Curiosity kills a cat.

P.S.: Warning, lots of swearing in this one.

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Reed noticed Rei’s death-pale complexion; Reed was deeply taken aback by this sight.

“Rei, what’s wrong? Are you feeling ill?”

Rei shook her head slowly and pointed at the coffin shape-like rock.

Reed’s eyes followed Rei’s trembling pointing finger

Reed was confused and tilted his head in confusion, the coffin shape-like rock is still intact, and there were no cracks or people beside it.

“.…”

Rei stuttered some words out.

“Then, the rock… begun to m-move and the wh-whispers…. just now.

Rei crouched and covered both of her ears.

“H-hey.”

Reed crouched beside Rei.

Reed cautiously looked around taking the whole place one more, but nothing seemed to have changed. The rock was still on the throne there were no cracks, nor whispers he heard.

That’s strange he knew he has keen ears but he can’t hear the whispers.

“Strange.”

Reed looked back at Rei. Her head stayed, and as she held onto Rei’s jacket, her entire body trembled even harder.

Reed placed her hand on her back, patting it to comfort her.

“Rei…”

Then Reed picked up a strange but ominous sensation just now. The area was eerily quiet, so much so, It felt just too bizarre.

‘There was no monster guarding the place, we haven’t sprung any traps… and the treasure I doubt they will give all the for free….’

“ Give thy gold to the throne.”

In the meantime, Rashef’s voice continued on as he read the contents of the stone tablet.

“A prophecy will be revealed.”

Rashef took one of the gold coins, he walked past Reed and Rei, and walked toward the throne. At the foot of the throne, he placed one gold coin below it.

It was then. The door shook

Reed's eyes widen.

‘It can’t be!?’

He suddenly turned his head in the direction of the door and saw the two heavy doors slamming themselves shut.

Everyone was jolted back to their senses at the sudden explosion of noise. They stopped collecting treasures.

“What the!?”

“Where did that noise come from.”

The first person to notice the change in the situation was Reed. He first saw the door closed, and his sense of hearing could tell where the noise was coming from right away.

“It was the door!!”

As Reed shouted out those words, everyone shifted their gazes toward the doorway. The door they open was now firmly shut close.

“What the hell!?”

Everyone now was anxious.

One of the Hunter began cussing out as he took strides towards the door.

“This is bullsh*t! I-I’m out of here!.”

The Hunter glared at them. He spun his head around and angrily grabbed the door handle.

Reed heard something that causes her hair to stand.

“Wait! Don’t-”

“Huh?”

As the hunter turned his head. A giant spear pierced right through his entire body. It was all a sudden the hunter looked down at his body and saw his body now has a giant hole. He looked up at them and collapsed to the ground.

Rashef’s eyes grew extra large. As the whole world appears to be slowing down at him.

“AHHHH!!!!”

“WHAT THE HELL!?”

Hunters began screaming their heads off.

Reed can’t comprehend what happened it was too fast. he stand there his body refused to move at all.

A shadow knight began to manifest besides the corpse of the hunter. It reaches out for his spear and looked at them.

“What the hell is that!?”

“Where does that thing come from!?”

“We gotta fight against these things!?”

“T-that was fast, I-I didn’t even see a spear.”

Unlike others here, though, Reed knew the truth firsthand and decided to ignore it. He was stupid he began cussing at himself.

….Curiosity was what led them to this trap…

‘Didn’t Rei say it earlier?

“Then, the rock… begun to m-move and the wh-whispers…. just now. I-its telling us to leave.”

‘And the strange sounds when we first enter..’

A chill rapidly ran down his spine.

Reed slowly turn his neck around so he could look behind him. His eyes began to tear up.

‘.….’

His throat began to run dry.

He was met with a rotten entity of flames and blood. Two flaring eyes stared right at him with a burning rage, and another sparkle rushed from its abyssal mouth as it exchanges glances with him Four thin horns adorn its bulbous head, which itself is coarse as sandpaper. An intense heat escapes the creature's full nostrils set within an arched nose. Its bulbous head sits atop a towering, fibrous body. Bizarre tools or weapons dangle at its side, perhaps part of whatever those creatures call culture.

His surroundings began to slow down. The screams of the hunters become fuzzy. Reed was so focused on the beast right in front of him that entire his senses slowed down. It was then he noticed the beast begun to open its mouth. He can hear that something was coming. Something none of them withstand it. Reed turned towards the other Hunters and cried out as loudly as he could that almost he ruptured his own throat.

“DODGE!!!”

Almost at the same time, the monster lets out a fiery breath. Reed hurriedly carried Rei and run to the sides of the area quickly as possible.

The monster lets out a fiery breath aiming where Reed and the other hunters had been standing.

