Rin knew how the whole thing worked from searching online, but seeing it in person is something else. The people watching don't go into the dungeon, no, they only watch what's happening in the dungeon on cameras.
The reason most hunters and people come is to watch the gate and feel that mana coming from it, it can help awaken a few dormant people if lucky. The real reason they are behind high tier reinforced glass is because once the portal opens, it stays open and that leaves a huge chance for some monsters to sneak out.
Screens came to life along the walls. Joy leaned forward, her lollipop forgotten in her hand.
"They always spawn in forests for orc dungeons," she said. "Something about the environment matching their original habitat or whatever."
The feed showed exactly that. Massive trees, thick undergrowth, filtered sunlight cutting through the canopy. Leo's team materialized in a clearing, weapons ready.
Then the orcs hit them.
No warning, no buildup. Just ten of the things exploding out of the treeline, axes and clubs raised.
Rin jumped, actually flinched back from the screen.
Joy glanced at him, smirking around her lollipop. "Scared?"
"Shut up."
"It's okay to be scared of monsters. That's literally the normal human response."
"I'm not scared, I just wasn't expecting them to appear that fast."
"Uh-huh."
On screen, Kelvin caught an orc mid-charge and slammed it into a tree. The trunk exploded into splinters and the orc went limp.
"Holy shit," Rin said.
Another orc swung at Nelia. She ducked under it, moved behind it in a blur, and her blade opened its throat. The thing dropped before its weapon even hit the ground.
But Leo, Leo was something else entirely.
Lightning erupted from his hands. It arced between three orcs at once, their bodies seizing up mid-run, then they hit the ground smoking.
"Hunter Leo is so amazing," Joy said.
"Yeah."
More orcs poured out. Had to be thirty now, maybe forty. They moved through the trees like they owned them, coordinated in a way that seemed wrong for monsters.
Yuki's barriers went up, translucent walls cutting through the forest. Orcs slammed into them, axes bouncing off. She was corralling them, funneling them into kill zones.
Then Jin finally made her move.
Rin had seen the videos online, read the reports, but watching it live was different.
She didn't run, she glided, like the ground was optional. An orc charged her from the left. She made a small gesture and space folded. The orc stumbled through a portal and came out twenty feet up, crashing through tree branches on the way down.
Another came from behind. She spun, her hand cutting through the air. Reality split, a line of void that passed through the orc's torso. It fell in two pieces.
"That's disgusting," Joy said, but she couldn't look away.
Jin fought like she was dancing, every movement efficient and graceful. No wasted energy, no unnecessary flourishes. She stepped between attacks that should've hit her, portals opening and closing to redirect momentum.
An orc brought its club down where her head had been a millisecond ago, but she was already behind it, her hand pressed against its spine. A tiny portal opened inside the orc's body.
It collapsed without a sound.
"She's not even trying," someone behind them said. "That's an S-rank for you."
The forest around them was getting destroyed. Trees fell as bodies crashed through them. The ground cracked where Kelvin landed his hits. Leo's lightning scorched the earth, leaving glass trails where sand melted.
Rin watched his friend fight and it was something. Leo was never a fighter, he was just a normal guy that loved anime, so seeing him move fast, faster than he should be able to, some how made Rin proud.
He dodged an axe, countered with a lightning-wrapped punch that caved in an orc's chest plate, then blasted backward to avoid a flanking strike.
[Analyzing combat data]
[Leo Penzerio combat efficiency: 87%]
[Mana output: Stable]
[Threat assessment: Minimal against current opposition]
'Can you not?'
[Negative. Analysis is automatic when observing awakened combat]
The orc numbers were thinning. What had been forty was now maybe fifteen, then ten, then five.
Jin opened a massive portal, big enough to fit a car through. The remaining orcs got sucked in, tumbling through space. The portal snapped shut.
"Where did she send them?" Joy asked.
"Probably into each other," someone answered. "Space folders do that. Redirect monsters into themselves, instant kill."
'He sure does seem to know a lot about her powers.' He looked back at the man for a few seconds and looked back at the screen, 'whatever, its not a big deal I guess.'
The clearing went and the team regrouped, checking each other for injuries.
"We cleared out this area," Jin's voice came through the speakers. "No one has taken any damage so we are going to proceed."
The cameras followed them deeper into the forest. The trees grew denser, older, trunks wide enough that it would take five people to wrap around them.
[Anomaly signature detected]
[Distance: 1.2 kilometers]
[Corruption level: 15%]
Rin's chest vibrated, little at first but it got stronger and stronger.
"You good?" Joy asked.
"Yeah, just the mana from the gate just feels weird."
"Right? I've been to three gate openings and this one really makes my skin crawl."
On screen, the team reached a river that cut through the forest, with water rushing fast enough to be dangerous.
"They'll have to cross," Joy said. "That's usually where the second wave hits."
She was right.
The moment Leo stepped into the water, orcs emerged from the opposite bank. But these weren't the regular ones. These wore better armor, moved with more coordination, and carried weapons that glowed with some kind of energy.
"Elite variants," someone behind them said. "This just became a lot more dangerous."
Kelvin took point, his enhanced body letting him forge through the current. An orc fired an arrow, glowing red. Yuki's barrier caught it, but it exploded on contact, showering them with water.
Leo didn't wait. He jumped, electricity propelling him across the river in one leap. He landed in the middle of the orcs and let loose.
The feed went white for a second from the brightness. When it cleared, three orcs were down, smoke rising from their bodies.
But there were more, way more.
They came out of the trees, at least fifty of them, all elites. Jin's expression shifted slightly, the first sign of actual concern Rin had seen from her.
"This isn't matching the survey data," her voice came through the speakers. "Elite concentration is three times higher than projected."
"Can they handle it?" Joy asked quietly.
Rin watched Leo dodge, counter, blast, move. Watched Kelvin tank hits that would kill normal people. Watched Nelia cut through orcs like they were made of paper. Watched Yuki's barriers hold against attacks that cracked the ground.
And watched Jin make it all look easy, portals opening and closing, space bending to her will, orcs dying without ever touching her.
"Yeah," he said. "They can handle it."
[Corruption level: 31%]
[Anomaly influence spreading]
[Dungeon parameters degrading]
The system's warnings were getting more frequent, but Rin couldn't exactly announce that to everyone.
On screen, Jin carved through the last elite orc. The team regrouped again, this time with visible fatigue. Even S-ranks got tired eventually.
"Objective is two hundred meters ahead," she said. "The camp should be visible soon."
The cameras followed them through a final stretch of forest. The trees opened up into a clearing, and there it was.
An orc camp.