The students had made it up to the start of the fifth floor. It had been six days since they came to the world. They had not left the dungeon since a few days ago when they entered the dungeon a second time. The fourth floor dungeon boss actually posed a challenge, but not enough to hinder their advancement to the next floor.

They had only stopped advancing the fifth floor due to lack of food supplies. Mana originally had everyone bring five days of rations, but the food was consumed quickly. Apparently the students had a much bigger appetite compared to even the kingdom’s richest nobles.

“It looks like we ran out of food earlier than expected. It’s time to go back and procure more.”

“But Mana, why don’t we just eat the monster meat?”

“Eating the monster meat has dire consequences. On the kingdom’s first run, before the current king was even born, one of the explorers ate some meat from the giant rats. In one day, he half transformed into something which resembled a demon.”

Roa had an epiphany. He had read a book online that was in a situation similar to this. A group of people, just like him, was transported to another world. There, he was betrayed when a fireball hit him, plunging him deep into the dungeon he was also exploring. Fortunately for him, he found some magical water that let him eat monster meat without dying to grow stronger.

(Forgive me for this, I couldn’t help it.)

If only he was that lucky.

Mana looked at a watch which had the numbers from 0 to 6, with only one hand that was very slowly moving counterclockwise. The hand was halfway between the 1 and 0.

“If we hurry, we should be able to make it through the third floor before we fight monsters again.”

Not a single person disagreed. Even though everyone lusted after levels to become stronger, continuously fighting monsters with only a few hours of sleep and eat in-between deteriorated their battle spirit.

This time, Roa was the first to enter the portal back to the fourth floor.

Gresknov Dungeon

Floor 4

Mobs: Shrieking Banshee, Carnivorous Slime, Dripping Husk, Demon Beetle, Floating Watcher, Timeless Clown, Cursed Fairy, Flying Fish Rider, Horned Goblin, Troll

The layout on the floor consisted of two islands, separated by one extremely long stone bridge. The width of the bridge was able to hold 20 of the students side-by-side, and the length was large enough for them to previous encounter monsters.

The remains of the troll was still there. The body was not rotting, which Roa attributed to the dungeon’s power.

The students come in drones of two. In the previous floor, two people accidentally walked in together, allowing the group to discover that two people were able to go through the portal at once. They did not dare try it with three.

As group made their way across the bridge, the deceased bodies of the numerous monsters they fought were everywhere.

Roa was glad that they did not rot; the smell would’ve made him vomit.

Everyone, even Mana, was looking at the corpses with satisfaction. They worked hard on this floor to kill the monsters that grouped up all at once to try and kill them.

How could they not be proud, handling so many enemies at once? This floor had taken two of the three days they were in the dungeon this time around.

Arriving at the end of the bridge, at the end was the island leading back to the third floor. Everyone entered through the portal without hesitation. Some were hoping to go back and just explore the town, tired of looking at the cavern ceiling.

Gresknov Dungeon

Floor 3

Mobs: Superior Giant Rat

The third floor of the dungeon was one giant island, which had originally consisted of many miniboss giant rats. The corpses from this floor were already gone, indicating the kingdom had already retrieved the remains for future use.

A quarter way through the island, Mana looked at her watch. The hand had touched the zero.

Around them, yellow wisps of energy began forming into the shape of the rats earlier on this floor. While everyone was patiently waiting for the rats to form, Roa tried something different.

Whether it was a malicious intent or not, not even Roa knew. When he waved his hand through the glowing shapes of the rats, the wisps of light expanded and floated away.

A red health bar appeared and depleted when he blew away the wisps, confirming his suspicions. The glowing shapes of the rats were also considered monsters, but he would be unable to confirm whether or not they actually gave experience.

He was only able to kill one before the rats completely solidified. As soon as the students heard snarling, they jumped straight into action.

When Roa backed off from the fight like usual, a blur had come at him. Before he knew it, he felt a needle prick on his arm.

The blur looked oddly familiar to the small rat he had fought the first time around. Roa found it funny how he now called the regular-sized rat a “small” rat. Looking at his shoulder, his clothes were completely torn at the spot of the prickling, but he did not ooze blood at all.

As the small rat once again turned into a blur, Roa stuck his hand out at the direction it was facing, expecting to be able to trap it again. To his surprise, the small rat had made a sharp turn and avoided his hand.

It was like the first time all over again, except he felt needle pricks instead of tickles. The needle pricks were far more annoying than the tickles, so Roa focused more on the battle. Because of that, he was able to discern a pattern on the small rat’s movements far quicker than before.

The small rat was only able to turn its direction once before it had to stop. Roa once again attempted to stick out his hand to block the small rat’s movement, then moved it up in a chance catch. Unfortunately, the small rat had shifted down this time.

However, the small rat wasn’t dumb either and quickly caught on. When Roa attempted his newfound method again, the small rat just ran straight through and pricked near his armpit.

Roa took a new approach. He once again slid his hand in the path of the small rat, then slightly moved his hand up. If the small rat could smirk, it would have. It ran straight through once again. But this time, Roa had caught the small rat in his trap. The small rat swore it saw Roa’s hand move upwards, but in reality it was a fakeout.

Roa had only slightly moved his hand upwards. He knew the small rat had already caught on to his schemes, so he concocted another. By only slightly moving his hand up, the small rat would believe that he was going to try the same trick as before. However, as soon as Roa moved his hand up, he moved it back down to the original position, knowing what the small rat would do.

