While Jash and Caera were resting and trying to recover their mana, the outside was in utter chaos.
The stable F-Rank dungeon's blue gate pulsed out a wave of mana, alerting the security team hunters before hues of purple and green appeared.
All the hunters in the area became wary and their vigilance was raised to another level as they waited for the strange phenomena to end.
Unfortunately, they recognized the phenomenon as it always occurred when something inside the dungeon changed, resulting in an increase in its rank or difficulty.
Alas, they couldn't stop or interfere with the process.
Let alone them, even SSS-Rank hunters were helpless in the face of such an event; the most they could do was wait and try to evaluate after it finished.
It didn't take too long for the event to finish, only five minutes, but to the security team, it was one of the longest five minutes of their lives.
"Hurry up! Check if it's restricting entry or not!" a man shouted, and others followed his commands.
One by one, hunters ranging from A-Rank to F-Rank tried entering the dungeon, only to get repulsed by a strong wave of mana coming off the gate.
The strongest one of them, an Integration-Rank hunter who had just shouted a command, clenched his teeth and walked to enter.
Just like the others, he too was thrown away like a ragdoll, even though he was manifold stronger than they were.
The scene of a blue gate that was stable for months changing all of a sudden was enough to fill the heads of inexperienced hunters with fear.
Luckily, before any of them could succumb to it, a wave of mana assaulted them from the skies, freezing them in their spots.
"Back off," he announced and the entire area surrounding the dungeon entrance was emptied out as he landed from the air.
'At least S-Rank!' thought the hunters due to the feat of him flying and the pressure they felt emanating from him.
No amount of magic made it possible to fly freely before achieving S-Rank and it was taught very well, so that some idiot doesn't end up offending one of them.
"Is it just Emma and Kesha besides the Young Master and Young Miss?" the lone man asked, prompting the leader of the security team to answer immediately.
"Yes, sir!"
Hearing the succinct response, the man nodded to himself before giving out the order, "With the two of them inside, it shouldn't pose any issues. But report back to the estate."
Without waiting for any response, he continued to evaluate the dungeon gate with even more green and purple pulses of mana dominating the original blue.
'I hope it doesn't turn into a purple gate,' prayed the man despite his strength of SS-Rank.
Unlike most hunters, he wasn't delusional and acknowledged the truth: in front of Cornelius or Inigo, he was but an ant.
That's why he didn't wish to get their aggro onto him, despite it not being his fault.
"The two should be enough to take care of it, right?" the SS-Rank hunter muttered to himself.
…
Inside the dungeon.
While the outside remained in chaos, nothing out of the ordinary was happening inside the dungeon.
Jash and Caera had climbed a tree for a quick rest. They chugged down a couple of mana recovery potions that appeared to be colorless.
Caera was on the lookout as Jash tried to circulate mana throughout his body to get rid of his bodily fatigue.
Both of them didn't just have physical fatigue; the mental fatigue was the one making things difficult for them.
Caera had just used a spell above her rank, emptying her entire mana core. If not for quickly drinking a few potions, just a nosebleed wouldn't have been the end of her misery.
Jash, on the other hand, had to supply and control the mana inside his body from leaking out and giving his location to the crazed wolf, all the while his eyes tried to find a good footing for him to utilize.
"Don't you find it strange?" Caera asked, bringing Jash to the present as he opened his eyes.
"Hm? What?" he replied, confused at her odd phrasing.
"The F-Rank wolf, shouldn't it ought to have found us by now?"
"Well, can't you hear the sounds? It might even have gone berserk by now, you know?" Jash said as he finished stretching out and disembarked the tree.
"Come on," he requested her to stop wasting time and follow him.
"Yeah, maybe you are right," she responded as she jumped from the tree and dashed in a direction.
"Ugh. Just why!?" Jash shouted as he rolled his eyes before following her.
The two were headed in the same direction they'd found the F-Rank wolf in.
Although there was a chance of it having gone berserk, Caera didn't seem to mind and actually went to try her luck in finishing it off.
With no other choice, Jash caught up to her and grumbled, "What if it's already berserk, you idiot!"
"What do you think its rank is?" Caera asked, ignoring his complaint.
Naturally, he figured out her intention and answered exasperatedly, "Prolly (F+)-rank? The presence it radiated makes me believe it ought to be the second strongest monster in this dungeon."
"Precisely!" she nodded at his analysis and increased her speed with an excited grin on her face.
Seeing her expression and action, he followed along but a strange thought came to his mind. However, he vehemently denied it, 'No way! There's just no way, right?'
Catching up he inquired, "It could be berserk, making its prowess just short of (E-)-rank! Why are you going towards it?"
"That's all the more reason to go after it!" she announced and finally decreased her pace, recognizing the clearing from before.
"Ugh. Damn it! You mad or what!" Jash cursed at her, feeling helpless as his guess came true.
It turns out she wanted to try fighting that berserk wolf to breakthrough E-Rank in one go.
'Just how did I forget she is so close to condensing the yellow mana core?' he couldn't help but think to himself, recalling the monster rankings.
Usually, monsters were categorized into three sub-ranks, just like humans, but it was different.
Where humans had early, mid and late sub-ranks, the monsters were graded using (-), () and (+).
For example, (F-)-rank, (F)-rank, and (F+)-rank.
Naturally, some hunters also used the same ranking system for humans as it made it more uniform and easy.
Alas, it wasn't all that important.
'The important thing is these darned monsters are without the mental capacity to converse with humans till B-Rank!' Jash thought hatefully.
That's why most monsters below B-Rank tend to go berserk in dungeons because of it.
Going berserk simply meant losing control of themselves and following only their primal instinct to kill indiscriminately.
Yes, they were unable to differentiate between their own kin!
However, in exchange of their reasoning and little bit of restraint, they gained a huge power-up, elevating them almost an entire sub-rank above their current strength.
In the most extreme cases, some could even rank up if they were already close to it before.
Alas, most monsters who went berserk died shortly after or dropped in ranks significantly so that one could just run away and wait for them to die or serve themselves on a silver platter.
And Caera wished to face a beast on its last legs! That was nothing short of crazy!