At the last second. He managed to dodge in time. The breath almost caught Reed. the breath missed the sole of his foot of Reed. That was definitely too close for comfort.

Unfortunately, not everyone was as lucky as him.

“AHHH!!!”

“NO!!!!”

Those who got caught up screamed in pure agony. Burning them in ashes.

Reed hugged Rei tightly.

“Holy sh*t!”

Those who remained freaked out.

Out of the twenty hunters, only 13 survived managed to survive.

They were shocked that the attack the monster used nearly wiped them all out.

“T-That almost got me.”

“Thanks, mister reed.”

The Hunters stared at Reed while nervously swallowing their saliva. Thanks to Reed’s warning they managed to escape the attack. Without his timely warning, they could imagine themselves burning and screaming in agony like the rest of the dead hunters. That thought sent chills down their spines.

Reed glared at the monster. Its eyes gave him a cold glare, but it did not attack.

‘Is it done?’

Reed looked underneath him. The trembling Rei tightly hugged him not wanting to let go of him.

Rei’s breathing was getting rougher by the second.

He can’t bear to see her like this, he glared once more at the beast and began to raise his body up clutching at his sword tightly, but then, someone grabbed his shirt and pulled him back down, hard.

“P-Please don’t leave.”

With a quivering voice, it was Rei. Reed was flustered but still did what he was told. Not long after Rone managed to scoot towards them.

“Yeah, it’s better to not get up.”

Brecc shouted at the remaining Hunters.

“Stay still!!!! Nobody moves!”

Rone looked around before focusing on Reed.

“That thing only kills if someone moves.”

He points at the beast who appears looking exactly at them.

“Y-Yeah.”

He raised his eyebrow.

“How did you know that the attack was coming?”

“I-I heard something was about to come out so…”

‘I didn’t know the world's weakest healer has keen hearing, with a reliable ear like that he could be an A Tier, such a shame if only his abilities were higher.

Just as Rone stared at Reed with a penitent expression, Reed scope around to check out the older Hunter’s condition.

Reed’s eyes opened wider after finding something pretty terrible.

“M-Mister Rone, your, your… leg?!”

Rone gaze falls upon his amputated leg.

“Don’t worry lad, I can still hold on.”

“B-But…why…”

“The burn was slowly engulfing half of my leg, so I had to amputate it to stop it.”

Reed can’t stop looking at Rone’s amputated leg.

“...”

Rone looked at Rei’s condition for a bit before he took off the T-shirt he was wearing, he wrapped up what was left of his leg.

“Ergh.” He silently lets out a pained moan.

“Hey young lad, could you heal me a little bit.”

Reed nodded his head. He raised both of his hands and directs his healing powers into Rone’s amputated left leg.

“It’s all good.”

Rone smiled at the young lad and relaxes his tense body slightly. Rone was able to somehow stop the bleeding for now.

He lets out a long sigh.

“.…”

Now that the first aid was over, Rone’s gaze became sharper as he studied his surroundings. Although the monster stopped raining out fiery breaths at them, their situation hadn’t improved in the slightest.

And like so, seconds continued to tick by.

A few Hunters began shedding tears.

“Just why do we have to suffer from this…”

“What have we done..”

Their patient was running thin of the other hunters. Reed agreed with that sentiment, though.

‘We have to get out of here.’

‘But, how can we get out of here, the only logical way to get out of here is to kill the beast. But if we move just a bit the beast will kill us in one breath. And if we got lucky and managed to evade or kill the beast there are shadow knights who are guarding the door.’

They will be a big problem if we don’t deal with the shadow knights. The movement of the shadow knights was so fast that they couldn’t see it with their own two eyes. Could he or anyone else open the door and escape before those shadow knights attacked them?

That sounded illogical. He ignored the warnings when he first enter this place, his ears ringing in a high-pitch tone, the voices that Rei heard. He was curious and greedy.

“Greedy!?”

When his thoughts arrived there, a strong sense of disharmony filled him up.

Greed intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth…

‘There is something…. we missed…’

Without a doubt, the answer to their salvation hid in that ‘something.’

It was then.

“Hey!? what are you doing!?”

Rone shouted at Mister Brecc, who was at the far end of the group.

“This is the logical way to get off here!!”

Brecc raised his axe

“Don’t Move!!!”

Shouted Mister Rone.

“Shut it!! you want me to stay here and wait!? that thing will start attacking us again!!”

While keeping low to the ground, Brecc put all his strength down to his legs and aimed his axe at the doorway.

“RAGH!!!!”

He was coated in a light blue aura, he buffed himself

“Fu*k.”

Rashef mutter to himself

Right then, Brecc kicked the ground and exploded forward.

