A tall woman in dark clothing walks out from the shadows in the back of the room. Her voice echos as she gets closer and my eyes slowly adjust to the dim yellow-tinted lighting coming from a single flickering bulb.

Short blond hair hardly reaches her shoulders but covers her face enough so that shadows hide all of her defining features.

The woman wears a tight black combat suit with silver daggers, and assorted magical items on her midsection and tied around both thighs.

I gulp and squint my eyes, attempting to activate inspect and appraisal, but they won't turn on... My cuffs tighten around my wrists even more and I feel a wave of fatigue pass over me.

My eyes widen more as her footsteps get louder and she continues to walk forward at me.

Her face is becoming visible now and isn't familiar at all.

The woman has mature and stern features, but they're symmetric and devoid of any imperfections. Her hazel eyes glimmer in the dim light as she speaks up again, now across from me at the opposite edge of the table less than 2 meters away.

"Good to see you're finally awake."

She crosses her arms and a silver badge on her chest shimmers. It's 3 numbers on a small pin labeled "005". My gaze tightens as I attempt to activate my skills and tear my hands from the black metal cuffs holding me to the grey metal table.

Again, nothing activates and my muscles become extremely tired after attempting to brute force my way out. Just a fraction of a second worth of exertion feels like I just finished an hour-long battle. The fatigue hits me instantly, and I let my head droop.

I should be able to break through metal like this easily, but it gives off the same odd feeling as the gas-like substance that was used to knock us out.

I let out a sigh, raise my head, and reply.

"What do you want with me?"

She tightens her own gaze in response and a corner of her lip turns up.

"You're cool-headed now, aren't you? No where am I? Who are you?"

She leans in over the table and her grin widens.

"Most of your friends had a much more aggressive response when waking up. Especially that green-haired girl, she was a nightmare."

The woman chuckles.

I clench my jaw and scan the room as my eyes adjust more and it gets much clearer than moments ago.

There's a heavy metal door at the back, no more than 5 meters behind the blond. The walls are made of pure cement with no decorations or even windows. The floor matches the dull grey coloring and it's damp covered in dirt and shallow pools of water.

I'm sitting on a small wooden stool and my hands are attached to a cold metal table by a pair of cuffs that must be a magic dampening item of some sort. Dark lines come out from under the cuffs and move up my forearms...

My conceal skill is deactivated, she can see my true form.

I want to curse her out and break the walls down, but I swallow my words, not wanting to provoke this woman in this weakened state. There's not much I can do other than hear what she has to say for the time being.

"I'll say it again. What do you want from me...?"

She continues to grin, looking down at my wrists, then up to stare directly into my white eyes.

"I want to know what you saw up there. It appears you're the only member of your squad that made it to the final Boss Room. I need a full report."

I gulp again, staring back at her unwavering expression.

The woman's outfit looks like a uniform but has no branding or special marks to signify she's from the Association. This could be a special unit I've never heard of that deals with higher-level matters, or possibly a Solaran-exclusive organization.

My last guess would be rogues, but to pull off a heist to this degree without fail, it's highly unlikely.

I reply.

"I defeated the final floor. A flash of white light brought me back and the Labyrinth collapsed just like a dungeon."

She rolls her eyes, then leans in even further less than half a meter from my face.

"I'm not stupid. You have two cores. This isn't your first time... I'm not sure how you managed to get away with collapsing a full Labyrinth in the past without us noticing, but we have you now so crisis averted."

I freeze up.

She knows about the cores... which means she knows exactly how Labyriths work. The only other notable hunters I know that have this kind of knowledge are the A-Class, Rodrigo, and the Regional Director, Brutus.

Who is this woman...? Who does she work for...? And What does she really want from me?

I grit my teeth, but she speaks again before I get the chance to.

"Come on, spit it out. Was it an Earth Dragon? No, Lightning, it was a Lighting Dragon, wasn't it? It was a-"

I cut her off.

"Tell me who you work for and I'll tell you what I saw."

Her expression completely changes. The air pressure in the room shifts too.

Instantly, she reaches for the silver dagger strapped to her thigh and makes it glow white while pointing it straight at my throat.

"This isn't a negotiation. I ask questions and you answer, got it?"

