The team found themselves in a spacious arena. It was well lit with magical sconces on the walls of gray brick-patterned stone. The rectangular room was empty of furnishings, as rooms in low-rank dungeons often were, and there were three doors in the center of each wall. The portal was behind them in the place where a fourth door would have been.

  Kyra waited for Noemi to take the lead. The team captain brought them forward to inspect the door opposite the portal.

  Solid iron and featureless, it was slightly recessed into the wall. There were no handles to pull or keyholes to peep through. Anything could be waiting on the other side, if they found a way to move it.

  Affixed to the wall beside the door was a hand crank. It too was made of cast iron. Noemi gripped it in both hands and, with great effort, began to turn. The mechanism behind the wall groaned under the sudden strain and the door shifted very slightly sideways into the wall.

  Noemi released the crank, and the mechanism fell silent.

  "Now we know how to open it," Noemi said. "Expect a battle to be waiting for us." She turned to Kyra. "As a special member of the team, you get first pick. Which one shall we try?"

  The order didn't much matter as they would have to open all of them anyway to ensure that the dungeon was completely cleared.

  "Since we're already here, let's start with this one," she replied.

  "Fine choice!" Noemi chortled as she took hold of the crank once more.

  Kyra watched as Noemi put all her strength into the crank. It was slow to turn, but turn it did. After two full rotations the door had shifted a fraction of an inch.

  While this was an E-rank dungeon, that didn't mean that all the obstacles would be surmountable by every E-ranker. Every hunter had their strengths and weaknesses, and not everyone trained to the same level of physical strength.

  Even so, Kyra felt uneasy on seeing Noemi's struggle. The first obstacle in a dungeon was often a hint of the difficulties to come. For a D-ranker to be having this much trouble . . .

  "Maybe we should come back with some more people," she suggested.

  Noemi released the crank and gave her an awkward grin. "I'm making a poor show of it, aren't I? Don't let me put you off. Here, Gabin, you can turn this easy, can't you?"

  "Sure, boss." The shieldbearer stepped up and gripped the handle. While still slow, it turned much more smoothly in his hands, and the door began creeping open that much faster.

  "Gabin's got all the muscle we need," Noemi boasted.

  Kyra tried explaining her concerns more directly. "A typical E-rank dungeon doesn't require a D-ranker to open the first door."

  "Even if this dungeon is a level harder than it should be, we've got two D-rankers here," Noemi replied. "Stay at the back and we'll keep you safe. I promise."

  It seemed pointless to argue as she didn't have any proof outside a gut feeling. It was always possible she was wrong.

  Noemi seemed sensitive to her continued uneasiness and ordered Gabin to stop cranking. The team captain then turned to her and said, "I'll tell you what, Kyra. I'll take a peek into the first room and see what we're up against. If it feels like it might be too much, we'll close this door and leave. How does that sound?"

  "Don't change the way you do things on account of me," she said.

  Noemi shook her head. "This is what I promised you when you joined up. You're going to be among people you can trust. This is the way we do things here—taking each other's concerns seriously."

  The door had cracked open enough to peer through. Noemi put her eye to the gap and reported what she saw. "Goblins. Four of them. And a hobgoblin scout. I'm guessing that's the group leader. They know we're coming and they're crowding around the door waiting for us."

  A hobgoblin scout. A boss monster from an F-rank dungeon was relegated to a common mob in an E-rank one.

  It would be an easy battle for this party, even if the monsters were smart enough to be holding some of their forces out of sight. And with the doorway being a bottleneck, it wasn't likely they could be swarmed by large numbers. Everything seemed safe enough.

  Gabin resumed his cranking while the rest of them moved into their battle formation. Noemi pulled down her visor and took her position at the front while the remaining two members, Alba and Lucas, hung back in the rear with Kyra—their healer—safely tucked away behind them.

  The goblins had taken up their own formation in the other chamber and were waiting patiently for the hunters to come to them. These weren't the haphazardly equipped goblins of the F-rank dungeons, though their rank remained the same. Each carried a spear and small round shield with matching insignias, and they were protected by iron plates strapped to their leather clothes.

