Chapter 239 – Choice

Chapter 239

Choice

Date : Day 1 of Firstthaw 1024 Aethellgard Concord Year.

Freedom Party’s six days of rest between dungeon dives passed in a blur. Somewhere in that blur, the month changed too. Winter was finally over. Spring was on its way.

Hyoren stood on the porch of Wyvern Street Manor and looked up.

The silver sun Luna still shone bright in the sky. But it was no longer alone. A small speck of golden light sat beside it—the golden sun Sol.

Spring really was coming.

The air was still cold, but not the bone-deep kind anymore. His breath came out in a thin white mist and faded quickly.

Snow still covered Akela City. The roofs, the fences, and the yard in front of him were all white.

But nothing was falling from the sky.

He lowered his gaze to his party members, already geared up and waiting, and smiled.

“It's finally Firstthaw…”

Beside Hyoren, the silver-haired elven ranger scanned the yard. Her Moonveil Bow was slung on her shoulder as her emerald eyes gazed at the thawing snow. A smile bloomed on Elise's face.

“Seven to ten more days and the snow should be gone completely.”

She tucked a strand of silver hair behind her pointed ear.

“I can't wait. Then I can finally start planting the garden with herbs and flowers. Fufu.”

Hyoren nodded.

“That would be nice.”

Meanwhile, Jackey's tabby cat ears flattened at once.

“Elise… No smelly herbs, okay? My nose will die!”

Elise tilted her head. Her emerald eyes curved with amusement.

“No promises, Jackey. Fufufu.”

Jackey's shoulders dropped.

“Nooo…”

Arianna hid her mouth behind the back of her hand.

“Ohoho. You will just have to endure it, Jackey. I think a garden full of flowers and herbs sounds lovely.”

Jackey's tail drooped to the floor.

“Even Arianna is on her side…”

Everyone laughed.

Hyoren shook his head with a wry smile and looked over the other two.

Arianna held her Quadraflux Weaver in one hand, her wide-brimmed hat sitting neatly on her crimson hair. Beside her, Jackey had already forgotten his defeat. His Bloody Axe and Blackmaw Tomahawk hung at his waist, and his tail was swaying again.

Both of them were ready to go.

“Shall we go, everyone?”

Arianna touched the brim of her hat and nodded.

“Yes, Leader.”

Jackey threw his fist into the air.

“Let's go, Big Bro! I rested too much! Time to whack skulkers again! WOHOO!”

Hyoren chuckled and stepped off the porch. The others followed.

Freedom Party was on the move again.

They walked through the streets of Akela, heading for the North Gate.

The snow crunched under their boots. It was softer than before, and wet at the edges where the light of the two suns touched it. Water dripped slowly from the roofs.

There were more people outside now. Shopkeepers swept snow off their doorsteps. A few street vendors were back in their usual spots, and the smell of grilled meat drifted through the cold air.

Jackey's nose twitched. His head turned toward the stall.

Arianna calmly took his arm and pulled him along.

“We already had breakfast, Jackey.”

Jackey looked back over his shoulder. His tail pointed at the stall.

“But it smells good…”

Arianna did not let go.

“After the dive.”

Jackey's ears perked up.

“Promise?”

Arianna smiled softly.

“I promise.”

Elise giggled as she watched them.

“Those two get along so well, don't they, Hyoren? Fufu.”

Hyoren smiled.

“Yeah. They do.”

Before long, the North Gate came into view. The stone wall rose above the snowy street, and a short line of travelers waited in front of it.

When their turn came, the gatekeeper checked their identity.

He looked at the Guild Card, then at the four of them, and nodded.

“Freedom Party. Back to the dungeon already?”

Hyoren took the card back and put it away.

“Yes. Our rest is over.”

The gatekeeper grinned.

“Well, at least it's warmer now. Take care out there.”

Hyoren gave him a small nod.

“Thank you.”

They passed through the gate and boarded the carriage service.

