As Chu Mal-Chin looked closer, her realized it was a hurt kitten. It was lying on its side, breathing faintly. It was probably some person's pet that was left behind and it seemed to have gotten injured in the whole process, but nobody seemed to noticed the small baby laying meekly behind the huge serpent.
Seeing how close the fight was to ending, Chu Mal-Chin was hesitant. However he knew that the small thing would die once the serpent exploded.
Gritting his teeth, he imbued mana into his lower body as he desperately rushed to save the cat. Just as he appeared behind the serpent, Andras raised his sword and a huge ray of mana flew towards the serpent.
Chu Mal-Chin grabbed the hurt cat and threw it towards a guild member far away. Since the guild member was gifted, he gently caught it as he stared in shock at Orchid's sudden appearance.
Just as he was about to activate his teleport anchor, the serpent's head dropped off and a large mana explosion blew him into the gate behind. He felt a burning pain stab into his back, as hot fumes filled up his lungs and made him lose consciousness.
His nose immediately met with dry air, a harsh feeling a pain engulfed his entire body. Remembering what had happened, he forced opened his eyes and groaned as he got up.
The serpent must have been at least S- ranked, and Malso took most of the brunt because he focused on throwing the cat away to safety.
"H-Hagh..!" Chu Mal-Chin winced in pain as a sharp pain hit his left side of his stomach. As he looked around, he saw Andras and Samuel along with the Sovereign members and White King members slowly get up as well.
"Damn it…." Chu Mal-Chin hurriedly tried to get up and scamper away, but a cold voice stopped him.
"Now where do you think you're going…Orchid." Samuel had already gotten up due to his SS ranked physique. But Chu Mal-Chin didn't care, because this SS ranked dungeon caused-
"M-My stats have been sealed!" A panicked member of White King gasped loudly.
Just like he noticed, this SS ranked dungeon sealed the participants' mana, limited their abilities, and blocked item properties.
So right now, Samuel and Andras were basically on the same level as him. The gear he was wearing also stopped functioning, other then its defensive properties, it was basically plain old clothing.
The system notification rang in his ear.
[Detected major plot change…punishment for changing major plot point will result in no rewards after quest. In exchange, Anger meter has been temporarily disabled to try and fix the plot.]
Chu Mal-Chin couldn't worry about that right now however, the rest of the crew already woke up, and were looking at Orchid in disbelief. Who didn't know the infamous Orchid who caused havoc and his strange appearance?
"Haha...Totally missed you guys…~?" Orchid's usual sly behavior was tuned down several fold, but a glimmer of cheekiness was still concealed within his upturned eyes. His demeanor didn't seem to change much even when there was easily enough people to overpower him.
Andras smiled behind the angry Samuel, but his smile didn't reach up to his eyes….and looked a bit more scarier then Samuel, who was currently heading towards Orchid.
"Hey hey! W-Why don't we talk about this-!" Orchid nervously half raised his hands in surrender. "There still isn't much known about this dungeon and our abilities are sealed! Why don't we make a temporary alliance-!?"
Seeing how his words had no effect towards the oncoming bull, Orchid quickly ran away. But just as his luck had gotten him there, it once again struck as he realized he was running towards Andras.
"Hey Andras-! Why don't we talk about making a temporary tru-" Orchid couldn't finish as he was immediately punched in the gut by the stiff looking man next to Andras.
Orchid coughed as he flew towards the ground, Samuel also had caught up to him and grabbed the scuff of his suit.
Yanking him into the air, he was lifted up as if he was a baby kitten.
"H-Hey…there…handsome…?" But it seems that Samuel was immune to praise, as he immediately began punching Malso while holding him up.
"A-Ahh! W-We can talk about this..! Violence is not always key…!" Malso cried as the harsh punches landed on his precious face…or should he say mask because all the punches would thankfully get deflected some bit because of the mask.
The White King members stood there in shock as the once kind image Samuel broke while he beat up the eccentric man who was dressed strangely.
Sirvana was the first to snap out of her daze and rushed towards Samuel. She hurriedly grabbed Orchid away as she shouted at Samuel.
"What are you doing!?" She laid the poor slightly beat up Orchid on the ground, he put his hand on top of his mask's mouth, as if feeling wronged.
"Have you really forgotten? That man is the Orchid. The person who stole my sword I was telling you about." Samuel seemed to have regained some composure after beating up Chu Mal-Chin, as he responded calmly.
"O-Orchid? As in that…Orchid…?" Sirvana gasped. Who could forget Orchid? The man who single-handedly wiped out 4 major criminal organizations, and yet was somehow never caught by police.
She slowly turned her head to the man in her arms, the amber eyes that shone through the mask shined, teary eyed. As if Orchid was simply but a innocent victim.
"…" Samuel narrowed his eyes at Orchid's behavior, and Andras stifled a laugh behind him.
Chu Mal-Chin grasped his chance, he hurriedly got up from Sirvana's arms and backed away from Samuel.
"W-Who I am isn't important right now-! The monsters that came out of the gate seemed to be at least A+ or higher! Now isn't the time to be quarreling about trivial matters! Even if I did betray you, what benefit would I get? I would simply be stuck here and starve! Everyone's abilities are also sealed so wouldn't it be better to have another person to use?!" Malso spoke loud and clearly, quickly changing the subject. The confused guild members soon nodded in agreement with his words.
Andras simply raised an eyebrow and Samuel thought for a moment before sighing.
"That is true I admit..but just note that I will never recognize you as someone in need of saving, so don't even think of getting anywhere close to me. If you get caught, I'm leaving you." Samuel unhappily agreed because he prioritized the safety of White King's members, and he tapped his foot on the soil.
Andras seemed to be amused by Chu Mal-Chin's actions, so he simply nodded his head, accepting his offer.
After the tense situation gradually disappeared Chu Mal-Chin sighed in exhaustion as he collapsed onto his butt.
The previous wounds he had were numb due to the adrenaline pumping through his blood. As Samuel walked off and Andras simply handled business as usual, the pain came back in waves.
"Hhmph-!" Chu Mal-Chin held back a groan as he clutched his wounded face underneath his mask…Samuel certainly didn't hold back his blows…
Sirvana slowly eyed Malso before speaking,"…I can call over a healer if you want."
"Ah that would be much appreciated~" Chu Mal-Chin thanked Sirvana, as a healer who was also sucked in came over to treat him. Thankfully they didn't treat him like an animal, as they handed over some rations that some had brought for emergencies in case of the event where people were sucked into the gate.