The bright red light devoured Vine’s sight while its body burned. The ordinary Gnolls caught in the fire were screeching and whimpering. The clearing began to burn.

The surrounding area turned to a sea of fire.

The roaring Gnoll Knight tore Vine to pieces as a part of its body was now missing. The humanoids celebrated.

The Gnoll Knight, however, clung to life. It tore through the body of Vine and voraciously devoured its elongated burning body.

It took a few seconds before it stopped.

• Gnoll Knight has eaten the [Second Owner] of the Dungeon, it had now gained full control of the Dungeon, and through the consumption of the Treant Vinesnake, it gained [Medium-Regeneration].

The Gnoll Knight struck a jackpot!

• Through sheer will and effort, the Gnoll Knight had survived the Agni Spear, it had now gained the [Medium-Fire Resistance]

It got a high-leveled skill, and the humanoids witnessed the Gnoll Knight’s injuries to stop regenerating.

These two sets of words reached the humanoids’ system panel. They all stared speechless at the raging Gnoll Knight.

With eyes as red as the fire that devoured it, the Gnoll Knight charged to the cowering humanoids.

“GHARA!”

The Gnoll Knight roared and began enacting its revenge as it bit onto Lisa’s body. Its teeth sunk into her shoulder. She screamed in pain and was thrown away like a toy.

Lisa lost her consciousness as her head hit a tree.

The Gnoll Knight was not sentient nor intelligent, and despite the injuries that it now bore, its body regained its function.

Now, before it was a group of cowering humans. If it was any other beast, it would decide to leave and recuperate; the Gnoll Knight, however, was as vengeful as it was stupid.

Because of this, the Gnoll Knight would die. It may have gained Medium-Regeneration, but its heart had already been ripped. If it chooses not to rest, then it would be an inevitability, but it would at least take the ones responsible for its death shall follow.

Matt met the gravely injured Gnoll, and a fight to the death broke out.

Vine was left to watch as its life drifted.

However, a naked figure then appeared next to Vine.

“This is why I told you not to help them. Humans, Dwargons, Gostalns, Psiopers; all Sentient beings loathes monsters, and they would not listen to you unless you are chained to another Sentient being.”

“Human.” Vine looked over at Ashe, worried about him, “Companion… Here… Dangerous... Run.”

No matter how Ashe may view the monster, Vine thinks of him as its only companion. Its first response to him being near the Gnoll Knight.

Ashe, however, did not care.

“I knew you were a Dungeon Boss. This place must have been a dual-cored Dungeon; what happened here? Did the Gnolls wipe out your side or something? Well, that doesn’t matter anymore.” Ashe stated as it watched the Gnoll Knight fight with Lisa and her group.

“Human…Danger…You…Escape.” The Vine tried to convince him once more.

“Don’t worry about me, oh yeah, you’re my dog, so I’m taking you with me out of this place—Book.”

As his words rang, a book with two pages appeared.

On one of its few pages, a question appeared…

• Do you want to bind the Monster [Treant Vinesnake] to the Astral Page? Please note that once bound, you and this Monster will be bound on a pact stronger than the [Dragon Blood Bond] a [Dragon Knight]

“I agree.”

The page glowed and the image of the Treant Vinesnake was printed on it. Vine covered a full page and its image was surrounded with a metallic border.

• The Treat Vinesnake shall be bound to the Astral Page. A body shall now be constructed in 59:59

“So, there’s a time limit? It appears I have time to kill. It is now time to hunt some Monster.” Ashe said as Matt’s figure crashed by his side.

The Gnoll Knight saw Ashe and got angrier as it saw more humans in its territory. It roared in pain and anger.

“W-who are you!? What are you doing here!? Leave this place… that’s a Gnoll Knight—!” Matt, whose Raging Swordsman just ended, said in haste.

Ashe turned to him and smirked, “Human, your group killed my dog-snake, and for that, I really should kill you as an act of vengeance. However, if you let me steal that prey of yours, I would forgive you.”

“Huh!? Are you insane!? Do you—”

“Yes or No?”

Matt stared blankly at Ashe’s eyes. He did not know why or how, but he instinctively agreed without making so much as a fuss.

“Great, then stay there for the time being.” Ashe got up and looked at the now charging Gnoll Knight, “I have time to kill, so I’ll hunt you to kill time. Now, you better give me a good Skill Rune.”

Ashe dashed forth to face the raging Beast. He had no fear for what he showed was a smile.

The Gnolls surrounding the area had already thinned out, and with the mix of the raging flames and the Gnoll Knight’s blind rage, they had gradually thinned in number.

Only five or so remained, and all froze in fear and expectation for the Gnoll Knight’s victory. 

Ashe stopped his steps, and with the flick of a wrist, a spear appeared in his hands. 

He took a deep breath and recited a verse in his head:

‘May the Soul I hunt return to the Cycle of Life and Death, may the Monster I kill, be embraced by the Fraction.’

As he finished, the Gnoll Knight was already only ten meters away. The Gnoll Knight threw its remaining fist onto Ashe.

It wanted nothing more than to rip Ashe to pieces. 

