Hindriad slowly and cautiously opened his heavy eyes,expecting to see himself in hell.

His eyes darted around the place only to come into view with the familiar environment, he was still in the dungeon.

Hindriad had initially thought he was in hell due to the heat he felt pressing against his skin,it didn't cause burns but it was enough to be picked up by the irritation it caused on his skin and the slight dehydration it caused him to feel. With the things that Hindriad had done in his life, he was sure he would be sent to the deeper levels of hell which had excess torture if he where to die-

𝑰𝒇 𝑰 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒊𝒆....𝑱𝒂𝒊𝒏...𝑯𝒆..𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆...𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅 ?

Hindriad tiredly tried to remember the events that happened before he passed out.

The memories then came swarming at him like a tide : entering the dungeon with a bunch of nobodies , finding the dungeon boss and being forced to become its slave , and finally his battle with the slightly short boy with blonde hair who had a dominating aura.

𝑰 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒏𝒐𝒘..𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒕 , 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆 - 𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒎 𝑰 ?

He should have been dead by now, but it seemed the Boy had dashed off before actually killing him , leaving Hindriad there and prolonging his death, Hindriad had no hope of getting mercy or the belief that the boy had thoughts of sparing him.

Hindriad when he was unconscious felt some sort of waves connecting him and the Queen which allowed him to sense it's position, it was probably a system it used to remotely control him. Hindriad then had felt some complex emotion from the Queen - Fear.

Hindriad heard the sound of footsteps drawing closer and his heart leaped - not out of happiness but melancholy.

𝑯𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 ?

The footsteps sounded powerless ,each step sounded as if a bag of beans was being pulled against the ground

𝑯𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒉𝒖𝒓𝒕..𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒇 𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒖𝒓𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒆 ? 𝑴𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒆 𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒉𝒊𝒎

Of course it was plausible for Jain to defeat the dungeon boss with the power he had , considering he had even defeated its strongest minion - Hindriad. However , a dungeon boss was a dungeon boss and they sure had several tricks up their sleeves(which may include ambushing people) , so even if he managed to attain victory , he wouldn't do so without having a few life threatening wounds.

The foot steps grew nearer along with Hindriad's vision of his coming fate. He turned his head to at least see how much damage the young lad had suffered before he sent him on his way.

" !! "

If it weren't for Hindriad's painful aches all over his body and a slightly irritating headache he had, he might have peeled his eyelids all the way back from shock - the person who came wasn't Jain as he expected , it was a girl with neck long hair , a yellow crop top and blue shorts.

Her hair style had a bit of unruliness to it by its design ,and her boots with long socks perfectly matched the outfit giving her quite the military impression. Hindriad remembered who she was.

𝑯𝒆𝒓 𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝑴𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒂.. 𝑰𝒇 𝑰 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒍𝒚

How could he forget the most boastful and daring member of the guild he had come across , she was too loud for him to forget easily.

Misha was 2 steps away from him and she stopped right infront of Hindriad , clutching her left rib as she stared at him with first urgency and then a tinge of disgust.

" where is Vincent you piece of shit ? "

𝑽𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕 ? 𝑫𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒍𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒆 .. 𝒚𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒎. 𝑾𝒂𝒊𝒕 , 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑰 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 ? 𝑶𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒐𝒊𝒅 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒆.

Hindriad remembered seeing the mage once when he was forced to fight Jain by the Queen , Vin then had fearlessly led a large swarm of ants to elsewhere. It had been a stupid decision to take on that many ants alone, he was most likely dead by now.

Hindriad moved his lips to speak, his mind half-awake , but no words came out from his parched thoat. He was about to tell her what he foolishly did , but karma wouldn't let him have a shed of satisfaction from mocking Vin. Hindriad couldn't even point the path he took from the pain, even though he clearly remembered it.

Misha looked even more disgusted seeing as there was nothing Hindriad would say.

" Tsk ,and I thought you were a really strong guy. Now look at yourself pathetically spread on the floor , you douchebag. So much for being a B+ hunter "

Misha left the few words to Hindriad like a revelation as she disappeared in between the dungeon's darkness with a limp.

𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒆 ! 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏-

Hindriad then discovered that his face wasn't covered with the tough monster exoskeleton as before , infact 70% of his body had returned back to being a human with just the limbs still undergoing reverting.

𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒉𝒐𝒘 ? 𝑾𝒂𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝑰 𝒔𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒚 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 ? 𝑾𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒎𝒐𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒔 𝑰 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅 , 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒎𝒐𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 ? 𝒎𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒈𝒐 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒑𝒂𝒘𝒏 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒍𝒚.. 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒚 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒍 !

There was only one thing that could explain this , Jain had either weakened the Dungeon boss or defeated it and its direct influence over Hindriad cells was destroyed or due to some other reason Hindriad didn't know about , It didn't matter now. He was too exhausted to think of the whys.

Hindriad feeling the exhaustion coming back , closed his eyes , going back to sleep.

***

Every step Misha took felt like hell.

A sharp pang went up her leg every time she pressed against the ground as if she was stepping on spiked fences. On her left rib was a wound that felt five times more painful everytime she removed her left hand clutching it.

