When the Map notified me that some new humans had entered the ‘Jurassic Park’ Dungeon, I was ecstatic. Help couldn’t have arrived at a better time.
Well. it wasn’t that strange either, considering the number of mercenaries and Heroes that had been chased out. It would have been weirder if the Hero League didn't send someone to investigate.
Since I couldn't Appraise them through the Map, I decided to approach them with 'Fade' on. I had chugged down a Mana Potion before, so my mana reservoirs were slowly being restored.
As I sneaked behind the group, I noticed some pretty peculiar people. There was a cosplaying Asian man, and following behind him were two young adults, about Academy age.
‘Appraisal’
Name: Sakura Kazuya
Rank: A+
Stats:
* Strength 11.5
* Stamina 12.4
* Agility 12.2
* Perception 12
* Magic Power 13
* Intelligence 6
* Charm 8.1
Abilities:
* Hand-to-Hand Combat(★★★): Coordinates the body for easy movements and helps the user to use their body to fight more efficiently. Allows the user to easily learn basic martial art techniques. As mastery increases, it will allow the user to subconsciously dodge dangers. [Advanced Level]
Skills:
* Petal Dance(A): Allows the user to manifest their mana in the form of cherry blossoms which can be manipulated by the user for different purposes. The amount of petals manifested is proportional to the user's mana.
Potential Rank: S
Suitable Class: Mage
Mana Compatibility:
* Air: 100%
* Fire:100%
* Darkness: 20%
Name: Luca Wagner
Rank : C+
Stats:
* Strength 7.1
* Stamina 7.2
* Agility 7.7
* Perception 7.5
* Magic Power 7.4
* Intelligence 4.2
* Charm 7
Abilities:
* Skateboard Manoeuvre Art(★★★★): Allows the user to defy the laws of physics as long as the mode of transportation is a skateboard. This Art allows the user to walk on walls, make inhuman jumps and even go against gravity. [Intermediate Level]
* Hand-to-Hand Combat(★★★): Coordinates the body for easy movements and helps the user to use their body to fight more efficiently. Allows the user to easily learn basic martial art techniques. As mastery increases, it will allow the user to subconsciously dodge dangers. [Intermediate Level]
Skills:
* Puppeteer(B): The owner of the skill can use invisible elastic strings to manipulate the movements of people and objects that the owner has come into contact with. The strength of the strings depends on the user, and with enough training, these strings can be made as sharp as steel and used to attack directly.
Potential Rank: S
Suitable Class: Assassin
Mana Compatibility:
* Air: 90%
* Earth: 55%
* Water: 75%
Name: Evva Pavlov
Rank : B
Stats:
* Strength 7
* Stamina 7.5
* Agility 7.6
* Perception 8.5
* Magic Power 7.9
* Intelligence 6.5
* Charm 7
Abilities:
* Hand-to-Hand Combat(★★★): Coordinates the body for easy movements and helps the user to use their body to fight more efficiently. Allows the user to easily learn basic martial art techniques. As mastery increases, it will allow the user to subconsciously dodge dangers. [Intermediate Level]
Skills:
* Foresight(B): Allows the user to see things that normal people are not able to see.
* Bullet Master(A): As long as it uses a bullet, the user will be able to use it with ease. With enough training, it can even allow the user to change the trajectory of the bullet and imbue it with special properties, depending on the mana injected.
Potential Rank: S
Suitable Class: Markswoman
Mana Compatibility:
* Air: 100%
* Darkness: 60%
Now there were some names I recognised. Though I don’t remember if any of them had been introduced in the novel, each of these people had a considerable amount of influence in the current world.
Kazuya was one of the top A Rankers on the Human Continent, at the moment. Not to mention, he was the brother-in-law of Misa’s older brother. The two Heroes accompanying him were someone I remembered hearing about at the Academy. The Strongest Male and Female Third-Years at the Star Academy.
‘But looking at their status it seems that Evva is slightly stronger than Luca.’
Well, anyway, it seems like I got some pretty great assistance. Kazuya was stronger than Nyra, so I can leave her to him. Max was occupied by Rexy, the T-Rex, so that leaves us with the Elf Assassins. I don’t know how strong they were, so I can only hope that the three of us can fend them off.
I deactivated ‘Fade’ and slowly walked toward the group.
“Show yourself, you intruder.” Kazuya yelled in my direction, the moment the Skill’s effects wore off.
I put my hands up, the show I bore no harm, and slowly walked out of hiding.
“You?” A look of confusion flashed across his eyes. It seems like he recognised me even without an introduction.
“It's a pleasure to meet you here Sir Kazuya.” I greeted him.
“I see it's you, Mr. Laxon. May I ask what you are doing here?”
“Oh, I just came to this Dungeon for training since I was getting bored at home. Little did I know that the League was taking such poor care of the Dungeons that were open to the general public.”
“May I ask what you are referring to, Mr. Laxon?”
