Chapter 49: Debt
The second Wolfthrall Ruler’s jaw opened impossibly wide, the dark, corrupted mana pulling down from its anchor to form the absorption field. The remaining smaller wolves surged forward in a tide of bone and rotted claws, sensing blood.
Hide didn’t try to dodge. He didn’t reach for another Mana Blast right away.
Instead, the pure, unadulterated thrill of the fight took over. The Abyssal Scale Carapace reacted to his unrestrained intent.
The black scales, which had been fractured and chipped, suddenly surged with new life. They thickened, interlocking with a sharp, metallic sound that cut through the growls of the wolves. The scales crawled rapidly up his neck, rising in thick bands that covered his mouth and nose, turning the lower half of his face into a smooth, featureless helm.
Across his forehead, the last bare strip of pale skin vanished. Small, hard plates converged at the center, stacking and pushing outward into a jagged protrusion. Then another, and another.
Eight points in total — short, brutal spikes of dark metal curving back just enough not to obstruct his vision.
A crown.
He was no longer just a boy wearing armor. He looked like the boss of the dungeon.
While that happened, Hide summoned his system window. He had leveled up twice and had 10 non allocated points.
He put five directly into strength.
Strength: 10 - 15
He put the other 5 into Agility.
Agility: 10 - 15
He exploded off the pillar with the almost double agility of he newly enhanced body, entirely ignoring the smaller wolves. He drove his shoulder straight into the Wolfthrall Ruler’s chest just as it prepared to fire.
The impact shattered the beast’s ribs. Hide grabbed the edges of the broken bone, his reinforced gauntlets digging deep into the marrow, and pulled with everything he had.
The chest cavity snapped open.
Hide formed a concentrated point of Abyssal Flame in his palm and drove his fist directly into the exposed inner bones of the chest, breaking the spine.
The beast fell to the ground useless, but not for long... its spine was coming back up to join back, Hide didn’t let it. He forced open the beast’s jaw and snapped it in two.
The anchor was exposed, so he simply burned it.
The beast’s body seized violently, the dark mana sputtering out before the massive wolf collapsed into a pile of lifeless bones and heavy iron chains.
[Calamity Beast (Wolfthrall Ruler) — Eliminated]
Experience points gained: 1,000
Hide didn’t stop.
He spun, catching the first lunging minion by the throat and crushing its skull. He kicked the legs out from under a second, stomping its head into the flagstones, and drove his armored elbow through the ribcage of a third.
Seven, eight wolves fell in a matter of seconds, their bodies breaking against the sheer, overwhelming force of the crowned beast in the center of the hall.
Another cluster of notifications followed. But the most important among them was the one that came at the last.
[Level Up]
Level: 7 → 8
Exp: 100 / 1900
Level Up reward has been added to inventory.
Hide was busy with the fight, but then suddenly, the heavy iron doors at the entrance of the citadel exploded open.
The sound was like a cannon shot.
Hide froze, his armored hands still buried in the neck of a smaller wolf. He turned his head, the blue light of his eyes narrowing into thin slits through the helm’s visor.
Three figures stood framed in the doorway.
They too frozen in shock and staring back at him, s if they had seen a ghost. Well, they had.
Rol, Hues, and Shigo stepped into the hall. Rol’s eyes, glowing with the grey light of his talent, still working and immediately locked onto the scene.
He saw the crater and the hundreds of broken bones. And in the center of it all, bathed in the flickering orange light of the sconces, stood a humanoid entity covered head to toe in pitch-black scales, wearing a jagged metal crown.
Rol gulped hard.
’A humanoid Calamity Beast’, Rol thought, the sheer oppressive pressure the dark mana in this place tickling his senses. ’Is... he the Dungeon master?’
But on more careful look, he recognized the mana from before. His pupils shrank.
It was the same mysterious person he had seen back from the door, picking up bones.
’Shit! Aren’t they here too fast.’ Hide dropped the dead wolf. He didn’t want to get entangled with or more accurately, deal with professional Exterminators right now.
Without a second thought, he bolted toward the stairs.
