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• Eliminate 30 Proto-Monsters (30/30) ✔
• Prevent the death of any student
• Defeat 1 Elite Proto-Monster (1/1) ✔
Rewards:
• Experience (XP)
• Monster Cores
• Bonus reward if all students survive
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Leaning against the colossal corpse, a young man hyperventilated as he struggled to catch his breath. His reddened eyes revealed a deep exhaustion, almost crushing in its weight.
His body was covered in shallow cuts and bruises, and his clothes were soaked in a grotesque mixture of blood and green slime. The sword still hung at his waist, just as filthy as the rest of his gear.
Even so, a faint smile appeared on his face.
"Heh... that was harder than I expected. Anyone still alive out there?"
Kevin asked with an ironic tone, still leaning against the massive corpse of the Steel Rhinoceros while trying to breathe properly again.
"You look tired... I expected more."
The reply came from Jin, who was leaning against a nearby wall. His physical condition was not much better, perhaps even worse, but he tried his best not to show any sign of pain or exhaustion.
"How... are you two capable of being this stupid..."
Emma muttered between breaths. She was lying flat on her back on the floor, completely drained, her chest rising and falling as she fought to pull more air into her lungs. Beside her, her twin swords rested on the ground, covered in blood and dirt.
Despite the extreme fatigue, Kevin felt a quiet sense of satisfaction. They had overcome a massive obstacle. Even if it had been a team effort, they had still managed to defeat a Rank C monster.
Surprisingly, the battle against the Steel Rhinoceros had been relatively stable. The creature was incredibly tough, but the fight had never spiraled out of control, to the point that Kevin never even needed to activate Overdrive.
"Alright... I think it's better if we head back to the hall now."
He said as he slowly got up, stretching his body and cracking his joints. Then he looked at Jin and Emma, who were still catching their breath.
"That's the first good idea you've had in a long time."
Emma replied as she stood up from the floor, storing her swords inside her dimensional storage. Jin said nothing, but tilted his head slightly as if agreeing.
Technically, it had been Kevin who suggested fighting the rhinoceros. Any other group of freshmen would have simply run away.
Even so, although the fight was advantageous for him, both for the mission and for the strength gain, Kevin would never deliberately put his teammates in a life threatening situation.
If at any moment he realized the battle was impossible, he would do everything he could to guarantee that the two of them escaped, even if it meant using every card he had.
Fortunately, that had not been necessary. The battle had been exhausting, mainly because of the opponent's absurd durability, but not as lethal as most Rank C creatures.
What luck he had...
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Do you know the concept of a deafening silence?
That kind of silence that makes a situation so strange and uncomfortable that you start desperately wishing something would happen, literally anything...
A thin line of cold sweat ran down Ren's face as he illuminated the underground industrial corridors of the factory. Walking beside him was Amanda, maintaining her usual cold and indifferent gaze. Even in the absolute darkness, her presence seemed strangely striking, almost as if she reflected her own light in the middle of the gloom.
Ren had planned to go down to the underground alone, but he had not been given much of a choice when Amanda simply decided to follow him. They had been walking through the narrow, rusted corridors for about ten minutes now, and during all that time neither of them had said a single word.
The heavy silence was starting to deeply bother Ren. For starters, he already had no desire to stay close to someone like Amanda, one of the most influential protagonists in the story.
But beyond that, the strange atmosphere and that oppressive silence were so uncomfortable that he almost preferred facing a hallway full of Proto-Monsters rather than that empty and endless path.
"Hey, Amanda... you're not mad, right?"
Ren finally broke the silence. The sudden question made Amanda frown in confusion before answering.
"What are you referring to?"
"You know... about Elijah. Sorry for throwing all the spotlight onto you."
Ren was worried she might hold some resentment over what he had done. For him, the "credit" for defeating a Djinn was not exactly a reward. On the contrary, he did everything he could to avoid any kind of attention.
Amanda remained silent for a few seconds, trying to understand what he meant. From her perspective, receiving recognition for something like that would be positive for almost anyone, especially for a normal student.
But hearing that now... she finally understood.
Ren hated the spotlight. Because of that, he simply assumed everyone else hated it too. That was why he feared she might resent him for it.
Thinking about it that way, Amanda could not help a small smile, almost imperceptible.
