On the other side of the cave.

Shadra casually tossed away a bone that had been gnawed to the point of looking like it had been scraped clean. The leg bone, as thick as an arm, hit the ground with a dull thud.

Sitting on the ground, he leaned back, contentedly tracing circles on his stomach.

Though the meat smelled like a dead rat, it tasted like fine beef.

Looking at the enormous skeleton nearby, still covered in flesh, he couldn't help but swallow.

But he ultimately gave up. Considering the upcoming battle, fighting on an empty stomach would give him an advantage. After a quick adjustment, he decided to push forward.

As usual, he scouted, assassinated, and ambushed monsters along the way.

After killing countless green-skin goblins, Shadra's level only barely increased from 17 to 18.

With his F-grade growth rate, compared to others like E-grade who earned 10 experience points per goblin, he only earned 2!

And he didn't even encounter any elite monsters; the leveling speed was comparable to that of a snail.

Along his exploration, Shadra came across various goblin clans and other monsters' death scenes.

Goblins, goblin shamans, goblin giants, colorful goblins, as well as other monsters like slimes, red wolves, and were-leopards.

They had been burned to ashes, their heads twisted off, hearts pierced, or bodies evaporated. Various ways of dying.

Clearly, there was more than just their team in this cave.

From all the different bodies, Shadra could tell that while the team wasn't particularly outstanding, they at least had a reasonably balanced composition.

A mage, a warrior acting as the vanguard, an assassin responsible for the kill, and a bowman providing long-range support.

Especially the mage. Their control over magic was refined, keeping the fire just enough to burn monsters to death.

While Shadra appreciated the help in clearing obstacles, the problem was these guys were taking everything without spitting out the bones!

When Shadra reached the Ant Corridor, there were indeed no living creatures left.

But his eyes narrowed.

Amid the pig-like demon corpses, a human ear was quietly lying on one of their lifeless eyes.

Seemed like they encountered a strong enemy here...

Shadra instinctively looked toward the half-open stone door at the end of the corridor.

Could they have already defeated the boss? That would be bad.

Anxiety stirred within him as he slowly approached the heavy stone door.

Based on their team composition and the level advantage, Shadra couldn't imagine a scenario where they lost.

Still, just to be safe, he prepared himself before the fight.

It had been an hour already, meaning Mr. Dice's cooldown had just reset.

Spending 200 Copper, he activated the "Mr. Dice" skill.

The dice icon began spinning rapidly. After a quick spin, the icon finally stopped on an image resembling a Saiyan with golden hair shouting.

Tier 1 Skill Rage: Increases critical hit rate by 3%, lasts for one hour.

The goddess of luck didn’t bless him.

While it was a worse skill than before, something was better than nothing.

Shadra donned his best gear, gripped his greatsword, and cautiously slid through the crack of the half-open stone door, his steps muffled to near silence.

Soon, he entered a space resembling the nest of an alien queen.

The air inside was thick, and a purple mist obscured vision. The only light came from eerie purple torches, casting weak light that barely illuminated the walls covered in insect eggs, resembling pomegranate seeds.

The yellow eggs pulsated rhythmically, like beating hearts.

Most people would lose sanity here, but Shadra felt hunger instead. From afar, the eggs looked like honey.

But where were the team? Where was the boss?

The cave was vast. Shadra scanned the area carefully and, after a moment, spotted several figures in the corner, hidden in the shadows.

Sure enough, it was another team.

They hadn't been entirely wiped out, but their condition was far from good.

A pale-faced female mage, covered in wounds, was desperately maintaining some kind of magic spell, encasing herself and three unconscious men in a golden aura.

The three men were motionless, their lives uncertain.

The golden aura flickered, as if ready to collapse at any moment.

Suspended in front of the mage was a skeleton, standing still.

It wore a withered crown, held a black staff over two meters tall, and its eyes glowed with an eerie purple light, standing out in the dark cave.

Shadra quietly activated his identification skill.

The screen showed only gibberish.

Lacking sufficient hardware power, he had to rely on his imagination.

“This guy, I remember...”

As thoughts traveled from the prefrontal cortex to the temporal lobe, then to the hippocampus, Shadra began sweating cold.

Just as his brain was about to overload and crash, a single line of thought finally formed.

Sorry, no information found.

“Hey, you rookies! Hurry and get out of here! I don't have the energy to protect anyone else!”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

The mage, catching sight of Shadra's figure, mistook him for a stray adventurer and yelled, trying to shoo him away.

