The bell rang for the next class. Every student stood up, some rushing toward the door while others followed, chattering excitedly about the legendary tale they'd just heard.
"Honestly, I think I might be a descendant of Ray," one student said as he walked through the doorway with his friend. "I mean, I'm pretty strong, and I love fighting."
"That doesn't mean you're descended from Ray," his friend shot back. "You might just be a descendant of one of the people who rebelled against Moro. Why do you always have to crush someone's dreams like that, man?"
"I'm just saying—being strong doesn't automatically make you Ray's descendant," his friend retorted as they walked toward their next class.
Then something happened.
A circle appeared. Small at first, it began to spread. The circle was pure black with purple edges. Some students leaped back. Others ran.
*What is that?* Arthur thought as he jumped back, not daring to get caught. The circle continued to grow in size until it covered the entire hallway. No one could escape. Student after student fell into the circle, their screams stopping the moment they disappeared.
"No! No! I don't want to go in that thing! Please, no!" a student yelled, throwing himself against the wall.
The circle continued to grow larger. There was no floor beneath him anymore as he fell within.
Arthur felt the floor beneath him shrink inch by inch. *What is this?* He tried to use his inspect skill to see what this was, but the skill didn't work. His system failed him. Soon he was pulled in as well, falling into the darkness. He looked up and saw the academy—the entire hallway he'd been in—slowly drift away. Every single student who had fallen into the circle was visible for a moment, but then they disappeared. Eventually, he was all alone inside the circle as he fell.
A bright light consumed Arthur. When he opened his eyes, he winced in pain as the brightness penetrated his vision. He landed on solid ground. When the light faded, he saw all the other students around him with a few professors at the front.
*Where am I?* Arthur looked around. He was in a large arena-like area with a large circle that looked similar to the one he'd just fallen into, but this one wasn't growing—it was a moderate size.
"I'm sure none of you were expecting this, but there were complications and we couldn't give you a heads-up. For the second, third, and fourth years here, this is—as you all know—the yearly dungeon hunt. Every year, all of you will be thrown into a dungeon regardless of your strength. You could be thrown in with a weak party or a strong party—it doesn't matter. You could be a first year getting thrown in with a fourth year way above your league. These dungeons are not separated by strength or year. All of you will be going into the same dungeon regardless. The main objective is to clear all the dungeon bosses. There are four dungeon bosses per floor. Whoever can beat the first four dungeon bosses will receive special armor made by our greatest blacksmith. This is a public dungeon—anyone can go inside it. You don't have to be in the academy to enter this particular dungeon, so you have no idea who you might find here." The professor raised his hand. "Now that we have all that covered, I'll be calling out your party names. All of you will be going inside in a party of four. You're able to name your party as you see fit."
A magical keypad appeared in front of all of them, projected onto their eyes as they stared.
"First team: Arthur, Nemo, Blake, and Mason. All of you, group up."
Arthur walked forward. He didn't know anyone here besides his roommates, so he just stood there, hoping everyone would gradually move toward him. He stood closest to the circle, and soon his party members arrived.
First came Nemo, his black hair and confident expression exuding from every pore of his body.
Next was Mason. He stared at both of them. "I can't believe I'm going to be in a party with you guys." His expression wasn't confident but snarky and sarcastic.
"This is a dungeon, Mason," a voice said.
Mason turned around to see Blake standing there with a serious expression. "We don't have time for any goofy nonsense here. You could die. This isn't a game."
"Chill. Sheesh," Mason said.
Blake just stared with a cold, serious expression.
The professor continued to call names. While he did, Arthur and his party began to figure out what their name would be.
"Let's make it something cool," Mason said. "Like, I don't know, the Monster Slayers?"
"That's just weird," Nemo said. "Do you have any good names? Because you just heard what you came up with."
Arthur stared ahead. "The Void Killers," he said, obviously referencing his void system and void powers. He only had one void ability—well, he would when he reached level two, and he would reach level two if he ever found a way to gain XP, which he still didn't know how to do.
