course, but it was still immensely huge compared to other dungeons. It had taken an entire month to be cleaned and to be honest...Seneos was certain they missed a lot of places.
He had a strange feeling as he followed after the team, as if he was observed. It was like hundreds of eyes were watching his every steps. He had said nothing since he didn't wanted to come off as rude. They most likely missed a few places here and there and the eyes Seneos felt on him were the ones of the rare monsters who survived.
He still couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong. He must've just been paranoid. It wouldn't really be new. Seneos wasn't exactly a brave man, or a good man actually.
If he had to describe himself he would say he is a coward, a selfish one at that and he also had the habit of lying to people...So basically, he was one completely normal guy who should've never become a hunter.
But well, you know what they say, money is sweeter than honey.
Blood though doesn't taste good at all, as Seneos discovered soon after entering the boss room. Said Boss had been an Orc Overlord, or really just a big orc who knew how to use weapons instead of just swinging them around like a moron.
It was defeated swiftly. The Tank had engaged the fight by attacking the Orc's feet. Cutting it had allowed the team to gain some time as the Orc was too busy screaming in pain to react. The damage dealers proved to be mages like Seneos had thought. One used fire while the other used some sort of strange ability that allowed her to manipulate bony hands attached to some dark cloud made out of shadows.
Seneos never understood how magic even worked. Which was weird since he was born in the generation that was actually taught about magic in school. But his professors always made the lessons more boring than they had rights to be. As such the only thing he remembered from those classes was: Fire is overrated, Thunder is overpowered. That wasn't much, but he was never a smart kid.
In the end even that slight bit of information seemed to be wrong. Because that long haired mage who manipulated fire sure as hell didn't look weak.
Hell the man burned half of the room and reduced to ashes everything except for the boss and his teammates. The room was a throne room, but now it looked quite weird. The ground and the walls were painted black by the fire, the pillars had disappeared as had the throne.
The battle had ended just after it had started, and Seneos had spent that time watching the hunters in amazement. Truly they were a world apart. He was only slightly stronger than a normal adult while those guys were similar to gods. And they weren't even at the top of the food chain.
But it was after that fight ended that Seneos soon understood why Greed was a sin.
"Huh ? Guys...Why is that wall vibrating ?" The tank asked. He was muscular man wearing nothing more than a pair of jeans and huge white iron gauntlets. Magic was truly a wonder to be able to protect a pretty much naked guy from the blows of a gigantic warhammer wielding orc.
"Man...The hell are you on about ? That wall isn't...." One of the healers had been about to refute the tank's claim, until he looked at said wall and saw that it was indeed, vibrating.
Before the other members of the team could ask those two what was going on, the wall started to open like a gate and Seneos immediately understood what was going on. He had never listened in school because he was certain nothing they taught him would be useful, however he had paid great attention when he was explained what the job of Hunter entailed. That one friend who worked at the guild was to be praised, because she was one of the only reasons Seneos even survived after that damn wall opened.
The other things to be thankful for were his cowardice and his survival instinct.
As soon as the wall opened and the ground rumbled, Seneos ran towards the boss and dived right behind it's corpse.
"Hey porter ! The hell you doing ?!" The fire mage yelled. All he got as an answer was the bag Seneos had been holding, thrown in his face.
"Why the hell did that guy just..."
"DODGE !!!!" The tank screamed as something came out of the secret room the walls had unveiled. It was like some sort of closet. In that Boss area, a secret room had just been discovered and the hunters weren't thankful in the slightest.
"A secret boss ?! How is this possible ? That Orc was B+ rank ! Was this dungeon an A rank one all along ?!" One of the healers, a girl who looked like she wasn't even old enough to drink yet, said. What had come out of the secret room was something the hunters had mistaken for a pillar due to it's sheer size. However it was a spear.
As Seneos heard the footsteps of doom closing in, he made sure he was hidden by the boss' corpse while he chanted something in his head.
'I'm not a traitor, I just want to survive ! I'm not a traitor, I just want to survive.'
While his survival instinct told him that he had done the right choice, he still didn't like pretty much abandoning the hunters. But he was just slightly stronger than a normal human, he couldn't do much against the monster that was producing such loud sounds by simply walking.
Plus, he might have become a hassle for the hunters if he had remained with them. They would've had to protect him and...And he was just searching for excuses. But in the end, as he heard the footsteps stop and the screams of the hunters...He knew he had made the best choice and the only reason he survived was because his cowardice made him hide so quickly.
