"Waoh-! Wait a second. Aren't you jumping to conclusions too fast? At least allow me time to defend myself."
Lee Minho looked flustered and he raised his hand to show that he did not mean any harm.
However, no one wanted to hear him speak or let him clear his name. Especially not the female beta.
Finally, Rhiner decided to be the bigger person and step forward to calm the situation down.
"Kara, it's alright. We should allow Lee Minho to speak. After all, he has never attacked a fellow hunter officially."
Those words sounded heavy and a lot of people snickered at the barely hidden shade that was being thrown around.
As for me? I just pretended I had no idea what was going on and kept my mouth shut. I was nothing but mere decoration hanging around these hunters.
"Tsk, can you stop throwing shade at me for a few minutes. Ugh, anyway, what I want to say is that you all need to be careful. This dungeon might be classified as C-class but there is something fucked up about it. It's…well, it's better if you see it for yourselves."
Lee Minho seemed to have calmed down and also gotten over the insult. He pointed toward the direction we had walked into the dungeon from and I turned that way as well.
At first I saw nothing and neither did the others.
"Hey, Lee Minho, is this some kind of joke-"
But then, something jumped out toward us from behind the bushes and Rhiner reacted immediately. His bullets made quick work of the monster and blood splattered everywhere.
I immediately looked at the monster, only to see a human face looking back at me.
"What the hell-! Is that a hunter…but-"
The female beta spoke softly before she took a step toward the corpse. But Lee Minho was faster and grabbed her shirt.
"Don't be ridiculous. Look at their neck. It has gills. These monsters look like humans but they are not. Tsk, I don't think I have ever seen such an unnerving dungeon before. Just what in the world is this place?"
Lee Minho questioned and it was the same question that haunted humanity ever since the day the system and these dungeons appeared.
"This is…Now I understand why you decided to attack us on sight. We should get away from here and investigate. But first, we should get Kyle to a safe location outside the dungeon. It is not safe for him inside here."
I was startled when Rhiner suddenly addressed me. I was not used to being addressed unless someone had a question for me.
"That might be the safest option. Since the gate is just here, it should be fine. Kara, why don't you stay with Kyle to ensure his safety? The rest of us can take care of the dungeon ourselves."
Rhiner questioned and Kara looked devastated.
She looked at Rhiner with the devolution of a puppy whose master had abandoned them and given them away and she also secretly shot me looks that asked me to speak up.
That gave me no other choice but to speak up.
"I would be alright alone. You should take all the help you can get for this dungeon-"
"Don't be ridiculous. Why would we risk a civilian's safety like this? Kara, stay with him. We will be back soon."
Rhiner spoke conveniently and Kara seemed unable to defy him.
In the end, I was escorted out by Kara, but not before Lee Minho managed to get some last words in.
"Hey, my offer for a date still stands. Although you will never be able to be no.1 in my heart because of my goddess, Lee Hara, but you can be second. I will ask you once more when I come out."
Lee Minho was dragged away by Rhiner and they all disappeared behind the dungeon door.
I exited the dungeon with Kara but her bad mood was evident.
"You don't have to stay with me if you don't want to. You should follow your team. I will be fine waiting alone here. After all, there are other people waiting out here as well."
I was not lying. There were other support groups outside the dungeon, waiting for their teams to come out.
That was where I decided to stay—near them. Not too far and not too near. Just enough to be safe but also be out of their comfort zone.
"I cannot leave you alone. Well, I can, but I would rather not. Leaving an omega like you all alone won't be safe."
Even as Kara said that, I could make out her annoyance. She was truly not happy to have an omega near her…or rather, near her crush.
"I am fine. Rather, you should go. Isn't this an opportunity to make Rhiner like you as well? Hey, don't give me that look. You were not being nearly as discreet as you think you were."
Kara was totally obvious with her crush, but the reason no one else had noticed until now was likely because she was a beta.
After all, the rest of the team was alpha and they relied too much on scents and pheromones to guess what someone else was feeling.
"Tsk, don't try to change the subject. I am not-"
Kara stopped speaking and her ears sharpened. Even I sharpened my senses to check what was happening and I heard voices coming from inside the dungeon.
One of them sounded too much like Rhiner's and it was calling for help. It felt too much like a well-crafted illusion.
I had gone through too many dungeons to fall for these tricks. But clearly, Kara was not the same.
Or anyone else at the clearing either.
They all took a step toward the dungeon gate before catching themselves.
"I…what was I doing-! I need to go. Hey kid, take care of yourself and don't come after me."
Before I could warn Kara, she was gone. A few more people had entered the dungeon during that time and it did not seem as if they had ways to protect themselves.
I had a choice now—whether to go inside the dungeon and take care of it, or stay out here and let things happen.
Out of the two, I chose the latter. I did not want to start going back into dungeons.
After all, it was too easy to just say 'this is an exception' one time. But if you make one exception, it quickly turns into a habit.
That's why, it is very easy to slip back into bad habits when you are trying to cut them out of your life. There is no telling when exception becomes a norm for someone.
I waited around for a while, but after an hour or so I noticed something—the people around me seemed to be fewer in number.
Sometime between Kara entering the dungeon and me resting, the others had decided to enter the dungeon as well.
It had also been 2 hours of waiting for me by now.
'A B-class dungeon should not take that long. Especially with two top 100 hunters there. Should I…check it out after all?'