However, her shout had the opposite effect.

The skeleton turned its head 175 degrees, locking its empty, deep-set eyes on Shadra.

Before he could figure out how to respond, the skeleton opened its mouth with lightning speed, and a dark energy wave shot from its throat like rat hair from a sewer.

It was so confident in its attack that it didn’t even check if it hit, refocusing its attention on the mage.

But Shadra, having prepared, quickly rolled, dodging the deadly shot with ease.

After rolling, he half-crouched, adjusted his stance, and aimed a throwing knife at the skeleton's eyes.

Only then did the creature react.

But Shadra's knife had already left his hand, flying through the air at a speed that wasn’t too fast.

The skeleton surprised by Shadra’s ability to dodge, let out a strange laugh.

It didn’t even bother to shield itself, but after a brief moment of confusion, it returned its focus to the mage.

Shadra’s intention had been to distract it, but now, it paid him no attention.

Damn! Two knives wasted.

To everyone’s surprise, something unexpected happened.

The two knives, moving at a slow speed, struck the skeleton’s eyes, and it felt as though they were bullets piercing a watermelon, blasting through half of its skull.

The attack was shockingly effective!

"Aaaahhh!!"

The creature clutching its face with one hand, let out a heart-wrenching cry of pain.

The mage was stunned too, her feelings of fear and anxiety temporarily swallowed by disbelief.

It wasn't just her—Shadra himself was also a bit confused.

Actually, this was the result of RNG's divine intervention—simply put, he had won the lottery.

The attack landed as a critical hit, and with the activation of the Ogre power, his power increased by another 20.

And he had successfully triggered the Unyielding Glory blessing.

The condition for this blessing was to deliver a single blow with a strength of over 50 before reaching level 20, with an F-class bloodline.

The blessing effect: a 3% increase to all attributes of ranged attacks. Blessing duration: 1 hour.

By the way, blessings were one of the most mysterious forms of enhancement in this world.

It was said that the fairies, who had long since disappeared, left behind these rare relics.

Blessings came in two forms: Ephemeral Blessings and Unyielding Blessings.

As the name suggests, Ephemeral Blessings, once triggered, could never be obtained again. Unyielding Blessings had specific trigger conditions.

Unyielding Glory was the blessing effect triggered by the first throwing knife. The second knife, arriving just a moment later, not only delivered another critical hit but also benefited from the blessing's enhancement.

Furthermore, the skeleton, as a creature, had high resistance to magic but low physical resistance, and with the attack landing at its weak spot—the temple—its critical hit rate drastically increased.

After a brief moment of shock, battle-hardened, the mage pushed any thanks to the back of her mind, draining every last bit of her magic and quickly chanting another spell.

In just a few seconds, several medium-sized fireballs formed in her right hand. Before they could fully take shape, she hurled them at the skeleton's arm, which was still holding its staff.

The temporary blindness prevented it from dodging the attack.

"Aaaahhh!!!"

The skeleton howled in agony as it burned under the flames.

Shadra, not content with merely watching, stood up and charged at the creature, swinging his greatsword.

Thanks to the 20 points of fire resistance provided by his Ogre Armor, Shadra wasn't too harmed by the friendly fire while closing the distance for a melee attack.

"Hm? This damage... doesn't seem right?"

While furiously hacking at the skeleton's bones, Shadra could feel his own strength growing.

Instinctively, he turned his head, his gaze landing on the mage, who was kneeling on the ground.

She was forming fireballs with one hand and holding her staff with the other, its tip glowing with a faint yellow light.

Clearly, she was casting some sort of buff spell.

Seeing this, Shadra couldn't help but give her an appreciative glance.

It wasn’t because the buff was particularly strong, but because he was amazed that she could cast dual spells despite depleting her mana.

Usually, when a mage exhausts their mana, casting spells forces them to draw from their life force—such as blood, vitality, or stamina.

Though the mage had items that slowly regenerated her mana, what she had spent was far beyond what could be recovered.

In other words, she was using her life to buff Shadra.

"Truly a veteran."

"Stop complimenting me, just focus on killing the monsters!"

The mage gasped for breath, feeling a bit annoyed. Even in such a dire situation, how could this guy still have time for jokes?

But despite her irritation, Shadra's presence relaxed her a bit, giving her some mental space to think.

Here she was, an experienced mage, but somehow, this F-grade rookie gave her a sense of reliability?

