The intense humidity of the third floor of the dungeon made Randy's clothes stick to his skin, and the problem was exacerbated by the front line of their group, the Spellblade they had met on the dunes, effortlessly charging on ahead through the muddy forest at a pace that was hard to follow. Glancing to his side, he saw Valoria, who was panting heavily.

  "Are you all right?" he asked, knowing the answer.

  She gave him a weak smile. Her bangs were plastered to her forehead with sweat. "I'll be fine," she said while panting, "but don't you think he could slow down a little? If I'm this tired, I'm not going to be able to focus on casting my spells."

  "You're right." Randy nodded and decided to shout ahead despite the risk of attracting attention. "Gerald, can you please slow down?"

  The armored Spellblade slowed a little and glanced over his shoulder.

  "What's the problem?" he asked, as if genuinely confused.

  "The mud and humidity make it hard for us to keep up. Actually, I don't even know how you're running ahead that fast wearing all that armor," Randy said, a genuine hint of wariness in his tone. "The temperature of this floor has to be at least 42°C, and the humidity is close to 90%. Not exactly a place fit for humans."

  If not for his higher levels, this heat would be enough to endanger his life.

  The Spellblade paused, letting them catch up. "Considering your levels are higher than mine, I seem to have incorrectly assumed you would be able to keep up. My apologies."

  Vesper clicked his tongue at that offhanded remark. "I was managing just fine until those two slowed me down," he grumbled, nodding to Valoria and Randy.

  "It's fine anyway," Gerald said, pointing into the undergrowth with his sword. "We've arrived."

  Randy raised a brow, looking at the thick bushes. "This doesn't look like a goblin settlement. They're usually above ground."

  "Perhaps," Gerald replied, "but this one is below."

  Randy was deeply curious about how he could possibly know that as a Spellblade. To sate his ever-growing curiosity, he asked, "What kind of spell do you have that's letting you track these monsters?"

  "I can feel tremors through the ground, and there have to be hundreds of goblins down below us," Gerald replied, being understandably vague. Since it was nearly impossible to acquire new skills, it was essential to keep the ones you knew close to your chest from strangers.

  "Hundreds?" Valoria said, her face etched with shock. "How are we going to deal with hundreds?"

  Randy slowly nodded in agreement. "As an archer, I'm not as useful underground. Same for Vesper, I imagine."

  "Depends—sometimes the low lighting can be useful," Vesper replied, "but yeah, typically assassins don't function as well underground in tight tunnels. I need escape routes and ways to flank my enemies."

  "So, will we be going in or not? I'm happy to take the lead," Gerald said.

  Randy appraised the Spellblade for a moment. There were several things off about him: his armor was mismatched and damaged in strange ways, he could outpace them while being many levels below, and he also possessed detection skills as a Spellblade, which was highly unusual.

  It wasn't unheard of for the system to grant strange or random skills, but most classes had a known skill set by now, and Spellblades were known for one thing—empowering their sword with destructive spells. Sometimes they would have buffs to improve speed or durability, but detection spells were not part of their usual repertoire. Yet Randy's Appraisal skill had never failed him until now, so he doubted the man was a class other than Spellblade.

  There was also the issue of how competent he appeared. It came from the kind of training you would only get out of one of the prestigious guilds—like the Stormbringers or even the Ether Technocrats—yet he'd claimed to work alone.

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  In that case, how would this man have trained? Had he thrown himself into life-threatening situations over and over and just happened to emerge triumphant, or was he some sort of battle prodigy?

  He had to find out.

  "Let's do it," Randy said, surprise blooming on Vesper's and Valoria's faces. Honestly, it was not the smartest idea he had ever suggested, but he was curious, and since it was going to be an underground adventure, the one at the front was by far in the most danger—and Gerald had happily offered to take that role. Of course, he had to give a different reason to his two friends as to why they were going on a potentially suicidal mission.

  "So," he played to their greatest desire, targeting Vesper first, "you wanted to come down here for money, right? Think about it, goblins hoard loot that they steal from Hunters who died down here. But since the place is so well mapped out and regularly farmed by guilds like the Iron Legion, the glory days of getting months' worth of loot are over. Our only chances of making the agonizing trek across the dunes and now enduring this humidity worth it would be to target one of the larger goblin settlements far away from the third-floor staircase. Unfortunately, that would involve hours of tracking through this mud and heat."

