[Evolution to Necrovore Slime Confirmed: Time until completion 59:58]

  Xen felt a wave of drowsiness consume him. He tried to fight it.

  "You never told me it would take... time... to evolve..." he slurred as he tried to stand up. All the strength had left his body, and he felt like he was melting.

  He had to get away from here, as this location was too exposed to evolve—he was in plain sight of the staircase that led to the upper floor. If those humans chased him down here to seek revenge for their fallen comrade, they would kill him in his sleep.

  Xen grunted as he dropped to one knee, and after a second of struggle, he finally faceplanted into the black sand. He stretched out his hand as if trying to claw at the system message hanging in his vision.

  [Time until completion 59:22]

  "Darn system..." Xen mumbled as his vision went black.

  ***

  Sarah was a mess as she exited the dungeon. Her silver hair was matted with blood and stuck to her face. Her armor felt heavy on her exhausted body, and she felt sick to her stomach.

  A man in a well-tailored suit, a black earpiece poking out of his ear, and sunglasses on a cloudy day approached her with a look of concern. While she was clearing dungeons undercover, it was natural that an informant of the Guild Association would monitor her every move.

  "Miss—"

  "Who was he?" Sarah ruthlessly cut the man off.

  "I don't understand," the informant pushed up his glasses, "who might you be referring to?"

  "Joe—you know, that random person you assigned to my raiding party, so I qualified for the minimum group size?" Sarah said, her voice rising to the point of shouting. She was so angry and shaken.

  "Just calm down a second and tell me from the top," the man said, stepping back and taking out a small tablet from his inner suit pocket.

  "Calm down? You want me to calm down?! Just answer the freaking question," she gritted her teeth, "who the hell was that Joe guy? If you don't tell me now, I'll get my father to kill you."

  "Now, now, there's no need to get the Stormbringer guildmaster involved in this matter," he said as his finger swished across the device until he found the sought-after tab. "Ah, here we go. Sarah von Stormbringer. Applied through the public forums to tackle the Guild Association's request with another member called Jonathan," he glanced up, "may I ask for the whereabouts of Mr. Jonathan?"

  "Dead," Sarah said as coldly as she could.

  The man paused for but a moment—his expression stoic. "Understood," he said and tapped something on the screen. "I've marked Mr. Jonathan as deceased."

  Just like that, the love of her life was simply marked as another dead Hunter on a soulless database. The nonchalance of the informant sent a shiver of rage down her spine.

  Perhaps noticing her rising rage, mana flickered across the man's shoulders, tame yet carrying the promise of violence. He raised a brow behind those shades that were darker than his soul. "It's simply protocol; I hope you won't take my attitude personally," he said, extending his hand. "I hope you will come with me for questioning regarding his death?"

  "I'd be happy to," she said in a venomous tone. "But first, tell me who Joe was."

  "Mhm," the man looked at his tablet and shrugged. "Nobody important. A college dropout awakened with some subpar skills who wasn't accepted into any guilds, so he was doing some freelance missions through the forums."

  "Do you not want to mark him down as deceased as well?" Sarah narrowed her eyes. "Because, in case you didn't notice, he is missing too."

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  The informant sighed, "I suppose I should, despite him being a nobody—there, done. Happy now?"

  "You're not going to think he is a nobody once I tell you what happened."

  The informant lightly smiled, "I doubt it."

  ***

  Sarah left the meeting room an hour later in a furious mood. No matter what she told them, they were convinced she was either lying or a lunatic. That Joe couldn't have been a shapeshifter. He had been registered officially at the guild and had passed all the tests. When she suggested that a monster might have taken over his body in the few seconds she was looking away, they informed her that such a monster would never exist on the first floor of the dungeon.

  Hailing a taxi from the sidewalk, she headed straight to the Stormbringer guild headquarters in a terrible mood.

