The ship swayed back and forth. The stench of dead carcasses was still lingering in the air. A bloody red floor swirled with bones, and sinews of flesh were still present on the ship's deck as everyone was working together to clean it up. Even the surrounding water was bloody floor as Red summoned up ocean water to clear away the blood-stained deck.

Snow, Dairen, and Mike were using a mop to sweep away the rest.

It didn’t take long for the deck to be cleared, though the stench was still present.

Snow placed her mop away into the closet. She patted her hand and allowed herself to take a short breath, not to inhale the awful smell. Even washing the whole deck left a lingering smell of decay from the monster’s blood that made her stomach take a few turns.

“What should we do with the monsters in the ocean?” Red asked. She was looking over the rails.

“Leave them alone. They can’t do much of anything.” Snow replied. “Just don’t fall in.”

“They could disrupt the ecosystem in the ocean,” Red said with concern. “I could possibly try to aim at them specifically and wipe them out.” She rubbed her chin a few times.

“How would you do that?” Mike asked. He, too, was casting his gaze downwards and was not too pleased to see so many aquatic monsters circling around the boat like a shark.

“Give me a second….” Red pulled up her sleeves. She licked her tongue a few times and closed her eyes. A whirl of soft magic started to glow on her fingertips.

Small orbs of electrical fire buzzed around her. Her finger pointed toward the monster's direction. A beam of electrical energy shot into the waters. A loud zapping sound could be heard, followed by dead bodies floating up with their belly turned upside down. But that wasn’t the only creature that she had killed, as other small creatures of the sea were dead alongside it.

“I tried.” Red stopped her magical attack.

“At least they are dead,” Mike said. He leaned forward to take a better look but found no other movement that he could personally see.

An arrow flew past Mike’s face and into the water.

A dead shark monster with terrible teeth appeared flipping upside down to show off its belly.

“You missed one.” Dairen had said, appearing before them.

“Holy crap, Dairen. What the hell?! You almost took a piece of my face with that arrow.” Mike was rubbing his cheeks a couple of times as he glared at him.

“You’ll be fine.” Dairen put away his bow.

“What if I moved slightly to the right at the last minute?!”

“You wouldn’t.”

“How would you know?”

“Because I would know.”

“What?”

“Never mind.” Dairen shook his head. “So, how is it going on your end with the other guild leaders?”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Pretty bad. You?”

“Not so good as well.”

They both sounded irritated. Snow wondered what troubles they were going through to have such difficulties with the guild leaders. She knew many of them had their own personalities that would bring trouble amongst the people.

“Gilbert, Audrey, and Rodney are having a handful of troubles of their own. Luckily, they brought their best Players with them to help us out. Talking with these arrogant assholes…” He cracked his knuckles.

“I thought I was the only one who was having troubles with them. It's always a handful that gets difficult to work with,” said Dairen.

“Luckily, you probably won’t have to work with them all. We are splitting up into groups with designated tasks,” said Snow, “this should help us with that problem. We don’t even know what a SSS class dungeon even has.”

“Possibly, I don’t know.” Mike shrugged his shoulders. “The others should arrive on the other ships as well.”

“Good, We will need all the help we can get. At the rate that things are going, the number of monsters pouring out of the dungeon is dangerous enough,” said Snow. She knew that this was just the tip of the iceberg. Who knew what else would come out and possibly cause trouble to them.

For the next few days, they continued to fight against the swarms of harpies that escaped out of

the dungeon. The closer they got, the more vicious the fights became. Sometimes even lasting the whole night.

Snow was tired. She was propped against the wall with her head on her knee, falling asleep. The other Hunters were taking turns sleeping as they didn’t know when the next attack would be.

Eventually, the ship arrived at the base of the giant plant, slowly chugging along as the Players and Hunters were on edge, wondering what would happen. The trees and vines rustled as the ship went past. Even the roots in the water started to slither around but did not move toward the ship.

