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 debris cleared up, the students couldn't help but be stunned by

"W-what?"

"Huh?"

of goblins that was before them was no longer visible, and what replaced it was a single goblin wearing a mage mantle with an

how it was supposed to look

lifelessly sitting on the hard ground with a spear imbued on top of

that a

"W-hat?"

was all

stared at the body of

soon understood what had

of a goblin mage. A more evolved

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 to hunt

not that hard to spot if one paid close attention. All they had to do was look for

soon as you spotted the orb, you could instantly find where the goblin mage was

this in class, but it was evident that most

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

smile Melissa could muster, looking back at the students at the

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

without looking back, Melissa picked up her spear and dashed deeper into the

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

Melissa

Yup...yup...yup

most gentle face possible...only Melissa could

fact that Melissa was only F ranked, her power was no

two to three rings

"Let's go"

"Follow her"

leave, some of the students woke up

"Huuuu..."

that followed Mellisa's footsteps, taking a deep breath

waited for

was one of the criteria used to assess the performance of the students, I

mana inside of my body,

step I took, the

found myself freely running across the

-Wooosh!

"W-what was that?"

"Huh?"

the students who were running ahead. Though I was still far

-Clank! -Clank! -Clank!

forward, the loud sound

somewhat dodge the battles...but I knew that avoiding fights wasn't an

...and I was right.

goblins soon appeared before me. Obstructing my

didn't have enough time to stop. Hence, briefly glancing towards my surroundings to make sure no one was looking,