"...Damn."
Zouma's voice dropped heavily in the middle of their defensive circle.
The goblins did not move. They only stared—from the right, from the left, from atop the rocks, from behind the pillars, and from the cracks in the walls. Their small eyes reflected the firelight in a sickening way.
There were too many of them.
And worse—
they were silent.
No wild shrieking. No reckless footsteps. No chaotic noise like low-rank monsters usually made.
They were simply waiting.
As if something was giving them orders.
Zouma raised his hand higher. The fire in his palm grew larger, pushing the shadows back. "Don't panic! They're just Goblins!"
One of his men immediately responded, perhaps more to reassure himself than anyone else. "Right! We just have to kill—"
His sentence was cut short.
A second arrow pierced his throat.
His body staggered backward, a wet sound escaping his mouth, and then he collapsed before he could finish speaking.
The silence shattered.
"An archer!"
"Where from?!"
"Search above! Search above!"
Torches swung wildly. Flashlight beams swept across the walls in panic. The formation they had only just assembled seconds ago immediately wavered.
"Quiet!"
Zouma roared, and the fire in his hand exploded forward.
WHOOSH—!
A blast of fire swept across the right side of the corridor. Three goblins burned at once. Their screams echoed, and the stench of scorched flesh instantly filled the air.
A few of the men regained their courage.
"The boss can handle this!"
"Charge—!"
They rushed forward.
The goblins in front of them stepped back half a pace, and then, from behind the rocks, small spears shot out all at once.
Two men were skewered through the legs. One was hit in the shoulder. Another collapsed after his knee was pierced.
"AAAARGH!"
"Formation! I said formation!"
Zouma leapt forward. At last, the aura of a C-rank Hunter surged out in full. Fire coiled around both of his arms like red serpents.
One swing of his arm—
FWOOSH!
A second burst of fire swept across the left side. Several goblins caught fire and fell.
For a moment, it looked like the situation could still be controlled.
One of the men let out a short laugh. "Hahaha! Everyone, push forward! Boss is getting serious now!"
He advanced with two others.
They had not even taken five steps when the ground beneath them collapsed.
A trap.
All three fell screaming, and the sound of bones crashing echoed from below.
Everyone froze.
The goblins looked as though they were grinning.
Ana stood several steps behind the front line, her face calm as ever. Beside her, Mikoto stood carrying the entire load they had forced onto him earlier—bags, pickaxes, water bottles, ropes, and who knew what else.
He yawned.
Ana glanced at him. "Sir."
"...Hm?"
"They're smarter than normal Goblins."
Mikoto stared ahead with half-lidded eyes. "...To me, they're still just goblins."
He yawned again. "An unusual goblin would be one that worships slimes... or rides a dragon."
Ana slapped a hand to her forehead. "Don't compare dungeon monsters to the anime you watch."
"Ah... whatever... I'm sleepy."
Ana looked at him for a moment.
In a situation like this, that answer should have irritated her.
And yet, strangely enough, it made her feel a little calmer.
Because Mikoto was not panicking at all.
As though there was nothing in that dungeon interesting enough to make him truly care.
"Sir," Ana said quietly again, "if things get worse, where do we run?"
Mikoto looked toward where the Gate had been.
Now there was only a cold, wet stone wall.
"We'll see."
"That's not an answer."
"Thinking of an answer takes energy too."
Ana rubbed her temples.
In front of them, Zouma shouted again. "Everyone, move forward! If this keeps up, we'll stay surrounded!"
"What about the new recruits, boss?" someone shouted.
"Leave them behind, idiot!"
One goblin leapt down from a pillar.
The man who had asked the question immediately cut it down.
The goblin's head flew off.
"Hah! See?! Turns out—"
A small shadow appeared from the right.
Then the left.
Then behind him.
Four goblins pounced on him at once.
He fell. His knife flew from his hand. In a single second, his throat was bitten and his stomach was stabbed. His scream vanished beneath the pile of small bodies.
One of the men stepped back half a pace. "This isn't normal..."
Another retreated as well. "D-rank goblins aren't like this!"
Zouma ground his teeth. "It's because we're surrounded! We need to find a place where they can't encircle us!"
He raised the fire higher, and the light swept farther across the dungeon.
Only then did everyone truly see the shape of the place.
This was not an ordinary corridor.
It was more like a slaughterhouse.
Stone pillars were scattered at random. Tall rocks offered hiding places. Narrow paths slowed movement. Traps were hidden beneath thin layers of dirt. And high up along the walls...
small footprints.
Far too many of them.
They had not entered a goblin nest.
They had entered a camp.
A rough wooden fence surrounded it, and at the tips of that fence... human skulls were mounted like decorations.
