Chapter 7 – Searching for the lost adventures.
"Nothing?" – asked the young man with black hair.
"Nope. Nothing. We looked around and asked around, but there are no traces of them anywhere here." – said the young brown-haired boy who walked out of the bushes.
"We talked with anybody who had seen them walking around, looking for the hunting grounds, but they also had nothing."
"It is just as if they disappeared into thin air, just like that."
"Fuck!" – said the angry black-haired man.
"…"
"How many hunting spots do we have left to check?"
"Honest answer? We checked pretty much everything near as well as on the outskirts of the forest." – replied the boy with a scar on his arm.
"…"
(Dammit…. What the hell is going on?) – thought the young man with black hair as he grabbed his head in frustration.
(Arthur wasn't seen in any of the usual hunting grounds, nor in any areas where he could fulfil the commission quest he took…)
(The hunting grounds were full of newbies, so somebody should have seen them or something.)
(So where they...Wait.)
"Map."
"Now!" – said the impatient black-haired man, causing the man with the scar to take out the map, which was instantly snapped by the man with black hair.
"…"
"The areas deep in the forest. Can you find rabbits there?" - asked the black-haired man while pointing at the map.
"Well… Yea? But- "
"Then let's go check it out." - said the black-haired young man before the young man with brown hair could reply.
"Eh? But dude, those areas are- "
"An areas where E rank adventurers are not allowed to enter. Yeah, but honestly, those are the only spots that we have yet to check out." - said the black-haired man, again, interrupting the brown-haired man's question, and instantly started moving.
"I know it sounds stupid and all…. But honestly, it's better if we check all possibilities, if you get what I mean."
"…"
*Sigh*
"Yeah, yeah." – said the young man with the scar.
"Anyway, MARKUS! We are moving!"
These three adventurers were not some random people.
They were an E rank adventurer party.
And they were also the members of the search party that were currently looking for the missing trio of adventurers.
A search party that looked for none other than the trio of adventurers who had met their end at the hands of the golem monster.
And the leader of this search party was none other than the elder brother of the adventurer Arthur.
And the leader of the E rank adventurer party.
"…"
"So far… Only slimes… Are you sure we should be finding any dangerous monsters if we go in this direction?" – asked the man with brown hair, as the group arrived at the forest and started searching around, but once again not finding anything related to the missing adventurers case.
"Yeb, if we go in this direction, we should reach the area where beast-type monsters usually wander around, including the horned rabbits." – said the young man with the scar as he walked straight through the bush.
"And that would be the only spot that-"
"!"
"Huh. A bit earlier than I had expected." – said the man with the scar as he saw several horned rabbits running towards the group.
"…"
*Sigh*
The young man with black hair pulled out the long sword that he was carrying on his back and swung it around, cutting all the rabbits in half instantly with just a single swing.
"…"
"I guess we found some horned rabbit territory. Look around and….?" – the black-haired man stopped as he noticed some noises coming from afar, before moments later, another group of rabbits appeared and charged towards the young man, only to meet exactly the same fate as the group before, getting cut in half and not even landing a hit on the young man.
"…"
"Dude. Stop killing them. If you kill them all, what will newbies hunt?" – said an annoyed brown-haired young man.
"…"
"..."
"..."
"Em.... Dude? Why did you suddenly go silent like that?"
"Say... Is it me…. Or were these rabbits "running away" or something? They kind of looked scared to me." – said the black-haired man with a confused look as he realized that the monsters he just slain were not acting normal, alarming the young man as he started looking around.
"Eh? You sure? I mean, these rabbits usually charge at you recklessly the moment you are spotted by them." - said the brown-haired man.
"Yeah, I know, but they weren't running directly at ME!" – said the black-haired man.
"…"
"Let's go deeper." – said the black-haired boy as he began moving alongside his party members.
The party traversed the forest, encountering wild monsters a few times here and there.... But still not finding any form of leads regarding the missing case.....
However, they found something different.
Panic and fear, as some of the monsters they had encountered had a similar reaction to the rabbit monster from before.
They were running away from something.
This alarmed the party as they headed even deeper into the forest.... And as soon as they did, it didn't take them long to find out the weird cause of panic amongst the monsters.
"…"
"What the hell is this thing doing here?" – said the party leader with a confused expression as he saw a person approaching the group.
However, it wasn't a person.
They looked humanoid.... But their body was rotting while their eyes looked dead.
It was not a living creature, but instead an undead monster known as a living corpse.
Zombie.
"…"
And as the party noticed the creature, so did it them as it then stared, now walking towards them.
"...I got this." - said the party leader as he rushed at the creature and swung his sword at full power, decapitating the creature in one swoop, making its head roll on the ground while the body fell flat on the ground.
"..What the hell is going on? Why the hell is there a zombie wandering around here?!" – said the worried party leader as he stabbed the undead creature in the head, making sure it was dead.
"…"
"I don't like how things look, mate....Shit…. We'd better check the dungeon." – said the man with the scar.
Fear and worry struck the creature after their encounter with the creature, which ended up prompting the party to quickly traverse the forest at full speed, before then arriving at their destination.
"…"
"Oh…. Shit. That ain't good." – said the brown-haired man who was on top of the tree, looking at the nearby huge hill that had a cave entrance sticking out of it.
And around that very entrance, a huge group of humanoid undead monsters gathered, ranging from skeletons to zombies.
"Oh crap. There is no mistaking it." – said the brown-haired man as he jumped down and joined the hiding spot used by his friends.
"It's a dungeon break."
