The half-dead monster was standing back up all of a sudden and its attack took everyone by surprise. Horas noticed it first but that did not mean the others did not notice the attack as well.
“Everyone, be on alert.”
Horas yelled as loudly as he could and in time for Nash and Lucas to dodge the half-broken bade of the mantis monster behind them.
“What the hell? Why is it still alive? I am sure I pierced this thing in its heart.”
Nash complained as she watched the mantis give a loud yell before attacking the group again. Her bow was making back-attacks but the mantis seemed faster than before.
Not only was it avoiding all the attacks, but also adapted to their moments. Soon it would outclass Nash and become a real threat to them. And as the monster adapted, it was also evolving.
“W-What is happening? I never heard about a monster coming back from the dead.”
Lucas recalled all the lessons he had ever taken and he was certain that none talked about such a possibility. The mantis was an oddity and this dungeon was unstable all of a sudden.
“Shit, this is not good. Listen, kids, this situation is not one you will learn about in class since it’s rare but it can happen. The monster is evolving here which means the level of his dungeon is rising. It is no longer an F-class dungeon.”
Instructor Harris quickly explained as he took Horas in his arms and dodged the mantis.
Generally, such a dungeon would have been a cakewalk for an A-class adventurer like him. But he had compressed his powers to fit into the F-class dungeon.
He is no better than an F-class adventurer right now, but with just better reflexed and body control. He would not be of any help to these kids.
“What do we do? My attacks are not having an effect anymore.”
Nash was panicking and she failed to see the blade heading toward her torso. She did avoid the attack in the end, but it left her with a scar on her face which slashed right across her nose.
Now that things were happening, he remembered worrying about such an event. But only in a flash-back scenario where a dungeon had evolved all of a sudden.
And he remembered a certain adventurer in the early parts of the novel who had a grudge against the mantis dungeon and had a pretty one-sided rivalry with clearing it.
As far as he remembers, the adventurer had been pretty pissed off when the main character had cleared the dungeon before her.
‘Ah, so it was this dungeon. So does that mean I am going to die here? Someone did die in here, right?’
Horas did not remember everything but he did remember that someone died in there. And he knew that he was not supposed to be here today. The story was starting to divert from its intended path already.
“Kids, calm down. This is an emergency so I will call the front office and ask for special permission to close down this dungeon. There is no need to worry.”
Instructor Harris tried to calm everything down but his efforts seemed to be in vain. The more he tried to instruct, the louder that mantis yelled. It was trying to muffle their instructor’s attempts to take charge.
“Tsk, what a horrifying monster. It’s almost as if it’s gaining intelligence as it fights.”
That was not entirely impossible since Horas had written some monsters like that. But they were generally higher-level monsters that were only supposed to appear much later.
Had he written the mantis-like that? Wasn’t this too early in the timeline for such a thing to happen? Horas did not remember the mantis being that big of a threat in the real novel.
“Lucas, are you alright?”
Nash’s loud yell vibrated the place and Horas watched with wide eyes as Lucas was smacked down hard on the ground. There were a few broken bones that resulted due to the impact for sure.
The only condolence was that Lucas was not dead yet.
“Shit, stay away from him, you freak. How dare you come here and harm us like this.”
Nash was losing it from fear and her rational judgment was being impaired. She was attacking the mantis but the monster did not stop. its hard shell had no impact even when Nash tried her best.
It seemed to be the last day for Lucas.
“Darn it. I will take responsibility for my actions later. But no one else is dying on my watch.”
Instructor Harris decided that he could not take it anymore. He needed to save Lucas from his death and Horas felt the sudden bout of energy surrounding him.
The mantis also turned toward their direction, its claws raised in anger and fear as it changed directions.
A new threat had appeared and the mantis’s attention was split toward this new target. It let out a terrifying yell as it charged toward instructor Harris.
“Sorry for the hassle kid, but looks like you are stuck with me for now.”
Instructor Harris apologized before he jumped high to avoid being crushed by the mantis. It seemed to stagger the mantis enough that it yelled in rage. Its prey had escaped its clutches.
The mantis had developed human intelligence but not enough to form all aspects of awareness. Instructor Harris used his sword to cleave the mantis shell cleanly and then burned him for good measure.
“Good riddance. I guess it was not a big deal after all.”
Instructor Harris boasted as he came down from his high. Around the group, the dungeon began to collapse.
Due to a high adventurer’s magic, the F-class space could not handle it anymore and disintegrated into dust. All the monsters and their materials inside were reduced to ashes.
“Instructor, I think we caused a huge scandal. It will not affect our social score, right?”
Nash asked with a heavy heart but she seemed to have accepted her fate already. They would all be fined for the collapse of this dungeon, even Horas.
“Ah, don’t worry about it. I will take care to explain this situation to the higher-ups somehow. You all just need to believe in me.”
Horas did not believe in instructor Harris and nothing could make him believe the elder man right now as well. They were all doomed.
……………………
The dungeon association’s office was quiet today. It was certainly a first for every buddy branch and the members could not help but question this sudden luck.
And that was why everyone was on edge right now. As a rule, such a period of calmness was generally accompanied by something bad happening.
*Ringggggggggggggg*
No one was surprised when the alarm started blazing all of a sudden. The day would have been more unnerving had this alarm not blazed to like all of a sudden.
“Finally. It was about time for the alarm to blaze.”
“True. I was getting worried when the alarm did not sound.”
“So, wanna bet what went wrong? I think it might be a sudden eruption of monsters. Or maybe it’s an extraction because someone managed to chew more than they could bite?”
The branch busted out in gossip as soon as they got a chance to do so. The branch had gotten lively all of a sudden when the front door opened.
Everyone went quiet once again as section chief Samuel entered the base. He was a straight-laced person who did not enjoy bantering around and generally expected perfection from his employees.
In other words, he was a killjoy and everyone was on edge as soon as they noticed him entering.
“What is the matter with this alarm?”
Section chief Samuel and no one replied. They had all forgotten to check up on the emergency since they were not emergencies most of the time.
Finally, an employee checked up on the situation and he went pale. Everyone else noticed this sudden quietness as well but they respected the section chief enough not to speak up when he was standing in front.
“S-Sir, it’s a Code White. An F-class dungeon is evolving and Instructor Harris put out a request for power release.”
Everyone was shocked at those words.
It was impossible odds for a Code White to happen, especially in a dungeon as low as F-class. Those monsters were not aware enough to undergo evolution.
“S-Sir, I am afraid that the dungeon collapsed due to instructor Harris’s aura. What should we do now? We had requests for that dungeon pending.”
The section chief looked ticked off at his staff. He had invested a lot into that F-Class dungeon and now it was gone.
But he could not say anything in the face of a Code White situation.
“You all, stand back. I will take care of this situation myself and talk with Instructor Harris. Expect your salaries to be cut in half this month.”
The employees wanted to reduce their section chief’s words but they could not. They had messed up after all and they did not have enough authority.
“I knew I should have stayed at home today.”
An employee moaned out as he watched his bank account shrink. Especially after paying all his debts, he would be in the bottom of red this month as well.
