Chapter 87: Rogue?

The Alpha’s body was still warm to touch when Ethan placed his hand on it.

For a moment, he just stared at the corpse. Its crimson eyes were empty, the throat had been slacked but it was otherwise in good condition.

```

[Time Remaining: 20:51]

[Death Energy: 712 / 1200]

```

The cyclops remained motionless behind him while the raven hovered in the air above as he moved and placed a hand on its body.

After a few seconds, he pushed Death Energy into it as he prepared to raise it.

```

[Raise Undead (Basic) activated]

[Target: Wolf Alpha]

[Classification: Devil class— Rank B]

[Corpse Quality: Good]

[Energy Cost: 165]

```

When the notifications slowed, the corpse twitched, green light guttered off and on as the devil struggled to rise.

When it finally managed to bring itself to its feet, the connection seized, the link stuttered and it fell back down to the ground with a heavy thud.

```

[Warning: Host is already currently maintaining 1 Devil class undead.]

[Control strain is Severe.]

[Skill: Raise undead has been forcefully deactivated.]

```

Ethan’s vision whitened at the edges, as he felt dizzy. He steadied himself, forced his breath to even out and looked at the notification again.

"Seriously?"

So he couldn’t raise it because the cyclops was already out? That was just unfair.

"Fine then."

He gave a command, and both the cyclops and the Raven went back down into his shadow as he went forward to try again.

He had already lost so many chances to raise a corpse. There was no way he would leave this place without something to show for it.

```

[Raise Undead (Basic) activated]

[Target: Wolf Alpha]

[Classification: Devil class— Rank B]

[Corpse Quality: Good]

[Energy Cost: 165 (+35)]

[Result: SUCCESS]

```

This time, the Alpha rose.

Green light now flickered on in its ruined sockets, and dust rolled off a body that now answered to him...

Ethan smiled. A second devil class corpse now belonged to him, and it was the very first devil he encountered no less. He couldn’t help but feel smug as he thought of this as his own version of revenge...

```

[Death Energy: 317 / 1200]

[Undead Legion: 10/72]

[Time Remaining: 21:06]

[Return to entry point.]

```

"Yeah, yeah. Don’t have to tell me twice." He turned and began moving towards the exist.

He had cleared the dungeon. The system had told him so. All that was left was for him to get back to the exist and claim those sweet rewards...

He moved past the cleared chambers. The dead bodies still remained— the goblins, the crawlers, the golem. He passed them without stopping, and no second thoughts about the bodies he had already refused.

He already got something better. No regrets there.

Stone blurred, the blue veins pulsed and when he reached the entry point the timer pulsed in his vision.

```

[Time Remaining: 04:12]

```

"Four minutes," he said, "can’t believe I made it with time to spare."

He closed the timer and turned towards the rift.

He stepped through...

***

Not long after he left, the dungeon stuttered, and the color slowly began to fade.

For a few moments, there was silence...

Then the sound arrived— engines roaring in the distance, boots on stone, the noise of people who fought all kind of monstrosities for a living.

Above, two helicopters came to a hover above the fountain as people descended on it.

Someone moved around the fountain, others moved towards the treeline, and both groups met at the center as they opened a barrier around the entire park. Agents were all over the place, setting up monitors, relaying information, trying to measure various threat levels and all that.

Not long after, an armored car pulled up. It came to a stop right at the edge of the treeline as two suited agents came out and opened both doors.

They soon stepped out...

Two hunters came out from the backseat as both agents stood beside them.

One of them was male. He wore a jacket with two daggers fastened tightly on his hip. He had wavy hair, dark eyes and a tight expression on his face.

The other was a woman. She wore a dark cloak over a black jumpsuit with the collar raised, a mask that covered her nose and her mouth and a serious expression on her face.

Her dark hair was tied in a ponytail, her posture was tight and on her back hung a single longsword that reached the back of her tighs.

She turned to one of the agents as he gave his reports of the perimeter when another one ran out of the treeline.

When the guy saw him, he spoke: "Find anything?"

The young agent breathed. "Yes... we did. There is a dungeon there but...."

The woman narrowed her eyes. "But?"

"But we didn’t get any readings. No monsters, no active threats. It’s just silent. The only readings we got were from dead bodies and there are no mana fluctuations either."

The guy raised an eyebrow. "Silent? That can’t be possible. It’s only been a little more than an hour when we were told about a dungeon." He tapped his chin. "But if that is the case, then that would mean—"

"Someone beat us to it," the woman finished.

The guy hummed. "Rogue maybe?"

"We’re not sure. There are no traces of someone leaving the perimeter, and no traces of human mana signature. But that is very likely to have been the case." The agent replied.

The woman clicked her tongue and cursed under her breath before turning to the agents. "Scan the area! Find whoever cleared it and bring him here. He couldn’t have gone that far. The rest of you, go in and gather whatever you can. Aetherite, Brimstone— anything. We have to at least secure the resources. Be quick about it because we will lose everything if that dungeon closes."

Several agents left what they were doing and went towards the dungeon opening while the rest ran towards the treeline, looking for whoever was responsible for clearing the dungeon.

However,they didn’t know that they were only wasting their time. The culprit had already left, leaving them nothing but an empty shell and a mystery