  Also unlike their brethren in weaker dungeons, it was clear that these ones had some training. As much as they twitched with the urge to charge forward through the door, they held back and took their lead from the hobgoblin scout at the center of their formation.

  Gabin only released the crank once the door was completely open. He then took up his tower shield and settled into position beside Noemi. The two of them proceeded through the doorway into the other chamber.

  Once the front row had cleared out of the way, Noemi going left and Gabin going right, the rear got to work. Alba took shots with her bow and Lucas joined in with ice projectiles.

  The goblins instinctively huddled together for protection, allowing Noemi and Gabin the freedom to move. The two hunters closed the gap and then Gabin charged forward with his shield. With all the goblins focused on Gabin, Noemi swiftly ran around behind the formation.

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  This simple flanking maneuver was enough to break the monsters' discipline. Their formation fell into disarray and all the small fry were cut down in seconds, leaving the hobgoblin to face them all alone.

  Maybe Kyra had been worried for nothing. The party executed this entire sequence like it had been rehearsed a thousand times.

  Noemi took on the hobgoblin alone while Gabin plugged the door with his broad shoulders, keeping the back row safe from unexpected developments. The difference between a D-rank hunter and E-rank monster showed, as the hobgoblin was easily overwhelmed by Noemi's swift footwork and powerful thrusts of her estoc.

  In just a few short minutes the battle had ended with nary an injury on their side.

  The team regrouped in the second chamber and Noemi patted Kyra on the shoulder. "What do you reckon? Think we can handle this?"

  "You're well practiced as a team," she replied.

  "It all comes down to training. We run drills until everyone knows their job to the bone," Noemi said proudly.

  After a short break to catch their breath, Kyra topped up everyone's stamina, and then it was on to the next door. This time it was Alba's pick, and they went for the one ahead of them again.

  Waiting for them in the next chamber were five hobgoblin scouts. A full team of E-rank monsters and much better equipped than the last group. Two of them were archers and had positioned themselves away from the spear formation.

  "Looks like the difficulty's gone up," Kyra said.

  "Nothing we can't handle," Noemi replied authoritatively. "Back row take out the archers. Gabin and I will hold back the spears."

  Alba and Lucas were both E-rankers, putting them on par with the hobgoblins, who appeared to have adopted the same strategy as the party, as their archers were focus-firing back. But Alba and Lucas were no slouches and nimbly stepped out of the way of the incoming arrows.

  While the back rows were targeting each other, Noemi and Gabin met with the three spearmen. Noemi broke off into the same flanking maneuver as earlier, but the hobgoblins were more disciplined than their weaker cousins, and the spearmen stayed together as a unit.

  But Noemi's maneuver had a secondary purpose, which became clear when she shifted her focus on the nearby archer, who was now exposed. It fled from the charging swordswoman, but this meant it was no longer dodging the incoming arrows. A well-aimed shot by Alba sailed past Noemi's head and struck the fleeing target in the neck.

  Noemi gave her back row a quick thumbs-up before turning her focus to the remaining hobgoblin archer, who soon fell in the same manner.

  Only the three hobgoblin spearmen remained, and they were smart enough to realize the inevitability of their defeat. In a last-ditch effort all three turned on Noemi and charged with their spears raised.

  But if there was an area where Noemi excelled, it was her speed and footwork. She danced around the hobgoblins, keeping them off balance, and somehow evading all their attempts at encirclement. Her estoc flashed brilliantly whenever she found an opportunity to jab, the pointed blade seeking out the gaps in their armor, piercing through the leather where the iron didn't meet.

  The hobbled hobgoblins became easy targets for Alba's arrows and Lucas's ice, and just like that, the third chamber was cleared.

  When they regrouped, Noemi pulled up her visor. "Let's take a breather before we move on."

  Lucas handed Noemi a towel to wipe down her sweaty face. This battle had been more testing than the last, and the team captain had been front and center of it all.

