The fuse sounded, and the world was covered in blinding white light.
My senses were overwhelmed by the heat, light, flashes, and storm, and my entire body burned intensely.
The ends of my pitch-black robe caught fire, and my silver-white hair curled as it was engulfed in flames.
My brain didn’t even have time to register the word “death.” An ordinary mage might have deployed a shield to minimize the damage, but I had no such option.
…Or, perhaps even an ordinary mage wouldn’t have been able to block this explosion with a shield.
Neither could Lir, known for her agility and fast reaction speed as an elf.
No one could have predicted this sudden appearance. Perhaps, it was only natural then.
Now I can feel the burning sensation of my skin beneath the robe.
The delayed pain begins to crawl up my peripheral nerves and torment my brain.
My ribs and left wrist feel as though they’re fractured.
Soon, this pain will spread throughout my body, and before long, my world will turn to darkness like a TV being switched off.
…As I think this, a wave of chills runs through my body despite the massive explosion.
Damn, I don’t want to die.
“Pull yourself together!”
Through the ringing in my ears, Rex’s voice reached me.
Are you dead too?
You bastard, that mine was incredible. Not only did it take out mages with low HP, but it even wiped out an Orc Barbarian in one shot.
Was this Marauder’s level really that high? The quality of the mine was pretty impressive…
“Damn it, is this the time to revive the unconscious guy? Hurry up, pick him up and let’s move!”
Through the intense ringing, Trian’s voice also came through.
Something was off. Trian was definitely several meters away from the explosion’s epicenter.
“Shit, hurry up!”
“…Ah, okay, just a moment!”
Lir’s voice was also faintly audible.
No way, did that Marauder have some kind of nuclear weapon in his hands?
One mine, and the whole party could be wiped out…
“Ugh!”
A sharp gasp escaped my lips. I urgently opened my eyes and looked around to identify the sudden source of pain.
My blurred vision was shaking wildly. I saw the bright red, burning skin of an Orc.
I tried to rub my eyes with my hands to regain focus, but something thick and solid was tightly gripping my body, preventing me from doing so.
As I turned my head, I saw piles of flesh staring blankly into the air like a discharged toy.
The scorched dungeon floor and walls registered later.
“…Am I alive?”
“Rex, break through!”
Before I could bask in the joy of survival, my vision swayed drastically compared to before.
The sound of an axe cleaving through flesh and the poisonous blood splashing across my cheek filled the air.
“…Rex?”
“Stay still!”
I muttered Rex’s name as he carried me like a sack of rice on his shoulder, swinging his prosthetic-handled axe.
I couldn’t understand how I was still alive, so I blinked repeatedly.
As I continued to blink, my blurred focus slowly returned, allowing me to see clearly. Rex’s back, which looked like a witch’s cauldron of boiling broth, came into sharp view.
His skin was melting, and the poison-filled blood of the Marauder and mutants seeped inside.
I lost my words momentarily as I witnessed this sight.
The reason I was alive was quite simple and clear.
Rex had shielded me with his massive back from the magical landmine’s explosion that occurred almost at point-blank range.
I owed Rex my life again.
The pain in my ribs and wrist intensified as my focus returned. I swallowed my groans and struggled to turn my head to assess the situation.
“Re-trace our steps! Dammit, Lir! Keep your head down and stay closer together! Stick close to the Orc!”
Trian’s loud cursing rang out along with faint earthquake-like vibrations from the piles of flesh nearby.
The massive explosion must have angered the native creatures here.
“If by any chance, you mages aren’t in grave danger, don’t use powerful magic! If we attract any more attention, things will get so complicated that we won’t be able to handle them!”
As soon as Trian realized I had regained consciousness on Rex’s shoulder, he yelled out.
“Huff… Suck…”
Rex’s rough breathing shook my frail body through my broken ribs.
I lost count of how many times my vision swayed as Rex continued to slash with his axe, retracing our steps to distance ourselves as much as possible from the source of the explosion.
Passing by the vacant-eyed mutants, we entered the next room.
