Dungeons are pocket dimensions made entirely of Mana. All physical things inside of the dungeon are made out of Mana, even the walls and the air. Each dungeon has its own theme or idea behind it. This dungeon, a small nameless dungeon only labeled Dungeon Number 001889, seemed to be based on a goblin den. A rocky cavern filled with goblins and the slimes their filth attracts.
The air was damp and the place smelled bad. Some of the students were just standing idle by the entrance trying to get used to the smell. Matthew felt that too, that’s why this time he brought a face mask. Some students, upon seeing him wearing one, asked the teacher to go buy one as well in the next door store.
Faralynn just pretended the smell didn’t bother her, even though she was almost puking. Erin used her robe to cover he face.
"You’ll get used to the smell after a while." Matthew said while striding further in the dungeon.
"Really?" Erin sounded doubtful "The smell is horrible.
"Really, after a couple of hours you forget it’s even there."
"Hours?!" Erin exclaimed.
"Let’s just kill our share and get out of here." Faralynn said in bad humor and took the leadership of the group.
When they met the first goblin, Faralynn quickly drew her bow and shot an arrow that pierced its head swiftly.
Matthew was surprised, it took a couple of bullets or more to just break the goblin’s Vital Shield. How could a bow and arrow be stronger than a gun? Staring intently at the bow Matthew could tell. It was a magic bow. Of course a noble lady wouldn’t dive into a dungeon with a normal weapon. Which meant that the staff Erin carried might also be magic.
The second goblin, Erin pulverized it with a lightning bolt from her staff. Not even awakened and she already could use spells like that. The power of money was scaring.
After a couple of hours, they sat down to rest a bit. The girls taking turns on killing the goblins and slimes that appeared. They were already close to awakening. Faralynn, for the entire time, hadn’t directed a word at Matthew and Erin would just smile at him. Matthew was already bored and regretting accepting the request. More than money he needed to level up, and just watching over them was giving him little to no Mana.
Erin sat beside him while Faralynn reorganized her quiver separating the arrows that broke and the ones that were still good to shoot.
"She’s not actually like this, you know?" Erin said in a low voice so her friend wouldn’t listen. "She’s just nervous. And even though she doesn’t show it, she relaxed a lot after the teacher said you were coming with us."
"Then why is she treating me like I don’t exist and was so adamant about me not coming?" Matthew asked confused.
"She’s prideful. Doesn’t want other people to think she’s weak. Specially a handsome guy like you."
Matthew widened his eyes. Handsome? He was never complimented like that before. Was it the Charisma stat working?
Before he could say anything, Faralynn said:
"Ok, let’s keep going."
Faralynn was now using her sword that cleaved the goblins with ease, while Erin kept using lightning bolts from her staff. And soon after the 3rd hour in there, both of them awakened. Matt was curious about Erin unique skill. Though, for Faralynn, all elves had the same unique skill: Eternal Youth. They stopped aging in their middle 20s and lived forever after that.
Fortunate for Matthew, Erin wasn’t prone on secrecy. She soon screamed and jumped up and down. "I got a great skill! Lynn! Lynn! Got poison immunity!" Lynn hugged her friend and was the first time Matthew saw her smiling. She was really beautiful he thought.
"Ok, so now I’ll get the Worker class and Inventory and you’ll..." Erin started to talk, but then was quickly shut by Faralynn.
"Not in front of others!" Said the elf while looking at Matthew.
"I’ll pretend I didn’t hear anything!" He said trying to calm her down.
"Sorry Lynn. And thank you Matthew." Erin said a bit embarrassed.
"Since you two awakened, let’s go back to the entrance." Matthew was making calculations on his head. He could get a bit more 2 hours to try to level up himself.
"Thank you for your help Matthew." Faralynn said extending the hand to a handshake. "And sorry for being rude... I’ve been... Stressed today."
"It’s ok, it was a pleasure meeting you" He shook her hand.
On the way back, they heard fighting noises and people screaming:
"Behind me! Those who can’t fight, leave!"
Hurrying to the place where they heard the screaming, they found the security team and the Teacher holding a horde of goblins led by two goblins who were very much larger than the others.
It was called a dungeon fluctuation. When sudden surges of Mana in the pocket dimension forced the dungeon to grow or to create more creatures than normal. The horde was between them and the exit. They could leave and hide and wait for the security team to do their jobs, but Faralynn charged forward downing goblins with her bow. One of her classmates was on the floor surrounded and she couldn’t just leave him there to die.
Erin quickly chased after her shooting lightning bolts and clearing a way to the classmate. Both of them seemed prepared to such an occasion.
Meanwhile Matthew was petrified in place. He didn’t expected it to happen, even though he knew it was a possibility. The promise he made his sister the night before ringed on his head. "Don’t be a hero!"
Faralynn managed to get to the downed classmate and drag him to safety, but the 3 of them were now between a wall and the horde of goblins. The security team and the teacher were dealing with too many of them holding the entrance, they couldn’t go to their rescue.
"Don’t be a hero!"
Faralynn, Erin and the other student were going to die. What could he do? He didn’t have a combat skill, she wasn’t particularly strong after awakening. His only good stats were MP, Magic and Charisma, but he couldn’t use any of them to fight...
"Don’t be a hero!"
The Gacha Leveling skill was his only hope. He needed to earn enough experience to level up and luck out on the gacha. But he didn’t kill anything today, he earned almost no XP today. How many goblins would he need to kill to level up?
"Run away..."
Matthew took out his gun. His only chance to level up was to kill one of the big goblins and hope that would be enough experience. He got a bit closer and in a line of fire that wouldn’t hit anyone if he missed his shots. And then he emptied the clips he had on him.
As soon as the goblins heard his shooting, some rushed towards him. The bullets were barely doing any damage on the big ones and the small ones were approaching. Matthew drew his machete with his left hand, and started to hack the goblins that got near. Unlike Faralynn’s sword, his machete functioned more like a club than a knife on them. He had to hack them repeatedly to be able to down one. And every time he could, between strikes, he would shoot at the one of the big goblins.
Eventually, that big goblin rushed towards him. Fed up upon being shot at. Matthew emptied his last magazine on that goblin’s chest, but even though visibly hurt and bleeding, he still marched towards Matthew.
This time, Matthew was only armed with his machete against an opponent that he didn’t know if he could even hurt. At first he tried to keep his distance, but soon realized that he couldn’t, he wasn’t fast enough. So he took out his bag, that was filled with Mana Crystals, and threw it at the big goblin.
It did nothing, but for his luck, the goblin’s leg got entangled with the backpack’s handles and he tripped and fell.
Taking the opportunity, he jumped on top of it, held it by the long ears, and started to hack at its neck. The big goblin started to punch and scratch him on the chest and belly to force him let it go. Enduring the beating, Matthew mentally opened his system screen, while still hacking at the neck, he chose Anesthesia.
Applying the skill on himself so that he wouldn’t feel the pain of the goblin’s attacks, he persevered and didn’t let go. Eventually, he managed to hack away its head from the body being covered in thick red blood.
"You leveled up!
Rolling Gacha for class"