Surviving as a Broken Hero

Lien looked somewhat nervous as we approached the camps, visibly seeming to look around for something or someone within the throng of Awakeners as we stepped through the gaps in between camps.

Little fires were scattered over the landscape in various camps and the smell of a myriad of different foods being cooked or eaten wafted through my nose. Not only was the smell tickling at my stomach, but the ambient warmth in the air from all of the people and their fires and other magical methods of keeping warm thawed my freezing bones.

I unconsciously rubbed my hands as they tingled with the newfound warmth.

We drew the gazes of various Awakeners as we passed—me with my torn armor that showed heavy signs of wear and was covered in goblin guts and Lein in stark contrast to me, seemingly untouched in his clean, well-fitted clothes.

I kept an eye on Lein’s nervous expression through the corners of my perception.

It was just before he reached the gaping tunnel of the dungeon entrance, not so much a cave as a carefully constructed entrance to the mountain itself, that we ran into another group of Awakeners emerging from the dungeon entrance.

“Hey, is that the blood showerer himself that I see over there?!”

A man in thick knight armor followed by his party of two other Awakeners, one who seemed to be a magic type and an orc, and the other an archer, laughed as he and his party approached us, untouched by whatever had made them turn back within the dungeon.

“No way… I thought you had given up on the dungeon! Not to mention you somehow roped someone else into following you! It even looks like he received your namesake and still hasn’t run away, hahaha!”

The man had clearly partied with Lein in the past, as he seemed to find the showers of gore created by Lein’s explosions just as disgusting as I did.

“Dolan…” Lein spoke, the words hissing out of his mouth in a low tone.

“You have some nerve coming back here again, you know that, Lein? After you left us to die last time and we had to beat you half to death as a lesson, I figured you’d have learned that you’re not welcome here.”

The man glanced over me briefly, eyes lingering on my shabby armor.

“And it looks like your companion was recently beat half to death himself. Suicidal lot, the both of you…”

The man smirked at us and gestured to his party members as Lein tensed up.

“Relax, I’ll let the dungeon kill you. You’re not worth the time.”

Lein gritted his teeth, not saying a word as he continued on past them. I followed him in.

The dungeon entrance was open and rectangular, a seven-meter-wide by twelve-meter tall construction of brick that jutted a few feet from the mountain itself, its visible interior surprisingly clean.

As we walked through the dungeon entrance, I focused on my Echo Sight. As I did, I couldn’t help but notice that Dolan’s party continued to linger just around the entrance, awaiting our return.

***

Koise dragged himself to the city’s entrance, the nonchalant guard that had greeted Aizen again greeting him with the same nonchalant attitude before attempting to put the tattoo device on his arm.

Koise pulled his arm away before the device could be slipped over it.

“What? It’s just the standard entry process, everyone gets one.” The guard slipped his own sleeve up a bit to show the tattoo that was underneath.

“I forget it’s even there most of the time, doesn’t feel like anything, really.”

Koise shook his head.

‘I’m not stupid enough to let another hunter leave their mark on me…’

He was familiar enough with marks to know that he didn’t want to be tracked and monitored everywhere he went. A marked hunter was just prey, after all.

“Forget it, I’m just looking for someone. He might be in armor somewhat similar to mine, somewhat angular face, no weapons or bags, and he probably let you put that thing on him the moment he got here with no problem.”

Koise was good at reading his targets, and he had read Aizen as the prey type, not another hunter.

The guard raised his eyebrows, looking over Koise’s frame and noting the dried blood around his ears, the cuts on his face, and his hands, which looked almost ruined, with bits of skin hanging off of them and the muscle beneath exposed to the frigid air.

The guard’s eyes and nonchalant attitude both froze when they met Koise’s own eyes, which seemed to pierce through his very soul and dig out the answers Koise was looking for.

[[«Eyes of the Hunter»]]

It was a very specific mental-type skill that allowed him to interrogate others and dig answers from them in the name of his hunts.

