Marco waited, sitting on one of the empty crates left behind. Getting bored, he tossed his knife and caught it by the grip. All the while, his eyes locked to the passage leading further into the dungeon. The moment a shadow or a figure would show up, Marco would simply step back and would be out of the dungeon in a moment.
If he was better armed, he might have considered differently. Yet, he was just armed with a knife.
It was just a simple combat knife, 10 inch blade length of good quality spring steel, with a full tang and wrapped with a paracord for grip. Still, despite being razor sharp enough to shave, it only managed to cut the hobgoblin’s skin. Stabbing flesh felt like going through thick rubber and breaking after a few relatively deep stabs.
As much as it didn’t make sense, dungeons play with a different set of rules than the normal reality.
He clicked his tongue. A blade made with magical materials would have lasted and worked magnitudes longer. Yet even with his time and experience in the business, was still not afforded to be armed with one. No guild, even the association, would allow it since he didn’t have mana. Or even if he did, it was pitifully low that it might not have existed.
Mana is a universal constant among E rank hunters and above. Without it, any magical weapon would only serve as its mundane counterpart, with normal limitations, and magnitudes in cost.
It was only his ability of barely being considered a hunter, the ability to enter the dungeons, which allowed him to keep working. To keep risking his life. Stabbing the crate, he pulled out a cigarette.
Behind him. The entrance to the dungeon, The portal swirled, thick concentrations of mana powering the otherworldly phenomenon churned into blue mist, once in a while showing the space it led to the other side. Outside the dungeon, if one was perceptive enough, police lines were built in semi permanence to keep civilians out. Armed and alert men watched the entrance guns slung and held at a low ready or sitting behind a gun emplacement to deal with any monsters lost and thinking to find prey outside the dungeon. Or at least slow them down.
The buildings surrounding the dungeon have been evacuated, windows reinforced with steel to serve as bunkers and firing ports. Conventional guns were found to have reduced effectiveness on the other otherworldly monsters, but it doesn’t make them useless.
Monsters caught out of the dungeon, even with their unnatural states kept, would still have to follow the laws of the natural world. Making it so bullets and bombs fired in anger would commit damage allowing human civilization to be able to resist and adapt to dungeons.
It had been a chaotic and dangerous first year after their arrival. Now, it is simply a new thing in the world.
“I think it's just us here… Oh.”
The voice came behind him, and he looked behind to see a group of eight enter the dungeon with the rest looking around with awe and wonder. They wore the usual guild colors; black overalls with patches on the shoulders, red blue and yellow. All were armed with the magically smithed weapons and armor with some bearing personal weapons that are definitely better than standard issue. There were four guards, armed with shields and short swords, likely two for the van and the rear. Along with two with spears one with a bow, the last was unarmed, his hands glinting with multiple rings.
Marco hopped off the crate and faced the group. He held the folder containing their files. “All right, listen up. You’re already briefed on what to do but this is still worth repeating. Rule number one! As much as this is an E class dungeon it is still a dungeon. Keep up with your team. Never leave your buddy. If you hear something, don’t go traipsing off and checking it out. Notify the rest of your team first before doing so. One of the easiest ways to die in the dungeon is to be separated. Second, in the event of you thinking you might have bitten more that you could chew, don’t be shy to call me for help-”
Someone in the group was clearly not listening. He continued looking around the dungeon with interest. He didn’t have any weapon on him, a caster. Marco simply ignored him and continued on.
“-or simply retreat if I am not nearby to do so or already occupied.—” and so Michael continued listing out the rules to the crowd growing glassy eyed from boredom, all which grew alert the moment he finished.
“Do we really have to waste our time with all this kid shit?” The same inattentive guy in the group piped up.
“Excuse me?” Marco asked. The caster, now facing him, allowed Marco to recognize him from the files. Gabriel Lim. A C class prospect with the capacity of high intensity pyrokinesis. On his file, his ability along with the coaches’ glowing reviews of his potential would have him higher up in the guild.