'Hmm. Guess, the League doesn't know that Elves and Beastmen have entered The Human Continent. Well, that makes sense. They probably think all the trouble must be caused by some greedy Awakened, who wanted to hog the Dungeon Rewards for themselves, or maybe some weak-fry Fallen had entered here.'
Since the students were unaffiliated with the League, I decided to send the message cryptically.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“What else will I be talking about? I meant our northern neighbours.”
Since the Fae Forest was located to the north of the Human Continent, it was easy for Kazuya to understand what I meant. As soon as he understood the meaning behind my words, his face paled.
"You can't possibly mean..."
"Oh, I meant exactly that.", I confirmed his fears. "The League sent you here to find out the terrorists in this Dungeon, didn't they?"
"That is what we are here for, but...are you 100% sure it's them?"
"I am!" I answered with full confidence.
“If what you said is indeed true, and the problem has escalated to such a dangerous level, I promise you the League will do everything in its power to resolve the issue.” Despite his reassurance, I could see the worry in his eyes. He must be preparing himself for the worst-case scenario.
“How? Your party here consists of one Hero and two… interns?” I asked him nonchalantly, glancing at his party.
“Well, since we know what we are up against now, we will dispatch proper units to take care of it.”
By that, he probably meant sending higher Ranking Heroes and catching the intruders red-handed. The hostages would then be used to negotiate with the Woodland Races. But I couldn’t help but wonder what the end result would be. I doubt the Elves and Beastmen would be stupid enough to send someone who can be caught so easily. Not to mention, the two Beastmen I had encountered. Kazuya’s Rank may be higher but I had seen their Stats, and it still worried me quite a lot. Not to mention, I needed Kazuya's help to get my Spirit back. If the League sent someone else, any chance I have of getting Deus back will be gone.
"Sir Kazuya, we both know that these intruders will disappear much before the League can take appropriate action, so my advice will be to take action while we are still in the Dungeon." I explained to him.
"And does this plan include you too, Mr. Laxon?"
"Of course. I have shadowing them for a while now, and I am positive that I can be of great assistance to you." I offered him. "And won’t it also be in your best interest to keep an eye on me?"
‘Let me help you, and in return, I will keep the League’s blunder a secret.’ was what I actually meant. Right now, Kazuya can say that he will take care of the problem alone and ask me to leave. But I needed to stick close to him, no matter what. Thankfully, my veiled warning was understood.
“Fine, you can help us.” Kazuya finally agreed, after giving it a thought. I am sure he had doubts about my ulterior motives, but it's not like he had much of a choice, considering he also needed to resolve this issue as soon as possible, before it turns into a much bigger scandal than the League could contain.
“What about the two behind you?” I asked him.
“Their parents work in the League, so they have heavy mouths.” Kazuya replied.
The two interns, who were listening in on our conservation, snapped back into attention when they were mentioned. The girl had cold sweat running down her forehead, as she understood who the intruders were and what a dangerous secret they had just heard about. The boy, meanwhile, just looked at us with confusing eyes.
“Well, that’s good, considering we will be needing their help.”
“Help?” Kazuya asked me.
“Yes! I have been following them for some time. It seems that the two Beastmen are both B+ Ranks” I informed him.
“Beastmen? What are you talking about?” Luca butted in, still oblivious to what was going on.
Beside him, Evva quickly hushed him, whispering the situation to her fellow student. After hearing it, his eyes shot wide open and he went "What?" before shut his mouth again.
“Now then, I think we should start moving out. This forest has quite some dangerous monsters roaming around.” I ignored the two and turned back to Kazuya.
I took the three of them back to the cave so that we could discuss a plan. Evva and Luca who were still visibly shaken from the information I had just disclosed, kept silent. Kazuya and I were the only ones to talk.
“There are three Elves and two Beastmen that have settled about 5 kilometres east of our location. But last I saw, one of the Beastmen was fighting it out with the Boss in the region.”
“How do you have such detailed reports of their actions?” Kazuya asked me, as I reported my findings to him.
“I used ‘Fade’ to sneak on them.” I replied to him. Under normal circumstances, I would have kept this a secret, but right now Kazuya didn’t place any trust in me, so if revealing this information would show that I am willing to cooperate, he will return in kind. Anyway, me knowing Fade was a much easier explanation and would remove suspicion from my true skill, 'Appraisal'.
“Wow, I never knew you had that skill with you. Not to mention I always thought you were an introvert, so seeing you in action like this feels strange.”
“I just never acted before because I was cooped up in my lab.” I gave him a valid excuse.
It had been a fortunate thing for me that Ray had been doing research for the past few years, instead of furthering his relationships with others. This was the main reason why when I first possessed Ray’s body, nobody found my new behaviour to be strange, since they didn’t know much about Ray in the first place.
“Hmm. Time will tell if that is indeed the case.” Kazuya gave me a slight smile.
