While climbing up the stairs to the first floor, many questions echoed inside my head:

‘Would we be able to do it before the timer ran out?’

‘What would happen if the boss was stronger than the rest combined?’

‘What if I died?’

But once I thought about it, my anxiety calmed down. First, just as Grace said, our battles never lasted more than 5 minutes, so we had plenty of time, in theory. Second, it was unlikely for the boss to be many times stronger than the rest. It didn’t make sense for this dungeon to suddenly throw us something we could not beat. And third… If I died… There would be nothing I could do. It was that simple.

“Listen up!” Charles said while leading the way. “Our positioning has not changed at all! Steve and I will remain in the front lines. Dan, try to distract the boss as much as possible. Use the environment to your advantage if you can. Grace, you’ll be our main damage dealer, so keep yourself away from harm's way and wait for the best opportunity to attack. And Taylor, protecting Grace should be your main priority, but if you see an opportunity…” He glanced at me. “When the time comes, you’ll know what to do, like always. Did you get all that, team?!”

“Yes!” we replied in unison.

Since we had already dealt with the butler, we left the first floor behind and rushed to the next one unchallenged. But as soon as I took a step forward, a sudden feeling of discomfort hit me. “G-guys? Can you feel that?” I quietly asked, but no one seemed to hear me. They were too occupied searching their surroundings.

There was something odd around us. A feeling of despair I had never felt before. After swallowing hard, I applied mana into my pendant, letting me see through the walls. There was a glowing silhouette nearby. Waiting.

“There,” Steve said, pointing to a double door, thirty feet ahead of us. “That must be the boss’ room. No doubt about it.”

“Are you done gearing up?” Charles asked aloud.

“Wait!” Dan cried, while clumsily manipulating his User Interface. “I haven’t read what all these things do.”

“Did you get the Master’s First Shoes? You can move at double speed if you apply mana to them,” Steve said in a hurried voice, but once Dan looked him in the eye, he shook his head.

I didn’t get those, so it meant that everyone got different boss rewards. It was pointless to explain what every single item did.

“Time is running out, Dan!” Charles shouted. “Hurry up!”

“Screw this!” Dan cried, exasperated, and I saw him rushingly tap his screen, making a bracelet appear on his right wrist, and a red cloak materialized on his back. “Done, let’s go!”

Before we could dash forward, the place got warmer. I turned where Grace was and found her already casting a spell. “Fire Crafting…” she whispered while making a ball of fire sprout from her staff, getting bigger by the second.

“Grace?” Charles called, meeting her gaze.

“We’re in a hurry, right?” Grace smirked. A drop of sweat ran down her forehead. “Once you open those doors, step aside so I can launch this.”

Charles and Steve glanced at each other, nodded, and positioned themselves beside the room’s entrance, waiting for Grace’s sign.

“What if it doesn’t work?” Dan asked while preparing his bow, making Grace chuckle.

“Then I lose a lot of mana, that’s all,” she said, before exhaling. “Ready!”

The boys opened the doors, and for a brief moment, I could see a pale man dressed in black, sitting on a chair, legs crossed, and a smirk on his face. “Foolish, fools! So you have defeated my--”

“Spitfire!” Grace cried, releasing the magic ball at a tremendous speed. The Boss could not even react.

The explosion shook the room, broke windows, and set the carpet on fire, which Grace quickly extinguished thanks to her fire manipulation. Steve and Charles ran forward, weapons ready.

The boss's health bar was at 70%.

“Did we interrupt his ‘villain speech’?” Dan asked aloud. “It feels wrong.”

“Yeah…” I whispered. “I feel kind of dirty now.”

“I don’t care!” Grace shouted while preparing another spell. “Shouldn’t you do something useful, Dan?”

“You insolent wretches!” Dylak shouted after ridding himself of his burned cloak, revealing a fine, masculine--I mean: His exposed white-as-the-moon skin. “HOW DARE--!” he tried to say, before being interrupted by one of Dan’s arrows.

