Late at night.
When Ais Wallenstein entered the Dungeon alone as she always did, she immediately noticed something strange up ahead.
A [GIANT GOBLIN]!
Compared to ordinary goblins—those pathetic little things that were only forty or fifty centimeters tall at best, not even tougher than a stray dog—the one in the distance was over a meter tall. Calling it "giant" honestly wasn't an exaggeration at all.
And that wasn't even the weirdest part.
This monster looked wrong.
Unlike its kin—usually draped in rags and clutching crude clubs, daggers, broken shortswords, or stone axes—this goblin had a neatly wrapped white headband around its forehead. It wore a pale-cyan long coat in a bizarre style, and in its hands was—
A katana.
Ais knew that weapon.
Adventurers who came to Orario from the Far East loved to wield those unnaturally sharp long blades.
But… this was genuinely the first time she had ever seen a goblin swing one—
and it even looked like it knew what it was doing.
The one fighting this [GIANT GOBLIN] was a young man.
He had short, tousled black hair, and steady brown-gray eyes that looked resolute—almost cold. His sharp, defined features showed none of the panic or fear typical of novice adventurers. Instead, there was only the stillness of a deep lake: lonely, composed, and unshaken.
He wore a well-tailored pure-white familia uniform trimmed with flowing blue patterns, with a half-chest, medium-sized silver-gray cuirass strapped over it. In his hands, he too wielded a katana.
His gear—weapon and armor alike—was the sort of standard adventurers used, yet clearly high-quality. It had to be the work of a skilled smith. On that front, Ais—who often helped Grandpa Gareth maintain equipment—weapons and armor—trusted her eye.
The boy moved like an experienced adventurer.
And Ais could even tell something else: his body was trembling.
Not from fear of the monster.
From pure excitement for battle.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang—!!
Steel rang against steel, like the endless hammering of a forge, echoing through the narrow cavern.
…What was going on?
Even as a high-level adventurer, Ais couldn't make sense of what she was seeing.
This was only the first floor.
After the Starting Road, it was every adventurer's "beginner village," a place that should only spawn the Dungeon's weakest monsters—kobolds and goblins.
These feeble things, one-on-one, weren't just easy for adventurers blessed by the gods.
Even an ordinary adult could kill them.
So what was that goblin?
A rare monster?!
Ais could feel something from the [GIANT GOBLIN]—a presence that reminded her of long ago, when she was only eight. Back then, she had encountered a strange god in the Dungeon, and was forced to fight a black monster that appeared because of it.
A creature that should have belonged to the middle floors: a winged dragon.
But it had been pitch-black—a strengthened variant.
A "special monster" born from the Dungeon's hatred toward the gods.
Yes.
That was it.
From the [GIANT GOBLIN] up ahead, Ais could sense the Dungeon's hatred.
Unbelievable.
To her eyes, the fight between the boy and the goblin looked almost like slow motion.
After all, Ais was a high-level adventurer—she had entered the Dungeon since she was seven. She was also one of Orario's brightest rising stars in the Loki Familia, a prodigy with the fastest level growth in recent history.
And on top of that, Ais possessed a natural gift—an extraordinary instinct and talent for combat technique.
Even if that [GIANT GOBLIN] was far stronger than its kind, if she stepped in, she could cut it down in an instant.
But precisely because of that, she remained where she was and watched for a long time.
She could tell—both the boy and the goblin were anything but ordinary.
Even if it truly was a "rare monster," she had no intention of stealing someone else's kill.
That was one of the unspoken rules adventurers followed in the Dungeon. And as a member of the Loki Familia, Ais had never once considered doing something so shameful.
—!!
Their blades met again.
The boy and the goblin were locked in a dead-even exchange. The half-man-high [GIANT GOBLIN] wielded its katana with frightening skill—there was structure to its movements, as though it had a style. Its body and footwork advanced and retreated in measured rhythm with each swing.
If an ordinary adventurer were here, they would have been cut down already.
But the boy faced it as if he'd fought this exact battle countless times.
He kept his katana moving, deflecting every strike—until the goblin finally slipped.
It staggered, nearly losing its footing.
In that instant, the boy surged forward, crashing into the goblin's space. His blade thrust like lightning, piercing straight through its body—then he used the momentum to slash downward, carving a huge, blood-soaked gash across its chest.
The [GIANT GOBLIN] let out an incomprehensible roar.
And yet—it didn't die.
Instead, its eyes flooded red, and it began swinging its katana like it had gone berserk.
One slash. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine…
A storm of strikes—nothing like before.
Against that furious flurry, the boy switched to rapid evasions, dodging with sharp, practiced steps.
Ais counted in her head.
Seventeen strikes in total.
What kind of rabid-dog goblin is this?!
At last, the monster's "final slash" ended.
It looked spent.
This was the perfect moment to finish it—
…
Wait.
No.
It was a trap!!
Ais couldn't believe a goblin could even think like that. It had pretended to be exhausted, but it still had one last move.
And it was a fast-slow feint.
The katana that had supposedly stopped suddenly snapped upward, aiming straight for the boy.
It cut through his heavy chest armor with ease.
Blood sprayed out in an instant.
"Huh…?"
Was a goblin's attack supposed to be that strong?
The sudden reversal made no sense to Ais. Even if a novice took a hit, medium armor shouldn't be sliced open so effortlessly—
and—
The light in the boy's eyes faded rapidly, turning dull and gray.
Ais could hardly believe it.
But what happened next was even harder to understand.
A pair of characters suddenly appeared above the boy's head:
[REVIVE]!
And then, the boy's brown-gray eyes regained their light. His wounds closed completely in an instant.
He… had resurrected?!
-------
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