The Safe Area
With Enri in the lead, we pushed into the chamber where the monsters waited. Angela and Elizabeth, finished with their opening barrage, followed right behind us.
First I swept the room with my heightened senses, taking stock of the situation in an instant.
“One down. Two wounded. Finish the rest quickly.”
Fairy-type monsters clad in nothing but rotting, tooth-gapped daggers and tattered rags—goblins.
I still couldn’t see what part of them was supposed to be “fairy,” but they showed up in everything from beginner dungeons to high-level ones, so they were painfully familiar to me.
Kieek, kieeek!!
Kyaaak!!
The goblins glared at us with murder in their eyes, then charged in a wild, disorganized rush.
Thank god there are no archers or mages among them.
If any of them had ranged attacks, we would have had to dive straight into the pack just to keep the damage down. As it was, simply weathering their assault would be enough.
“Enri, begin!”
“Yes, Young Master! I shall protect with unwavering will.”
Guardian’s Shield
The battle against the hellhounds hadn’t only grown me and William. At my call, Enri thrust her shield forward and activated the skill she had newly learned. The moment Guardian’s Shield flared to life, the shield blazed gold and began to radiate an eerie mana.
Kiyaaa!!
Kiya!!
Kyao!!
The goblins that had rushed us swung their weapons with everything they had.
Ting! Tang! Ting! Ting!
Yet every attack that tore through the air was drawn, as if by a magnet, straight toward Enri’s shield. Iron met iron in a shower of sparks and the blows rebounded harmlessly.
Guardian’s Shield was a Guardian-exclusive skill, infamous even in Hero Con Brio for its sky-high threat generation. In a single instant it maxed out the user’s threat and forcibly yanked every nearby enemy’s attention—an extremely useful tank decoy skill.
A tank without at least one aggro skill just isn’t a tank.
Watching Enri work, I quickly chanted my own activation phrase.
“With light-like speed, I shall crush the enemy.”
Charge of Annihilation
I exploded forward, boots hammering the stone, and charged the goblins still reeling from the shield impacts.
Kueeek!!
Kyaook!
The two nearest goblins vanished into bloody chunks. I carved straight through the survivors.
I almost used Dragon Roar, but we were still only at the dungeon’s entrance. Better to conserve mana for now.
I turned my spear on monsters I had hunted thousands—tens of thousands—of times before.
Thuk.
Kyahk!
I drove the spear clean through the back of the goblin in front of me and kicked the corpse free. Spinning half a turn, I slipped the next attack, then used the falling body as a springboard to skewer a second.
My heightened senses screamed that another goblin was coming from behind, but I wasn’t fighting alone.
“Yah! How dare you?!”
Enri slammed her back against mine and deflected the strike with her shield. In the opening she created, my spear flashed.
Kyauk!!
Watching their comrades drop so fast, the remaining goblins decided they were outmatched. They bolted past Enri and me, fleeing for the rear.
I hurled my spear into the back of one skull, dropping it mid-stride, then shouted a warning toward Elizabeth and Angela.
“Elizabeth, Witch—two heading your way!”
I gave the warning, but I wasn’t truly worried. More accurately, there was no need to worry.
“O wind, become a wall that bars the enemy.”
Wind Wall
Kuek?!
Kak?!
The two goblins racing toward Elizabeth and Angela slammed face-first into a wall of solid wind and tumbled across the floor.
“Feel the wind that cuts like blades.”
Wind Cutter
Dozens of razor-edged gusts rained down, shredding both goblins into ribbons.
“Filthy monsters…”
She cast a contemptuous glance at the corpses and looked away. For a heartbeat the image overlapped perfectly with the Elizabeth I remembered from the game.
Elizabeth Spencer.
Her talent was specialized for support, so our party rarely put her on pure offense. Still, she was one of only two S-rank talents in the group—and more importantly, she was the freshman representative. In other words, she officially held the title of strongest first-year upon enrollment.
