"Nia! You okay?" Zest said in a panic as he held Nia in his arms.
"Uh… I feel dizzy," Nia whispered weakly, her voice soft and serene as Zest felt a slight current through his body. Though, he controlled himself as he laid Nia and down took out a bottle of water, and made her drink from it.
"Her skin is so supple," As Zest held Nia in his arm, he felt for the first time, a tinge of worry for a human.
"Snap out of it Zest," He scolded himself as he calmed his thoughts and focused on his objective.
With that, a small feeling was born within Zest's heart. A feeling that even he didn't know of, a feeling that would slowly grow over time like a flame that would consume everything.
On the other hand, Nia lay down on the ground with her eyes closed as she acted to faint while she thought about Zest,
"How dare he touch me, that imbecile," She thought in fury as she felt Zest's hands touching her back while he was laying her down.
However, she calmed herself down as she thought of humanity's future and how Zest might be a traitor to humanity.
"Well, he will die no matter what. It's just a matter of time," She thought and kept on acting as if she had nothing to fear since they were still on the first floor while there were no more goblins left on the first floor.
As Nia lay on the ground, Zest walked to the other members who were either injured or had fainted from shock or whatever reason. He went up to them and gave them first aid while waking up the healer of the team.
The healer was a girl with curly brown hair and a round face with chubby cheeks and sharp eyes coupled with her long nose and a smile on her face always made her amiable and approachable. Not to mention her easygoing and enthusiastic attitude which was the complete opposite of Aliya's.
"Wake up Noelle," Zest spoke as he shook her to wake her up.
"Uhmm… what happened?" Noelle asked as she woke up holding her head in pain and continued, "I remember being hit in the head by some long object," She said, trying to think back to what happened. However, having no recollection of anything, she let go and focused on the current situation.
"I think you should take it easy and recover yourself before healing the other members. Also, please heal the captain as she is the first priority," Zest spoke with worry as he looked towards where Nia lay while faking his care and affection.
"Un" Noelle nodded as she sat in a meditative posture to recover her strength and mana so that she could use her magic once again.
Meanwhile,
In Another Dungeon Instance,
"Very good you all. Now, bring all the loot to me," Ron spoke with a grin while rubbing his hands in anticipation as he saw his lackeys bring over all the loot gained from clearing the first floor.
"I look forward to seeing your pitiful face when you fail before everyone else, dear princess Nia," Ron thought in spite, his emotions of hatred visible on his facial expression as his face twisted in hate.
As Ron was dreaming about conquering the test exams and becoming the number one student, the loot was gathered as one of his lackeys spoke,
"Young master Ron, we have gathered all the loot,"
"Hmm.. Okay, Now scram. We will move to the next floor once I am done," Ron spoke coldly as he shooed away his lackey and got down to check all the loot.
All this while, Ron's team watched all of this without a hint of surprise or disgust over his childish attitude as this was something that they were used to. Also, the fact that Ron was chosen as their leader meant that they couldn't do anything even if Ron decided to ditch everything and fool around.
Outside The Dungeon,
Multiple crystals were set within the dean's office as they showed multiple scenarios being played out. These scenarios were the students clearing the dungeon as they fought against the goblin.
The dean overlooked all of these scenarios as he judged all the students and selected those who performed the best or had unique abilities that allowed their respective teams to gain victory against their enemies.
However, there was another use for those crystals that were set up. As the crystals gave a real-time view of all the dungeon instances, they also showed what malicious things some students did.
Not only that, the way the students behaved allowed the dean to find those students who intentionally caused problems throughout the instance while playing the victim.
Out of these students, the dean kept his eyes on Zest the most as he found him the most suspicious. Also, that Zest tried to fool the daughter of his childhood friend.
On the other hand, the dean simply ignored Ron's behavior as although it looked suspicious, he knew that Ron was like that since childhood.
Other than Zest, the dean pinpointed a few more troublesome individuals that he had doubts about. Opening a diary and writing their names on it, the dean made a phone call and said,
"Hey Old man, I have some work for you,"
"Ohh… some more work. Tell me, what is it this time?" An eerily hoarse voice asked.
"Not much, just a few background checks on some suspicious individuals," The dean answered calmly as he continued, "Also, I don't want this info to be known to anyone except you and me. Or else, you know what would happen,"
With that said, the dean hung up, sent a photo of the list to the old man, and continued watching the students as they cleared the dungeon.
Back In The Dungeon,
Ray and Sirius held their ground as they fought against a dozen goblins at one time while the rest of the team searched the floor for any hidden treasures.
"Sirius, cover me for a while," Ray shouted as he took a few steps back and prepared for his next attack.
As Ray stepped back from his assault, Sirius took his place and continued to pressure the goblins by going on an all-out rampage.
"What about you guys? Did you find anything?" Ray turned around and asked as he took a breather.
"We are closer, just a few more minutes," Elina answered as she, along with the whole team, searched for the treasure while following Emma's instructions.
"Okay, take your time. I don't want you guys to miss some goodies in a hurry," Ray replied as he turned to the goblins getting slaughtered by Sirius.
"He won't be able to hold them for long," Ray thought as he observed Sirius who was slowly tiring out as his attacks started to miss while his speed also decreased.
"It won't be long before I get surrounded by these goblins, come on Ray attack fast," Sirius thought as he slowly switched to defensive and started retreating to buy more time for Ray while also keeping himself safe from any harm.
On the other hand, Ray looked at Sirius's strategy and attacked accordingly as he used an old attack of his,
[Compressed Air Bomb]
With that, Ray fired off a barrage of air bombs as he aimed at the feet of goblins. The air bombs lacked the destructive power to seriously harm the goblins but as they hit the goblins, they disturbed their balance while also creating a smoke screen from the impact caused by some of the bombs when they hit the ground instead of the goblins.
This allowed Sirius to have some time to adjust his attacks while Ray completed casting his spell and went on the offensive.
[Inferno Thunder]
Ray shouted out loud as he activated his spell. The spell was a mixture of both his main elements as it combined the explosiveness from the fire element and the destructiveness from the lightning.
The spell took the form of a big thunderbolt as reddish lightning arcs snaked around its surface while magma flowed within the thunderbolt itself.
"Take this, you bastards," Ray screamed in anger as he threw the bolt of thunder into the sky. The thunderbolt traveled at high speed as it reached the roof of the dungeon floor within a moment. After reaching the roof, the thunderbolt descended downwards as electrical discharges twisted the air around them.
"Booooooooom"
The thunderbolt touched the ground and everything went silent for a second while the surroundings turned white. The whole team covered their eyes from the blinding flash of light as right after, a huge explosion took place.
It was of such great intensity that it sent out shockwaves into the surroundings that caused the places nearby area to be destroyed into nothingness while all the nearby goblins died.
The area around the impact point was charred black while all the nearby rocks had turned into dust and the walls of the dungeon had huge cracks running around them.
Ray had used his strongest barrier to save his teammates from the impact. Thought, it caused a huge expenditure of energy, and coupled with the attack he just used, he was almost drained of mana.
"Why the hell did you use such a strong attack? It's only the third floor while you were facing normal goblins that you could have taken care of with your sword and normal magic spells," Aurora scolded him harshly while Ray just stood there, listening to her scolding.
Ray waited for her to calm down before he replied with a simple sentence,
"I was trying something new," he said and then fell to the ground in exhaustion as he breathed heavily.
....
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