The four of them settled into the cabin, Hyoren beside Elise, Jackey and Arianna across from them. The door closed. The driver called out, and the wheels began to turn.

White fields rolled past the window. Here and there, dark patches of earth showed through the thinning snow.

Elise leaned lightly against Hyoren's shoulder.

“Spring really is coming…”

Hyoren looked at the faint golden light in the sky.

“Yeah.”

The carriage rocked gently along the road, carrying them to Dungeon Town.

***

Freedom Party arrived at Dungeon Town.

The carriage stopped at the station beside the gate, and the four of them stepped down onto the wet snow. The town was as noisy as ever. Hammers rang from a half-built roof. Merchants shouted prices from their stalls. Meltwater ran in thin lines along the edge of the street.

They did not stop to look around. They went straight to the Adventurer's Guild Branch.

Warm air greeted them when Hyoren pushed the door open. Behind the counter, Sherly looked up from her documents and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose.

“Freedom Party! Here for another dive?”

Hyoren took out the four Guild Cards and placed them on the counter.

“Yes. Please register us for the Dungeon Exploration Quest, Sherly.”

Sherly gathered the cards and set them on the registration device. It hummed softly. A blue light passed over the cards, then faded.

She handed them back with a smile.

“All done. May fortune smile upon you.”

Hyoren put the cards away.

“Thank you.”

Jackey was already at the door, his tail swaying from side to side.

“Dungeon time, Big Bro!”

Elise giggled behind him.

“He can't wait at all. Fufu.”

They left the guild and followed the main street to the Old Quarry tunnel. Then they entered the dungeon waiting room.

The underground chamber was packed. Parties sat in circles checking their gear. Someone was counting potions out loud. The smell of oil, leather, and torch smoke hung under the stone ceiling.

At the far end stood the enormous stone Archway, and two Guild Guards in front of it.

Hyoren handed over the party's Guild Card. One of the guards checked it.

“Freedom Party. Dungeon Exploration Quest confirmed. Go ahead.”

Hyoren took the card back and nodded.

“Thanks.”

The four of them stepped up to the Archway.

Hyoren reached out and touched its solid surface. The stone was cold under his palm.

And instantly, a mocking, oily voice assaulted his mind.

Hoaaahmmm. Oh. The pretend heroes are back. Xixixi. You want to farm experience? Well, I'm bored already, so just enter.

It was Gidol. Even his yawn sounded like a sneer.

Hyoren ignored it. He gave his answer in his mind.

Yes.

The world twisted. The ground vanished from under their feet for a moment, then came back.

Freedom Party stood in the Starting Room of the First Floor.

The room was full. Dozens of adventurers crowded the chamber, and many of them turned their heads the moment the four appeared. Whispers spread from one group to the next. Some pointed.

Jackey's ears twitched. He leaned toward Arianna.

“Arianna, they are staring again…”

Arianna adjusted the brim of her hat.

“Let them stare, Jackey. Ohoho.”

Hyoren walked on without slowing down.

Ignoring every stare, the four of them climbed the raised platform in the middle of the room. The crimson teleport orb floated there above its stone pedestal, swirling slowly.

Hyoren looked back at his party.

“Ready?”

Elise rested a hand on her Moonveil Bow and smiled.

“Always.”

Jackey thumped his chest with his fist.

“Ready, Big Bro! WOHOO!”

Arianna gave a graceful nod.

“Whenever you are, Leader.”

They touched the orb together. A chill ran up Hyoren's arm.

He spoke in his mind.

Fifth Floor.

Instantly, the Starting Room disappeared. The stares, the whispers, and the noise were cut off all at once.

Solid ground returned under their boots. They were in the Safe Room on the Fifth Floor. It was quiet. No other party stood here. The only movement was the rippling gate on the far wall, waiting.

Hyoren let out a slow breath and tightened his grip on his shield. This was where they would start pioneering again.

***

Freedom Party stepped through the shimmering gate and entered the dungeon proper of the Fifth Floor.

The familiar scenery of Akela Dungeon greeted Hyoren.

