After a brief example from us, I asked the new Awakener to continue raiding the dungeon.
The monsters in this dungeon were only a few, maybe around 20 to 30 goblins, and the dungeon was only around 500 meters deep.
It was just a small dungeon, and I believed that the three of them could clear it with no problem, especially when one of those three guys was Zaiden.
And as I had expected, they were good.
They found a group of goblins. Also, maybe because I was here with my S-Rank Luck, and Zaiden with his E-Rank Luck was also here, the number of goblins that appeared was different from those in my novel.
In my novel, the first goblin group that appeared were two, and the instructor also gave them an example like what I did. However, the second group of goblins that appeared was supposed to be a group of five due to Zaiden E-Rank Luck.
But, this world was real, and it wasn't my novel. So, it seemed like my Luck also affected the encounter with the second group of goblins.
Instead of a group of five goblins, the group that they found was a group of ten goblins. Twice as large as the one in the novel. It was a lucky thing for me as I wanted Zaiden to suffer and gain more experience to get stronger.
Zaiden's eyes bulged in surprise. His body jolted a little, and he stopped in his tracks even before Vane stopped them. No–Vane had no time to stop them as they had stopped at the same time when they noticed the goblins that blocked their paths.
"What should we do?" Unexpectedly, Alba was the first one to open his mouth. He looked at his team member as his hands moved around, getting ready to fire his wind Magic.
Vane was nervous; it was obvious from his expression. He bit his lower lips and glanced at me. But, once he did that, he immediately shook his hand and readied his gun.
"Zaiden, are you confident to take on around five goblins at once?" He asked.
Zaiden smiled confidently as he tightened the grip on his sword. "I will try."
Sweat dripped from his face, and I looked at him from the back while crossing my arms. I didn't need to help them unless the situation was dire. My bow was in my bag as I could get it anytime. However, Chloe was anxious and held her spear in her hand even though it was not too necessary.
I could understand her, though. She knew the danger of dungeons better than anyone here. So, even though this was only an F-Ranked dungeon, she didn't even lower her guard. Because I knew that, I wasn't afraid of something going wrong even though I knew that something would surely go wrong.
She was looking at them seriously, ready to dash in when I called for it. But, she wouldn't do that without my signal. I had told her that we would only help them if the situation was dire.
Vane smiled as he pointed his gun at the goblin. "Alba, attack them with Wind Magic first, then I will follow up by shooting some bullets toward them. I will be counting on you to deal with the rest, Zaiden. I am not confident not to hit you yet."
"Alright. At least kill 7 of them if you can. I will take care of the rest." The blade of Zaiden's sword let out a faint blue glow as he said those.
Alba nodded his head and extended his palms toward the goblin. I felt Mana gathered slowly in front of Alba's hand, and two small balls of wind that swirled around appeared. They let out a faint pale green glow and looked like they were dancing in front of his palms.
"I am ready anytime." Alba signaled, which Vane answered with a nod.
"Shoot them now!" Vane shouted.
"Wind blades!"
Two balls of wind blades were fired toward the group of goblins right after Alba shouted. It became bigger as it traversed and engulfed two clueless goblins in the front. Small cuts appeared over their bodies, and blood dripped out from their wounds. As the cut was deep, the two goblins were killed instantly and fell to the ground.
Thud!
The other goblins noticed the group, turned toward them, and cried loudly.
"Kieek!!"
"Kaaaarrkk!!!"
The goblins were not armed. They raised their hands with claw-like fingers and ran toward the group. However, Vane had already prepared his gun. He pulled the trigger, and Mana Bullets, which glowed blue, shot out from the barrel of his Sub-Machine gun.
There were around ten bullets that traveled almost at the same time. They flew quickly and reached the goblins in less than a second. Three goblins in the front took the bullets directly with their body and fell lifelessly.
Only four goblins were left, and they had reached the party's location while swinging their hands. There were bullets wound in their bodies, but it was not enough to kill them. His Mana as F-Rank Awakener was too weak to kill eight goblins at once.
"Kieek!!"
"Zaiden!" Vane shouted as he jumped back, creating a distance between him and the goblins.
Alba also jumped back almost at the same time as Vane, leaving Zaiden with four goblins alone.
"I am fine!" Zaiden shouted as he swung his sword. His movement was smooth and fast. It was two times faster than the time we last spared with each other, showing the capability of an Awakener with triple S-Rank Talents.
Swoosh–!
The sword severed two goblins at the same time, but the other two ducked and managed to avoid his slash. They clawed at Zaiden while screaming. He couldn't see them due to the bodies of the goblins that he killed earlier obstructing his vision.
"Kraakkk!!"
"Kiiiee!!"
He was taken by surprise, but his party member, Vane, pulled the trigger of his gun again. Only two bullets flew out of the barrel this time, but only one bullet managed to hit one of the goblin's head, while the other bullet missed slightly, only injuring the other goblin's ear.
"Shit!" Vane cursed loudly.
Thud!
The goblin that got shot in the head fell lifelessly, while the other goblin's claw reached Zaiden's body, injuring him on his side.
"Kuh!" He grunted in pain. The wound was not too deep, and he noticed the goblin that had attacked him thanks to that.
He quickly swung his sword and decapitated the goblin in one clean sweep. After making sure that the situation was safe, he put his hand on his wound and grunted.
"Ugh, it hurts."
So this was his limit for now. He was still careless and had no awareness of a real battle. But still, he did better than the Zaiden in my story.
'He only got hurt one time in his first fight. Impressive. Even I trained myself to get used to a real battle in a dungeon with one rank lower compared to mine. But… there is still that enemy. The first trial that I made for him. If he's like this when he faces that, he certainly would be killed.'
