26 Beginners

"Are you two done?" Shin growled as he returned his greatsword to his back and stormed toward Lauren and Amy.

"What are you going on about?" Amy huffed, flipping her hair as she turned her head, pointing her nose to the sky.

"You know what I'm talking about!" Shin yelled, aggressively approaching as Lauren jumped between them.

"Hey, now!" She interjected, holding her hands up as she blocked his advance, "We have no idea what you're talking about! You're way out of line here!"

"Don't play dumb!" Shin said, glaring down at the party leader, "You both were targeting me and continuously interrupted me!"

"You can't be serious!" Amy yelled, "You wouldn't stop getting in our way!"

"Amy!" Sienna said, "You need to apologize; I saw it too!"

"Sienna!" She shouted, turning to her, flinging her from her wrist, and raising her arm, "You're just saying that because you're head over heels for this waste of space!"

"That's enough!" Lucy shouted, grabbing Amy's wrist and stopping her from striking Sienna, "You both need to apologize to Shin."

She turned and looked at him, and the two shared a brief moment, nodding at one another. The girls apologized, and The group went through the rest of the dungeon with little discord.

After they exited, Shin dismissed himself and left the party. He sent Lucy a message, letting her know he wouldn't rejoin the group, and ignored her after the message.

He briskly paced within the hidden training room, walking in circles as his frustration and anger overwhelmed him.

In the corner of his eyesight, he had the status window of his classmates, and still, his party had yet to enter a dungeon, preventing him from entering.

He roared, releasing the pent-up frustration within him, and sat down in a huff, retrieving a skillbook from his inventory and crossing his arms over his chest, studying.

Hours later, he groaned and looked up with a sigh, a stack of skillbooks behind him, thinking, 'Finally!'

He groaned and stood up, rolling his arm as he released the stiffness and exited the secret room, walking quickly through the darkened hallways toward the portal room.

He approached the pedestal in the center of the room and tapped on it as a window formed from the light protruding from the top.

[Newbie Dungeon - Dark Cave]

[Difficulty: Beginner]

[Tasks: Kill all goblins (0/50)]

[Rewards: None]

[Select Party Size: 1-6]

Shin chose one and then confirmed his selection as the portal sprung to life, and he walked through it.

He entered the cavernous system of tunnels and strolled through, following the same route from his previous run with the party.

Now, on his own, Shin felt an odd sense of relief as he approached the edge of the tunnel walls and peeked out.

The same dozen goblins stood beside a makeshift fire at their campsite. He grinned and returned his greatsword to his inventory as a bow appeared in his hand.

He reached behind his back as the quiver appeared, grabbed an arrow, nocking his bow, and pulled the string back.

Shin took a deep breath, holding it as he channeled energy into the arrow. He pulled the bowstring as the dimly glowing arrow pointed at the head of a distant goblin.

He held the pose as long as he could while aiming at his enemies until the perfect moment presented itself, and he released a [Focused Shot].

The arrow soared through the air at a blinding speed as it passed through three goblin's heads, exploding them on contact before it exploded against the wall behind them, leaving a small crater.

The remaining nine goblins exclaimed in shock as they leaped backward, staring at the headless corpses as they fell to the ground.

Shin instantly switched to his shotgun and dashed forward, racking the barrel as the goblins turned toward him.

Before any of the foes could reach for their weapons, he appeared before a small cluster of four goblins, and a brilliant light emanated from the barrel as he pulled the trigger.

The four goblins screamed in pain as they flew away and crashed against the wall, adding four more craters to the freshly created one.

The remaining five goblins angrily screeched at the intruder, grabbing their crude, cracked axes and swords and leaping toward the young man.

He flipped the shotgun above his head as it vanished, his massive greatsword reappearing in its place as Shin grabbed the hilt.

He followed the trajectory of the blade, spinning as he used the forward momentum of his weapon to parry all five attacks, knocking the goblins away.

He spun the giant greatsword into a reverse grip as it transformed into a pair of daggers. He flipped the blades in his palm and vanished from his position.

He reappeared behind one of the flying goblins as a faint purple aura coated his daggers, and in a split moment, he unleashed a flurry of blinding cuts, finishing another goblin.

The four remaining goblins struggled to stand as they looked around, unable to locate their prey. In a dark corner, Shin stood, a set of grey robes adorning his body in place of his chainmail armor.

He held a wand in his left hand and a large grimoire in his right with a giant, intricate glyph rotating underneath his feet.

"Heed my words, O banished Father!" Shin chanted, circling his wand as he pointed toward the goblins, "Unleash devastation upon my foes… Ruin!"

Spheres of faint white light floated up from the ground around him, circling his body as he spun around, throwing his wand forward.

The spheres flew along with the movement of his wand, following its tip as they conjoined and shot out as he pointed the weapon at a goblin.

The spheres exploded into a cloud of black-and-white fire as it arced through the air toward one of the unsuspecting goblins.

Immediately after firing the first shot, the glyph below Shin illuminated, and another fireball burst to life before his pointed wand and arced in the opposite direction.

The two shots of [Ruin] arced around the room and exploded against the heads of two of the goblins, igniting their bodies as they exploded.

The flames consumed the monsters as they ran around frantically, attempting to extinguish the fire, but they burned themselves to ashes before the heat vanished.

The two remaining goblins panicked, escaping down a tunnel as they fled for reinforcements…