Even if she didn’t speak it out loud, this rookie never strayed too far from her. He controlled the Soul Devourer’s aggro with precision, constantly giving her the breathing room to cast spells.

And once the buff wore off, he immediately adjusted his tactics, waiting patiently for the next buff cycle.

Everything was happening silently.

It didn’t feel like he was a fresh rookie at all.

Under the combined pressure of physical and magical attacks, the Soul Devourer could not break free. It even lacked the opportunity to cast any spells.

Victory seemed within reach.

However, in a spot neither of them noticed, the insect eggs stuck to the cave walls began to vibrate at an extreme rate, as though they had been provoked.

Just as Shadra was about to cast his self-enhancement spell again, the Soul Devourer suddenly let out a soul-piercing scream.

It wasn’t a cry of pain, but rather a command—a command laced with fury.

A scream that sent shockwaves through the air: it sent Shadra flying several meters back. If he hadn’t instinctively shielded himself with his greatsword, he would’ve been knocked out.

Then, the Soul Devourer began to levitate slowly, a layer of purple cocoon-like energy wrapping around its skeletal frame, making it look like a chrysalis about to hatch.

The mage, barely conscious, turned pale.

"Get into the Fire Light! It’s about to hatch the insect eggs!"

Before she finished speaking, Shadra heard a series of sharp cracking sounds in the air, followed by the sound of thousands of cracks coming together like a roaring avalanche.

Strange creatures with sharp fangs, resembling mudfish with skeletal fish heads, burst out of the eggs.

After landing, they raised their heads and emitted a series of deafening hisses. They began shaking their heads, as if getting used to their new bodies.

Not long after, they suddenly seemed to gain awareness, and all the skeletal fish heads turned toward Shadra and the mage.

"Hiss hiss hiss!!"

With a louder hiss, they began to crawl toward the two at astonishing speed.

Anyone familiar with the Soul Devourer would know this was its trump card—when on the verge of death, it would forcibly hatch its unformed babies, known as 'Skelefin,' to attack its enemies

Though numerous, these were just infant creatures, so their defenses were weak and could easily be cleansed by the Fire Light Circle.

In the heat of the moment, the mage had completely forgotten about this.

"You just focus on maintaining the buff. Leave the small monsters to me!"

Shadra silently donned a silver helmet, covering the only exposed skin on his body.

Right now, he was a true knight.

"What are you talking about?"

The mage wanted to scold him, but it was too late. The battle had already begun, and Shadra couldn’t make it back to the Fire Light Circle in time.

Damn!

She cursed under her breath, but had no choice but to follow his orders and continue maintaining the buff.

At the same time, her other hand reached into her collar, pulling out a pale blue stone.

It was a teleportation stone.

She didn’t believe Shadra would survive, so she was prepared to flee at any moment.

As for the other three companions... she had done all she could.

After making his bold statement, Shadra charged into the tide of skelefins.

To others, this seemed like a reckless act.

But for Shadra, these were precious experiences (Exp).

He rushed directly under the Soul Devourer's "skirts," halted, took a deep breath, and pushed his right leg into the ground to stabilize himself. With a mighty swing, he unleashed a devastating horizontal slash.

In one perfect arc, he wiped out over a dozen skelefins.

It wasn’t over—right after the first swing, Shadra immediately twisted his waist and used his arm's strength to execute another flawless horizontal slash.

Another dozen perished.

"My god??!"

The mage, still within the Fire Light Circle, was stunned, her mind blown by this "insane" move.

Though the skelefins had low resistances, their teeth were incredibly sharp.

This wasn’t Shadra cheating.

Although he wasn’t fond of using a greatsword, it didn’t mean he couldn’t handle one.

When dealing with swarms of small enemies, a greatsword was a huge advantage.

As long as he avoided vertical attacks or using it for defense, focusing on wide horizontal sweeps, even with enemies crawling all over him, he would maintain his belief that he could take down the largest number of enemies possible.

In other words, it wasn’t about the "form."

What mattered was never making reckless swings, always watching the enemy’s movements, calculating the best timing, height, and force.

The goal was always to maximize enemy kills with every strike.

"Good... such a strong F-grade..."

On the other side, the mage looked at Shadra, who hadn’t even unlocked his second class, wielding a E-grade greatsword with the power to slay thousands. It was completely shattering her worldview. In the tense situation, the mage hadn’t thought much about Shadra carrying a greatsword as a priest. But now, as she calmed down, she realized how absurd the idea seemed.

Wasn’t this guy supposed to be a priest??