Julia dropped the bag of goblin cores on the reception counter with a sigh of relief. It’s not like they were particularly heavy, being each only about the size of the last knuckle of her thumb. She had simply become accustomed to carrying everything in her bracelet, so physically toting a bag around with her—despite its small stature—had become a chore.

  Julia had decided to turn the cores over to the Guild on her own. One didn’t technically need to be an official member to sell loot to the Guild, and she had been here enough that the Guild staff were familiar with her, regardless.

  It would technically be more lucrative to find a buyer for the cores in the city, due to the Guild taking a brokerage fee on anything it sold on behalf of adventurers. Julia had decided that the potential extra profit for goblin cores from the beginner dungeon was simply too small to worry about, though. Selling the materials here at the Guild saved her the effort of trying to find a buyer and negotiate anyway, so the extra fee was worth it to her.

  After completing the dungeon yesterday, the party had split once they arrived at the city gate, with Ravina heading home, and the pair of Braden and Julia stopping by the market to get a bite to eat. Julia had decided to wait until today to turn the cores in at the Guild so that she could fully enjoy the feeling of completing her first dungeon run last night.

  Ravina had offered to drop all the cores off on her way back, but Julia wanted the experience of actually turning it in herself in preparation for when she was a full fledged adventurer.

  After collecting the couple coins from the receptionist, Julia started toward the back hallway that led to the practice hall, as she had a session with Ravina today. She had decided a full day of rest was unnecessary, apparently.

  Julia suspected that she was in for a world of hurt today, as Ravina had likely been watching every move she made while in the dungeon. Things were chaotic, so she couldn’t remember how her sword form had been during combat. She could only pray that Ravina hadn’t seen anything that needed…harsh correcting.

  “Ho there, young lady,” Julia heard a voice say.

  “Please don’t be talking to me—please don’t be talking to me…” Julia thought. She turned around to see a large man approaching her. She was dismayed to see him looking directly at her and approaching with a smile. Great.

  “You’re Julia, right? I’ve seen you around. Apprenticed to Ravina?” the man asked. He was tall, though Julia was a little short, so most were taller than her. He had short, brown hair that stood slightly where it met his forehead. It reminded her of a wave lapping the banks of a river.

  He wore a dark red tunic beneath steel plates. This didn’t seem to be a whole set of armor. He had a cuirass, pauldrons, and gauntlets as well as leg guards. While impressive, there were large gaps between the plates that would undoubtedly do a fantastic job of catching a sword or spear and driving them into his flesh. Julia found herself hoping, for his sake, there was at least some chainmail beneath the tunic.

  Still, she had to admit that the combination of armor, colors, and his general good looks cut a striking figure. She found herself thinking that while she might normally think he had the look of one of the adventurers she read about, it was wasted on him. She wasn’t sure why she thought that. Perhaps it was due to her anti-social childhood. She did tend to be distrustful of others that are more social.

  “Y-yes, that’s me. What can I do for you?” she asked, once again annoyed at her shaking voice.

  “Oh, I just thought I’d come say hi. Name’s Jerrick. You’re in your second year of apprenticeship—about halfway finished? I imagine you’ll be thinking about a party soon. Just wanted to put my party’s name in the running. I belong to a Steel-rank party called The Silver Edge.

  “We’ve got me for the frontlines, a Ranger, a Skirmisher, and a Druid. We’re a reasonably balanced party, but we could definitely use a mage that can deal some damage, especially one so beautiful. I’ve heard you’re quite talented with Lightning Magic. You’ve got some serious potential,” he finished with a smile.

  Julia was stunned silent. She imagined she must have the ‘gaping fish mouth’ she once teased Braden about. She had conflicting emotions. She was proud that word of her prowess had spread to someone she didn’t even know, but she also had a…slimy sensation. She couldn’t quite place the source, but she had an unshakable feeling of sleaze—as though his compliments were more for him than her.

