Free Web Novel“Sigh...”
With a silent breath, Jasmine grew slightly distracted by her teammates’ bickering.
They were still only at the outer rim of the first floor of the dungeon, encountering nothing but a few garbage-tier slimes worth +1 point each. They had not even run into a single +3 goblin yet.
At this rate, catching up to those upper-year mages was out of the question. They would not even manage to dominate the rankings as the Number One party among the junior mages.
In the blink of an eye, Jasmine saw the junior mage leaderboard displayed within the crystal. The party sitting in first place—already twice their points earlier—had now jumped to three times their score.
This cannot go on... Jasmine lowered her eyes from the small crystal talisman in her hand.
She raised her head slightly, gaze drifting toward the deeper, darker parts of the dungeon.
With her ability, taking a shot at the second floor was no problem. Even if her luck was terrible and she encountered the strongest ogre on the second floor, Jasmine was confident she could put up a fight.
The real problem was her two teammates. One was dead-weight Maixi. The other was the noble family’s pampered miss, Rorina.
Three mages: one all-rounder, one tank-type, ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) one damage-type. It sounded like a pretty classic three-person adventurer party configuration.
But in reality, Jasmine was not shy to admit—they were a team of complete trash fish.
Dead-weight Maixi, the tallest of the three, with the best physical condition, walking the path of a Magic-Armored Mage—using magic to strengthen herself, or forming a mana armor to turn into the “Gundam” her mom always talked about. Promising future ahead.
But right now she was just dead-weight who could not even properly enchant a simple weapon.
As for the young lady Rorina—born into some major noble house, small in stature but enormous in temper. Two rare magical tools hung at her waist, looking impressive, like some treasure-hoarding Daoist who could casually pull out a treasure to blast an enemy to ash.
But in reality, those two “rare magical tools” were empty shells bought from the Academy’s model-toy shop for 9.9 copper coins—buy one, get one free. Forget blasting enemies into ash—if she threw them at a slime, they would not even shave off HP.
The only thing this young lady could rely on was her family’s unique inherited magic—“Cluster Explosion”—capable of striking from within an enemy’s body and detonating from inside, dealing massive armor-ignoring damage.
The same magic that had just blown up a slime and splattered Maixi’s entire face...
In short, promising future—one-armed mage—that was the entire configuration of her little team.
Normally—or at least in Jasmine’s understanding—a proper team should have the classic trio of warrior, mage, and priest. The bare minimum, but still iconic.
Yet even that iconic warrior-mage-priest iron triangle was an unattainable luxury for Jasmine.
“Hmph. Let’s go farther in. These trash slimes out here aren’t even worth making this young lady take action.”
The pink-haired girl raised her chin arrogantly. “We are going to hunt those high-point big monsters. With my invincible magic, those low-IQ creatures of flesh and blood are nothing but delivery-service trash.”
“But the deeper we go, the more monsters there’ll be... If we run into two big monsters at once, your casting time is slow,” Maixi worried aloud. “Maybe we should just stay at the outer rim and grind slimes. As long as we kill enough, we still have a chance.”
“You human roadblock, can you stop talking to this young lady!” Rorina exploded. “You are the living opposite of ‘strength in numbers,’ you’re ‘more pigs, more disaster’!”
“But—but I’m just saying the truth.” Maixi held up an innocent hand gesture. “Your casting really is slow-slow, like a cute little snail climbing a wall.”
“You!”
Rorina could not handle a dead-weight teasing her, and immediately tilted—screaming at Maixi’s innocent face: “You’re a trash fish too!”
“...”
Jasmine was speechless. Looks might be deceiving—Maixi, with her honest eyebrows and big eyes, was no gentle lantern either. Her voice sounded mild and calm, but every word dripped with passive-aggressive venom.
Perhaps... getting matched with these two teammates...
Was fate’s punishment for not listening to her mother?
Quarreling or not, bickering or not, points still had to be earned.
In their trio, earning more points was probably the one thing all three could agree on.
Just after entering the first floor, Jasmine’s group bumped into another trio of junior mages—but this one looked a full decade older than them, about twenty years old, two men and one woman.
Jasmine was not planning to interact with other mage teams, but the female mage of that group suddenly called out to them:
“Hey! You three little ones over there.”
