"Boom!"

"Greyt!" Julia shouted out of nervousness. Standing behind the party, she replenishes her spell orbs, fully loading back her staff before joining the ongoing fight against that monstrosity. 

She didn't think this monster was supposed to be present in the second strata. Even as the boss monster, It was too much for them but on another note, it now makes sense at the disappearance of those rookie adventurers. 

As to how this anomaly even came to be possible, It was apparently as clear as the day. The cause presented itself in a form of the glorified giant hill of raw low-tierd mana stones, possibly extracted in the second strata. That was as rare as a dragon flying peacefully over a human settlement. 

Surely, these heaps of mana stone can bring a fortune to them, and she wasn't wrong at predicting the rats founding a mine. But what she didn't see it coming was a giant monster of an impossible level for its own strata protecting it, making her regret not preparing enough before coming. 

"So, now do you believe that traitorous Raticul ghost had led us here to avenge him?" Rudues asked with a smile, dodging the upcoming slash of those ten-inch-long claws. 

"You seriously wanted to bring this up right now?!"

Julia wanted to smash that man's face, but first, she has to blast the icicles at that monster's face before it could shred Rudues apart. 

Contrary to her belief, her favorite attack did nothing more than put up a scar near her eyes, causing it to growl more furiously just like its claws lashing at her. 

Fortunately, Greyt blocks that attack of the rat king with a shield that glowed as it absorbs half the damage for him before Rudeus counter attacked whenever the monster shows even a slight opening. 

Meanwhile, Nicolas was seemingly dying inside silently after seeing those hoards of pesky rats tearing apart his both prized summoned wolf's skin as they were barely able to stop those rats' advance, courtesy of all those rats below level 5 or he didn't think they could handle all of them, since his team members had already left him to his own. 

"Stop flirting! And do something!" 

Frustrated, Not taking their casual talks and more importantly seeing how much money he would have to burn for his wolf's healing later, if they survived, he interrupted them. 

"You think we're not doing anything? So how about we change the opponents and see how you fared against this stinky ass!" 

A black line streaked through the winds as it draws a red line along the monster's thick furry hide, accompanied by a shrill cry of the giant monster as Rudeus skidded through the floor, barely able to regain his balance. 

He turned back in triumph, expecting to watch that newbie shutting his mouth after seeing his most powerful move with a cringe-worthy name 'Rudy's Last Slash'- he named when he was a teenager back then and definitely won't admit it. But, contrary to his expectations, seeing the monster slumping down in defeat, he was bewildered when the monster's black fur turned completely red, save for his tail and already red eyes, and-

"Khiiiiiiii!!!" 

Countless red furry spikes, larger than his own dagger, hailed at him with a speed that caught him completely defenseless. 

'Well... Sh*t' 

"Bang!"

'Huh?'

After a moment, not feeling the pain of getting impaled countless times, Rudeus opens his eyes and found Greyt blocking it all with a tattered shield and a larger spike deeply rooted into his forearm, causing it to loosen the grip on the shield making it drop with a clatter. 

"Hey!"

*Szi! Szi! Szi!*

Just then, a cube of sizzling ice covered the monster in its confines, binding its movement in an instant before freezing it. 

"Huuu!" 

Feeling the mana drain from her body, Julia almost falls out of sudden weakness. Taking the support from her staff, she turned to Rudeus and the injured Greyt, and before she could take a breath of relief, the ice cracked. 

And not longer than a second later, it quickly spreads around like a spider web and the monster breaks out of the confines with an outrageous squeal!

"Sqiiiii!"

"Urghhh!"

Accompanied by another hailstorm of red spikes that almost skewered through her chest, instead her defensive amulet breaks apart, taking the damage for her. But other spikes succeed in impaling her, knocking her out before throwing her in a corner. 

"Skiiiiiii!"

She tried to ask for help, but Rudeus was busy trying to protect the already injured Greyt, while Nicolas was swimming in the rats festival; thus, she was on her own. 

'Dammit!... This... Hurts... Huh?'

But before she could almost lose consciousness, she saw a weird sight of a naked little goblin sneakily coming to her side with a wide grin, carrying a madeshift sack overflowing with the mana stones. Crouching down, it took away her shiny diamond ring from her weak grip before trying to snatch her wooden staff away but failed to do so because of the defensive equipment as some electric sparks zapped away his claws, causing it to almost cry in pain as it rolled in dirt. 

                                                             

'Fu*k me!' 

Feeling his numbed hands and the pain coursing through his body for another few seconds, Oscar cursed her thousands of generations while standing back again with a huff.

