Chapter 240 – When the Dungeon Keeps Throwing Surprises

Chapter 240

When the Dungeon Keeps Throwing Surprises

Date : Day 1 of Firstthaw 1024 Aethellgard Concord Year.

Hyoren looked at his party members. Elise. Jackey. Arianna.

“Let's go.”

He did not wait for their answer. He did not need one. He knew they would follow.

He charged into the room with his shield raised.

The cold and the stench closed around him again, and the growling rose on every side. He took three more steps, deep enough that the whole crowd was in front of him, and planted his feet.

“Provoke.”

The wave of Aethell washed over the goblins.

They turned their heads toward him at once. Red eyes, and more red eyes behind those, all of them bloodshot. Guttural cries filled the room from wall to wall. Then the mass of green bodies surged forward, so many that he could no longer see the floor between them.

But before the first goblin reached him, Hyoren saw something in the middle of their formation.

A small crimson orb had appeared in the very center of the horde, floating just above their heads.

It did not stay small. It burst outward in a blazing ring that raced across the charging goblins, faster than any of them could run. When the ring reached its full size, it stopped. The flames rose where they stood and became a towering circular wall of fire.

Any goblin caught by the expanding flames dissolved instantly. Those standing where the wall formed met exactly the same fate. There was not even time for them to scream.

Heat rolled across the room and dried Hyoren's eyes. The pale blue light of the lamps was gone, drowned in orange. A few seconds later, the wall of fire receded.

He smiled.

“Ring of Fire… Arianna's fourth-tier fire magic is truly something when it comes to clearing large mobs.”

A hundred goblins had been charging him a moment ago. Now there were gaps everywhere in the green.

He gripped his shield tighter.

“That takes care of almost half of them. Now it's time to do the rest.”

Arianna's spell had devastated the horde, but the survivors did not stop to mourn. They kept charging, eyes still red, trampling over the spots where the others had vanished.

The first group arrived.

They threw themselves at Hyoren and hammered his shield with their rusted, crude weapons.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Each blow shook his arm to the shoulder. Level 20 goblins hit much harder than the ones upstairs. But Hyoren held, and when the next row pressed in behind the first, he pushed back.

“Shield Bash.”

BANG!

The shield slammed into the front row, and the goblins staggered backward into the ones behind them. For a moment they were tangled together, off balance, weapons pointing everywhere except at him.

That moment was enough.

“Sweeping Slash.”

SQUELCH!

Dawn Breaker cut across them in one wide stroke. Three goblins dissolved into Aethell before they hit the floor.

On his right, Jackey was working just as hard.

“WOHOO! Eat this, skulkers!”

He lowered his posture and spread his arms wide in a stance Hyoren had seen many times. The Bloody Axe reached out on one side, the Blackmaw Tomahawk on the other.

“Whirlwind Slash.”

Jackey spun.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

In the next instant, he was a blur. Like a raging whirlwind, he charged straight into the goblins with his whole body rotating, and both axes carved through everything within their reach.

SCREEECK! SCREEECK! SCREEECK!

Goblin after goblin was torn apart, then dissolved into countless particles. Jackey left an empty path behind him, and glowing dust hung in the air where the goblins had been.

Elise did not stay quiet either.

She fought with a ranger's fury. Arrow after arrow left her bow. Her hand never stopped moving, from quiver to string and back again.

“Double Shot.”

SWOOSH! SWOOSH!

Two arrows flew across the room side by side.

SQUELCH! SQUELCH!

Two goblins stopped in the middle of their charge, each with an arrow in its head.

She had already nocked the next one. A goblin had slipped around the edge of Jackey's whirlwind and was raising its club at his back.

SWOOSH!

The arrow struck it in the head, and it dissolved with the club still in the air.

Elise would never let a stray goblin touch one of her party members.

By then, Arianna had recovered from casting her high-tier spell. She raised her staff again and started throwing lower-tier spells to thin the horde.

“Fireball.”

BOOM!

A ball of fire exploded in the middle of the enemy formation and scattered burning goblins in every direction.

She was already aiming at the next cluster.

“Boulder Throw.”

BOOM!

A massive boulder dropped onto the goblins and crushed them where they stood.

