Chapter 28 - [Mangrove Swamp II]

I was expectantly waiting for another surprise from these genuine rank B hunters. One showed an extremely powerful skill that took out tens of rank B monsters in a blink, although it seemed to be at the cost of her entire mana reserves

The Knights continued to solidly defend even when they had tens of monsters surrounding them, never letting a single one pass through to their squad members.

I wouldn't be waiting long to see the BOSS as half an hour quickly passed and the last [Princess] was killed. I waited to hear the furious tremors of a huge TITAN rushing through the swamp but instead just felt the entire swamp shake once with everything going silent after. It then shook once more a few seconds after

These were...just its steps? I was shocked while feeling the tremors that traveled through the murky waters. The TITAN was slowly making its way towards us in unhurried steps. This was something that would instill fear into the hearts of hunters, but looking at these veterans that had dived into this dungeon multiple times before, they had determined expressions while waiting for the boss

The berserker holding the huge broadsword spoke to me. "Continue casting your golden blades to disrupt it's attention when the fight starts. If you can aim them at its eyes, it'll reduce its combat power even if it can still sense us"

I nodded and prepared to face off against the huge beast on the horizon. It felt like a big mountain was gradually coming closer as the beast neared, its scales shining a dark green color, with its eyes shining a terrifying light. It looked at us a distance away as it's humongous jaws opened and an unnatural sound came out

OOOOOO!!!

The sound was grating to the ears as the huge alligator's mouth now showed rows and rows of glistening sharp teeth. Its upper jaw was much wider than the lower one, causing its teeth to be completely hidden when its jaws were snapped shut. But now that it was open...the sight was horrible to behold.

The man with the flaming sword continued with his directions "Spread out! Knights, keep it busy, and don't get eaten!"

The two Knights nodded as this wasn't the first time, and they took their positions to the left and right of the alligator. The flames on the sword the berserker was holding began to dance wildly before they exploded and went to...cover the entire body of the hunter

I was startled at this type of skill as the man in front of me had his body wreathed in flames. A howl escaped from him as he rushed forward to meet the TITAN head-on. There was a blinding expanse of light as the berserker was flung back right away, looking like a huge fireball.

10 golden blades had quickly appeared and half of them went towards each eye in a straight line. A pained sound rang out as the eyes of the humongous alligator were ruptured with puss leaking out

The berserker with dual blades took this chance to release two large sword lights that smacked onto the right side of the alligator, heavily injuring it. It didn't sit still as it turned to the side and the next thing we knew, a scaly tail twice our size was shining in green light as it whizzed its way towards us

The two Knights shouted as their bodies glowed and transparent shields of light appeared in front both of them when the tail struck

BOOM!

The land shook from the impact, but Knights stood their ground and the strike was stopped. Continuing with the momentum, a flaming berserker rushed in once more, spinning in the air as he constantly released fire blades that struck down on the head of the alligator

I cast [Smite] once again and had the 10 blades aim towards its open jaws when it was howling in pain, rupturing the softer skin inside. The remaining mage that was silent all this time finally acted, her glimmering staff pointed forward as an icicle the size of a car came down and pierced the already mangled head of the TITAN, cutting short its screams as blood and brain matter splattered all around

My blood was boiling as I watched all of these fantastical skills and couldn't wait to start amassing higher ranked skills of my own. I looked at the corpse of the disfigured TITAN and promised myself to run this dungeon at least tens of times in the coming days to see what rank B skills would pop out, and of course, the rare chance of a rank A skill dropping

The hunting squad members were cheering at the finished raid as a green crystal appeared. Lana came towards me and said "Not bad newbie! Those blades of yours allowed us to finish our raid in record time, our profits are about to increase!"

The rest of the members laughed as they gathered together and checked to see if anybody was injured. The mage that had cast the amazing looking skill where magma balls fell from the sky was up on his feet again as they collected the loot and prepared to leave the dungeon

I looked around me at the multitude of alligator corpses, and the even larger one by the side. I knew I could clear this dungeon if I came in alone, but it would take me a lot of time to take down hundreds of alligators and this huge beast, and I loved clearing dungeons as quickly as possible

My highest ranking offensive skill was C, and I felt like I needed a high damage rank B skill similar to these hunters for an even smoother BOSS run. The face of a chiseled man popped in my head as I thought about what to do next

After the [Core]s and an [Item] that dropped were collected, we placed our hands on the green crystal and were transferred to the outside world once more. Officers that were standing guard near the monolith were surprised and checked their watches when we came out. The dungeon was completed in under 3 hours this time around because of my addition

I took down the contact information of the rank B hunters as they invited me to go with them to celebrate. I thought about it as I recalled I hadn't really associated myself in any social settings for a quite a while, maybe this would be something good to do. The dungeon wasn't going anywhere, and a few hours of new places wouldn't hurt. I told them I'd catch up with them as I already planned to do something else at the moment and went towards the office of the Vice Admiral

Bypassing the many security points, I came back to the office filled with stacks of paper once again. Magnar looked at an antique clock on the wall before smiling at me and saying "Everything went well I presume?"

"Very, and I would love to continue to help, but I'm going to need a favor from you first"

The man's eyes perked up as he listened to my words. This time around, I wanted to look through the offensive rank B skills in the hands of the military that I could learn to make my run of the dungeon even smoother. Even if I was good enough to beat it now, being even more prepared was not an issue

I could've jumped into the dungeon and spent some time clearing it for rank B skills, but the drops were random so I would never know how long I'd be diving before a skill that I actually wanted to use drops

The lower-ranking skills were also quickly losing their effectiveness, as the rank F [Fireball] would not dent the scales of rank B monsters and wasn't used even once the entire dungeon dive.

"Just a single rank B skill? I can make something like that happen, let me call someone in"

I nodded at him and waited by the side. A minute later, a woman dressed in business wear came into the room and greeted the Vice Admiral

"Boss, here's the doc.u.ment you wanted."

Magnar nodded at her as he grabbed the thick book and handed it to me.

"This is the inventory of all rank B skills that haven't been distributed yet. Let us know which one fits your taste and we'll take it out of storage for you"

Magnar looked at the hunter in front of him that was intently looking through the inventory of skill books and smiled at the achievement of recruiting another excellent hunter.

Seeing how he almost halved the dungeon run, his help would continue to bring in even more resources in the weeks to come. He just hoped this hunter's addition along with everything else they were trying to do would bolster their strength enough to stand against what was coming. What they really needed were more of the peak rank A hunters, but they couldn't be cultivated as quickly

He was also looking favorably at the hunter in front of him as another candidate, as his power had skyrocketed just in the past week, maybe there were still more surprises from him