Darrick was running late for his magic engineering class so he was walking faster, really fast. In his path, he saw Leon standing there likely waiting for him although, for some unknown reason, he didn't have time for a chit-chat now so he was about to pass him by when Leon said.

"Magic engineering class is cancelled today."

Darrick suddenly stopped in his tracks. He was looking forward to this class too so he didn't know what to think about this abrupt, uninformed class cancellation.

"Why though? Today was the first class and they already let us down from day one," said Darrick as he sighed helplessly.

"That's what Jasmine said. That aside we can go for the dungeon right away if you are free now."

"Uh.. Yeah, let me change my clothes before I come. Where should we meet then."

"You know the coffee shop just outside the entrance. That's where us three will be waiting for you."

"Okay, I will be there in like ten minutes or a bit more," said Darrick as he ran to his room.

***

"We waited for ten minutes and you just barely made it in time, we would have left without you"

"Yeah, it's not even five minutes. You are already trying to scam me, what am I supposed to do when you say more bullshit at the time of me returning your money? Do I need to sell my body?"

Darrick made the action of imitating a girl filled with embarrassment as he placed his hands on his face covering it.

With silly things like that they walked to the eastern side of the Astoria. The way to their destination, the dungeon was on that side. It would be a long walk if it's at the edge of the city which was not a problem for a group of four very healthy people. Leon also briefed them on what they should expect from this.

"At the eastern end, just at the entrance of the forest, we will find the dungeon. It's filled with goblins so we all have to be on an alert once inside, I will brief more on it at the entrance again."

The dungeon entrance was not outside the noble district, not even in the slums. It was very much out of the city completely. They walked for almost two hours, fortunately, no one was exhausted before the raiding even started.

"I think we should have rented a carriage or something. It would have saved so much time, we would have had a lot of time to do something else or just raid the dungeon more. I don't know whose idea it was." Leon said as he shook his head at their decision.

"Not mine. When I exited the main gate you, Jasmine and Jasper, all of you just stood, made some jokes and we kept walking."

"Meh, whatever. It doesn't matter now, Leon should just brief the strategy now." Jasmine simply dismissed the whole as if it was nothing.

As usual, Jasper didn't open his mouth so Leon started the strategy meeting.

"We are a party of four people, we have a supporter, a defender currently, an attacker and a general fighter. As a defender, I'll take the front to defend against any attacks. Darrick, you have to keep disrupting the attacking goblins with your spell, if it kills good, if it doesn't don't worry our attacker can handle it."

"Jasmine here will stand behind me and Darrick, whenever the attack is ready she will come forward to shoot it and Jasper just has to keep healing us if we actually get hit sometimes. Any question?"

Darrick raised his hand to ask a question like a student,

"Yes, student Darrick. You may ask the question."

"How are you going to defend us? What kind of attack is Jasmine going to throw and what is the limitation of the Jaspers healing? And how far inside are we going there?"

"My spell lets me make a shield of mana in front of me. It's one meter in diameter so I can block most of the attacks by the goblins with ease and for the nest questions you have to consult the concerned members."

"That's good and what about the 'defender currently' means? I'm guessing you will be getting attack sigils, right?"

"You will see in due time."

"Hmm, next question is for Jasmine. What kind of attacks are you going to throw? I at least need a basic idea on it"

"I have a wide-range killing attack but I can also concentrate and focus it on a single enemy. If the enemy is very weak then it kills them in one shot but if they are strong it kills them slowly, bit by bit. That's all I can do for now."

"That's terrifying! Is that not enough for you?"

She didn't answer but tilted her head a bit with a questioning gaze. Darrick hadn't expected an answer from her anyway so he looked at Jasper,

"Even if your limbs were cut off I can reattach them with ease. Slash wounds, stab wounds or cuts could be healed in an instant. Currently, I can maintain continuous healing for fifteen minutes but if it's just occasional healing then I can do it for about two hours."

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"That's good. I currently have a sigil named Imaginary, the one the academy provides. I have done a good bit of practice with the spell, it can shoot a bolt of force towards the enemy. It's like a strong man flinging a big stone at someone with as much force he can, which should be enough to distract the goblins."

"Yes, that sounds like a plan. We will go inside in five minutes be very alert to your surroundings. This is a mapped dungeon. We have information on it, this dungeon has ten rooms. All of them have goblins a bit more than the previous room. From room three there will be traps on the ground."

"For a party of tier 2, it is allowed up to room 6 so we can advance till room five and then we will think about if we have to advance or not. That should be all about the dungeon I collected in a hurry. If anyone has anything to say spit it out right now."

Leon completed his briefing. As no one said anything they headed inside the dungeon through the creepy-looking, darkness-filled cave entrance with torches lit in one hand and a weapon in another. It was going to be a memorable experience.

***

It was an underground cave. A dark cave with no light so Darrick and Jasper had held torches in their hand, the magical ones. In the buying spree yesterday they had also bought many magical items in preparation for today's dungeon raid.

