To be a delver, you need only the drive to fight and the will to survive. This is why there are so many of them in the world. They even outnumber the regular citizens of the world. They form their guilds, complete their delves, and grow stronger. Yet very few delvers reach the peak, the twentieth level. I wonder why that is?

  ? Grim dashed to the left as soon as he entered the cavern, grabbing the attention of the group of goblins. He got just close enough that they decided to give chase, screeching at him in Tennido. He ignored their commands to ‘wait and let me eat you!’, but slowed his pace a little, seeing that he’d easily outrun them at his top speed. Finally, when he reached the top of a small rock outcrop, he turned and met the first goblin, deflecting its dagger with his own.

  ? Mirina and Don, thankfully in the correct positions this time, raced behind the goblins to confront the boss directly. A few of the lesser goblins did turn when they sensed them, but Lucan fell onto the back of their group before they could take a step. He was faster, stronger, and had a longer reach than any of the little monsters that tried to challenge him. It wasn’t a fair contest. Within a minute, he’d killed two of them, and a third was stumbling back, clutching a wound in its shoulder.

  ? “Doba ti na Chik!” It hissed, its lips peeling back to reveal a mouthful of sharp fangs. It raised its blade, intent on charging in, but Grim caught it in the ribs just under its sword arm. The weight of his body thrust the goblin to one side.

  ? “That’s three down!” Lucan said, grinning fiercely as he caught another goblin by its flailing arm. Rather than stab the creature, he threw it bodily away from them and then slashed down into the gap, wounding a surprised goblin who had turned to face Grim.

  ? “Four, you mean,” Grim replied, finally succeeding in getting around the shield of the goblin closest to him. He stabbed the monster’s neck twice, then pulled his body forward. “You’re moving too slow!”

  ? “Speak for yourself! I’m killing it!” But Lucan did step in, widening the gap he’d made. He knew as well as Grim that they had to get rid of the trash as quickly as possible. Don was a good tank for their level, but not exceptional. Their ending score would depend more on the damage dealers than the supports, so Grim and Lucan had to step it up.

  ? On the other side of the cavern, Don had finally finished pulling the Great Goblin away and stood fast with his shield raised high. He intercepted a heavy downward smash from the boss’s club, his skill helping him to absorb the impact without his legs buckling. As it drew back its weapon to swing again, he got in two quick cuts with his short sword, the second opening a small gash on the large monster’s leg. It didn’t even seem to notice the wound and kept attacking.

  ? Five minutes after they entered the boss's room, Lucan dealt the finishing blow to the last of the smaller goblins. Before it completed its fall to the ground, he and Grim were already running back to the other side. Grim was faster and joined the fight with three quick slashes to the tendons in the boss’s right knee. The limb buckled slightly, but held, and he rolled out of the way as it turned to face him, its club raised. It raised the massive weapon and smashed it down in the spot where Grim had just been standing, but he was already behind it, and cut at the same knee. The limb buckled once again, but before the monster could recover, Lucan slashed down on the same spot, and the knee collapsed completely.

  ? The boss let out a roar of fury and swung a powerful back-handed blow at Lucan, but only met the metal of Don’s shield. Their tank grunted at the impact, but held his ground. Lucan backed away gratefully. “That’s one leg! Let’s focus on the other one, Grim!”

  ? As part of the test, they’d been allowed to ask several ?questions of their examiners, to learn weaknesses or potential lethal weapons or obstacles that could appear in the dungeon. As a group, they were allowed five. They’d used all but one to learn what they could about the boss, and the fifth had informed them that it was a volcanic dungeon. But their ??questions about the boss’s abilities had taught them something valuable. Seven minutes after the fight against it began, it would use a skill that sharply increased both its agility and offense. To prevent that buff from hurting them, Grim and Lucan had decided to cut its knees out, effectively limiting its attack range to the reach of its weapon.

  ? Seconds after they got the second knee to buckle, the Greater Goblin let out a blood-curdling screech. A fine red mist erupted from all its wounds, pouring over its body like a cloak and covering it from head to toe. Then there was a brilliant flash of red light, and it began to move much faster, its club now hitting almost fifty percent faster against Don’s shield.

  ? “Nice work!” Lucan shouted, as Grim had been the one to deal the last cut to its knee. ”Let’s just focus on critical hits now!”