The fight went on.

This was not the first time Freedom Party had faced a horde. Even without a choke point to fight from, they were not helpless.

They had plenty of ways to overcome it.

***

The room was cleared not long after.

When the last goblin dissolved, the silence came back so suddenly that Hyoren could hear his own breathing. The smell of scorched stone still hung in the air from Arianna's fire, and all across the floor, small magic stones glittered in the pale blue light, one for every goblin that had fallen.

There were a lot of them. Hyoren, Jackey, and Arianna spread out to pick them up, while Elise left the stones to them and walked slowly along the walls instead. Every so often she stopped to run her fingers over a crack, or knelt to tap a flagstone and listen.

By the time Hyoren picked up the last stone, she had already circled the entire room. He straightened and weighed the little stone in his palm.

“In the end, there were no complications in this room.”

He sounded almost disappointed. Elise noticed, and held out her storage bag with a knowing smile while the three of them emptied their hands. The void on the opening took every magic stone like a bottomless hole.

“No traps either, if that's what you were hoping for.”

The void disappeared as she closed the opening. She tied the storage bag on her belt and glanced back at the wall behind her.

“And before you ask, I went over every wall twice. No hidden door…”

Hyoren let out a small laugh and shook his head. He had not even asked yet.

“So it really was just a normal grind room.”

Jackey was watching him with his head tilted, the Bloody Axe resting on his shoulder. His tail swayed lazily behind him.

“Why do you sound sad about it, Big Bro?”

Hyoren scratched his cheek.

“I'm not sad. I just thought there would be a catch.”

Jackey grinned, wide enough to show his fangs, and swung the axe down to point at the empty room.

“Normal is good! There were skulkers, and I whacked them. Simple! HAHA!”

That was Jackey's entire philosophy, and somehow it was hard to argue with.

Arianna laughed softly as she pushed a few loose strands of crimson hair back under her hat.

“Ohoho. I hate to say it, but he has a point, Leader.”

She looked around at the plain stone walls, the dusty crates, the floor without a single hidden mechanism.

“After everything on the previous floor, a little normal is rather nice.”

Hyoren could not argue with that either. After the Fourth Floor, where every step had to be checked twice and every wall might shoot something at them, a room that was just a room did feel like a luxury.

“Well. That's true.”

He took one last look around, then nodded toward the door.

“Let's keep going.”

Back in the corridor, the floor stretched on just as before, long and straight beneath the pale blue lamps, with doors waiting on both sides. They had barely walked a minute before Elise stopped at the next one. This time it was on the right.

She crouched to check it. The others waited in silence until she stood up again, brushing the dust off her knees.

“No trap again.”

Then she waved a hand at the door, and her lips curved.

“And guess what's inside. Fufufu.”

Jackey's ears shot straight up.

“Skulkers?”

Elise nodded.

“Obviously. Lots of them.”

Hyoren was already drawing Dawn Breaker. He pushed the door open.

It was the same vast room. The same crates in the corners, the same cold light, and in the middle of it, the same hundred goblins snarling and scratching as if the first room had never happened.

He could not stop the grin spreading across his face.

“Well. Time to grind again? Haha.”

Jackey answered with a cheer that bounced all the way down the corridor. Behind Hyoren, Arianna was already raising her staff, and Elise already had an arrow on the string. Neither of them bothered to say yes. It was obvious.

So they walked in and did it all again.

The second room fell even faster than the first. They gathered the stones, stepped back out, and walked on, and soon there was a third door, with a third room behind it, just as full of goblins as the others.

This time, Hyoren paused before he went in.

He looked at the door in front of him, then back down the corridor at the one they had just left. It was close. Far too close.

“The dimensions don't match…”

Elise followed his gaze.

“Hm? What do you mean, Hyoren?”

Hyoren furrowed his eyebrows.

“Each of those rooms is huge. But the doors are only a short walk apart.”

He gestured from one door to the other.

“If the rooms were really sitting behind these walls, they'd be overlapping each other many times over.”

He narrowed his eyes.

“The rooms truly are in a different dimension.”

Elise looked from door to door, and her pointed ears drooped a little.

