The Author's POV

-Khuala! -Khuaka! -Khuaka!

Like a tsunami, green-like creatures of shorter-than-human stature with flat and long hooked noses, bat-like ears, and malevolent expressions with twisted smiles appeared from every corner of the cave.

"W-hat's that?"

"Are th-ose globins?"

"Hiiii"

Surprised by the unexpected development, the students at the front immediately stopped running and huddled up together.

With their backs against each other, they each raised their weapons and nervously looked towards their surroundings. Goblins appeared en masse everywhere they looked.

"W-what do we do?"

"I-i don't know"

Despite goblins being the most common monsters inside of dungeons, they were still dangerous creatures.

With their excellent sense of smell, hearing, and tendency to hunt in groups, many aspiring heroes fell because of them

...lest needed to be said about students who had no experience of being inside of dungeons.

"We-re sorroun-ded"

Staring at the numerous goblins blocking their paths, one of the students couldn't help but say as his voice shook.

"S-something is defi-netly wrong. H-how can there possibly be so many goblins inside of a ranked dungeon. W-we're all going to die!"

He wasn't the only one who thought of it that way, as almost everyone at the front shook in fear.

I mean, although it was dark, the number of goblins before them counted to at least a thousand. How were they supposed to fight with that many goblins?

"Move aside you bunch of wimpy primates"

Indifferently walking ahead of the students, Melissa's figure appeared holding onto a long metal spear with flame engraving at the tip of the spear.

Without giving a chance for the students to figure out what was going on, leaning backward, Melissa adjusted her position and proceeded to throw the spear in her hand.

-Swoooosh!

Like a bolt of lightning, the spear traveled through the sea of goblins leaving behind a red trail of flames...

-Kacha!

-Booom!

Soon after, an explosion reverberated across the whole dungeon. The cave shook, and debris and dust flew everywhere.

the students couldn't help but be stunned by

"W-what?"

"Huh?"

longer visible, and what replaced it was a single goblin

that's how it was supposed

was lifelessly sitting on the hard ground with a spear imbued on

a

"W-hat?"

was

their bearing somewhat, everyone stared at the body of the goblin that was currently

understood what

goblin mage. A more

goblin mage had created an illusion to scare the students into thinking that they were currently facing a horde of goblins. It was a fairly common strategy they used

that hard to spot if one paid close attention. All they had

you could instantly find where the goblin mage was and

it was evident that most students had forgotten

it was due to their excitement or their nervousness, but it seems like everything that the students had learned in class was

ahead of everyone, with the most gentle smile Melissa could muster, looking back at

you're scared, don't block the paths for others. You're honestly a nuisance, so please either

Melissa picked up her spear and dashed deeper into the

back, looking at Melissa's disappearing figure, I nodded my

that's Melissa

Yup...yup...yup

with the most gentle face possible...only

F ranked,

three rings

"Let's go"

"Follow her"

students woke up from their daze and immediately

"Huuuu..."

followed Mellisa's footsteps, taking a deep breath I

for no

of the criteria used to assess the performance of the students, I couldn't waste any more time

of my body,

forwards, with each step I took, the wind psyons beneath my feet

found myself freely running across the dungeon as my speed increased by small increments

-Wooosh!

"W-what was that?"

"Huh?"

some of the students who were running ahead. Though I was still far from the first placed people, I was confident that I

-Clank! -Clank! -Clank!

sound

my body slightly, I managed to somewhat dodge the battles...but I knew that avoiding fights

...and I was right.

soon appeared

I was moving so fast, I didn't have enough time to stop. Hence, briefly glancing towards my surroundings to make sure no one was looking, I lightly tapped on