"I have one," Blake said, his serious expression faltering slightly—not to happiness, just to coldness. "Dragonslayer Clan."
"What?" Nemo stared. "That sounds pretty cool."
"Pretty cool?" Mason said. "That sounds sick, man. What are you talking about? That's amazing!"
Arthur just stood there, not giving his opinion. The name was okay, but it could have been better. They weren't really slaying dragons in a dungeon unless one of the floor bosses happened to be a dragon, but he doubted it.
"Yeah, sure. Put that into your interface," Blake said. He closed his eyes and entered the party name into his interface.
The interface left all of them, and the party name appeared before their eyes: *The Dragonslayer Clan. Do you wish this to be your name? We need confirmation from every party member.*
All of them clicked yes.
A few groups had now formed around them, but their group happened to be closer to the magic circle.
"All right, move aside," one man said, along with his three companions.
"You do not enter this magic circle until given permission," the professor said. First he was at the podium, then he was at the magic circle. The speed was insane—crazy, even.
"How did he—I didn't even see him move," the student said.
The professor stared him down. "Some people have not gotten their groups together and their party names figured out yet. We will only enter when everyone is ready."
The students stepped back along with their party members as the professor walked back toward the podium.
Party name after party name came up until finally everyone was done. The last party name entered was the Golden Slayers.
The Golden Slayers smirked as they shouted out their party name proudly. "Golden Slayers, you suckers! I can't wait till we dominate all of you and murder you so we can defeat all the dungeon bosses!" one of the party members shouted.
Nearly every single one of them had a cocky attitude—even cockier than the party group who had just tried to enter the magic circle when they weren't supposed to.
"Now that everyone has picked out their party name, you may enter the magic circle," the professor said.
Arthur's group was the first to enter, then Lime's group, then every group after, including the Golden Slayers, who rushed forward and entered after Lime's group, which was named Green.
Arthur stood up. He blinked. He thought he would be falling, but as soon as he entered the hole, he was automatically transported into the dungeon.
"What? What? Not—hey!" Arthur turned around.
Mason stood behind him. "What was that, man? It's like there was no transition or something. We just—boom—blank, and we were here."
"Yeah," Arthur said.
"Smart observation, Mason," Nemo said. "Well, another day, another dungeon. I have to say, how long have you been here, Arthur?"
"About a year. This is my first year here," Arthur said.
"Great. I've been here for at least three years, and man, when I say these dungeons are no joke, I mean it."
"Can you two stop talking to each other?" Blake interrupted. "We have monsters to kill. We don't have time for any chatter."
Both of them turned. Blake stood there with Nemo right beside him.
"Look, I know this is a magic academy," Nemo said as he drew his sword, "but no one said I couldn't use weapons."
Suddenly, all of them were fighting. They walked down the stone cave and found an opening where the Golden Slayer party was battling a bunch of stone golems.
The leader, Caden, laughed as he shot little fireballs at the stone golems while his party members dealt with the ones he couldn't handle alone.
"You see this?" he said, clearly looking at Arthur's group. "Told you we'd be the first ones to kill these stone behemoths!"
All of them laughed. Even though some were hurt, they still laughed.
Arthur stared. "Really, guys? Really? We get it."
"No, you don't," Caden snapped. "You really don't. You see, Arthur, my group is far superior to yours. We are the top mages in our year, and you're all nearly first-years. What can you do compared to us? What can you do to us? You're just a bunch of low-year, low-magic losers."
"I could cut you down in an instant," Nemo said, his voice sharp.
"Cut me down? You don't even—wait, how do you have a weapon?" Caden stared in shock. "Did you smuggle that into the academy? You do know we are mages, right? This is a magic academy. What are you doing with a sword?"
Nemo smirked. "I'm a mage. I can channel my magic into my sword, so technically I'm a knight and a swordsman—I mean, technically I'm a knight and a mage. Plus, all of us have magic. You have magic, I have magic, everyone has magic. There's nothing wrong with using a weapon anyway."
