The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

"..Go on, keep looking around," Aria instructed her spirits, wanting to approach this matter in a different way. She wondered what trap was inlaid behind these walls.

The body of muddy area definitely signified that the monster was something capable of fighting in such a terrain. The dungeon rooms would cater to each monster it held, so this one should be a creature that had high mobility even in this scenario.

After a few minutes of searching, the team found out that there really was no concrete clue on what their opponent was supposed to be other than the terrain.

Getting tired of waiting, Aria ordered her spirits to check the room carefully once more.

The thing was, they were locked inside this room, so there was definitely something here. There was no exit.

However, what the spirits noticed was that there existed a path that spanned across the room. It stretched from the side Aria was currently standing on to the opposite direction.

The placement made it seem like there was going to be something on the opposite side.

'Perhaps its a compartment that could only be triggered by direct pressure?' Aria theorized.

"Do we try it? Walking on the path? Maybe that will open something up.." Ha-young said.

"I will. But you guys don't have to, I can do it for all of us," Aria replied, offering herself up.

"What's with that attitude? I'm going to follow you," Reina said, objecting.

"It might be dangerous, so it's better if I test it out first,"

"So you're saying that what might be dangerous for us won't endanger you?" Elgin scoffed.

"No.. it's not that, but I would be able to live on," Aria could state this with confidence because of several reasons.

Her extreme reflexes, the knowledge and experience she possessed, along with the skill she had.

The skill that would put her in a vulnerable state, but let her endure one blow unconditionally. [Armor Break].

The last time she used it, things did not look that pretty until the condition subsided.

Although she would like to evade using it at all costs, Aria still couldn't deny the high possibility that she needed to eventually put it into use.

"Even so, we can't just let you go alone. We'll need to cross the road anyway if our objective was on the other side!" Ha-young exclaimed.

Aria pursed her lips. She was faced against four gazes that exclaimed their desire to follow suit.

Since the majority voted to go together, Aria entertained the idea. However, she would be placed on the very front.

Reina was second, Elgin third, Ha-young fourth, and Yan fifth.

The placements were needed because the path could only fit one person's figure.

"Then.. let's go," Aria began treading on the path.

Nothing triggered yet, but she had an extremely uncomfortable feeling. As if something was waiting upon her.

However, that might just be false alarm since she had repeatedly confirmed that there was no active entity residing inside.

The path was at least twenty meters long. In order to pave their ways through without falling, they chose to move at a decent speed- not too fast, and not too slow.

The turning point was when they stepped on the middle.

There, something unexpected came up.

It was a tentacle. A muddy, slimy tentacle that carried a rotten smell with it.

It rose up high to the air and aimed at the team, wanting to bash them.

To counter this, the first one to move was Yan, who immediately drew his sword and parried the blow.

However, since the path was thin and curvy, he found it hard for him to find the right balance and strength to counter the blow.

He deflected the tentacle to another direction, which made it slant sideways for a few seconds.

At this point, something needed to be done because they were clearly at a disadvantage with their steps.

"We're speeding up! The enemy showed up, have to get to the other side quick," Aria screamed as she ran to the opposite side. "Yan, help Ha-young!"

Yan nodded in agreement.

Reina and Elgin already rushed to the direction Aria went in, whereas Yan and Ha-young was still proceeding on the path because of the strained mobility Ha-young had to face.

Another tentacle rose up, separate from the previous one Yan had deflected.

The tentacle rushed to attack, and Yan stepped up to block that blow as well.

The two blows were specifically aimed towards Ha-young, it didn't bother to interject the members that ran away. It wasn't even interested in Yan, who openly fought its will.

It was only Ha-young. The injured and vulnerable Ha-young.

It was clear what the monster's intentions were. To attack the most vulnerable member.

Yan pulled back his sword to regain his balance.

Then, another gross tentacle launched an attack on Ha-young.