Excluding William, the universe’s chosen protagonist, and me, the irregular, no freshman was stronger than her.
“Any injuries?”
“Ugh… I never thought they’d run past us to the back! Are either of you hurt?!”
“I am unharmed.”
“I-I’m fine too. Thanks to Lady Spencer, not a single hair was touched.”
Elizabeth looked as composed as ever, but Angela’s voice still trembled from the sudden charge.
“Angela, are you really okay? Should we rest a bit?”
At Enri’s concern, Angela drew a deep breath, let it out, and answered more firmly.
“Enri, you don’t need to worry so much. I may have joined the party late, but I’m not about to act spoiled. More than that—I’m truly fine.”
She even reached up and patted Enri’s head in reverse comfort, then turned to me.
“Young Master, I am unharmed.”
“If you say so, then it must be true.”
I nodded. From the look of her, she had simply been startled by her first real combat.
“Elizabeth—excellent skill usage.”
“Th-thank you, Young Master.”
Praise cost nothing—no strength, no time, no money—and it was a superb tool for maintaining favorability.
A veteran never lets even the small advantages slip by.
Leaving the blushing Elizabeth behind, I walked over to retrieve the spear I had thrown. The goblin corpses that had been there moments ago were already gone; only small blue stones lay scattered on the floor.
“We collect the mana stones and move out immediately.”
“Understood.”
“Then I’ll go pick them up!”
“Very well. Let’s do that.”
Of course, I didn’t pick up a single mana stone myself.
Even as we pressed deeper, the dungeon still seemed hungry, continually spitting more monsters at us.
Wave after wave of goblins. Individually they were nothing, but stack enough of them and eventually you cross a tipping point and overflow. That was exactly where we stood now.
Thuk!
Kueeek!
I drove my spear through the last goblin in the fifth monster chamber we had cleared, then looked back at my party.
Fatigue from the continuous fighting was written all over their faces. Especially Enri. As a Dragon Knight I possessed abundant mana, and Elizabeth, with her rear-line talent, still had reserves left. But Enri, born with the sturdy yet mana-poor Guardian talent, had already run dry—she could no longer even activate skills.
“That was the last goblin. According to the map the professor gave us, there should be a rest area just ahead.”
The map itself wasn’t detailed enough to mark every feature, but I knew the layout of this place by heart, so I was certain.
“Understood.”
“Waaah… I don’t even have the strength left to hold my shield.”
“Finally… finally… finally…”
Unlike Elizabeth, who never lost her noble composure, Enri dropped her shield with a clatter and threw both arms skyward. Angela simply muttered to herself, too drained even to celebrate.
Whoa, that’s actually scary.
Angela’s condition looked the worst; the eyes behind her glasses had completely lost focus, and even I flinched a little.
Everyone looked exhausted enough that I considered resting on the spot, but the thought of monsters spawning again in an unsafe zone made them all prefer to push on to a proper rest area.
About five minutes after leaving the fifth chamber, I spotted it.
“Light.”
Far ahead, a faint glow shone through the darkness. Joy flooded every face that turned toward it.
“C-could we really have made it…?”
Leaving Angela’s tear-choked voice behind us, we kept walking toward the light that pierced the dungeon gloom.
What greeted us was not another arched chamber, but a vast, almost brutally spacious cavern.
Just like the game. This is definitely a safe area.
The floor was constructed the same way as the rest of the dungeon, but the walls and ceiling looked like a natural cave of earth and stone. The light we had seen from afar came from a crystal embedded high above—an enormous crystal the size of a three-story building, radiating a gentle glow that made the entire cavern far brighter than any other part of the dungeon.
“Uwaaah! We can finally rest—!”
“Angela, wait for me!”
I watched the two of them charge in without even checking for danger, then turned to Elizabeth, who alone had remained quietly at my side.
“Shall we go rest as well?”
“Yes, Young Master.”
We had safely reached the midpoint of the dungeon exploration training.