"That's Bahlil," one of the men muttered.
"Who?"
"Bahlil! His head is stuck up there," he said, pointing at one of the fence posts.
Panic spread through them all.
They scattered in all directions, running without any clear sense of where to go.
Zouma's face tightened.
His arrogance was beginning to crack.
Inside that camp, he could feel something far stronger than himself—something that had made all of this possible.
The aura within the camp grew stronger.
By instinct, Zouma turned and ran away from it.
Not long after, he returned to the place where he had left Mikoto and Ana.
The two of them were still alive, and several of his men who had fled aimlessly had gathered there too.
Suddenly—
SHRRT—!!
An arrow shot through the air.
Everyone instinctively turned toward Zouma.
But the arrow was not aimed at him.
It flew straight toward Mikoto's head.
Mikoto... did not move.
He was still holding those bags lazily, as if the world in front of him was too exhausting to deal with.
Ana moved.
Her body shot forward in a single step.
Her hand came up.
And just an inch in front of Mikoto's face—
she caught the arrow.
Silence.
For a moment, time itself seemed to stop.
Ana stared coldly at the shaft in her hand.
Then—
Crack.
She snapped it in two.
The broken pieces fell to the ground.
Mikoto blinked slowly.
Everyone who had seen it froze.
One of Zouma's men even forgot to breathe.
"She... caught it?"
"With her bare hand...?"
Zouma's gaze changed at once.
No longer merely intrigued.
His eyes narrowed.
That arrow had clearly been aimed at Mikoto.
But the girl had moved faster than she should have been able to.
And for a moment—
the aura he had sensed from the camp... felt similar to hers.
The goblins did not give them any more time to think.
From every direction, they began to charge.
One of Zouma's men on the left screamed as two goblins leapt onto his back. He managed to cut one down, but a stone spear lodged itself into his ribs before he could turn around.
On the right, another man retreated in panic, swinging his axe wildly. His foot hit a trap that had not yet been fully covered. His body tilted—and in an instant, three goblins slit his throat.
Blood splashed across the stone.
"Back to formation!" Zouma shouted, but no one listened. Their formation had already broken apart. The goblins were too fast, too organized, too many. One by one, his men began to fall—one with an arrow through the eye, another dragged screaming into a crack between the rocks, and another taken down after a small spear pierced his calf and dozens of green hands pulled him to the ground.
Screams filled the dungeon. Torchlight shook wildly.
And in the middle of all of it, Mikoto remained where he was, still carrying the bags they had given him, still sleepy, still doing nothing.
Zouma looked at him.
Then at Ana.
Then back at Mikoto.
The decision came instantly.
He ran toward them. "Duck!"
Without waiting for an answer, he released the rest of his mana. Fire burst from both his hands at once, and with a WHOOSH, a great tongue of flame swept straight ahead of Mikoto, crashing against the stone floor and exploding among the charging goblins. Their screams echoed through the dungeon, and dozens of green faces immediately turned toward the source of the blast—toward Mikoto, toward the light, toward the figure standing most clearly in the middle of the chaos.
A sharp gleam flashed in Zouma's eyes.
That had been his intention all along.
Mikoto blinked slowly, staring at the man's back. Ana realized it immediately, and her eyes narrowed. "Sir—"
But Zouma had already pulled something from his pocket—a small black ball—and slammed it into the ground.
PFFFT—!
Thick smoke burst in every direction, swallowing their vision at once. Ana reflexively stepped back half a pace, but Zouma's hand had already wrapped around her waist and lifted her by force.
"Forgive me!" Zouma shouted as he carried her.
"Let go—"
"Be quiet if you want to live. I can only save one of you. If you stay here, you'll die for nothing!"
"Ana."
Mikoto's voice came from within the smoke.
"...If possible, don't let them get away without paying."
Ana froze for the briefest fraction of a second.
In a situation like that—in the middle of goblins, blood, panic, and betrayal—that man was still thinking about money. For some reason, it made something in Ana's chest feel strange.
Zouma gave her no more time. He carried Ana up through the smoke and ran. Behind them, the sound of small footsteps began to flood the air.
The sound of goblins.
Too many.
Far too many.
The smoke slowly thinned, and as visibility returned, Mikoto stood there alone. The heavy bags still hung from his body. The pickaxe was still in his hand. His eyes were still half-asleep.
In front of him were goblins.
Surrounding him from every direction.
Dozens.
No—
hundreds.
They rushed toward him like a green wave from all sides. Mikoto stared at the crowd for a few seconds, then yawned.
"...Looks like my quiet, comfortable life is going to end here."
And in the next instant, the entire horde of goblins pounced on him.