Silence

April 4th, 2034

A-Rank Wormhole, Unknown Subspace

The boss room was surprisingly cramped. Relative to the prior chamber, it was quite a bit smaller. Instead of being shaped like a dome, however, this one was cylindrical. At the center of the room kneeled a rock golem, shaped akin to a warrior.

Upon all of our entries, the doors sealed shut behind us and the golem slowly rose to its feet, drawing a longsword in each hand. It stood over 2 meters tall and had what seemed to be a knight's armor chiseled into it.

Sera Identified it during the calm before the storm. "It's called the 'Last Knight of Lord Haymarch' and it's level 105."

"Thanks." I felt the tremors of anxiety starting to reach me. A level 105 boss was about as expected for an A-rank wormhole—perhaps it was even on the low side. However, that still placed it into the territory of tier 5 and 6 spells.

The stone knight bowed and then dashed forward with both of its swords raised high. Sera cast a quick spell that tried to trip it in mud, but the knight easily leaped over.

Before it reached melee range, Alton and I fired our ranged attacks. I cast a homing Flame Lance that flew true into its chest. Despite my expectations, however, the spell merely impacted and did no visible damage.

Alton, meanwhile, was using a skill that allowed him to imbue his archery with mana. He fired a handful of mana-charged arrows into the knight before it reached Maddy and Dan, engaging in a fierce brawl.

It swung one sword at each of them. Maddy looked uncomfortable deflecting with her spear and Dan was thrown off-balance almost immediately. The knight threw a kick at him to try to knock him down, but Maddy was able to intercept it with a thrust.

Sera unleashed a large-scale spell that sunk into the stone armor. The entire room flashed for a moment before the knight started glowing faintly. As it did, all of its movements suddenly seemed to move at a much slower pace.

Maddy, now finding its attacks to be bearable, started to go on the offensive and started using her class's skills. With a grunt, she enchanted her spearhead with spiraling red energy. A few rapid slashes later and both of the knight's swords looked cracked. I also noticed that she was able to reach its armor a few times.

The stone knight creaked and groaned as it struggled to keep up with Maddy. With a sudden burst, it was able to expel Sera's mana from itself and leaped backward. As it disengaged from Maddy, Alton and I immediately let loose a barrage of attacks. Unfortunately, nothing we were doing seemed to be particularly effective to it.

I cursed, wishing I could just unleash a massive spell like Inferno. Still, the friendly casualties of that would be everyone here aside from myself.

The knight, having gained some breathing room, started to cast a spell. Maddy and Dan both gave chase and tried to pressure it into breaking focus.

Regardless of being chased around, the knight was able to complete its magic a few seconds later. The mana emanating from it suddenly peaked, and then burst. All 5 of us were pushed back at least a meter as the mana circulated throughout the room and returned to the knight. Soon thereafter, the entire thing was coated in a layer of brilliant blue light.

Looking closely, I also noticed that the cracks Maddy had put into it were nowhere to be seen.

I started to cast more piercing magic. A few dozen spell circles started to form around me as I unleashed a multitude of Flame Lances. They all flew into the distracted knight, cracking the outer shell it had conjured.

That finally got its attention. It smashed both of its swords into the ground, ripping up the stone floor and flinging it everywhere. In the resulting dust cloud, it dashed straight for me.

I tried to cast a spell I wasn't too fond of to defend myself: Summon Flame Weapon. Out of the spell circle, I hastily drew the conjured sword and raised it against the knight's onslaught.

It swung more times than I could count in just a few seconds. I was able to block some of the attacks, but a few of its strikes found my flesh and cut into me. Before it was able to finish me off, it spun around and blocked Maddy's sudden thrust.

My vision felt fuzzy as I looked down at my blood-soaked body. I told myself that I was a shit swordsman and to not pretend to be one before spitting out a mouthful of blood. I felt like I was about to pass out before Sera's healing magic finally reached me. The pain enfolding me retreated as the soothing healing magic did its job.

I tried to repeat my success by casting a plethora of Flame Lances at the knight. Before I was able to get the spell off, however, it manifested a wall of energy around itself. Trying my luck, I fruitlessly fired the spells into the mana orb.

