I took a deep breath, staring at the System screen. In just one room, I gained a level – and I felt every inch. Now that the battle was over, all the energy sapped out of me. Even with the added boosts from gaining a level, I was tired. I stumbled over to the closest chair that was still in one piece and dropped down into it. Its aged plastic groaned under my weight, but it had the decency not to collapse.

Star was still pounding on the door and making a racket, but I didn't have the energy or willingness to care. I just wanted to breathe and give Regen a chance to take the worst of the pain away. I put my sword away and leaned back, trying to find a position that didn't stress my wounds. It was a fruitless search. In the end, I just sat still no matter the discomfort. With the new level, my awareness had grown enough that I could tell there weren't any monsters in the room, so I was safe to rest for the time being.

"Ria?" Star's muffled voice echoed through the silent room, but I didn't respond. If she was still making that much noise, then she was fine enough on her side of the door to wait till I caught my breath. She knocked again. "Ria? Ria, are you there?"

A loud scraping sound emitted from the doors, as if several things were being dragged across the floor, followed by a loud bang. The door rattled then wrenched open, letting in the light from the glowing orb above Star's head. She stepped in cautiously, sword at the ready.

The second blue light illuminated the room in full, taking away the largest shadows. The dead monsters couldn't be more obvious, scattered around the room full of bones, their carcasses adding to the already decaying stench.

She looked around and jumped when she saw me, as if shocked to see me staring at her from a chair. "Oh god, Ria. I was so worried." She hurried over and reached out a hand. She paused inches from me, as if finally seeing the blood. "God, you're so hurt," she said in heartbreak. "I'm so sorry. I promised to be there, and yet you got injured, anyway. Can you forgive me?"

I stared up at her, no longer distracted by monsters. My body was riddled in pain, but my mind was clear. I distinctly heard her move the pipes blocking the door, then she easily opened it. It took her twenty seconds, tops. So … why didn't she do that earlier? It took me a lot longer than half a minute to kill all the monsters, yet she spent the whole time uselessly pounding at the door.

Star was level thirty-five, a solid C ranked Hunter. How could there be a useless Hunter with such a high rank? I thought they'd already died out. I heard all her stories, and I saw her fight some larva earlier. She cut them down with one flick of her wrist. That door was plain steel, not infused with monster parts like her pattern welded blade. The difference was like butter to a steak knife.

She ... didn't even try to get into the room to help.

A chill went down my back. How could she stand there and smile, so warm and sympathetic, and beg for forgiveness? Hours ago, I was excited to go on an adventure with some companions. I thought I could make a mark in the Hunter world, take my first step to making a name for myself. I thought I could finally get some friends. Suddenly, I was reminded why so many Hunters lived a loner life – because they only hunted with people they trusted.

But I couldn't express my disappointment. Star and her group were my ride home. If I threw a stink now, who knew what would happen?

I pressed a smile out, trying to show that I was relaxed with my body language. "I'm okay, just a little tired. I don't think there's anything of interest in here. What about the other room?" I asked, trying to divert her.

She paused, not expecting my reaction. "Oh, I haven't looked at it yet. When I saw you get trapped inside, my head just kinda went blank and I panicked."

My fingers twitched before I could control them. Yeah, I could tell just how panicked she was, but I didn't show my thoughts and acted like I wasn't phased. "Sorry that I worried you." In the couple of minutes that I sat here, I could already feel Regen working. It was a little easier to breathe. "Why don't you check out the next room? I'll wait here for you."

Her brows pulled together. "Are you sure? What if another monster comes?"

"Then I trust you'll come and save me," I lied in her face.

It took a little more pushing, but I finally got her to leave the room. As soon as she was gone, most of the tension in my muscles finally relaxed. I looked around the horror-movie-ish room. What was I doing here? Why did I jump so fast at going on this task with them, without doing my research yet? Sure, I wanted a pyrefly wing, but I didn't have to rush it. I should have taken my time and found a safe group of people to go with. I guess I wanted to change Dad's option so much that I got hasty. Since Star and her team wasn't a guild, I thought it was safe enough to go with them for a day. Guilds were the most notorious for screwing over a Hunter, but I forgot that some teams were just as bad. They just didn't get enough exposure to get a reputation.

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Did I really get myself in a situation like that? Or was it just a fluke, and Star really did just lose her head? Though it didn't seem like some an experienced Hunter would do.

One thing was clear: the only person I could trust to get me out of here alive was me. I was glad I learned that before I really got in over my head.

