Chapter 204: Highest kill count wins

Adrian took deep breaths and mentally shut out every sound around him, ignoring the rainwater that was reaching his chest.

The space tear began to widen; everyone held their breath for fear that breathing too loudly would distract him.

Beads of sweat mixed with rainwater and soaked their faces as they watched the space tear widen, becoming large enough to almost fit one person.

Time passed agonizingly slowly. The patter of rain and the roaring sound of the coming flood rang sharply in the background, filling their hearts with tension.

"Enter!"

Adrian’s sharp yell was like music to everyone’s ears, and they all dashed into the tear. The last person to enter was hit by the force of the water rushing into the tear before the space tear crumbled, returning to normal.

Daniel let out a pained groan, feeling a numb ache in his shoulders and back from being slammed by the force of the water.

"Haaa... that was so close. I thought we were dead for sure. Adrian, your powers have never been so useful before." Marvin hugged the pale Adrian tightly, his voice laced with sincere praise and relief at surviving the disaster.

"T-Thank you," Zoey muttered shakily, her voice trembling from lingering fear.

Alex patted him lightly on the back. Though his words of thanks went unsaid, his expression was all Adrian needed.

"Here, eat. I will roast more for you later." Cole handed him three skewers of meat from his ring, showing his unique way of saying thanks.

Adrian almost flushed with embarrassment at the attention he was receiving, feeling it was too sappy.

"Alright, that’s enough. Check on Daniel; he seems to have been injured by that flood."

Adrian’s words drew their attention to Daniel, who was removing his shirt to check his wound.

He paused under everyone’s sudden gaze before continuing to remove his shirt with a grimace.

"Help me check if there’s an open wound on my back," he muttered and turned his back to them, only to hear gasps of horror from behind.

"Is the injury that bad? Why is everyone quiet? Is there something on my back?!"

Daniel began to panic at their prolonged silence and heated gazes. He impatiently tried to use his fingers to reach his back and feel for the injury when Marvin’s words stopped him in his tracks.

"Ew! It’s wiggling! It’s alive. Ugh!"

Marvin’s voice was filled with disgust as he watched the tens of green worms latched onto Daniel’s skin.

Zoey felt her skin prickle at the sight of the insects, and she quickly averted her gaze, her whole body breaking out in goosebumps.

"What’s on my back?!" Daniel roared, his voice trembling slightly, and he couldn’t help but set his back on fire.

Flames shot from his hands and spread across his back. A hissing sound filled the air, followed by the screeches of the burning worms as they died, turning into ashes.

The sound sent a chill down Daniel’s spine, and he broke out in a cold sweat amid the burning sensation on his back. Though he couldn’t be burned by his own flames, that didn’t stop him from feeling the heat.

Everyone felt their backs prickle uncomfortably and began to search themselves, scared that a worm or two might be on them.

Zoey walked farther away from them, then removed her clothes to thoroughly check herself. Feeling unsatisfied, she asked her beast to check her back as well.

"Did you see anything?"

Zoey received a growl in response; her cheetah shook its head at its master.

She quickly changed into clean clothes, her tense back loosening, but the hairs on her body were still standing.

"What a relief. Ew! I can’t imagine those worms wiggling on my body." Zoey’s voice was laced with relief, while her face contorted in disgust at the thought of one of those worms crawling on her.

She didn’t return to where they had gathered, giving them time to dress again. She didn’t want to see what she wasn’t supposed to.

A flash of Daniel’s well-defined abs lingered in her mind for a second longer, and she quickly shook the image from her mind.

"Are you guys done?!" Zoey called out, reminding them of her presence. She dared not look and waited for their response.

At the moment, Adrian and Alex were in the middle of burning the worms off their skin. One was topless, while the other was trying to pull off his pants.

"Wait a bit longer!" Marvin answered for them, his face scrunched up in disgust and all his hair standing on end in goosebumps at the sight of the wiggling creatures.

"Call me when you guys are through!" Zoey shouted back, then leaned against the cave wall to wait. She hoped the dungeon would give them a breather before spawning monsters to attack them.

