Sarah was a mess—everyone was. While she sat against a pillar in the crypt's main room with her heart pounding in her chest, she saw out of the corner of her eye Aria pacing the room—her form barely illuminated by one of Jill's many fireballs. The fire mage in question looked pale and was being supported by Devon. No doubt she was suffering from extreme mana deprivation after the impressive skill she used to wipe out the Living Armor's chain attack.

  Devon looked rough, but alive. It was Eric who was far worse off, as the Living Armor's necrotic chains had seared through his defenses and infected his body. He was chugging potions to slow down the foreign mana's effects while staring wide-eyed at the floor.

  Sarah brought up her knees and hugged them. Despite not getting directly hit by the Living Armors' attack, the sheer force and speed of that attack had left her shaken. If it had so much as grazed her, she would have died without knowing what hit her. But there was also something else dominating her mind.

  I tried to deny it, but Jonathan really had been using me.

  Suspicions had started a few weeks ago when Jonathan had begun acting cold toward her after he failed a promotion within the guild. He hadn't achieved the required qualifications to be promoted, a fact her father had made clear to her when she had brought the topic up to him at a dinner. She still remembered her father pausing in the middle of cutting a steak and appraising her with his tranquil blue eyes. In that moment, she had felt the friendly air between them cool.

  "He will follow the same rules as everybody else—no exceptions," he had said, his tone serious. "If I promote him based on relationships, he will grow a big head and lead many capable members of our guild to their deaths. The same applies to you. Don't expect a free lunch."

  She had nodded and moved on with the meal, never daring to bring it up again. She agreed with her father and had tried to relay his reasoning to Jonathan. Expecting him to understand, she had been quite taken aback by how poorly he had seemed to take the news. His gaze when he looked at her was like that of a stranger. While their lives were intertwined, she had never felt so distant from someone.

  The dungeon run that had ended in disaster had been planned by Sarah to rekindle their relationship and hopefully cheer him up by showing her support in helping him reach the qualifications. Yet, replaying the whole scene through her head, a horrifying realization dawned on her.

  He wanted me hurt, or perhaps even dead. There's no other explanation for why he was refusing to heal me while I faced off against multiple wolves by myself. At the time, I had thought it was because he was busy saving Joe, but clearly Joe was still alive.

  Sarah's head hurt. Nothing about the situation made sense. Who was Joe? How did he know about Jonathan and their relationship? Her hatred and desire for revenge toward Joe had shifted into deep curiosity.

  "When are the priests arriving?"

  Sarah glanced up and met Eric's desperate expression. Pulling out her phone, she checked her notifications and cross-referenced them with the displayed time.

  "There's an advanced team of priests heading here in an hour or two. The full strike team apparently needs more time to be assembled."

  "Too long," Eric muttered, shaking his head. Standing up, he winced. "I'll be dead by then. Necrotic mana from a floor boss of that caliber is no joke."

  Sarah stood up. "Then let's go."

  Eric blinked, "But what about keeping guard of this exit to stop Joe escaping back to the surface?"

  "Your life is more important than detaining Joe, and if we split up, there will be more deaths."

  Sarah did want to stay, but Joe had proven his capabilities for killing, and she had only been comfortable chasing him with a large group. With Brandon likely dead and Eric needing to return, that would leave an exhausted Devon as her only defense. It wasn't reasonable for her to continue pressing on.

  "Is that decision fine with everyone?" she asked, surveying the group, her gaze lingering on Aria, who had stopped pacing and was standing a few steps away. She seemed troubled by something. Feeling the need to bring up the topic everyone was avoiding, she said, "I'm sorry about Brandon, he was a good man—"

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  Aria held her hand up to silence her. "I don't really care about Brandon and his fate. I only came on this mission to justify Gerald's death. Now that the leader of the group has also died, and we confirmed the existence of a powerful floor boss, the Iron Legion has the explanation they need to survive the PR from this incident."

  Sarah felt her skin crawl as she looked into Aria's cold, appraising eyes, and it seemed like she wasn't alone as an uncomfortable silence settled on the group. While everyone, Sarah included, understood on a logical level Aria's assessment of the situation, it was still hard to stomach.

