During the camp setup, the atmosphere of the adventuring party was particularly heavy.

The only sounds in the air, besides the crackling of the campfire, were the increasingly urgent and obvious breaths of the warrior.

“Damn it! It’s my fault Peter died, it’s my fault! I should have paid more attention to my teammates!”

The memory of the priest’s desperate eyes, screams, and struggles haunted his mind.

“Peter, I’m sorry... I’m so sorry!”

The warrior, sitting on the ground, collapsed emotionally, holding his head in his hands, his face full of guilt and self-blame, tears of regret shining in his eyes.

“Hey, this isn’t your fault. You’ve done your best,” the archer said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah, if we’re going to blame anyone, it should be someone else.”

The latter half of this sentence, the thief muttered under his breath, just loud enough for himself to hear.

After speaking, he cast a dissatisfied glance at the female mage sitting across from them, staring vacantly at the campfire.

After a long silence, the female mage withdrew her deep gaze from the flames, looked up at the three of them, and made a difficult decision.

“We should retreat.”

“Eh? Retreat? I didn’t hear you wrong, did I?”

The thief, who had been waiting for the mage to speak so he could vent his frustration, immediately reacted.

“We’ve come this far, and now you’re saying we should retreat?”

“I know you’re dissatisfied, but in our current state, it’s clearly not suitable to continue fighting. My mana is only half full, and now with the priest gone, we can only fight at about 40% of our strength. The remaining potions aren’t enough to keep us going.”

There was one more crucial point she didn’t mention. She unconsciously glanced at the warrior.

The team had clearly lost their fighting spirit.

“For this mission, I’ll take the majority of the responsibility for our failure and refund you half of the mission payment.”

The mage’s face showed helplessness. It was rare to encounter a situation like this.

As a battle-hardened instructor for a newly formed adventuring team, she had originally believed she could easily lead this group of adventurers, but reality had far exceeded her expectations.

The difficulty of this mission had actually risen from the initial estimate of E-rank to D-rank. She had informed them in time, but they all dismissed it with comments like “Ah, you’re so strong, it’ll be fine,” clearly not taking it seriously.

What’s more, they were clearly no longer just here to complete the mission as they originally intended.

After all, the more dangerous the dungeon, the greater the reward.

Anyway, after the mission, she would have to check thoroughly with the person who provided the intel.

“We’ve come this far and you’re still saying retreat? Are you kidding?”

The thief, hearing the mage’s words, didn’t think she was joking. He became anxious and unwilling.

“We were just unlucky to run into those pig goblins. The boss is definitely easier than we think.”

Although he had no real evidence, he firmly believed in this conclusion.

“Yeah, didn’t you just cast a pretty strong fire magic? Just cast it a few more times, and it’ll be fine,” the archer chimed in eagerly.

His words seemed to give the thief an opening, so before the mage could respond, the thief spoke first.

“Speaking of which, you have such powerful magic, why didn’t you use it right away? If you had, Pete wouldn’t have died!”

The warrior, who had trusted the mage the most, looked up at her, his eyes showing doubt.

Had it really come to this? The mage seemed to have already guessed this, and it didn’t surprise her.

New adventuring teams often share one common trait: they can’t control their emotions.

Whenever things go wrong, there’s always a heated argument around the campfire, trying to shift the blame. Sometimes, this is just a way to vent frustration, and other times, it’s to cover up their own mistakes.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

These issues could easily be addressed after leaving the dungeon, but they insisted on dwelling on them right here and now.

Not only was it a waste of time, but it also destroyed the little team spirit they had left.

But she could understand it, to a degree.

After all, this adventure had cost them quite a bit of money, and if they didn’t fight the boss, they would lose the most valuable loot. No amount of refunds could make up for that.

But the problem was...

The mage sighed.

“Although I don’t like exposing my weaknesses, that magic you thought was so strong actually consumed nearly a third of my mana. Also, it’s an area-of-effect spell, so the single-target damage is even less than a fireball.”

“As for why I didn’t use it earlier... Do you expect me to take all the experience for myself? You didn’t take responsibility for protecting others either, did you?”

The warrior and the archer were one thing, but the thief had been the most aggressive throughout the process, often ignoring commands and diving into enemy ranks. If not for the priest and herself, he wouldn’t have walked away unscathed.

If there were a kill-count interface right now, he would certainly be at the top.

It was a very reasonable point, but neither the thief nor the archer seemed to take it seriously, and the thief was even provoked by the mage exposing his thoughts.

“Don’t talk about not protecting others. You were closest to Pete, why didn’t you stop him from leaving the sacred circle?”

“That was my fault,” the mage said, raising her hands in resignation. She didn’t argue.

