Saying that he wasn’t nervous would be a lie, but the smell of adventure oppressed any reluctance he had. After two days of sitting around, reading books, and waiting for his group to rest and recover their mental strength, finally it was time to get in the dungeon.

  Meahladh. This wasn’t its official name according to the chronicle book, but with the appearance of the one-eyed fox named Meahli a long time ago, this had become the name that the adventurers came to use.

  The entrance to the dungeon was a massive hole the size and shape of a volcanic crater, except it drilled into the underground instead of floating on top of a mountain. Torches lined up around the mouth, providing a constant source of light no matter night or day. But the deeper one trod downward, the more darkness exerted itself, and it would be up to the adventurers to produce light on their own if they wished to descend.

  There was an intersection about three hundred meters in, with the left extending the natural direction of the dungeon, whereas the right path was a smaller and steeper branch. Zalanir didn’t have to choose, as the two in front went right straight away without any hesitation. The perk of having run these a few times, huh?

  “Let’s get further this time. How about conquering the Diorite Mine? Let’s pay those bastards back.” Seseguri was energetic, leading the front with Wanyi on his side.

  The two girls were no doubt the MVPs of the group, with Shinnya floating two fist-sized flames above her shoulder, and Wanyi, in an even more fancy manner, glowing her big golden shield to act as a beacon, illuminating about twelve meters on the front. His and Seseguri’s jobs were to just occupy one of them and provide support if necessary.

  Zalanir had no idea how strong Wanyi was, but for her to be just short of a level compared to Seseguri, coupled with that paladin-like mastery, he was sure she would be fine with any assault. Everything about her just screamed a tank for him.

  “So, what have you been up to after leaving the fighting pit? How come you ended up here?” Zalanir asked his fellow backliner.

  “I am home. The reason for me being here? Looking to pump my level to mid C-grade,” Shinnya answered. The two flames on her shoulders flickering as she moved, providing a warmer source of light compared to Wanyi’s in front.

  “Home? You mean … the city?”

  “Oh, yeah, you don’t know. I was born here, Yebin is my home.”

  “If so, why did you come to Bodylovo? Getting caught and sold into the pit?” His mind picked up an odd detail. He didn’t remember if it was the Gymer or Dakrua, but one of them mentioned Bodylovo being a poor and secluded settlement to Yebin, so why would someone born in this prosperous city come there?

  “We made it look like that. Well, my brother did. He wanted to steal something from Harkon and to contact Vitius. I just tag along because why not? It was fun.” She just casually revealed that the fighting pit was her playground.

  Ignoring that ridiculous claim of treating an arena where fighters’ death weren’t uncommon as her entertainment, his mind continued to work on connecting all the pieces together. So, it was a plan to target the fighting pit from Djaxinz. That man admitted stealing stuff to that gang boss, so perhaps the revolt wasn’t random? Right. Wasn’t Vitius the right-hand man of Harkon, who left shortly after the show? Might be forceful, but Zalanir felt like there were something amid there, which prompted him to a question. If these siblings were to have a connection to those who hosted the show …

  “Are you perhaps associated with Zerkshi or Vendona?” Zalanir poked. But then, he realized that the question might be odd, so he added a buffer, “I mean, didn’t you leave right after the show while Djaxinz was staying? I can only think of that as the reason you left your brother, considering you seemed to care for him.”

  “I like him. That is a fact. No seem. He is my cool brother,” she snapped. “But your hunch is correct. I’m with Vendona. My whole family is.” And then she returned to her casual manner right after.

  So that was it, Zalanir sighed internally. Not that his discovery served anything, as he had no attachment to the fighting pit, but damn was he just an extra in others’ stage performance. That sucks!

  He didn’t even bother letting Shinnya know they were guildmates. Now he just needed something to kill. Where the heck were the monsters?

  As if answering his call, when they made two consecutive turns later, Wanyi shouted, “Rats! Ready to engage!”

  Zalanir woke up from his own cloudy mind, and there they were, relentless chittering and soft pawing sounds, along with a malodorous, reeking scent, all of them made for an onslaught on his senses. He staggered, almost stumbled, if not for the bumpy, haunting-cold wall on his left acting as a better-than-nothing cushion to prevent that. Lucky for him, his groupmates didn’t seem to pay attention. Theirs were full of what emerged ahead.

  Five appeared right on the edge of Wanyi’s beacon, brownish-orange, and thrice as big as a normal rat on Earth, pushing them into the size range of a countertop microwave.

  Seseguri was the first one to act. His washing machine rumbled, let out a short, compact wheezing sound, and from the newly opened cracks on both sides, two swirling saw blades took off. Their targets were no other than those oversized rodents. One did a jump and twist in the air, barely dodging the blade of death, but the other got half of its trunk severed in a clean motion. Only a soft hiccup came out before it laid there, spasming and cheeping unsteady, exhausted sounds.

  More rats emerged from the dimmed border, forming a wave and pushing toward their spot.

  Game on!

  Zalanir joined forces with the white flying saw blades and blazing fireballs with his own share of earth bolts. Six brown, concrete magical projectiles left his hand, arched in the air and crashed into a bunch of aggressive vermin, destabilizing and halting their charges.

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  The shower of ranged attacks continued to rain demise on them, earning Zalanir a steady stream of tings from the System. After these rats crossed the midway mark, Wanyi acted. She slammed the great golden shield using only her right arm — what a strength from that non-muscular build she had — on the empty patch in front, releasing two consecutive glittering sand-yellow waves of magical energy, with her spot being the center of the movement.

