After threatening to make Soren’s last moments a true living hell, the four of them then flew toward her hideout. They could’ve walked, but neither Hazel nor Astrid wanted to waste any more time with this and wanted to end it as soon as possible.

Before they left, Astrid and Hazel looted the corpses of Soren’s former party. Sadly, aside from extra arrows and throwing daggers, none of her allies had anything useful. While Hazel wasn’t expecting much since none of them was a mage like her, Astrid was a bit disappointed regarding the Ranger’s lack of unique items.

The bow was the same as hers, and none of the arrows were special. Needless to say, the group left very disappointed in the loot they acquired.

As the group flew in the air, Hazel and Astrid flew on Nycteris’s back while Soren hung from his mouth by the back of her collar. Just because the warrior was complying with the group didn’t mean she deserved better treatment. If anything, Hazel was being generous with Soren at the moment.

There were plenty of ways to drag her body toward her base aside from that. And most of them were even worse than hanging by Nycteris’s mouth.

Several minutes flew by before the group finally arrived at their destination.

“It’s down there...” Soren said, pointing down.

“Which building?” Hazel questioned.

“The one next to the large pile of broken barrels scattered along the street.”

Although it sounded like Soren was screwing with them, when Hazel looked down to check, there were in fact, broken wooden barrels scattered along the area, which meant she was telling the truth.

“Descend there, Nycteris,” Hazel told her familiar while pointing.

“Understood...!”

Once given another command, Nycteris rapidly descended back to the ground of the City Island. As they landed, Hazel and Astrid hopped off the Nightwing while Soren was once again dropped onto the ground without an ounce of care.

“U-ugh!” The warrior groaned. “You...could’ve at least told your monster to be more gen-?!”

Soren barely managed to finish what she was saying before her head was slammed against the ground via Hazel’s telekinesis. She then raised the warrior’s head as she saw blood dripping from her forehead. However, instead of being concerned, the mage simply stared at her with the same cold gaze like before.

“I told you to not insult Nycteris,” She chided. “That includes calling him a monster. Even if he was one. Do I make myself clear?”

Soren hastily nodded, not wanting to have another taste of the concrete by angering Hazel. Once they came to an understanding, the mage then nodded at Nycteris, who picked up her signal and proceeded to pick the warrior back up by the back of her collar.

“You’re being quite aggressive with her,” Astrid noted.

Hazel turned to the dark elf with a cocked brow. “Is that apprehension, I’m hearing?”

According to Astrid, she had a very rough relationship with humans. She didn’t despise them, but also didn’t fully trust them either. And yet, Astrid appeared to be uneased with Hazel’s attitude toward Soren.

...Or so she thought.

“Are you joking?” Astrid scoffed. “To me, that woman is getting everything she deserved. If anything, she needs to be punished more.”

“I can still hear you two...!” Soren snarled which Hazel and Astrid ignored.

Stopping in front of the line of buildings in front of them, Hazel looked over at Soren with an expectant gaze.

“Which building?”

“The one in the middle,” Soren responded while pointing at the building in the center.

Much like the rest, it was wedged between two buildings but gave off no significance or unique features like signs, color, or anything else of the sort. Hazel stared at the ordinary building for a moment before shifting her gaze to Soren.

“Are you playing with us?”

Soren sighed. “If I did that, you would be sending me to a gruesome and prolonged death. Why would I risk that?”

“True.” She shrugged.

Taking her word for it, Hazel marched over to the middle building along with Astrid and Nycteris following behind her. Getting to the door, she turned the knob and slowly opened it. The door creaked loudly as it opened and revealed the inside of the building.

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“Do you see any traps?” Hazel asked the dark elf as they both took a peek inside.

“Not from what I’m seeing. But just to be safe, you go first.”

Hazel turned to glare at the dark elf. “Haha. Just get in there already.”

Astrid followed her request and was the first to enter the building. The gray-skinned Ranger carefully strolled further into the place, looking around as she did to spot any traps that could be placed inside. But, after a bit of observing, Astrid turned to Hazel while giving her a thumbs up.

“We’re clear. No traps.”

Hearing this, Hazel expelled a sigh and walked inside herself. Entering the building, she noticed that this place was a general store. There were several shelves with various items stacked on them ranging from tools to even bag food products.

However, when Hazel took a closer look at the food, she realized that they were all empty, leaving only dust inside the hollow bags. She even pulled one out and emptied it just to witness dust pour out and scatter in the air.

Hazel stifled a groan before tossing the bag aside. Turning around, she noticed that Nycteris hadn’t entered yet as he patiently waited outside with Soren still hanging from his mouth. The mage stared at her familiar for a moment, looking confused.

“Nycteris, aren’t you going to come in?”

