The dungeon was not as interesting as Leon had hoped. It was difficult to tell if it was an actual historical ruin or just something the adventurers guild set up for this purpose.

  All the walls and pillars were adorned in imagery from various monster species; there were goblin banners hung over kobold skins which themselves were draped over walls covered in crude graffiti. Altogether, it made for a wholly bizarre experience, and he had little idea what sort of monster they’d be encountering until they stumbled upon the first group of kobolds.

  They had simple wooden clubs, but he knew the real danger would come from their claws and fangs. Their copper scales also represented an armor that weak blades would have trouble cutting through.

  Even still, they were quite short, and the color of their scales was weaker than what he had read. Kobolds were a bronze-tier monster, and presumably most of the initiates did not possess bronze-tier stats. The guild must have specifically culled the monsters and malnourished them enough to make it a fair fight.

  Not that it would matter for one such as himself, his greatsword would cleave through the kobolds with ease whether they were unranked or bronze. Really, he was just hoping they would call him up and he could let loose a little.

  “Syra, Corine, Carach, Felheim, Demetrius, you’re up first.”

  His hopes were dashed as five initiates were called up. There was some interest to be found in the fact the beastwoman went up as well at least. She was really the only one that might prove themself anything here other than him.

  The five of them lined up opposite the five kobolds, four of the adventurers shaking slightly as they steeled their nerves. The kobolds also seemed quite anxious, but they at least had the excuse of facing well over twenty-five humans. It was pathetic for the initiates to be so nervous when there were barely any stakes involved, the worst that could happen would be a few cuts before an adventurer saved them.

  When it finally became clear that the kobolds wouldn’t advance—something they could hardly be blamed for, he felt—the initiates began slowly pushing forward. Idly, he wondered what would stop the kobolds from retreating against such overwhelming numbers, but assumed some of the adventures sent ahead were cutting off any chance of escape.

  As the initiates advanced at an infuriatingly slow pace, the kobolds slowly built their nerves as they realized they would not be swarmed by everyone at once. The kobolds readied their weapons, and when they deemed the initiates close enough, let loose a shrill scream before charging into them.

  Four of the initiates readied their identical shields and met the charge as a wall; they must have planned it while advancing. That left the beastwoman with her dual blades.

  From behind her companions’ wall, she jumped over the lines and flipped herself around midair to face the enemy.

  One of the kobolds managed to spot her descent and swiped at her with its free claw, a decision that should have lessened the numbers against it and its allies by one. Indeed, that was what Leon expected to happen as being mid-air left precious little one could do to dodge an attack after all. Instead, he barely managed to follow as one of her shortswords snaked out to claim the kobold’s hand before she landed low and thrust her other shortsword through its jaw and into its brain.

  Now behind their lines, she gave her shortswords a flourish to shake the brains off and lunged at the nearest target. Unable to prepare itself in time, the kobold was pushed off balance into the waiting masses of the shieldwall.

  Another turned to face her, only for the shield opposite to bash it in the face and it to be sent tumbling into the beastwoman’s waiting blades. With three kobolds down, the tide quickly turned as the shieldwall overpowered the remaining two, and the initiates descended upon them.

  Observing from the back, Leon was surprised to find himself nodding along as the other onlookers cheered for their companions. It had been a clean victory, he had to admit, most of it having been due to the beastwoman and the opening she had provided, but even then, the shieldwall had managed to achieve their objective.

  He wondered if the other groups would try a similar tactic now that it had proven effective. Unfortunately for any would be copycats, without the beastwoman, they would undoubtedly be met with far less success.

  A shieldwall was only as strong as its weakest member, and without the Katiine there to quickly break the kobold formation, they would be stuck in a stalemate until one side gave. The reason for group one’s decisive victory lay in the beastwoman’s ability to execute and survive a frontal assault. She had managed due to her incredible agility, a blessing he doubted many, if any, of the other applicants possessed.

  Looking over the initiates before him, he was sure it would not be the kobolds who faltered for the majority of encounters. Pathetic, not one of them is even halfway decent. It’d be easier to squeeze blood from a stone than make proper fighters out of them.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Despite the success of the first group, there was no stopping to celebrate. The moment the final kobold fell, the senior adventurers were ushering them forward, deeper into the kobold-infested ruins.

  They moved until they ran into another small group of five kobolds, all copper and seeming just as weak as the last. Once again, his hopes were dashed aside as five more names were called up.

  As he watched the five gather, he realized that another not wearing the standard guild-lended gear was called with them. It was an interesting coincidence, and he had to wonder if that was on purpose. Give them a natural leader on the assumption that those with better gear would have at least an inkling of what to do. Presumably, that meant he would be called forward to fight with four ill-equipped strangers, hardly an issue against such monsters, merely more mana for him.

