Soon enough, Matthew was up and running, and the scouts sent out to gather Intel had returned with news that only the first passage had a door; the second and third were dead ends.
Seeing the scouts return, they were some kids who dressed fit the assassin class, and they held small daggers in hand with the least clothes tightly hugging their legs but not hindering movements.
'Now that I think about it, Matthew didn't have any weapon, and Noah had a full-blown sword strapped to his waist,' Timothy thought.
Soon someone shouted
"Everyone gather around, we're heading through the first tunnel "
And we did.
Mr. Cyril said he remained quiet throughout the endeavor as we were a team once again but with Mr. Dede as the leader.
Soon enough, they reached a massive door, and this was the good news for them.
Dungeons that were low rank didn't necessarily have such aesthetics, meaning they likely stumbled upon gold.
Everyone intuitively brought out their weapons and were battle-ready.
Bows were drawn, daggers were held, staffs were raised, and there was a guy with a shield also, but he held a short sword.
Timothy, on the other hand, had two really good kitchen knives; he made sure to treat them always as that was all he could afford.
That was how he barely got along his life; if not equipping himself would be fatal to his spending.
As equipment would need repairs and most times breakdown.
Plus he kept telling himself that 'They make one complacent to danger'
This led him to prioritize survival and take injuries, but it's a good thing a healer wasn't too expensive; he already had one.
Seeing that everyone was prepped for battle, a smirk was vividly on Mr Dede's face as he tried pushing the door.
But immediately he touched its surface.
*Click*
*BAM*
The door gave away, wide open for entry like it had free hinges.
"Why do I feel uncomfortable?" Timothy's said out
"It's called fear, so try not to get worked and accept it," Noah said arrogantly from behind Timothy
He didn't have a good impression of him anyway.
To Timothy though, what he said hit a nerve.
'Fear? He knew himself, this wasn't fear, it was like a premonition of danger, an experience to his 2 years being an E rank, his intuition was his number one reliance'
Timothy stood there unmoved, and in a short while, everyone had stepped inside... except him.
He was lost in thoughts.
'Could they not feel it? The tension in the air?' Timothy thought.
Look at the massively swayed doors while standing at the dividing line outside and inside the room.
He felt it was life and death.
He stared at the doors for a while, the symbols etched into it seemed solid and fine.
'They fill the door with love from the carver' Timothy subconsciously thought.
Before he knew it, he didn't know when what happened, but the doors were no longer before him; they were behind him.
He jolted awake in his head.
Seeing the situation, he was sure he would never move.
He tried turning back but found out the door was already closed.
He immediately ran to Matthew and quietly asked what had happened.
Matthew didn't seem to understand, so Timothy had to explain.
In the end, he got no explanation except the door closed some time ago and Mr Dede believes this is some kind of puzzle to find the treasure since there was no boss.
"There is no boss?" Timothy asked
"Yeah, we haven't found anything yet, so better go start doing something, or else they'll cut your share," Matthew said before he continued strolling through the place.
Noah looked at them cautiously but didn't say anything
Timothy sighed in relief.
Looking around, it was an empty hall, wide enough to contain around 400 people.
But empty, no constructs or anything just empty and circular.
So he decided to join the search, starting from the immediate right when facing the door.
He touched the walls, and it was dusty, need not to say.
He has a bag pack so he pulled out a towel from within and began dusting his hand and the walls.
Since it was massively taller than them, he could only do his best.
Five minutes later, no one had found a clue, plus one of them had gone to pull and push the door open, but it stood budged.
Unopened, people's hope began to crush slowly.
Were they trapped here?
Forever?
The pressure began mounting on Mr. Dede as he was bombarded with questions to which he had no answers.
This was expected from The start as it was well-known humans were hypocrites.
One also went as far as to assault Mr. Dede; he held a sword and dressed like a knight, though it was only iron armor.
He kept flaying his hands in front of Mr Dede's face.
Seemingly ready to fight he held the sword while blaming r Dede.
One had to know Mr Dede was also D rank.
And it seemed they had run his mouth enough to piss each other off so they were now at each other's faces.
Readers go at it, at this point, they were going at it very their verbal dialect, which was Igbo.
Timothy could make out some words as his mother was also a natural-born Igbo woman who married a man outside her state, which was where they currently resided.
But of the words he could make out, they were all cursed, so he quit even trying to listen when all of a sudden...
*SLASH*
A sword was drawn and blood flowed.
Not among the two men, but it was Mr Cyril who drew his sword, which was still in his hands, shimmering with a blue glow.
Blood cut mark was made on the kid who was trying to rile up Mr Dede and everywhere was now quiet.
"It was you from the start that immediately wanted to dive into the tunnel when it was found. You willingly joined the exploration crew, and now you're throwing the blame for your decisions on others because you feel insecure. This'll be the second time I warn you, I hope there won't be a next." Mr Cyril said coldly.
Staring right into The guys' eyes.
Timothy shivered; if his two years of experience netted him that much intuition, what had ten years done to the man?
Though not everyone got something special due to time he looked scary right now.
"I understand, " The guy said and took a step back as he seated his sword.
But Mr Cyril didn't sheat his and now Mr Dede was hiding in his shadow.
Some rumors reached C rank but it seems he's not yet there.
If not his sword would not just shimmer blue but take on his element even without using a skill.
Then that would be wind blade, a must-skill for all C ranks if they want to move forward
What he is using now is the Mana blade, a lesser skill.
Mr Cyril raised his face and stared at the crowd.
"We only have two options now, which are to keep on looking for something useful or wait for the association to notice something wrong and come fetch us somehow, we don't know when that may be so I suggest you save up on whatever you have, we could do this as a team or NOT as a team," He said coldly.
Everyone immediately shivered.
Timothy, though, found this normal.
The supervisor of the raid was to take control of everyone if ever something goes wrong and under certain scenarios, take certain actions.
If they read their manuals, they'd know.
That was why the supervisors assigned over a gate are always ensured to be at least twice as strong as the gate level.
Everyone was now like an obedient puppy.
"Um, I have some snacks here with me, but I doubt it would reach all of us," Someone said
"I have water!" A girl enthusiastically said
And that was how they began volunteering to bring up something and ration food.
Meanwhile, Miriam, the healer, was sent to heal the cut on the guy's ear.
Timothy heard the name when Mr Cyril told her to do it.
'Miriam, Miriam, I'll try to make friends with her once we're out of here' Timothy thought
Soon, she called the attention of Mr Cyril, but that was like calling everyone around to come.
In front of them, she then tried to heal him again, but it wasn't healing; rather, it was bleeding even more profusely.
A clean cut underneath his eye and a slice of his ear couldn't have cut a nerve, they all thought
But Timothy's eyes were behind the boy rather
"Blood"
Immediately he shouted
"Everyone step back; taking the opportunity, he grabbed Miriam by her waist and jumped backward from the guy she was healing."
And they all saw it behind him.