  ? Critical hits, Grim thought. Right. He danced lightly out of the range of the boss fight and looked around. The area around the boss was pretty dim, but not dark enough for his Shadow Dash skill to be useful. A burning torch in the corner was causing that, so he worked his way around the battle, actually having to jump in place to avoid one swing of the giant club before he reached the torch. The Greater Goblin was an intelligent beast and knew to fight near light. Grim picked up the light instrument and threw it further away, plunging them all into almost complete darkness.

  ? Critical hits were hard to achieve, and delvers at their level had maybe a thirty percent success rate. When an attack landed on a monster’s weak point, it did a little extra damage. When it landed directly after using a skill, it had a similar effect. Combining these two bonuses was what delvers called a ‘critical hit’. It was, in effect, nearly double damage. But coming out of a skill usage at their level made it incredibly hard to strike accurately, leading to that thirty percent rate.

  ? Grim stepped back until he was about ten feet away and began mentally charging his Shadow Dash. At the boss’s right flank, Lucan let out a roar and leaped forward, his sword flashing crimson before biting into the monster’s neck. His second and third slashes, unfortunately, missed, and both made small cuts on its shoulder. It turned to chase Lucan for a few meters before Don got in between them again, catching a blow on his shield.

  ? “Tell me why you didn’t grab an aggro skill again?” Lucan barked, his face pale. One of the boss’s attacks had narrowly missed his head. “You are a tank, aren’t you?”

  ?? “Shut up, man!” Don called back. “I told you, I haven’t always been a tank! I was a fighter just like you, but I wasn’t getting dungeons fast enough!”

  ? Grim’s Shadow Dash finished charging, and he released the skill, shifting through the shadows in a straight line. At the very end of his travel, he jumped, the momentum of the skill carrying him another few feet. Both of his daggers hissed down. One thrust into the meaty section of the boss’s shoulder, but the other struck true–right behind its right ear. The Greater Goblin’s scream was cut off suddenly, and its entire body went crashing limply to the ground.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  ? “Is… Is it dead?” Mirina asked, taking a tentative step forward. “Is that it? Did we win?”

  ? “No! Grim called, grunting with effort. The stupid boss had fallen on top of him, and one of his legs was pinned. “It’s stunned! Hit it with whatever you can!”

  ? Lucan had already started moving forward before Grim’s words and landed two nasty cuts on the boss goblin’s neck. Don wasn’t far behind, his sword glowing with new magic that Mirina had cast on it. It sheared through the tough skin of the boss like it was wet paper, nearly severing the head right then and there. Grim finally wriggled free and reclaimed one of his knives before stabbing the boss directly in the eye. Then Lucan, using his charged slashing skill again, finished the job, severing the Greater Goblin’s head completely. It hit the ground with a wet thump, then started slowly rolling to one side.

  ? “Yes!” Lucan shouted, pumping his free fist into the air. “Fuck yes!”

  ? “We can’t stay here too long and celebrate,” Grim said, panting with exertion as he pushed at the shoulder of the boss. “Help me turn him over. He’s still got one of my knives in him!”

  ? Lucan hurried around, and with Don’s help, they rolled the boss over onto its stomach. Grim wrenched his weapon free, then let out a groan of disgust. The blade had been mangled beyond use, and the hilt was crushed. The weapon would require heavy repair costs or even reforging. “Barsch! I knew he’d sold me a level lower!”

  ? He tucked the hilt of the knife into his belt. He’d at least sell or use the scraps–poor people knew how to repurpose and save money. Then he caught Lucan’s look of concern and shook his head. “Forget it. We’re just burning time now. We have to exit.”

  ? Lucan nodded. “Good point. Come on. Mirina, boost Don’s speed.”

  ? The buff ritual took nearly a full minute, and then they were off, their footsteps ringing loudly in the empty, tight passages. Grim kept to the front, maintaining enough of a distance that he could spot missed threats or roaming enemies, but close enough to hear his team if they got attacked from behind. Thankfully, no new enemies appeared, and they were able to reach the exit from the first floor a little over ten minutes later. Eight minutes after that, they were at the true entrance to the dungeon. Two heavy, dark wooden doors, ringed on either side by silver metal, and set into an elaborately carved stone wall.

  ? The doors opened on their approach. It was dark outside, they noticed, and redoubled their pace. Grim was the first across the threshold, running at his top speed, and slipping slightly on the cobbles outside. It had rained recently.

  ? “Please tell me that was less than eight hours,” He gasped, looking toward where he knew the Emissary would be sitting. “Please.”

