Smartphone beeps reverberated in a dim hotel room. On a large spring bed, an athletic man and a completely naked woman sleep under the blanket. With his eyes still closed, the man fumbled with the table.
Putting the phone to his ear, the man growled as he picked up the call. "It's 3am. Why are you calling me?"
"Boss Vincent, there's a dungeon break in South of Houston, it's yellow."
Vincent clicked his tongue. "You called me just for this. Are you fucking kidding me? Without you telling me I'll raid it tomorrow. Now get lost, I want to sleep."
"It's an anomaly dungeon. I got information that Noah was there."
"What?" Vincent opened his eyes wide. "He's got an S-Class and three A-Classes. He should be fine."
"The problem is he only brought 20 B-classes. Before yellow, the dungeon was blue. So he went in there with other low-class awakeners."
Vincent sighed in exasperation. "Alright. I'll be there. Tell the boys to come there."
"Yes, boss."
Beep. Vincent hung up the phone.
"Son of a bitch," he muttered.
Rising from his bed on the floor, he quickly picked up the clothes that were lying on the floor. When he put on his pants, a soft voice called out. The woman sleeping next to him woke up.
"Where are you going, dear?" the woman said.
"Saving the fool."
After Vincent put on his clothes, he walked to the room door.
...
Six hours had passed since the dungeon raid.
Despite the bone-chilling cold, Klaus and his men continued to walk through the arid plains under the moonlight. They had already walked more than 20 kilometers. Some of the party members, especially the casters and supports, fell to their knees from exhaustion.
Although casters and supports were stronger than ordinary humans, most of them had weak physical strength and endurance compared to other roles. But in some cases, there were some with strong physique.
Several times Joanna asked to rest, but Justin didn't grant her request. Of course, it was on Klaus' orders. He wanted to keep his party members moving so they wouldn't fall behind the main group. They were 300 meters away from them.
"Why should we split up if we end up following them? We don't get item drops or monster cores." Olivia grumbled.
"Why don't you ask our strategist, Olivia? Maybe he'll give you an answer after you downed three bottles of [Ether]." Akio quipped at her, and then a punch landed on his arm.
Olivia got a warning from Klaus because she had used up a lot of supplies. She ran out of mana and could barely stand after she used [Psychokinesis] continuously. To make matters worse, she didn't kill a single monster.
Justin heard their conversation, but ignored it. He tried to maintain his pace even though his legs were starting to hurt. As the party leader, he had a sense of looking tough in front of his men.
Meanwhile, Klaus walked slowly in the rear, making sure none of his party members were left behind. He waited for those who stopped to rest their feet.
Then, a red-haired woman approached Klaus.
"Here, have a drink." Sylvia handed Klaus a bottle of water.
"I'm not thirsty. Give it to someone else," he replied.
"You're a caster, right? You should drink plenty of water, Klaus," Sylvia said, a little worried. The red-haired woman insisted that Klaus drink it.
"All right then."
A smile bloomed on her face as Klaus drank it.
Suddenly, Justin shouted for him.
"Klaus! Come here!"
Sylvia and Klaus locked eyes for a moment before they ran to the front row. Justin asked Klaus to look in the direction he was pointing.
"It's over there!"
Klaus saw that the main group was facing a group of monsters. They weren't fighting ghouls, but something else.
"Let's go!" Klaus said.
Running at the front, Klaus led his men towards the battle site. However, as they were only 100 meters away, Klaus ordered his men to stop.
"What's wrong, Klaus?" asked Justin. He had a curious look on his face.
"Look at that."
Justin opened his eyes wide as he saw the shape of the monsters attacking the main group.
They were three meters tall, their entire bodies were covered in fur, and their arms were long enough to touch the ground. Their heads were like deer, horned and long, but they had a pair of sharp fangs hanging out of their mouths. And their eyes glowed white in the darkness.
The fighters tried to attack them with swings of swords or axes, but they could only leave shallow scratches on the monsters. However, when the long-armed monsters swung their arms, dozens of awakeners were thrown into the air in a single strike.
No attack could hurt them other than fire. Luckily, the main group had many casters.
"What are those monsters?" muttered Justin.
"Wendigo," Michael replied.
Justin and the other party members squinted. The name of the monster was quite foreign to them.
"This is strange," Michael continued. "Why did they show up here? The blue dungeon still contains weak monsters, at least F-Class can deal with them. But a wendigo, you need two B-Class or at least ten D-Class to kill one."
"They usually appear in green or yellow dungeons. Something wrong seems to be going on." Akio chimed in.
The party members began to worry. Their faces broke out in cold sweat after they heard the explanation from those two A-Class.
"We're stuck in the anomaly dungeon," Klaus said.
"Yes, that's right. That seems to be the case. We're in a yellow dungeon, I think," Akio backed up Klaus' statement.
Instantly, the awakeners turned pale. Most of the party members were F-Class, they could only enter the blue dungeon at most. For the past seventeen years, all B-Class and below who entered the yellow dungeon would never come back.
"So, what should we do now? Are we going to help them, Klaus?" Sylvia looked ready to jump into battle.
"Not yet."
The party members breathed a little easier as they got the answer. Meanwhile, Justin and Olivia were itching to kick some monster butt. They both couldn't stand to see the awakeners being slaughtered.
The battle was fierce. The fighters could not do much because they could not penetrate the thick wendigo skin. Only D-Class fighters could face them head-on. Luckily, they had many casters with elemental attacks that could withstand the rampage of the wendigo horde.
Among the awakeners in the main group, only Noah and his members were able to face the wendigo group easily.
"Don't be afraid! Kill the damn monster! The casters will help us!" Noah shouted.
