"Remember, we follow the player squad from the guild at a safe distance. Our job is to gather materials and collect any items or parts dropped from defeated monsters," Boss Erwin commanded.
"Yes, Boss!" replied everyone from the Cleanup Division in unison.
They began to move.
"Remember, we're only allowed to follow the guild members from a few dozen meters behind, and our job is to collect materials and items dropped from the bodies of the monsters they've already defeated," said Boss Erwin, giving his command.
"Yes, boss!" responded the people from the Cleaning Division in unison.
They began to move.
.
.
.
Time passed, and we finally arrived in front of the provided portal. There were barriers all around, and many people dressed like bodyguards were guarding the area.
This dungeon had appeared inside an abandoned building, which used to be a shopping mall before portals emerged two decades ago. Now, the building had become a temporary entrance station for dungeons that appeared in the surrounding area.
As we passed through the dungeon gate, the world changed.
The air turned colder, the ground shifted into a dull brown color, and the dungeon sky... just as expected, had no fixed hue. For this dungeon, it appeared gray.
Lathan and the Cleaning Team walked behind the Hunters who had entered earlier. They maintained a distance of several dozen meters behind, just as instructed.
"Have you ever thought, Than," said Deni, walking beside him, "what if we were the Hunters, and there was a cleaning team following behind us instead? Like... a switch of fate."
"If that happened, I'd probably only last a week. After that, I'd end up in the news—'Rookie Hunter Dies Stupidly After Tripping Over a Slime'," replied Lathan with a chuckle.
Far ahead, the players had begun slaying monsters, just like in fantasy tales. Orcs, goblins, and wolves. The sound of clashes, screams, and magic explosions could be heard.
Goblins had the build of small children, but possessed greater strength than an average adult. They usually carried primitive weapons like bone spears, stone swords, and the like.
Orcs, on the other hand, had human-like builds but were twice the size of an adult. Their skin was dark blue, and they were usually hairless. They wore clothing resembling that of prehistoric humans. Their strength equaled several athletes combined. Orcs typically wielded large wooden clubs as weapons.
And wolves appeared like regular wolves, but moved at twice the speed. Their fangs were as strong as steel, and they were covered in steel-hard scales. Their eyelids were dark red, with black irises.
Along the path we walked, the scent of monster blood began to fill the air. The dungeon walls were scarred with claw marks and blood spatters. In some areas, monster corpses the size of goats lay motionless—most of them had been slashed or burned.
"Team Two, extract the crystal from that body," ordered Boss Erwin with his deep voice.
Lathan joined in, opening his small storage bag and approaching one of the monster corpses—it looked like a fat reptile with two small horns.
"Sorry about this, buddy," he murmured, slicing the creature's chest open to retrieve the energy crystal. The stone glowed faintly, and when touched, felt slightly warm... like a lingering trace of life.
Before we knew it, the cleaning was almost done. Other creatures besides the ones I mentioned earlier had appeared later on. Like the Livard, a lizard-like being with some special abilities; the Steagle, which looked like an eagle with steel wings; and many more. I'll explain those another time.
Our Cleaning Team finally approached the door leading to the dungeon boss chamber.
"Dungeon Boss"
Is an entity far stronger than any monster inside a portal. These beings are believed to be empowered by the negative energy of the portals. By defeating the dungeon boss, several hours later, the dungeon itself would begin to disappear. Yes, one way to prevent monsters from invading the human world is by exterminating them first.
In front of the boss room entrance, one of the players preparing to eliminate the dungeon boss said, "You from the Cleaning Division wait outside—we'll handle the boss."
"It'll be too dangerous for those of you with low combat abilities to enter the boss room, so it's better for you to wait here while we take care of the boss," added the player leader.
"Understood, sir! We from the Cleaning Division will wait here and gather any remaining materials in the meantime," replied Boss Erwin in response.
The group of players then entered the boss chamber. As part of the cleaning team, I decided to rest for a bit. We had been walking for almost 3 hours cleaning the dungeon and gathering materials.
Inside, the Hunters were wrapping up the final battle against the dungeon boss. I had no idea what it looked like since I wasn't allowed to go in.
A rumbling sound came from the boss chamber, signaling that the players had completed their task. Not long after, the dungeon began to tremble again… but this time more gently—a sign that the dungeon was nearing its collapse phase.
The boss room doors opened again, and the players came out, all safe and sound. Seemed like it had been an easy job for them.
Shortly after, a guild official arrived.
"Cleaners! Begin final sweep—we've got 20 minutes before the dungeon collapses!" shouted the guild officer.
Lathan and his team quickly moved into the now-cleared boss chamber. Inside, there lay a beast resembling a gorilla, but with fin-like spines along its back and skin as thick as truck tires. They scavenged all the remaining crystals, sliced off sellable monster parts (such as fangs, hide, or claws), and packed them into special containers.
While lifting a large sack full of monster scales, Lathan suddenly heard a faint voice.
"...Awaken..."
He stopped. His eyes scanned the surroundings. No one was speaking. His teammates were busy. Boss Erwin was yelling about trash being put in the wrong pile.
"Hey, Den. Did you just hear something?" Lathan asked quietly.
"Hear what? You're probably just hungry. If it's your stomach making noise, well, that's been scary since birth," Deni replied casually, still stuffing monster claws into a bag.
Lathan only chuckled faintly. Maybe it was just a hallucination. Or maybe he was just too tired. But for some reason, his skin crawled a little.
~Continued~~