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.

couldn't help but be stunned by what they

"W-what?"

"Huh?"

them was no longer visible, and what replaced it was a single goblin wearing a mage mantle with an orb

how it was supposed

on the hard ground with a spear imbued on top of

that a

"W-hat?"

it was all

at the body of the goblin

understood what

the works of a goblin mage. A more evolved and rarer version of

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

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

the orb, you could instantly find where the

was evident that most students

excitement or their nervousness, but it seems like everything that the students had

of everyone, with the most gentle smile Melissa could

paths for others. You're honestly a nuisance, so please either die or move

back, Melissa picked up her spear and dashed deeper into

back, looking at Melissa's

Melissa for

Yup...yup...yup

venomous words with the most gentle face possible...only Melissa could pull

to say, despite the fact that Melissa was only F ranked, her power was no joke. Even I would have trouble defending against that

two to three rings

"Let's go"

"Follow her"

students woke up from their daze and immediately

"Huuuu..."

that followed Mellisa's footsteps, taking a deep breath I too

waited for

timing was one of the criteria used to assess the performance of

my

step I took, the wind psyons beneath my

the dungeon as my speed increased by small increments with

-Wooosh!

"W-what was that?"

"Huh?"

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

-Clank! -Clank! -Clank!

moved forward, the loud sound of students fighting against

managed to somewhat dodge the battles...but I

...and I was right.

soon appeared before me.

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