They Called Me Trash? Now I'll Hack Their World-Chapter 205: Who Sent You Here?

The eerie silence of the dungeon’s second floor was almost louder than the battles we had just fought.

The second floor of the dungeon stretched out before us, a network of corridors carved from dark stone, lit by the same glowing crystals we’d seen on the first floor.

Light orb providing additional glow for us to navigate through the corridor.

We’d been walking for maybe twenty minutes for now.

But we encountered exactly zero monsters...

Tessa walked close to my side, her boots softly padding against the stone.

She nudged my ribs with her elbow, keeping her voice to a hesitant whisper.

"Hey Jin..."

I turned my head towards her.

"Hmm?"

"I forgot to ask this before, but..." She glanced nervously over her shoulder.

"Was ’Sara’ really... a fox-kin this whole time?"

A few paces behind us, I saw Scarlet’s vibrant red fox ears twitched sharply, clearly picking up the whisper.

She didn’t say anything, but her tail swished in the dim light.

I let out a quiet sigh.

"Yeah," I whispered back. "’Sara’ was just the alias she used. She was using her ability to blend in with us humans."

Tessa tilted her head, her brow furrowing in confusion.

"But why? Why hide it?"

"It’s a long story," I said, giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze.

"I’ll tell you all about it later... let’s focus on what’s in front of us for now."

Tessa bit her lower lip, but she simply nodded, turning her eyes back toward the dark path ahead and tightening her grip on my arm.

We kept walking for few more minutes, the rhythmic echo of our footsteps the only sound, until the narrow corridor finally opened up into the massive, descending stone staircase that marked the end of the second floor.

I stopped at the top of the stairs, my eyes narrowing. And eventually asked, looking at Edric.

"Why haven’t we encountered a single monster up to this point? A dungeon this active should be swarming with them, right?"

Edric didn’t even break his stride as he started down the steps.

"They’re probably already dead. Killed by my party."

I blinked, genuinely surprised.

"What? You mean Mira and the others are here?"

"Yes," Edric replied, his dark cloak billowing slightly as he descended.

"We got a mission regarding the abnormal activity in this specific dungeon. My party came here a few days ago. If the lower floors are this barren, they must be pushing through the top floors right now."

We followed him down into the third floor, and it didn’t take long to find proof.

The sprawling cavern of the third floor was littered with the massive, armored carcasses of dungeon beasts.

The air hung heavy with the copper stench of blood and sulfur.

These beasts don’t look like weak... His party members should be atleast at his level.

Edric walked past the carnage, his dark eyes scanning the cuts and burns on the bodies.

"These are fresh," he noted, his voice low.

"They weren’t killed long before we got here. Mira and others must be on the next floor."

We navigated through the graveyard of monsters until Edric suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.

He stared at a peculiar corpse slumped against a stalagmite.

It wasn’t a beast. It was a human. The body was clad in dark, reinforced leather armor, exactly like the assassins Shax had brought to kill us.

Edric immediately closed the distance and dropped to one knee.

He inspected the deep, precision puncture wound in the dead assassin’s chest. He completely froze, his posture turning to absolute stone.

"What happened?" I asked, stepping up behind him, my hand instinctively dropping to Oathstorm’s hilt.

Edric stood up abruptly, his jaw clenched so hard a muscle twitched in his cheek.

"I have to go," he said.

Before I could ask another question, Edric vanished.

He didn’t just run; he blurred into a dark streak of pure agility, tearing through the third floor toward the next staircase at a terrifying speed.

I looked back at Scarlet and Tessa. They both gave me a firm, resolute nod.

"Let’s move," I ordered.

I pushed mana into my legs, accelerating to catch up, with the girls right on my heels.

We sprinted through the dark, the sounds of our heavy breathing filling the empty space.

As we approached the entrance to the fourth floor, a sharp, metallic clang echoed up the stone stairwell.

It was the unmistakable sound of steel slamming into iron.

I narrowed my eyes, instantly picking up the pace.

Using my debug vision to maximise my speed.

The world blurred around me as I shot down the stairs, bursting out into the massive expanse of the fourth floor.

The scene hit me like a physical blow.

The cavern was illuminated by the dying embers of scattered magical fires.

On the far left, the rogue, Rolf, was slumped awkwardly against the stone, bleeding heavily from his shoulder.

Yenna was lying in the dirt nearby, clutching a horrific gash on her side, her face pale and contorted in pain.

In the center of the cavern, Mira was completely out of arrows, forced down onto her knees.

Standing firmly in front of her, battered, bloody, but refusing to yield an inch, was Garf.

The massive tank was holding his heavily dented iron shield up against the darkness.

Standing just a few feet away from them was a figure draped in a pitch-black cloak, a poison-slicked dagger gleaming in their hand.

But my eyes didn’t linger on them. My gaze was drawn to the right side of the cavern.

Edric was already there.

He held a second hooded assassin figure off the ground.

Edric’s heavily gauntleted hand was clamped around the figure’s throat like a vice, his arm fully extended, completely ignoring the figure’s frantic attempts to claw at his wrist.

The air around Edric warped with terrifying, suppressed mana.

His dark eyes were burning with cold, absolute murder as he stared a hole through the choking figure.

"Who sent you here?"