However, the tentacle's intent wasn't to grab the girl. It was to impale her right then and there.

The tentacle struck Ha-young's stomach, carving a deep hole through the girl's body.

Ha-young was put in shock after she received the blow.

However, the monster did not stop there. The tentacle, with Ha-young in tow, went away and raised the girl high up in the air. Then, it shook its own tentacle to release the bizarre hold it had on Ha-young.

After being shaken up wildly, Ha-young's body had no choice but to limply fall into the swamp.

A large hole was clearly present on Ha-young's abdominal area.

Ha-young had a small stature in the first place. One pummel of this tentacle was enough to almost tear Ha-young's body in half.

"H-heuk... Ah, wh-" Ha-young's mouth opened and close as blood started spurting out of her mouth.

At this point, unless a Godly healer was present on the scene, Ha-young's life was a goner.

It was only a matter of time before Ha-young's pained sounds would end. That she would flatline.

'Ah.' Aria's face darkened at the sight.

The instant turn of the situation brought her shock, but more than anything, it activated her battle senses.

All of her abilities perked up as she identified the danger as something she had to be extremely careful with.

'This is one of the reasons I don't want to team up.'

Other teammates. Some might be strangers that you got along with, but a solid team was usually comprised with extremely close personnel.

Aria wasn't even that close to Ha-young yet. In fact, she had a strife with the girl.

And yet, guilt was slowly creeping up into her heart.

Because the moment she realized what their opponent was and what it did to Ha-young, Aria knew that the girl's only path left was to die.

The girl she had saved, the one who displayed an innocent smile after realizing her mistakes, the one that had potential for the near future as long as she kept working hard- that same girl was now gone.

Snatched by the cruel rules of the world, the law of survival placed onto humanity one-sidedly by these random dungeons.

It was at this moment that Aria felt that it was more unfair than anything., After all, the humans did not do anything in particular that deserved such a change.

For Aria, fighting was normal. It was a necessity to survive. However, to the likes of Ha-young, it would be a sudden jump scare that appeared from the depths of hell, ruining their perfectly normal life.

Aria's heart was uncomfortable, but none of her emotions acted up. She had a superb control on her own body, having lived with it for an uncountable amount of years.

For her, who treaded upon the thin line of life and death to no end, she couldn't break down just because of a single death.

All of her emotions were suppressed.

"YAN! GET HERE!!!" Aria shouted.

Yan was still taken aback by the scene that had unfolded before him. The overwhelming amounts of feelings that struck him.

Hearing Aria's shout, his body was instinctively moving towards the end of the path.

The monster did not care about Yan's leaving figure. All it cared for was Ha-young's body, which was now firmly grasped by the tentacle.

The monster showed its main body. A pile of gunk and unidentifiable material that had a hole as its mouth.

The tentacle brought Ha-young's body and threw it inside the mouth.

Instantly, sounds of crunching could be heard.

Everyone winced upon hearing that.

Right now, none of Ha-young's voice could be heard. The girl was gone.

"Stay calm. She's dead, getting emotional won't do you any good," Aria warned.

As much as Aria hated it, she forced herself to swallow the disgusting scene that was Ha-young's slow death.

She was no longer within the realms of saving. If Aria still had her past powers, perhaps saving Ha-young would be a plausible plan.

However, she knew that within the team that entered this dungeon, not a single one would be enought to rescue Ha-young and her life.

Not even Elgin or Reina could pull Ha-young out of her doom. She was a goner.

Instantly after saying that, Aria was met with an erratic glare.

It was the usually silent and stoic Yan. This wasn't his first time working with Ha-young, so he regarded her as somewhat of a colleague. When the previous incident happened, he was already quite disturbed and wanted Ha-young to quit entertaining the idea of going on.

But the girl wanted to. She made an undying resolve.

And where did that resolve bring her to? This current scene. The smell of death was overflowing.

Yan was fuming, but in truth, he too knew that there was nothing they could do at this point.