Ashe, however, would not let himself be a victim of such a fate.

Shhhhsss! Bam!

The rusted spear flew across the air and hammered the Gnoll Knight’s right ear. From the sheer force, the rusted spear broke in two.

The Gnoll Knight was momentarily stunned by Ashe’s assault. It shook its head as its ears rung with the pang of pain; however, it roared as it powered through the pain.

With a beastly roar, its claws cut through the air. Its anger grew ever strong as the pain from Ashe’s spear was registered.

Slash!

Blood spurted as Ashe’s arm was cut, but he didn’t stumble, nor did he stop. His body spun as he called upon an axe from his inventory.

And as he made use of the momentum, he swung it with the intent to cleave!

GRAAAAA! The Gnoll Knight howled in pain as the axe struck the side of its body.

‘This guy is tough.’ He stated as he found his axe failing to fully penetrate the hide of the Gnoll Knight. His axe remained embedded in the Gnoll Knight’s body.

Ashe was not finished. If one attempt failed to cleave though, then find another way. He abandoned the axe without hesitation.

Ashe circled around the injured Gnoll Knight and used a spare axe and struck the back of its knee, it fell with a nasty growl.

“You’re finally down, now, make more noise for me!” 

With the Gnoll Knight on one knee, Ashe didn’t dawdle and had two swords occupy both hands, which he stabbed at the healing wound where its hide had already been blown to smithereens.

GHARAAAAAAAAA!

The Gnoll flailed about and managed to cut Ashe, but that didn’t matter, for Ashe went back into the fight.

“My little dog-snake just got killed to subdue you, you’re not in the wrong, but die!” Ashe roared with his misplaced anger, while a twisted smile remained on his face.

Ashe was enjoying the hunt!

He used an axe once more, and the Gnoll Knight swung its claws in an attempt to skewer him. Exchange after exchange, Ashe and Gnoll Knight went after each other’s lives.

The Gnoll Knight would manage to draw blood, but only insignificant cuts would arise. Ashe was would weave through its offense and strike when he found an opening, punishing the monster for its futile attempts, withering it down to become slow and sluggish.

One by one, Ashe called upon his weapon and as he read the now more predictable movement of the Gnoll Knight.

Slashing, stabbing, cutting, and even hammering the Gnoll Knight with different weapons led Ashe to draw out more blood. 

Blood flew out from both the human and the monster, and soon enough, only one of them had any ability to injure the other. 

The two finally stopped moving as the sea of flames settled.

Ashe’s body was drenched with blood, but the Gnoll Knight looked was worse than he.

The right side of its head was bashed in, there were seven swords stabbed on its healing wound. It was on its knees, gasping for air—both its lungs were, and other internal organs were piece—another dozen and a half random weapons were stuck on its body.

It could no longer move.

Ashe held onto the last axe as he looked at his opponent, “I had my fun. You’re a good and tenacious bastard; it had been a long time since I enjoyed a good hunt, I’m now going to free you of your suffering.”

Slash!

The Gnoll Knight’s head flew. It died, and a rift opened. A blue almond shape portal opened ten meters away from the Gnoll Knight’s body.

• With the death of the last Dungeon Boss, the Gate leading out had been opened. The destruction of the dungeon would occur in an hour.

With the death of the Gnoll Knight and Vine, the dungeon had lost its core. Ashe, however did not move quickly as he honored the death of a warrior. The tips of his thumb and ring finger touched, it was a sign for honoring a great warrior that gave him a hard-fought battle.

There were still Gnolls around, they would usually be killed or else they would escape the Dungeon.

Most of the time, the only way one could consider a Dungeon cleared it was if the Monster were completely exterminated. However, Ashe didn’t care about all that.

He walked up to the Gnoll Knight’s head as he saw it glowing. He cracked it open got a Skill Rune.

• The Gnoll Knight dropped the Skill Rune [Low-Vitality] [Iron]
• You landed the final hit to the Boss Monster you have gained the Bonus.

Ashe smiled as he celebrated this luck of his.

“After a week of searching, I finally found something that can supplement what I’m lacking. It’s not a Regeneration Rune Skill, but it’s close enough.”

He was out of breath, and he was drenched in sweat after the fight with the Gnoll Knight. But if he had been a Berserker, then such a fight would not even make him break a sweat.

But he did get a good skill, so all was good.

He had been searching for such a good [Passive Skill] to supplement his lack of useful ability. Astral Page is a good Class, but because it didn’t give him any enhancement, it would be better to get Passive Skills otherwise in Ashe’s point of view.

‘This Low-Vitality is still pretty bad considering it’s Iron-Rank, but it can be upgraded. I’ll search for a method it can be upgraded to the next level.’

To Matt, when he first saw Ashe, he thought he was nothing but a weirdo streaker who had nothing to do. 

Someone who snuck in a Teleportation Temple and then head into a dungeon to go streaking. It was a thought as stupid as Ashe managing to kill an injured Gnoll Knight without so much as proper equipment.

“Who are you?” Matt asked as Ashe approached him.