  Vesper narrowed his eyes. "So what are you suggesting?"

  "Despite this underground settlement being so close to the staircase, I doubt many have found it—or been brave enough to clear it out, considering how many goblins are supposedly down there."

  Vesper snorted as if he were a fool. "Yeah, for a clearly good reason. Going down there is absolutely stupid."

  "Guys," all attention turned toward Valoria, and she sheepishly continued, "my druid spells will work excellently underground. I can collapse tunnels, make new ones, entangle people, and even detect traps."

  Randy and Vesper exchanged a look. "She's got a point," Randy said. "And I could use this as an opportunity to train my perception skills."

  Vesper unsheathed his dagger and began twirling it between his fingers as he contemplated the situation. Randy knew when his friend wasn't happy, but at the same time, the allure of possible loot from a hundred-plus goblin settlement was too high. Also, the tunnels would work in their favor as the hundreds of goblins wouldn't be able to attack them at the same time.

  "I'll come if I can take the rear," Vesper said. "Honestly, I won't be much use anywhere else."

  "Does that work for you, Gerald?" Randy asked. The Spellblade didn't seem too fazed by any of them and simply nodded.

  "Be honest, would you have gone in by yourself if we weren't here?" Randy asked.

  Gerald laughed. "As I said, I can deal with these monsters myself. It's you three who invited yourselves along."

  Randy considered the man one more time. He hoped that he wasn't an egomaniac about to get them all killed and that he was as capable as he suggested. Spellblades were rare and highly valuable, and while his level wasn't as high as he would have liked, he didn't know of any Spellblade personally, nor did he have the capital to hire one. So this would be an invaluable opportunity to gather some firsthand data on how Spellblades fought—though he supposed this man was a little weird and an edge case. Whatever. Data was data, and anything that happened from here on out was good so long as they lived and he got some money out of it.

  Gerald surveyed the group one last time before turning and heading in the direction he had previously pointed with his sword. Randy exchanged a glance with Valoria and Vesper as a last check that they were fine with this. Receiving the OK from both of them, he took up the middle of the group alongside Valoria, and as promised, Vesper took up the rear.

  Sure enough, after another minute or so of walking through the thicket, Gerald used his sword to cleave away a series of bushes to reveal a hole in the ground. It wasn't that big—only around a meter and a half wide—a bit of a tight squeeze for a human, but clearly perfectly sized for the goblin population, who were typically only around a meter tall. Valoria planted her staff into the mud and chanted a spell.

  "Ground manipulation."

  The mud liquefied in a wave with her as the epicenter. She closed her eyes in thought, and the hole widened, then re-hardened as Valoria withdrew her staff. Now being two meters wide, the hole was a lot more accessible for the group.

  Gerald nodded toward Valoria. "Let's go."

  He jumped down into the hole with a resounding thud of metal as his armor clanked together. Randy and Valoria soon followed, and he wiped sweat from his brow as the heat in the hole was even higher than above ground. It was also more stifling and hard to breathe.

  "You said there were hundreds of goblins down here," he whispered as they continued to walk down a tunnel faintly lit by glowing green moss.

  Randy knew that most species of goblins had good eyesight in darkness, but not total night vision. It took a moment for his eyes to readjust to the dim lighting, and he realized he couldn't see that far.

  I really am going to be useless, he thought.

  "Does anyone have any light spells?" Randy asked. He posed it as a general question, but he already knew his two best friends' skill sets—it was more pointed toward the unique Spellblade confidently taking up the front.

  Unfortunately, Gerald shook his head. "I have no such thing, but I do have good eyesight, so don't worry."

  "I see. That's unfortunate—"

  Randy was cut off as Gerald paused in his tracks, almost making him walk into the back of him. "What happened?" he whispered.

  Gerald pointed to the side, and it took a moment for Randy to narrow his eyes to see what the man was indicating. Sure enough, there was a razor-thin wire stretched between the tunnel walls.

  "A trap already?" Randy said, half surprised.

  "Not just that," Gerald said. With brutal speed, he plunged his sword into the soft earth of the tunnel, and a piercing cry filled the space. "They are hiding in the walls."

  to read ahead!