Randy ducked and shielded his face from the blast of rock. The entire cavern trembled from the impact, almost causing him to lose his footing.

  "What was that?!" Randy shouted, but the question was asked more out of shock than from needing an answer. He knew who the culprit had been, as he had seen Gerald empowering his sword with mana before striking at the wall. He knew Spellblades were strong, but Gerald was only level 15 last time he checked. Yet he could cut through walls with such force?

  The screams of Clay Goblins broke him out of his daze. In a practiced motion, he activated [Quickdraw Step (D)], a skill that let him reposition while loading his bow.

  He was going to fire a supporting volley for Gerald, but through the swirling dust cloud thrown up from the explosion, he saw the armored figure wreathed in a dull metallic glow effortlessly slaughtering the goblins as if they were bugs. The cavern continued to tremble as red crescents flew with every swing of his sword.

  "Randy, cover me!" Valoria shouted, making him swivel on his heel toward his university friend. While the majority of the Clay Goblins were concerned with the unusually strong Spellblade, a few were flanking them from either side of the tunnel.

  "I've got you!" Randy shouted, raising his bow. His eyes narrowed as he tried to pick out the grey-skinned goblins shifting through the darkness toward them. "Piercing Volley," he said, which magically teleported arrows from his quiver to his bow, letting him fire off multiple arrows at once. They whistled through the air, followed by a wet crunch as the arrows punched through the goblins' small bodies, sending them flying with a gurgled scream.

  You have killed multiple opponents. Bonus experience has been awarded toward your [Archer] class.

  Valoria planted her staff into the ground. "Ground manipulation! Snaring Roots!" Mana poured out of her into the surroundings, causing the rock to soften and begin to rise before her, forming a massive wall. The Clay Goblins tried clambering over the wall, and a few began to phase through it. Yet they were swiftly met with a dozen vines that were twice as thick and a healthy green color compared to the vines she had summoned to take down the legion of undead on the dunes. The Clay Goblins thrashed against the snaring roots to little avail.

  While Valoria didn't have any skills that directly caused damage, she was one of the best when it came to keeping monsters still. That's why she and Randy worked so well together. Ask any Archer if they would rather hit a stationary or moving target. The answer was obvious.

  "Piercing Volley," Randy said again, arrows magically appearing on his bowstring, meaning all he had to do was quickly pull back and let them fly. With dull thunks, the arrows pinned the thrashing goblins' heads to the makeshift wall.

  You have killed multiple opponents. Experience has been split between you and your party member.

  [Archer] has leveled up: 21 -> 22.

  Randy felt the power of the dungeon flow into him, refilling his mana pool and cleansing the exhaustion from hours of trekking across a freezing desert and delving deep into a hot and humid tunnel. He suddenly felt fantastic.

  "I leveled up!" he shouted, grinning ear to ear. It had been months since he last felt this feeling, as he had been far too busy with finals and life to hunt monsters.

  But this... this is what Hunters lived for. The thrill of battle and the feeling of getting stronger.

  "Me too!" Valoria shouted. She was also smiling, and Randy noticed she was standing up straighter than before and full of energy. Level-ups were an essential part of dungeon dives and were one of the reasons life got harder for high-level Hunters. Without the constant recharging of leveling up, extended dungeon dives became difficult.

  Randy was broken from his thoughts as Vesper rushed past him in a blur of shadows. Randy didn't even have time to react before he heard a monster screech behind him that was abruptly silenced.

  Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Vesper standing over a decapitated Clay Goblin. His two daggers were dripping blood onto the stone below.

  "Thanks for the save," Randy said. "I can't believe I didn't notice one sneaking up on me."

  "It didn't," Vesper said, staring down at the ground. "They are rising out of the ground—" he thrust downward as the top of a goblin's head crested the rock, impaling it with a crunch. Withdrawing his dagger and flicking off the blood, Vesper turned toward their druid. "Valoria, can you create a protected mound for Randy to stand on?"

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "On it!"

  Randy felt the ground under him shift and begin to rise into a meter-tall mound that was infested with vines to prevent the Clay Goblins from getting under him.

  "Thanks!" Randy said, feeling good that his party was looking out for him. With a safe place to fire from, he got to work. The battle was made far easier with Valoria blocking off one side of the cavern and continuing to snare goblins for him to take easy shots at. After another few minutes of fighting, he was once again filled with the dungeon's power.

  You have killed multiple opponents. Experience has been split between you and your party members.

  [Archer] has leveled up: 22 -> 23.

