Honestly, I couldn't underestimate this group of hunters. They were strong. Very strong. They had massacred at least two hundred goblins on their way to this room.
The minor wounds and fatigue they had undoubtedly accumulated were eliminated by potions, which was a bit annoying.
I wondered: was this the real level of hunters? Or did they send this group to test me? Once again, the lack of information was starting to give me a headache.
Setting aside my thoughts, I paid attention to the battle to see the outcome.
I watched as the silver-haired woman began cutting down goblins one after another without any hesitation in her stance. Her sword easily sliced through the monsters' skin and bones.
I noticed how a thin layer of mana wrapped around the blade, channeled from her body to make it more lethal.
While the silver-haired woman was busy dealing with the minions, the group's mage was protected by the rogue, who moved agilely using his daggers to keep enemies away from the mage as she prepared her spell.
Unlike the previous hunter mage, this one was much faster and more precise, something she demonstrated by launching a two-meter fireball at a group of goblins, generating an explosion that killed at least fifteen goblins and wounded another ten.
However, although she managed to stop twenty-five, more filled the space. It was undoubtedly terrifying.
The Shadow Goblins—as I decided to call them after running some experiments—emerged suddenly with daggers in their greenish hands.
The first rogue goblin managed to open a wound on the back of the shield warrior's knee. He turned, swinging his weapon, cutting the goblin in half.
Immediately, the silver-haired woman moved, creating space for the warrior to take a healing potion.
The warrior looked at the mage.
"Hey mage, do your magic to eliminate these insects!" said the shield warrior, looking at the woman who wore a concentrated expression.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M DOING, YOU IDIOT?!" she asked angrily.
"Quickly, everyone gather around."
After hearing her words, the four gathered around the mage, who drove her staff into the ground.
A wave of mana left her body, flowing into her staff. The monster gem glowed with intense light, and a moment later, a great wave of yellowish fire filled the entire room.
The flames consumed most of the goblins, who were burned to death—except for Ravenous, who had stayed away.
I gave a mental order to the surviving goblins to stay hidden.
It was time to enter the second phase of the battle.
Ravenous let out a powerful roar of challenge and, without hesitation, charged at the warrior and the silver-haired woman.
The arrogant shield warrior lunged forward, swinging his sword, which clashed against the boss monster's axe in a great collision of force.
Ravenous's superior strength pushed the warrior back, a moment the swordswoman used to launch her attack.
Ravenous swung his axe at the elusive woman, who began leaving superficial cuts on the orc's body, whose skin was very resistant.
Soon, the shield warrior joined the fight, turning it into a two-against-one.
The battle was intense—sparks, blood, and battle cries filled the entire room. The rogue took the opportunity to provide support by firing arrows after loading them into a crossbow.
The arrows flew, embedding themselves in Ravenous's skin without causing more than slight annoyance.
The warrior launched an attack, which Ravenous caught with his bare hand while simultaneously blocking the silver-haired woman's attack—she was the more dangerous one.
While she was occupied, the mage, who had recovered some of her mana after drinking a potion, quickly prepared a magical spell.
The mana undulated rapidly, forming a fireball. Unlike the wave of flames from before, this attack was focused to cause maximum possible damage.
The fireball shot out like a cannonball, hitting Ravenous squarely—he couldn't move to avoid the attack.
Ravenous was sent flying a few meters back. His body began to catch fire with hot flames. Although I had made sure Ravenous had fire-resistant equipment, feeling the heat on your body was still unpleasant.
However, this gave me an idea.
Approaching him mentally, I advised him to use his mana to control the flames and channel them into his weapon. To imagine the flames covering his axe like an extra layer. I even added a mental image.
Obeying with blind loyalty, the orc followed my instructions immediately.
When he did, something surprising happened.
Ravenous's mana rose to the surface, covering his body and taking control of the flames. This happened because Ravenous's mana devoured and seized the fire—something I mentally noted for my future experiments.
The flames completely surrounded Ravenous's axe, and not only that—apparently, he extended the flames throughout his body, forming a layer of fire that made the rogue's arrows useless.
The silver-haired woman and the warrior were forced to retreat in the face of this abrupt change.
All of this happened in a matter of seconds. Everyone's eyes were wide open.
Connecting with Ravenous, I could feel my monster's mana focused on his body, commanding the flames with his will to enhance his body and weapon.
Ravenous gave a fanged smile, showing his happiness at his new power.
Ha ha ha!
Look! It's time for Hell Mode! FIRE ORC!
This undoubtedly made me happy. Although the mana expenditure required to maintain this fire mantle wouldn't last long—at most a few minutes before his mana ran out, and if that happened, he would become unconscious, leading to Ravenous's death.
