"Wake up! Damn it!"

Julia woke up to the loud voice, calling her name, which seemed more desperate than annoying. She found Rudeus fighting the horde of rats that he could have defeated with a flick of his finger any other day, but after accumulating wounds after wounds from the boss monster, which was an anomaly itself, he was having a hard time. 

Not to mention, having to protect two dead weights behind his back: one was sleeping, while the other was weeping; over his upcoming loan. 

After losing his main firepower, the summoned wolf, Nicolas wasn't of any help other than fighting against the stray rats that got past Rudeus and Greyt defenses combined, which doesn't amount to more than the total number of fingers a snake body has. 

"Huh? What happened to your cheeks?" 

Glancing at Nicolas's right cheek, Julia took notice of a kid-sized bloody handprint etched on it with four grievous poke marks, predictably caused by some sharp nails. 

"Th... This?... Ah, I don't know" 

Averting his face to the other side, Nicolas fixed his cracked glasses onto his nose bridge, before shooting the arrow at the already dead rat, trying to act busy. 

"Don't worry! I will tell you later, but first I need some helping hands here" 

Rudeus said in between slashing a beautiful black arc, dissecting more than five rats at once around him, only for another ten or so rats to take their place. 

Julia, without needing another word. Erected the defensive barrier around them, taking herself as the center, which would last a few seconds before instinctively swiping her hand behind her back, with a motion of grabbing something, only to catch empty air. 

"Ah! Where's the bag?!" 

She searched all the places her eyes could travel within a second before turning to the unofficial porter of their party "Nicolas?"

"How would I know? Don't you remember, I had given you before" 

"Hmm ye... Yeah but..."

"Like I said! I will tell you later, but first, do something about these bugs"

The barrier already starts creaking under the assault of the numerous rats at once as they speak. It was weak, made instantaneously without any catalyst. Furthermore, barrier magic wasn't Julia's fort. 

"Ah! I hate doing this..." 

Taking a deep breath, she chanted the spell that eats a good chunk of mana with each syllabus spoken. 

" 'O' Lady Winter, The mother of frozen lands, here thou shall be your kingdoms reach, embrace thee raging chitters, let them return to their eternal sleep, your eternal preacher calls for your presence' "

With her magic-staff glowing in a brilliant light, she finished chanting the same spell that she used against the boss monster before fainting out of exhaustion. 

Taking the barriers' durability into consideration, she quickly yet gently tapped the staff against the ground, resulting in a rippling glow passing through all the rats, freezing them in dozens of frozen coffins in an instant. A silence finally descended in the room. 

"Sigh... I'm not doing this again!" 

Feeling nauseous and sudden dizziness after exhausting her entire mana source twice within an hour, she stumbles against the nearest party member, Nicolas, resulting in him catching her. But before he could fully support her back, Rudeus swatted his hands away as he glared at him. 

"Uhh! tha...thanks" 

Rubbing her temples, the orange-haired woman sighed inwardly, and her eyes drew near the ring Neller had given her as a gift. 

'Sigh... If only he could also... Huh?!... Where's my ring?!" 

Her heart skipped a beat, as she failed to find the ring that cost more than she could afford, even if she sold herself! 

"Rudeus!" 

"Hey! Who do you think you're staring at? Do I look like a thief to you?" 

Although Rudeus said that, an unconcealed smug refused to leave his face. 

"Where's my ring!" Her eyes were dead serious, clearly not liking his childish prank. 

"Cough! Cough! Rudy just tells her what you saw and... Urgh! We should get out of here before that thing comes back" 

Coughing some black blood, Greyt starts patching up the insta-bandages on the wounds, already knowing the healing potions were stored in the stolen bag. 

                                                            

"What?! A gob... Goblin stole it!" 

With wide eyes, Julia refused to believe what Rudeus had said and thought he was playing yet another one of his not-so-funny pranks. But as she turned to Nicolas, who was walking with the weird bloody handprint etched on his face like a living/walking proof, she had no choice but to take the truth as it is; thinking that maybe what she saw in her dream of a naked goblin running with her ring, was might not be a dream but a glimpse of reality she saw before fainting. 

"But... What will I say to Neller?" 

She was having a hard time thinking of an excuse, that seems less ridiculous than telling him, she lost it to a naked goblin on the run. 

"See? I told ya, it ain't my fault"

While Julia was worried, Rudeus was all smiles, as he shrugged with the nonchalance of 'now it ain't my problem', which suddenly gets on her nerves. 

"Yes! It's all your fault! It was you who took the quest right, maybe it was all your plan from the start... You, you must have distracted us before releasing a wild goblin at me!" 

Clearly, Julia was already losing her mind as she blamed it all on his head. 