Rol drew his heavy-caliber sidearm and fired three times in rapid succession.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Halt!" Rol shouted.
The bullets struck the black scales on Hide’s back, sparking harmlessly off the Carapace and dropping to the floor. Hide didn’t even break his stride. He leaped over the lowest steps, taking the stairs three at a time.
The remaining smaller wolves, drawn by the loud gunfire and the sudden appearance of fresh prey, instantly abandoned Hide and swarmed toward the entrance.
Rol cursed, forced to turn his gun on the incoming tide of bone as Hide disappeared up the stairwell.
Hide reached the first floor. The corridor was wide, lined with thick, decorative stone pillars holding up a vaulted ceiling. He let the scales from his face retreat back and scanned the area for Fuu.
He found him almost immediately.
Fuu was pressed desperately against the back of one of the pillars, holding his breath, his eyes squeezed shut.
Hide stopped and stared, the corner of his mouth twitching. The pillar was maybe a foot and a half wide. Fuu, who was considerably larger than that, had both of his shoulders, half his torso, and one entire leg sticking out from the sides.
"What are you doing?" Hide asked, his voice deep,, but controlled.
Fuu jumped, nearly falling off. "Hiding! They will report us for this!"
"The pillar is smaller than you," Hide said flatly. "You’re not hiding from anything. You look like a fat tree trying to hide behind a stick. Move."
He grabbed Fuu’s shirt and dragged him down the corridor. They ran through the dark hall, the echoes of Rol and his men fighting the wolves ringing faintly from below.
They walked in silence for a few minutes.
Fuu looked at Hide’s back. He thought about the events that had undergone since they entered this dungeon. He thought about how he had bullied Hide, mocked him and treated him like absolute garbage in front of everyone.
What had blinded him back then? Was he so blind to look at himself, he was the garbage. A fat failure.
But what could he do, he had always been laughed at because of his teeth, so when he awakened and got a D-Rank talent, he could not help but use it to hide the fact of who he was.
Then he remembered how, just minutes ago, Hide had thrown himself back into a pit of monsters to save him when he had absolutely no reason to.
Fuu stopped walking.
Hide heard the footsteps stop and turned around, his blue eyes exhausted. "What now?"
Fuu’s bottom lip trembled. He swallowed hard, his pride completely breaking. The tears started falling, hot and fast, tracking through the dirt and blood on his face.
"Thank you," Fuu choked out, his voice cracking. "I... I was a piece of shit to you. I looked down on you. I bullied you. And you still saved my life."
Fuu wiped his eyes with his sleeve, sobbing openly now, the sound pathetic. "I’m so sorry. Thank you, Hide. Thank you so much."
Hide stood there, shivering slightly in the cold, looking at the crying boy. He didn’t smile or offer forgiveness or tell him it was okay.
"You owe me two thousand credits," Hide said, his voice completely deadpan.
Fuu’s sobbing hitched. He froze, a tear literally hanging off his chin. "What?"
"The potions," Hide said, turning around and continuing. "They were a thousand credits each. You’ll pay me back as soon as we get out of here. That’s the only reason I am keeping you alive."
"..."
They walked a few more steps, and finally reached the end of the first floor.
The corridor finally ended at a massive stone archway that opened to the outside. Beyond it lay the cold, swirling fog of the dungeon’s upper atmosphere, and stretching out into the dark was one of the intact lower chain-bridges.
It connected the left citadel directly to the massive, terrifying black walls of the main castle.
The wind howled across the gap, biting and freezing. The heavy iron links groaned under their own weight.
Hide stepped onto the metal grating of the bridge.
Fuu limped onto the bridge behind him, clutching his chest, which had healed after he consumed the another potion hide gave him.
Just as they took their first steps over the bridge. The whole goddamn place shuddered again. Hide and Fuu caught the metal links to make sure they were still standing, because the fall was... well who knew how many kilometers large.
CREAKKK!
THUMP!
Opposite to them, on the other side of the bridge. A door opened in the castle wall, revealing a darkness so heavy that it made Hide feel a shudder through his body.
That was the gate to the Dungeon Master!