" Acquire it at all costs.. let me tell you this , I won't accept incongruity to my orders and the deal.. "

Said the woman's voice on the other side of the magic communication. Magic communication was a type of communication vital in long distance interaction , the longer the distance , the more mana it consumed ; magic communication or rather Magi-munication worked by accessing a link that has already been established between two certain items , this link would be created through which a person poured their mana in the item with a sense of strong desire to who they want to contact , but of course it wasn't that easy - it was necessary to have two of the exact same item given to two people , these items had to be created for the sole purpose of communication not just picking an item at random , for an example a letter and even scrolls.

After that link was established between the items , and it was activated ; you could actually see the person from the other side through the item of use , hear them and discuss anything you wished over that item. Scrolls were 2nd in use for Magi-munication as you could easily roll it and put it safely back into your pocket , a fair amount of them were pocket sized. Scrolls came in different sizes and therefore different costs , the larger and wider the scroll , the more mana it consumed , magi-scrolls were basically in public use which you could even encrypt a message in them.

In 1st place of use were link-rings , link-rings were similar to scrolls and yet again very different. They used the same method as scrolls for communication but were built differently in a sense that they were somehow more advanced , as of high quality.

A link-ring was given to people of high status and was rarely shown publically. While a scroll could contact a person at a few kilometres , a link-ring could contact a person in several kilometres in an instant. A link-ring was specifically made for it's job , that is communication ; it also had two functions , the sound side and visual image. You could only hear the voice of the person you are contacting in the sound function , the same as the person you are contacting to you , the visual image side wasn't only just optical , it combined visual data and sound to create a perfect 'hologram' in space or in the middle of the air.

This side of the function used much more mana than the sound function , which is why in the darkness of the dungeon and dangers of it Hindriad had chosen to pick it to minimise the unnecessary wastage of mana, especially in the dangerous enviroment he was in.

" Relax , I won't do anything such as betray you or anything.. besides you're like the owner this country there isn't a rock that I could hide under. "

Hindriad proudly replied to the voice on the other side , although there was a bit of annoyance on his side by how long his job was dragging his pay. There was silence on the other side , a terrible and scary silence yet Hindriad thought of this as an opportunity to bring up the matter at hand.

" By the way , I stretched my hand a little bit too far helping those hunters you sent here. It only seems fair that the promised amount will atleast be topped by 15 more stellar coins , eh? "

There was that silence again, it was creepy and uncomfortable especially in the dungeon's darkness , it was as if she was plotting something sinister in the middle of their conversation or silently snickering how Hindriad was embarassing himself , those were his insecurities playing in his head. At first he thought that the link was cut by how silent it had grown , but there the ring was - lit in the darkness.

" I'll think about that one , as helping them was of your own volition and was not verbally clarified during the making of our deal.. bring both the kid and the core without a single scratch on them and I just might make that extra 15 stellar coins a 100. "

The ring's light instantly died , the link had been cut by the speaker on the other side. For Hindriad , the deal was getting sweeter per growing second and he could almost feel the smooth feel of the stellar coins rubbed against his hands , yes this was good indeed.. excellent infact and all for just protecting that kid and the core.

𝑱𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒖𝒉? 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒆𝒙𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒆? 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕--𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒔𝒖𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒘.

Hindriad turned and looked around the dungeon passage to see if nobody had been eavesdropping on his conversation , that red-clothed mage might have with his stubborness and persistence

" I see you , come out. "

Hindriad said , but his words were embraced by total silence. This was a strategy to make sure that nobody was eavesdropping , just because you couldn't see somebody didn't deny the possibility that they are there.

His internal clock told him an hour and a few minutes had passed , which meant he had a good hell of extra minutes before returning to those near useless excuses of hunters to fight the killer ants for them.

𝑻𝒄𝒉 , 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕 . 𝑰𝒇 𝑰 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓 , 𝒘𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅'𝒗𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒈𝒐.

Hindriad clucked , every minute he spent in here could have been him outside , spending his precious stellar coins perhaps even preparing to leave the damn country.

𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒈𝒐 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆

He thought , sticking around here wasn't in the plan - he couldn't risk his stellar coins mysteriously disappearing due to the other B+ rankers jealousy or the woman hiring people to steal the money back from him.

Even without those risks , Hindriad just generally hated being in Voz with the country's poor life quality. His ideal place to migrate to was the continent Azania ; the continent was rumoured to be centuries ahead in magic , technology and everything else. It would certainly make his stay there heavenly with his riches , sure he would have to make some preparations to permanently stay there which involved the king's right hand man ; that woman ,but he was prepared for it - he was planning on deceiving her and saying he was going there to train , although he truthfully was in a way.

Hindriad has been stuck on the B+ rank for 4 years now , and it really pissed him off. He didn't like being matched which the B+ rankers group. By the rumours , people in Azania could get to the A rank easily and having some ranks called A+ and "Special A". Yes visiting Austria was an excellent idea even though the paperwork to get there would cost him some gold coins.

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𝑵𝒐𝒘 𝒊 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒎𝒚 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰'𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 , 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒅...𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒘𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 , 𝑰'𝒎 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒔𝒐 𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒍𝒚 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒖𝒎𝒑.

Hindriad had decided , he was going to finish this raid all by himself. Those hunters weak combat abilities were dragging him , he was sure he could accomplish a lot more without them. He wasn't planning on going back to tell them the news , he would search for the boss's chamber and kill it and he'd be back before his "extra" minutes were completely finished.

This sounded a lot easier and actually made a lot of sense , if only he had thought this sooner then he would have been long gone out of here.

Hindriad placed his palm on the ground , using the spell 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗣𝘂𝗹𝘀𝗲 ; it was a spell which worked by detecting life signatures of animals on the surface of the earth within a radius of 1Km through a pulse that would be released in an omnidirectional path , it was perfect for tracking enemies and their position , unless they weren't on the ground - it used factors such as heat signature ,movements and mana flow to give perfect intel of the target's position , weight and body shape and giving it all through the user's mind eye.

The spell detected the other hunters without fail , they weren't far from Hindriad but not really near either. They weren't making any movements - rooted in one spot.

𝑻𝒄𝒉 , 𝒇𝒊𝒈𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇𝒇.

the pulse travelled further and detected a life signature of a monster really near Hindriad , it must have been the dungeon boss because it was large in size and dungeon bosses were all large.

Without a word or moment of thought , Hindriad sprinted towards the dungeon boss , sure dungeon boss were powerful but that all depended on the ranking of the monsters inhabiting the dungeon ; if the monsters were D ranked , the boss would be D+ or C- and if the monsters inhabiting it were C ranked , the boss would be C+ or B- and so on. The monsters here were mostly C ranked so the boss had to be C+ or B- , but there was a chance of it being B+ or A- with the killer wasps that showed up earlier which were B ranked , but this wasn't a worry to Hindriad ; there wasn't much a gap between him and the dungeon boss , he even had the golems by his side which were his trump card - with them , he could become an A ranked threat but that didn't matter in the hunter ranking system since it targetted individual strength.

Hindriad was getting near to the boss , with his B+ rank he was faster than those puny hunters, the dungeon was somwhow brighter this side so it was easy to navigate. The boss had been 108 metres away but now it was barely 50 metres. A little more and Hindriad would reach it.

What would he do once he got there? He hadn't thought that far and now was strategizing - surely he would taunt the monster for It to reveal its special attribute or skill , dungeon bosses always had skills and fighting it without figuring it's skill could be fatal.

After Hindriad had figured the skill ,he would use his golems to corner it and destroy it while keeping safe it's magic core. He wouldn't dare touch the magic core , unless he had a death wish.

𝒀𝒆𝒔 , 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒏𝒐𝒘.

Hindriad had a few metres before reaching the dungeon boss , he revised his plan and then prepared to attack. Of course he wouldn't confront it directly , although shameful to his pride , he'd have to hit it with a surprise attack that way it'd for sure reveal it's special skill in reflex.

