As they traversed through the dungeon, Rin seemed to be wandering aimlessly but he seemed confident with every step he took. Les was following him with a slight distance between them but he was finding it harder and harder to continue, his wounds he'd gotten from his encounter with Rin and from the dungeon were slowing him down. Rin glanced back at him, raising an eyebrow. "Are you alright? Are you struggling with your injuries." He turned around and walked back over to him, inspecting his wounds. "I thought it be fine given his rank." He mumbled to himself.
Les picked up on his words and lightly pushed him away, "I'll be fine. I'm a double S rank, I can handle this much."
"Sit down. I'm going to patch you up." Les went to refuse but Rin stopped him. "Look. I know your strong but right now you need to sit and let me treat you. The hypnosis took a toll on your body, your constitution is going to be weaker. Put your ego aside for now because I'm helping you." Les stared at him for a moment before obediently taking a seat.
Activating Skill: Staunching Wounds (C grade.) - This skill can barely be called a healing skill. It only helps with superficial wounds by stopping bleeding and can not help with aspects like fatigue and bone breakages. This skill is closer to first aid.
Rin reaches into one of his pockets in his coat, pulling out a pack of sugar cookies. "It'll help get your sugar up and sweet things are known for helping with healing from mental manipulation."
Les took the cookies from Rin, biting into one as Rin used his ability to cover his wounds. "Do you know where you are going?" Les asked, glancing up at Rin, his face seemingly gaining some color after being treated.
Rin shrugged. "If my theory is right we're going the right way."
"I have a map, I'd feel better if we follow a map." Les commented. Rin chuckled and shook his head.
"That isn't going to work, trust me. But if that will make you feel better, let me make you a better one." He pulled out a pen and paper before activating a skill. His eyes glowed a dull green as he elegantly drew across the paper. After a few moments he stopped and blinked a few times to get rid of the glowing green. As he looked down at the page he scoffed before handing it off to Les. "I knew it."
Activated Skill: Dungeon Map Maker (S-grade.) - The ability to instantly make accurate maps of a location. This ability it is limited to dungeons, if a map were to be made outside the dungeon it would be blurry and cause strain for the user.
Les looked down at the paper, his eyes narrowing in confusion. "Is it, moving?"
Rin nodded, taking a seat down beside him. "Just as I thought. Whatever monster is in this dungeon doesn't want us to leave so I decided to just go along with it. I doubt we'll be able to get out if we resist, the dungeon will just shift to stop us from escaping so I'm playing along. I'm going to defeat the monster. Then we can leave." Rin laid down on the grass, using his arms as a pillow. "We'll take a break for the day. It is getting dark and your wounds are worse than I thought. Rest up." Rin stood up and walked away, gathering up some materials for a fire and some padding for Les to sleep on. By the time he had gotten the damp wood lit Les was soundly asleep and the sun was slowly setting in the dungeon. He wrapped his coat around himself tighter and sat by the fire staring into the dancing flames.
"Rin? Do you need to sleep?" Rin snapped out of his daze, the sun had set and his breath was fogging up the air. Les was sitting up and looking at him in confusion.
Rin's breathing slowed as he realized where he was and he swallowed thickly before answering. "I'm fine, I can go days without sleep."
"I've heard low rankers are less tolerant to those kinds of things."
Rin shrugged, fastening his mask in place as a source of comfort. "I'm not your average C-rank." He stated, his voice muffled.
"You are C-rank?" Rin sighed and leaned back, looking up at the black sky as he nodded. "That's interesting."
Rin glared at him, he'd heard those words far too many times before. "I can assure you there is nothing more to gain from me other than my services as a tracker and collector." He looked away again, looking down at the map he'd drawn. "Go back to sleep. I'm not a fan of lugging around SS-rankers so if you don't want to end up being dragged around by my chain so get some rest and heal up your wounds."
"Alright."
Les was woken by a shifting in the ground as the dungeon changed. The sun was just rising and the sun was a pinky, orange hue. "Time to go." Rin stated, leaning over Les and offering him a hand up. Les took it, his wounds felt a lot better and it was tolerable to walk as they had scabbed over throughout the night. "We're getting out of this dungeon today." Rin supported Les as they walked through the dungeon, seemingly wandering aimlessly again.