It was creepy sitting here in this room, and Star seemed to be taking a long time. To distract myself and learn more about the threats around me, I researched the larvae and giant nymph that I encountered so far. There were a couple different breeds – more like a couple different mutations of the monster – but after scrolling through the Monster Manual in the Guide, I found them. Suddenly, my stomach sank like a rock.

Just like I thought, the larvae and nymphs were the same breed, which is why they were in the same room. Monsters were territorial by nature. Herbivores might coexist together, but carnivores instinctively tried to kill each other on sight. So the odds of two different kinds of monsters being in the same room was nil.

This breed of larvae and nymphs were normal types, so they didn't have elemental magic – which was good. One less thing to worry about. No, the concerning thing was it had one more evolved form – the gigaroach. These cockroach-like monsters grew over five feet tall, and alternated between walking on six legs and two. Some people called them human-roaches.

I glanced at the chewed up monster parts around the room. The larvae weren't dexterous enough to bring all this in here, nor were they that great of hunters. Some of the parts were from monsters I knew were at last D ranked. Which meant that something was supplying the larvae with food. Something was raising them – it could only be the parent form. The gigaroach. But how many were there? And where were they?

Star came back through the door, brushing some dust off her shoulder. "Whew, that took a while. I'm glad nothing happened while I was away."

I wasn't complaining. She took fifteen minutes to search one room, so I was able to restore fifteen percent of my HP and MP with Regen. It would be great if I rested longer, but now that I knew what kind of monster was in the building with us, I was eager to get moving.

"I figured out what kind of monsters these are," I motioned to the giant nymph. "They're the young form of the gigaroach, a C ranked monster. We should be cautious. This whole building could be their colony."

Star stiffened. "A gigaroach? No way. There wasn't anything about them in the city info." She marched over to the dead nymph as if she couldn't believe what I said.

I didn't argue, just let her examine the carcass herself. Then I shared the monster info on my System's screen. "See?" While she compared the image on the screen with the torn up carcass, I kept talking. "The larvae are sensitive to light, so they prefer dark places. The adult forms, the gigaroaches, prefer mild light and to be high up. The females can even fly. And the whole colony works together to raise their young. Who knows how many there are the higher we go?"

Her expression pinched tighter with every word I said. Star, Pepper and Scott were all C ranked, but they were just three people. Could they really square off against dozens or even hundreds of C ranked monsters?

I personally didn't have that much confidence in them. At this point, it would be smarter to get the task objection – the greenhouse servers – and get out of here. We might short change ourselves by leaving without all the abandoned computers here, but at least we'd make it back home alive.

I could practically see Star's mind working as she thought through the same problem I was stuck on. Her lips pressed into a tight line then she stood up. She opened her Guide with jerky movements. I couldn't see what she was doing – it wasn't shared with me, so all I saw was a blank screen – but I could tell by how her fingers flew across the screen that she was typing. With an exaggerated move, she hit the right corner of the screen, where the send button was.

She paused and threw me a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. I'm just going to take a minute to see what the others think. I'm sure nothing is wrong." She patted my uninjured shoulder – and sent a shot of pain through my body when the movement twinged my bleeding side. She either didn't notice the way my brows tightened, or didn't care. "But no matter what, I won't let anything happen to you," she vowed.

A couple hours ago I might have been comforted. Now every word out of her mouth dripped with mocking poison to my ears. I smiled, feeling sick inside. "Thanks."

"Of course! It's what I should do!" she chirped. But no matter how chipper she was trying to be, it didn't lighten the mood. Instead of continuing a conversation, she paced the room, waiting for a response from the others.

Seconds ticked by, each one as quiet as the last. Watching Star out of the corner of my eyes, I read the rest of the information about gigaroaches and their young. Every word made my stomach cramp with nerves and skin to crawl with disgust.

I thought the human skeletons in here were from victims that died decades ago, when the Gates appeared. Just like the corpses that littered the city outside. I was wrong. The gigaroaches made a special effort raising their young – the larvae and nymphs. Because the larvae couldn't move long distances well and their aversion to light, the gigaroaches brought prey for them to feast on. All the skeletons in the building were 'relatively new.'

Star paused mid-step and swiped open her Guide. She stared at the screen, reading a message.

"What does it say?" I pressed, unable to wait.

"They're coming here," she paraphrased. "The stairs by them are broken, so they're coming here. I already checked ours over here, and they're fine. They also ran into a bunch of larvae – more than us it seems. Scott wants to head up to the greenhouse first, then maybe look around after. Or just get the hell out of here."