  As he expected, the new party formed a shield wall right off the bat and slowly advanced on the kobolds. It was almost a perfect replay of the last fight right down to the kobold screech and charge. Only this time, there was no beastwoman to break the enemy formation.

  The shieldwall met the charge and the two sides fought for dominance. From there, it went just as he expected. One of the flanks of the wall collapsed, and the kobold on that side burst through to attack the exposed initiate. From there, the other initiates stopped blocking and engaged the kobolds in single combat.

  All semblance of order disintegrated as the chaos of battle took hold. One kobold knocked a bearded initiate down and went in for a killing blow with their claws. Leon saw an adventurer approaching, ready to assist, before the properly equipped initiate slashed at the hand and blocked it.

  Unfortunately for him, his sword became lodged in the kobold’s arm, and the murderous look in the monster’s eyes told him that the initiate was not having any luck frantically trying to yank it out.

  The man was forced to release his weapon as the kobold swung at him with its other hand, but luckily, the bearded initiate he had saved finally found his footing and clubbed the kobold over the head with a mace before it could properly punish their savior.

  From there, it was a slow and brutal cleanup. The initiate who had lost his sword was forced to pick up a kobold mace once it was clear that he could not pull his weapon from the lizard’s corpse without exposing himself to attacks, though not for lack of trying, and without his assistance, the others suffered even against the remaining kobolds.

  Eventually, they managed to put down the last kobold in a victory that left the entire group bloodied and tired. With their foes dead, the would-be swordsman was now finally able to pull his weapon from the kobold's arm with some help from the others, and the five returned to the pack with tired grins.

  Once again, they were promptly ushered back into an amorphous blob one could generously call a formation and marched further through the dungeon until a new group of kobolds could be found.

  It was not long until a group came straggling into the light. This time, however, one of the kobolds stood out. They were a dark red rather than copper and stood at least a head taller than their peers. A small smile crept onto Leon’s lips; this was a proper kobold.

  “Rayne, Cald—”

  Leon stepped forward to interrupt the adventurer before he could continue. “I shall fight these ones,” he declared.

  The adventurer looked up from his list, his eyes possessed a little curiosity at Leon but importantly no anger. “And you are?”

  He straightened out his back, this would be his initial impression among those grading him, and less importantly upon his soon to be guild juniors.

  “Leon D…” He faltered as the next few words refused to leave his throat.

  Technically, he had no legal right to his last name anymore. That had not stopped him from using it until this point, but as he was now, almost penniless and without his support staff any longer, it might be unbecoming of his family name to claim it at the moment.

  Eyes stared at him, but once it became clear he would not continue, the adventurer returned to picking out names.

  “Fine. Rayne, Caldwell, Terrance, Leon, and Samara. Get at ‘em.”

  Stepping forward, he waited as his teammates gathered behind him awkwardly; they did not seem all that confident in themselves. Content in their silence, he turned his attention and studied his foes—four coppery kobolds and the darker red one. They would hardly be a threat to him; kobolds were nothing without their pack after all.

  As the silence dragged on, one of his teammates eventually decided to speak up. He was shorter than Leon by a few inches, standing perhaps a shade under six feet tall. That plus his chestnut brown hair and an uneasy if determined gaze from his brown eyes meant that he cut an unimposing stature. His body seemed lithe, but Leon assumed that was more from poor nutrition rather than choice.

  “I think we should form a shield wall as well.” He took a pause at that and looked at them each as if to ask if they might disagree, when none did, he continued a bit more confidently. “With four of us holding them back, Leon can use his greatsword’s reach to dismantle their formation safely.”

  The others nodded happily. While Leon could give the boy that it was not a bad plan, he was still forced to shake his head. It simply would not be needed here.

  “I shall go in alone. You four may clean up any that attempt to flee.”

  The others stared at him dumbfounded, and Leon had to suppress a snort. Did they seriously think he was cut from the same cloth as themselves?

  “I know you want the reward, man, but you can’t just take on five kobolds by yourself. When you overreach and get yourself killed, you’ll be screwing the rest of us over.”

  It was the brown-haired boy who protested against him, and judging by how the others looked at him, they were all in agreement on this. It appeared as if the boy had been elected as something of an unofficial leader purely because he spoke first. Well, they may have decided that this qualified him to be their leader, but Leon surely had not.

  Refusing to even deign them with a verbal response, he instead turned his back to them and drew his weapon to demonstrate his dissent. As he advanced, he heard them quickly mutter words to each other, trying to work up a plan around what they no doubt saw as his recklessness.

  Chuckling silently, he approached the wary kobolds. These commoners were about to see what a true noble could accomplish.

  He hoped they realized the honor.