  Before she could respond, a voice spoke up from behind her. “Aye, Sliver Edge’s well-balanced. This dipshit’d have died if it weren’t.” Ravina approached and stood next to Julia—giving Jerrick the stink eye. Although, if you weren’t familiar with her, you might assume all of Ravin’s looks were stink eyes.

  “Ya know, I always knew ya for a fool, but I didn’t know ya was a depraved one as well. She’s half your age. Ya really know how to live the ‘ick’ in Jerrick, huh?” Ravina spat.

  Julia was surprised. She’d grown used to Ravina’s vulgarity, but hearing her directing insults to someone else was new.

  Jerrick’s face twisted into a sneer before morphing back to something more amicable. “Now now. There’s no reason for such hostility. Silver Edge can recruit just the same as any party, and calling a young lady beautiful is hardly as nefarious as you’re making it out to be, Ravina.”

  Ravina spat to the side—thankfully away from Julia. “Ya must be trying to fool yourself cus ya ain’t even close to foolin’ me. Julia’s gonna be well outside your meager strength by the time she’s eighteen. And your wrong. I’m teachin’ her the sword, but the one teachin’ her everything else is beyond the potential of your entire family’s lineage.

  “Run along now. Go play with your friends. Go wiggle in the dirt outside this city and pretend it’s the entire world, worm. Languish in your mediocrity,” Ravina finished as she made shooing motions.

  Jerrick’s face transformed into a scowl that Julia thought might burn her just from her proximity to it. “You’ll regret speaking to me that way. Mark my words,” he growled through gritted teeth.

  “Ha, yeah. Keep blowin’ hot air—it’s all ya can do. Just do it where I don’t have to deal with the stink,” Ravina said dismissively. Jerrick huffed and stormed off toward the exit. Ravina watched him go for a second before she turned to Julia.

  “Watch out for that one. He hides his forked tongue behind a dazzlin’ smile. Adventurers ain’t all on the same team all the time—especially if you’re the new girl in the party. That’s not even accountin’ for whatever horrible bugs his diseased prick would give ya if ya let ‘im,” she warned rather bluntly.

  “It’s not like I would sleep with him just because we’d be in the same party. I don’t know how adventurers handle their personal lives, but I’m not interested in mixing work with romance,” Julia said firmly.

  She was a little annoyed that Ravina seemed to think that of her. Not that there's anything wrong with others…”loving” each other. She just thought it was unprofessional to do while working.

  “I ain’t worried about ya fallin’ for his non-existent charms, girl. I’m worried about what would happen if he crawled into your sleepin’ bag while ya were out in the wilderness with no one but his friends around to help.

  “Don’t forget that trustin’ your party is about more than just combat,” Ravina said seriously. Julia nodded, now pensive. That was not something she’d considered before.

  “Long as you’re thinkin’ about it. Ya got a good head on your shoulders, so I ain’t worried ‘bout it now that I’ve warned ya. What I am worried about is your footwork.

  “Who the fuck told ya that ya didn’t need to worry ‘bout your feet while you’re castin’ spells, huh? You think there ain’t ever gonna be a situation where ya gotta dodge in the middle of a cast?

  “Come on. We’re gonna work your feet ‘till you’re wishin’ they’d just fall off.” Ravina headed toward the practice hall with a resigned Julia trailing.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Julia crouched behind a goblin’s tent, not wanting to waste any mana being completely invisible. Since the first clear, their party had run the dungeon a few more times. Sometimes Braden or Ravina would lead, sometimes Julia would be the leader with the other two having designated roles and Skill sets. Those were particularly challenging, as she had to figure out solutions to the dungeon’s challenge with the narrow list of abilities her party members had for that specific run.

  After several successful runs, it was her turn—her “midterm,” as Braden had taken to calling it. He had accompanied her to the entrance and waited there. The run was completely up to her, and he wouldn’t even step foot inside lest he inadvertently cripple her ability to gain Levels.

  She had run the dungeon enough to get the gist of the encounters, by this point. The high-points were the same, but the specific scenarios changed. For example, there would always be an ambush at the front gate, but the numbers of goblins would vary.