"Wait, are you for real!?" – asked the boy with a scar in disbelief.
"Yeah." – replied the brown-haired boy.
"There is no mistaking it."
"It's dungeon break, I'm 100% sure about it."
Question.
What is dungeon break?
Well, in short, it was already said that the dungeon monsters aren't real monsters. They cannot leave the dungeon; they are trapped inside the dungeon and do not possess the ability to leave, and when the dungeon monster is slain, only a portion of their "existence" is left behind as a dungeon drop.
However, what happens if the monsters survive and just live for a specific amount of time without dying?
What do you think happens?
The answer.
They manifest.
Dungeon monsters not only produce miasma for the dungeon as a resource, but they will also produce miasma for themselves in order to manifest their own body.
Once it has gathered enough of its miasma, the monster will be able manifest.
Once the monsters manifest, their bodies will become "fully manifested", meaning that they will not be some "dungeon monsters", but instead now "monsters".
They will be real creatures.
Living, breathing creatures that can eat, sleep, and most importantly, "think".
They will become real and will die a real death, leaving behind a real corpse instead of just drops.
They will gain the ability to develop, to adapt, and to evolve.
And what of the original rule that bound the dungeon monsters to the dungeon?
The answer.
Gone.
These monsters will no longer be bound by the dungeon, meaning that they can leave the structure at any point they want.
Now, what exactly is "dungeon break"?
Simply put, it is an event where a large number of monsters inside the dungeon have fully manifested, becoming real "monsters", which makes them no longer bound by the main rule of the dungeon.
And that large number of monsters will leave the dungeon all at once, causing an instant increase in the number of monsters in the area.
This sudden increase could have many different effects.
It could harm the ecosystem of the area where the dungeon is located.
...
Or it could be a massive scale accident to occur.
For example, a monster invasion of a settlement.
"But why the hell is the dungeon break happening anyway?!" – said the angry party leader.
"This dungeon shouldn't be too problematic! Hell! Even newbies shouldn't have a hard time with this place!"
(And I don't want to waste my bloody time on those fucking undeads while we are searching for my brother!)
"…"
"Actually…. It may be…" – said the boy with brown hair.
"..."
"I think I may know why the dungeon is experiencing the dungeon break."
"Eh? You do?" - asked the man with a scar.
"Yea." - said the man with brown hair.
"This dungeon is located quite far away from the town, and the drops from that place are shitty like hell…. This place is not worth anybody's time, since it is straight up not profitable, even for newbies."
"And the beast dungeon is both closer and gives way better profitable loot."
"Maybe that is a reason? People just didn't want to come here?"
"I mean, would you travel a long distance, enter some shitty dungeon, and then come back, barely earning anything from the drops?"
"Hm..... This may be correct..... But that doesn't explain when this happened!" - said the man with a scar.
"…"
"You are right... We don't know how many monsters are currently on the loose..." - said the man with brown hair.
"…We need to go back and report this."
"!"
"Wait! But we still haven't- "
"I know! I know, bro, but think about it!" – said the brown-haired man, cutting off the black-haired man mid-sentence.
"What if it's related?"
"?"
"R-related?" - asked the young man with dark hair as his expression instantly changed.
"Yes. Related." - said the brown-haired man.
"If that dungeon break was going on for some time now, then Arthur and his party could have ended up being caught by the undeads. The wandering undeads may have found him and his party, forcing them to run away.....Or....." - said the young man as he went on without even finishing speaking, the party understood the worst-case scenario that could have happened.
"..."
"…"
"We need to have the guild report this to the guild and have them help us out. We may even be able to find your little brother this way as well."
"If we have more people fighting the undeads, the search will also be far easier."
"If your brother party escaped the undeads and is currently hiding somewhere, they may reveal themselves once they realize that the rescue has arrived."
"This is the only correct course of action we can take now, mate."
"…"
"Fuck…. Okay…. We will do it this way." – said the black-haired man as he ground his teeth.
"And by 'IT' I mean my way."
"You two go back, while I continue searching the area."
"!"
"Hey, hey, hey. Dude. This is too risky." – said the man with the scar.
"If a large group of these things finds you, then you are straight up fucked."
"Don't worry, I will just focus on scouting. If my brother's party had been chased by the undeads or something….. I just…. I just can't go back… Sorry." – said the black-haired man with a worried look.
"…"
*Sigh*
"Just don't die like an idiot. Got it?" – said the man with the scar as he started walking away with the brown-haired young man.
"Yeah, don't worry. I won't." – replied the black-haired man.
The two men began running at full speed, trying to get to the settlement, while leaving behind the black-haired young man who continued searching around for the traces of his young brother who had gone missing.
However, the simple search had now turned into a massive problem as the dungeon break was discovered.
No matter how weak or low the danger rank of the dungeon is, the dungeon break will always cause harm and problems, meaning that the adventurers will have no choice but to instantly take action and try to deal with the problem.
However. There was a problem.
The settlement knew about two different dungeons here, and they knew what they were and how much danger they posed.
The beast dungeon.
And the undead dungeon.
Those are the only two dungeons that the town was aware of.
But what they didn't know was the fact that the third dungeon had been recently born, and it was the culprit behind the young adventurer's disappearance.
And currently, this dungeon will soon be seeing some major changes.
This third dungeon was somewhat…. "Helpless" and "weak", but the problem was that nobody yet knew about the existence of said dungeon.
And right now? All of the adventurers' gazes will be focused only on the undead dungeon, not realizing that another, yet unknown threat is growing in secret.