Perhaps because Jasmine’s team seemed gloomy, the older female mage mistook them for being overly nervous on their first trial. She raised her voice from afar, offering reassurance:
“Why don’t you come rest a bit? This is only the first floor. Adventurers and older mages have cleared it many times. There are only a few goblins here—nothing to be afraid of.”
“Goblins, when they gather in twos or threes, can’t even beat the big yellow dog guarding the entrance of our village!”
Goblins.
Jasmine had never actually seen a goblin before, but she imagined that something only one tier above a slime could not be that strong.
Yes, probably just like the big sister said—something even a village mutt could beat up.
Still, she had no intention of sitting down to rest just because someone called out.
Unlike these twenty-something slackers who were still stuck as junior mages, Jasmine was serious—because she held a secret. A huge secret.
Not because she had once been a Demon King and wanted to plunge the world into ruin, but because... she wanted to surpass her mother.
Yes—surpass her mother.
Become stronger than her mother, and then... she would be the one to protect her.
Hoo...
Once they truly entered the dungeon, the temperature dropped several degrees. A chill spread up from the soles of her feet, making Jasmine shiver.
A dungeon was exactly what its name implied—a city beneath the earth. No matter how bright the sunlight outside, nothing reached here. And the air always carried faint gray dust, as if whispering that something ominous had once happened here.
Beside a campfire, the three older mages sat roasting their hands, glancing curiously at Jasmine’s direction.
After all, there were not many junior mages this young in the Academy. Older mages tended to feel protective toward such little first-year juniors—saying things like “Don’t be scared,” “Everything has a first time,” “This is only the first floor, just muddle through.”
But what they did not know was that Jasmine’s group did not intend to lie flat until the trial ended. They wanted to win first place on the junior mage leaderboard.
“Little juniors, is this your first time in a dungeon?”
One of the older male mages grinned teasingly at the tiny trio near the fire.
“You three have been here many times?” Jasmine nodded slightly and replied.
“Of course!”
As if waiting for that exact question, the older male mage instantly brightened with pride.
“Even if this Talin dungeon is our first time here, we’ve cleared the dungeon in Tugulu City before—hey, that one has a proper full fifteen floors! Back then, we went with a bunch of big shots!”
“Hey, you three haven’t heard of the youngest Named Hero—the Violet Hero—right? Let me tell you—”
His voice cut off.
The sound of a skull shattering echoed in the cold darkness of the dungeon, clear as a needle hitting stone—piercing into everyone’s heart.
Jasmine’s trio’s eyes widened in terror.
The man who had been bragging just seconds ago now had his head split open by an iron pickaxe flying out of the darkness, the blade embedding itself into his skull.
His bloodshot eyes bulged, blood foaming from his mouth as he let out a mangled gurgle.
“Ah—!”
The scream ripped through the darkness. The female mage, witnessing her teammate’s brutal death, scrambled toward the campfire on all fours as if its faint light were her lifeline. freēwebnovel.com
The other male mage trembled uncontrollably, clutching his staff, pointing it toward the darkness where the pickaxe had come from.
In the dark—
Pairs of red eyes appeared one after another, as dense as ants.
“GOBLINS!!!”
The male mage snapped, unleashing beginner Fireball one after another into the dark!
Boom! Boom!
“Die! Die! Die!”
Boom!! Boom!!
Smoke exploded upward, firelight flickered through gray dust, but in terror he kept draining his mana, firing nonstop fireballs—
“Die! Die! Die!!”
His face contorted, eyes bloodshot, mouth gaping wide as he screamed hysterically—
“DIE!”
Whffp!
His voice stopped abruptly. A stone spear shot from the dark and entered through his open mouth, nailing him to the ground, bending his body into a grotesque angle.
Deathly silence spread.
“Gya gya gya! Gya gya!”
Shrieking broke the silence—
A mass of goblins surged out of the darkness, countless, their end invisible.
The female mage—who a moment ago had reassured Jasmine’s team—was swallowed in an instant. Rorina turned pale, legs trembling.
Maixi’s face lost all color as well, clearly shaken to the core.
Jolted awake from the brief terror, Jasmine steadied her breath, raised her staff, unfolded a defensive barrier, and shouted to her trash-fish teammates:
“Defend against the incoming attack!!”
