"What the hell is this..." I whispered, unable to even blink.

It had a humanoid figure, but its upper body developed exponentially in comparison to its thin legs. Covered in a greenish tone, it had a long nose and pointy ears. There was only a rag around its hips as it looked at the distorted camera. Its eyes glowed yellow in the dark, its expression revealing a row of crooked, yet incredibly sharp teeth filled with cavities. That thing was smiling, looking at something past the camera.

"What the hell is this mutated photoshopped filth?" Logan swallowed, equally startled as I was.

I had never heard of a mutation that could change an entire human's anatomy. No, I did, only in theory. I just never got the chance to ever see something like that in person.

"That's what happens when you don't properly take care of your injuries," Edward grumbled, who seemingly knew the contents of the picture without even taking his gaze from the road. "Although minuscule, there's still a chance you might turn into a monster. You'll simply die in most cases, though. So I wouldn't be too concerned if I were you. I doubt either of us would turn into such a creature instead of simply dying."

You'd probably be eaten by those monsters. Or succumb to your injuries before you even got the chance to turn into one. And even then, the chances of actually surviving the metamorphosis were quite literally nonexistent.

"Is there any information about it?" I had to ask, my fear twisting into curiosity.

"He's definitely not a hunter," Edward said with a feeble shrug. Even if they were scratched or bitten, hunters couldn't transform into those creatures. Stronger immune systems, remember? "I doubt it's a regular citizen, too. They aren't allowed entry into the 4th District, after all. He's probably a mercenary, or used to be..."

"In the 4th District?" Logan rose a brow.

"Uh-huh," Mara answered the barbarian's question, pulling the horrific picture away from our judging gazes. "But how did you know about it, Edward? You never waste your time on the internet."

"Yeah, social media's a waste of time, and my perspective stays the same. But why wouldn't I be aware of job-related news?" he asked, somewhat baffled. In that aspect, I understood him. Although I believed it was a waste of time, I was still up to date on most news. To offer an example, consider Artemis. I've read all I could get my hands on about it. "No way I'm stepping foot into that place if that thing strolls around."

As they kept going on, I only felt relief. I got my hands on clarinadryl by exerting great effort, after all. Going back would've been depressing. Even though the chances we'd die were higher than getting mutated, there was no reason for us to worry about our skin turning green or growing another pair of eyes. That's not always the case, though, so I kinda, to a certain extent, pitied the anomaly which previously seemed to be a mercenary. Or maybe he was a porter. Who was I to tell?

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"But we should be careful," Logan grumbled, crossing his arms while wearing a frown on his face. It made him seem more intimidating than usual. "Rumors about that monstrosity are bound to attract some curious scavengers."

"What do you mean?" Mara questioned, finally having had enough of her phone. Our discussion was quite substantial, so she has been paying attention the entire time, despite not seemingly doing so.

"I mean, I'm not sure, but there should be some cretins out there that would love to make a quick buck out of that huge goblin's corpse."

"For research," said Edward, eyeing Mara from the corner of his eyes. "You know, dissecting it to figure out what exactly caused the mutation—"

"I know. I know! I'm not that clueless!" she hissed back, obviously offended by our assumptions. "I have a license too, remember?"

"Do you think that picture's edited, Edward?" I was the one to ask.

He was the only one within our party that never really joked around, so every issue I had was guaranteed to be addressed thoughtfully.

"Certainly," our driver with glasses replied. "But what Logan said a while back makes me worry. We should be on our guard for something other than those monsters if you were to ask for my personal opinion on the matter."

Scavengers could be even more dangerous than monsters. They were intelligent and moved rather proficiently during the day and night, in comparison with most monsters, who only held the advantage during the night.

I leaned my neck onto the seat. It was just high enough for me to rest without causing any pain. "What if—"

"Don't worry, Gray," Maria tried to reassure me in a gentle tone, glaring at me in the mirror. "You're our porter, right? Leave those kinds of problems to us."

"You can't exclude me from stuff like that forever—"

"Gray," called Logan. "Enough."

I only sighed. Perhaps my previous experiences trained me to expect the worst. There was nothing I could do about it. At the same time, it was reassuring to know that there were others ahead of me, ready to take action in my stead. It was something... I haven't experienced in a long time.

"We're not trying to undermine you, Gray," Mara whispered. "We've worked together for quite a while. We know how to coordinate our attacks. It's just the best decision for our party as a whole if you're not included in combat. For now, anyway..."

Yes. Leaving aside my selfish desire to be involved as a combatant, other than the accident that happened the last time I've been with them, I had no actual experience fighting beside others. Or monsters, for that matter.

"Thank you for explaining it to me," I told her, smiling faintly.

In most cases, others would simply shoo me off, but Mara genuinely wanted me to understand just why I couldn't recklessly hop into fights.

"Y-you're welcome," she stuttered, her cheeks and neck blazing red, obviously surprised by the fact that I accepted what she told me so quickly. My response put a grin on the barbarian's face as well, and even Edward gave me an approving nod. My lips were about to part into a smile, but I prevented them from doing so. Yes, those were the kinds of reactions that made me happy. I wasn't going to bother them by throwing a tantrum about wanting to be involved in fights as well.

If I'm going together with them, then maybe going even into that hellhole wouldn't be so bad.

I mean, whatever we did, it should still be a lot better than when I visited the world beneath our city.