"Terry, are you in your room? I need to talk to you about something. Terry?"
Luca slammed Terry's door open and looked around his room. The room was empty, but that was not a cause of concern. What worried Luca was the report he had gotten from the medical department.
Terry's blood had been contaminated during the last dungeon raid, and he was likely infected. His aura was also tainted, and it raised a lot of concerns among the doctors.
As a result, Luca had been sent about a dozen messages but had yet to respond to them even once. He had also not shown up for his regular check-up, so Luca had taken it upon himself to check the reason.
But Terry was not in his room. He was not on the training grounds either. No one else had seen Terry for the past few hours either. The more Luca looked for Terry, his worries occupied his mind.
'Just where did this man go? He should be running a fever right now. Even getting up should be impossible for him.'
Usually, Luca did not like to disturb other's privacy. But for the first time, he entered another person's room and looked inside. He wanted to see if Terry had collapsed or not in his room.
The room looked ordinary at first glance. Nothing was out of the ordinary other than the small note on the table. It should not have mattered to him, but the placement of that note was suspicious.
Luca picked up the note. There was only one line written on it.
'Stop me.'
The handwriting on the note belonged to Terry, but it was not a far cry from his usual writing. This note was scrawled messily and took a lot of work to read. These two facts combined made Luca worried.
He pulled his phone out and decided to track down Terry.
'That's the school our young master volunteered at. Why would Terry choose to go there?'
Luca had a bad feeling about this situation. He decided to head out and catch Terry. He needed to demand answers from the older man.
At the same time, Luca messaged his young master about the current state of things. He wanted to keep his young master in the loop as well.
'I think I should hurry up. I don't know the situation, but I do not want to see my master's precious person in danger.'
That was the correct choice. As soon as Luca arrived at his destination, he noticed the presence of the dungeon. It was still growing, and it had to be a mid-level one.
Protocol said that Luca had to wait for the signal before entering a dungeon of this magnitude. But he was afraid it would be too late by then.
Rook's familiar energy was spreading inside the dungeon, and the sharp smell of blood covered any other scent.
Then, the corridor began to emit smoke. It started slowly at first before the intensity of the smoke increased. Luca could not see any fire, but something must be causing this smoke to spread around.
"-come here-"
Luca broke the window, only to land in the middle of Rachael and Terry's bodies. He looked at Terry and felt his heart sink.
The red eyes looking back at him signalled Terry's possession. A demon controlled his subordinate, and Luca was confident he knew the identity of this demon.
"Well, fancy meeting you again. But can you let go of my subordinate's body? You will get me in trouble with my young master and Terry's girlfriend."
Luca spoke causally, but his words caused the tension in the air to rise. He could feel the demon's shock and disbelief at seeing him again.
"You! Why are you here? You should not have gotten permission to-"
"Aww, so cute of you to think I need permission to be here. This is a public zone and an unregulated dungeon. That one-hour rule only confirms the dungeon's formation and gets supplies."
"But this dungeon is not a random one, right? You opened this dungeon purposely-"
"Shut up. If I must, I will kill you and get to that kid behind you. Don't you dare think I am afraid of you."
......
Rachael had filled the smoke machine as high as she could. Then, it was time to exit the store room.
She waited until she could no longer hear footsteps and opened the door. The corridor was empty.
But her luck did not last for long. Soon, a few monsters spawned in the corridor, and Rachael held her voice back. She activated the smoke machine and prayed that its batter worked.
It did work, and smoke filled the air. It smelled sweet and distracting. The monsters depended on their instincts, so they could not find their way around the smoke.
Rachael walked past many monsters before the sound of humanoid footsteps reached her ears. She was afraid to turn around, but the pressure and desire to know forced her to look back.
The demon following Rachael walked into the hallway. His body was covered in translucent liquid and other fluids. Rachael was sure those 'other liquids' were the blood of other insects.
"You are good at running. But all chases must come to an end. Would you come out now, or should I drag you out?"
The demon asked while he continued to walk toward Rachael. At this rate, he would reach her within a minute.
Rachael needed to buy herself some time. She set the machine to 'maximum' performance in her hand, and the smoke shot out of it like crazy.
The demon realised what Rachael was planning, and he threw a knife at her.
It bounced off the shield Rachael's ring created. She was not aware that she had the artefact around her neck, but it had saved her life.
The demon did not notice the shield, so he decided to take his time stalking Rachael. First, he needed to clear out all the other monsters in the hallway. That took one minute, and Rachael used this time well.
She ran into the other corridor and only needed to reach one more before escaping the school building.
When the smoke cleared and Rook realised what happened, he had lost Rachael. This enraged him, and he decided to stop playing around. If Rachael were such a pain for him, he would take care of her.
"Come here, you little bitch."
Rook yelled while reaching out for Rachael. He was inches from her when the window broke, and a body blocked him from reaching Rachael.
Luca's familiar face stood before Rook, and he cursed his luck. Out of all the humans he could have encountered, it had to be someone who could match him.
And worse of all, Luca seemed to know what happened to this body's 'original' owner.
"Well, fancy meeting you again. But can you let go of my subordinate's body? You will get me in trouble with my young master and Terry's girlfriend."
Luca asked, and Rook noticed the child trying to run away behind Luca. He needed to stop her, but Luca had his full attention for now.
As this confrontation happened, Rachael knew she needed to run. If she would have a chance to live, then this was it.
The pressure from the two people behind Rachael's back made the other monsters back out. And for the first time, Rachael caught a glimpse of the door.
She approached the door but noticed a massive hiccup in her plan. The monsters were all gathering near the exit.
The smoke machine only had a few charges left, and Rachael doubted she could recharge it.
She needed to make the best use of her abilities and resources.
Rachael turned on the machine, and smoke filled the area. Rachael used the monster's confusion against them and quickly got past them. She opened the door and stepped outside.
Her expectations were dashed when Rachael stepped into another part of the dungeon. She was not free from the nightmare.
'I do not know why I expected the outside to be okay. I am still in the same dungeon with the same monsters.'
It also might have been a mistake to leave the school building. Without any obstacle to hide behind, it was easier to spot Rachael. The smoke obscured her somehow, and Rachael quickly fled toward the playground.
A monster attacked her, and her artefact saved her once more. But Rachael wanted to use her artefact as little as possible. It had yet to tell how many uses it had left.
She ducked beneath the slides and watched the monsters getting confused. They could not see these types of equipment as a threat. So, they did not bother approaching them.
'Let's think things through. I have only one shot at getting out of here. The local authorities must also be on their way. I think I can wait for them to arrive-'
Rachael had a plan. She needed to wait a little longer, and then she could use her artefact to get out of the dungeon.
That had been the plan until one of the monsters crashed into the slide and tipped off Rachael's shelter.
She was left exposed, and all eyes turned toward her.
'Tsk, there is a change in plans. I need to run toward the exit right now.'
Rachael threw the smoke machine behind her and ran toward the exit. The monsters were catching up to her. Anything could happen at that moment, and Rachael was afraid for her life.
"Come here, kid. We are from the dungeon response team and have come to help you."
Finally, help arrived, and Rachael forced the last of her power into her legs. She reached the team and watched them take care of the monsters.
"Let's get you to safety now-"
The one who rescued Rachael spoke too soon. As soon as they stepped toward the exit, the ground shook, and the dungeon expanded. Rachael felt the energy around her developing and heard the people around her curse.
"Shit, this is not good. The dungeon is expanding around us. If this continues, then we might get stuck in it."