The same corridor. The same cracked flagstones. Dust in the corners and cobwebs in the cracks of the walls. Pale blue magic lamps glowed on the ceiling and washed the old stone in cold light.

It was similar to the first four floors, yet a little different.

The air was cool and dry. Nothing moved ahead of them.

Hyoren checked his gear.

He tapped lightly on his Steel Kite Shield. The metal answered with a dull sound.

The custom shield he had ordered from Borin was not finished yet. When he went to the dwarf blacksmith at the promised time, Borin had sent him away at the door, hammer still in hand.

“Wait another week, lad! I want to put more effort into this!”

So for now, he still had to rely on this borrowed one.

Hyoren smiled wryly and looked at his party members.

Everyone was in their usual gear. They had not bought or upgraded anything during the break.

Everyone except Arianna.

She was wearing the robe that dropped from the Fourth Floor Guardian.

The robe had an elegant design, with a hood that could be folded back if the wearer preferred to go without it. Its front was left open, with no ties or fastenings meant to close it, so the inner lining stayed visible.

The outer fabric was a rich, deep-purple brocade. The inner lining was a striking crimson satin. Golden embroidery and delicate gold accents ran across the surface and caught the blue light of the lamps. It looked like something a royal archmage would wear.

The matching wide-brimmed hat followed the same color scheme.

They had it appraised during the break, and learned its name—Royal Mage Robe.

Its effect was simple but powerful. It made the wearer more efficient with Aethell. In short, the Aethell cost of casting magic went down by ten to fifteen percent. It was not much. But for a mage, every boost was important.

The lining was also inscribed with a blade-resistant runic array. It looked like a regular robe, but it could protect her as well as a decent set of leather armor.

Arianna noticed his gaze. She lifted one side of the robe a little, and the crimson lining showed.

“Does it suit me, Leader? Ohoho.”

Hyoren nodded.

“It does. And it will keep you safer too.”

Jackey's tail swayed behind him.

“Arianna looks like a princess mage! So cool!”

Arianna hid her mouth behind the back of her hand, her cheeks a little red.

“Flattery will get you nothing, Jackey. Ohoho.”

Meanwhile, the other two were in their usual gear and already prepared for battle. Elise had her Moonveil Bow in hand. Jackey had drawn the Bloody Axe and the Blackmaw Tomahawk.

Hyoren nodded, satisfied. Everyone was ready.

“Okay. We are on the Fifth Floor. By our pattern theory, this should be a horde floor.”

He gazed down the empty corridor, then looked back at his party.

“But the dungeon could still throw a surprise at us. So we need to be careful.”

Elise tucked a strand of silver hair behind her pointed ear.

“We will. No rushing ahead.”

Jackey rested his Bloody Axe on his shoulder and grinned.

“Careful, Big Bro! Then whack them all!”

Arianna adjusted the brim of her new hat.

“Understood, Leader.”

Hyoren then looked at Elise.

“So, Elise. How big is this floor?”

Elise traced the wood of her bow with her fingertips.

“Wait a minute.”

She closed her eyes and checked the map in her mind. Her Mapping skill gave her the rough size of a floor even when nothing on it was filled in yet.

Not long after, her emerald eyes opened.

“Roughly the same as the Fourth Floor. It's not small, but not massive either.”

Hyoren let out a small breath.

“Good. Then let's go. Elise, please.”

Elise smiled.

“Leave it to me. Fufu.”

She took point.

She crouched slightly and activated her skills one after another. Silent Step first, and the sound of her boots on the flagstones faded. Then Tracking. Then Trap Dismantling.

She started walking.

The others followed her.

***

The corridor stretched in front of them.

It was nothing like the first four floors. No turns. No side paths. Just one long, straight line of stone running into the distance, so far that the intersection at the end looked no bigger than a fingernail.

Hyoren would have called it boring, if not for the doors.

Every few dozen meters, a wooden door sat in the wall. One on the left. Further on, one on the right. Then another. They went on like that for as far as the pale blue lamps let him see.

