Omnix: Celestial system

Chapter 20: Close shave

As he was about to start talking, the dungeon started shaking, which indicated that the ten-minute lapse time had been completed, and it was now time for the return gate to appear.

Explain yourself probably, now, or else I will put you down!" He increased his strength on the Katana, to put some action to his words.

"Ok, sir. So as I was saying, I am an E-rank Hunter, or should I say was, as I have been reawakened!"

"Huh? You were reawakened? Pfft!" It seemed like my story didn't appeal to Sir Jack, which meant I needed to add more spice to make it more appealing.

"Well, the thing is, I just got reawakened a few weeks back during a raid with my squad that went wrong. You must have had it, right?"

"No, I didn't!" Sir Jack was serious now and twisted his blades in a fast and weird way that sent his daggers flying, and quickly pointed the tip of the sword to his neck.

"I don't have time for this, so you better give me a good reason not to drop you now." He said with a mean look.

Hal gulped as he struggled to swallow a spittle.

'Well, that didn't go the way I wanted.'

He raised his hands in a surrendering posture and started talking.

A heavy wind suddenly blew, and tornadoes started gathering dust and waste, as the return gate was about to appear.

Sir Jack looked around and pressed his sword closer to his neck; with a nod of the head, he urged me to talk.

Hal cleared my throat and started talking.

"While raiding a C-rank dungeon, I and my squad met bad luck, as there was a King-tier monster there. It killed a lot of Hunters, but they also dealt a lot of damage to it and finally killed it; now, during that whole crazy situation, I managed to reawaken, increasing my Life force, hence my current strength."

"I'm yet to re-register my name and rank with the 'MHO' which was why I used my card as an E-rank to participate in this raid with you guys."

"I'm sorry, it's my fault," He said with a sober look while staring at the ground.

The rumbling was getting more intense now.

Sir Jack looked at him for a moment, not saying anything, then after some while said

"Well, your story sounds plausible, and because of our current situation, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt, and look into your matter."

"For the main time, let's get out of this hell hole." He said while looking at the huge blue return gate that appeared in the air, just a few meters above ground level.

With that, he dropped his sword, but still maintained his sharp look.

Hal quickly ran to get his daggers and returned them to my inventory.

How he wished he could simply summon it from that distance, instead of running to get it.

Phew!

That was a close shave.

Almost lost a thousand dolls!

***

The moment they stepped out of the gate, they emerged back at the site, where they had left from.

Sir Jack quickly called the investigation department of the MHO', to inform them of the casualties that had taken place during the raid

A rush of cool fresh air hit Hal's face, replacing the hot, arid air of the dungeon atmosphere with the crisp evening breeze of Kansas.

The sky was already darkening, and the sun hung in the sky, a golden-orange ball casting off its glory by painting the clouds in hues of crimson and violet as it slowly receded into the edge of the world.

As Hal took in the beautiful view, Sir Jack and the rest of the Hunters stood to a side, as Sir Jack addressed them, comforting them of their loss.

It didn't take long for the investigation department to arrive.

Of course, Hal wasn't surprised, as the investigation department was famed for being the most efficient in the MHO.

The procedure to follow when we're casualties during a raid was rather simple. The remaining survivors simply had to report the Organization and let the investigators do their job. That was all.

The investigator for today was a good-looking youth in plain suits and glasses.

As soon as Sir Jack saw him coming, he walked up to him, and they met halfway.

"Hi there, I'm Davies from the investigation department." Davies greeted with a smile that reached up to his ears.

"Jack Spencer, good thing you are here on time, I would love to get my hands off this mess." Sir Jack replied indifferently.

"Yes, that's right. I promise not to waste your time, just tell me the number of dead Hunters and the occurrence that led to the situation, and we will be done here." Davies replied with the same ear-splitting smile.

"We lost three people, two D-ranks and a C-rank."

"Ok. What led to their loss?"

"The monsters in the dungeon were stronger than they were supposed to be, it was like fighting with monsters from a B-rank gate. There were even Advance-Tier monsters among them."

Davies, who was taking notes, raised his head as his brows creased, his eye frowning behind the lens of his glasses.

"So there was an anomaly in the gate, right?"

"Yes."

Davies's frown deepened, as he mumbled to himself.

"Hmmm, this is occurring more and more lately, what could be the course?" He mused.

Sir Jack who couldn't hear what he said, asked

"You saying something?"

"No, just that, lately, there has been a lot of anomaly going on in the dungeons; one can't help but begin to wonder if there's a pattern to it." He said as he flipped through his notes in search of something.

"Got it. Such an occurrence happened three weeks ago, at a C-rank gate just here in Kansas."

"Huh? Is that so?" Jack said.

"Yes. It says here that only three people made it out of the dungeon, two C-ranks and an E-rank."

Sir Jack's eyes lightened up as soon as he heard the words E-rank.

"Did you just say E-rank?" He asked with excitement in his voice.

"Yes, is there anything wrong?" Davies replied as he adjusted his glass, and continued staring at the note in his hand.

"Do you, by chance, know the name of the E-rank Hunter who was said to survive?"

"No, I'm I supposed to?" Davies asked with a slightly surprised expression.

As soon as he said those words, Jack gripped him by the collar and started shouting at him while shaking him around.

"Why won't you know? Isn't that your job? Why, you bunch of useless sh*t!" He cussed as he shook Davies around in anger.

"But sir, I wasn't the one assigned to investigate the issue, I have only a little information on it." Davies, who was being shaken around like a doll, protested as he spread his hands in helplessness.

"Then you get it for me, ok?" Jack replied with a loud voice and his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"Ok, ok sir!" Davies stammered as he replied.

"And contact me when you get it, ok?"

"Yes sir!" He said with fright.

The young man was shaken by Sir Jack's steel voice.