“Uh… Yeah, I’ve seen him. He just left that way, toward the dungeon, not long ago… That way…” He pointed a finger towards the canyon’s entrance in the distance.

“Say… was it you that caused that avalanche not long ago…?”

Koise turned on the spot and trudged his way through the snow in the direction the guard had indicated, leaving the guard scratching his head in confusion.

He dragged himself onwards, rapidly going through his dwindling supply of warming stones within his magical bag as he went. Food, water, rest, warmth—he had enough to keep going at the bare minimum, depending on his variety of passive skills that allowed him to continue long after a normal person’s breaking point in the name of the hunt.

* * *

Reaper Scans

[Author – Farlight]

[Proofreader – Harley]

Join our discord for updates on releases! https://dsc.gg/reapercomics

* * *

“Care to explain what that was about?” I asked Lein as I kept a nervous watch on the others waiting at the entrance until we passed the range my Echo Sight could detect them at.

“It was a mistake that they brought on themselves. The dungeon at the time was configured as a boss-rush type of scenario, and I had told them that my mana was running low. After I ran out of mana and the situation looked bad, I was no different than an ordinary human. What was I supposed to do except save myself and turn back?”

‘I see… He abandoned his party after they didn’t listen to his concerns. That’s not necessarily bad for me though, is it?’

Yes, it spoke volumes about his character that he would leave his adventuring companions behind, but it also spoke volumes for his companions that they had not taken him into consideration. Could they really blame him after they had disregarded him and allowed him to follow them as hardly more than an ordinary human?

He glanced at me out of the sides of his eyes, jaw visibly tensed as he gritted his teeth and prepared for whatever I had to say. It was no secret that those who abandoned their parties mid-dungeon were generally looked upon as the worst of scum, and it also explained why he had trouble finding others to party with.

“I can’t tell you whether the decision you made was the right one or the same thing I would have done, but it sounds really shitty that they left you to fend for yourself like that while they continued fighting. Let’s clear this dungeon so that you can redeem yourself, yeah?” I gave him a half-smile and raised a thumb with my words.

Encouraging others had never been my strong point, but it seemed to work since he relaxed.

“You don’t really even know me, but thanks…”

Ting!

The dungeon notification popped up, alerting us to what the dungeon’s configuration would be.

[[Legacy Dungeon: Dungeon of the Edge

Dungeon Type: Labyrinth

The Dungeon of the Edge holds the secret to restoring an ancient city of dragons to its former glory! A reward awaits at the end of the dungeon with the power to turn back even the ravages of time itself and also give a hint at the secret of the Edge!

Dungeon Reward: 50,000 XP split among party members.]]

It was a simply insane amount of XP, enough that it would level me up multiple times in one go even considering the fact that the XP would be divided among party members.

[[Quest: Relic

Don’t let the Relic fall into the wrong hands!

Reward: ???]]

However, that last notification instantly dampened my mood. It meant that I had yet another interested party to watch out for. The Relic it was speaking of was no doubt whatever awaited us at the end of the dungeon, though I’d have to actually get to it before I worried about keeping it safe from “the wrong hands”, whoever they might belong to.

“Shit…” Lein’s curse echoed down the tunnel.

“Something wrong?”

“I don’t have much utility in a labyrinth-type dungeon. I was kind of hoping it would be a boss rush or a clear dungeon.”

“Ah… Well, just save your mana for the boss at the end. I have a few things I can do…”

I shut my eyes and focused on my Echo Sight again, allowing the pathways of the dungeon ahead to flood into my mind.

Surprisingly, it worked better than even I had expected. I was able to detect a trap in the dungeon entrance itself almost immediately ahead of us—before we even had the option to pick between different pathways within the labyrinth.

I put my hand out, stopping Lein in his tracks.

“What?” He looked at me quizzically.

“Do you have anything I can throw?”

“Uh… yeah, I guess?” He fished a knife out of his item bag and handed it to me.

“Watch this,” I said, taking the knife in my hands and throwing it towards where I detected the trap.