"Get your head in the game, dude."
Marcus's voice cut through the chaos like a blade.
His blond hair was matted with sweat, blue eyes narrowed in focus as he cleaved through an onrushing goblin.
The creature's head flew off cleanly, thudding against the dungeon wall before its body dropped like a sack of meat.
More goblins came rushing through the corridor — dozens of them, screeching, snarling, their claws scraping against the stone floor as they charged.
"Selene! Buff — now!" Marcus called out, barely missing a beat as he shifted into a ready stance.
"Already on it!" Selene replied.
She stood near the back, brown hair flowing beneath an oversized witch's hat that threatened to slide over her eyes.
With practiced ease, she slammed the base of her staff against the ground.
A golden pulse radiated from the tip and washed over the group like a warm gust of wind
[Strengthening Magic:]
The three frontliners in the squad glowed faintly as the enchantment took effect, their bodies humming with borrowed power.
Muscles tightened. Breathing steadied. Weapons felt lighter in their hands.
Winter Evercrest gritted his teeth as the energy surged through him.
It wasn't much — just a basic buff spell — but his frail body still trembled under the strain of the magic.
His hand clenched around the worn hilt of his sword.
Then he ran.
Marcus was already a blur, darting ahead with lethal grace.
He tore through the goblins like a whirlwind, cutting down five in a single swing as if it were nothing.
To his right, Donovan — the team's secondary mage launched a roaring fireball that exploded on contact, sending scorched goblin bodies flying.
Winter struggled to keep up.
He charged toward a goblin, swinging his sword with everything he had. The steel bit into its neck, but it wasn't clean.
It didn't glide like Marcus's blade.
It dragged.
His arms shook violently as he forced it through.
His bones creaked.
His shoulders ached.
By the time the goblin slumped to the floor, gurgling on its own blood, Winter was already gasping.
He barely noticed the monster core that dropped from the creature's chest, a faintly glowing crystal the size of a walnut.
But there was no time to rest.
Another came.
And another.
The fight lasted ten long, exhausting minutes.
The goblins kept coming in waves, feral and fearless. The group stood their ground, cutting them down one by one until the last creature fell, its head severed cleanly by Marcus's spinning strike.
Panting and soaked in sweat, the team dropped to the ground in a small circle of blood and bodies.
"That was... fucking amazing," Marcus breathed, stretching out his arms. He crouched beside a fallen goblin and began collecting its core.
Monster crystals — valuable items left behind by slain creatures. Not just currency, but proof of victory.
They were the reason adventurers came to dungeons. Missions were one thing — but the real money, the kind that changed lives, came from selling cores and rare dungeon materials.
Winter knelt beside a corpse and collected a few crystals himself. He had taken down five goblins. Maybe six, if that last one counted.
Marcus turned to him with a lazy grin and flipped him four small cores.
"Here," he said. "Since you helped a bit."
Winter bowed his head slightly and accepted them without complaint. He had taken down more goblins than that — but he knew better than to argue.
This was the treatment the weak received.
He was the lowest-ranked student in Drakenthorn Academy.
His talent, [Minor Body Strengthening], was a joke.
An E-Rank. Useless in combat, worse in endurance. Just activating it drained what little mana he had.
The only reason he was still allowed in the academy was because of her.
His sister.
Not biological, but family all the same.
Iris Evercrest. A second-year commoner prodigy with an S-Rank talent and a spotless record.
The academy worshiped her. The empire saw her as a future war asset. She was the shining star that made Winter's existence tolerable.
And the only one who ever believed in him.
Winter tightened his grip on the crystals and pushed the thoughts aside.
"Let's rest up," Marcus said, wiping blood from his blade. "Boss room's not far now."
They found it after a short walk deeper into the dungeon.
The path had grown darker, quieter, with only the sound of their footsteps and occasional low grunts echoing through the air.
The boss chamber stood ahead — its massive stone doors wide open. Some dungeons sealed their boss rooms the moment a team entered.
Others left them ajar. This one had chosen the latter.
They stepped inside.
The temperature shifted instantly. The air grew thick with mana, cold and stale, as if the room itself were watching them.
The chamber was enormous — its walls covered in glowing runes, the floor marked with strange symbols that pulsed faintly beneath their feet.
Crystals lined the ceiling like lanterns, casting eerie colors across the walls. Some were blue. Some red. Others shimmered like oil on water.
Selene's eyes widened in awe. "These crystals alone... they could sell for hundreds," she whispered.
Marcus's expression darkened with greed. "No kidding. We're taking everything we can carry."
But all eyes soon locked onto the true center of the room.
The boss.
It stood at the far end, a hulking figure twice the size of any goblin they'd fought before.
A monstrous, fat goblin clad in jagged bronze armor. Crude plates wrapped around its belly and shoulders, fastened together by rusted chains.
It held a massive cleaver in one hand — its edge blackened with dried blood.
A Goblin King.
Its eyes glowed a sickly yellow as it snarled, fangs jutting from its mouth like daggers. On either side stood two smaller goblins cloaked in dark rags, staffs in hand.
Goblin Shamans.
Magic users.
Bad news.
"Shit," Marcus muttered. "It's better equipped than I thought."
The Goblin King let out a roar that shook the room, and the runes on the walls flared to life. The battle had begun before they could even blink.
Winter's breath hitched.
His legs wouldn't move.
He wasn't ready for this.
He knew it.
But it didn't matter now.
If they wanted to survive this… If he wanted to survive this… He would have to risk it all.