“That's… a bit unsettling, now that you say it out loud.”

Jackey only shrugged and twirled his tomahawk.

“Big room, small door. Dungeon is weird, Big Bro. Weird is normal! HAHA!”

Arianna smiled.

“No need to overthink this, Leader. Ohoho.”

Hyoren smiled wryly. Jackey and Arianna were right. There was no need to overanalyze it.

And without further discussion, they cleared the third room.

Then they found a fourth door, and cleared that one too.

Somewhere along the way, it stopped feeling strange. Elise checked the door. Hyoren opened it. Arianna's spell swallowed half the room, and the rest crashed against his shield, Jackey's axes, and Elise's arrows. Then came the quiet, the glittering stones on the floor, and the walk to the next door.

Again. And again.

Their storage bag grew fuller with every room. Jackey's cheers grew no quieter. And Hyoren found himself grinning a little wider each time he reached for a handle.

It had become a routine.

***

By the ninth door, Freedom Party no longer expected anything new.

The door in front of them looked exactly like the eight before it. The same height, the same heavy planks, the same iron hinges. 

Jackey was already rolling his shoulders for another round of goblins, and even Hyoren had his hand halfway to the handle.

But Elise had not survived this long as a scout by trusting a pattern. She checked the ninth door just as carefully as she had checked the first.

Her hand shot up while her emerald eyes scrutinized the door.

“Wait, everyone. This door is trapped.”

Hyoren's hand stopped in midair. Behind him, Jackey froze mid-stretch, and Arianna's staff went still.

Without wasting time on explanation, Elise was already moving. She slung her bow over her shoulder, drew her short sword, and crouched.

She checked the door carefully. A tap on the frame. A long look at the handle. Then the hinges, then the thin gap where wood met stone. It was there that she found the trap mechanism. It was a wire, fine as a hair, running from the inside of the door down into the floor.

She slid her blade under it and gave a small twist. Somewhere beneath the flagstones, something clicked.

Only then did she push the door open and point her sword at the floor just past the threshold.

“A spear would have shot up from right here if we'd opened it carelessly.”

Hyoren looked at the spot, right where his foot would have landed.

“That was dangerous…”

His dark eyes moved from the trap spot to the room. What he found surprised him.

After eight huge rooms, this one was small, hardly bigger than a storeroom. The difference was not only size. There were no goblins or other monsters. The room only contained a wooden chest sitting alone in the middle of the floor.

Jackey saw it first.

“WOHOO! Treasure chest!”

Arianna caught his shoulder before he could run.

“Jackey, wait!”

The Cat-clan Beastkin stopped and tilted his head.

“What's the problem, Arianna? It's a treasure chest!”

The crimson-haired mage shook her head in exasperation.

“Jackey… Don't forget… Unlike the chests in the Monster Room and the Guardian Chambers, a chest in the dungeon proper might be trapped.”

Jackey’s tabby cat ears flattened.

“Oh…”

Hyoren laughed.

“Arianna is right, Jackey. And weren't you the one who told us that in the first place?”

Jackey scratched his cheek, and his tabby cat tail swished once.

“Well… I forgot…”

Everyone laughed, Jackey included. 

After the laugh subsided, Elise stepped past them with a confident gait, her silver hair swaying with each step.

“Let me check for the trap first.”

The rest of Freedom Party waited patiently while she knelt beside the chest. 

She started to check the chest. She did not touch the lid. She went over the lock, the seams, and the gap underneath, and just as they had feared, the chest was trapped too. It was a simple arrow trap, set to fire at whoever lifted the lid. Simple, but from that distance and at that angle, an arrow could easily have found a throat.

One more soft click, and Elise stood up, sheathing her sword.

“So both the door and the chest were trapped.”

She looked at her party members.

“The dungeon really is telling us never to get careless.”

Hyoren smiled. After the Fourth Floor, none of them needed to be told twice.

“Yes. Always be careful and never be complacent.”

He knelt and lifted the lid himself. Two silver coins lay at the bottom, beside a single glass bottle, and when he picked the bottle up, the blue liquid inside sloshed against the glass.

Elise leaned over his shoulder to see.

“Money and a magic potion.”

