"YOU KILLED US!!"
"YOU DESTROYED OUR LIVES!!"
Bodies made of blood arose from the blood pool and started shouting.
In the middle of the pool, a single man was standing with a sword in his hands and corpses all around him floating.
"YOU MONSTER!!"
"YOU DESERVE TO DIE!!"
The screams of the dead echoed in the entire space, but the man didn't move.
But his cold eyes changed as he felt a touch on his right.
"You killed me!!"
It was the voice of a young girl, a familiar voice, that carried a hint of hatred.
His cold eyes flinched as he turned and looked at the girl wearing a broken mask, with half her face that was scarred and burnt.
Asher stepped back as the figure of the girl disappeared and the screams started getting louder.
He raised his sword and performed another slash to kill the source of the screams.
The cries of pain, fear, and anger were heard by him.
"HOW CAN YOU KILL US?"
The dying blood phantoms cried as Asher kept slashing his sword.
Suddenly he stopped as another face he was familiar with materialized in front of him.
"Why bother trying? You think your fate will be any different?" The man mocked him.
"I swear on the Tarvian name, I would make your life hell, hahaha," The man started laughing.
Asher stopped in his tracks as his killing intent started rising.
".....not again," Asher muttered.
"It will be not the same," Asher said as he moved forward and slashed the blood phantom that kept smiling till it died.
Suddenly the blood drops started rising as the scene before Asher changed.
Asher closed his eyes and fell into another nightmare.
***
"Step back, she doesn't want to talk with you," Kevin said.
"Who the hell are you to tell me that?" Damian glared at Kevin.
"Well, I am currently her teammate, and I wish you would leave our teammate alone," Kevin retorted.
Damian gritted his teeth as he looked past Kevin's shoulder towards Amelia who was standing with Elena and Eva.
Amelia didn't look at Damian as she was still angry with him for not telling her that Asher was teaming up with Alyssa and the fact that he was on his team as well.
"Fine," Damian turned to leave.
Kevin looked at Damian who left and turned towards Amelia.
"It's fine Amelia, you did the right thing," Elena told Amelia.
"Yeah, I don't know what your brother is thinking by doing all this," Eva added.
"I-I just don't want him to create trouble for our family," Amelia said.
"Don't worry, if things get too far, I will make sure to talk with him directly," Kevin said as he tried to console Amelia.
"Let's not lose our focus as the dungeon raids this time wouldn't be easy," Elena changed the topic.
"Don't worry, I will protect you guys," Kevin said with confidence.
It made Elena and Eva smile, as Amelia felt a bit relieved that these three were still supporting her.
As all of them turned to leave, Amelia glanced in the direction where Asher and Damian were standing, and with them was Alyssa Astaria.
Not only did Asher ignore her advice, but he also partied with Alyssa, which made the rumors grow even stronger.
"Are the rumors true?"
"Isn't this bad for his family's reputation?"
"Isn't this a blatant try to pick fights with other Elite Families?"
"I pity Sam Allister who was forced to join them,"
All the Second Year students were whispering among themselves, as all the teams were gathered here to enter the Rank D Dungeons.
All people had 4 people on their teams and Asher's team consisted of him, Alyssa, Damian, and Sam Allister who was placed in their team by Professor Argas.
"Do you guys have any plans?" Sam asked with a serious look on his face.
"We will follow the normal formation, with Damian at the front and I will guard the mage," Asher replied.
Sam stayed silent and after a few seconds nodded back at him.
"Understood, "Sam replied as he leaned back on the wall.
Alyssa was silent the whole time, she could feel the gazes she and Asher were gathering.
Some of the students had already confronted her, but due to her being a ranker, they didn't try to escalate things.
The Dungeon Raid started as Asher's team swiftly dealt with the monsters.
Damian was a perfect tanker and Sam would make the most of the opportunities that Damian would open for them.
While Asher would work with Alyssa's magic, while he would guard her.
Despite being the tenth-place ranker, Alyssa's magic was quite strong.
'Her attack power surpasses both Elena Rothschild and Lishia Halcyon,' Sam thought as he observed all three of them.
But it was also common knowledge after the End of Year Tournament that Alyssa couldn't use her mana like an average mage.
This made her weaker in the long run, but that's all Sam knew from his observation so far.
Unlike what he thought, Alyssa's mana pool was so big that she could maintain her gravity magic, but her damaged mana veins made it impossible for her to use mana normally.
Her body's condition was similar to what someone who had mana poisoning would suffer from, but she suffered from both physical and mental drain.
'But I am not sure what to make of Asher Greville,' Sam thought as all of them stopped.
"Let's take a break," Asher said as they stopped.
The person in charge of their safety also stopped at a distance. After the last incident, the security around dungeon exploring classes was increased significantly. So the one following them was a B Ranked Hunter, and he was supposed to grade them based on their performance as well.
Asher looked at the monster corpses that he had killed himself, and he felt a bit normal.
Usually, to calm himself he would do it by hunting monsters but being around Alyssa suppressed that nature of his.
After 15 hours, the first team to return was Kevin's team and the second team was Matthew's team with Lishia Halcyon, Ria Adler, and Alan Astaria on it.
Alan looked around and he didn't see Asher's team and he smiled.
"That's what he gets by carrying that useless burden around," Alan muttered to himself.
His resentment towards Asher had grown a lot since the tournament and seeing the rumors about Asher being involved with Alyssa made Alan happy.
"It would have been good if Leonard didn't order me to not involve myself with him for the time being," Alan muttered as he stretched himself.
Soon enough, another team arrived, and they were in Third Place, and it was Asher's team.
Both the First and Second Place teams looked at them, and they could see Asher who was in front with his armor that was stained with blood.
It was the monster's blood, but apart from Asher who was most aggressive with his sword, the other two were fairly clean.
And Alyssa, due to her position, didn't engage in any close combat either.
"Let's do better the next time, we can try for the first position as well," Lishia said.
Matthew nodded while Ria and Alan looked a bit unsure.
After all the team in the first place contained the Rank 1 student, Kevin, and the best support Rankers Eva Williams and Amelia Greville.
An augmenter and a person with an aptitude for barrier magic, it was a perfect team to clear any dungeon.
Lishia herself knew that, but she didn't have much of a choice either.
She was friendly with Elena, but due to her circumstances, it was better for her to be with Matthew, Ria Adler, and Alan Astaria.
Although she wanted Venessa Baker instead of Alan, she was refused so this was the best team she could come up with.
"The Teams that have completed their exploration, submit your findings to the Trading Center so we can convert them into GP, and the Team Captains need to submit a report about their team as well before the end of this week," Elsa announced as the first three teams arrived.
"Can I go back, I am a bit tired," Sam said as he looked at Asher.
"Sure," Asher replied,
"Hmm, if everyone's going then I will also go back," Damian said.
Knowing that Sam might not be comfortable with them, Damian didn't push him to join them.
"Do you want me to go submit the finds?" Damian asked.
"I will do it," Asher replied.
"Okay, then I will go and rest as well, this was really quite tiring," Damian said stretching his arms.
