Jennifer lazily waved her staff, her expression indifferent as she felt the familiar rush of magic surging through her arm and into the polished wood. The crystal at the staff’s tip flared to life, casting a bright yellow light across the dark cavern.
A moment later, a burst of near-white flame erupted, roaring toward the two snarling wolves that dared to block her path.
The beasts' growls turned into pitiful, panicked yelps as the fire engulfed them, clinging to their bodies. Their once sleek, gray fur curled and blackened in seconds, smoldering as the flames consumed them entirely. They staggered, their limbs trembling before collapsing into lifeless heaps.
What remained was nothing but charred husks, twisted and deformed, resembling melted chunks of coal scattered on the ground.
Jennifer’s eyes barely flicked over the remains; the sight didn’t bother her in the least. But the smell—oh, the smell—was a different story.
The pungent, overwhelming stench of scorched flesh assaulted her senses and made her stomach churn.
That was one thing she had never gotten used to. With a quick follow-up spell, she summoned a breeze which cleared the foul odor. Taking a deep breath, her face relaxed as she inhaled the fresh air.
‘Much better’
Jennifer yawned, her eyes half-lidded with boredom as she dismissed the notifications without so much as a glance. They didn’t matter anyway.
Yet another day in this low-level dungeon. It was boring, so so boring. She eyed her guard at her side, her mind wandering. She played around with the idea of knocking him out with her staff and venturing off to explore on her own.
The thought brought a small, mischievous smile to her lips, lightening her mood.
She was already level eighteen, far beyond anything this dungeon could offer, even in its deepest, most dangerous corners. And yet, here she was, stuck near the entrance, dealing with pathetic creatures barely worth her time.
"Brandon," she began, her voice dripping with false sweetness, eyes batting in a mock display of innocence.
Without missing a beat, Brandon sighed. “If you’re going to ask about going deeper into the dungeon, the answer is no, Miss Jennifer.”
Her smile vanished, replaced by a dramatic roll of her eyes. "Ugh, whatever… you're so boring," she muttered, crossing her arms in frustration.
She didn’t mean to take it out on Brandon, and she couldn’t really blame him for following orders. Her father was just getting on her nerves. He was zealously overprotective, always overly concerned with keeping her safe. It was suffocating.
His constant, overblown concern for her safety was more than annoying; it was holding her back, preventing her from growing stronger. The monsters here were a joke, barely providing any experience, and it took her ages to level up.
As she brooded over her predicament, a distant clatter echoed through the cavern, snapping her out of her thoughts. The faint sound quickly grew louder, accompanied by frantic, garbled shouting. Her ears perked up as she exchanged a silent glance with Brandon.
“S—LE—ON H—E!” The words were distorted, muffled by sobbing that made it difficult to discern the message.
But as the voice neared, endlessly repeating those same words, the meaning finally became clear.
“SKELETON HERE!”
Jennifer’s brow furrowed. A skeleton? She turned to Brandon. "Are there skeletons in this dungeon?"
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Brandon shook his head, his expression mirroring her confusion. "No, there shouldn’t be."
Before she could ask another question, a brittle-looking skeleton staggered into view, its one remaining arm hanging limply at its side. A pair of small orbs in its eye sockets glowed with an eerie red light, pulsing like embers. Jennifer blinked, momentarily taken aback by the absurdity of the scene. And then it got even weirder.
A goblin wearing a metal helmet burst through the same opening, tears streaming down its green face. Without hesitation, it pounced on the skeleton, sobbing hysterically as it screamed, “SKELETON KILLED MIMI!” The goblin’s wails echoed through the cavern as it plunged its crude weapon into the skeleton's torso repeatedly, a look of raw grief contorting its features.
The skeleton groaned, emitting an unnervingly human-like sound as it struggled under the goblin’s relentless assault. Jennifer watched in disbelief, her mouth hanging open as the goblin finally drove its blade through the skeleton’s teeth, shattering the entire skull with a sharp, resounding crack.