  There would be two encounters on the way to the boss with varying numbers of goblins in varying states of equip. She even encountered some that had bows and arrows on one of their previous runs.

  The boss room was the only one that was always exactly the same—always two hobs and a shaman. The consistency of the rest of the dungeon was enough to plan around, though. She had simply laid a lightning trap inside the gate as soon as she crossed the threshold.

  This was potentially unfair since she was able to buff herself with Faraday’s Armor and even queue up the trap spell, ready to cast it at a moment’s notice before she even crossed the threshold. She wasn’t going to mention it, though. Braden always said there was no such thing as “fair” when your life was on the line.

  She stalked through the rows of tents towards the light she could see in the distance while ignoring the blinking light in the corner of her vision. Now that she was on her own, she was gaining experience from her kills. She suspected she had acquired at least one Level from the gate guards—she didn’t know what else the pending notification could be.

  She was planning on ignoring notifications until the run was over, though. She knew at Level 20 there would very likely be a Skill that enhanced her mind waiting for her. Based on the incredible pain the Enhanced Body Skill had caused her, she wasn’t going to risk acquiring it mid-run.

  Coming upon the final tent that could conceal her before the ring of light, she peered around the side. There was a large bonfire with goblins loitering around—she’d gotten lucky. This was a similar scene to their first run, where goblins were occupied with eating. This time they just seemed to be lazing around, though. Some even looked like they were sleeping!

  There were seven goblins. Three were sitting around the fire with a glazed look to their eyes, staring up into the sky as though their minds were far away. The other four were on the ground in various states of rest. One was sprawled on its back with its limbs splayed out carelessly. Another was on its side using its hands as a pillow. All seemed asleep.

  Julia prepared her first spell and cast. The four goblins sank beneath the earth as though falling into water. Brutal, Julia knew. She didn’t want to waste mana increasing the earth’s density, so it would be suffocation that would get them rather than a quick death by crushing. She tried not to think too much about it.

  The magic was quick and silent—the other three goblins awake but none the wiser. She drew her sword as slowly and silently as possible while she prepared her next spell. She had decided to attempt to remove these goblins as stealthily as she could.

  Braden had mentioned offhandedly that there wasn’t a possibility of individual encounters receiving reinforcements in this dungeon, but she thought she should operate as though the possibility was there to prepare for future dungeon runs, as well as real situations out in the world. Goblins didn’t only exist in dungeons, after all.

  As she cast, a light appeared behind the farthest goblin from her. It wasn’t excessively bright, but it was enough to get the attention of all three goblins. They quickly jumped to their feet and stalked over to it, which is when Julia made her move.

  The Dash spell propelled her out of her hiding spot faster than she could have sprinted. Ravina had been drilling her on how to quickly dispatch opponents, but Julia wasn’t quite adept at it yet. She decided to add some insurance.

  Targeting the nearest goblin, she used her Spatial Coordinates spell to lock down the exact spot in the goblin’s neck she needed to cut through, and then she used Gravity Magic to draw her sword towards the coordinates as she struck. The blade sliced clean through the neck, right between two vertebrae, severing the goblin’s head in a single strike.

  Before it could even hit the ground, she was past it—the other two goblins still moving towards the light without even noticing their dead compatriot. Julia decided that the combination of Spatial and Gravity Magic was wasteful for these creatures, so she improvised as she approached the back of the second goblin.

  She grabbed it by the back of the throat and—at the same time—drew water down her arm, up the goblin’s neck, and into its mouth. The water forced itself down the goblin’s throat where she promptly froze it, sending jagged spikes of ice into the sides of its windpipe to anchor the ice there. She then sank its feet into the ground to just above the ankles.

  The goblin thrashed around while clutching at its throat, but Julia was already past it. She launched a rock with her Earth Magic that smacked the lead goblin in the back of the head. It turned around in fury just in time for her blade to slice it clean across the neck. It made a horrible gurgling noise before her blade pierced its eye and it fell to the ground, unmoving.

