Xen drowned out his dark thoughts about humanity's treatment of monsters by retreating to what he knew best—slaughtering his own kind.

  You have killed multiple opponents. Bonus experience awarded.

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

  [Hexreaver Slime] has leveled up: 51 -> 52.

  [Human] has leveled up: 46 -> 47.

  "Finally, a level up," Xen muttered, dismissing the notifications.

  He reached down, planting a hand on the Crimson Fang Orc's head to pin it in place, then wrenched his mithril short sword free from its skull. Dark red blood sprayed from the wound.

  Xen glanced over his shoulder as he sensed another presence approaching.

  [Crimson Fang Orc (Level 27)]

  Unlike the bulky Clay Orcs of the third floor, Crimson Fang Orcs were lean, red-skinned humanoids with sharp tusks and deep ritual scars carved into their flesh. Like the others, this one dual-wielded cleavers forged from dungeon bone and wore crimson furs, likely dyed in enemy blood. Xen had also noticed that, in combat, their muscles pulsed unnaturally with mana.

  "Why do you fight me to the death?" Xen snarled in Orcish as the Crimson Fang Orc continued to approach from behind despite seeing the fate of its brethren. "You know you can't win."

  The Orc paused a few steps away without a hint of fear in its eyes. "What more is there to life besides fighting?" it snarled in response. "If you kill me, I'll simply return to the dungeon. But if I eat you," it grinned, showing off needle-like teeth, "then I'll grow in strength and could become the next boss."

  "There is more to life than that," Xen countered, "such as..." he trailed off as he drew a blank. All he had done since awakening was eat and fight. Was the Orc perhaps right?

  "Less talking, more fighting," the Orc lunged at him.

  Xen felt bad. His immense stat advantage made the foolish Orc's overhead strike appear in slow motion. Making use of Ghostwire's skill Windveil Agility, he dodged effortlessly. "Then return to mana, you foolish beast," Xen snarled in Orcish and struck the back of the Orc's neck, the killing blow guided by his [Sword Proficiency].

  You have killed an opponent— the system message began, cut short as something smashed into Xen's face with a deafening clang, rattling his skull and sweeping him off his feet.

  [You are stunned]

  "Gerald!" he heard Randy shout from afar, but he was too dazed to respond.

  ***

  Randy couldn't believe what he had just seen out of the corner of his eye. While he, Vesper, and Valoria were teamed up to take down some of the weaker Orcs, Xen had charged ahead to face them alone. As expected, it had been a one-sided slaughter.

  Yet something had struck Xen, sending him spiraling to the ground.

  "Hold on," Vesper said in a stern whisper, gripping his shoulder.

  "What—"

  "Shhh," Vesper hissed, his eyes darting between the shadowed buildings of the encampment. "Xen is level fifty, remember? Anything that can knock him down in a single hit will obliterate us."

  Randy exhaled a sharp breath and nodded. "You're right. What should we do?"

  Staying low, Vesper guided them toward nearby cover that had a clear view of the clearing. "I think Gerald is still alive—just knocked out," he said, relief threading his voice. "So for now we watch. If something comes to finish him off, we'll see what it is."

  "Someone?"

  Vesper nodded. "The Ether Technocrats have likely put a bounty on his head, remember? There's possibly a level fifty Reaper lurking out there—not someone we can contest with."

  "So we hope it's a monster?" Valoria asked quietly.

  "That would be ideal. But what kind of monster could take out Gerald—"

  Vesper stopped mid-sentence, lifting a hand. He tilted his head, listening. After a moment, he raised one finger.

  One enemy approaching.

  Randy tensed. The mysterious killer was coming to finish Gerald, as Vesper had anticipated.

  A long moment passed. Then a shadow stretched across the clearing, followed by its owner—a red-skinned Crimson Fang Orc wielding a massive crossbow. It stood taller than the others they'd fought, and its ritual scars glowed faintly silver.

  "Appraisal," Randy whispered.

  [Crimson Fang Executioner (Level 36)]

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  "It's quite strong. Level 36," Randy whispered his findings to the group. "I've never heard of a Crimson Fang Executioner before, though. Must be a rare variant."

  The Executioner walked into the clearing, its reptilian-like eyes locked onto Gerald on the ground. It carefully studied its prey and seemed to reach the same conclusion as Vesper—that Gerald was still alive.

  Lowering its monstrous crossbow, crafted from bone and bound by crude leather straps, it went for a reload. With one hand, it pulled an arrow nearly the length of a sword from the back holster and slotted it into its crossbow.

  "We need to stop it," Randy hissed.

  "No shit," Vesper muttered, already moving. "Cover me."

  "What—" Randy began, but Vesper was already gone despite his bad leg. Blending into the shadows of the buildings, he hobbled toward the unaware monster. Clicking his tongue, Randy pulled out his bow and loaded a mana arrow. "Valoria, watch our back. There are other Orcs still lurking."

  Valoria nodded, letting Randy fully focus on the problematic foe. Unless he landed a fortunate hit at this range, he wasn't going to get a killing blow. That would have to be Vesper's job. I should focus on distracting the monster at the perfect moment, he mused, his eyes flicking between the beast and Vesper, who was fast approaching from behind.

  Having completed the reload, the Executioner raised its hefty crossbow and aimed toward Gerald. Vesper isn't going to make it, Randy cursed as he drew his bowstring. Should I fire? No, wait. What is it doing? The half-second the monster spent aiming too long told Randy something was wrong. Its eye then glanced to the side toward him. The monster's ritual scars pulsed silver, and with speed that betrayed the size of the crossbow, it aimed at him.

