Chapter 88: Mark Joins the Hunter Team
Faced with the scrutinizing gazes of more than a dozen strangers who all looked extremely professional, a rookie like Mark felt a little flustered.
Who would believe his story anyway? Besides, even if he wanted to explain, he had no idea where to start.
"You might not believe me, but there was one, no, there were two mysterious people who threw me here and tossed me some stuff. I really don’t know where this place is."
As he spoke, Mark pointed at the hollow tree. Brann went inside to take a look and found a shabby backpack with some stuff, but there was nothing valuable.
Even if he were given this junk, Brann wouldn’t bother taking it. The essential supplies their hunter team brought along were much better than this stuff.
"You take us for idiots? How could someone suddenly appear in a dungeon without knowing anything?"
Brann’s wide-eyed face came close, making Mark startled and take several steps back. The skull apes might be scary, but Mark felt that the big man in front of him was much more terrifying.
But Brann hadn’t even acted fierce for a few seconds before Kael smacked him on the head. The big guy immediately became obedient.
"Don’t scare him. Looking this pathetic, at most he’s only an E-rank hunter. He was probably knocked unconscious by someone and thrown in here."
Seeing that Kael had judged him like that, Mark was stunned because he never expected that he had changed so much that others would mistake his strength. If he were really E-rank, he wouldn’t have been chased and beaten by a group of ordinary people before, and had to run through the sewers.
"Actually, I’m only F-rank."
But Mark didn’t expect that right after he finished speaking, Alice came close to him again. Their eyes were only about ten centimeters apart.
At such a close distance, Alice’s perfume drifted into Mark’s nose, making his face turn slightly red. It wasn’t that he had never seen a beautiful woman, but because Alice had just appeared like an angel to save his life, his favorability toward her instantly skyrocketed.
"Healing an F-rank couldn’t possibly take this much effort. But calling him E-rank doesn’t seem quite right either..."
"What’s so hard to understand? Now and then, there are a few exceptions that are stronger than others of the same rank."
Seeing Alice overthinking this pointless matter, Kael spoke up. Then he looked toward Mark, pointing in the direction they had come from.
"The way out of the dungeon is over there. Leave on your own if you want, or you can come with us... But if you become a burden, we’ll leave you behind."
Don’t think Kael was really that fierce just because he acted tough. He clearly wanted to help Mark, but he felt a little embarrassed saying it directly.
"You’re weak as hell, so you’d better come with us and learn something. Just leave that useless junk there."
Brann put on the face of a demon, but he was holding a high-quality energy drink for Mark. Compared to the water prepared by the system, this was much more useful to Mark right now.
Being treated this well by a group of strangers, Mark suddenly felt that it was a little unreal. Ever since he became a penniless guy, he had never experienced anything like this.
"Why are you treating me so well?"
Mark lowered his head slightly. He didn’t look directly into their eyes because he thought he would see those contemptuous or pitying gazes again.
"Did getting hurt make you stupid? Do humans need a reason to help other humans? If everyone needed a reason before helping, most of humanity would’ve died during the disaster thirty years ago because the first-generation hunters would have needed a reason before saving people."
Only then did Alice look at Mark as if she were looking at an idiot.
The kindness of these strangers truly moved Mark. He once again remembered Nexus telling him that he had never been alone. It wasn’t some empty saying; it was the truth.
After the shock of losing his parents, Mark had always kept to himself and usually only paid attention to negative things, so he forgot that there were actually many good people in this world.
"But I’m just an F-rank piece of trash..."
Before Mark could finish putting himself down, Brann immediately glared at him fiercely.
"An F-rank piece of trash can’t defeat a skull ape with nothing but a normal spear."
Although he looked a little aggressive, this was clearly Brann’s recognition of Mark. Brann had truly never seen an F-rank hunter who didn’t use a gun able to do this before.
Mark’s eyes couldn’t help but become slightly teary. He wasn’t sure whether he was crying because of their kindness or because of how stupid he had been. But he knew that after this, his mindset had changed in a positive direction.
Although Kael said Mark had two choices, Mark knew he couldn’t leave the dungeon until he completed the second lesson.
Following an experienced hunter team to learn from them wasn’t a bad choice. Moreover, Mark knew his master and the system wouldn’t kill these people just because they had helped him.
"Please guide me from now on."
Mark temporarily joining this hunter team was naturally seen very clearly by Nexus and the system looking down from above.
[Indeed, a useless mortal. He only fought a few apes and actually needed a bunch of other weaklings to save him.]
The system began to grumble, but it had no intention of stopping him. If it wanted to, it could have stopped Mark from being saved right from the beginning.
"Maybe this isn’t a bad thing. If learning alone doesn’t work, then learning with others might give a more positive result."
Nexus said, but his gaze wasn’t looking toward Mark. Instead, he looked up at the blood-red moon in the sky.
Something was about to appear. Even an SSS-rank might not be able to clearly sense it, but of course, whoever was coming couldn’t escape Nexus’s eyes.
[What an unlucky bunch of mortals.]
The system uttered only a single sentence without taking any action to help. After all, this matter had nothing to do with it or Nexus. If the two of them hadn’t appeared in this dungeon, nothing would have changed anyway.