Jasmine and Leon's hands were free to react to unexpected situations they may come across. Leon was ready to intercept any attacks with his spells ready to deploy any second. Jasmine also had a spell on the verge of activation, although it would take a bit of time to shoot even after the activation.

I need to learn that. If I have that thing then I can shoot magic immediately without much effort. Maybe I should ask them how they do it after we finish up the first room. For now, let's just concentrate. Phew, I have to shoot the goblin that is not attacking Leon. Yeah, I can do that, let's go.

Darrick motivated himself so he wouldn't mess up their formation and get someone injured. As they kept walking they came across a stone door. It was almost three meters tall and looked like was entirely made out of stone. What they traversed through till now was just the outer lobby and from here is where the real dungeon starts and the fight will come to them on its own.

"I think all of us need to push this door to make it move even a little bit. Nobody told me about the big ass door at the start of the dungeon."

Leon stepped towards the door to push the door open after saying that but when he stood in front of the door it opened automatically, the group was a bit surprised by the unexpected development but it wasn't a bad one.

"Why are you guys surprised? Don't your families teach about these things that happen in dungeons?"

"All dungeons are not the same, genius. Every dungeon is a place somewhere in this world lost in the void, they somehow get a little connection with our plane and try to assimilate here. For that, they would need a massive amount of energy and that's why we are in this situation."

"Wait wait wait! I think you skipped a really big part of the story there. What do yo-"

"Goblins are here! Get ready to attack when they come to view, I can sense up to three goblins, no, four. And Darrick I'll answer the questions after the fight."

Leon raised his hand a bit, he had a sword in his right hand to attack goblins as he just couldn't keep defending.

"Shit! Don't say it like that, it's a bad sign."

"Guys! The goblins are in the range. I'll prepare my spell in 8 seconds. Just hold on till then." Jasmine activated the sigil and started gathering the power in her hands. Now they just had to hold out for 8 seconds.

Just when her words finished a dagger flew towards them, and Leon stepped in its pathway. The dagger did nothing but bounce off the shield with a clang but following that a goblin jumped towards Leon and another one was ready to jump right behind it.

Darrick had to act quickly. He calmed himself and then sensed his soul boundaries, there he searched for his sigil, the imaginary. It was just a circle and all he had to do was to let the mana flow through them. He had practised it so many times after he got his sigil.

It was not easy, there was no path for the mana to reach the sigil in the first place, it was just plain soul so he had to drag the mana to the sigil forcefully. It felt like when his elbow brushed against the concrete wall. It was a bit, only a bit painful to do it but the urgency of the situation on top of that made it a stressful experience currently.

I just have to drag the mana and let it flow through the sigil. Come on, you are not helping right now, mana. Just come through, a bit by bit, slightly ahead, one step more and... that's it!

Darrick was pulling the mana towards the sigil. He was encouraging his mana to move forward. He didn't know if it worked because of it or not but it was moving slightly faster than before when he was practising with it and when it did move he was delighted.

Mana had reached the sigil. It had flowed through the sigil. The spell was ready but for someone like Darrick who was just a beginner, it was quite a bit difficult to imagine shooting a bolt of force out of his fingers. To make up for what he lacked he made up a command for it.

"shoot!"

He commanded as he pointed his fingers towards the second goblin. The bolt of force left his hands it directly and accurately landed on the goblin's chest, it shrieked as it couldn't understand what happened. The bolt had connected when the goblin had already taken off from the floor so the goblin flew backwards in the air and slammed on another goblin.

The first goblin who attacked Leon also couldn't pierce his defence and was met with a slash to its stomach. The goblin retreated to its group before Leon could do more damage to it. All of this happened in a mere 5 seconds. When the backed-up goblins turned towards the group to snarl, they got a good look at the goblin's appearances.

The green-skinned beasts stood at around three and a half feet tall. They had a hunched posture, their skin wrinkled and thin, almost like an old parchment. Their eyes were small and sharp, glowing with bright red colour, and their mouth was filled with crooked, yellow teeth that jutted out at odd angles.

Its fingers were long and bony, each ending in a sharp nail, and its nails were stained with grime. A single scratch from those nails was enough to leave some nasty wounds, and on top of that, they wore a piece of some kind of animal skin and dagger on hand. With how unclean they looked they were bound to be disgustingly foul-smelling.

Their character examination was followed by another bolt of force from Darrick directed at the only goblin completely uninjured because it hadn't attacked yet but its luck ran out and it was not uninjured anymore.

"Shoot."

The shot landed exactly on its head and it fell with a thud. Then he heard Jasmine's voice from the back.

"Duck!"

As he heard the word Darrick and Leon both got out of the way. Darrick just knew it was dangerous so he just instinctually avoided it. Whatever she had thrown, it was very fast. It hit the goblins so fast that they didn't even see it coming.

The spell was strong, very strong even. There was an explosion but no environmental damage only goblins were affected, as it had killed all the goblins. The goblins were evaporated with just a touch from the spell and Jasmine boasted with a smug look on her face to the party.

"I had to help some newbies. What could you have done without me?"