Five More Minutes...

The moment the massive wolf fell, reduced to nothing but charred remains and scattered embers, silence filled the boss chamber.

The only sound was their labored breathing, the distant dripping of water, and Tobias adjusting his glasses with that annoying click that was quickly becoming a signature trait of his.

Zayn let out a deep breath, rubbing his aching shoulder.

He had survived. He had actually survived. Considering the fact that he had started this dungeon run with the skills of a particularly ambitious cabbage, it was a miracle he hadn't ended up as wolf chow.

"Well," Tobias said, pushing his glasses up as his eyes scanned the remains of the battlefield. "That went well."

Zayn shot him a deadpan look. "I got launched into a wall, Tobias. I think I can still taste stone."

Elisse, the busty nun, offered him a serene smile, her pristine white robes somehow untouched despite the chaos. "You're fine now, aren't you?"

"That's not the point."

Bran, still gripping his bloodied axe, let out a booming laugh. "You fought well for a newbie."

Zayn opened his mouth to argue but stopped. He had fought well — kinda. He had almost died, sure, but he had also gotten stronger.

He had a skill now. He had devoured monsters, which was still one of the most disturbing things he had ever done, but it had paid off.

Tobias clapped his hands together. "Alright, remember the dungeon rules. We have about twenty minutes before this place collapses, so let's make good use of our time."

At his words, the group immediately scattered, each person looking around the chamber for anything valuable.

Zayn stood still for a moment before sighing.

'Right. I should probably be useful.'

He moved over to the corpse of a goblin and, to his mild horror, noticed its limbs were twitching slightly. He took a cautious step back. "Uh. Is it just me, or is this thing — "

Kara, the earth mage, walked past him, smacking the goblin's head with her staff in a completely unbothered manner. "There. Fixed."

Zayn stared at her. "Remind me never to get on your bad side."

She simply shrugged and continued picking up rubies that had fallen across the chamber floor.

And there were a lot of rubies. It looked like someone had detonated a treasure chest.

They gleamed under the dim, eerie light, scattered across the stone floor like someone had thrown the world's most expensive confetti.

Bran grinned, stuffing a handful into his pouch. "Well, would you look at that? The dungeon was feeling generous."

Zayn bent down, picking up a ruby the size of his thumb. He turned it over in his fingers, watching the way the light danced across its surface.

"I bet this could buy a house," he murmured.

Kara, who had collected a respectable handful already, gave him a side glance. "Yeah. If you don't get scammed."

Zayn sighed. 'Of course. Fantasy worlds have con artists too.'

As they gathered whatever they could, Tobias crouched beside the wolf's corpse, his hands moving with precision.

Zayn turned just in time to see Tobias plunge a dagger into the monster's chest.

He blinked. "Tobias. What... exactly are you doing?"

Tobias didn't even look up as he continued to cut through flesh, his expression disturbingly focused. "Extracting the core."

Zayn stared at him. "You could at least pretend that doesn't sound completely insane."

Bran whistled. "He's got a point. That looks a little serial killer-y, Tobias."

Tobias ignored them. A few seconds later, he pulled out a glowing orb the size of a fist, its surface pulsating with a strange, deep-red light.

"The boss's core," Tobias explained. "This is proof that we defeated it. And it's valuable."

Zayn crossed his arms. "So, what? We just show up to the Adventurer's Guild and go, 'Hey, look at this thing we violently yanked out of a corpse. Give us money'?"

"More or less."

Kara sighed, shaking her head. "It's really not that complicated, Zayn."

Zayn huffed. "Oh, excuse me for not knowing the ins and outs of monster organ trading."

Elisse giggled. "It's okay. You'll get used to it."

"That's the problem."

Before anyone could respond, a faint humming sound filled the chamber. It started as a barely noticeable vibration, growing stronger by the second.

The air itself seemed to shimmer.

Tobias stood up, pocketing the core. "Time's up."

And just like that, the entire dungeon began to collapse.

Zayn barely had time to yelp before the world tilted around him. A split second later, his feet hit solid ground again.

He stumbled, his vision spinning slightly.

When he managed to focus, he realized that they were outside.

The dungeon gate that had been standing ominously before was now nothing more than shattered fragments of light, slowly dissolving into the air like dust caught in the wind.

And just like that, the dungeon was gone.

Zayn let out a breath. Then, without any grace or dignity, he dropped to the ground, sitting on his ass.

"Yep. I hate dungeons."

Bran let out a laugh, slapping his back hard enough to rattle his soul. "You'll get used to them!"

Zayn groaned. "That's what I'm afraid of."

Tobias stretched, glancing up at the sky. "We should report back to the guild and turn in the core."

"Right now?" Zayn whined. "Can't we take, I don't know, five minutes to breathe?"

Kara smirked. "What, tired already?"

"Of course I'm tired!" Zayn threw up his hands. "I was yeeted across a room by a wolf the size of a wagon! And I had to fight monsters that smelled like rotting cabbage! And then I watched Tobias perform fantasy open-heart surgery! I think I've earned at least five minutes of rest."

Elisse gave him a sympathetic look. "You were thrown pretty hard."

"Thank you, Elisse. See? Someone understands my suffering."

Tobias sighed, adjusting his glasses. "Fine. Five minutes. But after that, we head back."

Zayn let his head fall back against the grass. Five minutes. That was all he needed.

Just five minutes to pretend he wasn't in a world where dungeons, monsters, and Tobias's weird corpse-extracting tendencies were now his reality.