“We've been recruited and have already fought monsters much stronger than the ones here.” He replied.
“The point is for you to follow basic instructions. But it seems like you can’t even listen.”
“Why would I listen to you? Guild leaders are S or high A rank hunters. The Association president is a S rank hunter. Hunting parties are led by the highest ranked. I bring the firepower here. That should be me, telling you what to do.” Gabriel stepped up.
“Leadership is a matter of seniority. Not what you just happened to be born with. I’m already running these dungeons long before you even learned to wipe the snot off your nose. This paper.” Marco showed the file, “Means that I get the final say. So back the fuck off kid.” Michael said, making a further point by poking Gabriel in the ribs with an unfolded Balisong. Marco always kept it with him as a utility knife. And compared to knives in the market, it was much better at persuading people. “It's either you do that, or get some iron introduced in your bloodstream and fail a training mission.”
Marco knew he shouldn’t be threatening trainees. It was dangerous, even harmful to his career in the Guild Association. But it wasn’t like instructors weren’t afforded correction lessons on the field.
“You wouldn’t dare.” Gabriel replied. His look almost daring him to do it.
“Try me asshole.” Marco grinned. “I wouldn’t mind stepping in and giving you a lesson your dad missed teaching.”
The two stood in a tense few seconds, but Gabriel relented. With a huff, he started to walk back to the rest of the group. Still, he kept glaring daggers. The rest of the team had his attention now.
Marco, had his prepared briefing ruined, simply shook his head and turned back to look at the tunnel.
‘Danger! Behind!’
Marco ducked as the bolt of fire went over his head. He had to give the kid credit, Marco could feel the searing heat. But it was just that, if he wanted to kill him, he should have aimed for center mass. The kid aimed at his head instead, making it a lot easier to miss.
Turning, Marco sped towards the crowd. Bear crawled from the crouch and sprinted towards the only culprit. He had a surprised look as he started winding up for another cast.
Marco threw his Balisong, Gabriel ducked out of the way and interrupted his cast. The fire in his hand fizzled out just as Marco tackled him and took them both to the ground.
Gabriel hit the ground with Marco on top of him, forcing his air out. He tried his best to fight, but Marco was better. Trying to push Marco off earned Gabriel a punch to his rib. Everybody heard the snap and the following cry of pain. Gabriel tried to curl up on himself from the agony but Marco simply turned him to his stomach and wrapped his arm around his neck. Marco squeezed and pulled, held Gabriel and dumped him to the side a few seconds after he went limp.
Pecking order established, Marco checked his pulse. It was still there.
The rest of the group looked dumbfounded as Marco turned to them. “Now, Listen up! This will never be put on any of the guild manuals and lessons but if you’re going to learn only one thing from me, let it be this one. Ranks are only a measure of a hunter’s skills and abilities. That doesn’t mean that they will always win against someone of lower rank. It might work 9 times out of 10. Forget that, take your higher rank for granted and take that chance enough times, that 1 out of 10 chance would be enough to get yourself killed. Are we clear?”
There was a mixture of assent and agreement. Whether they would take it to heart, Marco didn’t care. He had a job to do.
“You and you. Get Mr. Lim by his legs and feet and dump him out of the portal. Once you get back, we’ll continue on to the rest of this exercise. I didn’t get this job because I was the strongest, nor the smartest. I’m just some asshole who came back and waded through shit that you wouldn’t believe. I’m here to make sure that you get to the boss and kill it and come back. Not put up with your shit. So, if any of you want to bring up shit, do it now, because when the spells start slinging and the monsters start charging, I won’t knock you out. I’m just going to kill you.” Marco said, waiting for a response”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“Sir?” One of the vanguard raised his shielded hand, his sword hanging off his waist. “What are we going to do with our Caster out of the picture?”
