"Hey, did you get the message?"
"Mutated area?"
"What does this mean?"
Chatter. Chatter.
Everyone around him started whispering to one another. Raydel looked around and knew right away who were hunters and who weren't, since they all kept staring at the phones in their hands and glancing at other people. Among these were people of all ages and sexes. There was even an old lady who was sitting next to him and an elementary student.
"!"
Everyone exclaimed when the lights in the train suddenly went out and came back continuously. The sound of the train slowly coming to a stop could be heard, and everyone all looked at one another, unsure of what to make of the situation. The train conductor announced a message through the PA system.
"To all the passengers, we have an unexpected situation. Please remain in the train for the time being."
Screech.
The train eventually stopped. Everything stayed still and silent.
The passengers stood there, making no sounds while the lights above still flickered ominously. They couldn't see outside since it was just pure darkness. The train might still be in the tunnel. Luckily, the air conditioners still worked, so nobody complained. Everyone focused on their phones, thinking that the train would move again in a few minutes. Raydel read the text he and the other hunters recieved from the government again and frowned.
A mutated area?
In this world, dungeons and towers needed to be cleared within twenty-four hours. Of course, even though Asphodel had a number of hunters prepared for situations like these, sometimes, there would be a new dungeon that appeared in a place where no one knows. When it would be finally discovered, it would be mutated since more than twenty-four hours had passed, and monsters would come crawling out of the dungeon. In the worst-case scenario, the mutated dungeon was a tower type and started destroying the surrounding areas and cities with no discrimination.
This might be the case where the government only found the dungeon when it was too late. It seemed like the dungeon appeared in the train tunnel and was so small that the monster's energy had no effects on the outside world. Raydel could only sigh and curse at his luck. How unfortunate one had to be to accidentally get stuck in another dungeon after just getting out of a hospital. He needed to find some free time to bathe in holy water and wash away all the bad luck.
The train moved again.
This time, it was so slow like it was creeping along the rails little by little. Raydel looked outside the window and saw the platform of a train station in the distance. The lights in the station were flickering as well. When the others on the train saw it, they all let out a deep sigh of relief.
However, when the train arrived at the platform, it stopped and didn't do anything.
Raydel looked outside the window again while trying not to let his cheeks touch the glass. He didn't see the train controller walk out of the train, and moreover, this station was… strangely void of people.
The train stayed motionless for several minutes until the still atmosphere created an uncomfortable atmosphere. A huge man suddenly got up, walked to the button for emergency communication with train conductors and pressed it angrily.
"Why haven't you opened the damned door yet?!"
The loud yell attracted others' attention to him. The man looked very pissed. The answer from the train controller came in a soft, whispering voice, though it was loud enough for Raydel to hear some of it. "So… sorry for the inconvenience, all passengers, but I think this station is…"
"Why can't you open the freaking door?! How long do you want us stuck in here?!"
Bam!
The man smashed his fists on the door, startling several other passengers. Raydel turned around to look at the station again. His brows slowly moved toward each other with suspicion. He wasn't sure if he overthought, but he couldn't see any of the typical clean gray interior design of underground train stations.
In fact, this station looked like a…
"So? What is the problem? Open the door now. We all have some important things to do!"
"Passengers, this station could be…"
"A dungeon's arena," a feminine voice cut in.
She was a woman with black hair and a load of confidence. The big man suddenly turned to face and stared at her, and she stood up and crossed her arms.
"Are you a hunter? Do you know what an arena is?" she asked.
"What? Arena?"
"We're in a dungeon. The arena must have taken the form of a train station."
The notification sound rang from a lot of people's phones again, including Raydel's.
The government had sent another message.
[To all the hunters in the mutated area of the A-rank dungeon, we are contacting high-ranking hunters to ask them to clear the dungeon right now.]
[However, we need your help to prepare the ways inside the dungeon for the high-ranking hunters.]
"Are you kidding me?" A passenger voiced what the others were thinking.
Raydel pursed his lips. He never dreamt of being asked to prepare the way for high-ranking hunters like this. The preparation actually was a simple task. Because the government still doesn't have technology advanced enough to explore the entire dungeon, sometimes they would have to send people to record the condition inside and leave necessary items along the way. Hence, when high-ranking hunters came and entered the dungeon, they would instantly know which way led to the boss room.
You may as well call it slavery!
Buzz.
Another message popped up on the phone screen.
[We need 43 volunteers to enter and explore the mutated area of the A-rank dungeon. Each volunteer will receive 3,000 del immediately.]
[For the two hunters that volunteer as team leads, we will give them another 2,000 del.]
Silence took over the train.
This time, many hunters looked at each other as if waiting for the first person to volunteer. It was no surprise that the first one was the confident woman.