‘Haa! Look at this guy. Just because I was a little aggressive before, he is subtly implying that the Laxon family is under careful watch.’ I decided to ignore his taunt since I needed his help and enmity wouldn't be of any help to either of us. Though the fact that he mentioned it at all means he knows I am not the one working with the Fallen. 'I wonder when my investigation happened!'
“Going back to my plan, currently their party has one less Beastman, so it would be ideal to hit them now. If we can capture even one of them, it would be helpful to the League when the demands proceed with the Fae Forest.”
“I agree that getting some evidence would be helpful. But Mr. Laxon, since you've been observing them, do you happen to know why they would illegally enter human land just to enter this random Dungeon in the middle of nowhere?.”
“Unfortunately, your guess is as good as mine.” I replied, lying shamelessly. Since Kazuya was part of the League, he might already be aware of Spirits. No reason to make him realise that there might be one here, and have the Egg end up in the League's hands.
“Well, irrespective of their objective, they still broke the Treaty and entered the Human Continent. So, what will be our first course of action?”
“I believe we should divide ourselves into two groups. The group with you, Sir Kazuya, will head to where the Elves and Beastman group is. The other should go to the lone Beastman. He will be gravely injured after his fight, so even a weaker team will be okay to survey him. If he begins to head back, they can warn the other party.”
“All right, so teams will be divided as Luca and I. Mr. Laxon and Evva.” Kazuya quickly split us up.
“What? Why am I with Evva?” The girl was clearly the smarter of the two. I was hoping to be with the boy so that I could take the monster Rewards for myself.
“Because she is the second strongest one among us. Did you honestly think I will send two C+ Ranks together?”
Although the logic was valid, it didn't really sit right with me. “But I am a teacher!” I mumbled under my breath.
“Aren’t you embarrassed to point that out?”
This quickly shut my mouth.
‘Damn these Heroes and their superhuman hearing.’
After a quick discussion, the two teams split up to go to their respective destinations. I told him about the general location of Nyra and the Elves, after a quick glance at the Map. Then, Evva and I began to walk toward the clearing where Max and the T-Rex were fighting. It was pretty obvious where the battlefield was, considering the two of them were releasing huge amounts of mana.
By the time we reached the site, the fight was already over. We must have narrowly missed the Lion's departure.
The huge dinosaur lay fallen on the pressed grass. Two of its limbs had been ripped off, nowhere to be seen. A huge hole had been punched in the centre of its chest, its organs spilling out.
“What kind of monster do you have to be to punch a B Rank monster to death?” Evva looked at the body in shock.
I agreed with her comment. When the Appraisal informed me that Beastmen Martial Arts can decimate mountains with a finger, I was awestruck. But seeing the result of the strength first-hand was a whole different level of shock.
If it can do this in the hands of a B+ Ranker, imagine how terrifying it will be with the strength of S or SS Rankers.
As I analysed the corpse with Appraisal, I got various notifications about all of the Boss’ body parts and how useful each of them can be in potions. It seems my Appraisal Skill was slowly absorbing my knowledge in potions and fusing with it to provide me with different kinds of information. I should test this hypothesis with other research fields when I go back to Capital City.
After finishing my analysis, I got down on my knees in front of Rexy’s head and took out the short sword I had borrowed from Kazuya before we parted ways. I pointed the hilt at its teeth and…
‘Bang!’
One of the monster's teeth fell out. I picked up the 12-inch long fang and pointed it at Evva. “I am sure museums and collectors would love to get their hands on this. It's not every day you find a Dinosaur Boss Monster.”
“Museums? Think what weapon manufacturers to get their hands on it. Since this is material from a B Rank monster, it can be used to make some pretty strong weapons.”
I stared at Evva. Evva stared back.
‘Blink! Blink!’
“Wait, are you planning on stealing monster material that you didn’t hunt yourself? That goes against The Hero League’s policies.”
“It wasn’t hunted by humans, so I don’t think it counts.” I pointed out the loophole. “Plus, I am pretty sure the Beastman who hunted him got what he needed, considering we don’t see any Skill Beads or the monster core around.”
Convinced by my arguments, Evva didn’t try to stop as I touched my ring to the corpse, transferring it to the extra-dimensional space.
Soon we were back on our way. A few minutes later I stopped. I looked back at the woman fidgeting behind me.
“What is it?”
“Um, I was wondering if I could get some of the monster materials later?” she asked, avoiding my eyes.
“Weren’t you the one going about Hero League policies?” I pointed out with a raised eyebrow.
“Weren’t you the one who convinced me that this falls under a grey area?” She retorted. “Anyway, it would be a waste to pass on B Rank Monster materials.”
Looking at her shamelessness, I sighed. “I will send some over later. In return, don’t say anything to Kazuya later.” Since she knew I already took the Monster materials, it would be best to give her some and bribe her silence.
"Not a word to Luca either."
“Deal!”
Thus we shook hands on the promise and went back to our mission of finding the injured Beastman.