Elise stopped in front of the first one and raised her hand. Nobody needed to be told. All of them had learned to freeze when she did that.

The silver-haired elven ranger crouched and brought her face close to the wood. Her emerald eyes followed the frame, then the hinges, then the thin gap at the bottom. Her fingers hovered over the handle without touching it. She was looking for a trap.

That left Hyoren with nothing to do but look at the door itself.

And the longer he looked, the more it bothered him. Not because it seemed dangerous. Because it seemed so ordinary. Thick wooden planks. Metal fittings holding them together. Heavy iron hinges. A single door, two or three meters tall, like something taken out of a medieval castle.

It is so unassuming…

He tapped his chin.

“The First Floor and Second Floor had corridors that widened into small chambers…”

He raised a finger for each one as he went.

“The Third Floor was endless corridors. The Fourth Floor was endless traps. And now the Fifth Floor gives us… doors?”

It sounded so silly out loud that he chuckled.

“Is this floor a labyrinth made of doors? We have to find the correct one to reach the Guardian chamber?”

Arianna followed his gaze down the corridor, door after door after door, and her smile stiffened a little.

“Please do not say that so cheerfully, Leader. If you are right, we will be opening doors until summer.”

Jackey only shrugged, as if he could not see the problem.

“Then we open all of them, Big Bro. One by one. Easy.”

Hyoren's smile turned wry.

“That is exactly what she's worried about, Jackey...”

A soft giggle came from the door. Elise stood up and brushed the dust from her knees.

“You three sound like you're having fun.”

She smiled.

“Anyway, there's no trap. It's just…”

She waved a hand at the whole thing, top to bottom.

“A normal door.”

Jackey let his axe drop onto his shoulder. His tail sank with it.

“A normal door? Just a boring door? Where are the skulkers? I think this floor is supposed to be full of skulkers!”

Arianna gave him a gentle look.

“Patience, Jackey.”

She shifted her wide-brimmed hat, and its golden decorations glittered under the pale glow of the magic lamps.

“Though I was thinking the same thing. An odd-numbered floor is supposed to have a lot of enemies.”

Elise looked from one to the other. The corner of her mouth went up.

“Oh? You two want goblins?”

Without turning around, she pointed a finger back at the door she had just finished checking.

“There are a lot of them right behind this. Fufufu.”

For a second, nobody said anything.

Hyoren looked at the door again. It did not look any less ordinary than before.

“Really, Elise?”

Elise's pointed ears twitched.

“Really. I could hear them when I listened closely. Guttural snarls, and many of them.”

That was all Jackey needed. His tabby cat ears shot up, his tail followed, and his axe cut a wide arc through the air.

“Finally! Skulkers to whack! WOHOO!”

Everyone laughed.

Arianna was the first to catch herself. She pressed a finger to her lips.

“Not so loud, Jackey. They will hear you before the door even opens. Ohoho.”

Jackey's grin faltered.

“Oops…”

Hyoren shook his head in exasperation before he looked at Elise.

“Okay. It's safe to open, right, Elise?”

The silver-haired elf nodded.

“The door is. What's behind it is your job. Fufu.”

Hyoren smiled.

“Fair enough.”

He raised his shield and crossed to the door. The iron handle was cold in his hand. Behind him, a bowstring tightened, and the butt of a staff touched the floor.

He pushed. The door opened slowly, with a long creak.

***

The door opened onto a vast room.

Hyoren stopped at the threshold with his shield up and looked over the rim.

It was a square room, built from the same stone as the corridor. It had the same feel too, like the ruins of an ancient castle. Cracks ran across the walls and the flagstone floor. Old crates and barrels sat in the corners, gray with dust, as if someone had stored them here long ago and never come back.

The size was what caught him. It was about as big as the school gymnasium he remembered. Not as massive as the Guardian chambers of the Second Floor and the Fourth Floor, but still far too big to call a room.

And in the middle of it were goblins—many goblins.