"I'm Sheryl. I'd like to volunteer as the team lead of the first team," she said. "Anybody else?"
"..."
Screech.
Suddenly, the door opened, revealing the station to everyone.
A lot of passengers went pale once they saw the scene. Everyone froze when they realized that the station… looked nothing like the underground station they knew.
It was like a completely different world.
This place looked more like a quarry. The ceiling above was low and there were lamps hung on the pillars, shining dim orange light over the station. The majority of it was hidden behind darkness, like the area endlessly stretched deep down into the jet-black maze. Even the pathway was so narrow that people needed to walk in single file line. Everything made Raydel feel suffocated somehow.
The walls of the quarry did not look like that of a normal station as well. As Raydel was trying to figure out what it was, one of the passengers screamed and jumped back as far as she could from the walls outside.
"Bones… ?!"
Actually, the entire wall was built out of heaps of bones.
They were arm and leg bones, mixed with skulls, delicately placed over one another as if someone spent an eternity building it carefully. Raydel had a whole body goosebump. He did not have to look at the other passengers to know that they were all holding their breaths, frightened. The prolonged silence made the atmosphere even more like a graveyard.
Raydel blinked.
A graveyard?
He looked at the quarry again.
"Hey, why do you open the door now? Close it for God's sake!" the big man screamed into the emergency contact microphone.
"It was an order from the government. They need the hunters to gather outside."
"Are you crazy? Who would dare to go outside?!"
Sheryl tightened her grips on her designer bag before taking a deep breath. She asked, "does anybody want to go with me?"
When they saw her confidence, some of the hunters began to raise their hands. Most of them were adults, both men and women. Raydel still sat on his seat, staring at the message on his phone screen. He opened the Hunter Guild application and saw that someone started bidding for his coin already at three thousand del.
So, I have no need to volunteer. He thought.
But as the number of volunteers grew bigger and the message on his phone screen showed that the volunteers were twenty-three people from the goal of forty-three, Raydel started to feel the pressure. He tried not to look at Sheryl or any hunters, holding on for dear life. He swore that he would never get involved with the world of hunters ever again after selling the coin. Even when the old lady beside him gave him a smile, he did not look back at her.
"Seven more to go."
Shane, the team lead of the second team, said. He started asking the passengers one by one.
"Are you a hunter? What power do you have? Right now, my party needs a hunter that can…"
Raydel stole a glance at the old lady next to him. He was at the end of the train, so there were not many people left. In this area, there were only children and elders, no one fitting to go into a dungeon.
A pair of feet stopped in front of him.
"Hi, are you a hunter?" Shane asked.
Raydel smiled softly at him, trying to decide whether he should lie or tell the truth. Shane looked at his phone and raised his brows.
"You're a hunter with no rank."
Raydel did not say anything back. "..."
Did the government consider him a hunter? Was it because he started the auction for the Cthulhu coin? Shit. Raydel thought. But he did not even have the time to think of any excuses when Shane gave him a sympathetic smile.
"It's okay. If you don't have a rank, then it means you don't have power yet. I'm sorry for wasting your time."
"Ah, okay…"
Shane moved to the old lady next to Raydel. She narrowed her opaque eyes looking at him before smiling.
"I'm also a hunter. My power is… seeing parts of the future."
"What do you normally see?"
"Like the overall picture such as…," the old lady thought for a second, "the number of hunters that will survive…"
Shane was stunned, and then shook his head.
"You should probably stay in the train then, grandma. Thank you."
Shane moved on to the other passengers as a hunter yelled out loud.
"Can we have another volunteer!?"
Gathering all the volunteers did not have a time limit, but because they were in a mutated area where monsters could escape from the dungeon and attack the passengers at any minute, the hunters were all in a rush. Now, Shane was kneeling before a hunter asking him some questions. Raydel looked at that hunter and was shocked to see that Shane was talking to… an elementary student.
"Here." The boy snapped his fingers and fire immediately burst out from his fingertips. "I can make fire!"
This might be useful when flashlights aren't working or we need to save our phones' battery. Shane thought. But he's just a boy…
Then, the old lady laughed softly out of nowhere, pulling Raydel's attention back at her.
"The number of hunters that will survive…"
Her lips moved to say the next word, causing all the surrounding sounds to cease for a moment.
Raydel did not know what happened next. He found himself standing up and raising his hand.
"I volunteer," he said.
Raydel gritted his teeth at his decision. Shane gave the boy a sorry smile and walked back to him. At that moment, Raydel looked at the old lady, but she just gave him a suspicious smirk.
Her words still echoed in his head.
"In this exploration of the mutated dungeon, twenty-one hunters will die…"