Back at the entrance of ‘The Snow Forest’, a pair of geta clacked against the rocky ground. A man gently strolled into the dungeon. His attire consisted of a blue kimono, decorated with cherry blossoms. A red wagasa was held open in his left hand, despite the lack of direct sunlight. His right hand held a white hand fan, painted with a cherry blossom tree.

“What a cool breeze!”, he exclaimed, as he stepped foot into the Dungeon. His shoulder-length black hair fluttered in the strong wind.

He turned back to face the dark cave, from where he exited moments ago. His fiery orange eyes stared at the exit, pity etched across his face.

“Cool?”, a voice echoed out. “It's freezing here.”

“Perseverance, young Hero.” The man advised his companions behind him. “Now come on, you two. Let’s complete the first assignment the League gave us and we can have some hot chocolate on the way back.”

Two young adults stepped out of the darkness of the cave. The boy was wearing a dark olive full T-shirt and black running tights. Two silvery-black studs dangled from his right ear. His hair, hidden under a black cap, was completely dyed pinkish red, which clashed with his clear blue eyes. He slowly rolled forward on a graffiti-covered skateboard, showing reluctance to join his superior in the freezing weather.

Beside him, stood a girl. Her clear, pale skin was like porcelain and her hair was silver like a silky spider web, giving her a vampirish look. She was sporting a loose hip-hop long T-shirt and denim shorts, a shade matching her hair. Knee-long boots, ashen grey, covered her legs. A gun holster was strapped to her right thigh.

The man in the traditional attire was Sakura Kazuya, the 178th Ranked Hero in the Human Continent and one of the strongest A+ Rank Awakened, affiliated with the Hero League. His ancestors hailed from the country called Japan, before The Catastrophe hit Earth seventy years ago, and erased any concept of countries in the world. But Kazuya has always had great pride in his ancestral nationality and he honours it by wearing the traditional clothes of ancient Japan. His unique fashion sense, paired with his handsome looks akin to those of pre-Catastrophe Nihonjin, has made him quite popular with young ladies.

Behind him were the students of the Star Academy, Luca Wagner, and Evva Pavlov. Third year at Hero Academies was unlike the first two years, where the students would go to different Guilds for internships and get practical experience in real Dungeons, which were far more dangerous than the artificial ones the Academy created for their exams.

Luca and Evva were the top students in their class. They had both applied for internships at the Hero League and had been sent on a mission, with Kazuya as their supervisor.

Apparently, some rogue monsters were causing trouble for the Heroes who went to ‘The Snow Forest’ Dungeon.

Since it was one of the rare ‘Loop Dungeons’, this Dungeon would never close, even if the boss monsters were killed. When killed, they would just resurrect in another part of the Dungeon. And the materials gained in this Dungeon were not of high quality, so not many Guilds wanted to spend their time and resources in these Dungeons.

But if these Dungeons were not raided periodically, the Dungeon would Rampage and the monsters would be let out into the woods, which would further pose a threat to the city barriers. The Hero League tried to portray it as the unbreakable defence of humanity, but anyone who had a brain knew if the monster numbers beyond it weren’t curbed, then they could break it and rampage inside the city.

So, the Hero League’s strategy to prevent the Loop Dungeons from going on Rampage was to open this Dungeon for public use, with the official reason being for new Heroes to gain battle experience.

Honestly, Kazuya wasn’t fond of such political tactics. Useless Dungeons like these were open for the unaffiliated Heroes and mercenary groups, while the Hero League and high-ranking Guilds monopolised the high-profit Dungeons. And since they wanted to monopolise the talented Heroes, they gave much lower benefits to mercenary groups, forcing them to join the League.

Well, no matter how much he hated such things, currently Kazuya was here on a job.

“Let’s go investigate what’s wrong with this Dungeon.” Kazuya instructed his interns.

They began to scout through the forest stretching in front of them. But apart from the usual monsters like Snow Wolves and Yetis, there was no sign of the mysterious creature that injured the Heroes who entered the Dungeon.

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Usually, Kazuya would have said that the perpetrator was probably a Hero or Fallen with high-Rank stealth skill, but then why would they go attack a low C Rank Dungeon with next to no profitable loot? Also, when Kazuya interviewed the victims, all of them said that whatever attacked them had an Aura that didn’t seem human.

The most likely conclusion was that a new species of monster might have been discovered. The worst case scenario would be that The Chaos Alliance might have sent some weak-fry Fallen to cause trouble

Usually in these types of cases proper Heroes would have been dispatched by the League, instead of interns, but since Kazuya was accompanying them, Evva and Luca were allowed to take this mission.

Not to mention, it would also give them an idea of how dangerous the missions by the League can be, and how much responsibility they will have to shoulder.

“Kazuya Sensei! I found something.” Luca called him on the smartwatch.

