~Meanwhile, outside the examination dungeon.~
"What.. what is going on with that dungeon?"
"Wasn't it supposed to be set to a recent memory of the past? The older ones are way too dangerous for mere examinees…"
A collection of voices spoke, eyes peering down on a bright screen of many colors.
A bright red notification took up a fourth of the screen, and it displayed information on many crucial things about the dungeon, such as how many humans had entered it while the portals were open, how many were alive right now.. the difficulty of it.
It also displayed today's date, and so on.
That being said, today's date was 9/10/3031.
Many men and women stared at the screen in disbelief and fear.
[Dungeon: Jungle of Hell.]
[Examinees Entered: 2,381]
…
[Examinees Alive: 53]
.......
[Dungeon Difficulty: Error. Unable to assess current difficulty.]
[Date of Dungeon: 10/10/2503]
Chaos.
Chaos had overtaken the administrative group that oversaw the examination of this group of examinees.
"The time regression… how? HOW!? I swear, it was set to only 50 years ago, I swear it was.."
A voice yelled out in panic.
Another scratched at his head, a terrified expression decorating his face. His tired eyes moved frantically, searching for a solution in the screen that soullessly stood before him.
As they went deeper into their past, the creatures that inhabited the realms of each time segment were classified by the same ranking humans gave themselves.
So, what the error meant was that either someone or something had disrupted their connection or the power level of the monsters... had been something that was not meant to be assessed by the system.
Normally, examinees are supposed to be sent only 50 years in the past, but somehow.. this batch had been sent 500 years into the past!
…
The realization of their mistake had finally caught up to them.
No inanimate object would provide answers right now.
No one could grace them with any answers.
[Examinees Alive: 52]
[Examinees Alive: 51]
[Examinees Alive: 50]
[Examinees Alive: 49]
The number of people alive within the dungeon was actively decreasing, at a rate faster than they could count.
A face that still looked young, yet to be touched by the curse of aging, asked in confusion.
"Wasn't this dungeon supposed to simply throw them out once they've sustained a certain amount of damage?"
An older man looked at him with a grim expression.
"That is how it is supposed to work.. up until the Blessed tier, however. If we sent them to the older levels of the dungeon, then there is no way to bring them back up unless they defeat it themselves, or find a way to escape without having to go through that trouble."
They're goners.. oh goodness, what have we done?
The same man shouted at the rest of the team.
"Surveillance unit, what are you doing?! Retrieve all information to this screen, now!"
"Y-Yes, sir!"
Images flourished to life on the main screen.
Images of blood, organs, and mutilated corpses.
The jungle was dyed red with the blood of its victims.
Leaves, plants, trees.. all crimson red.
And some more colors of blood, all in varying shades.
A massive battle had taken place, and examinees had all but lived.
How cruel, life was. But.. after all, this was the Jungle of Hell.
One must never let their guard down, even those that stood outside it.
It will kill whenever an opportunity arrives, such is the domain of devils.
More and more images revealed themselves within the brightly lit screen, unveiling massacre after massacre, struggle after struggle.
The administration and surveillance team were at a loss.
The man who had given swift orders to the surveillance unit no longer looked with panicked eyes, instead, what emotion they contained within was no more.
He picked up an expensive-looking phone and dialed a number.
"HQ.. Administration Captain, Joseph here. I am afraid to say.. this batch of examinees has been completely wiped out. Details will be sent in reports immediately."
The man knew there was no saving whoever was left. He had tried for over three hours to have them removed from the dungeon to no avail.
What else could he do, but steel his heart for the worse?
After all, it might have been the end of those examinees, but not for him.
He would have a myriad of new problems to face.
He would be labeled a killer, the worst of men. Murderer, disgrace.
Ahh.. too much to think about. Hopefully, the HQ can sort me out...
***
Tiredly, they gasped for breath.
The battle had finally been won.. Yoel and his group had won against those parasite-human hybrids.
A hard battle, but fortunately, they were numbered equally this time around.
Immediately, he tried to ignore his injuries and moved to the rest of the group.
"Ahh fuck, my fucking leg!" screamed Cole.
Yoel turned his eyes to the place Cole was holding, it seemed that he had received a huge cut to his leg, by that monstrosity.
"Shit.. that wound.. he'll be incapable of walking for a day or so." said Lilith, a speculative look on her face.
"What makes you so sure?" said Vasil, his words masked with a scent of suspicion.
