Both Silver and the Gobhorn are on the ground, hurt and exhausted. The monster’s the one to make the first move, kicking Silver in the face until he moves back, giving both of them place to get back up.

He can feel his muscles crying in pain and his heart beating stronger than ever; he is on his last leg.

The monster groans before screeching and launching another desperate punch. Silver manages to evade it and catch the beast’s arm before striking it’s elbow, breaking it. But the monster ignores it and strikes Silver directly in the face, sending him flying backward.

Thankfully, the Gobhorn’s punching power had decreased with all the damages, but it was still strong enough to make Silver ragdoll on the ground.

He difficultly gets back up, stunned from the hit. His eyes manage to focus enough just in time for him to see the monster launching another punch, which would most probably be fatal.

As Silver accepts his fate, a golden wall forms before him. The monster punches it, resulting in a discusting sound and the monster screaming in pain once, then again even harder.

As the wall goes down, Silver sees Armando planting his daggers in the Gobhorn back while V restrains it’s moves by trapping it’s feet. The monster starts to struggle and lash out, flapping it’s arms, trying desperately to make his opponents go away.

It eventually manages to grab onto Armando and send him flying, but he effortlessly manages to land on his feet and rushes back, striking the monster on it’s side.

As the monster starts to scream again, it’s hit by a blade of wind in the back. Next to the hostages, Lin concentrates his Mana to launch another long range attack.

The Gobhorn tries to turn around, but it’s feet are still trapped. Looking around, it sees V and tries to attack her with it’s broken arm, but she easily grabs it and pins it to the ground.

At this point the fight is already over, the monster being unable to fight back against a full team.

“Good job, Silver.” praises Armanado. “The honors are all yours.”

Silver approaches the beast, now for the first time looking down on it. The Gobhorn struggles, but the accumulation of damage has left it weak, a far cry from it’s previous glory.

Silver puts his foot on the creature's head and takes a deep breath before starting to stomp on it repeatedly. The sounds of the onslaught are disgusting. After a few times, the monster stops moving and is finally defeated.

Armando catches Silver just before he falls, exhausted.

“Let’s join the rest.”

At long last, the whole group is back together. Armando lays Silver down on the ground, and Sarah immediately comes to him, checking on his injuries. She concentrates her mana and starts to heal him but stops soon; she’s also exhausted from all of this.

“V, any danger nearby ?” asks Armando while checking on the downed Dungeonauts.

“Not as far as I can see.” answers V, looking all around them. “But I’ll keep looking.”

***

After an hour of tending to them, the downed Teams members finally get up, dazed and confused. After some explanations, they come to understand the situation and explain it to Armando: they were here to look for some materials when they were attacked by the goblins, led by the Gobhorn.

Silver manages to get up, painfully. He looks around, seeing multiple barrels and other storage. He goes towards them, opening them to see that they are filled with rotting monster corpses.

After going around, he arrives at the place where the Gobhorn was sitting when they arrived. It looks like there was a wooden box here that he didn’t register when they arrived.

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Curious, he opens it, half expecting more rotting flesh, but what's inside is way more surprising: it’s filled with what looks like Dungeonaut equipment. He looks inside it only to find half broken weapons and chewed up armor—nothing really interesting.

As he is about to give up, he unhearths a pair of fingerless gloves with white X’s on them.

“Found something interesting ?” asks Lin as he approaches.

“Those.” answers Silver while showing the gloves. “The rest is in a terrible state, probably unusable.”

“You should have them appraised once we get back at the surface.”

“Yeah. Say, I have a question: how did you and the others manage to take out weapons when you clearly didn’t have them on you ?”

“What, nobody explained ? Move for a second.”

Silver moves away from the box just as Lin kicks it over, spilling it’s content on the ground. He looks around in it for a bit before taking out a small pouch that he throws in Silver’s hands.

“Here, it’s a Dimensional Pouch. You can stock items in it; it’s where we stock our weapons and other things.” explains Lin as he points to a similar pouch he has on his belt.

“I see, it seems mighty useful.” says Silver as he attaches it to his belt.

After a few seconds of silence, Lin starts to talk.

"Listen, Silver, I’m still not really hot on you joining this Team but you proved that you can, at least, pull your weight. Continue like that, and I might come to accept you and, hell, even maybe like you.”

“If that’s the best you can do for now, I’ll take it.” says Silver while extending his hand.

Lin looks at it and, after an uncomfortable time, shakes it.

“Seems like all’s good over here.” remarks Armando as he walks in on the two.

“We’re trying, at least.” says Silver with a slight smile.

The three of them go back to the rest of the group, now formed of 19 Dungeonauts in total; even if most of them are E rank and not in the best of shape, it should make the trip back to the surface pretty smooth.

And it was, the group easily managing to erradicate any kind of monster in their way. After a little less than an hour, they are back at Floor 0.

A crowd was waiting patiently at the Dungeons entrance, anxious as if the rescue mission, which became a bit of a sensation, had been accomplished. When the first sign of Armando’s Team showed at the bottom of the stairs, the crowd erupted in cheers .

Other, older Dungeonauts had to form a way to let the heroes and the ones they saved move. As they try to advance, Armando stops dead in his tracks and starts to yell.

“We’re back ! So I want you all to applaud me and my Team ! And most particularly..." he turns towards Silver and points at him. “To Silver, who almost killed a Gobhorn alone ! And without having unlocked his color yet !”

What was he doing ? Silver could not understand why Armando was singling him out like that, but his thoughts are almost immediately drowned out in the loud cheers and applause from the crowd.

He is stunned by this display of admiration and doesn't know what to do or say.

“Now could you please let us through ?” continues Armando. “Our hero still almost got his ass beat, so he needs treatment.”

The crowd starts to laugh as they open more, letting the whole group through. Arriving at the hospital, they are all checked out. The man who had initiated the whole rescue mission comes barging and rushes towards his Team, hugging them.

After a short treatment, the Team is sent straight to the Bureau where they are welcomed like heroes.

Silver, feeling overwhelmed, steps outside and is surprised to see that Armando is already here.

“Tell me, why did you make me the “MVP” of the whole situation ?” asks Silver as he approaches Armando.

“Well, if you weren’t a small star here, we wouldn’t have had the urgent request, so having a famous member is a plus. And because you can inspire people.”

“Inspire ? How ?”

“You, a guy who just became a Dungeonaut, managed to beat a D+ ranked monster; that’s an incredible achievement ! With that, Dungeonauts are gonna train harder, be it because they are inspired by you or because they don’t want you to surpass them. As days go by, the Dungeon becomes more and more dangerous, so we need strong Dungeonauts to face it.”

Silver is a little surprised; just how far does Armando see ?

“Is it because of what happened the day I Awakened ? Of the massacre ?”

“Exactly.” confirms Armando. “That and what happened today. If the Glitches are gonna get way more frequent, then we’re gonna need stronger fighters, and you will be the guiding light.”

“Hard to think you’re only 19.” says Silver with a tinge of sarcasm. “Fine, I’ll do it. I’ll be the light who’ll guide the people or whatever. But I’m gonna need someone to show me the way.”

Armando smiles, and they both dap up, sealing their alliance.