Before Hyoren could do anything with the bottle, Arianna plucked it from his hand and held it up to the lamplight. Her eyes widened.

“This is a high grade… Quite a haul.”

Not to be outdone, Jackey scooped up the two silver coins, one in each hand.

“And two million Kres! The dungeon is making us rich! HAHA!”

That set everyone laughing again. 

Hyoren held out his hands until the two of them, a little reluctantly, gave the loot back. He quickly stored everything in his storage bag.

Afterwards, he looked back toward the corridor.

“This floor looks pretty good so far…”

He tilted his head toward the long line of doors outside.

“If we want to dive deeper, we can ignore the rooms and just search for the Guardian Chamber.”

He tapped his shield once.

“Or we can grind efficiently. We fight every goblin we encounter so we could get experience and magic stones to sell.”

He gestured over to the small room they were in.

“And some rooms even give us treasure.”

The more he laid it out, the more he liked it. He smiled.

“This floor is truly a good floor for adventurers.”

Nobody argued. Arianna nodded at once.

“Ohoho. A floor that gives us choice is always good.”

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

“Yes… We could choose to defeat every goblin, or rush for a quick dive.”

Jackey's tail swished behind him. He had already forgotten his embarrassment.

“And don't forget this floor has a lot of skulkers to whack!”

Hyoren looked at his party members. They were wearing satisfied expressions. Just like him, they felt this floor was a good floor to dive.

He gripped his shield, and his dark eyes moved to the door.

“Well, enough talking. Time to move again, everyone.”

With that settled, Freedom Party continued their dive.

***

Hyoren checked the pocket watch hanging from his neck. Inside the dungeon there was no sun to tell the time, only the same pale blue lamps glowing on and on. But the hands on the watch could tell him the time.

It's already evening… We should rest soon…

Afterwards, Freedom Party found a dead-end corner off the main corridor and set up their camp.

It was a routine they knew by heart. 

Jackey hammered the stakes into the gaps between the flagstones while Hyoren pulled the ropes tight, and soon two tents stood side by side against the stone wall. 

Arianna set The Sanctuary in the middle of their camp. After she poured Aethell on the magic tool, a faint dome of light spread over them before settling quietly into the air.

While the others worked on creating their camp, Elise had already started cooking. Before long, the smell of stew filled the little corner, warm and savory, and it made the cold stone around them feel almost like home. 

The four of them sat in a circle with steaming bowls in their hands. They ate in silence, seemingly wanting to savor the stew to warm their exhausted bodies.

Hyoren was the first to finish. He set his empty bowl down beside him and looked at Elise.

“So, how's the mapping going, Elise?”

He paused.

“We've already walked for a whole day, so our progress should be significant.”

Jackey and Arianna turned to her too, waiting for their scout's answer.

Elise was still chewing her last mouthful of stew. She held up one finger, swallowed, and only then spoke.

“Wait a minute.”

She put down her bowl and closed her eyes.

Inside her mind, her Mapping skill showed everything. Every room they had entered, every intersection they had passed today, all of it recorded line by line. Her brows drew together slightly as she checked the mental map.

Then her emerald eyes opened again.

“Hmm. The floor actually isn't that big.”

She glanced around the stone corridors. A few meters away from their camp, they could see many familiar wooden doors.

“But because we decided to enter every room, it slowed us down.”

She smiled.

“Especially the rooms with goblins, it cost us time to kill them all.”

She looked around at her party members.

“But, our progress is still good. We've mapped about eighteen percent of the Fifth Floor.”

Hyoren nodded slowly.

“I see. Eighteen percent in one day.”

He looked at the magic lamps in the ceiling as he did the math in his head.

“That means it will take us around five days… or six, if something slows us down.”

Jackey set his first bowl down, already empty, and pointed his spoon at Hyoren.

“It's a fun floor, though, Big Bro! I love this floor!”

Elise was already holding out a second bowl to him. Everyone knew one would never be enough for Jackey.

He took it happily and kept talking.

“I could whack a lot of skulkers! And we got a treasure chest on top of it!”

Then he started wolfing down his second serving as if he had not eaten all day.

Arianna smiled at the Cat-clan Beastkin as she stirred her own stew.