“Here! One at 9 o’clock!”
As soon as Trian’s warning rang out, a long spider leg burst through the door to appear.
“Keep moving, Rex! The priority is to get as far away from the explosion area as possible!”
We had not yet distanced ourselves sufficiently from the scene of the explosion. Trian judged that we couldn’t afford to be caught here and urged Rex to keep running ahead.
Boom!
A giant spider, almost ten meters in size, inserted its leg through the tiny door and then squeezed its massive body into the room where we were.
Its enormous fangs lunged towards Rex and me, but at that moment, a steel arrowhead pierced straight into the spider’s eye.
“Run, run!”
Trusting Trian’s cover, Rex did not pause in his steps. Trian rapidly traversed between the rooms, firing arrows, while Lir followed closely behind Rex, her head bowed.
Clank!
With steel shoulders, Rex forced open the door and moved into the next room.
The giant spider, despite having its eye pierced with a steel arrow, showed no signs of fatal injury and closely pursued us from behind.
“Damn it… Rex! Hold your axe! There’s another one ahead—big one and two smaller ones!”
After breaking through three or four more rooms, Trian spat out another warning.
“Manifestation!”
I focused on the strange sensation in my chest while my tongue was bitten and my vision swayed on Rex’s shoulder.
Fortunately, the artifact operated normally.
Clank!
As soon as we opened the door, we were greeted by four giant pairs of eyes and legs. This cunning and agile monster seemed to have predicted our path and was waiting with its massive mouth open at the exact entrance.
“Rex! Lower your head!”
Without waiting for my words to finish, the Orc ducked his head. Beyond his skull, a thin red line passed through, opening a large hole in the giant spider’s mouth.
Whoosh!
With a sound of splitting winds, my vision shook, and then a wave of azure blood covered my entire body. Rex’s massive axe tore through the large hole in the spider’s mouth, splitting its body in half.
Fortunately, the giant spider’s blood was not poisonous. That was one of the advantages of regular monsters over mutants.
Whoosh!
Every time Rex swung his axe, my vision swayed, and I could see steel arrowheads flying past my face.
Simultaneously, the sound of thin flesh and entrails being pierced could be heard.
Two baby spiders leaped at Rex’s head from atop the split mother spider, but they were precisely shot down by Trian’s two arrows.
“Move!”
Without time to comprehend the situation, Rex resumed running.
“Ugh…!”
Lir’s exclamation of nausea at the sight of the burning spider entrails and flesh filled the air. I can’t believe how clear her tiny voice sounds through the ringing in my ears.
We ran while being completely covered in spider remains. Lir struggled to breathe but there was no time to take care of her.
Clang!
From behind, the sounds of flesh colliding could be heard. It seemed Trian had forcefully pulled Lir upright after she almost tripped over a spider corpse.
“Damn it, did I have to remind you to watch your feet?! Pull yourself together!”
Even an elf, known for their agility, could easily fall behind if they lost focus for a moment. Fortunately for me, I was dangling like a baggage on Rex’s shoulder. Otherwise, I would have been left behind and lost my life before even realizing what happened.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Behind us, the still-arrow-pierced giant spider continued its chase, breaking through doors as it ran.
“Next room on the left also has one, ignore it and keep running!”
We continued running endlessly.
By retracing our steps, we passed about forty to fifty rooms, and eventually, we reached almost the starting room we entered initially.
We ignored all the monsters we faced while running, and now, about seven giant spiders were stuck to our backs.
We had run through rooms, keeping a distance of two to three rooms apart for about ten minutes. Thankfully, the number of creatures attached to us did not increase.
“Damn it, there are about seven of them following us… ”
Avoiding loud noises in dungeons to keep the attention of the local creatures is most important, especially in high-level dungeons.
The best strategy is to quickly achieve your goal without combat and then escape, and if combat is unavoidable, the middle course is to lure and fight one at a time.
Having four members fight seven high-level dungeon spiders simultaneously is the worst possible strategy—but we had no choice.
