As Lex suspected after seeing the empty treasure boxes, there were people in this level.

He sent his shadow clones to only scout this time, without hunting nor killing and within 1/2 hour, they had found 4 enclaves with humans.

The shadow clones the encountered giant mutated beasts that lived and bred in the ruined city, but left them alone so as not to be detected.

Lex watched from the shadows as a group of 7 human hunters stalked mutated humanoid fish, each standing over 2 meters tall, with an oversized head, bulging eyes and sharp piranha-like teeth.

The human hunters wore common clothes, with two of the females wearing jeans and T-shirts, while another wore office wear consisting of a blouse and skirt. The men wore shirts and pants and some still wore their jackets.

3 male hunter directly fought the mutated fish men with their swords, each glowing a different color. Another male hunter fought with a large flaming axe. One of the female hunters fired lightning arrows and the hunter in the blouse and skirt casted buffing spells. While all that was going on, the other female hunter in jeans moved swiftly between the fishmen, stabbing them with her dagger.

"Alright! We'll have meat tonight!" the female hunter said, starting to cut off pieces of meat

"Well done all of you. Thank you for your help" a voice said from above

"Huh?" the hunter looked up

"Who are you?" one of the other male hunters asked

"You hunt in our territory and don't know who we are? My boss would be angry hearing that" the man said, standing above them from the remnants of a building. He was very tall and muscular

"Who...who's your boss?" one of the male hunters asked

"My boss is the kindest and most wonderful man. Feeding the starving masses, protecting the weak, he wishes to unite all the forces in her for the common good. Surely you've heard of the great and mighty Hogan" the muscular said

"Hogan? That bastard took my wife!" the man said

"Ah ah ah. Allow me to differ. Your wife came and seeked protection from my kind boss Hogan. It is you who are a failure of a husband! He's been feeding her, clothing her, and keeping her company at night while her useless husband can hardly feed himself. Who is she? I've probably kept her company too" the man laughed

"Fuck you!" the hunter yelled angrily

"Well... It looks like our peaceful negotiations have broken down. I thank you in advance, for donating your food and weapons to our community" the man said as suddenly over 50 men appeared from the building tops, all wielding glowing weapons. 

The man jumped into the air, swinging a warhammer and landing on the ground, smashing it onto the floor, causing a minor earthquake. 

The area shook as hunters struggled for their footing and the assailants swarmed like hyenas.  

The hunters fought hard, but were severely outnumbered and had inferior skills and weapons and were defeated easily.

The muscular man stood over the 4 male hunters, all badly wounded and on their knees

The women were being held on their knees to watch the execution, with their hands held behind them while their captors raped them.

The male hunters faced them and looked anguished seeing their teammates getting raped in front of their eyes.

"So... see how well we treat them? If your wife is pretty, she would probably be well loved too. If she's ugly... well, she would be used as bait" the man laughed

"Too bad, you won't find out either way" the muscular man said as he swung his warhammer, smashing the hunter's head like a watermelon

"Nooo!" the 3 female hunters screamed.

"You'll go to hell for this!" the hunter nearest spat

"You first!" the muscular man laughed as he smashed his head too

The third man peed his pants as the muscular man approached

"No... please. I'll do anything! I'll be your slave!" he yelled

*Smash* his head was smashed without mercy

"Not interested in men. And I hate cowards" the muscular man said, turning to the last male hunter

By now, the 3 females being raped were crying in despair

The last male hunter gritted his teeth and spat on the ground

*Smash*

"That's better. A brave hero. I prefer executing brave heroes" the muscular man laughed

The group brought the female hunters, who had been stripped by now back to their base

Unbeknownst to them, the shadows followed them back to the base.

Among them, Lex's eyes were burning with fury.

He didn't plan to rescue the hunters, because he didn't know them now owed them anything

And although he had shadows all over the level scouting, it was faster to follow this Hogan's men back rather than check out each human settlement.

Morrigan's Harlots had already scouted out one of the settlements that had lots of captive women. It was the largest settlement on this floor so far. But nobody matched his memories of Jasmine was there. 

However, these bunch of murderers seemed to be heading towards that settlement, and Lex wondered what had happened to Jasmine. Was she already dead?

They entered a large building that looked like an old shopping center. There were guards armed with glowing melee weapons and bows at all the entrances. 

Inside, the muscular man led the others who were carrying the 3 females into the main area, where a large man sat on a stage on the concourse with two naked women sitting between his legs servicing him. The other men carried in the dead fishmen. 

"Boss, look what we found!" the muscular man showed his catch for the day

"Good job Bruno. I see you guys have already enjoyed these girls. No matter. Clean them up and I will widen them up to my tastes, he said, as the two naked women sucked and licked his gigantic cock. 

Lex's shadow clones that came with him flooded all the shadows there, filling up every nook and cranny, waiting for orders. These were a hundred of the Harlots that were here with him. The rest were still exploring and scouting the floor all around. 

He looked around, seeing all the women in what was a mattress store, all tied up and looking miserable. They looked like they had been raped and abused repeatedly and their eyes were lifeless with a hopeless look of despair. 

Lex searched all the naked women, and couldn't find Jasmine there!

"I thought they said that this Hogan took her..." he mumbled "... did something happen to her?" he suddenly frowned.