Caden stared, his face reddening. "You know what? I'll be the first one to come after you." He turned around to continue killing the stone golems.
"Behind you!" Mason yelled.
Nemo spun around and slashed toward one of the stone golems that had snuck up behind him. His sword sang through the air as it struck the golem, cutting deep into its stone body. Small rocks exploded from the wound as the cut nearly split the golem in half. The golem screamed in pain as multiple golems rushed toward their fallen companion.
Suddenly, one golem raised its stone hand and shot off a fireball. Nemo dodged. Lightning's current began to strike every single golem—at least the ones holding onto the one who'd just been struck first. All of them nearly fell to the ground, leaving only a few remaining.
The few golems still standing smirked. They raised their hands as fireballs began to coalesce. All of them shot fireballs at once toward the party.
Arthur saw a fireball coming toward him and dodged. Blake jumped over one. Mason ducked under another. Nemo smacked one of the fireballs with his sword, and the fireball flew back toward the golem.
The fireball hit the golem, and the golem flew back, smashing into another, making that one also fly back. They finally hit the stone wall. Their bodies exploded on impact, rocks and stone flying everywhere.
"All right, that's one down, two more to go," Caden thought as he spammed fireballs toward the golems he was facing. His three companions—Lead, Gordon, and Cooper—rushed forward.
Gordon kicked off his feet as he sprang into action. He threw multiple ice balls toward the golems. Only two more were left, and he was going to deal the last blow.
One golem jumped out of nowhere. Gordon didn't have time to react as the golem punched him straight in the face. Gordon flew back and slammed directly into Caden.
Caden stumbled as he caught his friend. A bit of blood fell from Gordon's face where the golem's punch had landed. The blood flew away toward somewhere else—toward one of the bottom floors. Gordon didn't think anything of it as his adrenaline was pumping. He didn't care. All he cared about was destroying whatever had punched him.
Gordon locked his eyes on the golem as he sprang forward. He created an ice spear in his hand and thrust it forward. The ice spear flew toward the golem. The golem grabbed it and broke it in half.
*What?* Gordon thought.
Cooper blazed forward, fire in his hands. "Leave no man behind!" he shouted as he rained down fireballs on all the golems. Two were taken down instantly as the fireballs struck their heads, blowing them off their bodies. But the golem that had punched Gordon still stood without a scratch on it.
The golem rushed forward toward Cooper. Cooper instantly dodged and weaved from the golem's strikes. Cooper ran to punch the golem, but the golem caught his hand. Stone fingers wrapped around Cooper's fist as the golem lifted Cooper into the air and slammed his body into the ground. Dust and debris lifted up as Cooper's body was thrown into a nearby wall.
Cooper hit the wall. He burst through it and began to fall toward the third floor.
"Cooper, no!" Gordon ran to follow his friend toward the third floor, but Caden held him back.
"Don't do it! He'll be fine. He'll be fine on his own. We still need you and Lead, all right?"
Lead walked over toward them. "Is everything okay? Where's Cooper?"
Caden turned. "The golem threw Cooper through the wall, and I think he's falling toward the third floor. We still haven't even beaten the fourth floor boss yet."
Lead frowned. "Look, I'll go after him. I'm sure both of you can handle your own."
Gordon and Caden nodded. "All right then."
Lead ran toward the wall and jumped. He fell and fell toward the third floor of the dungeon. He hit the floor, his body feeling like it was breaking as the stone slammed into him.
"What the—it hurts!" he gasped.
A mage ran over toward him. The mage placed his hand on Lead, and his injuries began to heal up.
"Thank you," Lead said.
The mage smiled. "You're welcome." The mage ran away.
*Healing mage. It seems like I'm going to be healing my party a lot,* Lead thought as he stood up. *All right. We need to destroy every single party in these dungeons. The Golden Slayer party must be the only party to defeat the first floor boss and gain that special blacksmith armor. Therefore, the first one I need to take out is the mages. First, I need to find Cooper.*
Lead's plan was about to begin.