“Jackey is right.”

Her light blue eyes moved from her lover to her party leader.

“Our progress is good. In one day, we found fifteen rooms full of goblins, and one room with a treasure chest.”

Hyoren tapped his chin.

“One room holds a hundred goblins. And we cleared fifteen rooms. So in one day, we killed fifteen hundred goblins.”

He grinned.

“That's definitely good progress.”

Elise shifted to sit more comfortably and hugged her knees.

“That's a lot of experience and magic stones. Fufu.”

Jackey raised his spoon for a moment, his cheeks still full.

“We are stronger and richer! WOHOO!”

Laughter spread around the circle. 

In the warm glow of the barrier, with full stomachs and the smell of stew still in the air, the camp felt cozy and bright.

Hyoren smiled as he looked at his party members. 

It had been a while since we actually had fun diving into the dungeon…

He reminisced about the previous floors that gave Freedom Party a lot of struggle.

Second Floor with coordinated Elite Enemies… Third Floor’s nonstop hordes fight… Fourth Floor with the endless traps…

Compared to those struggles, this Fifth Floor definitely felt like a walk in the park for them.

Still, he turned to Jackey and gave him a pointed look.

“Well. All is good as long as you aren't careless, Jackey.”

Jackey nodded quickly, his mouth too full to open.

“I won't, Big Bro!”

Elise leaned forward and rested her chin on her hand.

“Really? But by the time we reached our tenth room, you started taking wounds.”

She smiled.

“I know you started to ignore dodging and just…”

She paused and swung wildly with her arms, trying to mimic the Cat-clan Beastkin's way of fighting.

“‘whacking’ recklessly. Fufufu.”

Jackey swallowed hard. Then he grinned, though his tabby ears had drooped a little.

“W-well. Big Bro can heal my wounds, so it's fine if I get wounded!”

Hyoren smiled wryly.

“I can heal you. But please still be careful, okay?”

The Cat-clan Beastkin scratched his cheek and looked away.

“I'll try…”

That set everyone laughing again.

Afterwards, they finished cleaning up and went to rest. Hyoren and Elise went into their tent, and Arianna and Jackey went into theirs. 

The barrier of The Sanctuary hummed softly. A protector that ensured their rest wouldn't be disturbed.

Hyoren lay down and let out a long breath. Beside him, Elise pulled the blanket up to her shoulders and gave him a small, sleepy smile.

The first day of their dive was done. But there were still plenty of days ahead of them.

***

After that first night, the days began to bleed into one another.

By the morning of the second day, nothing on the Fifth Floor surprised Freedom Party anymore. They knew the long corridor. They knew the doors. And more often than not, they knew exactly what waited behind them.

Goblins, most of the time.

So the second day went the way the first had ended. Elise checked a door, then Hyoren pushed it open, and a hundred bloodshot eyes turned toward him at once. 

Freedom Party then made quick work of those goblins.

Every so often, though, a soft click came from under Elise's fingers before the door ever opened.

By then, Jackey had learned that sound well. His ears would shoot straight up, and his tail would start swishing before Elise had even stood.

“Treasure room!”

Of course, Elise never let him near the chest until she had finished with it. 

The chests were never spectacular. No weapons, no armor, not a single piece of equipment. Mostly bronze or silver coins, and sometimes a potion or two rolling around at the bottom.

Around noon of that second day, Jackey scooped up a handful of bronze coins and pouted at them.

“Coins again… Where's the shiny new gear, Big Bro?”

Arianna plucked the coins out of his palm and dropped them into the void of Hyoren's open storage bag.

“Coins are coins, Jackey. Every one of them makes our wallet a little thicker. Ohoho.”

Jackey's ears perked up again at once.

“Thicker wallet means more meat skewers!”

It was a logic nobody could argue with. Even without equipment, every chest felt like a small gift, and Freedom Party gladly took each one.

Meanwhile, somewhere along the way, Hyoren had started counting without meaning to.

Eleven goblin rooms before the second chest… Fourteen before the third… Then ten…

So roughly one treasure room for every ten to fifteen goblin rooms…

The second day ended the same way the first had, with Elise's stew, The Sanctuary humming over their camp, and a storage bag that grew fuller by the hour. 