  That was just the life of a Hunter. They did this for money, levels, and some were also in it for the fame. But they all accepted the cutthroat nature of the job. You wouldn't last long in this line of work if you didn't put yourself above others and swiftly move on from deaths.

  Still... Sarah didn't like it.

  "Let's get moving," Aria said, spinning on her heel and taking the lead. The tired group exchanged a silent glance before following along and falling into a vague formation.

  Once again, Sarah took the rear. Before leaving, she shot one last look at the tunnel that had led to the floor boss.

  I wonder if he took the tunnel into the depths? She frowned as their interaction played through her mind for the hundredth time. I hope he survives so I can get the answers I need.

  The problem was, Hunters couldn't delve for that long—especially solo. Food and supplies would eventually run thin, especially water, in this endless black sand biome devoid of any water sources.

  Of course, assuming Joe had survived having that rubble fall on him.

  The chances were looking slim, but a tinge of hope tugged at her mind that somehow, against all the odds, she would run into Joe again.

  ***

  The Joe in question was very much thriving.

  You have killed an opponent.

  Experience split between [Necrovore Slime] and [Human] form.

  [Necrovore Slime] has leveled up: 15 -> 16.

  Xen frowned. Having killed a handful of these Sand-Drowned Revenants, his Human form had leveled up to 9 and was on the cusp of reaching level 10.

  "Darn. I had hoped that one was the last I needed, but I think I'll need one more," Xen said, scanning the sand with appraisal. "Mhm, not detecting any more."

  Luckily, that didn't matter as there was a feast awaiting at his feet—around five Sand-Drowned Revenant corpses. They looked like humans that had been burned in a fire with blackened and blistered flesh. Opening the mouth of a nearby one, he confirmed the sharpness of their needle-like teeth. It was as if someone had taken a whetstone to them and sanded them down.

  "What strange monsters," he mused as he cracked the monster's skull on the stone with a satisfying crunch, exposing the soft flesh within. He had made sure to wrestle the last one to death rather than clonking it on the head with his sword to preserve its brain. As expected, a system prompt appeared.

  [Use Devour on Sand-Drowned Revenants' Brain?]

  He mentally accepted the prompt.

  [Devour in progress…]

  As always, memories flooded his mind. Except compared to the ones he had experienced with the wolves, this one was far more vivid. One moment, he was there, crouched over and devouring a corpse; the next, he was drowning in sand. He desperately tried to struggle upwards, but the weight of the shifting sand made it futile. As his lungs burned, he opened his mouth only for coarse sand to endlessly pour in, choking him. An intense desire to escape overwhelmed him as the sand continued to pour in past his cracked lips and fill his burning lungs.

  [Devour Complete]

  Xen kneeled over and emptied his stomach until the phantom taste of sand left his mouth.

  You absorbed 50% of the Sand-Drowned Revenant's memories.

  You have unlocked the [Sand-Drowned Revenant] form.

  You acquired the following skills:

  [Gravehook (C)]

  [Sand Sense (D)]

  You and the target shared similar skills:

  [Mystic Perception (C)] has fused with [Sand Sense (D)] to form [Geomantic Perception (B)]

  [A new Free Skill Slot has been unlocked]

  [Do you wish to take on the Sand-Drowned Revenant form?]

  "No," Xen said, shaking his head, which felt dizzy. That had been an awful experience, and the last thing he wanted to think about was anything sand-related.

  Experience split between [Necrovore Slime] and [Human] form.

  [Human] has leveled up: 9 -> 10 (Evolution Pending).

  Xen heaved a sigh of relief. At least that harrowing experience had been worth it. His Human form was ready to evolve.

  [Human] has reached Level 10 (D Grade). Evolution is available.

  Do you wish to begin the evolution process?

  [Yes/No]

  After shakily walking away from the once monster-infested sand and up the empty tunnel that led back to the Living Armor, he found a quiet spot and sat down. After calming his breathing, he rechecked the prompt.

  "Sure, I want to evolve," he said, not expecting much. The system had explained that his forms were mere imitations, so apart from ranking up and getting a new skill and passive, he didn't anticipate the system showing him something new, but it did.

  There were options.

  [Please select a [Human] class]