That was also the main reason she was offering the refund.

“Right, you killed a living person, and now you’re calling yourself a legendary adventurer? Hmph, I think you’re just living off your reputation.”

The mage said nothing, quietly accepting the thief’s scolding.

After all, this was the only casualty in the team she had ever led.

She deserved this.

Seeing that the mage wasn’t speaking, the thief, feeling vindicated, became even more arrogant.

“Of course, the money will be refunded, but I’m the first to refuse retreating.”

“If you don’t take down the boss, watch me report you to the Adventurers Guild! Trying to shift the blame onto us, you’re just a worker for us, understand?”

“Retreating isn’t impossible, but we need her to…”

The archer seemed to want to get something out of it, and as he spoke, he tilted his body and glanced at something irrelevant.

Although the mage didn’t respond, she seemed to unintentionally adjust her posture. The archer, seeing this, clicked his tongue in annoyance and inwardly cursed her.

Since the moment they entered the dungeon, the mage had known the seemingly refined archer was a lecher. Whether they were on the road or in battle, she could clearly feel his burning gaze, though he probably thought he was hiding it well.

Now she sincerely regretted taking this mission.

Not just because of the team, but also because of the informant who provided the intel.

“I’m still saying it—now we need to retreat.”

“Hey, hey, what are you talking about? You heard us, right? We’re the bosses!”

The thief, now angry, stepped forward with a swagger, with the archer agreeing, looking a bit impatient.

At that moment, the warrior finally couldn’t take it anymore. He stepped up and stood between them.

“Everyone, calm down,” he said, then turned to the mage, his tone filled with anxiety.

“It’s okay, next time we’ll follow your orders, protect you, and give you enough time to cast. After everything we’ve been through, we can’t give up now.”

He understood very well that the team couldn’t afford to lose the mage. If they angered her or made her upset, the entire team would suffer.

“I don’t need you to refund us. Pete’s death is my responsibility as well. If more money is needed, we can raise it now.”

“Are you crazy?! Give her more money?!”

“Yeah, yeah!”

The warrior ignored them and stared directly at the mage.

“This isn’t about money…”

How did things end up like this?

The mage had thought Pete’s death would instill some fear in them, but instead, it seemed to have sparked their determination to not retreat after investing so much.

Money was truly the most tempting lure. It hadn’t been wrong there.

“So what is it? Why do you think we can’t defeat the boss?”

“Yeah, yeah! Careful, I’ll report you for discriminating against newcomers!”

“So, you all insist on continuing the fight? Even after the advice of someone with much more combat experience?” the mage asked, a little disheartened.

She didn’t care much about her own life, since she had the guild’s teleportation stone. She could always escape if things went wrong.

She just didn’t want to be an irresponsible adventurer coach.

The thief and archer nodded, signaling their determination.

The heavy swordsman was silent for a moment, then quietly asked, “What’s the chance we’ll succeed if we continue in this state?”

“Ten percent,” the mage replied without hesitation.

Based on the information they had, the boss at the end of the dungeon was likely a goblin king she had fought several times before, a creature with some intelligence. But after the goblings incident, that intel was no longer reliable.

Even if it was truly a goblin king, she didn’t have confidence they could win.

And from the current clues, it was clear the goblins were just a smokescreen. The real threat still awaited them at the end of the dungeon.

The female mage originally intended to use this prediction as a scare tactic to get her teammates to back off. But now, if she said it out loud, it might actually make them even more eager.

When the thief heard the number the mage revealed, instead of feeling disheartened, he smiled with excitement. "Ten percent? Isn’t that pretty high?"

High? Is ten percent really high? The female mage felt speechless inside.

"Of course it’s high," he replied with a forced smile. "If I had such a high success rate in every bet, I wouldn’t be wasting my time as an adventurer."

"..."

"Don’t worry. Even though we’re in such a sorry state right now, I’m full of fighting spirit. I’ll definitely avenge Peter!"

Even after laying out such a harsh reality before them.

Should she feel happy for the newcomers' fighting spirit, or should she feel sad about it?

"Even if the boss we encounter is the best monster we expected, our chance of success is only ten percent. I need to emphasize that," the mage added one last time.

"Alright, alright, stop nagging," the thief said impatiently.

"Yeah, didn’t we already say we’re the bosses here?"

"We’ve come this far! We can definitely do it! Senior, we choose to keep going!"

Even the warrior, who was the most mature of the group, unwaveringly gave the same response.

The mage completely gave up. At this point, no matter what she said, it was like playing the lute to a cow.

So, after a quick adjustment, the group continued towards the end of the cave.

However, what the female mage didn’t realize was that behind the door awaiting them was something that would become a nightmare she would never forget for the rest of her life.