  ? Seated at a small camping table that held a lantern and a still steaming pot of tea, and covered by a one-man tent’s canvas propped up on long wooden poles, was a thin Greater Goblin in dark blue robes. He had white hair that fell to his shoulders and erupted in tufts out of his ears and nose. His name was Fortikth, and he was the Emissary of the training Guild’s examination dungeon.

  ? “Hmm,” Fortikth said, stroking his long white beard and looking toward the entrance. Don was the last through, no surprise, his chest heaving and his face red from the run. “And, time.”

  ? A long sheet of parchment appeared out of thin air, and Fortikth caught it, jotting down something they couldn’t read. “Let’s see, let’s see… Yes, your final time. Seven hours, sixteen minutes, and thirty-eight seconds.”

  ? The party let out weary cheers at the announcement. To qualify for the best score bracket and earn a C-Rank with the guild, they were required to complete the dungeon in less than eight hours. Grim dropped to his knees, not even aware of the sharp rocks digging into his flesh, so relieved was he about finally leaving the sweltering dungeon. The cool wind from the sea to the west blew through this area, and it felt great against his face and hands.

  ? “Yes, well done,” Fortikth said, rising to his feet. “As you are the last group to complete this delve examination, I am pleased to inform you that your group has the best total time. You did, however, fall short of the full marks on monster eradication and exploration.”

  ? “What?” Grim lifted his head from the cool stone underneath him so fast the world spun. “I swear I’d caught everything!”

  ? “I’m afraid not,” Fortikth replied, shaking his head. “In the third chamber from the right on the first floor, there was a room with a painting over the writing desk. You failed to check behind it for secrets. Inside, there was a room with a chest and three Kobolds.”

  ? Grim cursed and flopped back down. “What else?”

  ? “That was all you missed, young Grim.”

  ? “Oh.” He sat up again, pushing his wet hair out of his face. “Well, that’s not too bad. I’m sure nobody else got a perfect score there.”

  ? “One moment,” the Emissary said. The long parchment vanished, and was replaced with a notebook. Fortikth rifled through the pages, nodding. “Ah, yes. One group did have full marks on exploration. But they took nearly twice as long to defeat the Greater Goblin as you did. They had several other delays and ended with a total time of eight hours, forty-one minutes, and three seconds.”

  ? Grim pushed himself up to one knee, his eyes locked on the notebook. Did this mean what he thought it meant? “What are our final scores?”

  ? “Now, now,” Fortikth chided, clicking his tongue in disapproval. But there was the faintest sign of a smile tugging at the corner of the goblin’s mouth, and Grim saw it. “You know my deal, young Grim. I can’t just give that information away before the administrators-”

  ? Grim cut him off by extending one hand and giving the goblin something. A wrapped package, smelling sharply of garlic. Fortikth took it and took one long sniff, letting out a contented sigh. “Ah, Bromadje. How I missed this delicacy. How did you know-”

  ? “One of my trainers told me,” Grim interrupted, grinning. “I won a bet, and he told me that you could be bribed to give scores early if I found some Bromadje.”

  ? Fortikth let out a quiet hmph, then opened his book again. He unwrapped the chunk of food with one hand and stuck it between his teeth, then read aloud, his words muffled slightly by his chewing. “Your group score is quite good. Ninety-six out of one hundred.”

  ? Grim resisted the urge to pump his fist in triumph, but the others weren’t so subtle. Lucan even let out a whoop of joy and looked ready to dance a jig on the spot. Grim let out a quiet chuckle. “What about our individual scores, Fortikth?”

  ? “Yes… Well, this is all highly irregular, you know. But if you insist…”

  ? He flipped a few more pages, scribbled something down, then paused. “Yes. Mirina Stross, eighty-nine. Don Bangel, ninety-one. Lucan Blaze, Ninety-five.”

  ? Grim and Lucan bumped fists.

  ? “Grim… Strange, I do not know this family name.”

  ? “That’s because it’s unique,” Grim said flatly. He wasn’t interested in dealing with his ‘standing’ in the city just then. “What’s my score?”

  ? He thought Fortikth might waste more time, or perhaps question the nature of his last name. But the Emissary accepted his words with a mere tilt of the head. “Grim Kestrel, Ninety-six.”

  “Doba ti na Chik!” = Down with the Delver/Kill the Delver

  Bromadje = A heavily spiced (mostly garlic) and roasted pickle. Its flavor is too strong for most humans, but apparently, some intelligent monsters - and Fortikth - love it.