She thrusts it forward, stopping millimeters away. I can feel the thin layer of mana shielding react with my skin but can't activate my own to protect myself.

She's definitely an Elite level hunter or higher, but without my perception skills, it's hard to tell more.

Her expression grows more stern and she takes the knife from my throat and stabs it straight through my right hand without a hint of hesitation.

"You single-handedly took out an Arch Demon and successfully absorbed its core without suffering a single scratch or showing any signs of mana fatigue. This is a feat less than 5% of Elites ever reach in their entire careers."

I roll my eyes, gritting my teeth and bearing the pain of a dagger through my hand dripping blood, I respond.

"I'm sure plenty of Elites could have taken that Demon out."

She smiles, taking her hand off the blade but leaving it stuck through my hand and the metal table underneath it.

The blond crosses her arms and starts walking back and forth side-eyeing me.

"Good. Information. We're getting somewhere."

She stops pacing.

"Now, what unique skills did this Demon have?"

Blood flows from my hand as I stare up at the woman in anger.

She's not going to tell me a single thing about her. The only clue I have is the number on her uniform and the fact that she can wield mana shielding. Her fair skin makes it more likely that she isn't from around here, and most likely from outside the walls. Other than that, It's hard to tell anything else for now...

I curse under my breath, then respond through a clenched jaw.

"Association, or Solaran? At least tell me that much."

She smirks, grabs a knife from her other pant leg, and begins twirling it around her fingers.

"As I said before, I ask the questions and you give the answers. This is how it's going to work."

She points the knife to my neck again and asks the same question.

"What skills did that red-horned creature have? We know most Greater Demons have a teleport skill, but Arch Demons often have varied abilities. What did it have?"

I feel the tip of the cool blade touch the upper side of my chin and blood trickles down to make clinking sounds as it hits the metal table.

I whisper through gritted teeth.

"That's it. It only had a teleport skill."

Her eyes flash white, then she stabs my left hand with the new silver blade. She gets close to my face again and yells with a twisted grin.

"Don't lie to me."

I feel blood flow from my other hand as well now as I feel her breath on my nose and mouth.

"The only way you're getting out of here is if you tell me what I want to know. Do you understand? If I kill you here and now, I'll take your cores and that'll be the end of it. So it's in your best interest to spill it. You may get a chance to walk."

This time around, I don't even react. If she's really going to torture me until I talk, the best thing I can do is stay silent and think of a way to escape. If she kills me, those cores will disappear once my real body wakes up anyway.

I tighten my lips and don't respond, deep in thought.

She leans in even closer to me, less than a few millimeters away, and whispers.

"No one knows you're here. No one is coming to save you. No one can-"

I back my head up slightly, then swing forward and smack my forehead against hers, stopping her from speaking mid-sentence.

Pain splinters through my skull, down my spine, and makes its way through my full body, nearly knocking me out.

The instant fatigue from these black cuffs hits as I exert any excess force, but It's worth the pain and energy.

I let out a laugh as the blond-haired woman falls backward onto the floor wide-eyed with an expression of shock on her face. There's a light sloshing sound from a shallow pool of water as she hits the floor.

My interrogator immediately scrambles to her feet, unharmed but covered in green and black grime and red-faced with anger.

"You want to play games? I can play games... I said I'd kill you if you don't tell me what I ask you! Do you not value your life?"

The woman puts her hands on her hips and stares at me.

"You asked for it..."

Her eyes fall to her soaked uniform, disgusted by the sour-smelling liquid covering her left side.

"You may be tough now, but let's see how you handle a few days without food and water. Those wounds on your hands won't heal easily without magic. You'll talk. They all do."

I smirk, still amused by her fall.

She turns around, unlocking the metal door at the back of the room and speaking in a lower more serious tone."

"Really think about your situation. Just answer my questions and all of this can be over. I'm not an enemy, so don't turn me into one."

I give her no response, and she slowly nods.

"Looks like you'll be difficult. Enjoy your peace of mind while you still have some left."

She turns back to me with an indifferent look on her face, then slams the door.

It echoes for a moment before I'm left with a knife in the back of each hand sitting in a damp empty room.

Letting out a sigh, I talk out loud to myself.

"Well, that probably could have gone a lot better... Now, how am I going to get myself out of this one?"