“You don’t always get to clear dungeons with a full complement. Losses are not a matter of if, but when.” Marco replied, giving a serious look. The two hunters sent to dispatch their incapacitated member came back. Marco nodded. “You have your roles set. And this place is just a series of caverns and passages so go ahead and get in your places. Vanguard in the front, support and damage on the middle and rearguard, on the rear.” Marco said, to which everyone got into their places. He noticed a gap in the formation, from the missing Caster and some looks were sent his way but he simply ignored it.
“Also, as much as I have read your files, you cannot rely on me to remember them. So, I will be calling all of you according to your roles.” Marco pointed at the vanguard who raised his hand, “You will be Vanguard 1.” Then to the other, “Vanguard 2. Support 1, Support 2, Bow, Rearguard 1, Rearguard 2.”. No one argued and with a wave, Marco had them move forward.
Tunnel fighting is as simple as it went, but that didn’t mean the easiest. The lack of light, corners, niches and the risk of hidden alcoves where ambushes could be initiated from allowed for a lot of dangers in a small confined space.
The lack of space also had the risk of undisciplined Pyros snuffing the air for everyone to use and causing carbon monoxide poisoning. There is also the heat, and smoke from the fires. This made Marco think that he was a bit lucky that he had taken out the undisciplined Pyro early out of the team, despite the reduction to their damage potential.
Marco had them pick up the mana lanterns the mining team left behind. Holding one, and standing in the middle of the formation, allowed a good coverage of the whole team along with one of the vanguard and the rearguard carrying one.
The trip down the passages was uneventful, with the exception being another pair of two hobgoblins and a quartet of goblins blocking the entrance to the boss room.
It was quick work. With the two shield vanguard taking up the front, the rest flanking at the sides, hemming them into a corner. Support, with their spears, did most of the damage, slipping between the shields and attacking with impunity while their bow harassed from wherever she could find an angle.
For the most part, Marco simply stood in the sidelines, watching the team as they worked and making sure that their training didn’t slip. A part of him worried about the gap left by their missing caster but it was soon disregarded. They were working well, even though Marco had to intervene one time, kicking an enterprising goblin on the side of its head. The goblin managed to use the blind spots and slip between the shields and tried to strike the unarmored Bow in the middle.
Everyone cheered from their first actual engagement. Marco let them bask in their achievement for a bit considering that they didn’t have any injuries and casualties on the skirmish. After a while, Marco drew a whistle with his lips and caught everyone’s attention.
“Congratulations on winning your first battle amongst hundreds or thousands. Take a minute to rest, charge your mana and refresh your quivers. After that,” Marco said, pointing his thumb behind him at the large wooden door nestled in the middle of cavern walls. “We’ll be heading down to meet the boss and you’ll be taking them on. It's a green monster dungeon, so expect a caster, a hobgoblin shaman. Not all are the same and so it can range from being able to cast ranged magic or buff magic for his minions that are sure to be around him.”
“We have formations for both scenarios, but in your opinion, Which is much more troublesome.” Vanguard 1 asked. Clay. Marco recalled his name. The same guy who was concerned about the loss of Lim.
“Both have their challenges. But in my personal experience running these kinds of dungeons, the strengthened minions supported by an enhancement were the most dangerous on my person. That is considering that I was running as a second van position. I was what was considered to be a dodge tank, back then. When there wasn't enough equipment available for the conventional tanks to take blows. They didn’t have those magically enchanted shields and armor and they had to make do with either heavy or light shields made with conventional layered composites. We dodge tanks had to make sure to take attention and not get killed for it while the rest bum rushes the shaman and take them out.” Marco said, looking at all the faces of the assembled team. “Any other questions?”
There was none. And so with a final nod. Marco opened the door to the dungeon boss, letting everyone take a view inside. It was a long narrow hall, rectangular, with large pillars holding the ceiling and was about 20 meters wide and 40 meters long by Marco’s reckoning. On the end of the hall was a raised throne, where the shaman stood, along with a couple of burly evolved hobgoblin bodyguards.
