Chapter Eight #4
“I don’t know. Something is. Maybe this is another thing where the world is acting more real than I’m used to, but—no. We’re being watched.”
Rosie must have felt it too since her expression changed before I was even done talking. “This… is some serious killing intent.”
“Do you see anything?”
“I—I don’t. Do you?”
“No.”
We got closer until our backs were right next to each other. There, we checked every direction, but we couldn’t find whatever was watching us.
“Sev,” Rosie said. “I think—I think this can only be one thing.”
“What?” I asked.
“An invader.”
“That wasn’t in the game, so you’ll have to explain.”
“People—people aren’t the only ones who can enter dungeons. Sometimes, monsters from outside will enter them, whether it’s for food… or to grow stronger.”
“Yeah, that’s news to me.”
“Most monsters stay out of dungeons because of the danger, so… only the strongest in the area are brave enough to enter them.”
“Meaning whatever is stalking us is a serious threat.”
“Yeah. We should head back and—”
Laughter.
It came from four different directions around us. Loud, erratic laughter that was clearly not human but was somehow familiar.
“Hyenas,” Rosie said.
Yeah, that sounded right.
“They must be attracted to the skeletons? We used to deal with hyenas running off with bones back when I lived in the countryside.”
“Good theory,” I said.
“If they’re just hyenas, we can deal with them, but…”
“Yeah. A few stray hyenas probably wouldn’t risk their lives in a dungeon unless they’re really confident.”
The hyenas then proved just how confident they were as they came out from the shadows they were hiding in.
[Red-Spotted Hyena]
[Level 7]
Even though they weren’t dungeon monsters, they still had names and levels that showed up as they made themselves visible. Each one was about the size of a large dog with bared fangs ready to tear into us.
Yet, that imposing feeling that grabbed my attention in the first place didn’t come from any of them.
Instead, it came from the only monster—the only member of the pack that wasn’t laughing.
A hyena that was truly monstrous in size, standing almost as tall as Rosie, with missing patches of fur scattered across its hide and scars covering its face. A beast that survived countless battles before.
[Scavenger of the Cemetery]
[Level 14]
A monster with a unique name and the highest possible level that it could reach by killing monsters in the dungeon.
Experience gain was increasingly diminished with each level over the target a player was, and then no experience was gained from killing monsters five levels below.
With the toughest enemies and dungeon of the boss being level nine, that meant this monster mastered this dungeon already.
Its packmates were the same level as us, too.
Outnumbered, underleveled, and a monster I never encountered before.
I didn’t feel the usual excitement I felt in the dungeons. What I felt was probably closer to what most people of this world felt when going up against a monster.
Fear, and not the same kind of trauma-based fear from before.
“We—we messed up,” Rosie said. “We should have checked the guild before coming to see if there any reports of invaders…”
“We’ll worry about that later,” I said. Then I equipped my torch in my offhand and waved it around to see if that would have any effect.
The weaker hyenas backed off a little, but not their leader.
We were screwed if they all attacked at once. There was no way we would be able to defend against them all, and we had no form of AoE damage to hurt them all at the same time.
Rosie put away her mace, went into her inventory, and pulled out one of the bones dropped by the skeletons.
Then she tossed it.
The two hyenas closest to it ran off to chase it, snapped at each other for it, then ran off while carrying it between them. Then she threw a couple more bones for the others, and they did the same, running off content with the offered bones.
“They’re scavengers,” Rosie said. “They’d rather fight each other over scraps than fight for a fresh kills.” Unfortunately, the leader of the pack didn’t seem to care.
“Smart thinking,” I said.
“I wasn’t sure it would work… but thanks.”
“Better to act than to stand around and wait. I guess the big one won’t be happy with just a few small bones, though.”
“Probably not. I—I think it’d prefer a whole skeleton.”
“Yeah, probably.”
“We won’t be able to outrun it.” With that, Rosie took a deep breath and readied her mace. “It’ll run off after we prove we’re more trouble than we’re worth. It’s not a dungeon monster, so… it wants to survive.”
Rosie’s realistic approach was exactly what I needed to relax. She was right. This monster was basically just a wild animal. It wasn’t a respawning spirit in a dungeon who only existed for giving adventurers experience and loot. It was a real, living being with its own survival drive.
It didn’t want to die as much as we didn’t want to.
“I’ll pull it,” I said. “You ready to intercept it?”
“Ready,” Rosie answered.
I held my right hand toward the hyena, took a deep breath, and snapped my fingers.