Adrian introduced himself, saying, "Just call me Marcus."

"Marcus, got it. My name's Deepak!" replied the towering man, extending his hand for a handshake which the former obliged. The man had a massive sword on his back, which was the same size as him. Apart from the man, two other people were standing beside him.

Marcus noticed Deepak's gaze and the man introduced the other two, saying, "The Archer's name is Luc, and our Mage is Dylan."

"Nice to meet you," Adrian maintained a polite attitude.

The others responded with warm smiles. Suddenly, they looked in a particular direction and noticed two people walking.

"That's them!" exclaimed Deepak with excitement.

A petite woman wearing a blue robe walked alongside a man dressed in a knight's armor with a stern expression. They arrived in front of the group and introduced themselves, saying, "This is Miss Stella, and I am Gerald, her bodyguard. We'll be in your care for grinding this Dungeon."

"Sure thing!" Deepak responded with a thumbs up.

"By the way, I'm Deepak. These are the members of my party: Luc, the archer, and Dylan, the mage."

Gerald then pointed towards Adrian and asked, "That guy in the jacket, he's not part of your party?"

"Well, he's actually a last-minute addition sent by the higher-ups."

"Then one more person to share the EXP with."

"Yeah, but let's just go with it. It makes grinding easier," Deepak replied.

"I'm Marcus, by the way," Adrian introduced himself while trying to reach out for a handshake.

"Nice to meet you," Gerald responded indifferently.

Hearing this, Adrian withdrew his hand and sneered inwardly as silence descended upon them.

"Are we all set?" Deepak then asked, breaking the awkward silence.

"The young miss and I are all set," replied Gerald.

"Same here," added Dylan.

"Okay! Let's go in then! I'll make the room, so just join in," said Deepak.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

They all walked to the dungeon's portal and entered. Adrian's vision was filled with a white void that he had seen many times before. In front of him were two choices, as he had seen before. He clicked on "Join a Room" and browsed through the list of available rooms. He saw "Deepak's Room" and immediately clicked on it, but not before taking out his weapon, [StarSlasher], in preparation for what lay ahead.

Adrian arrived and saw Deepak and his party already there. A second later, the other two members arrived as well.

"Is everyone here? Okay, let's go," confirmed Deepak enthusiastically, and then started the dungeon.

The white void surrounding them faded, and they found themselves standing in complete darkness.

Suddenly, hundreds of sconces lit up with blue flames, illuminating their surroundings. They realized they were standing in the middle of an extremely large dungeon room that the size of a whole block. A wall stood behind them with three entrances - two on both sides and one in front of them, with the middle entrance being slightly larger than the other two.

A 'Ding!' sounded and a window then popped up in front of them.

[Dungeon: Trials of the Evil God]

[Dungeon Details:

Level: 10 - 15

Party cap: 8

Objective: Survive 10 Waves of the Trial]

[Summary: You are the prophesied Champions, you ventured to fight and kill the Evil God once and for all but instead arrived in the Evil God's labyrinth where you were toyed around and forced to participate in brutal trials. As the final trial, win and you may finally meet the Evil God and put an end to his tyranny.]

[Initiate Dungeon?]

"Start," Deepak mumble and the ground began to rumble.

"Hey everyone! Head towards the wall!" Luc shouted, pointing in the direction. While they ran towards the wall, Luc spoke up once again, "The three of us have tackled this dungeon a handful of times before, but we've only made it to wave 6. However, we've developed a strategy for our party of three. After you asked to join us, I also took into consideration Miss Stella and Mr. Gerald's abilities and weaknesses, so that we can properly handle the dungeon!"

As they reached the wall, Dylan the mage cast the spell "[Soil Fortress]!" and a large fortress made of earth quickly emerged from the ground. As the fortress was being erected, Luc quickly climbed up to the higher floor, with Dylan following closely behind.

"Please follow us, Miss Stella," Luc urged.

The trio ascended and immediately noticed a wave of monsters marching towards them.

"Mister Gerald, please position yourself at the gate. You'll be our tank," Luc instructed.

Gerald quickly moved towards the gate of the fortress, and as the monsters drew closer, Luc continued, "The monsters in this dungeon target the first person they see. We'll have them aggro on you, and when they're grouped together, we'll hit them with powerful attacks!"

"Got it," Gerald replied indifferently.

The monsters arrived and, as expected, they aggroed on Gerald and piled together to get to him. However, they were immediately bombarded with attacks, from sword slashes to icicles, and were quickly obliterated.

[1st wave completed!]

[The next wave will arrive in 00:03:00]

The group was delighted at how easily they had defeated the first wave. They continued to employ the same tactic until they reached wave 8, where the monsters became considerably stronger and slightly larger. The [Soil Fortress] had to be reinforced and repaired so many times that it was now coated with Stella's ice and strengthened by Dylan's spells and skills from Adrian.

The group was extremely exhausted, and the 3-minute break at this point seemed almost pointless. Although they could have chosen to pull out at any time, they decided to continue, as there was a significant EXP bonus reward for completing the dungeon.

As the 3-minute break began, the group collapsed from exhaustion, except for Adrian. Despite having leveled up by this point, they wanted to push themselves beyond their limits and attempt to clear the dungeon for the possibility of leveling up twice from a single run. After all, they could escape the dungeon at any time.

"Hoy, how come you're still able to stand upright? And you've only been wearing a jacket since earlier, that mask, and using a sword," Stella called out to Adrian.

"Woah, you've been pretty bossy since earlier," the group teased.

"Just answer my question," Stella insisted.

"Fine, let's just say I have a skill that helps me recover stamina," Adrian replied.

"Then why won't you use it on us too?" Gerald asked.

"It's only usable on myself. If I could use it on all of us, I would have already done so. And regarding my equipment being just a sword, what's the point of wearing armor if they can't even hit me? Besides, it'll just slow me down anyway." Adrian explained.

"Tsk. Cocky," Stella muttered, turning her gaze in disgust.

Deepak spoke up next. "Brother, you've been using so many skills since earlier. Unlike Dylan, who learns magic spells, you use so many skills. And I'm pretty sure you're not a mage. How are you able to do that?"

"That's right! How are you doing that?! Do you have a thousand skills?!" Gerald chimed in.

Adrian replied with a smile while scratching the back of his head. "Well… you could say that. Although it costs a lot to acquire all these skills."

As they were talking, the 3-minute break ended, and the monsters began to spawn again.