  I think we have killed around fifty together so far, Randy thought as he nocked another arrow. He could feel his quiver getting worryingly light on his back as a result of the extended fight. If he had known they were going to participate in such a large-scale raid, he would have brought another two quivers. I'll have to switch to conjuring mana arrows soon rather than relying on physical ones. If I get a clean headshot, mana arrows might be able to oneshot them, but otherwise I'll need multiple.

  That's when something caught his eye. A far larger silhouette lumbering toward them in the distance. Is that an orc?

  If that were the case, it would be terrible news. Unlike goblins that were easy to defeat, orcs were a different story. Possessing immense physical strength, resistance to magic, and insane regeneration, they were challenging to deal with even as a party.

  "Possible orc spotted," Randy said, pointing toward it. Since they were on the 3rd floor, it wouldn't be as high level as the orcs found in more abundant numbers on the next floors.

  "Fire an arrow at its eye to distract it," Vesper said, sinking into the shadows. "I'll finish it off."

  Randy nodded. Taking aim, he waited a few breaths before letting the arrow fly. To his surprise, the orc responded in time, tanking the arrow with its arm before it could skewer his eye. However, that was the opening Vesper needed.

  "Shadow Sever," Vesper's voice echoed through the cavern as he leaped out of the orc's shadow, and before the brute could even react, Vesper slashed upwards with his daggers in an X shape, decapitating the orc.

  The monster fell forward with a loud thud.

  You have assisted in killing an opponent 3 levels above your own. Bonus experience awarded.

  Unfortunately, he didn't level up a second time.

  "Finally, a level up," Vesper said as he stood on the back of the dead monster. The Clay Goblins hissed at him, and to Randy's surprise, they began to flee.

  "They finally gave up," Valoria said with a sigh of relief, coming to stand at Randy's side.

  "How are you holding up?" Randy asked as he took off his backpack and rummaged through it for a bottle of water. He was totally parched after fighting in the cavern's suffocating heat.

  "Not bad—wait, where is Gerald?"

  Randy chugged a mouthful of water and glanced around. That was a good question. The Spellblade was nowhere to be seen. Throwing the water bottle to Valoria, he jumped down from the mound and focused on the large hole in the wall where he had last seen Gerald.

  His ear twitched. If he focused really hard, he could hear the faint clinking of metal and sounds of battle deep in the earth.

  "I think he's gone deeper and is still fighting."

  "All by himself?" Vesper said, sounding impressed. "We should go and help him."

  Randy nodded, and they began moving while keeping a careful eye out for any stray Clay Goblins. The tunnel that Gerald had created had a pungent smell of iron from all the blood smeared on the walls.

  "So many corpses," Valoria muttered, scrunching her nose.

  It was true, the tunnel was almost hard to walk down without stepping on a brutally killed goblin. There were dozens, possibly even a hundred of them in here.

  "Are the Clay Goblins the monsters, or is it..." Vesper trailed off, but Randy knew what he was trying to say. Gerald was the true monster down here, not these goblins.

  "Maybe he has finally reached his mortal limits and needs our help," Randy said, breaking out into a jog.

  "Wait, don't run there—" Valoria called out, but she was too late. Randy felt it a second later; the ground gave out under him. Before he knew it, he was in free fall, flailing his limbs as he tried to find ground.

  Shit, shit, shit! His mind was racing. Vesper and Valoria were also falling with him. Twisting his body, he managed to get himself falling legs-first into the darkness below. A few seconds later, he hit something hard. Water erupted around him as he plunged into a pool. Two more bombs went off near him as Valoria and Vesper smacked into the water.

  Thrashing upwards, he frantically broke the surface—his water-filled quiver and backpack weighing him down. He reached up and pushed his wet hair out of his eyes while kicking furiously to stay afloat and looked around. It took a moment to adjust to the dim lighting and get the water out of his eyes, but when he did...

  His heart sank into the pit of his stomach.

  This body of water was at the center of a giant cavern, one that seemed like it could contain a city. Hundreds of Clay Goblins were staring down at them from the shelves of the expansive cavern and snickering to each other.

  Worst of all, there seemed to be an orc sitting on some kind of throne, his face obscured by a shadow.

  "Appraisal," Randy whispered, dreading the answer. His mind buzzed as mana poured toward his eyes, and the system provided him the answer he dreaded.

  [Underworld Orc (??)]

  They had fallen into the lair of a floor boss.

  Terror gripped his mind as the certainty of death settled in, but there was a tiny hope lingering at the back of his mind. It was a long shot, but if Gerald was here, then they might have a chance.

  Gathering as much air into his lungs as he could, he roared at the top of his lungs.

  "Gerald! We are down here! Help!"

  His words echoed up through the hole in the ceiling and throughout the cave system. If Gerald was anywhere near where they fell, he would hear his cry for help.

  Whether he would come to their rescue was another question.

  to read ahead!