  The first one passed over him with no effect, but when it washed over the rats, he could see their speed slowing down significantly, as if there was something weighing them down. Then came the second wave, which, to his surprise, did hit him square on the chest. No pain, no shock, or any negative effects. On the contrary, a warm aura lingering in the impacted area, providing a lifting effect that made his body lighter and full of vigor.

  After another bombardment of range attacks, the battle boiled down to a brawl and skirmishes. Wanyi alone attracted about half of the rats to her spot, whereas he and the other two shared the rest.

  Not that he could tell what the exact portion was in the midst of having six pesky monsters surrounding him. Jumping to the right to create distance with the four in front, he let loose a salvo of earth bolts at the nearest one, pinning it down on the floor, all the while blocking a jump attack with a translucent shield tagging on his left arm. Then, he pushed his body weight forward and stomped the lying rat’s exposed belly, earning him a melody of interspersed squeals for his ears and a bouncy retaliating force on his right foot.

  Not dead?

  He wanted to finish it, but had to duck and roll to the side when he caught the jumping motions from the corner of his left eye. Two whooshes flew over his scalp, but he paid them no attention. Instead, he slapped the closest rat with the technique of a forehand. His palm heated up and ached from the contact.

  A grating sound signaled a rat was coming from his back, but he didn’t react in time. In no time, pain flared up in his left calf. Something sharp and pointy had pierced his skin down there. Reflectively, he whirled around, bent and elbowed the sneaky rodent with the shield on his left arm. The contact broke the temporary barrier and unleashed an energy wave, which Zalanir followed up with another salvo of bolts. The two attacks synced up and hit the orange attacker. This time, he earned a ting, together with a speck of black smoke that came to him from the dead vermin.

  With two out, his fight became easier. The wound in his calf was now being tended to by the warm light from Wanyi’s skill earlier. Still sore, but not like he wasn’t accustomed to this kind of injury. Pain was a close friend to him, after all.

  He took another scratch on the belly, but that was it from his fight. Through a combination of dodges, Adaptability Bolts, and Energy Barrier, he finished his battle five minutes later. Though resting was not an option. His fellow paladin was still being swarmed by ten of these monsters, if he counted correctly. There were exploding and sizzling sounds echoing from the back as well, but the curving wall on the turn had blocked him from seeing anything.

  Those two can take care of one another, Zalanir cut off the thought, refilled his lungs with air, though he had to stop to stabilize himself for a bit when a sudden pain shot up inside his body. With one mark, it was negligible, but at six, the backlash of Mark of the Black Mist was significant, reminding him of the charge attack from that magnificent stag. After the initial burst, it lingered on, constantly sending aching waves to his body, but he ignored that for now and ran to Wanyi’s spot.

  Despite facing four more enemies, the paladin held her ground like an immovable object. With a sphere of sparkling yellow light embracing her, Wanyi maintained a steady motion of slashes, dodges, blocks, with some slams and kicks here and there. Unlike his fight, the rats had no trouble getting to her, but she just tanked everything and showed no sight of wavering. Like a rock, she just braced and retaliated, meticulously handling the attackers one by one.

  With time on his hand, he charged up a full-powered Sonic Lance, warned his groupmate, and then let it fly. He still had to find a way to increase the charging speed — he had ideas in mind already from the valley fights — but the skill absolutely did wonders in terms of causing damage.

  Bang! Wanyi’s previous spot exploded with intense orange sparkles and mist. Three rats soared into the air in a hyperbolic arch before slamming into the wall nearby. The rest remained inside the explosion. Fate unknown, but grim.

  “Didn’t expect you to be my first support.” Wanyi locked eyes with him from across the blast.

  “Got lucky with those rats being stupid,” he replied with a smile.

  “Then am I even more stupid being unable to finish my fight?”

  “Nah, I’m sure you are holding back. Look how calm you are!” His smile turned into a full-out laugh.

  “Cute. But thank you. Let’s finish them.”

  The rest was just a slaughter, with only seven dazed and damaged rats remaining. Individually, they were just weak. Without the pack, they were just walking experience waiting for him to harvest. And their cores.

  His previous six kills yielded no reward, but here, two shiny spherical objects lay on the floor, one near the wall and one being picked up by Wanyi.

  “Not bad. That spear skill of yours must be really powerful.” She tossed one to him while pulling the other over with a cadaverous golden thread.

  If this were Earth, these cores would be called marbles. No doubt. The one in his palm was exactly those played by kids in their motorized marble run toy sets that he usually saw displayed in the kid sections in a shopping mall. How funny it was having those turned into fancy, sought-after cores just by stamping them with a “magic sign”.

  He tossed it back to Wanyi. He appreciated her thought, and understandably so, but building trust among the group was more important than a single core. Better treated it as a group gain rather than personal wealth.

  She shot him a dubious look, but soon burst into laughter. “I like you already!”

  Then, to his surprise, Wanyi suggested staying and recovering when he offered to go find the other two, but thinking about it, perhaps this was more of an annoyance for them instead of real danger. They were veterans with more than their share being inside here, after all.

  Killing like this felt good. His head was clearer now. Somewhere, water droplets played a background sound of constant plinks. Not just one source, but several. They served as the ingredient for the main dish of explosions and screaming still reigning not far away from his current spot.

  Ignoring the putrid and sour stench from nearby rat carcasses, Zalanir sat down and opened his Notification Tab. All the kills only netted him a single level, despite these rats being of rather high levels. As expected, being in a group sucked for the experience gain.

  You have slain [Grimefur Rat — Level 48]

  …

  You have slain [Grimefur Rat — Level 49]

  Level advances to 53

  …

  He pumped all the free points into Spirit and called it a day. Mana. He needed more to feed the souls, and for what was to come.