Dungeon Diver: Stealing a Monster's Power

Chapter 115

Both Rei and Jack are standing by the arching city gate. It's not a main city entrance, but it's the only one that connects to this path from the mountains. They must have heard the news that hunters were finishing up and came to meet us.

Two other groups of hunters and businessmen from the Association and Tara Guild wave down the rest of our team. It looks like no one came to greet Arie though. He follows Maria and me as we get closer.

Rei waves us down and is the first to speak up.

"Jay! Maria! Congrats! Well- I assume you-"

Maria unlatches her arm from my own and cuts her off while jumping forward.

"Yup! We did it!"

Rei catches Maria mid-air to receive her flying hug as Jack approaches with a hand lifted up by his side.

I firmly shake it and he grins.

"Congratulations. You're a C-Class now huh?"

"It seems I am."

Abby comes running over to us after talking to her group. Apparently, they're having a special celebration tomorrow for the Association's successful applicants so she's available to go out with us tonight without a problem.

Bruce and Nessa walk over to us moments later, it seems like their guild master is away so they're free to celebrate too.

I turn to Arie and nudge my head toward Jack And Rei.

All four of them introduce themselves and we begin laughing and re-telling a few interesting stories from the exam as we walk into town. Our final battle and the events that followed didn't come up in conversation.

The 8 of us get a large circular booth at a restaurant that lets us cook our own meat and vegetables on individual open grills. Each of us orders multiple entrees and enough bottles of drinks to drown a whale.

With a clink of all our glasses, the night begins. Smiles fill the room, and I slowly fade into peaceful bliss. All my worries turn into nothing but fuzzy nothingness and uncontrollable laughter. We eat great food and celebrate a huge milestone in every great hunter's journey.

We've really become C-Class Hunters...

A few hours pass and the restaurant begins to die down as parties leave. Our food and drinks diminish and Jack gracefully pays the bill.

"It's on me tonight, I've booked you all a few hotel rooms too. Rest up and we'll take the train home tomorrow."

I squint trying to concentrate on the room key he's handing me. My vision is a bit blurry, the walls, floor, and people around me are bending and distorting at random.

Maybe I drank too much...

With a sloppy hand, I grab the key from Jack and thank him with a goofy grin. He puts his arm around my shoulder and Rei helps Maria up out of her seat.

Arie laughs and finishes the bottle in his hand before standing up.

"Jay, I had no idea you were such a lightweight!"

He slaps me on the back and I hiccup. My tan-skinned teammate gives me a toothy grin.

"Hope I see you tomorrow at the Association. I look forward to working with you in the future, you're a good guy!"

With that, he gets up and leaves.

I'm left in a daze. His words definitely went in my right ear... but half of them basically fell out the other side. I mumble to myself as Bruce, Nessa, and Abby say their goodbyes and walk out the door.