Twenty-one Hunters with exhausted faces were resting. Some of them were eating, and some were smoking cigarettes. Then, one of them suddenly stood up. All attention immediately turned to that person.
"Boris!"
Someone rebuked him, but the man stood still.
"Oi! What happened to you?"
"Perhaps he has a hemorrhoid again."
Then, that group of Hunter laughed. Except for Boris, who was still standing like a statue. His face looked serious.
"Hey, didn't you hear that?"
One of the Hunters who was eating lunch replied, "Oh, sorry. That was my fart."
Once again, the sound of laughter echoed in the air. Boris got annoyed because his comrades didn't give him a serious response.
"No, you moron! I heard screams earlier."
However, his comrades still laughed, ignoring Boris' words. One of them even said that Boris had drunk too many burkas.
However, the laughter instantly disappeared when a man slammed an axe into the ground. They all fell silent when they saw the man's serious expression.
That man was Leonid, the Guildmaster of the Siberian Knights.
"Boris, what did you hear?"
"Ugh, Boss, I heard screams."
"Screams?" Leonid arched one of his eyebrows.
Boris nodded. "Right. Human screams."
Suddenly, the atmosphere changed drastically. The Hunters, who originally laughed and thought Boris was drunk, they started to take this matter seriously.
"The voice was faint. I'm sure it's far from here."
After hearing his men's words, Leonid frowned. He hadn't heard anything since earlier, but there was no way his men would lie to him. Even though the 1st Floor only contained weak monsters, this place was still a Dungeon. Anything could happen in this place. He had to take it seriously.
Leonid was still standing. He tried to grasp the situation. Then, he started to remember Wang Mei's strange reaction at the meeting three days ago.
"Alright, call another squad. We're going back to—"
KUAAAAGH!
Splaat—!
Suddenly, a monster resembling a dog jumped on one of them. The other Hunters were surprised. They quickly stood up and grabbed their weapons. Meanwhile, the poor man who was attacked by the monster could only squirm when his neck was ripped apart by the dog monster.
"Gerrrh…"
At the same time, eight similar dogs appeared from the shadows of the forest. Their eyes glowed red seeing the humans in front of them. Despite being outnumbered, there was no sign of fear at all on the faces of the monsters.
The Hunters were furious when they found their comrade was being attacked. They were about to attack, but they were still waiting for a signal from their leader.
"Boss! Quickly give us orders."
Leonid was a cold-hearted leader. Even though his men were eaten alive, he didn't get carried away by emotions, nor did he rush to make a decision.
"Hold on… they are outnumbered, but they dare to attack us. Don't be in a rush to attack back."
Meanwhile, the victim of the monster continued to scream for help.
"B-boris… Gregor… help me…"
His comrades couldn't bear to see the poor man. They had faced life-and-death situations dozens of times, so their bond was much stronger than blood relations. It was hard to remain silent when watching one of them die slowly.
"Boss! Please give us orders!"
"Right, Boss! What are we waiting for? We won in numbers."
"He is Igor! Are we going to let it go?"
No matter how hard his men persuaded him, Leonid still gave the same instructions.
"Blyat!"
One of Leonid's men couldn't take it anymore.
He was determined to attack alone. Seeing one of his friends moving, of course, the others also followed. They all ignored the instructions given by Leonid.
"Stupid! What are you doing?!"
Leonid growled. He repeatedly told them to back off, but none of them listened.
"Eliminate those bastard monsters!"
"Don't let Igor die!"
Meanwhile, the two dog monsters quickly turned around and entered the forest, dragging the man named Igor. The Hunters, who were burning with anger, chased after them.
"You stupid bastard!"
Whether he liked it or not, Leonid followed suit. He didn't want his men to die in vain. Thus, the whole group of Hunters entered the forest.
Unbeknownst to them, not far from the location, a figure was seen stalking them. A little girl riding a monster resembling a lion.
The little girl smiled.
"Report, Lord. The target has been eaten by the bait."
.
.
.
Isaac smiled at the light projection. All of the targets had been devoured by the bait. The first phase of his plan went smoothly.
"Good, Pippi," he murmured. "Proceed to the next step."
He took a deep breath.
"The southern region is finished. Now, back to the north region."
Then, he waved his hand. The light projection changed, showing a girl with short hair running through the forest.
.
.
.
Wang Mei ran through the forest. The only thing she thought about was saving her sister. She kept running to the source of the screams. Her head started to think of unwanted things.
"I shouldn't have brought her here… no… I shouldn't have allowed her to become a Hunter."
She kept running. As time went on, Wang Yi's screams grew louder and clearer. Wang Mei became more and more convinced that she was getting closer to her sister.
"Wang Yi!"
When she arrived at the source of the sound, her eyes opened wide. It wasn't Wang Yi that she found, but a giant sized bird. Its body was large, about the size of an adult human, and it had a curved beak. Its fur was as deep black as ink.
The bird monster continued to scream repeatedly, imitating the exact same sound as Wang Yi's.
Wang Mei was flabbergasted at the bird's strange behaviour. In all her life, she had never encountered such a monster.
"Leader!"
Captain Chen Wei and the other members arrived. They were equally surprised when they found the giant bird monster.
"Hah? A monster that can imitate human voices…"
"It's like a parrot?"
Confusion began to cover them.
Captain Chen Wei gulped. "Leader, could this be…"
"That's right. It's a trap."
After encountering the bird monster, Wang Mei realized that she had fallen into a trap. When the bird monster screamed, imitating human voices, the other squad would think that his squad was under attack. Spontaneously, the other squad would move to the source of the sound to provide assistance.
If there were a lot of screaming voices, then there would be a lot of squads following the source of the sound. With the source of the screams in multiple directions, they would scatter, moving away from each other.
"Those monsters, they are trying to widen the distance between the squads that are dispersed. We are being divided."
Xue Yang squeezed his head, as did the other members. They had never faced this situation before. It was as if there was a mastermind capable of orchestrating all of this.
However, the real threat just began.
Wang Mei quickly drew her two weapons. She felt a presence. "Everyone, prepare for battle."
Dozens of pairs of glowing eyes appeared from behind the shadows of the forest. Then, followed by a groan, like the sound of a tiger preparing to attack its prey.
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