  Julia took a moment to catch her breath before stalking back over to the still-struggling goblin with the ice in its throat. She knew it could take minutes to suffocate completely, so she ended its suffering with a blade through the eye.

  She wiped her sword off with a rag she kept in her bracelet before surveying her work. She was both proud of how silent the assassination had been, and also slightly disgusted. She had brutally slaughtered seven goblins with relative ease. She felt proud of her growth, but she couldn’t feel anything except grim resignation at the lives she had taken, and would have to keep taking in the future.

  As this thought began to pass, she felt a sharp pain across her back and screamed, spinning to face the direction of her pain. A goblin stared back just an arm-length from her, its face forming a rictus grin. Blood dripped from a jagged dagger in its right hand. Her blood.

  Julia felt a rage boiling in her chest when she saw her own blood on its dagger, but before she could act on it, the goblin swung at her. She quickly called the water buckler to her wrist and absorbed the blow. Rather than deflecting it, though, she froze the water connected to the dagger and yanked back. The dagger ripped from the goblin’s hand, stuck fast in the ice on her wrist.

  The goblin’s triumphant grin turned to shock as the dagger left its hand, and it quickly morphed into a grimace as it saw the sword plunging toward its belly.

  Julia used the momentum of pulling the dagger out of the goblin’s hand with her left hand to spin her body that direction, her sword lowered into a stab. It connected with the goblin’s gut, and Julia sent a quick lightning enchantment through the blade.

  The goblin convulsed so violently that the sword was ripped out of its guts, but not without doing tremendous damage to its insides as it left. It fell to the ground and continued convulsing despite the source of the electricity being disconnected from it. Julia spun the blade in her hand so that it faced toward the ground before plunging it into the goblin’s face, not being particularly careful to hit it exactly in the eye.

  The convulsing stopped; the goblin stilled. Julia felt liquid running down her back and, realizing it was her own blood, left her sword embedded in the goblin’s skull to inspect the damage. She realized her leather breastplate was hanging off her frame now. It was affixed to her with straps that connected in an “X” shape in the center of her back, but two of those straps had been cut through.

  The goblin appeared to have attempted to stab her in the back, but the leather straps were harder than it expected, so the dagger was deflected into cutting across her back from her right shoulder down to the lowest of her ribs on the left side. The cut felt deep, and it was gushing blood.

  Julia now had a choice. She could retreat from the dungeon and have Braden—who was waiting just outside the entrance—heal the wound. Or, she could do it herself and continue forward. The wound, while deep, had not done significant damage to anything but her skin thanks to the leather halting most of its momentum.

  She decided she would continue on. She couldn’t be an adventurer if she turned back after a single wound. She concentrated on where she felt pain the most prominently and sent her mana there. She felt a sudden itch that grew to an almost overwhelming desire to tear into her back with her fingernails before everything subsided.

  She couldn’t see it, but she neither felt pain nor any additional blood running down her back. The healing had damaged her mana pool significantly, though. She was down to a little over 50% of her mana. All that worrying about being mana efficient and she went and wasted it anyway—no, that wasn’t the right way to think of it.

  Thanks to her being mana conscious earlier, she had managed to heal a large, bloody wound with still above half her mana remaining. The real mistake wasn’t being mana conscious, it was being overconfident. Running the dungeon so much had instilled in her subconscious expectations of it.

  They hadn’t ever run into circumstances where a goblin would hide during an encounter for a sneak attack. Actually, she couldn’t even be sure it was hiding. It could simply be that she hadn’t seen it. What a stupid mistake.

  The very first Skill her Class had taught her was a sight Skill, and she hadn’t even thought to use it! Truesight would’ve shown her enemies regardless of whether she could see them with her eyes. Hell, she could even see the bodies of the goblins she buried beneath the ground with her Truesight! Why hadn’t she used it to confirm their numbers!?

  This was a mistake she would not make again. With that determination and a new scar to remind her, she yanked her sword out of the dissipating goblin’s corpse. She wiped it down, sheathed it—not even bothering with the goblins’ cores, and continued toward the center of the dungeon.