"I don't resent you for that... but should I?"
She replied in her usual cold and indifferent tone. The sentence was supposed to sound like a joke, but Amanda was not exactly good with humor.
"N-no... maybe it's better to just leave it like that."
Ren quickly replied, gesturing nervously as sweat ran down his temple. Still, deep down he felt relieved that he had not landed on the bad side of someone so influential.
Amanda, on the other hand, was also satisfied. That conversation had revealed another small fragment about the mysterious figure who had been occupying her thoughts lately.
But conversation aside, the two continued moving toward the electrical sector. The objective was simple: restore the factory's power.
Eventually, they reached the location.
And immediately realized the problem.
The room was enormous, filled with industrial machines, wires, and large control panels. However, much of the structure had been partially destroyed, probably as a result of the initial explosion everyone had heard.
Several machines were overturned, and broken wires hung from the ceiling and walls. But the real problem was on the floor.
The entire area was completely flooded, covered in large pools of deep water. Some pipe must have burst during the explosion.
And as if that were not enough, several snapped electrical wires crackled violently inside the water, releasing sparks and electrifying the entire environment.
On the other side of the room, however, it was still possible to see the main panel, likely the only way to restore power to the factory.
Ren let out a quiet sigh as he observed the scene.
"This... is going to be troublesome..."
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"Looks like you were right..."
I said while examining the ID card attached to the pocket of yet another lab coated corpse. Another factory employee.
"You still had doubts?"
Melissa stood beside me, also examining the bodies. But unlike me, her eyes were not limited to the dead. She analyzed the entire environment around us. The white walls of the laboratory were stained with dried blood, as if the room itself had witnessed a silent massacre.
"No... maybe just a spark of hope."
The reason the factory's problem had not yet been resolved had already been predicted by Melissa. The employees here were ordinary people. It was no surprise they had been slaughtered by Proto-Monsters, even the low rank ones.
The few stronger individuals, like the guard at the entrance of the laboratory, had probably met an even worse fate at the hands of the Blood Moon Reaper.
From the looks of it... there was no one left.
Looks like we really have no choice. We'll have to solve the problem ourselves.
"I found something."
Melissa said beside me, pointing her flashlight toward the wall. Attached there was a large map, detailed enough to perfectly reflect the laboratory we were standing in.
"Alright... let's see. We need to reach the control room."
After observing the map for a few moments, I noticed something obvious. The overall shape of the laboratory perfectly matched that black square on the factory map we had found earlier.
The complex was divided into several sectors, study rooms, chemical laboratories, refrigeration chambers, and other technical departments. At the top of the map, however, a small room stood out, clearly marked as Control Room, located right beside something called the Containment Wing.
"It doesn't seem that far..."
"Yes, but... these corridors twist a lot. It'll be faster if we go through the containment wing."
Melissa said, already starting to walk. Crossing that area would indeed cut a good portion of the path to our destination.
"That makes sense... but isn't it a little strange for there to be a containment wing here?"
Melissa stopped the moment she heard the question. She stayed silent for a few seconds, clearly thinking.
That place, in theory, was just the laboratory of a monster processing factory. They did not have legal authorization to work with creatures above Rank C.
So... why the hell was there a containment wing?
"Tsk... whatever. It's probably just some room to hold intruders. Let's move. We can't waste more time."
Melissa grumbled, practically dragging me as she quickened her pace through the dark corridors. Using the map as a guide, we followed a shorter path toward the containment wing.
A few minutes later, we found a massive double door completely sealed. Beside it was an electronic lock asking for an access card, while a metal sign above clearly read:
CONTAINMENT WING
"In the end, grabbing that card was useful."
I commented as I swiped the card I had taken from the first corpse we found. The lock emitted an electronic beep, and shortly after, a green light blinked.
The door slowly began to open.
Swoooosh.
"Wow... it's a lot bigger than I thought..."
The space beyond was colossal. The white laboratory aesthetic remained, but now the environment was filled with gigantic cells scattered across the hall. Each one had a large reinforced glass panel in the front and a sealed door with electronic locks.
All of them were empty. Even so, it was obvious what they were for. The glass of each cell was armored, thick enough to contain extremely dangerous creatures.
"Strange to have something like this here..."