They stood packed together under the pale blue lamps, skulking and snarling at each other. A few scratched themselves. A few bared their teeth at nothing.

But none of them moved from their spot.

Hyoren waited for one of them to notice him. None did. Not when he leaned closer to the doorway. Not even earlier, when Jackey had shouted right outside the door.

They don't react at all…

He tried to count them. He gave up somewhere past fifty. There could easily be a hundred.

So he activated his Magic Eyes instead, and the result of the appraisal surfaced in his mind.

Goblin — Level 20

Weak Point: Brain (Head), Heart (Left Chest)

State: Healthy

He moved to the next one. The same. And the next. The same again.

Hyoren narrowed his eyes.

No elite goblins. No dungeon-exclusive variants. Only… normal goblins…

That was almost harder to trust than a room full of elites. He searched the crowd one more time.

No Goblin Caster that could summon more of them…

His gaze dropped to the floor.

No summoning Runic Array either, like the one in the Monster Room that kept respawning them…

Then he looked along the walls, one side after another. Stone. Stone. Stone. No door, no archway, no passage leading out. A dead end.

So Arianna might be right...

He chuckled inwardly.

We might really have to find the correct door to reach the Guardian chamber…

He pulled his head back and turned to his party. Three pairs of eyes were already on him.

“About a hundred goblins. Level 20, which is pretty high. But they're normal ones. No dungeon-exclusive variants. No complications…”

He paused.

“Yet. We don't know if the room itself has one.”

Elise glanced past his shoulder at the doorway, her fingers resting on her bowstring.

“A hundred, and not one of them came to look… That's the part I don't like.”

Jackey did not seem to share her worry. He was already grinning.

“A hundred skulkers… That's a lot of whacking, Big Bro.”

Arianna let out a small sigh at him, though she was smiling too.

“We will be careful, Leader. Even if a certain someone forgets to be.”

Hyoren looked at her while chuckling.

“Once again, we'll rely on you to clear the mob efficiently, Arianna.”

The crimson-haired mage nodded and gripped her Quadraflux Weaver a little tighter.

“Understood, Leader.”

Then he turned to Jackey and Elise.

“And we will use a choke point. I'll kite the goblins and funnel them through this door, so we don't get overwhelmed.”

He knocked on the wooden frame with the back of his hand.

“I'll stand behind the door. Arianna unleashes her spells on the crowd inside. Our job is to stop any goblin from reaching her.”

Jackey rolled his shoulders and let his tabby cat tail swing wide.

“So nothing gets past the door. Got it, Big Bro!”

Elise smiled and drew an arrow from her quiver.

“Like the stone bridge, then. Only smaller. Fufu.”

That was exactly it. Hyoren did not need to add anything.

He unsheathed Dawn Breaker.

“Let's do this.”

Freedom Party moved into their positions.

***

Hyoren stood behind the open door and raised his shield.

Cool air drifted out of the room and brushed his face, carrying the sour smell of goblins with it, sweat and dirt and something older underneath. He could hear them clearly from here. A hundred throats, growling low and out of rhythm, like a kennel just before feeding time.

The plan was simple. Pull them, hold the doorway, and let Arianna do the rest.

“Provoke.”

He felt the skill activate. The familiar wave of Aethell left his body, and he set his back foot against the flagstones, ready for the flood of green bodies that was about to pour through the door.

But nothing happened.

No snarls rose. No footsteps came. The goblins stood exactly where they had been, scratching their ribs and muttering to one another, as if nobody had called them at all.

Hyoren's eyes widened.

“What?”

He was not the only one caught off guard. Behind him, Jackey's ears perked, and Arianna had leaned forward to stare past his shoulder into the room.

Hyoren furrowed his eyebrows. He had felt the skill go off. There was no mistake about that.

“They're not affected by Provoke?”

Elise's grip tightened on her Moonveil Bow until the silver wood creaked softly.

“Should I try to get their attention?”

Hyoren nodded without taking his eyes off the goblins.

