Dean saw three humans fighting the creature. Two man and one woman. One of the men looked to be around mid-40s and the other one looked like around his early 20s. The woman was quite muscular and seemed to be in her 30s.
"Muscle girl, what are you doing? I told you to hold the monster properly, I can't use my power if you don't hold the monster properly!" The mid 40s man said. He was making a posed holding his right hands backwards. Energy can be seen swirling around his hand.
"It is not as easy as you think. This thing is as strong as me!" said the muscular woman holding the black creature.
Suddenly, the young man in his 20s moved really fast and slashed the black creature's neck however, he was shocked, "What the?!!" his sword was disintegrating upon touching the black creature. "Be careful! Its body can corrode you!" the young man screamed. He was panicked.
Both the mid-40s man and the muscular woman saw what happened to the young man's sword and was shocked too.
"Move away girl!! I am releasing my power!" screamed the mid-40s man. The muscular girl immediately moved away from the creature. The mid 40s man released his power from his right hand and a gushed of water came out of it and hit the black creature.
The black creature was sent flying a few meters back.
"Did we do it?" asked the young man. He hoped it worked and they killed the creature. The mid 40s man and the muscular girl stared at the fallen creature also hoping they killed it. However, they were shocked that the black creature stood back. All three of them immediately went into their battle stance.
Suddenly, a dagger with yellow fumes fly towards the black creature. The dagger hit the chest of the creature and passed through the creature's body with a metal orb with it. "That's the core! Destroy it!!" someone screamed from the bushes.
The feet of the young man enveloped with energy. He took out another sword and suddenly vanished from his location and appeared far from the core. The core suddenly split into two. The man was moving too fast that they can't see it.
Once the core was cut, the black creature turned to dust and disappeared. The core also turned the same. Seeing that the black creature vanished, the three of them breathe a sigh of relief. All three of them looked at the bushes and Dean came out of it.
The young man took Dean's dagger back and found it weird. The dagger was still in one piece and not destroyed by the black creature. He looked at it and thought that the dagger was special but it was a cheap and common dagger that can be found everywhere.
Dean walked towards the three of them. The mid 40s man suddenly asked Dean, "Kid, how do you know about the core?" Monsters usually did not have any core inside their body. The monster's core was obtained after the monster was killed. It generated by itself. So, they never suspected that the black creature had a core inside it.
"I accidentally saw it when you attacked it with that water," said Dean. The young man handed Dean back his dagger and Dean found it strange that his dagger was still intact. Dean took the dagger back and put it in his storage.
"Why is your dagger fine? My sword disintegrated when it touched the creature's body?" asked the young man. He looked at Dean curiously.
"I also don't know. I actually throw the dagger to get its attention. I did aim at the core but I never expected it to hit and I also thought that I will lose my dagger," explained Dean.
"Did you do something to your dagger?" asked the muscular woman.
"I only used monster soul on it," said Dean. The three humans looked at each other and they nodded.
"The soul must have prevented the creature from affecting the dagger. This black creature is really hard to kill and now we know how to handle it, it will be easier from now on," said the mid-40s man. "Kid, can you use the soul again?" Dean looked at the mid-40s man and nodded.
"Let's find a place to camp and rest our body," said the muscular woman. She looked at Dean and the others and introduce herself, "I am Marionne. Let's work together and get out of this place."
"I am Dean" Dean introduced himself followed by the young man, "Xiao Han" and the mid-40s man, "Call me Gin." When they were introducing the themselves, the got a notification from the system.
'Successfully analyzed the creature. Virus 1/100 killed.'
"Virus… So, this is the monster's name?" said Gin while looking at his system.
"There are 100 of them and we only kill one. Other than the name, we don't know anything about the black creature. We know physical attack is useless against them. Energy-based power affect them and their weakness is their core," Xiao Han said everything they found so far.
"Let's find a place to sit," suggested Marionne and she looked around to find a place for them to rest. They decided to just sit in an open space. The virus might be strong but they were slow. They did not want the virus to ambush them, so, they decided to sit in an open space area.
All of them went to the dimension a lot, so, they all have many things in their storage. When they killed the virus, it was already evening and the sun set an hour later.
Marionne offered herself to prepare dinner. So, she was preparing dinner. Dean did not want her to do it by herself so he also helped Marionne.
"Did all of you get here because of the green light?" asked Dean. His hand was moving cutting the vegetables.
"I think we all came here due to that damn green light. I should have destroyed it when I first caught sight of it," said Gin angry that he did not move sooner.
"Will we be able to get out of here?" said Xiao Han. His face was pale because he was really worried.
"I think we will. The system put a counter. If we kill all 100 of the viruses, I think the system will bring us back," Marionne was confident with what she said. Dean also agreed with Marionne. When they were preparing dinner, suddenly they received another notification. Not one but thirteen of them.
'Virus 2/100 killed'
'Virus 3/100 killed'
'Virus 6/100 killed'
'Virus 10/100 killed'
'Virus 13/100 killed'
"Whoa!! There must be many others here and they all did a good job. We can go back faster than we thought!" Xiao Han was excited. Marionne's eyes was filled with tears while Gin did not say anything. Dean was also happy with the notification. If they went with this pace, it will only take them about a week at most to kill all 100 viruses.
They sat in front of the fire and ate their dinner. Marionne was a good cook and all the things she made taste good.
"So, Mr. Gin and Miss Marionne are both phase 3 human while Xiao Han is phase 2," said Dean.
"There is nothing impressive of being a in higher phase. You will still find it hard to survive in the other dimension," said Gin. He drinking some alcohol while eating the dinner.
"Gin is right. Once you advance, you will become weak again when you enter the higher dimension. In the new dimension, the normal monster is as strong as the mythical monster from the previous dimension," said Marionne. Dean listened to Marionne and he nodded.
"Yup not much change. I just advance to phase 2 a year ago and when I entered the second dimension, it was like I am starting again from zero," Xiao Han confirmed what Marionne said.
"I saw all of you fighting earlier and you all are so strong. You all must have a really good compatibility," said Dean.
"Nothing much. It just a common compatibility. Nothing impressive. The way you said it kid, you don't get a good compatibility?" asked Gin.
"Yeah, my compatibility is slime," said Dean while awkwardly smiling. Marionne, Xiao Han and Gin looked at Dean with shocked face.
"Are you serious?" asked Marionne. Dean nodded.
"Wait, Dean? Slime compatibility? Are you perhaps the unlucky Dean?" asked Xiao Han. Dean looked at Xiao Han and nodded. Xiao Han was shocked.
"Unlucky Dean?" asked Marionne.
"Well… Dean is from the Glitz family and you know how popular the Glitz family is. His family all awakened a good compatibility but he got unlucky and get that nickname," said Xiao Han. Dean was just smiling without saying anything.
"Don't worry, kid. If you work hard. You can become strong too. Do your best and show all those people that belittle you that you can become stronger too," said Gin encouraging Dean.
"That's right Dean. Gin is right. The slime has also start mutating and you have chance of becoming stronger," said Marionne while smiling.
Dean looked at Marionne and Gin and said, "Thank you but we need to get out of here first, or else there will be no chance of me getting stronger." Dean was smiling and he was happy that he met a nice people.