But all of that pain was worth if it meant seeing and saving him - Vin.

She had just passed the pathetically spread Hindriad minutes ago ,she didn't care enough to wonder how he came to be in such a condition. All that was on her mind was Vin. She didn't know how she knew he was in danger , or if all of it wasn't just a hallucination. Misha just went along with it , following her gut like she did everyday without questioning the logic behind the feeling itself.

" Damn it... "

To make things worse , there was some sort of heat lingering in the air which made Misha dehydrated , and her lips transformed into a dry and thorny surface as if she had been kissing sand for days.

She didn't care about that too either ,the more she drew closer , the slightly hotter it became but still not enough to cause burns. Instead of the heat being subjected to her hatred for the suffering it gave her at that moment, it was rather Misha's object of hope and tiny happiness - there was only one person who used fire magic in the entire dungeon after all.

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She knew Vin too well - an idiot who did whatever he logically thought was right and possible. Cunning yet cute. The heat she was feeling could only come from him , and was leading her to him.

Misha knew enough that the desire to save Vin wasn't just a pursuit to rekindle lost friendship , she knew it was more than that. It ran deeper than the shallowest waters or landmarks and stretched far than the wide sky.

After walking for 5 minutes , a man laid out on the floor came into her view - he was wearing a maroon shirt.

𝑽𝒊𝒏 !!

Her heart rejoiced when she finally found the man she had fallen head over heels for but at the same time worry rushed over her as she noticed that a trail of dry blood spread nearer to his mouth. He didn't look like he would wake up soon.

Misha sat next to him.

Vin was a daring guy just like her who wasn't afraid of doing what he wanted even if the odds were against him , which was what made her love him. But unlike her , he wouldn't do something he knew wouldn't recover from which was why Misha came under the conclusion that Vin's current condition was somehow of his own causing as he tended to be a coward when battling fights he wouldn't win therefore wouldn't hesitate to literally run away from the fight.

" Wake up...idiot. "

Misha whispered next to him ,it pained her to speak any louder as she felt like her insides were on fire.

But seeing that Vin wasn't waking up , it seemed necessary to shout at him - accompanied by a strong punch to the waist obviously.

" Wake up dumbass ! "

Misha punched him , and almost immediately she saw a jerk response from him as his muscles tensed and his eyes slowly opened.

There was light in Vin's eyes as he looked around , before finally noticing her presence.

" Misha... is that you ? Ah , my back hurts "

" Who else ? Hehe "

Misha proudly pumped her chest forwards , before helping the struggling Vin to lean on the dungeon walls.

"Jain... Where is he ? "

" Huh? Jain?? "

She hadn't heard the name before so she naturally didn't know who this 'Jain' person was , she was the very first guild member who didn't even bother reading the pamphlet with his details which had been given to everyone after all , and even threw it in a trash can.

But she assumed it was that short blonde since he was the only person whose name she didn't know , Hindriad was too famous for her to not know.

" Yes Jain, where is he? "

" Who cares about that twerp ? I don't know. "

" I care about that 'twerp' , will you take me to him ? "

Misha found herself at a loss for words , Vin who had clearly shown his hostility for Jain earlier was now saying he cared for him ?

𝑰𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝑽𝒊𝒏 ? 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒐𝒏 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒉 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒆..

Misha could only think of a single reason of the sudden review change. Vin either saw Jain as an equal or higher being in combat ,hence giving him his respect or maybe being in this crazy dungeon together made him realise life was too short and unexpected and that they needed to stick together. Either way , she didn't care much about the details.

Misha sighed , she really didn't have a reason not to take him to Jain , and pouting about it would make her look childish.

" I don't know where he is , though I'll help you look for him. "

Vin smiled hearing her words ,she pulled him to make him stand up straight. Both of them were supporting each other side by side as they were in similarly worse physical conditions.

But what shocked Misha the most was seeing Vin smiling.

" Thank you Misha for always being by my side. "

Vin suddenly said , catching Misha off-guard , however the words said with sincerity and honesty made Misha slightly blush , looking away from Vin's direct eye contact and smiling face.

" oh , it's nothing "

she said , brushing off his flattery which she enjoyed so much.

For Vin to thank her , something inside of him must have changed - maybe she would smile even more these days and be more friendly with them.

Misha understood why he had been grumpy though the past years and she really couldn't hate him for it.

Somehow she couldn't get rid of the feeling that this sudden 'change' had something to do with a blonde boy.

𝑯𝒎𝒎..𝒎𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑱𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒌𝒊𝒅 𝑰𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒂𝒅.

***

Jain was hot on the trail of chasing the Dungeon boss - the Ant Queen , considering he was at arms length from finally catching her.

Jain had been chasing the Queen who finally used running away in hopes of escaping as a last resort , it was a bit of surprise that a dungeon boss was running away instead of fighting till it's dying breath - supposedly keeping it's life was more important than keeping it's reputation and dignity.

However , Jain wouldn't grant it that mercy considering all the pain it had caused to all of them and the lives of Nisha and the others were all in his hands , he couldn't afford to let it escape.