Together with twenty of his men, he slaughtered the wendigo one by one. Some of his men let out fireballs and burned a wendigo.
The fight was intense, with both sides falling left and right. Dozens of wendigo died at the hands of the awakeners, at the same time, F-Class and E-Class fighters lay lifeless on the ground.
"This is crazy," Joanna muttered as she gulped. She was trembling at the sight, but she forced herself to open her eyes.
Klaus and his party members just watched the battle. Some of them were biting their lips, unable to bear watching their comrades die, and Justin was the most obvious. The man wrung his hands.
The tides of battle began to end, the number of wendigo could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Many of the awakeners had also died, only the casters and a few D-Class fighters and above were still alive. Most of them died, especially those who fought on the front lines.
"Don't let them escape! Kill them all!" Noah continued to wage war.
The awakeners chased after the remaining wendigos. The fight would be over after finishing them off, at least that's what Noah thought. Until a wendigo of abnormal size emerged from the darkness.
Its eyes glowed red and the horns on its head were huge compared to the other wendigos. A bloodthirsty aura emanated from the monster.
The awakeners instinctively stopped chasing them.
"Graaaarw!"
Noah, who had been fiery, suddenly shrank after he heard the monster's groan. Even so, the man still tried to look brave in front of his men.
"A-attack!" he shouted, trembling slightly.
Meanwhile, his men were in doubt. They looked at each other, wondering in their eyes whether they should attack them or not. Though they were B-Class, they weren't sure they could face the monster head-on.
"What are you fools doing!" Noah snapped. "We've already killed a lot of them. Just one wendigo won't change anything. Attack!"
Like it or not, his men attacked them.
When they were a stone's throw away, suddenly a giant and long arm slammed into them. Five B-Class were thrown into the air, and they spewed blood as they hit the ground.
Seeing their colleague killed instantly, the other B-Class crew members were reluctant to attack.
"Fools, attack that thing! We have plenty of casters!"
As Noah said so, blasts and fireballs shot towards the red-eyed wendigo, engulfing it in flames. He immediately ordered his men to attack the other wendigos.
In the flames, a pair of red eyes glowed. Then, a giant hand chased after his men.
"Aerrg!"
"Cough!"
Three B-Classes died when the red-eyed wendigo slammed into them.
Noah was momentarily taken aback. But the man continued to order the other awakeners and his men to attack.
"Don't be afraid! I'm here! We'll win the battle."
Instead of the awakeners charging, the red-eyed wendigo attacked them, and the others followed suit.
"Arrrgh!"
"Mama!"
"Save me!"
The screams of the awakeners rang through the air. Within seconds, the tide of battle changed since the appearance of the red-eyed wendigo.
"Graaawrrr!"
The long-armed monsters roared, and then they began slaughtering the awakeners. The number of dead bodies on the ground was mounting.
Meanwhile, Klaus and his party still remained in their positions.
With sad faces mixed with horror, they watched how their comrades-in-arms died. Justin was trembling, not because he was scared, but because he couldn't bear to see thousands of lives flashing before his eyes while he did nothing.
"Klaus! We must help them immediately! They're all going to die!" Justin urged.
"No, it's not time yet," Klaus replied in a cold tone.
"Damn it! What were you thinking? Soon they'll all be dead." Olivia was angry at Klaus.
Sylvia also wanted to urge Klaus to help them, but she suppressed that desire.
Meanwhile, the other members were silent. Even Akio and Michael did not speak though their eyes glued to the battle.
"We have four A-Class here! We can help them!" Justin said emotionally.
Klaus turned to Justin. "And we have 15 F-Class and one D-Class. They'll be dead by the time they step into battle."
Justin was silent for an instant.
"What exactly are you waiting for Klaus?" asked Olivia.
Klaus still waited until there were no more monster left besides the red-eyed wendigo, because it was the alpha.
He knew that this situation would happen. Wendigos would not attack if their prey was in a group. They waited for the number of awakeners to decrease or tire first even if their prey was weak.
That's why Klaus immediately separated his party from the main group when he found a horde of wendigo stalking them.
He sacrificed the main group to get rid of the small fry monsters, so Klaus and his party could face the red-eyed wendigo without obstacles.
However, the main reason why he did not want to help them immediately was to take away the spotlight that the Sons of Thor should have gotten. If only he and his guild were the only party to survive the yellow dungeon, the entire world's attention would be on him.
And he would regain the exclusive right to raid the purlpe and indigo dungeons.
"Be patient," Klaus said.
Justin, however, could no longer be patient. Clenching his hands, he said, "I'm sorry, Klaus. I can't let them die."
The guild master ran to the battle.
"At least there's a human with a heart here," Olivia said sarcastically. She then caught up with Justin.
Of course, their actions angered Klaus. "Hey, idiot! Come back!"
Klaus growled, his hands clenched into fists.
The other members looked confused. The guild master had advanced first, but for some reason they chose to stay with Klaus. The two loaned awakeners also stayed with him.
"Now what do you want to do, strategist? Do we stay put or attack them? I work for you. Your words, your order," Akio said.
Michel also seemed eager to jump into the fray after seeing Olivia run first. However, that burly man was still able to restrain himself.
Joanna held Klaus' hand. "I know you have your own plan. But are you going to let them both die? Our cousin is also there, even though I hate him, I would be sad to see him get killed by monsters."
"Only five wendigo remain, Klaus. I'm sure we can face them." Sylvia also persuaded Klaus.
Taking a breath of air, Klaus calmed his anger. Finally, he made a decision.
"Alright, we attack them. But keep following my instructions."
After Klaus said so, Akio bolted first, followed by Michael later. Joanna took a breath, gathered her courage, and she then ran with Klaus into battle.