Then the third day began, and the doors went on.

It was at the end of that third day that they finally found it.

At first, it seemed like any other door. Elise checked it and found no trap. Afterwards, she leaned her pointed ear close to the wood, and her brows drew together.

“Hmm? I can't hear any goblins…”

Jackey crouched beside her, his own ears twitching.

“Treasure room?”

Elise shook her head slowly, unsure herself, and pushed the door open.

It was neither.

The room behind it was small and bare. Against the far wall stood a stone archway, its surface solid and smooth. Runic writing ran along its curve, and every few seconds the letters pulsed with a slow, pale blue glow, like something breathing in its sleep.

For a moment, nobody spoke.

Then Hyoren stepped forward until he stood right in front of the pulsing arch. He did not need to touch it to know what it was. He had stood before four of them already.

The gate to the Guardian Chamber…

He let out a breath and smiled.

“So Arianna was right. Behind one of these doors… we found the Guardian Chamber gate.”

Behind him, Arianna touched the brim of her hat. Her smile was small, but very satisfied.

“Ohoho. I did say so, didn't I, Leader?”

Hyoren returned her smile. Then his gaze drifted back to the gate, and his mind was already turning.

Every door looks the same… but only one of them leads here… Then…

He looked back at his party members.

“That means, in theory, we could have quick-dived this floor. Just open doors without fighting, until we found this one.”

Jackey twirled both axes and pulled a face, as if Hyoren had just suggested skipping dinner.

“But where's the fun in that, Big Bro? Whacking skulkers is way more fun than opening doors! HAHA!”

Elise laughed softly at that. 

Meanwhile, her emerald eyes had already moved past the gate, toward the door they had come through and the corridor beyond it.

“We found the gate to the Guardian Chamber… But we've actually only mapped about half of this floor.”

She turned back to Hyoren and tilted her head.

“So? What do we do, Hyoren?”

Hyoren tapped his chin.

Half the floor in three days… Two more days for the rest. Still within my estimate…

And if we leave now, half of this floor stays blank…

He lowered his hand.

“Hmm. I think we should still map the whole floor.”

He scratched his cheek, a little sheepish.

“For the title, remember?”

Elise blinked. Then she nodded, her silver hair swaying slightly, as if that was exactly the answer she had expected from him.

“I see. That's true. Fufu.”

So they left the gate behind, and Freedom Party went back into the corridor.

The fourth day passed much like the ones before it. Goblin rooms, a treasure room, then more goblin rooms. Meanwhile, door by door, the blank parts of Elise's mental map slowly filled in.

By the evening of the fifth day, only a few corners of it were still empty. Then they rounded one more corner, into yet another dead end.

Elise stopped walking. Her eyes went distant for a moment. Then she turned around with a bright smile.

“Everyone. We've fully mapped the Fifth Floor.”

Jackey threw his Bloody Axe into the air, let it spin once, and caught it by the handle.

“Finally! Time to whack the Guardian!”

Beside him, Arianna wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. Five days of casting had left her tired, but her light blue eyes were bright.

“That sounds wonderful. I want to see what kind of Guardian this floor has.”

Hyoren glanced at his pocket watch, then at the three of them.

Five days. Right on schedule. But everyone is tired…

He closed his watch.

“Let's go back to the gate first. We'll rest in that room.”

Jackey's ears drooped.

“Eh? We're not fighting now, Big Bro?”

Hyoren shook his head with a smile.

“We'll fight the Guardian after we're fully rested. Not before.”

Arianna reached over and patted Jackey's arm.

“A Guardian is no place to be tired, Jackey.”

Jackey looked from her to Hyoren. Then he sighed and slung his axe back onto his shoulder.

“Okay… Rest first, whack later!”

That drew a laugh from Arianna, and the matter was settled.

Afterwards, Freedom Party walked back through the familiar corridor to the room where the gate stood waiting, its runes still glowing softly on the far wall.

And there, they rested.

***

The next morning marked the sixth day of their dive.

After breakfast and a long, quiet rest, Freedom Party stood in front of the archway once more. Every slow pulse washed the four of them in pale blue light.