Marco nodded to the team. “Come on. The door only opens for five minutes once a day.” Marco said. Boss fights always resembled something like a cage fight, where two sides go in and one comes out. Following that and destroying the dungeon core, they only have another few hours before the dungeon closes following a complete subjugation of the dungeon.
The team filtered in, with the same formation as their approach to the dungeon room. The Vanguards took the lead, the Supports and Bow ten feet behind, the only difference this time was that the Rearguard took in the far flanks to make sure that none of the greens was able to hook around and surround them from behind.
Which was exactly what happened. A team of eight hobgoblins were hiding behind the pillars and were found by the rearguard holding the flanks. The discovery caused the shaman to start chanting and doing a dance on his altar. The effect was immediate, putting the hobgoblins into a frenzy.
The greens attacked, but the distance allowed about a few seconds between contact . The flanks collapsed into the van, taking the shape of a blunted V, their sides protected by their comrades while the spears and bows took the center.
“Van. Harden up. Support, take the right side first. After that, the right flank would swing around to the front.” Marco shouted, “Support. Skills free at the right side. Time it on contact with the van. On contact, the right flank executes your own skills and try to take them all out in one move. I repeat, the right flank would then swing around and relieve the van. Van and Left, use no skills. Don’t tire yourselves out.”
“Yes sir!” they all shouted as one.
The vanguard and their first charge met with a resounding clank. The force of two sides meeting forced the vanguard to slide a few inches back but their well-timed shield bash allowed some of the charging hobgoblins to fall on their backs. One of the vans managed to get a good shot in and stabbed at one of the calves exposed within range.
Still, it is the signal. Bow and the Support spears followed up with their piercing strikes into the right flank, timed well along with the right flank’s cutting slashes and flame strikes. Two fell on the arrows, both having their foreheads pierced while the rest was bisected and the other fell with burning wounds, smoke coming out its mouth and nose.
The first wave dying that quick was expected. Mr Kim was right in saying that it was pretty much a field trip. Marco judged that even if they are missing a team member as they are, they can reliably take out a D rank dungeon given that their cohesion doesn’t break or they face any surprises.
Just as planned, the right flank folded into the van and took the rest of the hobgoblins in usual melee, while the bow behind the van helped finish off the ones on the left flank with little fanfare. The left too, collapsed on the enemy van. With slashes and thrusts coming from three directions, the enemy center fell in quick succession.
“Maintain formation. Lock step, double time it.” Marco shouted, “Bow, harass the shaman only when he is about to cast magic. Only then! When within lethal range, try to take him out. They can be tougher than they look and can try to dodge. Van! Keep the bodyguards busy. Flanks take care of the opportunities only when they arise! Skills free only on contact!”
“Confirmed hit on the shaman. It didn’t kill him. Unable to follow up. He’s now hiding behind his throne.” Bow reported, standing next to him.
“Go back to supporting the line. He won’t be coming out soon.” Marco replied and felt his sense. He looked behind him and grabbed Bow on the shoulder to face the same direction. There he saw a group of 4 hobgoblins coming up behind them. Looking back at the fight, they were all engaged and would be unable to respond to the danger without risking themselves.
With the threat of getting surrounded, Marco had to step in. He glanced at Bow “Change of plans. Take them out. I’ll make sure to keep them off your back.”
“I say again! Skills free. Give them all you got!” Marco shouted above the din before meeting the charging group to meet them as soon as possible and buy as much buffer space as he could.
As he sprinted, an arrow whizzed by his head and took out one of the lead hobgoblins in one shot. The arrow digging between his eyes and the creature fell on his back, his legs collapsing under it mid run.
The sight made Marco grin and was partially thankful that it didn’t trip the group’s rout instinct. The usual way would be for the range to take out the rear ones first to make sure that the charge didn’t falter and continue. But that is only applicable if the defenders are confident that they can take the attack.
‘Danger! Dodge! Ahead!’
His ‘second voice’ screamed at him as he got within range. Marco stuttered his step, slowing him just enough for the lead hobgoblin to miss. He went past its guard and kicked its feet under it before rolling, to the right to dodge another attack.