Just like that, he had gripped the small rat in his hands once again. This time, Roa carefully made sure that he couldn’t get bitten by pinching his thumb and index finger on the small rat’s head.

I have to kill it… I have to.

After spending time with the other students who were able to kill with ease, Roa was angry with it all. It was always him who had the worst luck, who had to cower in fear watching Lucin protect him. With the flip of his hand, the steel dagger faced right above the small rat.

Even the small rat had gotten stronger.

But, what’s the point? I’m useless anyways. I can’t gain experience, why kill anything at all?

He eased his grip on the dagger, which clattered onto the ground.

Perhaps there was a way out of this idiocy. If the students could accomplish their mission in this world, they might get warped back to their own world. Until then, Roa would just have to sit back and watch.

Roa stared into the eyes of the rat. His language proficiency told him that somehow, the rat could understand him.

“Go, and don’t come back. The others will kill you.”

He flicked the small rat across the island as far back as he could, away from everyone else.

Everyone had already finished their own battles, with not a single living giant rat left. They had already begun crossing the portal to the second floor. Roa quickly followed after.

The small rat saw Roa disappear in the portal. For a moment it contemplated on its next action. Shaking its head like a human, it hurriedly followed after, disappearing into the portal.

Gresknov Dungeon

Floor 2

Mobs: Griffon, Harpie, Orc, Mutated Rabbit, Venus Human Trap, Sand Dummy

On the other side, Roa saw everyone standing still. He walked up to Lucin.

“Hey, what’s going on?”

Lucin didn’t respond, only pointing forward. Looking in the direction of his finger, Roa understood why everyone was standing still.

Blocking their way back, was a yellow-scaled dragon laying down. Aside from its appearance on the second floor, the only oddity was the stump that used to house its wings. Near its scaly mouth, one could see the remains of a human arm.

One of the students had grabbed Mana by the shoulders, in tears.

“I thought you said there wasn’t a boss monster on the second floor!”

“I.. I… this has never happened before.”

“You… you killed Michelle!”

In a fit of rage, that student ran towards the dragon, with a bastard sword twelve times its normal width. He thought that because he was the third strongest in the group, he would be able to avenge his friend.

Had he thought clearly, he would realize that the dragon easily crushed Michelle, who was also far beyond the norm. Before he could even reach the dragon, he was seared by the flames emitted from the dragon’s mouth.

Everyone had saw what just happened. When the flames from the dragon finally subsided, only ashes remained.

“EVERYBODY RUN FOR THE BRIDGE!”

After what just happened, not even Laur was brave enough to fight the dragon. In a mass of panic, everyone began to scramble for the bridge.

There was still some sense of order within the chaos. By habit, the students grouped up in their respective party formations, assisting one another out. In the back, by himself, Roa was trying to mask his presence.

If the dragon could smirk, it did. It was able to sense which of the fleeing toys was the strongest, and because of that targeted Laur’s party. One of the people in the party panicked even more, and stopped moving to chant a spell as her final resort.

“Emerald Shield!”

The barrier which normally encased only herself, had expanded to cover her entire party. To her surprise, the flames could not pierce the barrier.

Everyone saw a chance. The whole group rushed towards the barrier for safety. Many began to cross the bridge.

The dragon roared. Its prey was getting away because of one insignificant bug. It finally got up, stamping towards the person who was holding up the barrier.

By the time the dragon had reached them, the last party just finished crossing through the barrier onto the bridge.

Once no one was in the barrier, the student had released it and also fled for the bridge. Suddenly, the surrounding around her had become dark. The dragon was lifting its foot to stomp her location.

She sneered, casting Emerald Shield again.

The barrier collapsed immediately, with dragon foot meeting student.

Smashed to a pulp, blood trickled from the dragon’s foot as it lifted it back to a more comfortable position.

Everyone had finished crossing, except Roa. Miraculously, Roa was halfway across the bridge when the student was smashed to a puddle of blood.

Watching the toy run helplessly, the dragon also began to cross the bridge, quickly catching up on Roa.

Mana issued a command.

“BREAK THE BRIDGE NOW.”

Lucin protested.

“But, there’s still one person on it.”

“Ah, who cares about him, he’s the weakest anyway. He has done nothing, can’t even kill the first monsters in the first only, only leeching off what we have given. He can’t even get stronger, he has a rare affliction where he can’t gain a single bit of experience.”

“What?!”

Before Lucin could say anything else, Laur had already severed the bridge off.

The bridge slowly crumbled, bringing first the dragon, then Roa with it. To Roa, because Lucin was at the very front, it looked like he was the one that broke the bridge. The pain of betrayal was almost as bad as the fear of death of smashing onto the ground.

Lucin watched in horror as Roa fell into the abyss.

---

Roa didn’t know how long he had been falling, but it felt like days. His stomach was growling.

He couldn’t understand why he hadn’t reach the ground yet. Maybe he was already dead, and the afterlife was a dark, neverending pit.

Sighing, he watched as the dragon descended faster than he did, eventually passing him. As it passed by, it tried to swipe at Roa, but was too far away to even shoot its flames.

It was then that a revelation had hit Roa. Wasn’t the dragon originally ahead of him when falling down the abyss? He had to test his luck and take the risk.

Roa thrust his right hand out, gripping his wrist with his left hand, as if firing an energy ball.

“Absorb!”

You have absorbed 9/100 transportation magic points.

You have 16/100 transportation magic points.

Facing upwards, the scenery changed from the endless blackness, to a full view of the sky. The sun was glaring at his face, and before Roa blacked out, he saw a familiar figure poke out of his right pants pocket.