Seeing that my magic did nothing, Maddy tried her luck. She poured a mass of her life force into the tip of her spear before thrusting it into the protective orb. The crimson energy spiraled out of the spear and sunk into the orb, causing it to crack.

Before I had the chance to cast another spell, I noticed that I was surprisingly lightheaded and struggling to breathe. Looking around at the others, Dan seemed to be bleeding from his nose and Alton looked like he was about to throw up.

"It's lowering the air pressure!" Sera struggled to shout.

I could hardly think well enough to devise a plan to deal with it, though. I could feel capillaries in my head starting to pop and I wondered if my eyes were about to explode. Each bated breath felt raw in my throat as the pressure continued to lower.

Not having the energy to cast a proper spell, I raised my hands and just let loose a burst of raw fire mana. The red energy sank into the floor below the protective orb, starting to melt it. I continued to dump my mana into the stone, just praying it would work—do anything.

Through my fuzzy vision, I was able to see the heat damage starting to accumulate in the orb. Its transparent energy started to crack further, damage building up. Suddenly, it shattered like glass, and the knight within fell into the magma pool.

As the orb shattered, I was able to breathe again. I started to throw up before looking around at the others. All but Maddy lay on the ground, and even she looked to be in a worse condition than I was.

Unsure of the fates of the other three, I forced myself to stand upright and hobbled over to the knight. It was struggling to free itself from the lava, lashing out violently and steadily sinking. It was only thigh-deep in the lava, so I decided to bury it properly.

Using my rustic lava-controlling technique, I injected fresh mana I could control into the pool and pulled it from under the knight. I brought the lava from below up and dropped it over the increasingly-violent knight's head. In its futile struggles, it even used its swords to fling molten rock at me.

Before long, the knight was nowhere to be seen, submerged in its entirety. Ideally, it would be destroyed sooner than later.

Having effectively finished the boss off, I picked up the half-unconscious Maddy and painfully walked over to Sera. Maddy seemed to still be struggling to breathe and had blood leaking from her orifices.

"That 'Sera' girl is dead," Streya dispassionately informed me. "Her body isn't passively absorbing mana. She's broken."

"And the other two?" I hoarsely croaked. Since the only person with healing magic was dead, I placed Maddy on the floor and forced a healing potion down her throat. That seemed to be the only healing potion Maddy had on her.

"I think I can detect some traces of mana, though it's hard to say. Your mana pool is almost empty, you know."

+6998 XP

And so, the boss was finally dead. The subspace would close in 5 minutes, ejecting whoever had survived this deathtrap back in front of our truck.

"Thank you." I stiffly bowed to Sera's corpse before hobbling over to Alton and Dan.

Alton also had a healing potion on him, so I poured it down his throat. Dan was out of luck.

I only had a few minutes to try to get some compensation from this damn dungeon for everyone's lives. I had been thinking about just jumping into the lava pool and fishing for the knight's body. However, there might just be a more sustainable plan.

After going over to the lava, I once more tried my technique. Due to my low mana reserves, however, I had to simultaneously circulate the wild heat mana already in the lava into myself. Then, after I had full control over the mana, I was able to reinsert it into the lava and gain control over it.

I was slowly able to excavate the lava from the deep pool I had created. I hoped that there was at least some identifiable residue of the stone knight. All I would need was a single piece of it to manifest its loot.

Minutes passed and I was starting to get worried. I probably had less than a single minute left before whatever it had would be lost forever.

Then, I saw it—a chunk of unmelted stone. That had to be it. Not knowing how much time I had to spare, I just let myself fall forward into the crater and placed my hand on the stone. I sighed in relief as it started to break apart in my hand, revealing a ring.

I grasped my hand tightly around it, hopefully protecting it from the lava for long enough.

Then, I felt myself get pulled into another reality before suddenly finding myself back on the highway, surrounded by 8 other people. I paled as I realized that meant only 4 people aside from our group had survived.

With a mortality rate of 60%, the expedition was a complete disaster.

Not having the energy to speak to the others, I picked up the still-unconscious Dan before hobbling over to the truck. I heard some cheering from the survivors, at the very least.

Maddy looked to be about as shell-shocked as I felt, but she opened the driver's side of the truck and got in.

I once more got into the back and after some first-aid and healing magic, we drove back to the city.

The ride back was a lot quieter than the ride out.