The two had been instructed to call him ‘Sensei’, instead of ‘Mister’, since Kazuya was such a stickler to Japanese honorifics.

Soon, Kazuya and Evva reached Luca’s location. A scene, more gruesome than the worst horror films, lay in front of them. Carcasses of various monsters were left to rot. Rivers of blood were flowing in the pure white snow. Each of the bodies carried deep wounds, their organs spilling out. The strong smell of blood permeated the air.

But the most surprising thing was that all the bodies contained only a single wound.

That means whoever did this, was skilled enough to knock several hundreds of monsters alone. Counting the dissimilar types of wounds on the monsters’ bodies, there couldn’t have been more than two or three individuals fighting this horde.

“But, Mis-, er, I mean Sensei, why were there so many monsters fighting here? From the way the bodies are spread out, it doesn’t look like the monsters made an effort to escape, despite the opponent being several times stronger than them. On the contrary, they seemed to be attacking with a strong passion. Doesn’t this defy the usual behaviour of monsters?” Evva, the smarter of the two, asked.

“It’s probably because of the skill ‘Taunt’. It’s a psychological Skill, mostly used by Tankers. It makes the user of the Skill the target of the monsters around them, while their companions finish them off.”

Since the opponent used a rare skill like Taunt, it narrowed down the suspect list quite a bit. Especially since it was used in such a wide range. The attacker must be at least a B+ Ranker and quite heavily built, if he was able to endure the brunt of such a huge horde. But what he still can’t understand was why would someone taunt such a large horde of monsters, when there wasn’t even anything to gain from them.

“Evva! Luca! Go and see if there are signs of a Boss monster around here.”

Yes. This situation would be more plausible if the group taunted these monsters so that someone else could fight the Boss.

“Um, I don’t know if this is relevant but I found something.” Evva reported back after a few minutes.

Kazuya was soon at her location. A huge frozen lake was spread below their feet. In the centre of it, a large fissure had formed on the ice. Kazuya could feel slight traces of mana around it, so whoever was here had been gone quite a long ago. But the mana was slightly strange, though he couldn't put his finger on it.

But what was surprising, was that inside the fissure, instead of water, there was a huge black void.

“Wait, is that a Dungeon entrance? A Dungeon inside a Dungeon?” Luca asked, slowly approaching the fissure.

“It's not exactly an entrance. It would be more appropriate to say it's a backdoor to another Dungeon. Though not often, they do appear occasionally.” Kazuya explained.

“Do you think those guys are down there?”. Luca asked, as he slowly peeked inside the fissure.

“Only one way to find out!” Evva exclaimed.

‘Shove!’

The action was so unexpected, that it seemed that it was occuring in slow motion.

“You bit-!” But unfortunately, his curses were swallowed by the abyss as Luca disappeared into the darkness.

“EVVA!” Kazuya looked at her in disbelief.

“What, it's not like it's gonna kill him.” Evva shrugged his warnings off. “See you on the other side, Sensei.”

She waved at him, as she jumped into the void.

She wasn’t wrong. Dungeon backdoors weren’t that different from the front gates. Whoever entered them will be deposited inside safely. Though, what they will encounter after was an entirely different matter.

Leaving two interns alone in a dangerous situation would look bad on the report he would have to submit to the League.

‘Sigh. Why did I have to babysit such troublesome kids.’

Regretting his decisions, Kazuya stepped into the darkness.

The Dungeon threw the trio into the middle of a tropical rainforest, a far cry from the ambience they left moments ago. After getting smacked by uncountable branches, Evva and Luca were ungraciously dropped on the muddy ground, filled with mosses and several types of fungi. Kazuya on the other hand, swerved the branches away with his parasol, before gracefully landing like a cat.

“How did you even manage that while wearing those awful sandals?” Evva complained as the two slowly got up on their feet.

“Wearing geta on a daily basis does wonders for your balance and posture. You should try it sometimes.” Kazuya advised. “Come now, we have a Boss to find.”

“Rawr!”

All three turned toward the direction where the feral roar came from.

“I guess we found it!” Luca exclaimed unexcitedly, still upset about how he was thrown here.

Kazuya extended his perception in that direction. “Looks like it's fighting something.”

“The ones who fought that monster mob?”

“No. The Boss is fighting only one person, and he’s barehanded. Those monsters were killed with a sword.” Kazuya silently observed the Aura emitting from the fight. The Boss aside, its opponent’s mana didn’t seem human either. Just like the reports made by the mercenaries.

“Keep your guards up. His companions might be here.”

'Rustle!'

A sound came from the leaves to their right.

‘Hmm. I didn’t sense anyone approaching us. How high is their experience with Fade to be able to get pass my senses?’

Kazuya pointed his fan towards the bushes. “Show yourself, you intruder.”

The prowler slowly stepped out, his hands raised.

“You?”