My main objective wasn't to kill them, but rather to obtain information. That was my goal. Now I knew how to expand my dungeon and roughly understood how mana worked, as well as abilities that let you see mana to avoid traps, and goblin improvements.
I didn't want to gain a reputation as an infernal dungeon and cause a holy crusade to kill me or something like that. I was simply defending myself—this was my home now. If I kill one, that's fine by me, and if they flee, that's also perfectly fine.
...
The rogue felt tense. Too tense for the current situation.
At first, they had things under control. The goblins, although numerous, were weak. Their only advantage was numbers. Once you eliminated the majority, it became easier to control them.
However, all that changed when the floor guardian joined the battle after the mage used a high-mana-consumption spell to eliminate as many goblins as possible.
The battle had been intense, and the floor guardian was a formidable opponent, holding two experienced C-rank fighters at bay.
When the mage fired her fireball, he thought it was over.
Oh, how wrong he was. The floor boss somehow made the flames envelop his entire body and, with that, his great battle axe.
They needed a new plan, and fast.
"This is bad, but it's not over," said the swordswoman, taking a deep breath, her eyes shining as she observed the guardian's mana.
"It's a spell. The monster is using his own mana, burning it on the surface of his entire body. It's extremely difficult to maintain this pace. We just have to wait..." Before she could continue, the monster lunged forward, swinging his axe in a quick, brutal movement.
The swordswoman raised her sword, blocking the attack, letting a loud sound echo throughout the room.
"Scatter. Attack from the flanks," ordered the woman, beginning a battle against the floor guardian.
All the guardian's attention was focused on the silver-haired woman, who struggled not to be killed by his axe.
While the silver-haired woman kept the floor guardian at bay, her companions looked for any weakness to exploit.
The mage couldn't use spells for fear of harming her allies, and the rogue couldn't do much without being burned by the monster's flames.
The proud and irritated warrior companion swung his sword with all his strength, driving it into the monster's leg.
The monster lost his balance for a moment while letting out a screech.
Turning, he swung his axe at the warrior, who raised his shield, blocking most of the blow.
The shield shattered into pieces of metal as the warrior's body was sent flying into one of the columns, leaving a crater in it.
It was safe to say he had broken quite a few bones from the impact.
The swordswoman took advantage of the moment when the monster wasn't paying attention to launch an attack.
Her mana-enchanted swords slid across the monster's body, cutting through his leather cuirass and opening a deep wound.
The boss staggered backward, looking at the three remaining: the swordswoman, the mage, and the rogue.
However, instead of staying still, they moved.
In less than two minutes, the situation had changed drastically. The monster was against the wall, a deep cut on his leg slowed him down, and a wound on his chest now bled, weakening him.
Finally, his fire mantle dissipated as he consumed all his mana, becoming lethargic.
The group held their breath.
The monster, sensing his imminent death, lunged forward with one last effort.
His axe was swung with more force and fury than before.
The group of three managed to retreat and avoid the attacks.
"You wretch!" shouted the furious warrior, who had regained consciousness.
The warrior lunged with his sword to finish him off; however, Ravenous took the opportunity to take him with him.
Ravenous ignored the three humans, focusing on the warrior who swung his sword, driving it deep into Ravenous's shoulder. Ravenous raised his axe, cutting down the proud warrior.
Blood and some intestines fell to the floor.
The proud warrior was dead.
Shortly after, Ravenous fell to the ground, dead.
...
Hail Ravenous, the proudest and hungriest orc of all! First of his name! He died like a true warrior, taking one with him.
I watched as that guy's mana left his body, so I did the same process I did with the other three and attracted all the mana toward me, beginning to increase my stats.
While doing so, I watched as the mage, the rogue, and the swordswoman simply took what was valuable, then extracted Ravenous's core, which was enormous—the size of a closed human fist.
The swordswoman placed it in a special kind of bag.
Then they took Ravenous's axe and silently burned the warrior's remains.
They didn't utter a word about this. They were exhausted from the fight, so they decided to retreat upon hearing small laughs from the goblins that began to emerge.
After leaving, somewhat paranoid about not running into the goblins, they stayed outside for perhaps half an hour before walking into the forest, heading possibly toward the city.
After ceasing to pay attention to them, I returned to the boss room, where the goblins watched the loss of their leader in silence. I used fire mana to burn Ravenous I's corpse.
After the funeral, I looked at one of the goblins.
"You there, in the back, you have what it takes!" My voice encouraged the goblin. Using my mana, I began to mutate the goblin—I already had experience doing this previously to improve them from their basic forms.
The process was slow, but when finished, Ravenous II was born, except he lacked combat experience, but that would come with time.
"You will be called Bastion the Relentless!" I said directly into his head.
Truthfully, the battle made me see some deficiencies in my dungeon, so I would take some time to add them and find a theme for my second floor.