“Please, Elise.”

She stepped to his side, nocked an arrow, and drew the string to her cheek in one smooth motion. For a breath, the corridor was so quiet that Hyoren could hear the bow bending.

Then she loosed the arrow.

SWOOSH!

The arrow cut through the air, straight at the nearest goblin's head. It reached the doorway. It crossed the threshold.

And it was gone.

There was no impact. No clatter of wood on stone. The arrow did not fall or bounce away. It simply stopped existing the moment it entered the room, as if something invisible had opened its mouth and swallowed it whole.

Elise slowly lowered her bow. Her emerald eyes stayed fixed on the empty air where her arrow should have been.

“What…?”

Arianna's fingers tightened around her staff.

“Mentor's arrow just… disappeared?”

She did not wait for anyone to answer. Her light blue eyes had already narrowed, the way they did when a puzzle caught her interest, and she stepped forward with the Quadraflux Weaver raised.

“Leader, let me try too.”

Hyoren moved aside to give her a clear line to the door.

“Go on, Arianna.”

The purple-robed mage activated her spell.

“Fireball.”

An orb of flame swelled at the tip of her staff. Heat washed over Hyoren's cheek, and the cold blue stone around them turned orange as the fireball shot toward the room with a low roar.

It reached the doorway. And just like Elise's arrow, it vanished the instant it crossed. The roar cut off. The orange light died. As if the flame had never been cast.

Arianna did not let the confusion slow her down. If something thrown from the outside would not go in, then she would make the spell appear on the inside instead. She switched at once.

“Earth Spikes.”

She pictured them clearly. Dozens of stone spikes bursting from the ground beneath the goblins' feet, the way they had so many times before.

Nothing rose. The flagstones in the room did not so much as tremble. A goblin near the front yawned, showing its yellow teeth.

Arianna lowered her staff with a small breath. It was a futile effort.

For a while, nobody spoke. 

Jackey looked from the door to Arianna and back again with his mouth half open. Elise was still frowning at the spot where her arrow had vanished. The growling of the goblins went on, calm and undisturbed, and somehow that made it worse.

Hyoren stared at the doorway.

It's like the room is in a different dimension from the corridor… My Magic Eyes could still appraise them from the doorway. We can hear them and smell them from here, too… 

But my Provoke, Elise's arrow, and Arianna's spells were all used from outside the room…

Things can come out, but nothing can go in…?

If that was right, there was a simple way to check.

He adjusted his grip on his shield.

“Everyone. I'm going to try something.”

He walked through the doorway.

The air changed the moment he crossed. It was colder inside, and the smell was far stronger, thick enough that he could almost taste it. The growling was no longer something he heard from a distance. It was all around him now. He stopped just one step in, close enough that he could still feel the door frame at his back, and raised his shield.

“Provoke.”

This time, the wave of Aethell spread across the room properly, rolling out from him until it touched the far walls.

The effect was instant. Every goblin snarled at once. A hundred heads snapped toward him, a hundred pairs of eyes turned bloodshot, and the whole crowd broke into a charge. Bare feet slapped the stone. The floor shook under his boots.

Hyoren watched them come with his eyebrows still furrowed.

“It worked!”

He narrowed his eyes.

“Then… what about this?”

He jumped backward, out of the room.

The effect was just as instant. The red drained from the goblins' eyes. The charge fell apart in the middle of a stride. One by one they turned around, shuffled back to the center of the room, and went back to scratching and muttering under the pale blue lamps.

It was as if Hyoren had never been there.

He let out the breath he had been holding and nodded slowly. 

So that's how this room works...

He turned to his party. All three of them were waiting for him to explain what they had just seen.

“It seems… This room might be in a separate dimension from the corridor. What happens outside doesn't affect the inside at all…”

Arianna adjusted her robe, and the crimson lining showed at the open front. She did not look bothered that her spells had failed. If anything, she looked satisfied to have a reason for it.

“It does seem so, Leader.”

She glanced at the room before she looked back at her party leader.

