Nathan grinned as he watched the rest of the squad heap praises on the other Berserker. Hoots, woos, and cat calls echoed around the dungeon, and while he couldn't see clearly enough the face of the Berserker, he could tell that the teen was probably smiling at the praises.

Heck, even Pirlo threw in some words of praise. Of course, the rogue's words contained hints of mockery, but he highly doubted that Ruben would be able to piece it up within the moment. And even if he did, it could just be interpreted as a little friendly ribbing.

Which was ironically going to be the only way that the rogue knew how to share in the humor. And while Nathan personally wasn't a fan of all these social interactions, he'd do his best to acknowledge the steps that Berserker had made, later. As for now, the dungeon was supposed to spawn the loot, and they'd get their asses out of dodge.

Thud!

The sound echoed in the dungeon, causing the cheering to stop as all members of the squad rested their stance in anticipation of a fight, daggers, swords, and bows at the ready. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the unnecessary action.

"No need to be scared, it's loot," Nathan chuckled. "Go ahead, open it."

His words seemed to alleviate some of the tension in the room as weapons were relaxed. Well, most of them were. Pirlo had stuck to keeping his daggers at his side, ready to stab at any time.

A little stabby stabby, aren't we?

He chuckled inwardly as he watched the squad approach the box like it was a time bomb. Even with his words that had been said to calm them down, they were still wary, which, all things considered, was actually a good thing.

No need for him to make them feel safe. The tension would build them up faster than he could ever. With that in mind, Nathan just stood a little ways from the entrance—the same spot he'd stood at since the fight began. He hadn't moved a single step in any direction, which meant that the squad had passed his hidden test with flying colors.

Meh, more like a D+.

They'd done alright, but they still could've done better. Especially since theirs was kind of a group work, their coordination was weak. Archers were poor. Ruben almost got himself and Diane killed. Pirlo and Ciara, the supposed leaders of the squad, forgot about the rest of the squad immediately the battle started, meaning that their already terrible coordination got worse.

Watching them bicker as they opened up the box only made his concern for them grow. In the box were three items. He couldn't quite tell what they were as he was far away from the loot and it was dark as well. What he could tell was that three items divided by seven people wasn't such a nice math.

More and more, the problems with being in such large squads were beginning to show themselves. Safety in numbers was the pro; a slower progression was the con. Most people would pick safety over progression. Nathan wasn't most people.

Plus, whoever does that is dumb.

More bickering ensued between the squad, but Nathan tuned it out to let his thoughts solidify on his decision. Safety was one of the things humans frequently sought out. Heck, in the entire history of human evolution, the need for safety had propelled man forward. Not the coward's definition of safety—staying back and finding a rock to hide under. No. The kind of safety Nathan sought was the type that would ensure that he was untouched when the new world order becomes established.

The strongest shall rule, and the weak shall follow.

These words were burned into the back of Nathan's mind, and he'd already told himself that after his stint with Sparrow and the gang, never again would he be a follower. Heck, he didn't even want to be a leader. If the world would allow him to be a hermit, he'd happily take that option. But right now, the new world offered no in-between.

Loot claimed, dungeon destabilizing in 2 minutes. All entities should exit the dungeon before the dungeon collapses into Ra'hal.

Nathan dismissed the new notification with a thought. The information had disrupted his thinking, and maybe it was for the best. Overthinking didn't solve anything as far as he could tell, and trust him, he was an overthinker, constantly blowing up situations out of proportion.

"Alright guys, unless you want to be turned into ground beef, I suggest you meet me outside the dungeon," Nathan said.

He'd already turned his back on them after uttering the last word. No need for him to stay put and try to convince them to make haste. When the stones and debris start falling from the ceiling of the dungeon, they'd figure out their way out.

It took him but moments to get out of the collapsing dungeon, and the good part was that he wasn't out of breath by the time he got out. His breathing was barely uneven, which meant he'd improved since his last time in an F-ranked dungeon. With that knowledge came a kind of blissful smile. He hadn't been living on the edge for nothing. The gains he'd gotten from risking his life had started to pay off.

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Dividends.

More like return on investment, Nathan chuckled at the thought. His feet moved on their own accord as his subconscious seemed to want him a good deal away from the destabilizing dungeon. He went with the flow. No point staying back. He'd lost awe of the mechanics of the dungeons.

But they haven't though. I should probably stay here and get them back to Blood Rock.

Less than a few seconds after the thought, the squad came rushing out. Pirlo had a good lead on the rest of them. The rogue probably invested much of his points into Dexterity, plus on the other side of things, the rogue was also the strongest member of the group—a fact that probably wouldn't have been obvious to an outsider.