Before anything else, Hyoren checked his gear.

He tilted his Steel Kite Shield toward the glow. Five days of goblin rooms had left their mark on it. Scratches crossed the face in every direction, and there was a small dent near the rim where a rusted club had hit a little too hard.

He chuckled inwardly.

Borin is going to grumble when he sees this…

Still, the shield held. That was what mattered. He ran his hand down the front of his Mithril-alloy Chainmail next and found every ring in place. And when he drew Dawn Breaker halfway from its sheath, the blade was as pristine as ever, without a single nick.

Satisfied, he slid the sword back and looked up at his party. They were already waiting for him.

“Ready for the Guardian fight?”

Elise plucked the string of her Moonveil Bow once. It answered with a clean, low thwang, and she nodded.

“Ready, Hyoren.”

Jackey grinned so wide his fangs showed. His tabby cat tail spiraled behind him.

“Always ready to whack a Guardian, Big Bro!”

Arianna tightened her grip on the Quadraflux Weaver. 

“Ready, Leader.”

Hyoren nodded. His gaze moved back to the pulsing gate, and his voice settled into the calm, steady tone he always used before a fight.

“Fifth Floor Guardian. If our pattern theory still holds, it should be an elite-type Guardian.”

He raised a finger.

“So we should brace ourselves for a hard fight against one big boss. Not a horde like on the Fourth Floor.”

He gripped his shield tighter. 

“But as always, we should be prepared for anything the dungeon throws at us.”

Now that everyone was ready, Hyoren turned to face the archway.

He stepped forward and pressed his palm against the very center of it. The solid stone was cold and the chill seeped straight into his hand.

Then Gidol's oily voice slid into his mind.

Hoahmmm… Oh. The pretend heroes again. Xixixi. Aren't you bored, killing the same enemies again and again? Oh well. You want to fight the Guardian? Here… one more enemy to kill… Just get it over with already.

Something about it was different. The voice was still mocking, but the usual relish had drained out of it, replaced by something flat and listless.

He actually sounds bored…

It was a strange thing to think about the Demon God. But Hyoren did not flinch. He gave his answer in his mind, as always.

Yes.

The world twisted.

For an instant there was no floor under his boots and no light in his eyes. Then both came back at once.

When Hyoren's vision cleared, he was standing inside a small, circular chamber. The walls curved close around them, built from the same ancient stone as the rest of the floor.

Behind him stood the retreat archway, its surface glowing faintly.

And in front of him, on the far side of the chamber, stood the Guardian.

It was a single goblin.

It was muscular, more heavily built than any goblin they had cut through in the past five days. But it stood hunched forward, shoulders rounded, head low. In one hand it held a single longsword. Its equipment was ordinary too. Plain leather armor, nothing more.

Hyoren furrowed his eyebrows.

That's… it?

Before he could say anything, Jackey spoke first. He leaned to one side to get a better look and tilted his head.

“Huh. Why is it only one skulker? And it looks weak?”

Elise slowly lowered her Moonveil Bow. Her emerald eyes were fixed on the hunched figure, and her voice came out as a murmur of disbelief.

“If I'm not wrong… that's a Goblin Lord.”

Arianna tilted her head slightly, the brim of her hat dipping with it.

“A Goblin Lord? Isn't that a normal goblin variant, Mentor? So the Guardian isn't a dungeon-exclusive variant this time?”

Hyoren barely heard them. His Magic Eyes had already activated, and the appraisal result surfaced in his mind.

Goblin Lord — Level 21

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

State : Healthy

He kept watching it a moment longer. The Goblin Lord did not move. It only stood there, hunched, its longsword hanging loose at its side.

It won't move until we step forward… Same as the others.

Only then did he turn to his party.

“Everyone. The Guardian is a single Goblin Lord… Level 21.”

He paused, glancing back at it.

“A normal evolution path for goblins… unlike every Guardian we've faced before…”

Arianna nodded slowly, one finger resting against her chin.

“So the pattern holds… The Fifth Floor Guardian is a single elite enemy… But… no more dungeon-exclusive variants?”

Hyoren tightened his grip on Dawn Breaker.

