Near the black castle, Ramon and Hannibal heard a loud rumbling as if a horde of wild animals were running through the town.
When they turned around, they saw an enormous Centipede Skeleton mowing through the buildings like an unstoppable train and wreaking havoc everywhere it went.
"W-what the fuck is that?!" Ramon asked in shock.
Hannibal's eyes were also wide, like saucers.
Below the hill leading to the black castle, Donald and Niko looked at the creature with bulging eyes—with them were new players they recruited, whom they only planned to use as fodder.
"T-that can't be the boss, r-right?" Niko asked with trembling lips.
"U-uh, maybe we should return to Safe Area?" Donald suggested with a nervous chuckle.
Even though it sounded like a joke, he actually meant it, but said it in a joking way because he simply wanted to see the reaction from his other group members and didn't want to be the first one to suggest it, as it may harm his prestige.
His newly recruited members, who didn't participate in any of the fighting on the first floor, looked at each other with frightened looks.
"U-uhm, boss, maybe we should prepare more?" One of them suggested.
Donald gazed at him and scoffed. "A-all right, if you think so. I think I also didn't take enough food for this."
...
Adam stepped through the door and limped towards the stairs, then took them all the way to the third floor of the mall and soon arrived back at his room.
However, he saw that there was already someone awaiting him.
"Welcome back." Muriel stood up from the bed and bowed.
"Ugh..." Adam plopped down on the chair and dropped his sword to the floor. "So, did I fail in the quest? I honestly didn't expect F-ranked missions to be that difficult, haha."
Of course, he knew this wasn't ordinary F-ranked mission difficulty. However, after the short meeting with Muriel, he realized that he might've been a little bit too obvious about his knowledge of things.
He didn't want someone from the Council of Mercenaries to come scoop around and ask questions about things he didn't want to talk about.
"I am not sure." Muriel replied and shook her head. "And you must already know after meeting with Ron that something was not right."
"Could it be that wasn't the Baby Centipede Skeleton?" Adam asked. "I had a hunch after it managed to toss me around like a ragdoll."
"That was Adult Centipede Skeleton." Muriel said, staring at Adam with her dark brown eyes. "That is an evolved version of Baby Centipede Skeleton. It looked like it had been maturing under the second floor for quite some time."
"How unlucky of me, I guess." Adam touched his waist and groaned. "What happens now?"
"The second floor will be closed for a while." Muriel said. "At least until the Adult Centipede Skeleton is annihilated. Ron will try to isolate it while the other players return to Safe Area safely.
"We have already informed the Council of Mercenaries, and they have dispatched a guild to come and clear this mess."
Adam nodded and intertwined his fingers. "I'll rest for a while. Can you leave? Apologies, but I am a little bit injured."
"Of course." Muriel bowed respectfully, and as she opened the door to leave, she turned to Adam and said, "Ron and perhaps someone from the guild that was dispatched by the Council of Mercenaries will want to have a word with you."
"Anything serious?" Adam asked as he laid down on the bed and took a relieved sigh.
"No." Muriel shook her head. "You actually did them a favor. If the Adult Centipede Skeleton had matured a few more years, the consequences could've been much direr."
'Yeah, most of the players on the floor died when the Adult Centipede Skeleton revealed itself. It could've been much worse without Dean and the mercenaries in the Safe Area.
'Compared to this, it was a much deadlier event.'
After Muriel left, Adam felt his eyes turn heavier by the moment.
'If the words of those Chaosbeing experts would've been correct, and it was only Half-Matured Adult Centipede Skeleton, I could've killed it.
'I suppose I took this for granted and forgot that nothing ever works as planned for mercenaries. I need to be more careful in the future; this could've zeroed me, and my second chance would've been for naught.'
At this moment, darkness filled his vision as he entered a deep slumber.
Time passed by, hours went by, and soon, a loud knock on the door awakened him.
"Agh..." Adam rubbed his eyes and went to open the door.
After opening the door, Ron, clad in his silver armor, stood in front of him.
"Adam, we'll like to have a word with you."
'We?' Adam looked over Ron's shoulder and saw a blond-haired man with a scar on his cheek standing behind him.
He donned lighter armor than Ron, and it was fully in yellow and white. On the chest, there was a crest of a one-eyed human face with a smiley expression.
He glanced at Adam with a cold, calculative gaze, his eyes narrowing as he sized him up as if he were a person who couldn't trust anything.
"Can we enter?" Ron asked.
"Sure." Adam allowed them to enter and went to sit on his bed.
While Ron took a seat on the chair, the blond-haired man walked into the room and looked around the place with a narrowed gaze.
"This is my mercenary colleague—Kage Zane." Ron introduced the blond-haired man because he knew he wasn't the most talkative person and wouldn't have introduced himself.
'Oh, I thought he looked familiar.' Adam scratched the back of his head and nodded at both of them. 'Kage Zane, member of the Lose Eye, Keep Smile guild. He is a member of the Pro-Strong cult.'
Pro-Strong was an infamous cult in Mortal Online—they were fanatics who believed that strength was the core and the only way to achieve true enlightenment.
They thought that all weak people were a waste of air and should be treated like slaves. They still thought that weak people had to start somewhere to become powerful.
That's why they had been suggesting that all weak people should be slaves, and only until they became strong enough would they achieve their freedom.
This suggestion was shut down immediately.
"We wanted to ask you about some questions." Ron said and crossed his legs. He kept his voice very natural and didn't sound very serious. "How did you find out the Adult Centipede Skeleton?"
"I accepted the mission to find and destroy Baby Centipede Skeleton." Adam began retelling the events.
"From the descriptions, I found out that it stays in dark, damp basements, so I went to look for one, and in the very first building, I found a suitable basement, but there was a cracked wall, and behind that, I found the centipede."
Ron nodded. "What happened then?"
"It attacked me, and I quickly escaped the basement. I would've died, but I managed to stand my ground long enough for you to arrive."
"Hmph." Kage scoffed and shook his head while looking at the silverware on the cabinet.
Ron, ignoring Kage's scoff, nodded. "You did well by discovering the centipede and protecting yourself. It'll be annihilated quickly. If it had matured a few more years, I think we would've needed a few more guilds to participate."
"What about my mission?" Adam asked and took out the folded mission poster. "Was my mission considered a failure?"
"Sometimes, during missions, unexpected things happen." Ron said with his arms crossed. "Sometimes, those unexpected things lead to many casualties and unfortunate things."
"However, sometimes the missions are diamonds hidden in a rough, and this was a perfect example of it." Ron then looked at Adam and said, "You'll be rewarded for the discovery."
Adam nodded with a slight smile.
Ron then saw that Kage had heard enough as he turned around and walked out of the room with his cape billowing behind him.
"We'll have another gathering in the auditorium tomorrow and will invite everyone from the tutorial." Ron said. "You'll receive your reward there."
"All right, thanks." Adam stood up and bowed.
"Mm." Ron nodded and left the room.
After the door closed, Adam laid back on the bed, staring at the ceiling.
"I forgot how it feels to be looked at in scorn." Adam chuckled as he saw Kage's gaze scanning him as if he were nothing but a speck of dust. "I had killed my fair share of morons from the Pro-Strong cult and made myself very known to them.
"I think they called me the Anti-Christ? Hah, just because I was stronger than them. Bunch of hypocrites. In this life, I will just eradicate them."