Snow woke up, hearing the bustling crowd of feet pitter-pattering on the deck as their voices became louder. Blinking awake, Snow stretched.

“What’s happening?” Snow asked.

Dairen answered, “We’re here.”

“Here?” She said groggily, and then it hit her. Her eyes became wide, snapping up awake.

Both she and Dairen quickly headed to the deck. They watched, knowing full well that whatever would happen next would affect them all. So far, they didn’t see any monsters come rushing toward them.

The ship settled next to a large stable vine. With a loud creak, the door opened for them to exit out.

All the guild leaders were the ones to stop first in front of the gate as they were bickering amongst each other, wondering who would go first.

“I’ll go first.” Snow voiced her opinion.

Everyone went silent, realizing that Snow would take the chance to harm herself for the betterment of all.

Mike and Dairen both spoke up. “No!” They reached out to stop her from going first. They were ashamed to let her go first.

“I got this. Stay behind.” Mike was the first to grab her by the wrist and pulled her back.

Dairen silently thanked him upon contact, nodding his head at him.

“You guys…” Snow rolled her eyes.

“Look, if you die, who's going to heal us or revive us?”

“You got the point.” Snow had forgotten that she was the only one who could revive them if something went terribly wrong.

“Exactly, we don’t want you to die,” Mike said. He stepped forward. He took a moment to look around before he decided to step forward with a bit more confidence. Even still, he took slow, languid steps to make sure nothing would happen.

The other guild leaders came to the edge of the ship, watching what would happen to Mike. For the next five minutes, nothing happened.

Giving the cue, Mike gave them a thumbs up.

The others started to get off the ship and eventually formed into their own little groups.

Snow made it out in the middle of the crow as she made it on the plant. When her first step landed on the foot of the plant, she noticed how hard the plant was.

“Everyone, listen up!” Mike called out to the large group of people. “We’ll be setting up camp here for the next couple of days as we wait for the other ships to arrive. On the third day, we will head straight toward the dungeon gates and enter together. Any questions?”

One of the guild leaders spoke up. “Yes, how long do you expect this expedition to take?”

“Possibly days, weeks, months, or maybe a year? I don’t know that answer as this is all our first SSS class mission. We need to stay vigilant to help one another to get through this dungeon safely.”

“Now, you all have been briefed on the groups. There are a total of seven major groups. From here on out, we will stick with our groups to push ahead. I don’t know what we will face or see. Hell, we came to get rid of this flower that spread its seeds out into the world. Who knows what would happen.”

Everyone nodded, understanding the goal and the reason that they will have to face.

The crowd dispersed, making temporary camps as they waited for the other ships to arrive. In total, a rough ten thousand Players around the world were estimated to arrive while another ten thousand Hunters as well. This was one of the largest gatherings of the best Players and Hunters alive to tackle such a gargantuan task.

People poured in and out of the different ships brought in a large number of Players and Hunters. The small camp of thousand Players quickly filled up to the brim.

Many players and Hunters sought out Snow, asking for advice, taking pictures, and even trying to get in on her good side. But was stopped by Dairen, who would glare them down with an intense stare, which turned most away.

Still, Snow had to deal with the people one at a time, advising, teaching, and even healing a few who had ailments that they could not get rid of by themselves and specifically came in the hopes that Snow would be able to break it for them.

For the next three days, Snow was unusually busy. Her mind was calm, actually enjoying the process of healing and counseling people one step at a time. Not really paying attention to the monsters that would be spewed out by the gates. The monsters were gobbled up in seconds by the giant plant, allowing them temporary safety.

Everyone was still paying attention to what was happening on the giant plant they were on as they didn’t want to be part of the plant's food.

Snow personally kept watching its magical energy fluctuating between different points in time. She noticed that whenever the plant ate the monsters that came out of the gate, the plant’s energy would increase over time to the point she wondered if it even had a cap off point.

Suddenly, while Snow was finally alone, she heard a rustle to the side.