Luckily, she got her wish because minutes passed without any strange monster lunging at them. This moment of peace gave the men enough time to tidy themselves up.

They discarded their wet clothes into their rings and put on clean, dry ones. Unfortunately, they couldn’t shower, or it would have been more comfortable.

"You can come out now!" Alex called out to Zoey, pleased with her action of making her presence known instead of assuming they were fully clothed.

Zoey stepped over, her gaze briefly falling on the pale Daniel, and instantly knew he had gotten to see the worms. She felt sorry for him. She couldn’t imagine those worms stuck to her skin as they sucked on her blood.

"What part of the dungeon were we sent to?" Cole asked. He kept feeling that their surroundings were a bit familiar, like he had fought here before.

They all turned to Adrian for answers, but he remained silent, his expression thoughtful as his gaze darted around the rocky ceiling covered in algae plants.

"Hmm. I think it’s the inner area, where we fought those swarms of digger moles. SS+ leader with C-ranked underlings."

Adrian’s words drew gasps from the group. Everyone felt a chill run down their spines, and their earlier gratitude toward him faded by seventy percent.

"Dammit. We asked you to take us away from danger, not to throw us into a hellish one. We should leave here before those damned moles know of our presence or this dungeon spawns new ones." Daniel’s voice was torn between frustration and fear of his words coming true.

He didn’t need to tell them twice. They all hurried out, their steps fast as if the said monsters were chasing them.

But when you avoid something, it will likely pop out just to force you to acknowledge its existence.

"Rumble... Bang!"

The sound of the ground being drilled through forced everyone’s expressions to change, and their speed picked up. However, the clicking and shuffling sounds beneath their feet became louder.

Zoey felt a hair-raising sense of danger and quickly dodged to the side, only for a monster to shoot out from the ground, its claws aiming for her.

"They are here!"

Daniel’s words were like an harbinger of doom. Because as soon as those words left his lips, moles shot out from the ground, surrounding them.

Countless beady black eyes stared hungrily at them, their claws scraping the ground as their long, sharp yellow teeth gleamed under the blue crystal lights.

More moles came out from the walls and the ground, their beady eyes hair-raising, filled with greed and hunger.

"Sigh... let’s do it like last time. The one with the highest kill count wins and has the right to order the rest for a month."

Alex’s solemn words instantly dissolved the tension in the room, turning Zoey’s initial fear into disbelief.

She turned to them with her jaw agape, stunned by the battle intent and competitive gleam in their eyes.

Zoey blinked, feeling the dim lights were getting to her, making her see double.

"Tsk... Daniel, don’t be a sore loser this time around. You hid away from Cole for a month because he won last time." Marvin clicked his tongue, his voice laced with an undisguised jab at Daniel.

His words were infuriating but true, causing Daniel’s expression to darken, but he didn’t dare refute them.

"This time, I’ll win. Cole won the last time because of his healing ability," Adrian muttered, clearly still not convinced about that last competition.

Cole gave him a sidelong glance and remained silent. He was too lazy to trade words with a defeated opponent.

His disregard stung Adrian, and his eyes blazed with fury.

"Then let’s see how you’ll win again. I’m a lot stronger than before and won’t hold back." Adrian warned with a dangerous edge in his voice as he took out his weapon, absent-mindedly placing his beast egg into the ring.

"Huh? The beast egg can enter the space ring?" Adrian muttered, his voice filled with surprise. He had only tried it as an afterthought and didn’t expect the ring could actually hold it.

His words drew everyone’s attention, and they quickly tried putting their beast eggs into their rings. It actually worked.

"How come? Didn’t that tower examiner say it couldn’t hold living things?" Alex asked, baffled, as he scrutinized the ring on his finger, completely forgetting the moles eyeing them.

The monsters felt ignored. Their presence sent fear into the hearts of dungeon explorers. They had never been so blatantly ignored in their lives before, and they were truly angered, wishing to crush these hateful humans to pieces.

So, they lunged forward with a sharp screech.