“It's not a dungeon-exclusive variant like the Goblin Berserker, the Goblin Ruler, the Goblin Rider, or the Goblin Caster.”

His dark eyes looked back to the Goblin Lord.

“But don't be careless. As a Guardian, it might still be a strong enemy or have troublesome abilities.”

Elise drew an arrow from her quiver and nocked it, the earlier disbelief gone from her face.

“That was expected, Hyoren.”

Jackey rolled his shoulders and spun the Blackmaw Tomahawk once in his left hand.

“Got it, Big Bro!”

Arianna gripped her Quadraflux Weaver tighter.

“Of course, Leader.”

Hyoren turned around to face the Guardian fully.

“Our formation will be the usual one for a single powerful opponent. Remember. Do not underestimate a Guardian, even if it isn't dungeon-exclusive.”

He did not wait for an answer. He knew his party understood.

He charged.

A single elite enemy. Time to go all out.

As his boots pounded across the stone, he activated his skills and spells one after another.

“Magic Blade.”

Pale blue Aethell flowed along the edge of Dawn Breaker.

“Enchant Maledict.”

Dark energy seeped across the blade after it.

“Accel Zone.”

The ground around him lit up with a faint glow that spread outward. Hyoren felt his own steps grow lighter and faster.

Across the chamber, the Goblin Lord lifted its head at last. It let out a roar that bounced off the curved walls.

Hyoren raised his shield.

“Provoke.”

The wave of Aethell struck the Guardian. Its eyes flooded red, and its whole attention locked onto Hyoren. It lunged forward and swung its longsword down at him.

CLANG!

Hyoren caught the blow squarely on his shield.

And blinked.

Huh…? So light…?

He had braced for something absurd. Every Guardian so far had been stronger than it had any right to be.

The Goblin Berserker nearly broke my arm through the shield… The Goblin Rider and its mount, the Blancorn. That charge almost killed me…

He looked at the Goblin Lord again.

This one is stronger than a normal goblin, sure. But compared to the others…

He shoved the thought aside. This was the middle of a battle, not the time to wonder.

He countered at once.

“Shield Bash.”

BANG!

The shield slammed into the Goblin Lord's chest, and it staggered back a step.

Hyoren followed with his sword.

“Quick Slash.”

SQUELCH!

Dawn Breaker tore through the leather armor and bit deep into the Guardian's chest. Blood spurted from the wound.

Seeing the Guardian stumble, Jackey did not miss his chance. He leaped high.

“Eat this, skulker!”

He raised both his Bloody Axe and Blackmaw Tomahawk over his head.

“Cross Slash.”

SCREEECK!

The Bloody Axe and the Blackmaw Tomahawk came down together and carved a deep X into the Goblin Lord's back.

Elise was next. She had loosed her arrow the moment Jackey left the ground.

“Charge Wind Arrow.”

SWOOSH!

The arrow streaked across the chamber, trailing green wind behind it.

SQUELCH!

It buried itself in the middle of the Guardian's chest.

Arianna was not about to be left behind. She had finished her casting the instant Hyoren's shield staggered the Guardian.

“Fireball.”

The orb of flame shot across the room.

BOOM!

It struck the Goblin Lord full in the head.

Hyoren raised his shield again at once and set his feet. He knew how this went. Guardians could always take more punishment than this. 

Every single one had given Freedom Party real trouble, the kind they had to answer with everything they had, and sometimes with improvisation.

The Goblin Berserker kept regenerating, no matter how badly it was wounded…

The Goblin Rider had anti-magic that made Arianna's spells and Elise's arrows lose their bite…

So this one must have something too…

He waited for it. Then Hyoren's eyes widened as the smoke from Arianna’s Fireball dissipated.

The Goblin Lord was dissolving.

Its body crumbled into particles of Aethell from the edges inward. Its longsword clattered once against the stone, then faded along with it. The combined attack of the four of them had been enough to kill it.

The Guardian of the Fifth Floor had fallen in less than ten seconds.

Hyoren's jaw dropped.

Slowly, he lowered his shield. Then his sword.

“What?”

The last glowing particles drifted up toward the ceiling and vanished.

The Guardian of the Fifth Floor was nothing like what Freedom Party had expected.