"Are you alright, Zaiden?" Vane approached him worriedly. His face was a bit pale as he saw blood trickling down Zaiden's wound.
"I-it's alright. I have been injured far worse than this, in my throat."
My eyes twitched a little when he mentioned the injury in his throat. It was my fault for not controlling my strength properly, but I didn't regret it in the slightest. Instead, I was happy that I injured him at that time because I could hit him until I was satisfied when we were sparring.
Alba also approached Zaiden worriedly and checked on the wound.
Vane, whose expression was really bad as if he thought Zaiden's wound was his fault, looked at him and asked.
"Should we end the raid here? You are wounded."
I stepped in as it looked like the kind boy Vane wanted to stop due to Zaiden's injury.
"No, you don't need to stop."
The three of them looked at me, but I ignored them and glanced at Chloe.
"Can you heal him, Chloe?"
"Yes. It's easy."
She approached Zaiden and bent down a little as she said. "Show me your wound."
Zaiden obediently put his hand away and let Chloe look at his wound.
As the one with Magic Talent, Chloe could use all kinds of Magics, including Support Magic that was used to heal wounds.
Support Magic used Null Attribute instead of the others. The healing Magic used the Null Attribute Magic to rouse the growth of the cell and heal the wound that way.
Anyway, Chloe put her hand on Zaiden's wound and healed him as her hand let out a pale blue glow. Zaiden grimaced as the healing process was painful. He tried his best to ignore it, but he couldn't.
Using this chance, when Chloe healed Zaiden, I looked at Vane and the other.
"Honestly, that's not a bad fight for your first time. Good job, especially Vane."
When I praised him, his expression brightened considerably as he replied. "Yes!"
"The magic that you use is also spot on, Alba. But I think it will be better if you fire one Wind Blade first and wait for the goblin to run before firing another one. That way, you can hit the goblin that's running first and make the other stumble because of his corpse. Zaiden can take care of the goblin that's trying to get up easier that way."
"I see. I will keep that in mind." He nodded his head without changing his stoic expression.
"And lastly, Zaiden."
He looked at me after thanking Chloe. She had already healed him, and his wound was already gone as if he was never injured in the first place. Her control over mana was great, so the healing process was also fast.
Chloe returned to my side and looked at Zaiden with me.
"You're terrible." I paused a little and glared at him.
Vane and Alba were surprised by my harsh words, but I should get this conveyed. This guy had no time to rest after he was Awakened. Maybe a day or two days of rest would be available for him in the future, but that was because he was injured so badly that he needed to rest on the bed.
So, to minimize his rest on the bed, I would scold him harshly. He was already injured from carelessness, so this was the perfect time.
His expression fell, and he looked at the ground.
"I understand that your sword skill is good. Honestly, it's too good for F-Rank Awakener. You may be even better than an active D-Rank Awakener in terms of pure sword skill."
He looked a bit better after I praised his sword skill. He looked at me straight in my eyes with a wry smile. "I am not that good yet."
"You do understand that. Do you know what you did wrong earlier?"
"I was too happy when I successfully killed two goblins and let my guard down after killing two goblins without noticing the two that ducked under me because my vision was blocked." He answered with confidence.
"Yes. And you are an idiot for doing that. If Vane didn't cover you earlier, you might lose an arm or even your life. Do you understand?"
"Yes. I am sorry." He bowed his head and apologized.
"I will let it slide for this one. Don't ever let your guard down. If you kill monsters and your vision is blocked, immediately create a distance and put on a defensive position. Are you not taught by your teacher? You have a teacher, right?"
"I have. It's my carelessness this time, and I won't repeat it again."
"Good." I nodded my head, satisfied.
Having to scold Zaiden like this was… refreshing? He looked like a kid that did something wrong; it was a sight that I couldn't see as Vincent.
This guy was too confident. It was a dangerous thing to be confident in a dungeon. His party was good, and I was also here with Chloe. He was also confident to clear the dungeon because the original Zaiden wasn't even injured in the slightest before encountering that thing.
Unless that dungeon was a rank lower than an Awakener, they shouldn't be confident to take care of the dungeon by themselves. Indeed he was with a party member right now, and his party member, especially Vane, killed the goblins easily.
But he shouldn't underestimate those F-Rank monsters. He needed to understand that fighting against a group of monsters as a sole vanguard was not that easy.
Of course, there were some exceptions. Zaiden was also an exception, but that would only apply when he was experienced.
"Then, let's cont–"
Right before I continued my sentence, I felt a presence that came from the deep of the dungeon, slowly walking toward us.
'So it's here. It's faster than I thought, but it's the perfect timing.'
I slowly backed away while glancing at Chloe.
"Be careful… Something is there." I warned the three as I looked at the caveway that led inside the dungeon.
Zaiden suddenly took a stance while flaring his Mana around his blade as if he knew about that something. No, he did know about it. That was why he suddenly turned serious.
Chloe also gripped her spear, but she was not too worried. The mana of the presence that approached us was weaker than the current her. It was also a bit weaker than me, so I wasn't too worried.
Vane prepared his gun after hearing my words. He understood that the current situation was serious, and the one that approached us was not a mere goblin. Alba also prepared his magic.
The presence that approached us then finally showed itself from the darkness. It was a creature with dark purple skin. It's a monster with a body three times bigger than a goblin, a wider face, and a strong looking jaw. He also held a big sword in his hand.
This creature was the first trial that I made for Zaiden. A monster that was not supposed to appear in F-Rank Dungeon. It was an irregular D-Rank monster called…
"Mutated Hobgoblin…" Zaiden muttered in horror.