[Nayr Island, D-rank dungeon - Lurker Den]
Greem Ironguard adjusted the hilt of his cross sword, the metal groaning against his calloused palm.
The air on Nayr Island clung thick with salt and the acrid stench of monster blood.
Behind him, his team—four D-rank Hunters clad in the Black Snake Guild's crimson insignia—murmured restlessly
"Capt'n," a gruff voice cut through the fog.
It belonged to Borin, the team's hulking shieldwarrior, jerking his chin toward the lurker's dead body, his hands steady on his axe and shield.
"Scouts say the nest's just past the mangroves. Lurkers. A dozen, maybe more."
Greem didn't turn. His eyes stayed fixed on the shifting darkness ahead.
"And the Guild's intel?"
"Same as always", Lira, the team's sharp-tongued archer, twirled an arrow between her fingers. Besides Borin, she looked very small, but her archery skills were above average. She continued: "'Clear the nest, collect cores, don't die.' Hunter stuff. If we encounter White Lion Guild or Knight Guild hunters, we hunt them too"
A snort came from the rear.
Jask, the oldest and wisest of the group, tightened the straps of his dagger. "Stay focused. This is a dungeon. Enemies lurk in shadows"
"Yeah, Jask is right" Borin muttered, years of experience kicking in.
Greem silenced them with a raised fist.
The chatter died. Ahead, guttural snarls echoed through the trees—wet, hungry sounds that set teeth on edge. He glanced over his shoulder.
"Formation Delta. Lira, high ground. Jask, take care of the small fries. Borin, you're with me. Vessa—"
The team's dark priest, a wiry woman with blue eyes like frost, nodded before he finished. "I'll hang back. Try not to lose any limbs this time, please."
Greem's lips twitched. "No promises."
The lurkers attacked in a frenzy, their sinewy bodies erupting from the mangroves in a blur of claws and teeth. Greem's blade met the first monstner mid-leap, shearing through its neck with a practiced twist. Black blood sprayed, sizzling against his armor.
"Jask—left flank!" he barked.
The captain Greem pivoted, slamming his shield into a lunging lurker. The creature recoiled, hissing, its skull with a visible dent. Soon after, Lira's arrow punched through its eye socket, leveraging the stun effect from his shield bash skill.
"Two down!" Jask crowed as he himself backstabbed a leaping lurker
"Save the tallying for after your funeral," Lira snapped, nocking another arrow.
Borin's axe cleaved through a pair of lurkers, their screeches cut short. "Cap'n! Big one—incoming!"
Greem spun. A hulking alpha lurker, twice the size of the others, barreled toward them, its maw dripping venom. Lurkers, alien creatures of giant size, we capable of destroying tanks with their big pincers. As for alpha lurkers, even though they were just D-rank creatures, they could threaten regular army units. This is the reason why hunters were vital to the society.
The ground trembled. Dungeons were always unpredictable. Although the technology could now accurately estimate the size and mana levels of the gates, there was no telling about the ecosystem inside, or...mutants like the alpha lurker.
Still, this was just a D-rank gate. For an experienced team such as this one, lurkers were part of their daily life.
"Distract it," Greem ordered, unsheathing his sword
Borin blinked. "Distract i—oh, hells—"
The alpha lunged. Borin barely dodged, his axe scraping uselessly against its armored hide. Greem sprinted up a nearby boulder, leaping onto the monstner's back. His sword flashed, plunging into the gap between its skull and spine. The alpha writhed, collapsing with a final, thunderous roar.
Silence fell.
Vessa stepped over the carcasses, her healing glow already mending Borin's shallow gashes. "Efficient as ever. But dangerous"
Greem wiped his blade on a patch of moss. "It worked, didn't it?"
"Barely," Lira said, yanking arrows from corpses, "The guild must start to trust us. Months ago, they would have never handed us a D-rank gate like that"
Jaks shook his head: "You are overestimating the elders. We might be a major guild of Nayr's island, but the dungeons keep increasing in size and intensity, taking most of the main attacking squad forces. It's not that they trust us more, but rather that we are part of the few decent teams available to clear a D-rank dungeon"
The team groaned in unison but fell into step behind him.
The [Black Snake] guild was not regular. Unlike official guilds that paid taxes and answered to the Hunter's association, the Black Snake Guild was an dark guild, in other words, illegal. It operated in the shadows. Instead of selling cores through regular channels, it auctioned them in black markets. Mutant creatures bodies, rare herbs, anything that came out of the dungeons through scavengers like Greem's team would be sold at the appropriate price.
Of course, this was banned by the association. However, the situation in Nayr Island was catastrophic. Big population, big territory, and too few hunters to defend it.
The [Black Snake] guild was growing, mostly as mercenaries paid to clear dungeons about to overflow, a last-minute workforce that proved to be even more reliable than the other light guilds of the island. As a result, it kept expanding at a rapid pace.
Ahead, the cliffs loomed, jagged and unforgiving. Greem's hand drifted to the guild insignia on his chest, a twisted snake, symbol of the Black Snake Guild legacy.
"Experience is experience", Greem motivated himself, "One nest at a time."
Somewhere in the distance, a lurker screeched.
A couple of hours later, Greem smiled.
Quest Updated: [Nest Cleared – 8/8 Lurker Nests]
[Rewards: 4 free attribute points, +30 Reputation with the Black Snake Guild, +20 Reputation with your affiliated team Ash Weavers]
Greem did not hesitate and clicked on his status window, a blue screen that spanned over his vision. Two points in strength, one in agility and the last in vitality. It felt almost automatic. He had grown used to it.
Seconds later, he felt his veins go through a change. It was a small change, yet it felt more wondrous than any workout he could training. The physical enhancement made the sword in his hand lighter, his breath became lighter, and he could feel slightly faster.
[Strength increased by 2%]
[Agility increased by 1%]
[Vitality increased by 1%]
This was his secret.
While others needed to go through military-grade medical examinations to determine their attributes and train very hard to grow attributes, Greem possessed a ring allowing him to grow stronger after killing monsters and clearing quests.
While others needed to buy skill books that had a tremendously low drop rate in high-rank dungeons or train for years to learn a single skill, Greem could pick them up much faster.
It was an artefact of SS-rank, a majestic item he had stumbled upon in an E-rank gate.
Greem was an anomaly. Regular teenagers would need to get hunter permit in hunter academies after years of grueling studies. He did none of that, and joined a dark guild to be able to illegally enter dungeons and find comrades to trust.
Regular hunters would take years, if not decades to reach D-rank, yet he managed to catch up to the likes of Jask and Borin in a matter of years. Even the rising stars of the guild like Lira and Vessa could not keep up with his growth rate.
===
[Status Window][Name: Greem Ironguard]
[Rank: ★★☆☆☆☆ - D rank]
[Strength: D (80%)] – [Agility: D (26%)]
[Vitality: D (7%)] – [Perception: D (14%)]
[Energy: E (38%)] – [Intelligence: E (92%)]
[Spirit: D (89%)] – [Charisma: E (80%)]
[Active Skills: Arclight Chop [C] (11%), Power Thrust [D] (46%), Energy Body Refinement [D] (11%)]
[Passive Skills: Black Snake Swordsmanship [C] (35%), Military Shield Mastery [C] (12%), Beast Senses [D] (11%)]
[Item Skills: Ouroboros Greed [SS], Night Owl Pendant Perception (Minor Night Vision) [E]]
[Artefact - Ouroboros Ring [SS], Black Iron Sword [D], Black Iron Armour Set [D], Night Owl Pendant [E]]
===