Could it be that he needed to be invited in? He was a variant of a vampire, so that could be the case. However, Hazel was sorely mistaken.

Just then, she heard the Nightwing make a low screech almost like he was whimpering.

“The door...It’s...too small...”

“Oh...?”

Hazel took a look at the entrance, realizing that her familiar was correct. It was too small for Nycteris to walk through. In fact, even if the Nightwing crouched down and attempted to crawl in, it wouldn’t have worked.

As soon as she realized this, Hazel held back a chuckle, not wanting to upset Nycteris anymore. She then cleared her throat while taking a moment to compose herself.

“Well, just stay outside until we’re done. You can be on lookout!” Hazel suggested, catching the Nightwing’s attention as he eagerly looked at his master. “While keeping an eye on Soren, you’ll also be watching out for any monsters nearby. Can you do that?”

“Yes...!” Nycteris said with glee while nodding his head, thus shaking Soren at the same time.

Hazel couldn’t help but crack a smile at the blond warrior being lightly thrashed from her familiar’s shaking.

“Hey, Hazel, I found their belongings!” Astrid told the mage.

Hearing this, Hazel made her way over to where her partner was. Getting there, she saw the dark elf couched down in front of the loot from Soren’s party. The mage soon joined Astrid as they both rummaged through the party’s supplies, curious as to what they had.

They found more food and water along with more potions, both Healing and Mana. Aside from that, the pair also found miscellaneous weapons and the like piled next to the bag of food and potions.

There were daggers, swords, bows and arrows, and even axes and spears. They all looked fairly worn down and stained in blood. It only took Hazel and Astrid a moment to realize where Soren and her group found these items.

They were spoils of war from killing multiple players during their time in the Dungeon. Judging from the weapons displayed, they seemed to have killed Warriors, Rogues, and Rangers. But there were two classes that neither Hazel nor Astrid could see.

“I’m not seeing any items that came from previous Mages or Healers,” Astrid noted.

“They likely don’t have any from those classes. At least for the mages. When I first encountered them, they seemed pretty surprised to see a player with the Mage class. I don’t know about the Healers.”

Hazel was the first Mage that Soren and the others encountered. And from what they could tell from their haul, none of them had encountered a Player with the Healer Class. Then again, if they did, they wouldn’t be stupid enough to just kill them off, even if they were a pest to them.

Having healing skills would be extremely beneficial for a party that’s constantly getting injured in battle. That and healing potions weren’t exactly plentiful, even when you could obtain them through Dungeon Challenges.

“Still, to kill all of these people,” Hazel muttered, gazing down at the pile of weapons from fallen players.

Some of these may have been from players from Earth. Players like her. And Soren’s party killed them. Whether it was because they were no longer useful or just for the hell of it didn’t matter.

It was the fact that Soren’s party killed them and didn’t care about the lives they’d taken. And that...angered Hazel.

Unable to stare at the loot any longer after realizing where they came from, Hazel abruptly stood up. Astrid was startled by this as she stared at her partner with concern.

“Hazel?”

Hazel said nothing and simply spun around then marched over to the entrance with only one thing in mind. Ending Soren’s party once and for all.

Approaching Soren and Nycteris, Hazel glared at the blond warrior still hanging by her collar. She looked up at the mage with a pale complexion. Fear stricken across her face as she mentally questioned what Hazel planned to do to her.

“You’re not going to be hurting anyone else anymore,” Hazel declared with a cold and menacing tone as she looked down at Soren with a glare.

“P-please no...” Soren pleaded fearfully.

Then, Hazel waved her hand toward Nycteris, signaling him to finish the job. The Nightwing let out an ear-piercing scream and then pounced on Soren, sinking his massive and razor-sharp teeth into the blond warrior’s body. Blood spurted from the wound and splashed on the wooden floor tiles, staining the varnished wood in crimson.

Hazel watched as Soren reached her hand out toward her, begging for the mage to save her life. Her eyes streamed with tears as blood spilled from her mouth. But instead of helping, Hazel remained still and simply observed from her current position.

It didn’t take long before Soren stopped moving and her raised limb fell to the ground with a wet thud as it splashed against the blood pooling around her. Her eyes glazed over and forever lifeless. Hazel couldn’t help but stare into her dead eyes, believing that she had to.

Unlike before Hazel did not feel guilt or remorse over killing another player. Maybe it was because the player in question was nothing more than an irredeemable scumbag that deserved it. In the end, Hazel couldn’t be bothered to try and muster up the energy to feel guilty.

She just felt...tired. Tired of it all, really.

She wanted to return to Earth. She wanted to go home. Even if it changed, even if it was no longer the world she used to know, going back seemed a lot better than staying in this dungeon any longer.

A whole lot better...