"And it seems the inside can still be observed from outside. Your appraisal worked, and we could smell and hear the goblins from the corridor. So we can observe the room from outside, but we cannot affect it?”

Hyoren nodded.

“I think so, Arianna.”

Elise glanced at the room, where the goblins stood snarling as if nothing had happened.

“So we can't fight at a choke point anymore…”

She looked back at her party leader.

“What do we do now, Hyoren?”

Jackey answered before Hyoren could. His axe went up over his head, and his tail spiraled behind him.

“Of course we charge and whack the skulkers! WOHOO!”

Hyoren chuckled. He should have expected that.

“That's one way to do it, yes.”

But his eyes had already moved away from the room. He looked down the long corridor instead, at the row of wooden doors that waited one after another until they were too small to see.

“The First Floor was just like a normal dungeon. The Second Floor taught us to fight coordinated elite enemies. The Third Floor taught us to manage endless hordes and avoid getting pincered. The Fourth Floor was about traps…”

He looked back at his party members.

“It seems the theme of this Fifth Floor is… choice…”

Three heads tilted at the same time.

Elise was the one who asked.

“Choice…? What do you mean, Hyoren?”

Hyoren smiled.

“We could ignore this room entirely and move on. Open the next door and see what's inside. Whether it's similar to this one or not. Or whether it's the door to the Guardian chamber instead.”

He pointed from one door to the next as he spoke.

“We could keep opening doors like that, ignoring whatever is inside and moving on. Or we could fight the monsters in them. Or maybe we could walk into a treasure room instead.”

The more he said it out loud, the more familiar it sounded. He chuckled inwardly.

This floor is like a dungeon-crawling RPG game… Opening room after room while navigating a labyrinth. Some rooms have monsters. Some have treasure. Some have traps. Some even have a mimic chest…

Gidol is truly…

He did not finish the thought. He didn't need to overcomplicate his theory by thinking about something he couldn't confirm.

He looked at his party members again.

“We could go with ‘charge and whack’. Just like Jackey suggested.”

The Cat-clan Beastkin lifted his axe even higher, golden eyes shining.

“Yes, please!”

Hyoren smiled at him.

“Or we ignore this room.”

He shrugged, as if it made little difference to him either way. But he had already counted the goblins, measured the room, and thought about how wide Arianna's spells could reach.

“But I think, with our current party, we can deal with that number. As long as Arianna uses her wide area-of-attack spells.”

He tapped his shield, and the metal rang softly.

“We once faced 1,500 goblins at the same time anyway. And we're at a higher level now.”

Jackey nodded so hard that his ears bounced.

“Yes, please! I want to whack!”

Everyone laughed. The sound echoed down the empty corridor and came back to them, lighter than anything else on this floor.

Elise nocked another arrow, still smiling.

“Well. It does look like a manageable number.”

Then her smile widened into a grin. Hyoren knew that grin very well. It was the face Hyoren made himself whenever he found a good hunting spot, and she was copying it on purpose.

“And as you always say, it's a good place to grind. Fufu.”

Hyoren smiled wryly.

“Please, Elise…”

But he could not hold the wry smile for long. The exact same grin spread across his own face.

“But you're right. It's a good place to grind. We didn't get much experience on the previous floor. So it's time to get it on this one.”

The others laughed and nodded.

Hyoren turned back to the door.

Beyond the threshold, the goblins were still waiting. A hundred of them, Level 20, standing under the cold blue light without the slightest idea of what was about to walk in. There was no choke point this time. No bridge, no narrow corridor, no door to hide behind. Whatever happened in that room would stay in that room.

A few months ago, that would have been a reason to turn around.

Now Elise stood at his left with an arrow on the string. Arianna stood behind him in her new robe, her staff already raised. Jackey bounced on his toes at his right, barely able to hold himself back. Hyoren tightened his grip on Dawn Breaker and raised his shield.

The first door of the Fifth Floor was open—and Freedom Party was ready to walk through it.