  Kyra placed her hand on Noemi's cheek—her forehead wasn't accessible—and trickle-fed her some stamina recovery while asking, "Do you guys always push yourselves this hard?"

  "It's about always giving it our best," Noemi replied. "It's the only way to grow." Turning to the team archer, she said, "Nice shooting there, Alba. You've gotten more confident in your shots."

  The recognition of her efforts put a smile on Alba's face. "I've been practicing."

  "Don't sell yourself short," Noemi said. "I've seen how long you spend at the practice range after hours." She turned to the others. "The rest of you too. Your practice really shows."

  Their captain's words of praise had Gabin and Lucas beaming happily.

  Then Noemi turned to Kyra. "This recovery magic of yours is something else. I feel fresher than when we started."

  But Kyra wasn't having any of it. "I can tell how much mana I'm feeding in. It isn't normal for a D-ranker to be this exhausted after a handful of E-rank monsters."

  Noemi grinned sheepishly. "I suppose this is why they say you can never lie to your healer. I admit it—stamina is my weak point. My biggest asset is my speed and agility. That's what wins me my battles, so that's what I train the most. My stamina isn't really a problem as long as I have enough to get me through."

  Kyra couldn't believe how little regard Noemi had for such a serious weakness. Worse, she seemed to have convinced herself that it was okay to let the weakness fester. She was only one unexpectedly long battle away from getting wiped out.

  "Can you really spare no time for stamina training at all?" she asked.

  "That would require me to divert training time away from core skills," Noemi replied. "I can't afford to do that. I'm already falling behind as it is."

  "Falling behind what?"

  "All the top hunters in Concordia are already C-rank. I'm talking about the ones like me, whose powers awakened after Teelameer. I'm falling behind the pack, Kyra."

  She shook her head. "D-rank is a fine accomplishment. You shouldn't be comparing yourself to other people."

  "It may not matter to you, but it matters to us," Noemi said.

  She looked over at the others. "Is this why you're pushing yourselves so hard? All of you?"

  There were nods all around the party.

  She tried a while longer to talk some sense into them, but she knew it was hopeless. This wasn't a mindset they'd arrived at on a whim. These people had upended their previous lives to make a living killing monsters in magical dungeons.

  Once everyone's stamina was refreshed, it was Lucas's turn to pick the third door.

  The deeper one progressed into a dungeon, the harder it got, and this dungeon was no different. The next battle dragged out longer than the last, and Noemi was noticeably slower toward the end. By that time, the monsters had been whittled down to their last two soldiers, and the party was able to win without issue.

  While the party took another breather, Kyra went about her job checking on them. Once again there were no injuries, and she only had to top up their stamina. With results like this, she could see why Noemi was confident in her team's ability to push to the end of the dungeon. Her strategy seemed to revolve around the idea that victory would be theirs so long as the enemy's strength dwindled faster than her own. In an E-rank dungeon, this was all but assured.

  "It's a good thing we have you around," Noemi said cheerfully when Kyra put a hand to her forehead. "Otherwise with how many rooms this place has, we could tire ourselves out and have to come back a second day."

  They'd been proceeding forward, and each room added three new doors to open. At some point they would have to backtrack and clear out the unopened rooms along the way, and who knew how many new rooms those would lead to.

  "I thought you guys never go raiding without a healer," she said.

  "We don't," Noemi replied. "But none of our other healers could help us recover stamina like this."

  This remark gave her pause. She'd always thought of the recovery spell as a very basic one. Tristis had learned it on his own when his gift of healing rose to E-rank, and then he'd taught the rest of the team. That's why she hadn't given a second thought to using it among hunters who weren't in on her secret.

  This meant that the healer situation was worse than she thought. Not only was there a shortage, but the capabilities of the ones out there were substandard.

  She may have to talk to Tristis about reviewing the association's training program.

  Her thoughts were interrupted by Alba. "Hey, guys?"

  Their eyes all turned to where the archer was pointing. One of the doors into the next chambers was opening on its own.