A body dropped and Marco saw the farthest hobgoblin fall with an arrow on its leg just as his ‘second voice’ once again screamed. Marco snapped his arms up, barely catching the other hobgoblin’s wrist, mid swing. Knowing that he wouldn’t be able to stop it, a nudge to the right caused the swing to miss a wide margin and with a strong pull, caused the creature to lose balance and tumble into the first hobgoblin he first tripped, who was trying to stand up. The two collided in a mass of flesh and tumbled to the floor.
He walked up to meet the last on the line. Its leg wounded, it looked at him with a look of second thoughts before earning another arrow digging into his eye. Marco turned around, towards the two hobgoblins tangled up in a pile of limbs. Both tried to get up, only for one to earn an arrow on the temple as soon as he got up.
The last one, stood and seeing as his team was dead on the ground, tried to run, only to earn one arrow sprouting from the back of its head. Seeing no movement, Marco turned to Bow and gave a thumbs up, walking to connect with the rest.
“Good shooting.” Marco said, breathing hard. “Wrap it up!” He ordered and the vanguard ran up the stairs and took out the shaman. Its body later rolled down the small set of stairs before slamming into the ground in a bloody heap.
“So that was a dodge tank.” Bow remarked, looking amused. “You know I never got your name.”
“Marco Santiago Luna. It wasn’t my best performance. And It never did look as good as it sounds.” Marco replied. “Also very dangerous.”
“Alona.” She said with a glint in her eye. “I hope we get more chances to work together.”
“Unlikely.” Marco shook his head. Alona Roces, C rank hunter specializing in bows. With high accuracy and speed scores, as she demonstrated, only limited by range given by her low draw weight but was still regarded highly with much potential to grow. He did have to wonder, she was holding a basic recurve bow when she is likely to be given much better equipment, either by the association or by her family.
And even with Marco ordering it outright, she didn’t even use a hunter skill.
“We're clear here!” Vanguard shouted.
“Clear.”
“Okay, go ahead and take whatever we can take with us.” Marco said, it was time to exploit the dungeon for whatever they can take.
The shaman’s corpse was the first to be checked, then the bodyguards, after taking whatever they could, the rest of the group spread out, within view of each other and started poking around. In the end, they came up with some low grade loot. Planks torn off wherever they can be pried, some torches with some life out of them, bits of bone, trinkets, all low grade stuff. There was also the shaman’s staff, which can fetch a bit of a good price in the market, able to enhance the casting abilities of Casters and the like.
So with the loot all accounted for and packed for transport, they all looked to Marcus who stood by the throne. Marcus tapped its leg with his shoe and it faded and turned into a small piece of floating black stone, emanating mana.
The dungeon core.
It was small, the size of a large coin. This dungeon is a rank E dungeon. Still the sight of it made Marco’s heart race. He didn’t want any part of it. But…
Everyone in the raid team was watching him now. It was the standard for the honor of breaking the dungeon core to the raid leader and with them allowing him to do so, despite being rated much lower than them meant some measure of respect.
Marcus smiled at the thought. Wouldn’t that be nice for this batch of new hunters not to turn up as a group or raging assholes. He thought as he reached his hand forwards and grasped the stone in his palm. Hitting it with a magical weapon would have had it break in a spectacular shower of light, but he didn’t have any, so he had to settle with the first known way of destroying them; crushing it with his hands.
The core resisted under his grip, not crumbling as it should whenever he saw other hunters do it. For a moment, Marco worried he wouldn’t even be able to do it, that he would be denied even the honor of destroying a dungeon. But with a flash of rage, Marco gritted his teeth and put all his strength into crushing it.
The walls of the dungeon cracked in a thunderous sound. Everyone flinched and looked at the walls. Marco opened his hands and the core was gone. More cracks appeared and it was the telltale sign of a dungeon collapsing after its core was broken.
Marco nodded. He then turned to the rest and ordered the evacuation.