[Nayr Island, D-rank dungeon - Lurker Den]
Greem Ironguard adjusted the hilt of his cross sword, the metal groaning against his calloused palm.
The air on Nayr Island clung thick with salt and the acrid stench of monstner blood.
Behind him, his team—four D-rank Hunters clad in the Fiend Guild's crimson insignia—murmured restlessly
"Capt'n," a gruff voice cut through the fog.
It belonged to Borin, the team's hulking axeman and shieldwarrior, jerking his chin toward the shadowed treeline, "Scouts say the nest's just past the mangroves. Lurkers. A dozen, maybe more."
Greem didn't turn. His eyes stayed fixed on the shifting darkness ahead. "And the Guild's intel?"
"Same as always." Lira, the team's sharp-tongued archer, twirled an arrow between her fingers. "'Clear the nest, collect cores, don't die.' Hunter stuff. If we encounter White Lion Guild or Knight hunters, we hunt them too"
A snort came from the rear.
Jask, the oldest and wisest of the group, tightened the straps of his dagger. "Stay focused. This is a dungeon. Enemies lurk in shadows"
"Yeah, Jask is right" Borin muttered, years of experience kicking in.
Greem silenced them with a raised fist.
The chatter died. Ahead, guttural snarls echoed through the trees—wet, hungry sounds that set teeth on edge. He glanced over his shoulder.
"Formation Delta. Lira, high ground. Jask, focus. Borin, you're with me. Vessa—"
The team's dark priest, a wiry woman with eyes like frost, nodded before he finished. "I'll hang back. Try not to lose any limbs this time, please."
Greem's lips twitched. "No promises."
The lurkers attacked in a frenzy, their sinewy bodies erupting from the mangroves in a blur of claws and teeth. Greem's blade met the first monstner mid-leap, shearing through its neck with a practiced twist. Black blood sprayed, sizzling against his armor.
"Jask—left flank!" he barked.
The captain Greem pivoted, slamming his shield into a lunging lurker. The creature recoiled, hissing, its skull with a visible dent. Soon after, Lira's arrow punched through its eye socket, leveraging the stun effect from his shield bash skill.
"Two down!" Jask crowed as he himself backstabbed a leaping lurker
"Save the tallying for after your funeral," Lira snapped, nocking another arrow.
Borin's axe cleaved through a pair of lurkers, their screeches cut short. "Cap'n! Big one—incoming!"
Greem spun. A hulking alpha lurker, twice the size of the others, barreled toward them, its maw dripping venom. The ground trembled. Dungeons were always unpredictable. Although the technology could now accurately estimate the size and mana levels of the gates, there was no telling about the ecosystem inside, or...mutants like the alpha lurker.
Still, this was just a D-rank gate. For an experienced team such as this one, lurkers were part of their daily life.
"Distract it," Greem ordered, unsheathing his sword
Borin blinked. "Distract i—oh, hells—"
The alpha lunged. Borin barely dodged, his axe scraping uselessly against its armored hide. Greem sprinted up a nearby boulder, leaping onto the monstner's back. His sword flashed, plunging into the gap between its skull and spine. The alpha writhed, collapsing with a final, thunderous roar.
Silence fell.
Vessa stepped over the carcasses, her healing glow already mending Borin's shallow gashes. "Efficient as ever. But dangerous"
Greem wiped his blade on a patch of moss. "It worked, didn't it?"
"Barely," Lira said, yanking arrows from corpses, "Why's the Guild dumping D-rank gate clearing to us, anyway? We can be part of exploration teams in the vanguard, or join C-rank expeditions, even if we are not part of the main attacking squad"
"You seen the board lately?" Jask chimed in, prying a core from a lurker's chest. "Higher-rank Guilds are hogging all the high-stakes Gates. We're stuck cleaning up the scraps. Fiends like us cannot exactly go through regular channels"
Borin spat. "Scraps pay the bills. It is good experience"
Greem stared at the alpha's carcass. Its milky eyes glared back, lifeless. Scraps. The word gnawed at him. They'd cleared seven nests this month alone—flawlessly, ruthlessly—yet the Guild Master, his own father, still relegated them to those gate clearing jobs.
"We'll take what they give us," Greem said finally, sheathing his sword, "For now"
Lira raised a brow. "Oh? Planning a coup, Cap'n?"
"Planning to survive." Greem turned, nodding toward the horizon where storm clouds brewed. "The dungeon is not cleared yet. Another nest's been sighted near the northern cliffs by the mages. Let's move or do I need to remind you that we are not the only hunters in this gate?"
The team groaned in unison but fell into step behind him.
The [Fiends] guild was not regular. Unlike official guilds that paid taxes and answered to the Hunter's association, the fiends was a dark guild, operating in the shadows. Instead of selling cores through regular channels, it auctionned them in black markets. Mutant creatures, rare herbs, anything that came out of the dungeons through scavengers like Greem's team would be sold at the appropriate price.
Of course, this was banned by the association, and regular hunters would attack them on sight. Yet, the [Fiends] guild was growing, expanding at a rapid pace.
Ahead, the cliffs loomed, jagged and unforgiving. Greem's hand drifted to the guild insignia on his chest, a twisted horn, symbol of the Fiend's legacy.
"Experience is experience", Greem motivated himself, "One nest at a time."
Somewhere in the distance, a monstner screeched.
A couple of hours later, Greem smiled.
Quest Updated: [Nest Cleared – 8/8 Lurker Nests]
[Rewards: 40 Monster Cores | Guild Reputation +50]
===
[Status Window][Name: Greem Ironguard]
[Strength: D (80%)] – [Agility: D (26%)]
[Vitality: D (7%)] – [Perception: D (14%)]
[Energy: E (38%)] – [Intelligence: E (92%)]
[Spirit: D (89%)] – [Charisma: E (80%)]
[Active Skill(s): Arclight Chop [C] (11%), Power Thrust [D] (46%), Energy Body Refinement [D] (11%)]
[Passive Skill(s): Military Swordsmanship [C] (35%), Military Shield Mastery [C] (12%), Beast Senses [D] (11%)]
[Rank: ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ - D rank]