The Goddess Of War
Chapter 44 - Illegal Raid

The situation inside the Dungeon was extremely dark. There was only a hint of light there coming from the Dungeon Gate's magic wave.

The cold and humid air accompanied by a quiet atmosphere, made the Dungeon's state very gripping.

The raid team could only hear the sound of their breathing sounding heavy due to the nervous feeling that was with them.

When he had just arrived inside the Dungeon earlier, the team captain heard the sound of their feet hitting the floor, echoing around him. He guessed that they were in a cave.

The raid team still did not move. The team captain ordered everyone to sit crouching, while he turned on the magic energy portable lamp.

The team captain lifted the lamp over his head and monitored the situation around them.

As the team captain nodded his head, some people picked up the lightstick and threw it in various directions until now the place became brighter.

By giving the code pointing to 5 different directions, the 5 Tank-class Hunters rushed off in those directions without speaking a word.

15 Minutes later, the five Hunters were back on their team.

“Aman..”.

"Safe..”.

"No monsters 50 meters ahead.”

As the five Hunters had already said the situation as far as they had just been monitoring, the team captain began to speak.

“Seeing from the state of this Dungeon, it seems like the monsters that are Dungeon dwellers are giant rats or predatory spiders.” Said the man brewok who was the team captain. He was a D-ranked Mage-class Hunter, the highest among other Hunters who averaged E and F-ranked.

“I hope not poisonous spiders or poisonous snakes.” Say one of the Hunters.

“No, I did not find any traces of spider webs or traces of snakes.” Sahut one of the Tankers who was in charge of monitoring. His statement was later justified by the other four Tankers.

“Good. Let's hope the Dungeon dwellers are giant rats because the smell of this cave is like rat shit.” Said the team leader.

Normally, the Dungeon Dwellers with E-levels like where they were at the moment were those three monsters.

To the team leader's knowledge, fighting giant rats was easier than fighting poisonous spiders or poisonous snakes, especially since they did not have a Healer-class Hunter.

“Remember our main focus is simply searching for magic crystals and magic plants or the bones of dead monsters. Try to avoid fighting monsters as much as possible.”

Hearing the words of the team leader, Anna felt a little pleased. “It turns out their greed level is not too high. They still think about life.” Her thought.

Since there were 5 separate goa hallways, the captain divided the team into 5 small groups, with each team carrying a Tanker.

The team captain approached Ren and spoke to him. “You can protect your girlfriend and let her run first if bad things happen?” Asked the man with a serious look. He was not joking or teasing the young man.

Ren hesitated to answer. However, as she was afraid that Anna's lies would be revealed and would later be scolded all out, she ended up nodding in response.

Seeing the doubt on Ren's face, the team captain instead became doubtful. He then gave the order.

"You two will team up with me.”

He then looked at the entire members and handed out 1 watch for each team.

“If there is danger ahead, immediately return to this place, whatever happens. And we also have to remember. Although it's still safe to mine, keep coming back here before three hours. You guys understand?”

They all nodded in response.

The team eventually split into 5 different directions.

•••

The team led by the man brewok, consisting of 4 people, finally found the magic crystal after walking for almost an hour.

He ordered the Tanker to stand guard while he himself went to check on the situation around them.

After 10 minutes passed, the man finally returned and invited Anna and Ren to mine the magic crystal.

“Alright, safe state. Let's start mining.” Men's greeting brewok.

Anna and Ren pick up their mining gear hanging next to the large backpack they carry. Then, together with the brewed man, they began to hoe at the magic crystals embedded in the floor and walls of the cave.

While continuing to hoe, the bewok man noticed the ‘lover pair’ and smiled when he saw the two young men looking hoefully.

“Are you guys collecting fees to get married?” Ask the man, tease them.

“Ap-.. no...” Sahut Ren stuttered and made the direction of his punch on the crystal chunk so missed.

While the Tanker who heard that laughed. The tanker was pacing back and forth checking the state as long as the other three were busy mining.

“I hope you two can get along well until you really enter adulthood.” Men's greeting brewok. “How old are you two?”

Ren was a bit annoyed by the questions, while Anna smiled and found the conversation amusing.

“Eighteen.” Anna and Ren then, almost simultaneously.

“Ckckck. Very great.”

The three Hunters continued to hoe at the magic crystal, while the Tanker would start collecting the chunks when the crystal had already started to pile up.

