“I don’t understand.” Hana looked around at the others. “So what if there’s no failure condition?”

Seah broke the long silence that followed. “You said the Guild Master knew of a team that survived one of these.”

The proctor nodded.

“A team of 5 experienced players encountered one of these shrines near the end of a dungeon. The quest required 50 red goblins be defeated with critical hits. And, just like in this case, it had no failure condition set.”

Red goblins were smaller monsters. They were crafty, but by no means impossible to defeat, especially by a full party of experienced players.

“I know what you’re thinking, but again, there was no failure condition.”

Hana spoke up. “You keep saying that, but what does that mean?”

“That means there’s no way to end the quest early. You either finish the quest, or…”

The proctor didn’t finish the sentence, but everyone already knew what that meant.

The experienced team had entered the black shrine with full provisions. Under normal circumstances, that would have given them about a week inside a dungeon. But under the duress of a constant onslaught by red goblins, they had run through half their provisions in three days. And after a week, two players were dead. The quest was completed after three weeks. Three players died in the quest while one succumbed to their injuries after.

They all felt sick. Johann stumbled away from the group and retched. Seah stood in stunned silence while Cyrus stood there, trying to come to grips with the gravity of the situation.

***

GOLEM defeated. 50 EXP gained.

Jinyoung lay on the ground. Battered. As far as he could tell, it’d been weeks and he’d defeated the golem hundreds of times. Once he accepted the shrine’s offer to heal his wounds, it would summon the golem again.

He thought back to one of his earlier attempts. It was his fifth time defeating the golem and the shrine’s notification appeared as it always did and has done since. On a whim, he chose to refuse the shrine’s offer.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Maybe, he thought.

But, of course, no. The black shrine simply summoned the golem and Jinyoung had to fight it, carrying over his injuries and exhaustion from the previous fight. It’d nearly killed him.

But the experience was a crucial one. It was a step in testing the boundaries of the quest and just one of the many things he learned about the shrine.

For one thing, time passed just as it did in the real world. His hair had grown cumbersomely long more than once, requiring him to do his best job cutting it with the damaged short sword. Shaving was worse and was best attempted right before healing at the shrine.

And healing at the shrine didn’t just cure his injuries, it refreshed him and cured him of any hunger or exhaustion he felt at the time. Then, there was the time between battles. He learned that as long as he didn’t accept or deny the shrine’s offer for healing, the golem didn’t respawn. He could spend that time resting or sleeping. Sometimes he went for walks toward the endless horizon until he turned around and returned.

But his most important discovery was about himself. Defeating the golem netted 50 EXP, but having maxed out at level 10, he could not gain any more levels unless he had a class. And it was impossible to enter a class while he was stranded in this quest. So, in an effort to increase his chances of survival, he unlocked the final two No Class skills: [charge] and [scan].

[Charge] allowed him to defeat the golem faster if he felt the need to rest or heal from injuries. But [scan] was the biggest tool in his arsenal. By activating the [scan] skill, he could see when the golem was going to attack and how. That allowed him to parry or dodge the attacks more easily. Of course, it wasn’t perfect. Somewhere around his fortieth attempt, he mistimed a parry and nearly died from a direct attack. After that, he realized it was easier and safer to [dash] at the last minute for a perfect dodge rather than risk death from attempting to parry an overpowered attack.

Perfect Parries: 21/50

Perfect Dodges: 396/500

Jinyoung was surprised. He hadn’t checked his quest progress in days (maybe weeks?) so he hadn’t realized how far along he was. He spent his time mindlessly fighting and resting as required in order to progress.

For a while, he tried to focus on finding ways around the quest to escape. Then, he studied the golem and unlocked his skills so he could min/max his way to success. And now, when he was losing that momentum, he realized just how close he was to getting out. To seeing his family again.

He thought of Cyrus and Seah often. Johann, too. But he spent the bulk of his time worried about Hana. It felt like only yesterday he was preparing her for her first dungeon. Drilling her about safety measures and making sure she had tightened the straps of her shield. Was she okay? Did Seah and Cyrus make it out of the dungeon? Did Johann ever stop speaking out of turn?

The questions and doubts ate at him. Now, more than the stone golem, it was the doubts and lack of answers that tired him. But he was making progress. Each battle allowed him to take a few steps closer to escape. The last thing he remembered before he fell asleep was thinking about his plans for after graduation.

Exploring the world with his friends and becoming a hero like he’d always dreamed.