  Shit—Randy grabbed Valoria and dove to the ground. Thunder roared overhead, followed by a violent explosion that tore the earth apart and hurled him into the air. He slammed down face-first, hard. Groaning, he forced his head up just in time to see Vesper emerge from the shadows behind the Executioner. The Orc reacted instantly, swinging its crossbow to block Vespers's Shadow Sever skill. The weapon was sacrificed, shattering on impact, but the force still sent Vesper flying into a tent made from leather and monster fur.

  The Executioner snarled, furious at the loss of its weapon. It reached back, drew another massive arrow, and gripped it like a spear as it advanced on Vesper.

  "No!" Randy rasped as he tried and failed to stand. His body felt badly broken and bruised. Even the slightest movement sent pain shooting up his spine.

  Valoria staggered to her feet and stumbled forward. "Get away from him, you beast!" she yelled, her voice breaking a little. For her valiant efforts, she was rewarded with a dismissive glance from the monster. It was clearly too determined to kill the human who had broken its weapon to bother with an unarmed, screaming girl.

  Come on, Randy, you can get up. GET UP. He clenched his jaw as he managed to get on one knee and, ignoring his body's protests, picked up his bow once more and nocked an arrow. He tried to aim, but his vision was a bit blurry from the earlier hit, and his arm was trembling. Trying and failing to get the aim he wanted, he gave up and let the arrow fly. It went low, striking the beast in the back of the leg.

  It howled in pain and turned to glare at him.

  "You like that, you beast?" Randy taunted. "Here, you can have another," he loaded a second arrow and let it fly. As expected, the beast easily backhanded it away and continued to glare at him with hatred. Randy didn't give up and loaded a third.

  The Executioner charged at him.

  Randy panicked—the arrow flew and missed. He loaded another, but didn't even have time to aim as the Executioner had already rushed past Valoria, sending her crashing into a wall with a brutal slap, and was upon him.

  It snarled something at him with a savage grin and went for the kill.

  Left with no other options, Randy snarled back in attempted Orcish, "Humans are delicious."

  While he had no idea if he had parroted the phrase Gerald had told him earlier correctly, whatever he had said made the Executioner pause for a brief second.

  And then it howled in pain.

  Randy's eyes widened in shock as the Executioner tried to turn, only for something to strike it square in the chest, sending it tumbling toward him. He rolled out of the way, barely avoiding being crushed.

  "What the hell just happened?" he panted. He glanced at the fallen monster to make sure it was dead, and that's when he noticed its flesh was rotting from death mana. Looking up, he saw the culprit—a masked, suit-wearing man partially obscured by a haze of dust. His hand was raised, with orbs of death mana circling his fingers.

  "Randy," Gerald said, his tone lightly amused. "I'm not sure what you intended to say, but you just told that Orc that his knees looked handsome."

  "Oh," Randy said, feeling embarrassed. "That does explain why it looked so confused for a second."

  Gerald strode through the lingering haze and stopped in front of Randy, extending a hand. "Come on. We need to get out of here."

  "Why—" Randy started, then stopped as the realization hit him. "Right. You used death magic on the Executioner." He grimaced. "Yeah… we should get the hell out of here before someone notices."

  Letting Gerald haul him to his feet, he hissed from the pain.

  "You good?"

  "I will be in a minute. Hopefully." Randy glanced around. "What about the others?"

  "They're both alive," Gerald said, already looking past him. "You check on Valoria. I'll go for Vesper."

  "Got it." Randy nodded, then hesitated. "By the way, what happened back there?"

  Gerald's jaw tightened. "I let my guard down," he admitted, disgust lacing his voice. "I assumed they were all melee fighters—and weaker than me—so I stopped tracking my surroundings and paid the price."

  "They pretty much are all melee fighters," Randy said. "That one was a rare variant."

  "Ah. Of course." Gerald glanced at the Executioner's corpse. "Always with the darn rare variants."

  "It's that element of randomness that makes dungeon diving so dangerous. You never know what monster could appear," Randy said, shooting a deliberate glance at Xen to make sure he knew he was included in that.

  "Point taken," Gerald replied dryly. "I'm just lucky it aimed for my face and struck my mask. If that bolt had hit me in the back of the head, I'd be dead."

  "There's not even a dent left on your mask," Randy noted.

  "When it said I can't take it off, it wasn't joking," Gerald chuckled. He bent down and grabbed the Executioner by the neck. "I can't leave a corpse infected with death mana lying around. I'll find somewhere to quickly devour it after checking on Vesper."

  Randy nodded in agreement, and they parted ways. Gerald dragged the corpse toward Vesper at the edge of the clearing, while Randy trudged over to where Valoria had been sent flying.

  He glanced to the side at a turret mounted to a tower beyond the encampment's walls.

  While the Crimson Fang Clan's encampment was far less popular compared to the others, it was still monitored. Their fight was bound to attract attention, so they needed to leave straight away.

  "Always on the move," Randy grumbled. "At this rate, if I don't end up dead and make it home, I'm not going to have enough time to finish my half-written thesis due in a few days."

  He looked up at the dungeon's fake sky. "Maybe I should just accept my failure, flunk out, and give up my job at the Guild Association."

  After all, wouldn't a job running a guild with Gerald in it be far more profitable? The only concern, which had been further highlighted just now, was what would happen if Gerald died? Not even the strongest Hunters were immortal.

  "Maybe I should do an all-nighter or two to at least try and pass," Randy groaned. Somehow, the impending all-nighters overshadowed his near-death experience and seemed more daunting than battling within an inch of his life to reach the abandoned Titanborn guild teleportation hub.

  to read ahead!