During the pursuit , the Queen would stop , turn towards Jain for a moment and screech a high pitch noise probably to slow him down as it caused severe pains on his ear buds but Ironically , instead of slowing him down , it gave him more motivation to catch it as this showed it was on its wit's end.

Jain was currently pretending. Pretending that he was slower than the monster and letting it think that he was only catching up by some sort of miracle, this was to corner it and force it to use its final survival attack , he wanted to be at a safe distance should that happen hence why even if he was catching up to the queen , he wasn't too close.

Jain was a bit disappointed.

Compared to the monster-fied Hindriad , the Dungeon boss couldn't even lift a candle to him in all combat aspects ; Jain had discerned the Queen to be a boss which hid behind its servants' power , it could make them powerful but not itself which explained why it had to have that minions around the place. Jain could tear it to shreds at any time he wanted to , but he couldn't afford being reckless and attacking without knowing what the Dungeon boss' last resort would be ; all he knew was that it probably was poison related since it was all it's minions liked to used.

" ? "

Jain halted his movements , staring at the dungeon boss undergoing some sort of change

. So far he had been chasing the Queen on foot , as it leaped from wall to wall. Right then , it was in mid air and something was crawling it's way out from its back so even though the queen had stopped , he hadn't gotten closer either with the thought of a final resort In mind.

The things finally finished crawling out - they were two wings ; The near transparent wings crawled out of its back with a glitter to them. It's body suddenly became shriveled as if something was sucking it up. A large mass of tissue could be seen collected on its back.

Goo sprouted from its back ,covering the wings. The more the goo came out , the more the big lump of tissue on it's back reduced. This was undoubtedly its last resort ,but Jain couldn't quite figure what exactly it was. It's body became slender and the greenish goo was disappearing into the wings extending them adding two extra wings making up them four.

𝑬𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒆 ! 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒐𝒓𝒕 !

Jain realized a second earlier before the Queen violently flapped its wings which had lines as if artistic patterns and began to make it's escape. it's body had been reduced greatly in size and had an increase in the number of wings it; as such , it's speed had doubled , no perhaps multiplied three times compared to it's previous speed.

𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒂𝒅..

Jain couldn't afford to lose the Queen while it was so close to him , it would be horrible if the others died because he was too cautious so he used his full speed to catch up before the Queen nearly and completely disappeared from sight. It had been far enough from him to look like a shapeless object in space

𝑯𝒎𝒎?

Suddenly , it seemed like the Queen was slowing down , had it used up its energy already ?

It continued to slow down up until it looked suspended in space ,at first Jain thought he was just catching up and because it had become slower but as he got nearer , he realized that it's head was facing Jain. Jain was 3 metres away from it so now he could clearly notice it.

Its body suddenly inflated like a balloon ,as if it were to explode right there and the killing intent it now emitted gave the final clue for Jain to put two and two together.

𝑬𝒉 - 𝑰𝒕𝒔 𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒐𝒓𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒓𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚 ?! 𝑺𝒉𝒊𝒕.

Jain had been played , The Queen had him thinking running away was its last resort so it made Jain use his full speed and get nearer to i, after 'faking' its escape did it finally slow down and waited for him to reach its range before finally attacking.

It was a trap and Jain had fallen for it , it was too late for him to think of dodge whatever attack the Queen was planning on hitting him with ; he had been leaping from surface to surface chasing the Queen and now he was in mid air and still getting closer to the Queen , slowing down or even turning back was an impossibility as much as dodging. Jain clenched his fist , preparing to counter attack with a punch. Whether he would survive the attack from the Queen or not was for fate to decide , all he was preparing for was to make the promise he made to save everyone in the dungeon. If he couldn't survive the attack moments after getting hit , the least he could do is make sure to take down the Queen with him.

Dark , thick purple mist shot out from the Queen's four mandibles. The mist was concentrated into a fine line of high pressure poison , engulfing Jain whole but as he was using his full speed , it wasn't enough to push him back. In that moment his eyes were closed and his right handed fist was like an arrow - shooting towards the enemy.

Jain was sure he would die moments after being bathed in the deadly poison , but he was equally certain that his punch would reach and decapitate the Queen if not destroy its entire body , that punch had all his strength behind it after all.

Lady luck was smiling at him , the dark mist prevented both him and the Queen from seeing or analyzing each other's movements , so the Queen couldn't exactly see what Jain was planning on doing - Jain could identify the Queen's position only because the jet stream of poison hadn't stopped even after it had hit Jain , therefore giving away the Queen's position as the source of it all.

Jain then felt a rough smack against his fist , followed by the sensation of punching through biological mass - in that moment Jain knew his attack had connected.

He felt something hard and round inside the body of the Queen as Jain and the Queen intersected in that moment and he reached out to grab it pulling it out as he passed through the body of the Queen like a shooting bullet.

Jain finally landed on the ground, swiftly , and the fractured body of what was left of the Queen fell after , Jain had no doubt that the Queen was dead.

He had finally defeated the troublesome Dungeon Boss , and in his hands - the hard and smoothly round ball , was it's Magic Core.