“Nevermind that, now, you owe me you and your team’s life. Because you guys have seven people, you owe me seven favors.” Ashe didn’t answer Matt, for he had no obligations to do so. 

Matt couldn’t put together what this streaker warrior was saying before him, “What do you mean? You said if I let you hunt the Gnoll Knight, then everything is over?”

“That’s true, but that only covers your group taking part in killing my beloved little dog-snake. I killed the Gnoll Knight, but in doing so, I saved your lives. It is not too far off to say that your lives belong to me.”

Hearing Ashe speaks of these words befuddled Matt. His words made sense but at the same time, didn’t. However, the axe in Ashe’s hands was more convincing than any argument.

‘Don’t provoke him.’ Matt thought as he agreed to Ashe’s demand.

A bright smile returned to Ashe’s face as he said, “Okay, I just saved your life, but you have no means to save your allies without a healer. Do you have any thoughts on how you’ll save them?”

Matt’s mind cleared, and quickly turned to his teammates. He went to check on everyone and saw them bleeding profusely, and Adya was out of commission.

“No, no, no…” He began panicking and got ready to carry them out through the gate.

Ashe, approached him from behind and asked, “Do you have a medical team waiting outside??”

“I don’t have time to entertain you! I’m in a hurry!” Matt shouted in irritation to Ashe’s tone.

Ashe, however, didn’t care about his anger and simply continued, “If not, then if you carry her out, she’ll only get worse because you’d be needing to get them out of here.”

Matt stopped and turned to Ashe, “What do you want me to do then? I don’t have anything I can use to heal them! I can’t just watch them die without even trying.”

“Calm down, I have a way to keep her from bleeding out.”

“Really!? Please, I’ll do anything, help her.” Matt got close to Ashe.

But as he met eyes with this unknown man, Matt trembled as he saw irritation behind those eyes. Matt backed away, and Ashe went to call upon Aeol and used it to block the blood from flowing out.

Upon usage, Ashe’s complexion went pale.

“Done, she’ll be fine for an hour, she won’t die unless we kill her ourselves. With that said, I still won’t let you leave unless you answer my questions. Did you come here with anyone else?”

“No.” He answered clearly. He was cooperating without raising a fuss, for he knew that going against Ashe would be stupid.

Ashe remembered something important, ‘If there’s a Dungeon on Earth, and there are people like them, does that mean…’ A foreboding thought appeared.

“What year is it? And what is the world’s situation?”

“…What?” Matt was confused about the abruptness and strangeness of his question.

“I’m not repeating myself.” Ashe was now more intense than ever.

“2035, It’s currently 2035….”

Matt had to explain the current world situation to Ashe, and as he finished, Ashe’s expression had shifted multiple times over.

“Are you okay?” Aske Matt, concerned about this strange man but received no answer. 

Ashe’s mind was running with many thoughts.

‘Ten years and the world had been destroyed and every country failed to combat the surge of Monsters, there’s also the presence of a Dwargon, someone from another Race… there’re are too many information to unpack.’

Ashe turned to Matt, “You said you came from a Teleportation Temple, right Kid?”

Matt nodded his head.

“That’s good, okay.” Ashe quickly jabbed Matt’s shoulder, “I just cursed you just now, it’s a skill called…Invisible Specter Curse, you’ll die if you don’t help me with something.” That was a lie; he knew no such skill.

“What!?” Matt, however, did not know that.

“Don’t worry, it will only activate if I die, and if I die, you die.” Ashe bullshitted.

Matt heaved a sigh of relief.

Ashe continued his little speech, “With all that out of the way, I need you to cut me on the back with a sword.”

“What!?” 

***

[Rodinia Continent] [Whitehaven City’s – Teleportation Temple]

[Minor Teleportation Room]

A group of men with blue skin and robust build, and a couple of humans waited for the Teleportation Platform to light up. They were what one call a [Helper] meant to help Seekers who venturing to the [Wildlands].

The team was a mix of Humans, and a race called [Fwagel.] 

Fwoosh! As the runes inscribed glowed, a curtain of light was created. 

Everyone prepared to meet the Seekers with a smile. The Fwagels especially had broad smiles.

Their Race loves doing what others find annoying. They take pride in it, even.

However, the next scenes did fit their smiles.

“HELP! Call for the Healing Hall! Someone!” Matt’s voice echoed.

He wore loose-fitting clothes and with him were bloodied comrades and the carcass of a still twitching Gnoll Knight—though it stopped after a couple of seconds.

One should question many questions upon seeing this, but Matt’s roar triumphed over such thoughts. His voice was loud and urgent as he held onto Lisa, who bled through the bite marks made by Gnoll Knight.

The Helpers from the Healing Hall of the Temple arrived with stretchers and Healers upon receiving a call from a Fwagel on the scene.

When the medical team arrived, everyone who was injured was picked up, but another confusion ensued. A gravely injured man was with them, but he was not on the list of the people who ventured with Matt.

Matt’s voice then echoed inside the room, “He’s a [Wanderer].”

Upon hearing the term Wanderer, everyone grew silent, and when the people outside heard it, a crowd quickly gathered.

Someone from the Wildlands had been found.