“There! Are you happy now, Grace?!” Dan cried.

But it didn’t do any damage. I saw Dylak breaking the arrow with his sharp teeth and spitting out the iron arrowhead a second before Steve bashed him with his shield. Beside them was Charles, swinging his sword. “Pathetic,” the black-haired NPC said. He had stopped both shield and sword with his bare hands.

Was he as strong as the Housekeeper?!

I glanced at the timer.

 

Dungeon closing in 16:24 minutes

 

“You’ll be our triumph card,” I whispered to Grace, who squinted at me, a new ball of fire was being cast in front of her.

“That’s obvious! I’m the only one that has harmed him!”

“That means that…” I watched Steve being thrown away with a kick, and Charles receiving a punch that took away a third of his HP. “...The boss will take care of you first…” I whispered as Dylak looked in our direction.

“You’ll pay for this, witch!” The attractive middle-aged man formed a grin so wide it almost reached his pointy ears, showing us razor-like teeth. 

Y-yeah… I think I have a thing for vampire-like men.

“It’s coming this way! Shoot it, now!” I cried, but Grace looked at me in anguish.

“I-I’m not done yet! If I interrupt the spell, it’ll vanish!”

Even though several feet separated us, I knew that the humanoid monster could reach us in an instant. I turned to Dan, who was pointing his bow towards him. Scenes from the last two days flashed in my mind. Had Dan been useful during this whole quest? Well… yes. He was the one that came up with the idea of making the housekeeper and the butler fight. But besides that? He barely does damage to the ene--NO! I shouldn't think that way!

I shouldn’t---T-t-the boss is moving!

“Protect me, T.!” Grace’s girly voice cried behind me. 

You didn’t have to say it. I know my role!

I prepared my hammer, ready to block or counterattack, but as Dylak dashed toward us, turning his long nails into claws, he jumped aside at the last moment. My head turned to my left, seeing everything in slow motion. Dan had been stabbed in the chest. No… Better said, Dylak’s entire arm was coming out of Dan’s back. Tears ran down his cheeks.

“Charlie, please! Save me some of the treasures!”

I clearly heard Charles snicker before replying. “Sorry, pal! That’s not going to happen.”

Just as Dan’s entire body turned into pixels and dissipated, the Boss licked his bloodied claws. His HP bar had returned to 85%.

“Give me five seconds, T. Please,” Grace whispered behind me. Was she asking me to shield her from a monster that could kill us in a single hit?!

Wait… I’m not like Dan… 

I’m not useless like him!

I have the Monster Hunter Passive Skill!

I could do this!

Steve and Charles were already on their way to help me. Five freaking seconds were nothing.

I got into a defensive stance, ready to withstand whatever Dylak threw at me.

“Pathetic,” he muttered without glancing at me, and in the blink of an eye, jumped towards us. My body knew how to react, even if my mind was still processing what was happening. I raised the hammer so it could take the full impact of Dylak’s ‘axe’ kick.

That strength was unnatural… I didn’t even know we could move like that inside The Novus. It reminded me of all the action series I’d seen. For a brief couple of seconds, Dylak transformed into a martial artist. And he looked cool as--“Huh?!” the woman inside me released a high-pitched cry the very moment I felt the ground beneath me falter.

“Begone!” Dylak shouted triumphantly, applying even more force.

The floor cracked as Steve reached out his hand to save me, but he was too far away. The resulting sound echoed through the boss’ room when the floor finally gave up. I felt gravity pull me down just as Grace's spell got overwhelmingly hot behind me.

As my body fell through layers of wood and concrete, my sight got locked upwards. Through that human-sized hole, I could see a flash of orange light, signaling that Grace had successfully cast her fire spell. Had she hit Dylak? Who knows?

The only thought crossing my mind is that we were slowly reaching superhuman territory.