"What?! You think I was the one who raised that anomaly of a monster inside a dungeon, before leading all of us to our doom? Just to let a wild goblin steal your what? That cheap knock-off Engagement ring?" 

Scoffing at her stupidity, Rudeus remarked with a snicker, causing her to almost erupt on the spot, but Nicolas' alarmed voice interrupted her. 

"Hey! Guys come here!" 

                                                                 

As he was breaking the frozen rats in ice and making a way to the exit with Greyt in tow, leaving the bickering ex-couple alone, he saw a hidden formation carved at the blind spot in the room, and in a location that anybody could have missed. 

"Ah.... This...?" Julia gasped, forgetting her earlier worry and anger. 

"This doesn't seem like it was naturally formed by the dungeon, does it?" Frowning out of pain and deep concern, Greyt voiced his opinion. 

"If I'm right, which I know I am, that goblin had just stolen the magic core out of this formation, that was most likely functioning as the eye of this formation. This does explain, why in the world that rat monster would have gone after him, ignoring us, and most probably this might be the reason behind its unusual strength"

Redeus commented before spotting an unusually large golden chest, guarded by the frozen rats at the end of the boss room. Curious, he silently walks away, ignoring Nicolas' mindless ramblings behind. 

"Hmm you're right, and Leaving aside how a goblin that was supposed to be spawned in the Third Strata has appeared in the second strata for a moment, Isn't it weird that a boss monster strangely discovered a mana stone mine within the second strata?" 

Although, not well versed with the magic formations. He was still knowledgeable in more than his own field and slowly Nicolas tried to connect the dots on his own. 

"If we take this magic formation into consideration, that most likely doesn't belong to the dungeon itself, we could definitely say that someone was trying to artificially inflate the mana levels somehow, that would most likely than not will leads to the dungeon overflow sooner than anybody could be speculating" 

As he came to his own conclusion, which he believes to be the truth. Regardless of the actual truth, Nicolas released a horrified gasp.

"No! This is dangerous! We have to check if there's more of these formations in this strata and the others!"

"No, We're leaving. Our quest is more than completed here"

Slamming shut the bloody chest, Rudeus said with a heavy tone. Taking a bunch of dog tags in his grasp, dripping with blood and gore. As the proof of those missing/dead newbie adventurers instead of the stuffed, bloody paste made out of their body parts inside the golden chest; waiting to be transformed into some gold coins by some dungeon magic, to be looted by the next greedy adventures coming after them. 

Of course, only if they're able to kill the chest owner/boss monster in the future. Rather than feeding back the chest with their souls and bodies, just like their predecessors before, strengthening the chest owner/boss monster in return, as per the 'Dungeons Golden Rule' implied. 

Meanwhile, Julia was staring at the mountain of mana stones thinking that with this, she might be able to repay the cost of her lost ring or maybe buy another one, replacing the lost one with the exact copy. 

"Let's take this all with us" She muttered when she couldn't decide on her own. 

"No! We don't have time. That rat monster would have already killed that goblin and it might return at any time. We have to go-" It was Greyt who stops her from taking the risk, before continuing for the Nicolas in an unusually deep voice "-and inform the tower about what we discovered here, as early as possible…and leave this matter to them" 

Although, they're veteran adventurers with 'D' rank etched on their dog tags as proof. They don't belong to any guilds, famous or not, nor they're of any high leveled individuals in The Tower. 

Furthermore, it was better not to get involved in these kinds of stuff that a normal adventurer shouldn't. Leaving the matter to the authorities to handle on their own, is the wisest and most basic choice anyone could and should follow if they want to live a longer life in Argon city. 

"Yeah, it was their headache and finally a chance to let those sh*tty Godly guilds move their lazy asses, and do some work for once instead of eating on our taxes for nothing"

With a boom! Rudeus destroyed all the fozen rats, clearing the path for them at once. 

"But then, we won't be getting any share from this, so how about we take some first while we still can? That monster is still nowhere to be seen, we still have some time right!"

Reluctant to leave this much wealth behind, Julia suggested, and before Rudeus could bring some sense to her greedy mind... 

"Screeeeiiiii!!!"

They have to cover their ears in unison, withstanding the pain caused by the horrendous war cry of that rat monster, echoing vigorously throughout the vibrating cavern walls

                                                           

"Sure, we would have all the time in the world, after we rest together in that monster's stomach right?"

Scoffing back, Rudeus grabs her hand and starts running with the other two members as fast as they all could, fearing that the dreaded anomaly would drop at any moment. While Julia reluctantly took one last look at that mountain of wealth they were leaving behind. 

'Sigh... Neller might hate me for this'