I commented quietly. Technically, this was a monster processing factory. It did not make much sense to bring live creatures to a place like this.
"Some monsters have higher quality resources if they're killed shortly before processing. They probably kept the creatures here to slaughter them at the right moment."
Melissa replied, illuminating the cells with her flashlight as we walked. The light moved across the room until it stopped.
Something strange. Something that made an involuntary chill run down my spine.
A gigantic door made entirely of solid steel. It stood over ten meters tall and looked absurdly reinforced, thick enough to withstand even heavy weapon explosions.
At the top of it, a massive warning was painted in aggressive red letters.
RESTRICTED ACCESS
Ba-dum. Ba-bump.
For some reason, my chest felt heavy. My heartbeat started to accelerate.
That was when I noticed something that had gone unnoticed before. Since the moment we entered that room, the temperature had been slowly dropping.
As if an air conditioning system had been activated the moment we opened the door. Technically... that was exactly what had happened.
There was probably a presence sensor that activated the ventilation system whenever someone entered the area.
As that thought crossed my mind, Melissa seemed to reach the same conclusion at the exact same time.
She immediately pulled out a blacklight flashlight and illuminated the room. As expected, a greenish mist began to reveal itself in the air.
It slowly flowed out from the ventilation ducts, glowing intensely under the blacklight.
But something was wrong.
Instead of spreading across the room, all the mist seemed to flow in a single direction.
The enormous door marked RESTRICTED ACCESS.
The mist violently slipped through the cracks of the door, as if it were being pulled inside... as if something on the other side was devouring it.
And unfortunately... it seemed to have found what it was looking for.
Ba-dum. Ba-bump.
My heart raced. Cold sweat ran down my back. I could not understand why I was feeling like this.
Was I sick?
"This doesn't look good... Melissa, I think we'd better ru Melissa?!"
With a dull thud beside me, I saw Melissa drop to her knees. She clutched her own chest, desperately struggling to pull air into her lungs.
"Hey! Hey! What happened?"
I knelt beside her and grabbed her shoulders. I recognized the symptoms immediately. Shortness of breath. Body feeling unbearably heavy.
She was being crushed by mana pressure. And not just any pressure, something ridiculously powerful.
With enormous difficulty, Melissa managed to force out a single word.
"R-r-ru..."
Ba-dum. Ba-bump.
My heart felt like it was about to explode. I was completely drenched in cold sweat. And in that moment... I finally understood.
It was not sickness.
It was not mana pressure.
It was something far more primitive.
Fear...
I slowly raised my eyes toward the door.
All the mist had already been sucked inside.
For a second, absolute silence filled the room. A suffocating silence that seemed to last for decades.
Until
POW!
A gigantic hand, red like raw flesh, burst through the steel door.
The metal tore like paper.
It grabbed the opening it had created and violently pulled, destroying the reinforced steel structure as if it were nothing.
Moments later, a colossal silhouette emerged from the darkness.
The greenish mist wrapped around its body, slowly revealing every detail.
Over ten meters tall.
A monstrous and deformed body, with exposed muscles and veins.
Countless wounds covered its grotesque flesh. Deep sword cuts, bullet holes, burns from magic, all leaking that same green liquid.
On its head... a massive skull with a humanoid shape, grotesquely enlarged. Something like blood ran from its empty eyes like red tears.
It seemed that, unfortunately... the factory directors had not been respecting the rule of only working with monsters below Rank C.
A translucent window appeared before my eyes.
A theory I had been forming finally seemed confirmed. Until now, whenever a monster was identified, its name appeared in different colors.
Orange, like that lone Ghoul. A threat that required attention, but could still be overcome.
Blood red, like the Infernal Spider or the Blood Moon Reaper. Truly dangerous creatures, where a single mistake meant certain death.
But the name in front of me
Had none of those colors. It was completely black. As if it carried an aura of inevitable death.
Something that simply should not be faced.
My trembling legs, racing heart, and cold sweat confirmed that theory perfectly. Every muscle in my body screamed one thing. Run.
For a second, that scene crossed my mind again. The melody that touched the soul. The tightness in my chest and that hooded figure. Then I understood.
There was no ambition.
There was no thrill in facing a strong enemy.
You do not play with death. After all, death does not know how to play.
I looked again at the window.
[Blood Titan {RANK S}]
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