Ciara led, and the rogue followed. Who between the pair the rest of the squad really followed, he had no idea. But at surface level, Pirlo was the strongest, Ciara was the leader. The thought gave him a little pause, but he shook it off. Instead, he waited for the squad to get to him so they could get moving.

Pirlo was the first to reach his spot, the rogue hunched over trying to catch his breath. The singular act made Nathan chuckle inwardly. The rogue was good, but he definitely wasn't Nathan's match by any stretch of the imagination. Heck, he had a feeling that if he gave the right kind of coaching to Ruben, the Berserker should be able to handle the rogue one-on-one—"should" being the keyword there.

Or Pirlo would just kill him to get rid of the dead weight.

Nathan had the sinking suspicion that Ruben hadn't been an actual Berserker for the squad—a feeling that was confirmed today when he was assigned the task of protecting Diane and when he froze when the attack did come. He wasn't sure if it was his yelling that had done the trick or the knowledge that the rest of his squad mates wouldn't save him if he couldn't handle the Kobolds on his own, but Ruben had stepped up.

Speak of the devil.

"Weren't… we… supposed to… have been… teleported… out the dungeon?" Ruben asked between pants.

The last of the squad had got there, and with the Berserker came the talking. Nathan didn't bother to answer the question as it wasn't important. And judging from the lack of silence from the rest of the squad still catching their breaths, they probably thought so too. Turning away from the squad, he fixed his gaze upon the collapsing dungeon awaiting a particular notification.

Dungeon destabilizing in

10

9

8

7

…

Bingo!

"You guys better look up for this," Nathan said.

Sure, he'd gotten used to it, but for the rest of the squad, something like this was probably going to be their first time seeing the system terraform. One by one, the squad members began stretching to their full height, looking at the destabilizing dungeon in confusion.

…

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

Dungeon destabilized.

That confusion quickly disappeared as soon as the dungeon collapsed, spraying dirt and debris around its surroundings. That was the mundane part. Nathan gave it a few more seconds, and sure enough, the reactions started rolling in.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Yo, Tasha, are you seeing this?"

"Somebody pinch me, this can't be right."

"I think Daniel just sucked in all the dungeon debris through his nose."

"Pfft… more like the debris was probably relocated to fill Ruben's empty head."

More back-and-forths like that continued, and Nathan didn't do anything to break it up. Why would he? The conversations they were having with each other right about now were the kind he low-key wished he'd had with someone else when he'd first watched a dungeon collapse.

They were all teenagers, though, and soon enough, the clearing lost its appeal and intrigue. The squad had thrown a couple of jokes about the subject matter within a few minutes that the subject had turned mundane for them, in record time.

Okay, maybe I was lucky enough to be alone to witness my first.

The fact that he'd been alone to see his first dungeon collapse wasn't so bad now, considering the fact that the squad had pretty much turned what had been a spectacle for him then into another meh moment. He'd been lucky enough to enjoy the first and second time; it had only grown mundane for him after the third time—something that they wouldn't understand. So, yep, there were definitely upsides to going at it alone. Looking back with all that he knew now, he wasn't quite sure he'd pick the tutorial. This path had hardened him faster and given him an edge the tutorial couldn't match.

A win is a win.

Nathan smiled at the thought before tuning in to the animated conversation the squad seemed to be having. Apparently, Ruben was giving the squad a live-action replay of his fight with the Kobolds. While Nathan could easily tell that the squad wasn't really interested in the other Berserker's story, Ruben seemed to be oblivious to that fact. The teen even exaggerated some parts of the story that just made Nathan chuckle.

"… I'm telling you guys, three against one, and I took them all like a champ, zero hesitation. My sword was whistling death, pretty as I mowed them down like this," Ruben said, running the motion of slashing at invisible enemies.

To the Berserker's credit, the squad seemed to perk up at his words. Some probably spotted the outright lie of him not hesitating, but they unanimously decided to let the matter rest, which Nathan thought was a nice decision. The squad mates might not quite agree with Ruben's version of the story, but their singular act of not interrupting the Berserker who was on a roll was thoughtful to say the least. Hopefully, that act would help build up the Berserker's confidence so that the next time they'd actually get into a fight, the Berserker wouldn't hesitate one bit.

"… And then I executed an overhead feint, just like in the movies," Ruben said while demonstrating. "My sword curved and tore into that Kobold like a cake. My feint was perfect without any flaws."

Perfect without any flaws?

The attack had been okay at most, but to call it perfect without a single flaw was wild to say the least. He almost had the urge to slap the stupid smile off the Berserker's face, but thankfully Pirlo stepped in before he could do anything rash to the blabbering Berserker who was still going on like an entry-level marketer selling their first product—which was technically comparable since it was probably the Berserker's first solo kill.

"Where to now?" Pirlo asked, interrupting the Berserker's incessant blabbing.

"Blood Rock. We head back to Blood Rock."