There was silence between the two as they walked as Rin seemed consumed by his own thoughts. "What are you thinking about?" Les asked.
"The dungeon boss."
Les glanced at him, observing his furrowed brow and far off look. "What do you think it is."
Rin hummed in thought, "Well, its something that was slowly draining energy from you while using you to hunt others. I assume you got your teammates out by using what little control you had left to chase them out. This kept them from becoming monster food. And as I've walked around I've noticed a heat radiates from the ground and the monster manipulates the dungeon to keep its prey close. What does that tell you?"
"That the monster is too lazy to hunt it's own food."
Rin sighed in disappointment. "I'm sure you'll find out soon."
After a bit more walking they entered a large clearing where Rin walked Les over to sit on a rock to rest. Rin looked around the area, it seemed to be surrounded by rocky walls with the one entrance and exit slowly closing which Les hadn't even noticed yet "What grade do you think this dungeon is?" Rin asked.
"The gate is an S-grade"
"That isn't what I asked. Surely you know dungeon grades can fluctuate slightly but usually it's not enough to go past a letter grade. However this one appears to be at least a SS-grade despite the gate being originally identified as an S-grade. What kind of an impact do you think that would have?" Les went to answer but was stopped by a slow rumbling in the ground. "Oh, the time for speculation is over. Time to take on the dungeon boss."
Les looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. "I'm in no condition to take on a SS-grade boss."
Rin smirked at him, "As I said all you have to so is sit there and look pretty. I'll take it on."
"You are an C-grade." Les stated plainly.
Rin gasped with feign shock. "Really? No way." Les rolled his eyes while Rin chuckled, amused by his own joke. He fixed his mask in place and took a deep breath of the fresh smell.
"What's with the mask?"
"I have a strong sense of smell, I use this to stop it from effecting my work."
Les perked up. "What other abilities do you have?"
"That is a personal question. If you are that interested search me up on the hunterdex after I get you out of here." The ground beneath them rumbled as a deep growl surrounded them, echoing through the closed off area.
"The hell?" Les mumbled, standing up and drawing his sword.
Rin's lips curled up slightly and his eyes sparkled. "It's just what I thought."
"What are you talking about?!"
Rin put his hands to his face, feigning shock through his mask. "We've fallen for a trap." He stated before shaking with laughter. He taps his foot on the ground. "This dungeon truly is odd, there is probably only one monster and it is right under us."
"In the ground?!" Les yelled becoming increasingly more concerned.
"No. It is the ground. The entire dungeon is the monster." At that exact moment the ground underneath them split open and a gaping mouth was revealed. It widened and widened, intending to swallow up the whole area and eating up the thin layer of soil that was on top of its skin. Rin stared at the gaping mouth in fascination while slowly moving towards one of the walls and pulling out a few things from his bag.
"You knew this was going to happen?!"
Rin shrugged, "Somewhat."
"And you didn't tell me or try to stop it?!" Les yelled, trying to back away from the increasingly gaping hole.
Rin took out a few knives from his bag and stabbed them into the wall, making sure they were steady. "Nothing would have changed if I told you and I didn't intend to stop it. As I already said that I needed to kill the boss monster so I decided to let things play out. Now, climb up on the wall."
"Fuck you." Les grumbled but he still let Rin help him climb up onto the knife foot holds. Rin rolled his eyes, his eyes glowing a blue tone while looking down at the hole that had almost consumed the entire land. He waited until the last second making Les increasingly more worried before he finally jumped up and stabbed a knife into the wall, hanging limply with one hand while looking down at the monster. Les glared at him, "Now what smartass?"
"Smartass? I don't think I'm a smartass" He tilts his head in a bird-like way as he analyses his opponent, his mask adding to this look. "I'm going in."
"In?! Inside that thing?!"
Rin chuckles, "Why not? I don't see our current situation changing anytime soon. Besides, wouldn't you rather get rid of a smartass like me?" Rin shifts his mask slightly to show off his grin before planting his feet firmly on the wall and pulling his knife out of the wall and falling backwards into the mouth. "Stay put!" He yelled out as he fell into the abyss.