"I..I just know. Just trust me for now." hissed Lilith at Vasil.
A vein made itself visible on Vasil's forehead as his facial muscles tightened up.
"Whatever."
"Each of us has their secrets, I guess. Let's not get into any fights before dangerous situations, please.."
Both of them were confused at Yoel's words, but realized that he was simply trying to simmer down the situation before it exploded into something more.
"Well, then. How long will he be unable to walk?"
Hesitantly, Lilith nodded.
"I'd presume around a day or so. Although it looks deep right now, it doesn't pose any risk of permanent damage. Thankfully, what could have caused more damage is safe and sound now."
"I see. Then let's-" Before Loki could finish the sentence, a loud explosion rang in the cohort's ears.
The earth shook beneath them as if signaling their impending doom.
Yoel, Vasil, and Loki merely bent down a bit at the rumbling, but Lilith had lost her balance.
It seems that while she was extremely capable at combat in both close quarters and long-range, her weakness was her defense, and more precisely her control over her own body and Avon.
Yoel offered her a hand, but she simply ignored it.
Turns out she didn't need any help getting up, it seems.
"Alright, so are we going to talk about what the hell that was?"
It was Loki who spoke up this time, it seemed that the explosion and the tremor made him go into a semi-panic mode, considering his shakey voice.
The group looked at him with a look of confusion.
"What makes you think we'd know? We're all as disturbed as you are."
Vasil responded to him, a hint of annoyance stuck to the sentence like a viper's poison.
"Are we just going to-" The earth had put a stop to Yoel's sentence, as it rumbled once more.
And again.
Again.
The tremors only seemed to increase in capacity.
Yoel held onto Lilith so she wouldn't lose her balance and signaled for the others to move.
They would first try to move away from the direction of the tremors, and if that didn't work.. they'd try to find the cause.
Their thoughts were cut short, however, because at that moment, the group heard terrified screams.
"H-Help! These things are too strong!"
Many voices called out in both annoyance and horror, as all of their attacks were simply met by indestructible chitin, or sometimes by grey, sturdy-looking bones.
Yoel heard these voices as clearly as he could've.
All of them halted in their movements, slowly looking at each other.
Widening eyes soon became prominent amongst them, as they slowly realized what each of them was thinking.
We can't.. just let them die.
Is what everyone thought, at that exact moment.
Loki began to call out, voicing the most logical of arguments.
"We.. we can't… There's someone that's already injured on our team. We can't just risk his life to save someone we don't even know."
Lilith retaliated, her face showing only a slight bit of anger. She too understood the risks of attempting to save someone else other than themselves right now.
"We're humans, they're humans.. isn't that enough information? We'd only stoop down to a monster's level if we abandoned them here."
Loki had already opened his mouth to speak, but Yoel was having none of it.
He simply steeled his expression and looked towards him.
"Carry Cole, alright? If you don't want to help them, I will."
"Now this guy's way more fun."
Exclaimed Vasil with a slightly nervous, but overall excited expression. He wanted to stretch his muscles a little more and learn about his body even further.
Surely enough, Lilith followed suit.
With a sigh that emitted hopelessness, Loki grabbed Cole and carried him on his wide back.
With much hesitation, he began to run towards where Yoel and the others had run to.
Meanwhile, what the cohort did not know was where Yoel's determination to save the other humans came from.
Yoel's determination.. when he heard the voices calling out to help, he also heard– or rather, felt a mysterious energy oozing from the direction of the humans.
He felt as if he really had to be there, and if he didn't he would be missing something important in his life.
Without thinking about it, he started running to the source of it.
As he ran, the tremors and ominous and beastly sounds only grew more vocal and loud.
He also heard a panicked voice.
"Slip! Slip! Fall!"
As he got closer, the source of the voice came into view.
It was a slightly skinny boy with his back against a rather large mountain, his eyes had bags under them and his legs had been trembling. Whenever he yelled out words, a white flash would appear at the tips of his fingertips.
And it also seemed that with every word, his sweat and weakening posture would only seem to increase.
In front of the boy, were two girls, both of them possessing a dulled sword and axe. Both of them attuned to unique stances.
They had been almost surrounded, with many bodies piling at their legs and everywhere else, making it hard to move around.
When Yoel tried observing the situation beyond the group of three, he only saw chaos.
Abominations of large numbers had been making their way to them, stepping over the bodies of countless other creatures, their features distorted far beyond recognition to know if they were humans or not.
True chaos and carnage had befallen them.