Chapter 82: Wolves & Bats & Wolves & Bats

As Jinah travels further into the dungeon, she comes across several more starving wolves. These creatures are solitary wolves who have well… been starving. Their skin clings to their bones like it’ll run away at any time. Each one of them gets turned into a bloody mist as she passes by. With each wolf she turns into mist, she feels herself growing more and more confident in Sera.

As she does, she feels her power growing. Not by much just yet, but still a significant amount.

In a flash, every wolf in the dungeon is dead. Jinah stands victorious. Her face has a wild smile, her hair is a mess, but surprisingly, her body has no blood or sweat on it. Though, she believes it may be the mist that surrounded her body. She breathes heavily, having moved around more than she ever has before. A laugh begins to crawl it’s way out of her,

“Hahahaha! Wow! I never thought being a hunter would be so fun! These wolves never stood a chance! It looks like I’ll see paradise soon after all!”

As she walks through the dungeon, looking for her next victim, she comes across a thatch and old wood door. She’s heard about boss rooms before. In F-rank dungeons, the boss is generally just a more powerful version of the enemy you fought previously. This is the same for every other dungeon as well, but some of them, especially when you get to higher levels, have bosses of completely different types.

‘Most likely a regular wolf, or slightly bigger wolf.’

She thinks up a strategy this time, as bosses are literally a whole different beast. A boss in an F-rank dungeon could even be a weak D-rank.

She walks forward and slowly pulls on the handle of the door. The door creaks as she pushes, louder than any door she’s ever heard before. She’s certain the boss hears it as well, so she quickly flings the door open. Inside she finds a wolf. If you can even call this thing a wolf anymore. At the shoulder, it stands about as tall as Jinah, just slightly shorter. Its legs are packed full of explosive muscle that seems to wriggle around as it stalks towards her.

Jinah freezes. Her mind goes blank. She never imagined seeing a boss up close would be this terrifying. It’s as if this creature could snap her in half with a single-

“Wait a fucking second. Bruh, I literally turned those wolves into mist. Why the hell should I worry about some overgrown dog?! I’ve got a literally goddamn goddess on my side! GO FUCK YOURSELF!”

Her hand goes up into a gun shape as the wolf charges her. Jinah feels her arms gathering abyssal mana and pulling it up to her finger tips. A small black marble begins to form at the tips and expands slightly. Right when the wolf is about to jump at her, she releases the attack.

Silence feels the room as a beam of Black Death slices straight through the wolves brain. In an instant, that beam is gone. It’s as if a flash of darkness appeared, killed a fly, and left. No fanfare, no explosions, no bloody mists. Just a sad, destroyed wolf.

Jinah looks at her handiwork and smiles. She turns around to leave the dungeon and says,

“Heh. Don’t know why I ever doubted you, Seraph. I’ll make you proud.”

Jinah exits the dungeon and heads towards the closest D-rank dungeon as she still has quite a bit of time before her mom usually wakes up. The D-rank dungeon contains werebats. Humanoid bats that are about 3 feet in height. They fare about as well as the wolves did, with each being either turned into bloody mist, or pummeled by dark energy. Jinah blasts through the dungeon with ease, killing every creature in sight until reaching a final stone door. With newfound confidence, she kicks open the door, sending the stones flying inwards and hitting the giant bay in the center of the room. 

Before the bat can even register what just happened, Jinah has run at it, and jumped up in the air. She pulls her arm back, ready to do a Markiplier punch at this flying rat's face. The bat flinches, trying to pull away, but is unable to react fully in time. It pulls its face away from the punch, which instead clips its jaw and neck. A sickening snap echoes throughout the boss room as the bat’s giant head is now chinless, and hanging limply. 

Jinah smiles to herself as she sees the bat's body. She’s about to leave the room as a nagging feeling comes from the back of her head. She walks back up to the bat's corpse and studies it closely. She looks in the hole she created in its chin, and finds something shining inside. She reaches inside, trying desperately to ignore the warm and wet insides sloshing against her hand, and pulls out a small purple stone.

“Oooh! Monster core!”

As she looks down at the core with childlike glee, she remembers something.

“Well, I will need money soon if I’m gonna be a hunter. I’ll need some good equipment…”

She leaves the dungeon after grabbing the stone and tries thinking of ways to hide the stone.

‘Ah! I’ll bring it with me to school tomorrow and bring it to the association for cash afterwards!’

After coming up with her “genius” plan, Jinah hurries on home, feeling chipper as she sneaks under the door and back into bed. 

As she hits the bed, she feels that familiar feeling of being pulled towards the goddess. Eventually, she finds herself floating in space. In front of her is Sera, pure black skin and feathers, black halo with a golden hue around the edges, and grey toga. Her figure is stunning, and the amount of thigh the toga shows as she lounges causes Jinah to blush.

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Sera sees this and chuckles while speaking,

“Haha, awwwwwe! I’m flattered, but I’m afraid you’re a few million years too young for my taste.”

Inside her head, Sera thinks,

‘Though, I wouldn’t mind a fling or two. Sorry girly, but it wouldn’t be anything that’ll last. You’ll be dead and gone eventually.’

Jinah jolts as she hears Sera’s teasing. Her face grows flushed as she speaks,

“A-anyways! I did it! I cleared that D-ranked dungeon!”

Sera smiles warmly at the girl,

“Good job, girly. As promised, I’ll show you paradise.”

Sera licks her lips as she says that, insinuating something else. She gets up from her lounging position and walks forward.

Jinah’s heart skips a beat as she watches the goddess walk towards her. Each step causing her heart to grow more rapid. As Sera stands before her, she begins leaning forward.

Jinah’s heart feels as if it’s going to explode as she watches Sera’s lips grow closer and closer… She feels Sera’s hand grab her shoulders softly… she closes her eyes and leans forward….

“Alright, we’re here!”

Jinah jolts as she hears this. She opens her eyes and sees Sera smiling smugly at her. Her face begins to heat up, and she falls to the non-existent ground, hiding her face between her legs. She lets out a pained, ‘aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah’, until she feels Sera’s hand on her back. Sera speaks up,

“Well, dork? Do you wanna see it or not?”

Jinah wipes the tears from her eyes and looks up with faux anger. Though, that disappears when she sees it.

A giant city that covers an entire planet. She sees skyscrapers, small homes, and even mansions all around the planet. The more compact parts seem to have greenery perfectly melding in with the buildings, making you feel as though the city itself were naturally occurring. Beings of all kinds of races walk the streets, enjoying their easy deaths. Jinah finds herself stunned as she sees several races that would be considered monsters living in harmony with humans.

“H-how…”

Sera follows her eyes and sees that she’s looking at a goblin child playing with a human and an elf. She smiles at the heartwarming scene and speaks,

“All are equal in paradise. There is no ‘goblin’, ‘elf’, or ‘human’. There is just people. Just like you. Just like me. Whatever you imagine as your paradise, it exists on this planet.”

Jinah looks up at Sera with wide eyes, and finds the goddess looking down on this planet with warmth. Like a mother looking at her baby. Sera speaks,

“So long as you follow my religion, you too shall end up here after your death.”

Jinah looks at the goddess as a newfound feeling of relief washes over her body. She may not have been a religious woman, but she still feared what may happen after death, if anything at all.

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