He arrived at the dungeon's chamber ; it was a large opening similar to the dungeon's entrance just a bit larger. He tip-toed in while also checking his surroundings , most monsters had poor vision , he figured it was the same for this one. As long as he didn't create detectable sound in the darkness , he could sneak up to the monster.

Although his surroundings were enveloped in darkness z he could navigate his way to the monster with the aid of 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗣𝘂𝗹𝘀𝗲 , he couldn't maintain it for more than 5 minutes but he did memorize the data it gave him and used it to figure out the boss's exact position.

Hindriad was approaching the boss when he felt something fluid pressing against his feet , it felt like water contained in a plastic kind of thing or rather an egg before the shell fully develops, it was weird considering he couldn't see anything therefore it meant that thing could be something dangerous.

He held out his hand feeling the fluid thing, measuring how big it was and its shape ; it was larger than him, massively that he couldn't measure its size but he did figure out it's shape though , it was shaped exactly like an egg with most likely a curved tip above

𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆- 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔? 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒌 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐?!

Hindriad began to curse the darkness when he realised something , he had his flame torch on his back pocket which he forgot about it. All he needed to do was lit it and find out which was quite easy , all you needed to do was pour a bit of mana into the thing and even if you don't have an affinity for fire - it would lit up.

So he followed the steps and lit it. He began to wish he hadn't , for before him was something almost took his sanity away

The thing was fluid held by a transparent membrane , and it was indeed shaped like an egg and in the middle of it surrounded by the fluid was a thing resembling a fetus , but it was larger than it and was undergoing mitosis at a shocking speed ; 3 seconds later - arm like features had already developed , then a head , a body and mandibles ,it didn't take long before Hindriad realised what this was. It was an egg nest and the monsters in the eggs would hatch very soon.

There was no use in sneaking around now , once the things hatched they would for sure see him and with their loud screeches alarm the dungeon boss of his foreign presence in their chamber ,making the entire surprise attack useless.

Hindriad jumped to action , he pounced from wall to wall approaching the dungeon boss ; his flame torch was still held on his hand as it illuminated his surroundings with light.

He finally arrived at the spot where the dungeon boss was , preparing for a battle but he soon realised something was wrong.

the dungeon boss wasn't there but his spell had definitely detected it , perhaps it had moved while he was still looking at those disgusting eggs , if only he had checked it again.

𝑰 𝒈𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝑰'𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒆𝒈𝒈𝒔 , 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑰 𝒅𝒐 𝒊𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒘.

A green aura surrounded Hindriad as he was preparing to destroy the eggs with the spell 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗹𝗲 when he got a terrible feeling in his stomach ,it was a gut feeling and usually alarmed him when he was in grave danger. Hindriad quickly scanned his surroundings for the danger that would come , checking left , right ,behind him and then repeated but he saw nothing.

𝑰 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒉𝒖𝒏𝒈𝒓𝒚 ,𝑰 𝒈𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒎 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂 𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒌𝒆..

Hindriad was preparing to use the spell again when the feeling came back stronger than before , this time It was mixed with paranoia and fear , fear he had never felt before in his life. Why was he afraid ? He didn't even know what he was afraid of.

He remembered something , supposedly you would become afraid when a strong monster released its intoxicating and overwhelming aura with their mana in the atmosphere , with some bloodlust it was more than enough to drive anybody crazy scared. It must have been that, but it confused him as he couldn't see any monster around.

Hindriad didn't like the feeling of this and was deciding to leave , a small rock hit his head. It was small but painful, it must have been falling for quite a while - it could be a small signal to an earthquake so Hindriad looked upwards for any falling rocks. His face distorted in horror before the sight before him.

It was large ; larger than the killer ants and the wasp combined but somehow looking like a hybrid of both with scary sharp legs and 6 eyes , it also had 4 mandibles and long glittering near- transparent wings , the sight of that thing could have spooked a hunter to death but the realisation that the thing was staring at Hindriad deep in the eye made his blood run cold.

it had been there for quite a long time yet Hindriad couldn't sense it. It released some bloodlust which left Hindriad ,frozen in place while his eyes were still glued on the thing.

In one swift movement it fell upon him , preparing to squash him with it's gigantic body.