  "Rough day today?" The elderly taxi driver chuckled as he readjusted his mirror to get a better view of her. When she didn't answer, he pressed on, "Are you a famous Hunter, miss? I feel like I've seen you on television before—"

  "Eyes on the road," Sarah snapped back and then sighed. "Sorry, I'm just not in the mood right now."

  The taxi driver nodded, "I understand," he looked away but whispered under his breath, "egotistical, the lot of them."

  Sarah ignored his comment, and the rest of the drive was thankfully in silence. It wasn't uncommon for Hunters to be treated like this by the general population. It was understandable, really. They were all born with the same potential to be selected by the system and gifted with abilities, but most didn't get so lucky.

  She rested her head against the window and watched the chaos of the city around her. People walked around without a care in the world, shouting about this and that. All the while, an endless dungeon filled with monsters lay beneath their feet. It was almost sickening to her. How could they all be so carefree? The answer was that people like her lived and died for them in the dungeons.

  Having been born around the time of the system apocalypse when the World Dungeon manifested alongside Hunters' awakening abilities, she had only vague memories of that chaotic time. Of course, they were reminded of how life had been before the apocalypse through videos and media in school, but it almost felt like an alien world despite it only being two decades ago.

  As a Hunter raised in a family of elves that ran one of the most prominent guilds in the country, she couldn't imagine life before the apocalypse. She glanced away from the window and down at her bloodstained clothes.

  It hurt. Both physically and mentally. It would take days to return to peak strength, and there was no telling how she would feel in time regarding Jonathan's death. Would she one day be able to treat death as casually as the informant had?

  No... I would be nothing but a monster in human skin then.

  "We are almost there," the taxi driver said, far more professionally than before.

  Sarah looked out the window and saw the towering skyscraper of the Stormbringer guild. Compared to the more typical skyscrapers that dominated downtown, this building stood out as a symbol of power. It was constructed from a vibrant blue mana crystal mined from the dungeon that glowed in the sunlight. However, the choice of material wasn't just for show. It was completely earthquake-proof, and with the runic formations, it could withstand attacks from A-grade mages.

  Using her fingerprint to pay, there was a ding from the machine.

  "Fifteen credits deducted."

  Getting out with a huff and slamming the car door a little harder than she intended, she swiftly retrieved her sword from the trunk.

  Standing before her guild's headquarters, she took a deep breath before walking up the steps. A doorman gave her a strange look, clearly not recognizing her initially. However, once he did, he began to panic.

  "Miss Sarah! I'll inform the Guildmaster of your return immediately."

  She had no energy to speak, so she simply nodded and made her way through the giant glass doors that parted for her. The lobby was spacious, and the intense air conditioning bit at the patches of exposed skin where a wolf claw had nicked her. However, the stares were more intense than the cold wind. Newbies gathering for a raid in the lobby, as if they were going on a school field trip, side-eyed her.

  "Don't you see who that is? Stop staring!" A girl in the group hissed.

  Sarah's ear twitched. One of the advantages of being an elf was having amazing hearing. It's also why she could hear the taxi driver's rude remark earlier.

  "Who is it?" asked a young man, likely in his early twenties, with slicked-back hair.

  "The guild master's daughter," the girl whispered back.

  Sarah didn't hear the rest as she had already reached the elevator. Not the one used by the others, but the private one reserved for family or the top members of the guild that led straight to the guild master's office on the top floor.

  As the doors closed on her and she stared at her reflection in the polished chrome, she almost broke down. She looked miserable, tattered, and broken.

  She clenched her hand and promised herself she would get to the bottom of this.

  "If the Guild Association doesn't take me seriously, my father will." She narrowed her eyes. "I will retrieve Jonathan's body and have Joe dissected to reveal the truth by the end of today."

  The elevator chimed, and the doors swiftly opened. Sitting behind a desk in the expansive sunlit office was Sarah's father, an S-rank Hunter. His hair was long and vibrant blue, like flowing water. He glanced up from his paperwork, and his usually tranquil eyes widened in surprise.

  "Sarah?" He rose from his desk and looked her up and down. "What the hell happened to you?!"