I didn't know how long had we stayed in the cave, but I could see the sun starting to go down to the horizon.
Hopefully the rescue team able to reach us before the sun goes down, that was the only hope I had.
None of us said much during the time we stayed in the cave, only Mirae and I kept conversing once or twice to keep away our fear. I wondered who else was being dragged here in this dungeon, are they surviving the situation? The thought gave me a shiver.
As I didn't have anything to do while waiting for the rescuer, I kept observing the dungeon I was in. I didn't notice it at first but thankfully the cave was quite safe for us, nothing in it only some rocks and a patch of grass near the cracks of the opening. The size was also enough to give us a bit of space, so it's not super cramped.
Outside, I can observe what the forest dungeon looks like. Before because of the fear and confusion I was not registered at all of the surroundings. Now, that i have some clarity in my mind, I could observed carefully.
The dungeon was a forested area, I could see some beasts passing by our cave space. The beasts were mostly insect-type and forested animal types. I had read about dungeon type in the awakeners forum previously, most of the beasts in it are attracted to human blood they said. Thankfully this fact already helped us a lot.
Let's hope the rank of this dungeon is not that high
As long as the rank of a certain dungeon was around the F-D tier, the forum I'd read that most of the beasts are non-aggressive unless we had provoked them or attracted them to us.
So far, the beast that I could see passing by our area had been almost 'ignoring' the crack's opening. Let's hope it'll continue like that and the rescuer can reach us quicker.
"Ugh…" Mirae's voice brought me back to reality.
Both of my 'companions' were currently sleeping, and I was too anxious to let all of us sleep in this strange and dangerous dungeon. Thankfully, the only injuries I had were from donating my blood to that piece of cloth previously and some scratches from the bushes I had ran past through to get here.
MIrae was also not injured only some bump on her head and scratches. However, her scratches were worse than mine as some of hers bled more. While Manager Wang was the healthiest one among the three of us, no visible scratches could be seen. But he had been whining previously about his 'injured' body.
While waiting for them to be awakened, I was starting to get antsy for doing nothing. I picked up several twigs that looked sturdy enough. I planned to sharpen it so at least we had some kind of weapon.
I sharpened it using some eyebrow razor that thankfully in my touch-up bag. Fortunately, I had this tendency always to keep that bag in my pocket wherever I went. Who knows that I will use it for survival not for touching up makeup.
In that pouch, I had this razor, a lip gloss, a face mist, a small mascara, an eyebrow pencil, a small perfume, and a lighter. I don't remember why I have the lighter in it, but I was not complaining at all. This could be a lifesaver.
Once I was done sharpening one of the sticks, I sharpened the other end. The stick was long enough to be snapped into two. So we could have two weapons.
The sun had gone down now, and the surrounding forest had enshrouded in darkness. The only light coming from the now-risen moon, weirdly the moon in this dungeon was redder and even bigger compared to the regular moon I had seen.
"Ah damn, when will the rescuer arrive!" I didn't know when he was awake but he already grumbled when he just opened his eyes.
Even though it was dark now in the cave, we couldn't make any fire to prevent attracting the beasts outside. So we could only stay in the darkness. Because we didn't know when the rescuer would come. In the worst case, they might not even come. We should still think about all the possible scenarios and tried best to survive.
"Mirae-ya are you awake?" I whispered a little to my right.
"Yeah, I'm awake Aerin-ah. Are you hungry? Luckily I have an energy bar in my pocket." She whispered back and huddled closer to me, trying to make ourselves warmer.
"Let's divide it between the two of us, and I also made some weapons for us. Make sure to have it with you." I handed over the stick that I had sharpened just a moment ago.
Thankfully we both know not to trust Manager Wang 100% in this situation. We silently divided the precious items that we have and ate the energy bar slowly to not make any sound that can be alerting both Manager Wang and the beasts outside.
"Awoooooooooooo."
A howling sound suddenly could be heard not far from our cave.
The sound kept getting closer and closer along with the sound of the running footsteps. It sent us into panic as we knew the wolf beast might come to us.
I quickly sprang up to my feet, gripping tightly the sharpened stick that I had made previously. "I don't know if it's going to come for us or not, but let's just prepare for the worst rather than regretting our choice later," I said to my companion with a shaky voice.
"Mirae, keep the stick close to you. It's not the best weapon but at least we have something to attack with."
"Why do you give this weak and useless thing the weapon? It'll be a waste of resources." Manager Wang suddenly spoke his disgusting tone of voice.
"Just hand it over to me." He snatched the stick from Mirae as he said it.
"Argh" Mirae got pushed to the wall because of his treachery action.
"It's okay Mirae, you can have mine. I have another thing that I could use." I helped to steady her again and handed over my stick to her.
"Are you sure that you gave it to me? I think it'll be more useful if you have it." she tried to hand it over back to me.
"No keep it, I do have something else for my weapon." I shook my head pushing back the stick to her.
Yeah, I do have something that can be more reliable than that stick.
"Okay, let's focus on the beast. We had the advantage here. They only have this one crack for the opening to go into the cave. So we need to utilize it to our advantage." I said with a positive tone of voice to lighten up the mood.
"I'll be on the right side of the crack, Manager Wang you'll stay in the middle as you're stronger than us, Mirae you're across from me okay." I gave them the direction to maximize our attacking power.
Not long after, the howling sound was getting closer and closer, until I could see the silhouette of the beast right outside our cave. I braced myself to look at it directly, it was a dark wolf beast.
The beast had the look of a regular wolf but with longer and sharper fangs and claws. Its fur is jet black almost blending in with the dark forest surroundings, the only thing that allows me to see it is the big red moon that is now high in the sky. The red light shines from it adding more of the hair-raising atmosphere.
"The beast is outside, don't forget our tactic." I gulp down the fear that was creeping into my throat. I tightened up my hand that was holding the pocket that had my perfume and my lighter.
As it moved closer towards the crack of the cave, the beast suddenly stopped moving and started to howling towards the sky. Unfortunately, I could hear there was another howl answering it. The realization hit me, I could feel the fear clawing at my heart and mind.
It's calling its pack to come here.
I tried to look at Mirae trying to resolute our spirit, and that was when I could feel a force grabbing me and kicking me at the back of my knee until I fell to the outside of the crack opening.
Ah, this rotten bastard.