The red orbs in the skeleton’s eye sockets flickered before extinguishing completely, leaving nothing but a pile of bones.
For a moment, Jennifer almost felt sorry for the goblin. Who knew monsters had feelings? But the thought was fleeting, and it didn’t really matter. At least she’d have something interesting to tell her friends when she got back.
With a casual twirl of her staff, she conjured a fresh burst of flame, setting the grieving goblin ablaze. Its screams turned from sorrow to agony as its body crumbled under the relentless fire, melting away like wax.
Jennifer barely had time to register the scene when three more goblins scrambled into the cavern. They froze at the sight of their fallen comrade, eyes widening in horror.
“Late stragglers?” she mused, a wicked grin spreading across her face as her staff moved again, flames already licking at the air.
----------------------------------------
Kaden prowled through the dungeon’s winding corridors, his mood dark and seething, teeth grinding together in frustration. That damned goblin had chased him relentlessly, hounding him through the tunnels like some possessed creature. He had darted between caverns, ducked behind pillars, and taken every precaution to lose them, but no matter what he did, they found him every time.
The little stamina he managed to regain in his brief moments of hiding only prolonged the miserable ordeal, thoroughly annoying him.
Hopefully, Jennifer had dealt with the last of them. He chuckled at the thought of the ugly creature finally meeting its end.
Yeah, he killed Mimi, so what? The goblins were the ones who started this ridiculous feud in the first place. How could they possibly blame him for their own actions?
“Arrogant little pricks,” he muttered under his breath, giving a loose rock a vicious kick. It clattered noisily as it skid across the stone floor, the sound echoing in the empty corridor, but it didn’t bring him any comfort.
Still, he supposed there was a silver lining. At least he had racked up some experience from the whole ordeal. Casting a quick glance at the notifications hovering in his vision, he nodded with satisfaction.
─ Level 7 Goblin slain.
─ Reward: 405 Experience Points
─ Level 6 Goblin slain.
─ Reward: 307 Experience Points
Almost halfway to the next level. He was looking forward to the day he could freely stride into their camp unopposed, killing every single last one, savoring their screams of terror.
He winced at the dark fantasy… ‘Okay maybe that was a bit too morbid.‘ He admitted, shaking his head. Still, they deserved it. They had brought this upon themselves, and he was just finishing what they started. At least, that’s how he justified it to himself.
For now, though, it was back to square one. He eyed his left arm with a calculating glance, considering whether or not he should rip it off and fashion another bone spike. The idea didn’t interest him much. He worked so hard to get it back in the first place, and he was just starting to get used to having it again.
“The struggles,” he chuckled, finding his predicament incredibly hilarious. His life had taken an unbelievable turn in such a short time. Less than a month ago, he had been living a regular, if somewhat miserable, life with his worthless father. But even that had been better than this.
Smacking himself in the face, he shook his head. The pathetic whining was so tiring. What use was complaining? He wasn’t strong enough to lament about his arm, nobody cared!
‘No use being a half-assed piece of shit!’
With a twisted smile, he gripped his upper arm and yanked on it brutally, tearing it out of the socket. The pain was sharp and searing, but he didn’t utter so much as a groan—this much was nothing, he had endured far worse.
Holding the severed limb in one hand, he let it dangle freely for a moment before lowering it to the ground. Stepping on top of the lower half, he pulled the upper arm free with a crack, before kicking away the useless remains.
He couldn’t make a spike out of something that wasn’t stiff, and the lower arm was too narrow and brittle to be of any use, even if it did have a far better length.
The material ready, he started carving the bone down like a sculptor, chomping with his strong jaw. Shards of bone flaked off with each bite, the piece of bone slowly taking form as he molded it into his vision.
He made quick work of it and soon held a rough, jagged spike. Not exactly pretty, but it would do.
Now, all he needed was someone to stick it into.