'Jeol-Jong...Thank you, I'll make sure to pay you as many drinks as you want if I ever see you again !' He thought as the face of his friend who worked at the guild came back to him. If he really survived such an encounter this way....He might as well go play the lottery as soon as he was out.
'Please, ignore me !'
What Seneos didn't know, was that the creature that had entered the throne room was even worse than what he thought.
" What is this even supposed to be ! You ever seen something that looked like this ?!" The tank asked the fire mage.
"JUST FOCUS ON TAKING IT'S ATTACKS YOU MORON !" The fire mage replied before launching a fireball right at the face of the monster. It simply roared in response and went for the tiny fire mage.
The tank quickly used his gauntlets and their razor sharp claws to slash at the monster's right leg.
However, it was no use attacking blindly. Such a strong monster could only be defeated by hunters weaker than him by focusing on his weak points. Problem was, they didn't even know what those weak points were !
They had never encountered such a creature before. It was tall, immensely so, easily reaching the ceiling and even having to slightly crouch at time so as to not hit it. It had four arms and a sturdy body covered in what appeared to scales.
Those scales weren't hard enough to resist the Tank's claws, however it was pointless for him to keep attacking the monster's leg. It was basically like scratching the monster since he didn't even scream in pain and even ignored the tank.
"Goddamnit ! Boss, where are we suppose to hit it ?!" The Tank asked one of the healers, a dark-skinned man with blue hair styled in a high fade cut.
"How would I even fucking know ?! Just distract him ! Mages, hit his eyes !" The apparent leader of the team yelled. Seneos had first thought the tank was the leader of the team, but it seemed like judging people based on their strengh wasn't a good idea. Not that Seneos even heard what they were saying. He heard their yells and screams, but couldn't make out what they were actually saying. He sure as hell wasn't gonna try to hear though. He was good right where he was.
The situation became a little less chaotic once the mages hit the monster's eyes and temporarily blinded him....That was until one of the healers got a little too far from the fight.
"Huh ? My defense dropped ! " The tank noticed something was up, however he couldn't take his eyes off the creature. He had to stay focused, because it could kill him in a single instant. He was glad it had decided to fight barehanded instead of grabbing the spear it had previously thrown.
The tank was unaware of what had just transpired. The two other healers however saw just what had happened.
"Did..Did she just disappear ?!" The second healer asked her leader who started to sweat heavily.
"Oh for fuck sake. Everyone listen ! This is an arena type boss battle ! We can't get too far from the area defined as the 'arena' or else we will be....Killed or transported away ! I don't know what just happened to Jimin !!!"
This sudden realization stunned the hunters. This was their first time experiencing this type of battle, which was quite weird but Seneos wasn't able to hear them once again. Had he heard them, he would've started to suspect something was off.
Such high ranked hunters couldn't possibly have reached their ranks without going through at least one arena type battle. Of course there were many ways to rise to such ranks quickly, however whoever they were working for couldn't have possibly sent them into a potentially high ranked dungeon without having them go through various trainings.
Had Seneos actually been paranoid, he might have catched on some of those details and understood that this team wasn't all they seemed to be.
"We can't even run ?!" The tank exclaimed before looking up and seeing the creature's hand right in front of his face.
"ARGHHHH !"
He was sent flying to the other side of the room and disappeared just like the third healer.
The situation had just gone from bad to completely horrible.
"Boss, we won't make it without a tank !"
"Boss ! What do we do ?!"
" Boss....We can't run away, might as well give it everything we've got !"
He had to think fast. The last members of his team could be killed at any time. He could either fight or.....
"We're escaping this place !" The leader suddenly exclaimed. Before his subordinates could even protest, he grabbed the second healer and dragged her with him.
" WE CAN'T WIN AGAINST THIS THING ! EITHER WAY WE CAN DIE, BUT WE COULD SURVIVE LIKE THIS !"
"We don't even know if they died or if they were teleported away !" The fire mage countered. Unfortunately for him, his female colleague wasn't in the mood to listen to his claims, she was more in a surviving mood. As such she also grabbed him and ran after her leader.
"GODDAMNIT !" The leader yelled right before he disappeared with the second healer.
The shadow mage grit her teeth, closed her eyes and simply ran as fast as she could.
"...HELL DAMN RUN FASTER !!!" The fire mage screamed after he heard the loud footsteps of the creature and saw it running after them.
It launched it's hand forward in an attempt to grab the two, but they were able to leave the designated area and they disappeared right as the hand of the creature touched the fire mage's head.
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