Meanwhile, Reed hurriedly turned his head to look at the beast, just as he suspected, the eyes of the beast were fixated on the back of Mister Brecc. The monster behaved strangely.

The monster only looked at him not wanting to attack.

‘What the!?’

All hunters looked at each other confused about why the monster refused to attack. And then, a shadow knight emerges once again this time. It was three of them.

Brecc swung his axe down full force. But he was parried by a shadow knight who appears to be holding a jousting stick. The axe flew back hard nearly hitting Reed in the process, Reed luckily dodged out of the way.

Brecc was now unarmed not long after the Shadow Knight plunged his jousting stick right through Mister Brecc’s body. Brecc’s body was hoisted up and began sliding down at the jousting stick.

The Knight's helmet began to open and it revealed a giant mouth with sharp teeth.

The Hunters' eyes widen, they can only watch Brecc slowly die, at this point they were powerless not a single Hunter dared to save him.

“H-He..lp..”

Brecc in his half-dying state muttered.

“Hel-”

As soon as he said those the Knight gnawed on his head.

The female hunter screamed at the top of her lungs.

She must’ve developed a leak, she peed herself.

“AHHHH!!!”

The expressions of the Hunters froze, hard.

“Oh, my god…”

Mister Brecc who was alive a moment ago, was dead. His corpse was thrown right beside Mister Rone. Only a headless body could be seen now.

One of the Hunters with a weaker constitution began throwing up.

“B-Blergh!!”

Reed’s expression also crumpled.

As expected, if they escape they will be wiped out. Reed glances back to look at the monster. The monster is still looking right at them like a vulture ready to eat them if they begin to move.

‘why hadn’t it attacked?’

The Shadow knights only appear when someone approaches the door; the monster appears to attack us if we run toward it.

It was like they are playing with us with no instruction.

‘Wait a minute…’

Reed cautiously looked around to find something, he found a pebble.

‘If I threw this..’

He threw a pebble directly at the foot of the monster. The monster shifted its gaze on the pebble and lets out a fiery breath.

It’s like a mother protecting her eggs.

‘egg!? that’s it!’

He glanced past the monster and saw the coffin-shaped rock. Whenever we walk up close to it, it attacked us it was protecting that coffin-shaped rock. It was here that a piece of the puzzle found its place in Reed’s head. He began recalling the contents of the stone table that Rashef was reading not too long ago.

Their key to their safe escape from this boss room had to be buried within those warnings found in the stone tablets.

He racks up his brain recalling what the text carved on the stone tablet.

Rone looked at Reed who appears in deep contemplation.

“Hey lad, you doing okay?”

Instead of a reply, Reed placed his index finger on his lips. It was a sign asking for a bit of time to gather his thoughts.

‘if my thoughts are right…’

“Mister Rone, Rei, I need you guys to stay here.”

Mister Rone tilted his head.

“What do you mean..”

Reed slowly rose up.

Rei who appears still clinging to Reed tried to pull him back down, but this time Reed slowly lets go of Rei.

“Reed..”

Reed shook his head while carrying a determined expression.

Rone placed his hand on Rei’s shoulder and nodded.

“.…. Doesn’t look like he gave up on living”

Rone nodded his head.

Reed kept his eyes trained squarely on the monster and carefully stood up.

Almost right away, the eyes of the monster were fixed on Reed.

The monster snarled at him.

And as expected, the monster wasn’t attacking first. He slowly inched forward in the direction of the monster.

As expected the monster raises his claws, attempts of squishing him to death. If he hadn’t moved out of the, he will be been squashed like an ant.

“HAH!”

He nearly died just then. The moment he heard movement from the monster's arm, he thought he was going to die for sure. He somehow did dodge it, but his legs wouldn’t stop shaking from the fear.

‘Looks like my thoughts are correct…’

He learned something very important just now.

‘it’s only attacking someone if they approach the monster’

As long as he backed away, he could go anywhere he wanted to and the Monster’s eyes would remain still.

That was why Reed bet his life on proving this theory right just now and now, he was sure of it. He slowly backed away and return to where Rone and Rei were.

“You okay? You almost died there, lad.”

Rone looked at Reed with a concerned expression.

“Actually, I learned something important.”

“What is it?”

“Let’s-”

Reed was interrupted by a shocked voice coming from a hunter.

“What the!?

He looked around and saw some hunters begin to float.

“What the hell!?”

Rone and Reed soon followed suit.

“What!?”

Rei grabbed Reed as best as she could.

“Reed!?”

The monster shifted its gaze to the floating hunters.

“What’s going on!?”

The monster began to open its mouth preparing to release its fiery breath

‘This is bad fu*k’

End of Chapter 3