'Sigh... Gotta work fast before that thing could notice'

While the human adventurers were busy fighting that monster with their lives, Oscar was working hard to collect as much mana crystal as possible, while thanking them for distracting that monster for him. He even sacrificed his dignity, the loincloth to be used as the carrying sack to stuff more. 

Picking up the dropped sack again, Oscar grudgingly glanced at that fainted mage and her wooden staff that could shoot all kinds of magic before sneaking away with the sack full of mana stones. But stopped mid-way when he found their backpack laying defenseless at the side, the adventurers seemed busy defending themselves more rather than defending it. 

'Tch! How careless, what if a random attack blasted away your bag' 

Although grumbling, Oscar gleefully puts his own sack and the magical-looking ring inside of it before picking up the bag almost twice his size himself. 

'He... Heavy!' It took his all not to stumble in his steps, and fall flat-faced. 

Oscar did think of dropping some stuff, but unfortunately, the situation wasn't so peaceful to let him sit down and sort things out. Not that he knows what to throw and keep as it was all stolen brand for him. 

"Arghhhh!" 

Hearing the shouts and the painful grunts of both adventurers going against the monster king, Oscar knew the climax was approaching. Which seems as clear as blood to him, adventurers getting wiped clean before the rat king notices a huge chunk of a treasure missing within its pile. 

Not able to get in the small burrows while carrying a heavy bag, Oscar could only grit his teeth and take the risky exit just right behind those swarming unicorn rats. 

So after making sure that he stays out of the monster's line of sight and those powerful-looking humans are busy taking their beating in turns from the Raticulous Rat king, Oscar slowly yet careful takes his sneaky steps away from the scene while cheering internally for the humans to stay alive till he gets as far as possible. 

'Huh?'

Right when he was about to get near the exit, from the corner of his eye, Oscar caught the sight of a large orb glowing in a mysterious hue while resting beside the two adjacent walls, blocking the mouth of side burrows with its mass alone. If not for him taking a detour alongside the walls, he would have missed its location entirely. 

As he gets near it, he could feel the oddness of the orb more thoroughly and an abundance of mana around it, making him feel giddy as even an idiot could tell that it wasn't just a simple giant mana orb, and to prove it, the dungeon screen popped up. 

'Sigh... Figured enough, it all leads to my damn core' with a defeated shrug, Oscar turned to his left then right and found all the people or monsters in the cave busy beating others or getting beaten till they couldn't. Not even a soul had taken a notice of his presence. 

'But it's... Heavy, I can't carry it' 

Frowning, he contemplated whether to take it or leave it. But after finding no reason as to why he should leave a treasure that shows 'rare' in a grade like this here if he's able to take it away, he shrugged and jumped on top of the orb before leaving the stolen bag aside for a moment. 

'It better works'

Taking the support from one of the walls by his back and hands, he put the force into his legs to make the orb move forward. 

'Neghhhhh!!!' but even when he put all his might, he could only make a slight shift in its position. 

'Move! Damn it!' 

After a few more seconds of struggle, which felt far more than a minute for Oscar, the orb finally gives more than enough gap between the walls for him to jump inside and push it from behind. 

'Ahhh... That was tiring' 

wiping his non-existent sweat, Oscar pushes it ahead with both palms swiping up in turns consequently with each step taken forward. 

'Now, finally!'

After picking up his Backpack, Oscar was just about to stir away the giant orb towards the exit cavern safely through a corner without getting detected when a flying human catapulted towards his direction and slammed against the wall ahead with a noise loud enough for everyone to at least take a glance at. 

*Boom!*

"Noooo!!! I just took that loan!" 

The man slumped down with broken glasses hanging onto his nose, crying with a running snot while embracing a cracked medallion with an engraved twin Wolf's. 

'Wh...what?!' 

Feeling all the stares of the rats, rat king and the humans alike on his back, Oscar forgot to take his breath. Stopping still as a statue, caused the giant orb to roll ahead leaving its pilot behind. 

*Ro!ro!ro!…*

Stiffly, Oscar turned to the culprit.

'You stinky ass! of all the places you just have to land here and cry like b*tch!'

Cursing under his breath, he slapped that crying human making him shut his mouth for once. And while everybody was busy processing what they saw or why they saw it, Oscar jumped on top of the rolling magic orb and started pedaling backward at full speed. Planned to get away as much as possible, fully knowing how big of a red mark he had inevitably painted behind his back. Without knowing he had saved the human adventurers behind him right at this moment. 

'Now, the hell is this?... Ah! Never mind just Go! Go! Go!'

"Khrrreeee!!!"

He ignored the screen the moment a booming noise resounded behind him, accompanied by a very angry rat monster coming for him.