•••

After half a day of hoeing, finally the thing that Anna was so worried about, arrived.

Anna could feel the magic energy moving towards them.

He then stopped his activities and stood upright while stretching his body.

Thinking the girl was exhausted, the team leader invited them to rest.

“We rest first.” Bring the team leader.

They rested and unpacked the contents of the bag to take their respective drinking bottles.

“There are many rations and drink bottles. I love working with this black market team. If they give three days time, they provide a stock ration that is really enough for three days.” Said the man brewok praising the black market team.

“I also like working with them, very different from the previous black market team that provides rations only for half of our raid time.” Tanker Sahut.

“Yes. We really have to skimp on it at that.” The man remembers the incident.

While they continued to chat, Anna grew more agitated as the man of the brew who was the highest ranked Hunter among them, not yet aware of the coming danger.

"D-ranked Hunter is still lousy in detecting magic energy?"

Anna then approached Ren and sat right next to him. Because she wanted to talk to Ren secretly, Anna leaned her head on the man's shoulder.

Ren is shocked and tries to avoid Anna by shifting away from her seat, but fails when Anna flanks her hand.

“Shut up a minute.” Pinta Anna in a half-whispering voice.

Hearing that, Ren finally obeyed him. She thinks the girl is tired or sleepy and Ren ends up telling her.

“You're a Mage?” Ask Anna then.

“Y-yes..” Ren replied with a slightly trembling voice. He was a bit nervous because there was only the first time there was a woman who was so close to him besides his brother.

“What is your expertise? A fire? Ice? Debuff?"

“Es..”

“Hmmm ok..” Sahut Anna's.

He knew Ren was a very persistent man when fighting and surviving the admission exams at the Academy. It just so happened that Ren's team was taking the test before his team, so Anna could watch Ren's action.

Therefore, he was very regretful if the man should die in this place. Ren was one of the 18 prospective students who successfully passed the final Academy admission exam that he witnessed this morning having struggled very persistently and helped his teammates, his team-mates, although unfortunately in the end only Ren himself managed to graduate from the 10 members of his team.

Moreover, from Rin's story that he heard, they only stayed together because both of their parents died from the big Dungeon Break 11 years ago.

For that reason when hearing their conversation on the phone who wants to conduct an illegal raid, Anna is really worried about the man and Rin who will later be left alone if bad things happen to her sister while following an illegal raid.

Anna raised her head from Ren's shoulder to turn to the team captain.

“He really is very close. Why hasn't the man noticed?” Anna was getting upset.

“Hahaha Tanker said as he realized and saw the girl in the hat sitting leaning on Ren's arm.

The man also laughed.

However, the man's laughter vanished instantly, as he realized an enormous amount of magic energy, to him, was coming close to them.

His body even trembled.

The man brewed directly inserted the magic crystals they mined into his backpack as quickly as possible, while ordering his 3 members to clean up their mines.

“C-fast set-up.”

The tanker was silent for a moment before finally understanding and helping to stuff the mined produce into the backpack.

While Anna also jumped up and cleaned up the mine as soon as she saw the man, she finally noticed the monster's presence.

The man stared at Anna who was quickly stuffing the magic crystal into the backpack. He then spoke with a stammer.

“You don't need to help. Run... just run...” The man orders a crack while looking at Anna.

“Let's go together." Sahut Anna is actually worried about her three colleagues.

“We have to carry this. There's a bill to pay on the black market team. You go fast!" The berewok men's orders forced.

Anna shook her head, regretting the moment she saw the man still thinking about his responsibilities when his life was in danger.

But time is very narrow. Anna then pulls Ren's arm, which is still inserting a magic crystal, into her backpack. “Come with me.”

“What? You run first.”.

“Quick...! We're late..” Anna said as she looked at the figure of the Minotaur walking with half a run approaching them.

The tanker and the man turned to look at Anna and at the same time they fell down and dropped the magic crystal in their hands and backpacks.

“Mi-minotaur?!”

"Wasn't this Dungeon level E?"

"The black market team must have mis-measured the magic energy of the gate!"

Suddenly their faces turned pale. Minotaurs were monsters that were usually in Dungeons with level C.

For ordinary Minotaurs themselves, they are usually ranked C if adjusted to the level assessment of a Hunter.

Therefore, it was certain that the Minotaur was not an opponent they could face. And again, they were currently only four.

“K-we will die..” The muttered man berewok who was trembling in fear.

•••