…Had I known this, I should have brought in a large-scale army.
“Battle in the next room! Mages, I emphasize again—never use magic that makes thundering sounds!”
“Huff… Suck… Huff…”
Lir seemed to lack the breath to answer. She wiped the sweat dripping from her neck with the back of her hand and nodded her head slightly in response.
We had almost reached an area that was practically the dungeon’s entrance. If we draw attention here again, we’ll be wandering completely unknown territory, without prior information on routes.
Jumping into unknown rooms filled with traps and monsters while being chased is the fastest and easiest way for the party to be completely wiped out.
Clank!
As soon as Rex opened the door in front of him, he dropped me into the corner below.
There was no time for delicate handling. He practically tossed me to the floor and immediately lifted his axe to take up position by the door.
“Lir, Bin! Take the left wall spot! Hurry!”
Trian quickly instructed where Lir and I should take positions and then stuck himself to the right wall.
Having a mage on the left and a ranger on the right ready to unleash concentrated firepower through a narrow entrance wasn’t an ideal but still quite reasonable formation in such a rush.
Trian’s tactical sense hadn’t left him, even in such a tense situation.
“Uh…”
For no apparent reason, my vision started to wobble as I leaned against the wall.
My legs felt weak, and my arms and legs began to tremble. I couldn’t figure out why.
“Are you okay? Can you move?”
Damn it, did I get some unseen injury?
Even with Rex carrying me for such a distance, my body wouldn’t respond as intended.
The magical mine’s explosion must’ve affected me. Every time I moved my right shoulder, I groaned in pain, and my legs wobbled uncontrollably.
My vision kept swaying. While moving from where Rex dropped me to the spot Trian had pointed to with his finger, I nearly fell twice.
“Shit…”
Seeing I was struggling, Lir, who had already taken her position, came over and offered her shoulder for support.
“Hurry up, mage! If you fall in this situation, we’re all dead!”
Trian bellowed loudly to urge me on.
“…Huff, Huff.”
Even a textbook mage with some investment in stamina is bound to become a liability in a chaotic battlefield where unexpected accidents happen.
A well-ordered formation falls apart in an instant, and in a frenzied fight, a mage is no better than an ant caught in a storm.
Furthermore, my body has the lowest stats in strength, agility, or even luck.
I had anticipated that there would be moments like this.
…But I knew it even so.
“…Shit.”
Still, as this moment where I become a burden to the party came, something began to boil inside me. It could be shame, guilt, or perhaps anger directed at myself.
At a critical moment where a single judgment call determines life or death, how can a mage who is rendered powerless due to something as absurd as low stamina have any meaning on a battlefield?
I gritted my teeth and clung to the wall, pulling myself up despite my legs screaming in protest.
If I fail to carry my weight in this moment, everything they’ve done to accommodate me up to now will be wasted.
They’ve sacrificed for me, so now it’s my turn to return the favor…
“Uh…”
A peculiar sensation was felt underfoot as I nervously adjusted my position. Every nerve was on high alert, enhancing my senses. Even the slightest object snagging on the thin soles of my boots was detected.
I glanced down to remove whatever was underfoot, a precaution against accidentally stepping on it and tripping during such a crucial time.
…However, what I felt underfoot wasn’t a pebble.
It was a groove.
A very artificial and seemingly fresh mark left by a massive axe.
Instinctively uneasy, I slowly turned my head.
Right next to where I stood, there was a door, which Trian had sternly warned us never to open and Rex had cautiously marked in preparation for unforeseen circumstances.
No, it wasn’t a door; it was a mimic disguised as a door. A massive mimic that could engulf even Rex’s huge frame in one gobble—a level 40 one at that.
…Shit. Not only was the situation dire, but I had a mimic firmly anchored right beside me.
“They’re coming!”
A cold chill gripped my throat even tighter.
Before I had a chance to warn Lir about the mimic, the heavy thud from beyond the door where Rex was positioned reached my ears.
Boom!
A large and sharp leg pushed through the door, attempting to jam its body through again.
